UChicago Admissions Offers Cash Prize To Fight City's Violent Rep

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jan 12, 2017 8:29PM

via Jazmin Medrano

Chicago is a hopeless, criminal hellhole. Or at least that’s the view one might take away if he or she only saw context-free news segments, or looked only as far as the crime stats in Donald Trump’s tweet, or took loathsome reader letters published in the Tribune at face value.

The University of Chicago referenced two of those points in a letter recently sent from the admissions department to student tour guides offering a cash prize for clever ideas to combat the “negative perception” that could scare off prospective students and/or their parents.

In an email obtained by UChicago student newspaper The Chicago Maroon, Assistant Director of Admissions Colleen Belak details the effort, and $500 prize being offered:

“If you’ve paid attention to the national news (or Donald Trump’s tweets) over the last few months, you’ll notice that the city of Chicago is often painted with a broad brush as an ‘unsafe’ or ‘scary’ place to reside. Of course, certain realities should not be ignored, but at the end of the day most of us are proud Chicago residents with a deep love of the city.

With that spirit in mind, we have an opportunity for you to win some money—$500 to be exact. If you are able to come up with a creative way to approach this negative perception, be it a video series, blog post, photo, or something else (and better) entirely… Keep in mind that the audience is a high school student and his/her family.”

The email is exactly the sort of thing—unlike UChicago’s safe space stance—that riles up conservative quarters. Indeed, a Fox News article characterized it as a reward to “downplay” Chicago’s “violence epidemic.” But Hyde Park, where the University of Chicago has its main campus, is generally one of the safer neighborhoods. As the Maroon noted, the neighborhood is ranked 52nd out of 77 in terms of violent crime; and according to Tribune data, the area averaged only .5 violent crimes per 1000 people over the last 30-day period.

Of course, Chicago did just log its most violent year in nearly two decades, but the email also doesn't turn a blind eye to the fact. ("Of course, certain realities should not be ignored...")

A request for comment to the university's Assistant Vice President of Communications was not immediately returned.