UIC sold out to Hollywood bigwigs, students shoed aside
Michaelia Fosses
Issue date: 5/3/05 Section: Opinions
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The new movie being filmed on campus, "Stranger than Fiction," starring Will Ferrell and Dustin Hoffman is becoming unquestionably aggravating. While many students on campus are interested in the making of the film, and many students on campus have actually been in the film, the movie is proving to be a disturbance and a nuisance during the last week of school before finals.
The university undoubtedly has many reasons for allowing this movie to be filmed on our campus. The university is indisputably being paid what is probably a large sum of money to let the cameras film on campus, and the publicity that the movie will generate both for the school and for the City of Chicago is priceless.
The fact of the matter is that this time of the year is the absolute worst, most stressful time for college students. With final papers and final projects and finals just around the corner, students are stressed out and tense. The last thing that students need is a huge distraction and annoyance on campus.
Yesterday, I was sitting in Lincoln Hall in my last class session of the year for that particular class. It is a three hour-long workshop class that meets on the third floor of Lincoln Hall. About 40 minutes into the class, we started hearing noises that were appropriately described by one of my classmates as "wookies screaming." The noise was loud, but abated after a few moments. About 10 minutes later, the noises started again, but this time were not stopping. We sent a someone down to talk to the crew about possibly stopping the construction so we could hear each other talk, but he was rudely sent back upstairs, and the noises didn't stop. It took the professor leaving the class and going downstairs to reason with the crew for the noise to stop for the duration of the class.
A couple of days ago, students in a class in Douglas Hall were interrupted by Dustin Hoffman knocking on the door to tell the class to keep quiet, that the actors were trying to rehearse. Not to mention that all the classes that meet on the second floor of Lincoln Hall have been moved to other parts of the building and that the front door to the building was completely inaccessible to students on Monday.
Last time I checked, UIC was a university that catered to its students, who pay (sometimes exorbitant) amounts of money to get an education here. The students are here, first and foremost, to go to school, and anything that disrupts that education should be carefully planned and organized. Why not film the movie next week, after finals are over? Why disrupt the ebb and flow of campus activity during the most stressful time of the year for students just for a little publicity. Thanks for whoring us out, UIC.
The university undoubtedly has many reasons for allowing this movie to be filmed on our campus. The university is indisputably being paid what is probably a large sum of money to let the cameras film on campus, and the publicity that the movie will generate both for the school and for the City of Chicago is priceless.
The fact of the matter is that this time of the year is the absolute worst, most stressful time for college students. With final papers and final projects and finals just around the corner, students are stressed out and tense. The last thing that students need is a huge distraction and annoyance on campus.
Yesterday, I was sitting in Lincoln Hall in my last class session of the year for that particular class. It is a three hour-long workshop class that meets on the third floor of Lincoln Hall. About 40 minutes into the class, we started hearing noises that were appropriately described by one of my classmates as "wookies screaming." The noise was loud, but abated after a few moments. About 10 minutes later, the noises started again, but this time were not stopping. We sent a someone down to talk to the crew about possibly stopping the construction so we could hear each other talk, but he was rudely sent back upstairs, and the noises didn't stop. It took the professor leaving the class and going downstairs to reason with the crew for the noise to stop for the duration of the class.
A couple of days ago, students in a class in Douglas Hall were interrupted by Dustin Hoffman knocking on the door to tell the class to keep quiet, that the actors were trying to rehearse. Not to mention that all the classes that meet on the second floor of Lincoln Hall have been moved to other parts of the building and that the front door to the building was completely inaccessible to students on Monday.
Last time I checked, UIC was a university that catered to its students, who pay (sometimes exorbitant) amounts of money to get an education here. The students are here, first and foremost, to go to school, and anything that disrupts that education should be carefully planned and organized. Why not film the movie next week, after finals are over? Why disrupt the ebb and flow of campus activity during the most stressful time of the year for students just for a little publicity. Thanks for whoring us out, UIC.