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In which we discuss
HEATHER BOOTH · “ETHICS CLASS” BY TED COHEN · AFRICAN DIASPORA ART
Also Cora the soccer dog · Rhythm and Jews · New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens · JÜV
THE COLLEGE
MAGAZINE
Winter 2019 Supplement to
The University of Chicago Magazine
COM-19_The Core Feb_2019_Cover_v7.indd 2 1/18/19 11:13 AM
A chef struts through
Photgraphy by Tom Rossiter
Bartlett Dining Commons.
UChicago made the 2018
lists of top ten dining halls
compiled by Best Colleges
and College Magazine, which
included this highlight: “On
Wednesdays they sell one
dollar milkshakes.” Read
alumni memories of Shake
Day and other beloved
traditions on page 4.
i / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_ToC_v5.indd 1 1/18/19 11:13 AM
INSIDE
From the editor
MISS
UNIVERSITY
OF CHICAGO
In 2011, after writing an article
about the history of beauty
pageants at the University
SHORT (really), I interviewed Jean
(Sitterly) Treese, AB’66, then
· 2
associate dean in the College.
Academics: New major, new minors Briefly: What’s new in the College Treese had come in second
· Traditions: Which one is the best? UChicago alumni have spoken in the 1963 Miss University
· UChicago creatures: Meet Cora the soccer dog of Chicago contest, held in
conjunction with the annual
Washington Prom in February.
“In high school I would have
been the last person nominated
MEDIUM for Miss Anything,” she said.
“My mom thought it was a stitch.”
8
Treese told me about other
Books: An evening of gossip about Maude Hutchins, Muriel Beadle, and
·
vanished folkways too. In New
Hanna Holborn Gray Social media: New Urbanist Memes for Transit- Dorms, the first co-ed dorm on
Oriented Teens ·
Careers: Second-year Jacob Chang of JÜV Consulting campus, the doors between the
helps corporations market to young people ·
Music: UChicago Guild of women’s and men’s wings were
cemented closed: “You couldn’t
Student Carillonneurs and a cappella jokesters Rhythm and Jews get through unless you had a
blowtorch.” She was called
“Miss Sitterly” in class. She wore
skirts every day. She wore white
LONG gloves to church and to fly.
At the end of her senior year
she got married. “There was the
ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE
For activist Heather Booth, AB’67, AM’70, the personal has been
18 general feeling—although not so
strongly on this campus—that if
you didn’t have an MRS by the
the political for more than 50 years. time you graduated, or one in
the works, that you had failed
college somehow.”
But times they were
26
a-changing. Just a few years
ETHICS CLASS later, a refrigerator won the
beauty contest. “As I recall,
A short story by Ted Cohen, AB’62, excerpted from Serious Larks:
it was a write-in candidate,”
The Philosophy of Ted Cohen. Treese said. “Of course the
organizers didn’t let the
refrigerator win. But it began
the demise of Wash Prom and
the Miss U of C contest.”
ET CETERA Read more about traditions—
including the one Treese helped
invent in 1983—on page 4.
Material culture: Favorite freebies from the Student Activities Fair
· Seen and heard: Patric McCoy, AB’69, has made one giant work of art 30 —Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93
out of 1,300 others ·
Excerpt: “Flush-In” by Wendy (Glockner) Kates,
AB’71, AM’77, PhD’83 ·
Comic: The Art of Living by Grant Snider The University does not discriminate
on the basis of race, color, religion, sex,
sexual orientation, gender identity,
national or ethnic origin, age, status as
an individual with a disability, protected
veteran status, genetic information, or
other protected classes under the law.
Front cover: Art collector Patric McCoy, AB’69, at home. Photography by Nathan Keay. For additional information, please see
Back cover: UChicago Photographic Archive, University of Chicago Library. equalopportunity.uchicago.edu.
THE CORE · Supplement to the Winter 2019 issue of the University of Chicago Magazine
EDITOR CONTRIBUTING WRITERS CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 773.702.2163 (phone)
Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93 Susie Allen, AB’09 Amy Braverman Puma 773.702.0495 (fax)
Jeanie Chung Laura A. Demanski uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu
ART DIRECTOR
Mary Ruth Yoe mag.uchicago.edu/thecore
Guido Mendez COPY EDITOR
Sam Edsill
DESIGNER The Core is published twice a year as a
Michael Vendiola supplement to the University of Chicago
Magazine by the University of Chicago.
© 2019 University of Chicago.
Winter 2019 / 1
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_ToC_v5.indd 1 1/18/19 11:45 AM
INSIDE
From the editor
MISS
UNIVERSITY
OF CHICAGO
In 2011, after writing an article
about the history of beauty
pageants at the University
SHORT (really), I interviewed Jean
(Sitterly) Treese, AB’66, then
· 2
associate dean in the College.
Academics: New major, new minors Briefly: What’s new in the College Treese had come in second
· Traditions: Which one is the best? UChicago alumni have spoken in the 1963 Miss University
· UChicago creatures: Meet Cora the soccer dog of Chicago contest, held in
conjunction with the annual
Washington Prom in February.
“In high school I would have
been the last person nominated
MEDIUM for Miss Anything,” she said.
“My mom thought it was a stitch.”
8
Treese told me about other
Books: An evening of gossip about Maude Hutchins, Muriel Beadle, and
·
vanished folkways too. In New
Hanna Holborn Gray Social media: New Urbanist Memes for Transit- Dorms, the first co-ed dorm on
Oriented Teens ·
Careers: Second-year Jacob Chang of JÜV Consulting campus, the doors between the
helps corporations market to young people ·
Music: UChicago Guild of women’s and men’s wings were
cemented closed: “You couldn’t
Student Carillonneurs and a cappella jokesters Rhythm and Jews get through unless you had a
blowtorch.” She was called
“Miss Sitterly” in class. She wore
skirts every day. She wore white
LONG gloves to church and to fly.
At the end of her senior year
she got married. “There was the
ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE
For activist Heather Booth, AB’67, AM’70, the personal has been
18 general feeling—although not so
strongly on this campus—that if
you didn’t have an MRS by the
the political for more than 50 years. time you graduated, or one in
the works, that you had failed
college somehow.”
