Next to the Starbucks in Norris University Center a small notebook rests on top of a music stand emblazoned with a large question mark. A typed slip of paper invites students to respond to the question, “How has your worldview changed during your time at Northwestern?”
The notebook is just one of 13 placed around campus early last week by the new student group Questions That Matter. The group began this year as an offshoot of the International Hillel project Ask Big Questions, which also has an NU chapter.
Questions That Matter initiated the notebook exercise as a way to spark conversations about important national problems, said group adviser Rabbi Jordana Schuster Battis.
“We want to ask questions that get at meaningful societal and cultural issues by way of people telling their own stories,” said Battis, who serves as interim campus rabbi at NU. “We can learn from other people’s stories and learn about ourselves from our own stories.”
The notebooks mark the first campus-wide project organized by the group this school year. Last quarter, group members held conversations between students through one-on-one discussions and small group gatherings.
Through these discussions, Questions That Matter aims to foster a broader sense of community among NU students, Weinberg senior Jonathan Green said. Green, one of five fellows in the group, said because NU students are often so focused on their academic disciplines and extracurriculars, they may not associate as much with certain types of people and “feel isolated from different pockets of students.”
Communication sophomore Danielle Pierre said she thinks the group’s efforts to bring together the NU community will be beneficial for students, whom she said often separate into cliques.
“Especially in a culture like Northwestern, it’s so easy to get sucked into the collegiate life and forget the real world,” Pierre said. “It’s great to try to make people think about bigger things beyond themselves.”
Questions That Matter presents students with the opportunity to discuss deeper issues in an open environment, group fellow Tim Barrett said.
“It’s really nice to be able to talk to people about some really higher-minded philosophical things,” said Barrett, a Weinberg senior. “A lot of times those sort of discussions will arise naturally through another context. It’s nice to be able to cut through all that and get to the juicy stuff.”
The group has gathered some of the notebooks and posted them on a blog. Barrett said the anonymous nature of the activity led to a mix of answers.
“There were a lot of students who left funny or witty comments,” Green said. “But there were some really serious responses in there, too. It was really encouraging to see that Northwestern students are really wrestling with hard questions.”
Although Questions That Matter is affiliated with International Hillel, the group is not religious in nature and is looking to engage with all types of NU students, Battis said.
“By design not all the fellows are Jewish,” Battis said. “Within our group is a level of diversity which I think is really important.”
Members of the group plan to meet next week to discuss the student responses recorded in the notebooks and decide what the group will do in the future. Questions That Matter intends to organize more campus projects throughout the quarter, Green said.
