TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2016
On Campus
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By being here in this tent, you are showing families in need that Northwestern will not be complacent.
— Weinberg senior Kevin Harris
In Case You Missed It
Szot receives four years probation By MADELINE FOX
daily senior staffer @maddycfox
WHEATON, Illinois — Former Northwestern student Michael Szot was sentenced March 10 to four years of probation including one year of periodic imprisonment for aggravated driving under the influence in the car accident that killed an NU student and another passenger. During his periodic imprisonment, Szot can leave prison for work, school or community service. He must report to jail April 4. He must complete 200 hours of community service in the form of speaking engagements about his accident, and he will be monitored to ensure he is not using alcohol or drugs. Szot, who has not attended NU since before the July 19, 2014 accident, was a rising McCormick senior when the accident occurred. He pled guilty to one count of aggravated DUI causing death in August 2015 after initially pleading not guilty. Szot drove his car into a water-filled quarry after drinking with the car’s two passengers at a bar in Naperville, Illinois. Szot escaped the car and survived, but Mihirtej Boddupalli, who was also a rising McCormick senior, and Sajaad Safiullah Syed, a 21-year-old Naperville resident and
Former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke to speak at Northwestern in April
Ben Bernanke, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve who served during the height of the Great Recession, will speak and take questions at Leverone Hall later this month. Bernanke will sit down with Kellogg Prof. Janice Eberly on April 25 as part of the Department of
friend of Boddupalli’s, both died in the crash. Under his guilty plea, Szot could have served from six to 28 years in prison, but was eligible for probation if the judge found extraordinary circumstances in his case. Judge Brian Telander cited letters written on Szot’s behalf by former teachers, bosses, friends and community leaders testifying to Szot’s character in his decision to sentence Szot These were the to probation. Telander also noted wishes of Mihir Szot’s lack of violations and Sajaad, since the incident, and I’m glad we his cooperation with police, his history of could be here volunteering and his to support what academic record — he is now enrolled at the they wanted. University of Illinois at Dhruv Boddupalli, Chicago — as factors in brother of Mihirtej his decision. Members of the Boddupalli victims’ families were present at the March 10 hearing, where Szot’s therapist, the police officers who responded to the scene and one of the detectives who took Szot’s confession testified. Both victims’ families met with Szot on March 9 at his lawyer’s office in a meeting requested by
Boddupalli’s mother, said his lawyer, Jeff Fawell. Both families advocated for leniency in Szot’s sentencing during the hearing, and embraced Szot after the judge ruled to give him probation. “His remorse and his apologies are tremendous,” said Dilshad Ikramullah, Syed’s mother, during the hearing. “I could not imagine separating a mother and her son.” Fawell said he’d never seen anything like the lengths both families went to on Szot’s behalf. “They wanted to be there for Michael and to be in court with him,” Fawell told The Daily. At the time of the accident, Szot’s blood alcohol content was 0.14. The legal limit is 0.08. Szot also admitted he smoked marijuana prior to the accident, and one of the witnesses at the March 10 hearing testified to finding marijuana paraphernalia in Szot’s possession. Dhruv Boddupalli, who read a statement at the hearing by members of his family that recalled memories of his brother and urged leniency in Szot’s sentencing, said he was pleased with the judge’s decision. “These were the wishes of Mihir and Sajaad, and I’m glad we could be here to support what they wanted,” he told The Daily. “We know Mike will honor their lives by continuing his.”
Economics’ annual Susan Bies Lecture on Economics and Public Policy. “If you were going to ask my first choice of who to bring in of all people it would be Ben,” said Martin Eichenbaum, an economics professor who helped organize the event. “This is a person who was at the helm during the largest financial crisis arguably since the Great Depression.” The conversation will focus on Bernanke’s actions during the Great Recession and his experiences in economics, Eichenbaum said. Organizers opted for a conversation with
Bernanke, rather than a typical lecture, to create a more dynamic experience for audience members, Eichenbaum added. Although the event is still being planned, it will also include an opportunity for audience members to ask their own questions, he said. “(Students) may not agree with Ben, but it’s the essence of what a great university is about — to give students access to people whose ideas and actions really mattered and are shaping their lives,” Eichenbaum said.
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foxm@u.northwestern.edu
— Kelli Nguyen
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THIS WEEK IN MUSIC 29 TUE
MAR 29 - APR 1
Gail Williams, horn, 7:30 p.m.
Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall, $8/5 Kay Kim, piano; Russel Rybicki, guest horn
Principal horn of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Gail Williams was previously a member of the Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestras. She has appeared as soloist with the CSO, the San Antonio Symphony, and the New World Symphony Orchestra, among others. Her program features sonatas by Beethoven and Hindemith.
1 FRI
Branford Marsalis, saxophone Victor Goines, clarinet Northwestern University Jazz Orchestra, 7:30 p.m. Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, $30/10 Victor Goines, conductor
A performance of Victor Goines’s Crescent City featuring Grammy-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis, accompanied by students and alumni of the jazz studies program. The concert will also feature Goines as clarinetist in his 2009 ASCAP commission Benny: Then, Now, Forever.
concertsatbienen.org • 847.467.4000
Victor Goines
Branford Marsalis