But times they were
26
a-changing. Just a few years
ETHICS CLASS later, a refrigerator won the
beauty contest. “As I recall,
A short story by Ted Cohen, AB’62, excerpted from Serious Larks: it was a write-in candidate,”
Treese said. “Of course the
The Philosophy of Ted Cohen.
organizers didn’t let the
refrigerator win. But it began
the demise of Wash Prom and
the Miss U of C contest.”
ET CETERA Read more about traditions—
including the one Treese helped
invent in 1983—on page 4.
Material culture: Favorite freebies from the Student Activities Fair
· Seen and heard: Patric McCoy, AB’69, has made one giant work of art 30 —Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93
out of 1,300 others ·
Excerpt: “Flush-In” by Wendy (Glockner) Kates,
AB’71, AM’77, PhD’83 ·
Comic: The Art of Living by Grant Snider The University does not discriminate
on the basis of race, color, religion, sex,
sexual orientation, gender identity,
national or ethnic origin, age, status as
an individual with a disability, protected
veteran status, genetic information, or
other protected classes under the law.
Front cover: Art collector Patric McCoy, AB’69, at home. Photography by Nathan Keay. For additional information, please see
Back cover: UChicago Photographic Archive, University of Chicago Library. equalopportunity.uchicago.edu.
THE CORE · Supplement to the Winter 2019 issue of the University of Chicago Magazine
EDITOR CONTRIBUTING WRITERS CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 773.702.2163 (phone)
Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93 Susie Allen, AB’09 Amy Braverman Puma 773.702.0495 (fax)
Jeanie Chung Laura A. Demanski uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu
ART DIRECTOR
Mary Ruth Yoe mag.uchicago.edu/thecore
Guido Mendez COPY EDITOR
Sam Edsill
DESIGNER The Core is published twice a year as a
Michael Vendiola supplement to the University of Chicago
Magazine by the University of Chicago.
© 2019 University of Chicago.
Winter 2019 / 1
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_ToC_v5.indd 1 1/18/19 11:13 AM
Academics
NEW MAJOR,
NEW MINORS
This academic year the College the economics major now offers a the media arts and design (MAAD)
launched an astrophysics major. business economics specialization. minor to her major in art history and
Previously, students interested Fourth-year Hannah Trower her minor in Romance languages and
in stars and galaxies majored in added a Renaissance studies literatures. All MAAD minors must
physics and took astrophysics minor to her majors in Russian and complete a final portfolio of digital
courses as electives. The new major Eastern European studies (REES) media art and analytical essays.
includes a central sequence on and linguistics—even though it’s not “Unlike a lot of my classes,” she says,
astronomy and astrophysics, as immediately apparent how they fit “popular culture and contemporary
well as statistics, computer science, together. “Russia didn’t really have media is something that regularly
observational techniques, and a a Renaissance,” she says. “But it comes up in class discussion.”
research placement. Ten students are was still influenced by Renaissance Fourth-year Boone Ayala,
expected to graduate this year with ideas coming from the West. There originally working toward a computer
the new degree. are a ton of buildings—churches, science major, found he was much
The College also introduced government buildings—built by Italian more passionate about history. But
four new minors: neuroscience, architects all over Russia. I’ve always his computer science coursework
Renaissance studies, media arts and been fascinated by that dichotomy.” was helpful, giving him “skills and
design, and digital studies of language, Third-year Lela Jenkins, who’s tools to analyze history that most
culture, and history. In addition, interested in graphic design, added historians do not possess.” The
Photography by Carlos Eduardo Fairbairn
2 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Short_v5.indd 2 1/18/19 11:13 AM
Briefly
WHAT’S NEW
IN THE COLLEGE
• The College will launch a new Hong Kong
economics program in winter quarter 2020.
Economics, the second College program to be
established in Hong Kong after Colonizations,
will be taught at the new Hong Kong campus,
where the Chicago Booth School of Business
runs its executive MBA program. This is
the College’s first study abroad offering
for economics majors. Previously, students
digital studies of language, culture, The Milky Way, seen interested in studying economics abroad
and history minor was a perfect from the Atacama had to choose direct enrollment programs
Desert in Chile,
fit, combining software skills with where UChicago at foreign universities.
humanities research. is part of a project
Third-year Anna Rose, majoring to build the Giant • Sarah Nakasone, Class of 2019, has been
in economics with a minor in theater Magellan Telescope. awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study
and performance studies (TAPS), is in the United Kingdom. A global studies
pursuing the business economics major, Nakasone is planning a career in HIV
specialization. The program includes prevention. “I’m curious about how women
coursework at the Chicago Booth draw on their social networks to spread
School of Business. “I am really sexual health information,” she says, “and
enjoying a course called Building the how we as researchers and medical providers
New Venture,” says Rose, “which is can assist those networks instead of fearing
a hands-on entrepreneurship class them.” Nakasone will pursue a master of
that teaches the basic principles science in control of infectious disease from
of starting a company.” She’s also the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
looking forward to taking accounting Medicine, followed by a PhD in epidemiology
and behavioral economics at Booth. and population health from University
College London.
• The newly expanded College Center for
Research and Fellowships, formerly the
College Center for Scholarly Advancement, now
oversees undergraduate research opportunities
as well as nationally competitive fellowships
(such as the Marshall) and postgraduate
experiences. The intent is to connect
undergraduates more easily with research
opportunities on campus and beyond.
• Last year the College Summer Institute in the
Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences was offered
for the first time. This year’s research theme,
Thinking Beyond the Human: On Animals, A.I.,
and Others, will bring faculty from linguistics,
philosophy, and English together with 15 selected
undergraduate scholars for an intensive summer
research experience at the Neubauer Collegium.
• Starting next academic year, all incoming
College students will be required to live in on-
campus housing for two years instead of one
year. Woodlawn Residential Commons, a 1,200-
bed residence facility that will help house more
undergrads, is under construction and will open
the following year, 2020–21. The new residence
hall is located just north of 61st Street between
University and Woodlawn avenues.
Winter 2019 / 3
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Short_v5.indd 3 1/18/19 11:13 AM
Alumni poll
THE MARCH OF TIME
What’s the best tradition?
UChicago alumni have spoken.
In an online poll this fall, alumni SCAV campus squirrels, and begged for a
got to declare their favorite selfie (50 points) with UChicago alum
College tradition. My favorite thing people ask about Harvey Levin [JD’75] of TMZ. We won!
The winner: Scav, with 34 percent Scav is, “So what do you win?” When —Janet Cho, AB’90
of the vote—just beating out Dollar I say, “Nothing,” they’re shocked.
