Dear UChicago Emeriti and Friends,
We hope you are enjoying these longer and warmer days heading into spring. On campus the change of season is visible with piles of snow melting to expose sprouts in the flower beds, and we look forward to seeing the spring emergence of students, faculty, and staff enjoying UChicago’s beautiful grounds (this year in safe and socially distant ways, of course!).
The most exciting news on campus this winter has been the selection of Paul Alivisatos, the Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in the Department of Chemistry, as the University of Chicago’s next president. You can read the announcement by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Joseph Neubauer, and view an introduction video by Alivisatos as well. Alivisatos will succeed President Zimmer when he becomes the Chancellor of the University of Chicago on September 1, 2021.
Since 2017, Alivisatos has been the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost at Berkeley, where he has been a faculty member since 1988. When he assumes office, Alivisatos, who earned his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the College in 1981, will become the second alumnus to serve as President in University history along with Edward Levi, who was a graduate of the Laboratory Schools, the College, and the Law School, and also served as the University’s first Provost. The author of hundreds of articles and the holder of 50 patents, Alivisatos has been a pioneer in nanotechnology research and application. Alivisatos is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Science, and the American Philosophical Society, a recipient of the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Priestly Medal from the American Chemical Society, and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2016.
Below we are pleased to share additional updates on benefits and other UChicago resources and activities.
Benefits
Retiree Pharmacy Transition to SilverScript
As part of the transition of pharmacy coverage to SilverScript, eligible mail order prescriptions were transferred from ExpressScripts to CVS Mail Order. As detailed in your welcome packet, it was not possible to transfer billing and payment information. If you haven’t done so already, you will need to provide your credit card information either on http://www.caremark.com/or contact SilverScript at 833.958.2658 to update your information so that you can begin filling your mail order medications through CVS Mail Order.
SilverScript Formulary for Retirees in the Medicare Eligible Plans
The University of Chicago Comprehensive Formulary, the list of drugs covered by the retiree plan, also called the EGWP Comprehensive Formulary, is available on the University Retiree Medical website as a downloadable pdf for your convenience. The online comprehensive formulary has more detail than the abridged version that you received in the mail with your CVS welcome kit.
The EGWP Comprehensive Formulary can also be found on the CVS Caremark site. You must log into the site in order to access the information. Once logged in, go to the “Plan & Benefits” tab and then select the “Print Plan Forms” option. It will be listed under the link titled “University of Chicago Comprehensive Formulary.”
University Library
Online Exhibits from the University of Chicago Library
Mapping the University of Chicago is an online exhibit that explores the University's history by enriching interactive maps with archival material from the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, the Library's Map Collection, spatial data from Facilities Services, and other sources from the campus community. The exhibit includes virtual tours of the UChicago Medical Campus and its history, A Digital Archive of Historic Maps of Campus, an animation of campus growth that begins with Cobb Hall in 1892, and more. It is a collaborative project drawing on an earlier exhibit, Past, Present, Future: The Evolution of Medicine at the University of Chicago's Hospitals curated by Mindy Schwartz, Professor of Medicine at the Pritzker School of Medicine, from 2011.
The Black Metropolis Research Consortium: Fifteen Years of Preserving and Documenting Black History launched as a web exhibit in January. The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) is a Chicago-based membership association founded in 2006 at the University of Chicago that aids in expanding broad access to its members’ holdings of materials that document African American and African diasporic history, politics and culture, with a specific focus on materials relating to Chicago. The online exhibit, curated by Marcia Walker-McWilliams, Executive Director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, details the history of the BMRC, its work, the consortium’s Summer Short-term Fellowship and Archie Motley Archival Internship programs, and more. Accompanying text, documents, and videos of the exhibit are also available online as part of the exhibit.
Additional offerings and news stories from the Library include a transformative publishing partnership the Library has joined with Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), a collaboration among Library staff, faculty, and students designed to drive new astronomical discoveries, and an article revisiting the history of Regenstein Library in honor of its 50th anniversary year. For more information, please visit the Library’s News and Updates page.
News, Events, and Lectures
Author Events and Lectures at the Chicago Public Library
Neil Harris, Preston and Sterling Morton Professor of History and Art History Emeritus and Terri J. Edelstein, art historian and museum professional, will join authors Michelangelo Sabatino, Professor and inaugural John Vinci Fellow at Illinois Institute of Technology, and Susan S. Benjamin architectural historian and principal, Benjamin Historic Certifications, as they discuss their new book, Modern in the Middle: Chicago Houses 1929-75 (New York: Montacelli Press 2020), today, March 9, at 6 p.m. The discussion will be streamed live online and available on the Chicago Public Library's Facebook page and YouTube channel, where an archive of past events is also available.
