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Do you remember what was happening on campus, in Chicago, around the world, and in arts and culture during your years in the College?
- Students in the Class of 2002 began their first classes at the University on October 5, 1998. 88% of students had SAT scores above 1200, and an overwhelming 90% of students ranked in the top one-fifth of their high school class.
- Students in the Class of 2002 came from the Midwest (40%), the Mid-Atlantic (20%), New England (12%), the West (11%), the South (7%), the Southwest (5%) and overseas (5%).
- In October 1998, University of Chicago physics alumnus Daniel Tsui received a share of the 1998 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on a new type of frictionless fluid made up of electrons. Tsui was the 70th Nobel laureate associated with the University as a student, faculty member or researcher.
- In January 2000, the University’s Board of Trustees elected Don Michael Randel, provost of Cornell University, the 12th President of the University effective July 1.
- In April 2000, Woody Allen made a special appearance at Max Palevsky Cinema to promote his film, Small Time Crooks.
- In Spring Quarter 2000, students were able to register for classes online.
- In February 2000, University administrators banned Napster, the popular file-sharing program, from campus.
- In September 2000, the University decided to implement a ban on first-year students' cars on campus starting in September 2001.
- In November 2000, there was a groundbreaking ceremony for the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center.
- In June 2001, the University welcomed 1,100 participants to the seventh National Convention of City Year, an Americorps national service program. Former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Senator John McCain were among the national figures who addressed the gathering.
- Students and faculty joined in discussions and ceremonies after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
- On April 12, 2002, the University launched the Chicago Initiative, a five-year fundraising campaign.
- Quantrell Award Winners in 2002 were Jean Comaroff, John Comaroff, Benjamin Glick, Gary Herrigel, Douglas MacAyeal, and Mario Santana.
- The Class of 2002 took part in the University’s 469th Convocation ceremonies in Harper Quadrangle, June 7-9, 2002.
- In November 1998, Steppenwolf Theatre's 33-member ensemble received the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, becoming the only theater company in the country to receive the award.
- Chicago’s downtown was home to 320 fiberglass cows “on parade” in the summer of 1999. The sculptures were later auctioned to support local charities.
- In March 1999, eleven people died and more than 100 people were injured when the Amtrak train from Chicago plowed into a truck just north of Kankakee.
- August 1999, McDonald's opened its 25,000th restaurant in the world in the Bronzeville neighborhood at 207 E. 35th.
- Jimmy Wilson, longtime owner of the Woodlawn Tap, died in 1999. After a year of closure, the city reversed a denial of the bar’s liquor license in 2000.
- In January 2000, Governor George H. Ryan announced a moratorium on executions in Illinois and named a commission to review the state’s administration of the death penalty. 13 death penalty convictions statewide had been overturned since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977. There was buzz about a possible Nobel Peace Prize for Ryan.
- In 1999, President Bill Clinton was acquitted of impeachment charges.
- In 1999, two students went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killing 15 and wounding 23.
- NATO goes to war against Yugoslavia to protect the ethnic Albanian majority in the province of Kosovo in 1999.
- Students usher in a new century on New Year’s Eve 1999 as the world awaits perceived problems of Y2K.
- In 2000, Elian Gonzalez, the six-year-old Cuban boy rescued from the sea after his mother and 10 others drowned in an attempt to flee the Castro regime in 1999, returns to Cuba with his father.
- In 2000, Hillary Rodham Clinton wins her bid for the U.S. Senate, becoming the first First Lady to be elected to public office.
- Republican George W. Bush is finally declared the president-elect more than a month after Election Day, having lost the popular vote but having obtained the necessary number of electoral votes. A convoluted recount process in Florida ended when the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 majority, declared the recount constitutionally problematic, effectively handing the election to Bush late on December 12, 2000.
- In 2001, U.S. Representative Gary Condit of California denies an affair with missing 24-year-old intern Chandra Levy, then subsequently admits to the relationship, leading investigators and the public to question Condit's role in the woman's disappearance. Chandra Levy’s remains were found in a park in 2002, and although Condit was no longer a suspect in her murder, he lost the Californian Democratic Primary race.
- On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, two hijacked 757 airliners slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, creating an explosion and fire that leads to the collapse of both towers. Moments later, a third airliner crashed into the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C., and fourth crash-landed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in what was a coordinated terrorist attack on the United States. Thousands of lives were lost in the attacks, the majority of those deaths were those trapped inside the Twin Towers. Osama bin Laden, leader of the Afghanistan-based international terrorist network al Qaeda, is believed to have been responsible for the attacks.
- With the War on Terror gathering momentum, President George W. Bush focused his sights on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. In November 2001, weapons inspectors returned to Iraq and world leaders debated whether this would be enough to prevent U.S.-led military action.
- BOOKS AND LITERATURE: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling, John Adams by David Willis McCullough, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.
- MUSIC: “Smooth” (Santana featuring Rob Thomas), “…Baby One More Time” (Britney Spears), “Bye Bye Bye” (N’Sync), “Breathe” (Faith Hill), “Ms. Jackson” (Outkast), “Someday” (The Strokes), “Complicated” (Avril Lavigne), “Lady Marmalade”(Christina Aguilera, Mya, Lil’ Kim, Pink).
- TELEVISION: The Sopranos, Ally McBeal, The Practice, Sex and the City, The West Wing, Six Feet Under.
- MOVIES: Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare in Love, American Beauty, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago.
- SPORTS: In 2000, Baseball's New York Yankees become the first team to win three World Series championships in a row since the Oakland Athletics (1972-74). In 2001, Veteran race-car driver Dale Earnhardt is killed instantly when his No. 3 black Monte Carlo slams into a wall at 180 mph during the final lap of the Daytona 500 NASCAR race. In 2001, the Arizona Diamondbacks beat three-time World Champion New York Yankees in the ninth inning of the seventh game of baseball's World Series. The Diamondbacks, formed in 1997, become the youngest franchise ever to win the series.
Researched by the University of Chicago, Development and Alumni Relations, 2006. The Chicago Maroon was the primary source for the “On Campus” section.