Senior Week festivities include new excursions

The College is aiming to make this year’s Senior Week—the last festive goodbye to students in the College—a memorable experience for more members of the graduating class, and even their parents.

In past years, said Lori Hurvitz, Director of the College Programming Office, about 50 percent of students have attended. “We thought to ourselves, ‘How can we get more students to participate?’”

Aimed at luring more students to the festivities, several new excursions have been added to this year’s schedule.

Students can see the Blue Man Group perform at the Briar Street Theatre at 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, and at 1 p.m. Thursday, June 9, fourth-years will tour the Loop on the city’s famed “architectural cruise.”

These events, conceived by the Senior Week committee of 25 fourth-year students, will complement some of the week’s longstanding traditions, including a barbecue for fourth-years, which will be at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 7, at Promontory Point. The soon-to-be graduates also will still be able to ride the American Eagle and the Tidal Wave during the annual “Senior Day at Six Flags Great America” Monday, June 6, and take in a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field Tuesday, June 7.

Additionally, President Randel will welcome fourth-years to his residence for a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 5. Concluding the week that leads up to the Saturday, June 11 College Convocation, the Museum of Science and Industry will welcome graduating fourth-years to a reception from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, June 10.

All told, there will be 12 activities for a $45 fee.

The other major change to this year’s activities is the rescheduled Baccalaureate event, which has been moved from Monday, June 6, to Friday, June 10, the day before graduation. This change will allow students to invite their parents and other family members to attend also. “Students often struggle during this week, as they’re often hosting and entertaining parents and friends,” Hurvitz said. “We want to help them make their graduation experience more than just a formal convocation.”

The Baccalaureate, which will take place at 4 p.m. Friday, June 10, in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, will include a group performance by student vocalists and will feature the Remains of Education speech. The Remains of Education address is intended to function as a bookend to the more formal Aims of Education speech, delivered by a faculty member to new students in the College at the beginning of each new academic year.

John Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in Political Science and the College, will give the more light-hearted “Remains” address, a memoir on the meaning of a Chicago education and the experience of College life at the University.

Senior Week passes will be available for purchase on Friday, May 27. For more information, please visit the Class of 2005 Web site at http://classof2005.uchicago.edu.