Harper Lectures
The University Alumni Association is once again inviting everyone to bring their curiosity online for its Harper Lectures in March.
Bobby Kathsuri, a neuroscience researcher at Argonne National Laboratory and assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology, will give the next lecture, “Industrial Brain Mapping,” on Wednesday, March 10, at 7 p.m.
The following week, join Wu Hung, the Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, Wei-Cheng Lin, associate professor of Art History, and Katherine Tsiang, associate director of the Center for the Art of East Asia, for “Digitizing East Asian Art: International Mediations and Collaborations,” on Wednesday, March 17, at 7 p.m. These sessions are free to emeriti. To register for the lectures, please email Andrea Hodgman, Associate Director, Intellectual Engagement & Travel, Alumni Relations at ahodgman@uchicago.edu.
In addition to these upcoming events, past lectures, including those from the fall, are available at the Harper Lecture archive.
Court Theatre
Remounted three times across Court’s history, Artistic Director Charles Newell’s production of An Iliad showcases the power of classic theatre to speak to our current moment. Interrogate how rage and division reverberate throughout civilization in this streaming release of Court’s limited-engagement, site-specific production of An Iliad at the Oriental Institute. Actor Timothy Edward Kane takes audiences on a journey through ancient societies and cultural artifacts in a thrillingly visceral performance. This professionally captured, multi-camera stream of the play allows you to experience this one-of-a-kind production at home.
Streaming tickets are on sale now for digital viewing March 3 – March 31, 2021. All 2020/21 season subscribers will have access to the stream at no additional charge. Patrons who purchased tickets to the original site-specific production last March/April of 2020 will have special access to an exclusive behind-the-scenes live online event about the making of this unique production. Look for an email from early in March with more information.
Logan Center Gallery
K. Kofi Moyo and FESTAC ’77: The Activation of a Black Archive opened at the Logan Center Gallery on February 12 and runs through March 21, 2021. The exhibit can be viewed in-person with reserved tickets or virtually. Reservations are required to visit the gallery, and you can reserve your free ticket for timed entry through the online registration system and learn more about gallery hours and operations on the exhibit website. We share the Logan Center’s description of the exhibit below:
“The exhibit resituates, and also finds a place for, a cache of images from the archive of Karega Kofi Moyo, a Chicago-based photographer active between 1968 and 1978, a pivotal time for Black liberation and cultural production. Notably, the Moyo repository, replete with images of Black political, social, and cultural life from that period, includes images that refer back to an auspicious 1977 event for Black diasporic convening in Lagos, Nigeria: the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, known as FESTAC ’77.
In addition to exhibiting a selection of these FESTAC ’77 photographs for the first time, the show presents varied contemporary responses to, and interpretations of, Moyo’s FESTAC ’77 works. Projects by Enid, Ayrika Hall, Cortlyn Kelly, Fabien Maltais-Bayda, Shane Rothe, Andrew Stock, and Abigail Taubman draw from a Fall 2020 course taught by Romi Crawford and Theaster Gates as part of their Mellon Collaborative Fellowship at the University of Chicago’s Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry that aimed to activate and turn on a Black photographic archive, such as Moyo’s, and also rouse the art historical significance of FESTAC ’77."
To learn more about many opportunities to explore and engage with the arts community on campus and beyond, in person and virtually, please visit UChicagoArts online.
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We hope that Winter Quarter has gone well. Please continue to reach out to us with questions or concerns at emeritifaculty@uchicago.edu and remember to check in at the Emeriti Faculty website, which also contains a variety of useful information, resources, and news and announcements.
As always, for the most complete information about returning to campus, facilities resources, the campus response to COVID-19, and latest action steps if you are returning to campus, please consult UChicago Forward. The University is encouraging all eligible individuals to be vaccinated at their first opportunity, whether through the University or another authorized provider. The University is working to stand-up vaccination locations for University employees. Emeriti who did not get their vaccine when it was available earlier this winter will have access to this upcoming opportunity. Additional vaccine information and resources are available on the UChicago Forward website; please reach out to coronavirusinfo@uchicago.edu if you have questions.
Warmly,
Melina Hale, Phil Venticinque, and Cassandra Martynow
Melina Hale
Vice Provost & Faculty in OBA
Phil Venticinque
Assistant Provost
Cassandra Martynow
Associate Director