Shake Day, with 33 percent. The other —Erin Hart, AB’16 My future husband put an entire
two ballot options were the Latke- orange (with peel) in his mouth at the
Hamantash Debate (21 percent) and Scav 2003: My first year. Item 156: scavenger hunt.
Kuvia (12 percent). See the national A picture of a National Geographic —Anne Skove, AB’91
and global breakdown of the votes at editor in a swimsuit (4 points). I
uchicagotradition.com. called home as early on Thursday Look, Scav Hunt got my name in the
If the winner in the United States as I could to see if my mom still New Yorker. It’s that powerful.
had been determined by an Electoral knew anyone working there. My dad —Grace Fisher, AB’12
College–type system, the result groggily answered the phone: “Are
might have been different, given that you dead?” At Judgment, I had the
Photo courtesy University of Chicago Archives
Dollar Shake Day carried California, only un-Photoshopped completion
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, while of the item.
SHAKE DAY
Latke-Hamantash won in Florida, —Joan Wolkerstorfer, AB’06
Georgia, and North Carolina. Even the roughest week could be
After casting their votes, alumni One of the highlights of my 25th righted with a dollar shake from C-Shop.
could share stories about their College reunion was sharing the Scav —Greg Nance, AB’11
favorite traditions, including such tradition with my then-14-year-old son.
write-in contenders as Washington We formed a team with a grad student I sometimes ate the shake as my main
Prom, the Lascivious Costume Ball, and a mom-and-daughter pair at sign- meal of the day.
and Sleepout (an annual festival/ in, quickly exchanged mobile numbers, —Sunny Sue Chang Jonas, AB’99
ordeal in the days before online and sprinted across the quads
course registration). clutching our lists. We snapped photos Something that was within our
in the Heisman Trophy stance, tweeted reach, no matter how we were doing
Some excerpts of the memories that questions at Rockefeller Chapel, otherwise. Inclusive and delicious.
alumni contributed: choreographed a phoenix dance for —Shaz Rasul, AB’97, SM’08
4 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Short_v5.indd 4 1/18/19 11:13 AM
The Washington Prom,
first held in 1893, was
one of the University’s
oldest, longest-lasting
traditions. The final
ball, which included
the crowning of Miss
University of Chicago,
was held in 1969.
Dollar shake day was legit. employing humor as the supreme tool WRITE-IN
—Alex Mobashery, AB’17 of intellectual inquiry; devoting the
finest faculty and student minds to the SLEEPOUT!!!! I was lucky enough to
undertaking; presenting oral advocacy experience the last one ever.
at its finest; pursuing rational discourse —Matilda Szydagis, AB’95
through courteous debate; plus
LATKE-HAMANTASH DEBATE
empiricists get to sample the subjects The Shapiro Art Collection. We were
It was wonderful having Ted Cohen at the post-debate reception: What allowed to rent a piece of fine art for
[AB’62, 1939–2014] moderate the could be more University of Chicago? the quarter. To get a good choice we
Latke-Hamantash Debate, and he is —Joseph Morris, AB’73, JD’76 lined up the day before. I think numbers
much missed for this and the many were issued, deli-style. I had a Chagall
other ways he enriched the University once. Someone else got Picasso’s
of Chicago. naked men dancing (title forgotten).
—Kevin Robbins, AB’94 —Pua Ford, AB’74
KUVIA
Read Cohen’s short story “Ethics Sonia Jacobson and I [both College The University restarted the Art to
Class” on page 26.—Ed. advisers at the time] created this Live With tradition in 2017.—Ed.
festival in 1983. I found the name
I love the creativity of the arguments Kuviasungnerk in a book on Inuit Geek Bus, i.e. the Shoreland primal
and how the professors dive into the life. At UChicago, it is a time to look scream that greeted the late bus coming
challenge of taking their expertise— winter in the face and say, “I got this.” home from the Reg during finals week.
no matter what the subject—and —Jean Treese, AB’66 —Catherine Skeen, AB’91, AM’02,
creating an argument for one or the PhD’03
other. Also, that it is ALWAYS a draw, Kuvia started while I was an
so we have to do it again next year. undergraduate. I convinced a few of My favorite: George Washington
—Margo Lynn Hablutzel, AB’83 my friends that “Kuviasungnerk” was Memorial Prom on February 21, 1941;
an Icelandic word for “Winter festival first date, fell in love, married her
Seeing the cosmic in the trivial; of the summer flowers.” [Shirley DoBos, SB’43, 1922–2011] in
arguing over size, shape, taste, texture, —Samuel Rebelsky, SB’85, 1943 for 68 years.
history, culture, meaning, and theology; SM’87, PhD’93 —Bradley Patterson, AB’42, AM’43
Winter 2019 / 5
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Short_v5.indd 5 1/18/19 11:13 AM
Photography by Zola Yi, Class of 2020
Olivero and Millington
with Cora after their
game. Cora can be
frequently spotted
dribbling a ball across
the quads, even in snow.
6 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Short_v5.indd 6 1/18/19 11:14 AM
UChicago creatures
2019 WORLD PUP
“She’s a little bit of a presence on campus,”
says Jane Dailey, associate professor in History,
the Law School, and the College, of her 12-year-
old border collie Cora, also known as “the
soccer dog.”
As word of Cora’s ball handling skills spread,
last spring UChicago Athletics arranged an
informal game with some two-legged soccer
players: Caroline Olivero, AB’18, and second-
year Bryce Millington.
Cora started chasing soccer balls around
the family home as a puppy. When she’s on her
game, “another dog can sniff her and she won’t
even acknowledge its presence,” says Dailey.
“She’ll dribble a tennis ball too. It’s just her thing.”
—Jeanie Chung
Winter 2019 / 7
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Short_v5.indd 7 1/18/19 11:14 AMLeft to right: Maude
Hutchins, wife of President
Robert Hutchins (1929–51);
Muriel Beadle, wife of
President George Beadle
(1961–68); Hanna Holborn
Gray, President (1978–93),
now Harry Pratt Judson
Distinguished Service
Professor Emeritus.
University history
BAD WIFE,
GOOD WIFE,
HER OWN WIFE
An evening of book club gossip
about Maude Hutchins, Muriel
Beadle, and Hanna Holborn Gray.
