LETTERS
"Relevant Revels revision"

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Many thanks for your kind note about this year's Revels at the Quadrangle Club ("Chicago Journal,"April/01).

You have one thing wrong, however, and it is serious enough to warrant a correction. You say that the performance was by a "U of C faculty-and-staff-only troupe." No. In fact a very large fraction of those performing have no connection with the University. They were non-University members of the club and some of their friends.

Now this is more important that you may think. It is a common misconception that the Quadrangle Club is the University's faculty club. It isn't. It is a private entity, initiated by the University in the 1890s, and by the time it was two years old its statutes made clear that it was to have a membership much broader than University people. Many of our members are non-University Hyde Parkers, and a fair number come from outside Hyde Park, and even, if you can believe it, outside Chicago, and outside…you name it.

It is extremely important to us that the club serve the University, but also a wider community. In fact, with the Preservation Ball, just held April 28, 2001, we have initiated the 1155 Fund, with the generous help of the Howard Van Doren Shaw Society (Shaw was the architect who built the club's building), a large-scale effort to restore and improve the club building and to make the club an even more significant presence in Chicago's cultural scene. We already make our sleeping rooms and other facilities available very widely, requiring only that a member sponsor whoever needs us, and we can put anyone who is interested in touch with a member.

Thanks for paying attention to us, and noting what we're up to. We look forward to appearing in your pages often.

Ted Cohen, AB'62
President, The Quadrangle Club
Chicago

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