You\u2019re not a real UChicago first-year if you didn\u2019t end O-Week with at least five T-shirts that you\u2019ll never wear. But that all could change if the University follows the controversial advice of economics professor Macon D. Niro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The University\u2019s current policy follows the pedagogical practices of Deena Polycot, the famous British educator who believed that no one can successfully remember any event in their lives unless they receive a T-shirt commemorating it. Niro, however, questions this assumption <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll remember this interview even if I don\u2019t give you a T-shirt, won\u2019t you? So the whole T-shirt business boils down to an unnecessary expense,\u201d said Niro, thoughtfully stroking his bust of Milton Friedman. \u201cAccording to my estimates, the University is spending $1.2 billion on customized T-shirts. If the University wants to fix its deficit, it should repossess all those O-Week shirts and resell them at a markup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First-year Sarah Shilling, comically early to Niro\u2019s office hours, supports the idea: \u201cI mean, I have shirts from my class year, my house, my Pre-O, my dining hall, an RSO I never interacted with again, a party I left after five minutes, a random professor who cornered me and lectured me about Foucault for half an hour\u2026And the worst part is, as much as I tell myself I\u2019m not going to wear them, I do! I spend so much on laundry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At this, Niro\u2019s hand stopped mid-stroke, his eyes darting up like a pair of startled squirrels on the Quad. \u201cLaundry?…Oh, very clever. I see what they\u2019re doing. I see\u2026 Very clever.\u2026 ha ha. Ha ha ha\u2026\u201d As Niro dissolved into a fit of maniacal laughter, this reporter quietly crept out of his office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You\u2019ll remember this interview even if I don\u2019t give you a T-shirt, won\u2019t you? So the whole T-shirt business boils down to an unnecessary expense,\u201d said Niro, thoughtfully stroking his bust of Milton Friedman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2090,"featured_media":7521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-scientific-excellence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2090"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7522,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7520\/revisions\/7522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}