In the cramped quarters of the Hyde Park Historical Society. She leads As her troubled marriage to
Park Historical Society, a small group the monthly book club, selecting University president Robert Maynard
gears up for an evening of historical the topics and lengthy reading Hutchins came to an end (they
side-eye. The topic of the evening’s lists. The attendees are mostly in divorced in 1948), Maude began
book club discussion is ostensibly their 60s and 70s and have varying writing racy dime novels. Some
“Remarkable Women of the University connections to the University: there people think the novels were largely
of Chicago: Hanna Holborn Gray, are alumni, retired staff members, an attempt to embarrass her ex-
Muriel Beadle, Maude Hutchins,” but and Hyde Parkers with an interest in husband, Safar says. She passes
it soon becomes apparent that no neighborhood history. around Maude’s 1950 novel, A Diary of
University figure will be spared. Safar begins with Maude Love (New Directions), which features
A gentleman named Sam, Hutchins, who, one suspects, would a risqué cover and the tagline “The
seemingly a regular book club have relished this evening’s shade- sexual awakening of a teen-age girl!”
attendee, is mid-diatribe. He declares throwing. Maude, a sculptor and One of the attendees has read
UChicago Photographic Archive
Lawrence Kimpton, the University’s portrait artist, had a flair for the Maude’s novel Georgiana (New
sixth president, “a certified moron,” dramatic and enjoyed shocking Directions, 1948), but didn’t think much
then shifts his attention to a slim people, Safar explains. She once used of it. Safar agrees: “I found her novels
paperback volume published by the a stylized nude drawing she’d made unreadable. I found her life fascinating.”
University of Chicago Press, which, of her 11-year-old daughter as the The group’s mood lightens as the
he notes with disdain, lacks an index. family’s Christmas card. discussion shifts to Muriel Beadle, a
“How does anyone allow something Safar begins tentatively: “This is…” onetime journalist who married the
like this?” he fumes. “Weird,” says one attendee. Nebraska-born geneticist George
“Sam, you’re on a roll tonight,” says “Salacious,” says another. W. Beadle in 1953. Several have read
Michal Safar, president of the Hyde “…interesting,” Safar concludes. and enjoyed Muriel’s Where Has All
8 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 8 1/18/19 11:14 AMthe Ivy Gone: A Memoir of University belayed by a terrified campus cop, my shopping cart.” One day she
Life (Doubleday, 1972), about gamely retrieved the wayward feline.) discovered “a distinguished professor
the couple’s experiences during Next up: Hanna Holborn Gray, the of law” peeking into her garage
George’s presidency. University’s first and so far only female window, “presumably to find out what
If Maude Hutchins hated the wining- president. Safar holds up Gray’s kind of car we drove.” Well, what kind
and-dining part of being a president’s memoir, An Academic Life (Princeton of car was it? Gray isn’t telling.
wife, Muriel Beadle seemed to relish University Press, 2018), and declares An Academic Life is upfront
it—she was “the good wife,” Safar she liked it. A man who has been quiet about some aspects of her life as a
observes. One attendee remembers the for most of the evening responds with woman in academia. Her husband
Beadles as unusually down-to-earth. It a very UChicago question: “You liked Charles Gray, a legal history scholar,
wasn’t unusual to see George puttering it because of what? What criteria did sometimes skipped events, which did
in a campus plot, she says, where he you use?” not “seem to arouse concerns, as it
grew unusual varietals of corn. Several attendees were struck would likely have done had he been
The Beadles were also serious cat by Gray’s recounting of her family’s a female spouse,” Gray notes without
people, Safar notes. Among Muriel’s experience as German-Jewish émigrés bitterness. “Not having a wife, I did
publications is The Cat: History, in the 1930s. Some found the book the planning and oversight of dinners
Biology, and Behavior (Simon and too circumspect and wished for and receptions, selected the menus,
Schuster, 1977). The couple kept more Muriel Beadle-esque frankness. and arranged the seating. I like doing
17 cats at their home in Pasadena, Gray is used to that: “Much interest those things.” No grist here for the
California, but gave all but two away was shown in my domestic life and book group, who by the end of the
before they moved to Chicago. (One arrangements,” she notes in the book. meeting are back to gossiping about
later got onto the sharply pitched At the grocery store, shoppers would University figures not on the syllabus.
roof of the president’s house; George, “look with undisguised curiosity into —Susie Allen, AB’09
Winter 2019 / 9
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 9 1/18/19 11:14 AMSocial media
NEW URBANIST
MEMES FOR TRANSIT-
ORIENTED TEENS
It started as a joke. Then it became a thing.
You might imagine that the appeal of a joke are actually relevant to everybody and affect NUMTOT versions of
the Distracted Boyfriend
Facebook group about new urbanism—a design our day-to-day lives.
and Distracted
movement that promotes mixed-use, walkable Girlfriend memes.
neighborhoods and public transit—would be Do your parents understand the memes?
somewhat limited. And you would be wrong.
Juliet Eldred, AB’17 (geographical studies My mom is in the group. She’s very supportive.
and visual arts), started New Urbanist Memes for Sometimes she’ll call me a NUMTOT and I’m like,
Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT) in March 2017, “Mother, please don’t.” She does occasionally
during finals week. Eldred is now an analyst at ask me to explain things. It’s weird and sort of
a transportation consulting firm in Boston, and cringey to have to explain.
NUMTOT has more than 125,000 members.
There are three administrators, including Emily It’s not just a meme group though.
Orenstein, Class of 2019, and nine moderators.
The group had to add moderators in Australia I sometimes wish people were less serious. We
because discussions got heated while the started it as a joke group. It was never intended
American moderators were asleep. to be a serious discussion group.
NUMTOT has been written about in Chicago Back in November 2016, I had started the
magazine, the Atlantic’s Citylab blog (“The Facebook group I Feel Personally Attacked by
Transit-Oriented Teens Are Coming to Save This Relatable Map, mostly about maps and stuff.
Your City”), the Guardian, and the New York In March 2017 there was a thread about highway
Times. It’s inspired more than 60 spinoff planning. It ended up devolving into joking about
groups, including Two Wheeled Memes for Robert Moses [the urban planner who wanted to
Bicycle Oriented Teens, Transit Focused Snaps drop a highway on Greenwich Village] and Jane
for Composition Minded Chaps, Teutonische Jacobs [author of The Death and Life of American
Städtebau-Meme für verkehrinteressierte junge Cities (Random House, 1961) and Moses’s
Erwachsene, and NUMTinder. archenemy]. That led to the idea of starting a
One day this past summer Eldred took new urbanist shitposting Facebook group.
time during her lunch hour to explain the
NUMTOT phenomenon. Is there a long-term plan?
