Trauma Center Activists to Disrupt Gold Coast University of Chicago Fundraiser

South Siders to rally outside luxury fundraiser — “No trauma center, no Obama library for UofC”

CHICAGO, IL – Members of the trauma care coalition, including youth, mothers, clergy, students, doctors and nurses will gather on Chicago’s Gold Coast, where the University of Chicago will be holding a fundraiser at Chicago’s five-star Ritz-Carlton Hotel as part of its $4.5-billion dollar capital campaign.

Activists and supporters including faith leaders and medical professionals will hold a rally and will picket the event, calling on alumni donors not to support the University until it commits to opening a trauma center.

The rally/picket will be held today, March 5^th at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, N. Michigan/Pearson (Water Tower Place) in Chicago. A press conference is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Michigan and Pearson, and at 5:45 p.m., disruptive action followed by 60+ person picket and rally outside UofC luxury fundraiser

“We’re taking our fight to the north side because we are sick and tired of the lives of young black people on the South Side being devalued as [UofC President Robert] Zimmer raises almost $5 billion and seeks to host the Obama Presidential Library,” explained Veronica Morris-Moore, a Woodlawn youth organizer who has faced arrest at previous protests against the University of Chicago. “That’s why we’re making sure this event can’t go forward as planned.”

The University of Chicago launched its current “Inquiry and Impact” capital campaign in October 2014 with a goal of $4.5 billion. The gala launch of the campaign was also disrupted by trauma center protesters. Activists note that the cost of a trauma center amounts to less than one percent of the $4.5-billion the capital campaign is trying to raise based on the University’s own estimates that a trauma center would cost $30-million to open, and less to operate once open.

“I’m putting my body on the line today because I believe I have a responsibility as a UofC student to make sure that my institution stops perpetuating racist inequalities in healthcare on the South Side,” explained University of Chicago undergraduate student Joe Kaplan

The action also comes as the University is entering the final phase of its fight for the Obama Presidential Library. Activists and community members have long been calling on the University to open an adult trauma center before it is awarded the library. As Victoria Crider, a South Side youth organizer who graduated high school just blocks from Obama’s Kenwood home explained: “Obama’s Library should absolutely be in Chicago, but the University of Chicago should not get the honor and prestige that comes with that Library when it is neglecting the needs of black and brown communities on the South Side.”

Activists are optimistic that the attention they are bringing to the lack of trauma care is bringing results. In December, the University of Chicago agreed to raise the age limit of its pediatric trauma center by two years, a move organizers had long demanded as a stop-gap measure. That decision coincided with increased public attention in the run-up to the deadline for proposals to host the Obama Library.

The community’s demand for trauma care was sparked by the death of Woodlawn youth leader Damian Turner, and is led by the Woodlawn-based Fearless Leading by the Youth, along with the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization, Students for Health Equity at the UofC, National Nurses United and many faith groups including the United Church of Christ.

The South Side is currently a trauma desert for adults, meaning that victims of shootings and other serious injuries must be taken over ten miles away, to the Near North Side or south west suburbs. The call for trauma care is also supported by a new study by the Illinois Department of Public Health which states that longer travel times to a trauma center increases the likelihood of dying, the study also states that the U of C is best positioned to expand access to trauma care, and that the U of C could further raise the age limit of their pediatric trauma center.