Print

‘Cuts & Grinds’ Finds Inspiration in History

During spring quarter then junior Bhargav Rajamannar and then sophomores Edwin Lim, Alex Glancy and Monica Yi pored over thousands of University Archives photographs to find iconic images of Northwestern life. Then they added a modern-day twist, displaying the historical images juxtaposed with photos of current Northwestern students, submitted via Facebook, engaged in similar activities. They posted the photographs on Tumblr, a social media site.

The project is called “Cuts & Grinds,” based on a student’s 1914 diary entry that classified Northwestern students into “cuts,” who skipped class, and “grinds,” whose noses never left their books.

The group hopes to pass the project on to University Archives so it can become part of Northwestern’s history.

“History is a unifier,” said Rajamannar. “The fact that we are in this one place together, we are part of a legacy.”

Tell us what you think. E-mail comments or questions to the editors at letters@northwestern.edu.

Ever wonder about those strange designations we use throughout Northwestern to identify alumni of the various schools of the University? See the complete list.