First, you’re not actually a teen. Usually Facebook groups burn out on their own.
This group hasn’t shown any signs of doing that.
No. It’s a ridiculous Facebook meme group The broader mission, which has sort of become
naming convention, Blank Memes for Blank Teens. a reality, is to connect people to real-life
organizing and activism opportunities.
How did NUMTOT get so famous? I actually went to a NUMTOT Meetup group
in Somerville [Massachusetts] that I had no part
It struck a nerve in a way I don’t think any of in organizing. There were 20 people there. I was
us were expecting. Things you would think are really surprised.
niche—street design and trains and planning— —Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93
10 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 10 1/18/19 11:14 AMNew Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens
It started as a joke. Then it became a thing.
Market Fighting
Urbanists exclusionary
Fighting affordable zoning laws
housing advocates that lead to
on social media regional hyper-
segregation
Living in a city Millennials Suburbs
Winter 2019 / 11
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 11 1/18/19 11:14 AMCareers
HOW TO SELL
TO YOUNG PEOPLE
Jacob Chang of JÜV Consulting
has some advice.
Jacob Chang, Class of 2021, is the working hard and doing their best to like us and hearing things straight
director of trends and marketing earn money, make a living, succeed. from the source. We’ve grown from a
for the consulting firm JÜV. The They started saying it ironically, but really small staff to a team of about
staff, all in their teens or 20s, advise now it’s kind of blown up. 100. We range in age from about 14 to
corporations on what’s in and out Around two years ago, I became 22, except for our HR director, who’s
and how to market to young people. part of JÜV Consulting, which was like 26 or 27. At our age, none of us
founded by two of my best friends really knows how HR works.
As told to Anne Ford, AM’99 from high school. JÜV is a marketing The biggest misconception
consultancy run by members of about Generation Z is that we’re
I’ve always enjoyed knowing a lot Generation Z. The idea behind it is not important to market to. Actually,
about what young people are up to. that adults should not try to market we are growing in age and in the
The biggest thing Generation Z says to young people, because they don’t ability to buy stuff. What we also tell
right now is “Let’s get this bread.” * understand the trends. Companies our clients is that Generation Z is
People say that to signal that they’re should be talking to young people extremely performative, given that
Jacob Chang, Class
of 2021 (second from
left), and the JÜV
leadership team.
Photo courtesy Jacob Chang
12 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 12 1/18/19 11:14 AM“The idea behind it is that adults
should not try to market to
young people, because they don’t
understand the trends .” .
—Jacob Chang, Class of 2021
we’ve grown up with social media. today you might see me going to a and consultants are all about solving
Because of that, we have a really couple of classes while reaching out big problems.
good idea for telling what’s authentic to potential clients, or going online We find our clients are pretty
from what’s not. So if brands try to and browsing new forums. I spend a respectful. There are times we aren’t
be something they’re not, we’ll see lot of time on personal social media taken seriously, of course, when
right through that. as well, which everyone wastes time people say, “Hey, these are just kids.
Over the summer, I worked on, but I don’t feel bad because it’s Are they really doing a good job?”
on JÜV full-time. We all worked part of my job. And, of course, we are.
and lived in a Brooklyn loft, doing I’m a double major in economics
everything we could to get the and philosophy. I wouldn’t
company growing. We plan to do say philosophy has any direct * As of interview time, October 2018,
that again next summer. application to my work, but it’s a Chang predicted that by press time,
It’s definitely made me better at valuable subject because it lets you “‘Let’s get this bread!’ will still be
managing my time. On a day like open your mind to the big problems, quite relevant.”
Winter 2019 / 13
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 13 1/18/19 11:14 AMMusic
CARILLON MY
WAYWARD SONG
There’ll be peace when you are done.
If you’re going to play the carillon, you need the Law School, and the Division of the Maria Krunic, Class
to think about your shoes. The 100-ton, 72-bell Humanities—who each play a 30-minute of 2021, with the
instrument that
instrument at the top of Rockefeller Chapel has weekly concert on the University carillon, one everyone in the
31 foot pedals and 71 batons, which you strike of the world’s largest. Before each concert, neighborhood
with your fists. The batons operate the smaller guild members lead tours of the bell tower can hear, but few
bells, the pedals the larger ones. for anyone who’s interested. have seen.
Photgraphy by Michael Vendiola
“Most people don’t play music with their As students graduate, spots open up.
feet,” says Michael Petruzzelli, Class of 2019, “Because no students arrive at the University
president of the UChicago Guild of Student knowing how to play the carillon,” says
Carillonneurs. Getting used to it takes time. University carillonneur Joey Brink, “we have
He wears slip-on canvas shoes, which he calls to start teaching from the very basics.” Brink
his “carillon shoes,” because they have thinner performs for major university events, plays a
soles to better feel the pedals. daily recital, and supervises the guild.
Petruzzelli is one of 20 students—mostly The competition for those open spots has
undergrads, along with students from the grown. While Petruzzelli was one of seven
School of Social Service Administration, students who auditioned his first year, audition
14 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 14 1/18/19 11:14 AMTHAT SONG
RINGS A BELL
“I love how you have such There are no limits to what
carillonneurs can play other
a large dynamic range,
than their imaginations (and
occasionally their arm spans).
While many students
and the physicality of it.”
choose classical pieces—
especially the work of Ronald
Barnes, who composed
specifically for carillon—
—Elma Ling Hoffman, University carillonneur Joey
Brink drew attention from
UChicago Guild of Buzzfeed for playing Drake’s
“Hotline Bling” and has
Student Carillonneurs been known to play songs
including Toto’s “Africa” and,
during the 2016 World Series,
“Go Cubs Go.” One student,
now graduated, liked to play
Aqua’s “Barbie Girl.”
“If it has a melody,”
says Maria Krunic, Class of
2021, “you can pretty much
arrange it.”
