Angela Nelson <anelson13@earthlink.net>; Date: Sat, Apr 07, 2001
Dear UIC Chancellor Ms. Sylvia Manning <manning@uic.edu>,
As a 2000 graduate of the university, I must say the destruction UIC has continued to reap on the Maxwell Street area for the sake of its South Campus Expansion project is the sole reason I sometimes am ashamed to claim my alma mater.
UIC, in almost all other respects, was a wonderful place to earn an education. Though not perfect, as no institution is, I found it quite optimal. It is one of the few places one can obtain an affordable, quality education in the heart of a great city, which provides the opportunity for an enriching experience in "real-life" preparation ‹ including exposure to and therefore not just tolerance of, but appreciation for, the ethnically, culturally and economically diverse world we enjoy today.
It shames me, however, that UIC has taken no steps toward redeeming itself from the reputation of pure hypocrisy it has created for itself by being solely responsible for the gentrification of the Maxwell Street neighborhood, its residents and business owners, robbing people who have little means to fight back of their livelihoods ‹ indeed, of their lives.
It pains me that no administrator at UIC seems to have recognized the harmful nature of the message they are sending to the students they claim to care so much about.
Do your remaining students a favor by encouraging the professors under your tutelage as their senior administrator to at least be honest, and teach students what their university's real agenda is: to make money and build an ivy-league reputation based on false prestige by espousing purely capitalistic beliefs and practices while purporting to benefit the community that has thus far allowed UIC to become as large and influential as it has grown to be.
Former Mayor Richard Daley would be appalled at what UIC is doing to the community he helped create this institution to serve. For the sake of "progress," UIC now is destroying an entire neighboring community and harming its students by stealing from them an area rich in culture they could enjoy. Furthermore, it is sad and downright discouraging that the university is creating a great deal of cognitive dissonance for its student by partaking of the very actions its good professors teach them is counterproductive to society, morally dishonorable and plain wrong.
UIC touts its Urban Planning and Public Policy department as one if its finest, but uses its great knowledge in such an area in a horrendously irresponsible manner. It smiles proudly on its Great Cities project, but mindlessly destroys a great portion of the great city in which it is located.
More importantly, the university is destroying that community's people for the sake of housing and entertaining others it claims to educate. But your responsibility to education does not end with the final chapter of a semester's textbook. It extends to the societal contributions your students will go on to achieve, and presenting the message that gentrification and destruction is acceptable is not the way to obtain high ratings as a responsible educational institution and it certainly is not the way to ensure your students go on to make honorable contributions to society.
Clearly Maxwell Street is not the only option for expansion; it is, however, the most viable because it is one the university can easily overtake with its muscle as a powerful institution.
I could go on forever, Ms. Manning, but I realize I am wasting my breath because it has been a long time since UIC officials listened to the pleas of people they pretends to serve, unless a situation happens to involve either a money-making or a golden public relations opportunity. However, I felt the need to at least partially express my anger and frustration with the school at which I used to enjoy spending my time and energy.
Now I, at least, can sleep at night for knowing I have done an honorable thing by standing up for what is right. I wonder if the same can be said years from now, upon late-life introspection, for those with utter disregard for the lives of fellow human beings who happen to lack the same privileges of wealth and opportunity.
Look at the attached photo of the people's lives you have affected with that utter disregard. Remember these people's faces when you rationalize that this is not solely your decision. Think of them when you realize just because that is so does not mean you could not refuse to be a part of it. And then feel the pain these people are forced to know, at your hands, when you begin to understand that removing yourself from such an inhuman process might have meant losing your job, but at least you had that choice. Maxwell Street residents and business owners never did, all thanks to UIC and its administrators who hid behind its notoriously cold, concrete walls. No beautification project can ever mask that.
Sincerely,
Angela Nelson
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