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Volume CXXXIII, Number 11 |
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Responding to student athletes
To the Editors:
I would like to thank Marshal McLean and Mike Taylor for continuing the
dialogue on athletic recruitment with their letter last week on behalf
of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee. While their letter provides
much to consider, I would like to respond to their use of William Hyde's
Offer of the College. Mr. McLean and Mr. Taylor write: "Bowdoin College
is a school that prides itself on a well- rounded student body. It is
a school that wants students to feel its 'resources behind them in whatever
task' they undertake; 'to make hosts of friends who are leaders in all
walks of life'."
We believe that Bowdoin should strive for perfection in every task that
it undertakes, including sports. Mr. McLean and Mr. Taylor evoke the eighth
and eleventh lines of Hyde's Offer to strengthen their argument that Bowdoin
should support the athletic department by allowing lax admissions standards
for recruited athletes and by putting sports on par with other programs
in budgetary decisions.
A closer reading of Hyde's work, however, reveals no such sentiment.
The Offer of the College begins: "To be at home/ in all lands and
all ages;/ to count Nature/ a familiar acquaintance,/ and Art an intimate
friend…" In these first five lines Hyde outlines the Renaissance
philosophy that helps define the scope and quality of Bowdoin's curriculum.
When read in its proper context, Hyde's work represents the mission statement
for a college that prioritizes the intellectual life of students. Yet,
when turf fields are installed while recital rooms remain inadequate,
our college does not live up to the standard Hyde set. Nowhere in this
first half of the Offer does Hyde evoke the image of a college that gives
parity to academics and athletics. Only by taking Hyde's words out of
context could Mr. McLean and Mr. Taylor use them to support such an argument
When read as a continuation of the academic themes in the first half
of the work, Hyde's concept of leadership is dependent upon the student's
ability to access the resources of the world's library. While it is important
to admit students with a wide variety of talents and for the college to
support those talents, priority should be given to the true aim and offer
of the college- an offer that envisions Bowdoin as the vehicle for able
minded students to command the resources of the world's library and to
become leaders.
-Eben Gilfenbaum '02