Carillonneur picks:
Pachelbel’s Canon
“Light of the Seven”
from Game of Thrones
The theme from the BBC’s
Pride and Prejudice
Notable requests:
manager Elma Ling Hoffman and the lower bells. They’re so heavy that “Hedwig’s Theme” from
the Harry Potter films
guild vice president Maria Krunic, you really have to work to put your
both Class of 2021, were among body weight into it.” “Mia and Sebastian’s
Theme” from La La Land
21 who auditioned last year. This Outside of their scheduled
year 36 students came to the initial concerts, guild members can
meeting; after six weeks of lessons rehearse on one of the three Resisted
(only requirement: the ability to read practice carillons in Rockefeller’s adaptation:
music), 22 auditioned on November basement, and they have regular The bells’ sustained
18 for six available slots. lessons with Brink. Most end up resonance can muddy
melodies with intricate
“We’ve gotten better at playing 30 minutes to an hour, five rhythms. One student tried
advertising,” Krunic says. or six days a week. Guild members to arrange the theme from
Petruzzelli saw a sign at the also have bimonthly dinners the anime series Yuri on Ice
Student Activities Fair: “Want to learn together and take an annual road but found there were “too
many notes,” said Elma Ling
to play the bells at Rockefeller?” trip to carillons across the Midwest— Hoffman, Class of 2021.
Krunic read about the group on her they visited the one at the Mayo
class Facebook page, and then her Clinic in 2018.
house president, a guild member, When they climb the 271 steps
Adaptation goal:
encouraged her to join. Hoffman, in to the top of Rockefeller Chapel Krunic is working on a
version of “Summertime”
contrast, came to UChicago knowing to play their solitary instrument, from George Gershwin’s
she wanted to play the carillon after the student carillonneurs are Porgy and Bess after
getting to know the carillonneur aware their fellow guild members hearing a guest carillonneur
at her high school, Mercersburg are listening. Knowing who plays improvise it at Rockefeller.
Academy in Pennsylvania. when, Hoffman loves to hear
All three have backgrounds other students gradually master Odd request:
in piano. Playing the carillon, a particular piece over a period The Soviet national anthem*
which Hoffman describes as “a of weeks.
physically cathartic instrument,” isn’t “It’s just this feeling of absolute —Jeanie Chung
necessarily like playing the piano, support and joy,” she says, “where
but closer than anything else. I’m like, ‘I know you’re up there in
“I love how you have such a large that tower, even though no one can *The request was made in jest,
dynamic range, and the physicality see you. I see you improving.’” but Michael Petruzzelli, Class
of it,” Hoffman says, “especially with —Jeanie Chung of 2019, played it anyway.
Winter 2019 / 15
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 15 1/18/19 11:15 AMMusic
TALK YIDDISH
TO ME
“Been around the world don’t
speak the language / But your
bubbe don’t need explaining”
—Rhythm and Jews version
of the Jason Derulo song “Talk
Dirty to Me”
This past September Rhythm and
Jews (RnJ), which bills itself as “the
University of Chicago’s premier
Jewish a cappella group,” had its 15
seconds of fame on NPR’s quiz show
“Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!”
Celebrity guest Anna Kendrick,
star of the Pitch Perfect movies about
collegiate a cappella singing, was
given the names of four a cappella
groups and challenged to identify
which were real and which were fake.
She correctly identified The Tempo
Tantrums (Ohio University) but not
The Rhythm Method (Binghamton
University) before being asked about
Rhythm and Jews.
Kendrick: I love that. I hope that’s real.
Peter Sagal: Yes, it is. University of
Chicago represent.
(APPLAUSE)
The Core spoke with RnJ members
Tristan Kitch, Class of 2019 (president),
Noah Friedlander, Class of 2021 (tour
director), and Helen Cain, Class of
2019 (music director), about the
Photo courtesy Rhythm and Jews
group’s name, history, and “Jewish-
adjacent” repertoire.
So none of you heard Peter Sagal
RnJ members (left to
right) Ruth Selipsky, ’20; say your name.
Miranda Grisa, ’21; Tristan
Kitch, ’19; Yilei Bai, ’21; CAIN: I’m a fan. I just happened not to
Noah Friedlander, ’21; and be listening. The weird thing is, half-
Liana Massey, ’22, on a
winter break trip to New baked music puns are the mainstay
York. Earlier that day they of a cappella group names. We didn’t
performed in Central Park. think we were all that unique.
16 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 16 1/18/19 11:15 AM“Half-baked music puns are
the mainstay of a cappella
KITCH: The group started off in the
1990s as Shircago, which is a play on
group names. We didn’t think
the Hebrew word for song.
we were all that unique.”
CAIN: The founding members
wanted to go be professional, so the
—Helen Cain, Class of 2019
people left behind had to come up
with another name. At one point it
was an exclusively Jewish group, and
then it opened up. CAIN: Team Music being me and my CAIN: Last year we had about 40
assistant music director. In the past people audition. We took about 15
Are most members Jewish? lots of people chose Disney songs. to 20 for callbacks. We let in four.
I had to put a moratorium on that.
CAIN: Currently less than half. Last FRIEDLANDER: But some of the
year a quarter. We’ve been calling KITCH: We take what we do very people we didn’t let in went to other
ourselves culturally Jewish, because seriously, but we don’t take ourselves a cappella groups.
a lot of our music is tangentially too seriously.
Jewish. We do a lot of Bruno Mars, CAIN: The system here is a mutual
whose father is Jewish. We call him CAIN: Levity is our way of matching system. The groups have their
our Jewish icon. combatting what is increasingly decisions, but then you also rank which
called angst-appella. There’s a lot of groups you want to be in in order.
Do the songs tend to be Jewish? angst lately on the scene.
FRIEDLANDER: It’s a whole
CAIN: No. We’d like at least one in four You perform at the Latke- optimization algorithm.
songs to have a Jewish connection. Hamantash debate every year.
We sometimes change lyrics. One Is there a set repertoire for that? KITCH: I believe it’s the same one they
of our big hits was “Talk Yiddish,” use to place doctors at residencies.
a parody of “Talk Dirty” by Jason CAIN: We want to keep it Jewish-
Derulo: “Been around the world, adjacent for sure. Are there some people who try out
don’t speak the language, but your but just can’t carry a tune?
bubbe don’t need explaining.” Did you invent this word?
CAIN: Yeah, there are. Usually in our
How are songs chosen? CAIN: Maybe. rejection emails we say, Get some
practice with other, larger ensembles.
