On April 7, 2016, Dr. Larycia Hawkins spoke in the Alice Millar Chapel to a gathering of community and university members on the Northwestern campus. Dr. Hawkins was invited to speak following her December 2015 decision to don a hijab to express her personal solidarity with her Muslim sisters. Dr. Hawkins, now a Visiting Faculty
Northwestern students often hear upperclassmen share how their biggest regret was not taking advantage of the big city next door, but the University is constantly working to close the gap between Evanston and Chicago.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, students and faculty from across the residential colleges boarded a charter bus for a trip to the Chicago History Museum. There, they immersed themselves in the temporary exhibitions of Race: Are We So Different? and the newly opened Amplified: Chicago Blues.
In January, Northwestern University released its much-anticipated Undergraduate Residential Experience Committee report, which proposed a framework for a universal undergraduate residential experience in the form of Neighborhoods all over campus, among other things. Soon after the release, the institutional initiative encapsulated in this 114-page document entered what it calls its “listening period.”
On Feb. 11, student members and faculty and staff affiliates of residential colleges and residential communities gathered in the lobby of the Josephine Louis Theatre to sip warm hot cocoa topped with marshmallows and peppermint flakes as they waited to see the highly-anticipated “Vinegar Tom.”
Tucked in the basement of Shepard Hall is the Student Engagement Center. By day, the space is a classroom, but most evenings, the desks are pushed aside, and it becomes a place for students to grow and learn in a less traditional sense. Students learn to cook in the gorgeous demonstration kitchen, play games with friends, hold club meetings, and get to know other residents.
The Engagement Center was created during Shepard Hall’s 2015-16 renovation, and since then it has been providing opportunities for community building and important conversations. With the University’s ongoing 10-year Housing Master Plan, spaces like Shepard’s Engagement Center will soon exist in every residential neighborhood, allowing students, staff, and faculty to build and strengthen their communities.
Residential Academic Initiatives is on a mission. After feedback from faculty chairs, the office is working to better connect students with all the cultural events and opportunities the Chicagoland area has to offer. In the first of a series of events, students ventured into the city for a walk-about tour of Pullman, one of the South Side’s historical neighborhoods.
