Student leaders from diverse student groups hope to unite about 2,500 students for First Friday, a new campuswide party to be held on the first Friday of the school year.
“We are so often a divided campus,” said Education junior Jonathan Marino, a committee member for First Friday. “(Administrators) hope, as we do, that First Friday will break down those walls for the night.”
The party starts at 6 p.m. on the Lakefill. The program features a barbecue as well as performances by the student band Whitsend and DJ Jordan Allen, a McCormick senior. At 8 p.m. the event will move to the East Lawn of Norris University Center and students will see the movie “Dazed and Confused”.
The event is free to all students with a WildCARD. To accommodate the large SodexhoUSA Food Services staff needed to cook for the barbecue, and to encourage students to attend, four dining halls will close for dinner on Friday, said Alex Lurie, a committee member. Dining halls in Sargent Hall and the Foster-Walker Complex will remain open for dinner.
Lurie, a Communication junior, said he hopes the dining hall closings will encourage students to attend the event.
“It’s kind of a welcome back,” said Brian Bockrath, a member of First Friday’s planning committee and a McCormick senior. “The Friday of the first full week of classes is a time when people have completed the transition from summer life to life at Northwestern.”
First Friday was conceived to address the fact that there are few campuswide events available to students in the fall, said committee member and spokeswoman Sara Whitaker.
The only current campuswide events are Dance Marathon and Dillo Day, not occurring until March and May, respectively.
Students listed more all-campus events as a priority in an Undergraduate Budget Priorities Committee survey last winter, Marino said, which prompted administrators to fund the event.
To receive from NU the $15,000 it took to plan and put on the event, Marino said, part of the planning had to be done by an independent committee composed of a cross-section of the NU community.
Whitaker said the committee formed through an informal network, gathering members through word of mouth.
Bockrath said even though many members were leaders of different student groups, they attended because they each felt they could make a contribution, given their different experiences.
“We don’t consider this the work of a student leader,” said Whitaker, a Communication senior. “We don’t consider this the work of a student group. We consider this the work of students.”
SodexhoUSA will be providing the meal. The menu includes hamburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs and bratwursts as main courses; baked beans, corn on the cob, potato salad and coleslaw as side dishes; and watermelon, cookies and brownies for dessert. SodexhoUSA also plans to offer vegetarian options.
Meanwhile, Allen, who will DJ from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., said he’s looking forward to participating in the event.
“Having music playing puts people at ease and helps them have a good time,” Allen said.
Student workers will be running the WildCARD-swiping machines and serving the food. These volunteers are members of the Greek community.
Planners have debated how to ensure there is enough food at the event for all students who attend.
“Sodexho has so many years of experience serving these kinds of events,” Lurie said. “We are using stats from other similar events.”
“I think the administration understands the need of the students to come together as one,” he added.
In the event of inclement weather, First Friday events will be moved into Norris.
Reach Corrie Driebusch at [email protected].
