In the News

The University’s College admissions process was the subject of a front-page story published by the Chicago Tribune Sunday, March 19. The story, which pictured and quoted both Ted O’Neill, Dean of College Admissions, and Andre Phillips, Associate Director of College Admissions, described the process the admissions team goes through each year when deciding which applicants to admit to the College.

The recently published research of Martha McClintock, the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology, was featured Friday, March 17, in stories published by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune and in a news broadcast by WMAQ-TV Channel 5 News. McClintock, a biopsychologist at the University, and Suma Jacob, a University researcher, recently found evidence that human steroids can modulate feelings and influence moods. (See story on Page 1.)

Sarah Gehlert, Associate Professor in the School of Social Service Administration, wrote an op-ed that appeared in the Wednesday, March 15 issue of the Chicago Tribune. Gehlert wrote that former Chicago city treasurer Miriam Santos misused the PMS label but also brought PMS to the public’s attention with her recent remarks. Gehlert is currently researching PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a severe mood disturbance that women have reported as occurring the week before menstruation. “Because the term PMDD can potentially be misused in the way that Miriam Santos misused the PMS label, we are being extremely careful in our efforts to determine whether or not it exists and, if so, its prevalence,” wrote Gehlert.

Chung-I Wu, Professor and Chairman of Ecology & Evolution, was quoted in a Monday, March 20 Chicago Tribune story about researchers who are uncovering vital information about evolutionary mutations that occur at lightning-fast rates and allow such viruses as HIV to keep one step ahead of medical science. The story, which highlighted current findings by researchers in the field, included the work of Wu and his University team who are studying genetic mutations.

Saskia Sassen, Professor in Sociology, was quoted by the Christian Science Monitor in a story published Monday, March 20, about the recent Mayors of the World Summit in Paris. The story explained the rising stature of American mayors, who are gaining influence on a global level that goes beyond “sister-city” relationships between U.S. cities and foreign municipalities. “Cities have now a certain type of foreign policy, mainly economic and cultural,” said Sassen. “They are engaging in areas that were dealt with before only by national states.”

Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics in Philosophy, the Law School and the Divinity School, was quoted in a Monday, March 20 Chicago Tribune story about the changing attitudes toward homosexuality in the field of psychoanalysis. A guest speaker at a conference sponsored by the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society and the Institute for Psychoanalysis, Nussbaum said, “A study of history reveals a wide variety of judgments about same-sex acts and loving attachments on this topic, which might well cause us to ask what our own arguments in this area are like and how well they stand up to the scrutiny of reason.”

Allen Sanderson, Senior Lecturer in Economics, wrote an op-ed that appeared in the Thursday, March 2 issue of the Chicago Tribune. Sanderson wrote that he perceives a pervasive notion of becoming a millionaire by winning millions rather than earning them throughout one’s lifetime. He also noted the media’s role in publicizing state lottery games and their winners and the government’s reliance on lottery revenues. “Our various media outlets accentuate these phenomena and magnify the impact. Radio broadcasts, television screens and newspapers constantly report winning lottery combinations, and we photograph winners but not the thousands of relatively poor individuals who routinely line up in convenience stores and other outlets to blow their few discretionary dollars each week,” Sanderson wrote.