Speaking of IIT: language classes, theater, and SocialDevCamp
Speaking of IIT, at the behest of the student body in general and some very vocal members in particular, members of the IIT Student Government Association have been trying to get more foreign languages offered at IIT for several years now. The Humanities department has limited financial resources but is doing their best by offering a rotating round of introductory language courses, one per semester. However, many IIT students studied languages such as German, Russian, Latin, Spanish, and French- to name just a few- for several years in high school, and want more advanced courses. But a major problem (other than finances) is that language courses do not fit well into the rigorous class schedule that many IIT students must adhere to in order to get their degrees. But, if offered a low-stress, flexible, and entertaining way to keep up and improve their skillz, many students would jump for it.
So we make a student organization group, get it approved by the student Senate (as all student organizations at IIT must be), and have the organization, which we could name something like “IIT students for the study of languages” (or some catchier phrase) propose to the Student Activities Fund (SAF) for money with which we could pay a graduate student from a nearby university which has a languages program to come in one night a week and teach half an hour of french, half an hour of Japanese, an hour of German, or whichever language for which the demand is highest. The demand would be determined by an online survey distributed through Facebook and other resources that many IIT students pay a modicum attention to, especially in class.
Speaking of new student organizations, I wish that an IIT student organization based on the promotion of urban gardening (i.e. the art of cultivating plants in a city environment, otherwise known as “container gardening” could be instituted- possibly they could sell or give away seeds, gardening advice, or small potted plants on the MTCC Bridge, using SAF money to purchase the materials. This could conceivably be done through the recently approved “Gangreen” group, which is focused on making IIT a greener and more sustainable institution, but it might be too practical for their lofty seminar-holding scope.
Speaking of improbable things, I think that someone should propose an IIT Scientology student group, just so I can have the fun of arguing against their approval in the Student Senate. For the uninformed, Scientology is a religion (or possibly a pseudo-religion or a cult) which was created by a former science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard. Scientology has been banned or attempted to be banned in several countries, and many lawsuits have been brought by and against different branches of Scientology in the US for various matters.
Speaking of entertainment value and controversial viewpoints, on Saturday afternoon I saw the theater production St. Crispin’s Day at Strawdog theater on the north side, a few blocks off the Red Line at Armitage. Tickets were $21. It’s a play based on the evening before the battle of St. Crispin’s Day portrayed in Shakespeare’s play Henry V. It’s an anti-war comedy which portrays the eve before battle from the perspectives of a group of common, wet, muddy, poor, brutish and thieving soldiers on the eve before a battle which, the general consensus, will get them all killed.
Speaking of live performance, on Friday night, I went to see Comedysportz, a team-based improvisational group that performs in a venue right next to the red Line Belmont stop. Tickets were $21 and the show was a bit under two hours, and quite good. The performers relied quite a bit on audience suggestions and participation, while at the same time having a highly structured act that made the most of their acapella skills, wide variety of hand gestures, and limited time to keep fast-moving action between the two teams (“red” and “blue” going). My companion also attends IIT, and took notes on the actors’ methods and ideas on the behalf of IIT’s 33rd Theater Productions improvisational comedy group, which is quite good but of course wants to improve their improv.
Speaking of things that one does for fun, SocialDevCamp is coming up. SocialDevCamp is a computer science-oriented event that will be in the HUB (i.e. Herman Union Building) on Nov. 7-8 with sessions ranging from “Watch Me Break Your Social Apps – Security for the App Developer” to a keynote address from two Facebook employees. Some large percentage of the students and faculty from IIT’s computer science department will be in attendance, and any other geeks that happen to be on campus might want to show up to this free and prestigious event.
Speaking of computers, with class registration coming up this (and next) week, I think that all of us undergraduate and graduate students are intensely curious whether the Office of Technology Services (OTS) has made adequate provisions to keep the registration system up. Some fortunate changes include the staggered registration by student academic year and the fact that registration for each group opens during business hours, and not at midnight.
In short, this week IIT has been rocked by Halloween, the pumpkin launch, and a lot of rain. Let’s hope that it doesn’t change to snow just in time for our last set of midterms.