KITCH: We’re pretty open. If anyone KITCH: We’ve been saying it a lot lately. Weirdly enough UChicago is not the
wants to arrange a song, they can place to do a cappella casually.
arrange it or talk to Team Music about it. How hard is it to join RnJ? —Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93
A CAPPELLA Chicago Aag Run for Cover
ENSEMBLES Coed South Asian fusion All-male
AT UCHICAGO Make a Joyful Noise Unaccompanied
Christian music ministry Women
All-female, the oldest a
Men in Drag cappella group on campus
All-female
Voices in Your Head
Ransom Notes Coed, open to wider
Coed Chicago community
Winter 2019 / 17
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 17 1/18/19 12:05 PM“Half-baked music puns are
the mainstay of a cappella
KITCH: The group started off in the
1990s as Shircago, which is a play on
group names. We didn’t think
the Hebrew word for song.
we were all that unique.”
CAIN: The founding members
wanted to go be professional, so the
—Helen Cain, Class of 2019
people left behind had to come up
with another name. At one point it
was an exclusively Jewish group, and
then it opened up. CAIN: Team Music being me and my CAIN: Last year we had about 40
assistant music director. In the past people audition. We took about 15
Are most members Jewish? lots of people chose Disney songs. to 20 for callbacks. We let in four.
I had to put a moratorium on that.
CAIN: Currently less than half. Last FRIEDLANDER: But some of the
year a quarter. We’ve been calling KITCH: We take what we do very people we didn’t let in went to other
ourselves culturally Jewish, because seriously, but we don’t take ourselves a cappella groups.
a lot of our music is tangentially too seriously.
Jewish. We do a lot of Bruno Mars, CAIN: The system here is a mutual
whose father is Jewish. We call him CAIN: Levity is our way of matching system. The groups have their
our Jewish icon. combatting what is increasingly decisions, but then you also rank which
called angst-appella. There’s a lot of groups you want to be in in order.
Do the songs tend to be Jewish? angst lately on the scene.
FRIEDLANDER: It’s a whole
CAIN: No. We’d like at least one in four You perform at the Latke- optimization algorithm.
songs to have a Jewish connection. Hamantash debate every year.
We sometimes change lyrics. One Is there a set repertoire for that? KITCH: I believe it’s the same one they
of our big hits was “Talk Yiddish,” use to place doctors at residencies.
a parody of “Talk Dirty” by Jason CAIN: We want to keep it Jewish-
Derulo: “Been around the world, adjacent for sure. Are there some people who try out
don’t speak the language, but your but just can’t carry a tune?
bubbe don’t need explaining.” Did you invent this word?
CAIN: Yeah, there are. Usually in our
How are songs chosen? CAIN: Maybe. rejection emails we say, Get some
practice with other, larger ensembles.
KITCH: We’re pretty open. If anyone KITCH: We’ve been saying it a lot lately. Weirdly enough UChicago is not the
wants to arrange a song, they can place to do a cappella casually.
arrange it or talk to Team Music about it. How hard is it to join RnJ? —Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93
A CAPPELLA Chicago Aag Run for Cover
ENSEMBLES Co-ed South Asian fusion All-male
AT UCHICAGO Make a Joyful Noise Unaccompanied
Christian music ministry Women
All-female, the oldest a
Men in Drag cappella group on campus
All-female
Voices in Your Head
Ransom Notes Co-ed, open to wider
Coed Chicago community
Winter 2019 / 17
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Medium_v8.indd 17 1/18/19 11:15 AMORGANIZING
PRINCIPLE
For activist Heather Booth, AB’67,
Photography by John Zich
AM’70, the personal has been the
political for more than 50 years.
By Carrie Golus, AB’91, AM’93
18 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Long_v6.indd 18 1/18/19 11:14 AMHeather Booth speaks
at the Women’s March
to the Polls in Chicago
in early October 2018.
Winter 2019 / 19
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Long_v6.indd 19 1/18/19 11:14 AMO
n a bitter October day, thousands she tells the crowd. Booth’s act of compassion Booth on a 1964
picket line in Shaw,
of people have converged on for a friend grew into Jane, an underground Mississippi, in support
Columbus Drive for the Women’s abortion service that lasted until 1973, the year of voter registration.
March to the Polls. of the Roe v. Wade decision. Soon after this photo
Among them is Cook County As she tells the story of Jane, 15 women was taken, she was
arrested for the
Board President Toni Preckwinkle, AB’69, dressed like handmaids from the dystopian first time.
MAT’77, threading her way toward the stage television show The Handmaid’s Tale silently
through the thick crowd. Preckwinkle campaign assemble behind her. They remain there, eyes
workers are circulating too, collecting signatures downcast, for the rest of the speech. “We will
to get her on the 2019 Chicago mayoral ballot. never go back!” Booth insists.
Artist Jacqueline Edelberg, AB’89, AM’91, She quotes historian Howard Zinn, noting
PhD’96, in a Mylar dress and silver face paint, that her son Gene teaches his work in the
is collecting hope notes for children separated Chicago Public Schools: “‘It would be naive
from their parents at the border. (Her project, to depend on the Supreme Court to defend
“Mylar for Disco, not Deportation,” references the rights of poor people, women, people of
the blankets issued to the kids.) color, dissenters of all kinds. Those rights only
The marchers’ accessories include the come alive when citizens organize, protest,
usual Trump-in-a-diaper balloons, pussy hats demonstrate, strike, boycott, rebel, and violate
in assorted shades of pink, and impassioned the law in order to uphold justice.’ When we
hand-lettered signs: some sincere, some organize, we—can—win—back—justice!”
furious, some obscene. One lone dissenter Booth pulls out a pussy hat and puts it on
trolls the crowd with a sign reading (in part) dramatically. The crowd roars its approval.
