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Volume CXXXI, Number 21 |
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Publication proliferation
Ink has been showering the pages of a large crop of campus publications
this semester- more rags than the institutional memory of the current
student body can recall reading before. Besides the Orient-still the sole
weekly newspaper on campus-there is the Disorient (left-wing socialist
biweekly), The Patriot (right wing conservative occasional), Ritalin (music
and culture) and Our Issues (diversity in general), both still basking
in the light of their first press runs last month.
It is heartening to see so many campus journals take the stage, and to
see them reflect wider views than many Bowdoin students thought were present
here. What is valuable about these publications is that they can bring
to campus views that have no other avenue to use. Ritalin's interview
with two gay Swedish rappers-well-written and wide-ranging-is a case in
point.
This space has documented the Orient's occasional snags with the SAFC. In that light, the Committee's decision to support campus publications like Ritalin and The Patriot is a welcome sign: It is willing to fund papers that extend the boundaries of expression here. Let's hope it doesn't get cold feet and pull the plug if and when some eyebrow-raising items are published.
-JMF
We congratulate Treasurer Kent Chabotar on his recent appointment
as president of Guilford College. Kent has been a valuable asset to the
Bowdoin community since his arrival in 1991.
His work in bringing Bowdoin to financial stability, his
classroom presence, and his fashion sense will all be sorely missed.