In the News

The Chronicle’s biweekly column In the News offers a digest of commentary and quotations by a few of the University faculty members, students and alumni who have been headlining the news in recent weeks. Chicago faculty members are some of the most frequently quoted experts; however, space does not allow the Chronicle to print all of the quoted material published or interviews broadcast by media outlets within a two-week period.

Charles Lipson, Associate Professor in Political Science, wrote about opponents of programs of the International Monetary Fund in an op-ed that appeared in the Friday, April 14 issue of the Chicago Tribune. Lipson wrote that demonstrators at the recent annual meeting of the IMF favor policy recommendations that “amount to little more than protectionism in fancy dress. Their policy recommendations amount to nationalism in a new guise,” he continued. Opponents, he said, “would kill the very industries that poor countries need to develop if they are to grow and prosper.” Lipson also was a guest on WBEZ’s Odyssey program Wednesday, April 19, speaking about the World Trade Organization and international trade issues.

Kimerly Rorschack, Director of the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, spoke about acquisitions of artwork during World War II in a Tuesday, April 18 segment of WTTW-Chicago’s Chicago Tonight program. The segment focused on this period in history when works of art were frequently bought and sold through dubious sources.

Steven Levitt, Professor in Economics, was featured in a Chicago Sun-Times article Thursday, April 13. The story reported on his recent award, the 1999-2000 Presidential Early Career Award, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to outstanding scientists and engineers who are beginning their careers. Levitt, who studies the economic aspects of crime, was one of 60 scholars to receive the honor.

The book Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters, written by Ted Cohen, Professor in Philosophy, was featured in an article published in the Thursday, April 13 Chicago Tribune. “The fact of jokes––the fact that there are such things––is something of note, something worth thinking about,” said Cohen.

The course on marriage and courtship taught by Amy Kass, Senior Lecturer in the Humanities Collegiate Division, and Leon Kass, the Addie Clark Harding Professor on the Committee on Social Thought, was featured in a Chicago Tribune magazine article published Sunday, April 16. The article, which described the Kasses in action as they taught the course, quoted the couple as well as several of their students––Susan Gaunt, Christine Keagy, Walker Lambert and Leah Ulrich. The story also quoted Lauren Berlant, Professor in English Language & Literature.

Zannah Bradley, Managing Director of University Theater and Director of the UT School Partnership Program, was quoted in an article that featured the theater program, which was founded at the University in 1992. The story also included quotes from students Marissa Graciosa and Andre Pluess, who work in the program that teachers grammar school children from 12 area schools how to act, direct and write for the stage. The story was published Monday, April 17.

Michael Turner, the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics, was quoted in a story published Friday, April 14, in the Chicago Sun-Times. The story reported on the recent discovery of the most distant object in the universe, a 13-billion-year-old quasar, which was observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope. The 100-inch telescope, which sits on a mountaintop in New Mexico, has the world’s largest digital camera connected to it. University graduate student Constance Rockosi, who helped build the camera, was pictured with the telescope in the story. Turner also was quoted in a story about the discovery in the Friday, April 14 New York Times.

Paul Sally, Professor in Mathematics and Director of the University’s Seminars for Elementary Specialists and Mathematics Educators program, was a guest on WBEZ’s 848 program Tuesday, April 11. The show focused on the SESAME program’s goals of improving the mathematics skills of teachers of the subject.

Stephen Schulhofer, the Julius Kreeger Professor in the Law School, served as an expert source for the Chicago Tribune’s story about current opposition to Miranda warnings. Schulhofer disagrees with those who say Miranda has made it difficult for police officers to get confessions from criminal suspects. “There is absolutely no detectable effect. Most of the police leadership tells us the same thing,” said Schulhofer. The story appeared Tuesday, April 18.

Douglas Duncan, Associate Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics; Lucy Fortson, Research Scientist in Astronomy & Astrophysics; and Evalyn Gates, Research Scientist in Astronomy & Astrophysics, all were quoted in a story published in the Wednesday, April 19 New York Times. The story reported major renovations at planetariums across the country, which are updating exhibitions to include more factual scientific data. Gates and Fortson also were photographed at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

Co-directors of the University’s Sloan Center on Parents, Children and Work, Barbara Schneider, Professor in Sociology, and Linda Waite, Professor in Sociology, were both quoted in a story about how many sociologists believe that the study of mundane behaviors of people has been lost as the focus has shifted to the hype and hoopla of society’s extreme behaviors. The story was published in the Wednesday, April 19 issue of the Chicago Tribune.

Martin Marty, the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Divinity School, wrote an op-ed that pointed to the role reversals of the Christian left and right concerning the case of Elian Gonzalez. Marty, who argued his point based on editorials and commentary from both sides, noted that the values of Christian liberals and conservatives are often blurred and prompt such questions as: “Have both sides, as claimed, really grounded all these ‘values’ in religion? Or do positions match up better with political commitments, loves and hates? And were the predictabilities about both camps and all sides all that predictable? How accurate were the stereotypes in the first place?” The op-ed appeared in the Wednesday, April 12 Christian Science Monitor.