Student film not your kind of entertainment? Well, there’s plenty for all the senses this weekend.
Chemistry Professor Eberhard Zwergel has his spring show on North Beach at 7:30 p.m. What’s a spring show, you ask? Cool chemistry explosions, of course.
Wanna see student-produced sketch comedy? Well, you get one shot at seeing NSTV’s sketch comedy premiere show on Saturday. According to the NUlink post, if you like “pretzels, hobos, ninjas, love, betrayal, and choreographed dances,” then go to Leverone Hall at 9 p.m. with $5 in your pocket.
If you think $5 is better spent on a cappella music, then save it for one of the many shows this weekend. Purple Haze’s spring show continues tonight and Saturday night. It’s at 9:30 and 11:30 p.m. both nights. Thunk is having their spring show at Shanley at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday night, and Freshmen 15 will be at the McCormick Tribune Center at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. both nights.
Speaking of future events, with commencement only a few weeks away, and one student group is still unhappy with Northwestern’s rescinding of an honorary degree for Barack Obama’s pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright “in light of the controversy surrounding” him. For Members Only President Zachary Parker has sent a second letter to President Henry Bienen about the matter. Here’s part of what he said:
The University’s rhetoric about preserving the “celebratory nature of Commencement” is an attempt to undermine the importance and significance of Northwestern’s actions in stripping an honorary degree from a Board approved recipient. Never in Northwestern University’s history has one’s honorary degree been rescinded, nor has one been as publicly humiliated or chastised by the University as Reverend Wright. Setting such precedence, at the expense of Reverend Wright, is reprehensible and distasteful to Black students and alumni. To assure that the “celebratory nature of Commencement” is preserved, and that the University does not engage in the unprecedented and unwarranted act of rescinding individual’s honorary degree; and to ensure that hundreds of undergraduates, graduates and alumni are not left feeling ignored and offended, FMO has suggested the following:
Suggestions:
- Hold a ceremony for Reverend Wright to receive his deserved honorary degree outside of Commencement, where his family and community can participate.
- Change the tradition of presenting honorary degrees at Commencement so as to assure that this problem does not occur again in the future.
- Convene a faculty committee to review the decision to rescind Dr. Wright’s degree.
- Convene a faculty committee to develop a set of rules governing when a degree can be withdrawn.
- Increase the transparency of the University’s decisions on such matters to minimize the feelings of rejection and unimportance felt by undergraduates, graduates and alumni alike.
Parker also attached comments from unnamed professors, students and alumni supporting his letter and voicing displeasure with the university’s handling of the situation. Parker and Black Alumni Association President Ce Cole Dillon have criticized Bienen in previous letters, which Bienen called “way off base.”
“The statement we released makes clear that we wanted the focus of Commencement to be on graduating students and their families, not on any matters surrounding Dr. Wright,” he said in an e-mail.