Harper College notes
40th anniversary celebration: Harper College's Student Activities Office will celebrate the founding of the college with events that commemorate milestones in the cultural landscape for the last four decades yet are timeless productions for new audiences.
Remaining events include a theatrical run of Cabaret, the award-winning hit musical, Friday through Sunday and a lecture by Gary Snyder, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and environmental activist on Thursday.
The Harper College Ensemble Theatre will perform "Cabaret," winner of eight Tony Awards and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical in 1967, the year Harper opened its doors. The setting is Berlin, 1929, in the cabaret called the Kit Kat Klub, a watering hole for pimps, prostitutes and smugglers.
An impoverished American writer, Clifford Bradshaw, is seeking inspiration for a new novel by traveling Europe. A fellow traveler recommends he stay in a certain rooming house when they arrive in the German capital on New Year's Eve. Bradshaw ends up at the Kit Kat Klub for the New Year's festivities and eventually becomes involved with Sally Bowles, an English girl in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The cast includes Harper students, staff and community members. Performances will take place Friday through Sunday in the Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $15 for general admission, with discounts for Harper students, faculty, staff, and senior citizens.
Performances on Friday and Saturday are at 8 p.m. Matinee on Sunday will be at 2 p.m.
Songs from the play include "It Couldn't Please Me More," "Willkommen," "Cabaret" and "The Money Song."
Pulitzer Prize winner: Gary Snyder, the winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and other literary prizes, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday about "the evolution of our society and public policy regarding the environment over the last half century."
Now in his late 70s, the Buddhist scholar and environmentalist has explored what he describes as "the mytho-poetic interface of society, ecology and language." Snyder has worked as a logger, a trail-crew member and a seaman on a Pacific tanker.
Tickets for Snyder's lecture cost $12 for general admission with discounts for Harper students, faculty, staff, other students and senior citizens.
Call (847) 925-6100 for information or go to the Web site harpercollege.edu to buy tickets.
International Education Week: Harper College will be transformed into a world bazaar Tuesday through Thursday for the college's second annual International Education Week.
Sponsored by Harper's International Programs and Studies Committee, International Education Week will offer an eclectic sampling of dance, food, music, art and fashion from cultures around the world, as well as lectures and films exploring the history, politics and customs of different regions.
"Our goal is to increase the exposure and knowledge of the overall Harper community to international cultures, diverse world subjects and topical world issues," said Jacque Mott, chair of the International Committee.
International Education Week activities are free and open to the general public. For a complete list of International Education Week Activities, call (847) 925-6894 or log on to harpercollege.edu and search the event calendar.
Financial workshops: The home financing crisis, current credit crunch and the skyrocketing cost of college tuition have made it more difficult than ever for people to achieve the American dream.
The Harper College Women's Program is offering its third annual series of financial workshops designed to help people achieve fiscal goals.
"This year we've brought in a series of community experts, as well as Harper experts, to address the issues women have told us they would like to learn more about," said Kathleen Canfield, director of the Career Center and Women's Program. "Issues like how to set up a budget, the advantages of credit and how to manage it, financing a college education and raising financially responsible children."
All programs will be held from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., with light refreshments from 6 to 6:30 p.m. The location for all programs is Building A, Room A243. Dates and topics are as follows:
• "Financing Your College Education," Thursday, presented by Cathy Huxhold, Harper College Financial Aid
• "Raising Financially Responsible Children," Feb. 21, presented by Susan L. Baker from New York Life
• "Credit and You," March 12, Presented by Harper College Vice President Judy Thorson
Admission is free, but registration is encouraged. For more information or to register, call (847) 925-6558.
Broker management: The Illinois Real Estate Act now requires real estate brokers to complete a new six-hour continuing education course. This fall, Harper College will offer a broker management course to satisfy those requirements.
The six-hour course will cover real estate brokerage licensing, agency agreements and issues, escrow and broker responsibilities, office management, risk reduction, and disciplinary actions.
A proficiency exam will be given at the end of the course. Broker management will be offered in two 3-hour sessions, Nov. 26 and 28. Tuition is $119.
To register, call (847) 925-6300 or visit harpercollege.edu.
Global giving: This holiday season, students in the Harper chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the International Honor Society of Two Year Colleges, will collect books for adults and children to benefit Worldfund, an organization dedicated to reducing poverty in Latin America by supporting high-quality education for impoverished children.
"We've done various drives in the past, usually food drives around the holidays," said PTK Advisor John Garcia. "But I think students are becoming more aware that social justice is a global concern, and there are ongoing problems in global society, from poverty to sweat shops, which are more often ignored."
Garcia said PTK students will station drop boxes around campus to collect the books. The books will then be given to BetterWorld Books, a partnership organization, which sells the books and donates the profits to Worldfund.
Books will only be collected on Harper's main campus. For more information on the Phi Theta Kappa book drive, call (847) 925-6402.