“Trump Is Your President. Get Over It.” He “So are you ready to resist?” she hollers. “Are
elicits a few half-hearted boos. you ready to—” But the audience is cheering so
Heather Booth, AB’67, AM’70, was scheduled loudly, it drowns her out.
to speak at 11 a.m. By the time she takes the
A
stage closer to 12:15 p.m.—after numerous other recent documentary, Heather Booth:
speakers, singers, rappers, and video messages Changing the World (Lilly Rivlin, 2016),
from prominent Democrats—the crowd has describes Booth as “the most important
grown restless in the cold. person you’ve never heard of.” (The video, which
“Are you ready to resist?” Booth yells into aired on some PBS affiliates in December, may
the microphone. “Are you ready to organize?” change that. There are also two Hollywood movies
Her fiery delivery, like a union boss or street about Jane in production: This Is Jane, directed by
preacher, is surprising from a diminutive Kimberley Peirce, AB’90, and Ask for Jane.)
woman in her 70s. She’s a sparrow with the roar Along similar lines, a 2017 Huffington
of a lion. “Are you ready to fight? Are you ready Post article, “She’s the Best Answer to Donald
to WIN?” The crowd yells back its assent. Trump You Never Heard Of,” calls Booth “one
“We are in a time of both great peril and of the nation’s most influential organizers for
inspiration,” Booth declares. “The inspiration is progressive causes. Inside almost every liberal
all around us—if—we—organize! It’s been true drive over the past five decades—for fair pay,
in history, it’s true now.” equal justice, abortion rights, workers’ rights,
In the summer of 1964, she says, she was part voter rights, civil rights, immigration rights,
of the Freedom Summer Project in Mississippi, child care—you will find Booth.”
one of hundreds of northern college students “A polite, soft-spoken woman who
who traveled south to help register voters and introduced herself as Heather Booth” is
bring national attention to the civil rights how conservative commentator Glenn Beck
movement. “Because people organized, within described her on his Fox News show. “She
a year there was a Voting Rights Act,” she says. seems like a nice enough lady, but she’s
“When we organize, we can change the world.” actually very important, isn’t she?”
The crowd claps and cheers. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact beginning of
Back at school, she learned that a friend Booth’s career. Maybe it starts in 1973, with the
was “pregnant and nearly suicidal.” At the founding of Midwest Academy, a training center
time abortion was a felony in Illinois. Through for progressive organizers. Maybe in 1965, when
connections in the civil rights movement, she she started Jane as a second-year living in New
helped her friend find a doctor. “And then word Dorms (later Woodward Court, now defunct).
must have spread and someone else called,” Maybe in 1964, during Freedom Summer.
20 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Long_v6.indd 20 1/18/19 11:14 AM“Are you ready to
resist? Are you
ready to organize?”
—Heather Booth, AB’67, AM’70
Photo courtesy Heather Booth
Jack Gilbert (right),
coteacher of the
microbiomes
course, confers with
teaching assistant
Sophia Carryl, SM’17.
Winter 2019 / 21
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Long_v6.indd 21 1/18/19 11:14 AM“If you look at significant
H
eather Booth, née Tobis, is a Southerner, Top: Heather and
sort of. She was born in 1945 in Paul Booth at their
times in the movement, Brookhaven, Mississippi, where her
father, a physician in the army, was stationed,
wedding in 1967.
Bottom: marching in
Heather is there someplace.
support of childcare
but spent most of her childhood in Brooklyn with her son Gene.
and Long Island. Decades in Chicago and
I mean, it’s like Zelig.” Washington, DC, have not entirely erased her
New York accent, even on frequently used
—from Heather Booth: Changing the World
words like “call” (i.e. “cawl”).
It’s a few hours before her speech at the
Maybe 1963, when shortly after her arrival at Women’s March; Booth has taken some time
UChicago she joined the Chicago Public Schools to chat in the press tent, just behind the
boycott to protest inferior facilities for African stage where bands are doing ear-splitting
American students. Or earlier, when as a young soundchecks. She wears her pink hat and a
teenager growing up in Long Island she passed thin brown coat more suitable for the climate
out fliers against the death penalty in Times of DC, where she has lived since 1989. But
Square. “Someone spit on me,” she recalled in a Booth—who has spoken often of how boring,
2012 interview. “It was pretty shocking.” uncomfortable, and difficult organizing can
“If you look at significant times in the be—is too tough to complain.
movement, Heather is there someplace,” her Instead she talks about how happy she was
friend Jane Silver says in Heather Booth: as an undergrad: “I felt my world opened up,”
Changing the World. “I mean, it’s like Zelig.” she says. “I found people of shared values,
The two spent the summer of 1963 working on shared commitments. It was challenging,
a kibbutz in Israel—another possible starting creative, engaging. I loved being at the
point for her origin story. University from the minute I arrived.”
“I don’t know that I had a concept of a Her most memorable professors include the
career,” Booth says in a profile for Women’s late historian Jesse Lemisch, “who helped to
Information Network (WIN), a resource for explain how history is made from the bottom
young pro-choice Democratic women; Booth up,” she says, not merely “the history of great
serves on its advisory council. “I had a sense men.” From sociology professor Dick Flacks
of values and purpose and wanted to have an (who had cofounded Students for a Democratic
impact in building a better society.” Society a few years before) she learned that “if
And yet Booth’s career is remarkably issues are social problems, they can have social
coherent: no switchbacks, no meanderings, just solutions,” she says. “You can take social action
a strong straight line in a leftward direction. to address those problems.”
After years of organizing, she shifted into Though she loved her classes, Booth chafed
electoral work in 1980: “otherwise we are against some University policies, such as the
fighting with one hand tied behind our back.” 11 p.m. curfew for women in campus housing.
She was deputy field director for the 1983 (The men’s curfew was midnight.) One night
campaign to elect Harold Washington, the first she came in late because she was comforting
African American mayor of Chicago. She was a friend after a breakup. She was interrogated
field director for the 1992 campaign for Carol and searched for contraceptives. “It was a
Moseley Braun, JD’72, the first black woman to much more innocent time,” she says, “and
serve in the US Senate. I was outraged that they would think I had
In 2000 she was director of the NAACP contraceptives.” After a sleep-in at the flagpole
National Voter Fund, which helped to increase on the quads and other protests, the so-called
African American election turnout by nearly parietal hours became one of those abandoned
2 million voters. In 2010 she was the founding practices that to younger generations hardly
director of Americans for Financial Reform, sound real.
which helped create the Consumer Financial When another friend, who lived off campus,
Protection Bureau. (In the documentary, was raped at knife-point, Booth went with
Senator Elizabeth Warren says that when she her to Student Health to get a gynecological
wanted to establish the bureau and had no exam. (It’s a story she repeats during her
idea how, she was given two words of advice: speech, not specifying which university.) Her
“Heather Booth.”) That’s just a whistle-stop tour friend was told gynecological exams weren’t
of Booth’s career. covered. “She was also given a lecture on her
22 / The Core
COM-19_The Core Feb_270299187_Long_v6.indd 22 1/18/19 12:14 PMYou can also read
