According to the Chicago suburbs’ most celebrated fictional teenager, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So, to ensure that no one graduates having missed anything, let’s take a moment to reflect on some of the most important campus and city stories from the Class of 2012’s time.
10. Dance Marathon breaks $1-million mark
After 37 years, Dance Marathon hit (and surpassed) $1 million on March 5, 2011. Despite high winds that caused a two-hour delay in the festivities, students completed the 30-hour philanthropic dance party to raise $1,019,130. The primary beneficiary for DM 2011 was the Children’s Heart Foundation. DM had been approaching the fundraising milestone for several years but had experienced a rare decrease in year-to-year total between the 2009 and 2010 events.
9. Swine flu epidemic infects campus
The H1N1 virus got to the Chicago area in late April 2009 and to Northwestern by early May. At that point, the disease was considered a “phase 5” epidemic and less was known about its severity. The students who contracted the illness that spring were sent home to recover, and the University cancelled its summer program in Mexico City, which, ironically, focused on public health. The following fall, Rogers House was converted into a quarantine dorm. The lingering on-campus effect of the pandemic is that students can now sanitize their hands before ordering coffee at Starbucks in Norris University Center.
8. Human sexuality class canceled in wake of sex-toy demo
In February 2011, Prof. John Michael Bailey’s 600-person human sexuality class, one of the most popular at NU, held an optional after-class lecture on sexual diversity, in which a couple discussed and then demonstrated exhibitionism and the female orgasm using a motorized sex toy. News of the demonstration spread around campus and then around the national media, prompting the University to backtrack on their original position in favor of academic freedom, canceling the class for the 2011-12 academic year. Human Sexuality is not on the psychology department’s tentative course schedule for 2012-13.
7. Blizzard storms Chicago, treats students to first snow day in 30 years
On Feb. 2, 2011, 20 inches of snow and high winds caused the University to cancel classes for the first time since 1979. The iconic image of that snowstorm became the lineup of cars brought to a ghostly halt on Lake Shore Drive as snow quickly piled up around them. While students and faculty reveled in the first weather-related day off since “I Will Survive” was on the Billboard top-10, NU’s Facilities Management and food staff were heroic on short notice. Staff members stayed on campus or in area hotels to make sure students had access to food, and the sidewalks, at least the ones on campus, were clear by Thursday.
6. NU goes global with opening of campus in Doha, Qatar
The Class of 2012 is the first to include graduates from NU’s campus in Doha, Qatar. In August 2008, 39 students began classes at NU-Q in outposts of Medill and the School of Communication. That class size has been growing over the years. The Qatar campus is part of “Education City,” which contains campuses for specialized university programs, including Weill Cornell Medical College and Texas A&M’s engineering program.
5. Incoming NU classes gets smarter, more diverse
Part of growing up is watching a faster, better and stronger generation nip at your heels. When the Class of 2012 was accepted to NU, it had the highest average SAT scores of any incoming freshman class, and more than 90 percent were in the top 10 percent of their high-school classes. Our moment in the sun did not last long. Each subsequent class has been a little bit smarter and has competed against a larger applicant pool, with decreases in acceptance rate. In 2009, NU added spots for Early Decision applicants but still wound up deferring students, a practice it had previously eschewed. Next year’s incoming freshmen, the Class of 2016, faced a record-low 15 percent acceptance rate, down 10 percentage points from the class of 2012. Be thankful you are graduating from NU today, Class of 2012. If you were applying right now, your odds would have been much tougher.
4. Protess retires from NU amid Innocence Project controversy
Former head of the Medill Innocence Project David Protess retired from NU last spring in the wake of University accusations that he had doctored emails and withheld documents from prosecutors who accused the 29-year professor and his students of ethical misconduct in investigating a murder conviction. Protess and the Medill Innocence Project, together responsible for helping to free 12 wrongfully convicted men from prison, came under fire in national newspapers and left Medill students and faculty starkly divided about who was to blame for the poster-child program and much-touted professor’s fall from grace. Protess has since started an autonomous innocence project in Chicago, and Medill Dean John Lavine, with whom Protess had a highly publicized strained relationship, will retire this summer. The Medill Innocence Project continues under new direction and with different rules, but the controversy cast a wide shadow.
3. City-enforced ‘Brothel Law’ ignites the ire of off-campus students
Evanston has a law on the books saying that no more than three people who are un-related can live in a single dwelling unit. The city says the law will help keep landlords accountable for the safety of their properties. NU students say they hold dear the right to save money by, say, sharing a bedroom with a friend. This has caused tension. Since the winter of 2011, the city has been threatening to enforce the rule, then backing off for a few months. As it stands now, the city is concocting a special licensing system for landlords that will require them to abide by the three-unrelated rule. Pop quiz for all graduates who have taken macro: What will this licensing system do to the amount of housing available? What will happen to rents? In a funny twist, the city is now thinking about combating actual prostitution – with another licensing system for massage parlors. The Class of 2012 will certainly miss Evanston, but it may also pay far less for apartments and manicures.
2. Schapiro becomes president, survives PR nightmares
After a freshman year under Henry Bienen, our class saw NU’s first regime change since 1996 with University President Morton Schapiro’s inauguration in January 2010. Schapiro had formerly been the president of Williams College and has brought with him some of that touchy-feely liberal arts mentality. He implemented a focus on adding “third spaces,” ess
entially gathering areas that are open late and serve food, which took shape in new eateries like Fran’s Cafe and The Great Room. By the time the Class of 2012 has its 10-year reunion, NU students might actually do crazy things like smile at one another.
1. Diversity issues define campus dialogue
With its near record-low black-student enrollment, the Class of 2012 has played both a symbolic and substantive role in discussions about diversity on campus. Incidents of cultural and racial insensitivity over the past four year have come in several forms – from students dressed in blackface to the alleged racial profiling of a black student in Kellogg – and prompted even more campus forums. Tensions came to a head this spring when an Olympics-themed off-campus party featured a series of culturally insensitive costumes. News about the event spread. Students and several campus group leaders have demanded greater attention to the issue from University administrators, even gaining access to an internal diversity report commissioned as a part of the University’s strategic plan. Though the tenor and direction of the conversation has been questioned at times, the search for improvement has proven enduring.
