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Volume CXXXI, Number 24 |
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Characterization of houses unfair
To the Editors:
We were disappointed to read the recent Orient characterization of the
college house system as a failure. You have devalued the successes achieved
by the houses and underestimated the potential for this system to evolve.
The strength of each house varies from year to year depending upon the
continuity of upperclass leadership. Despite these fluctuations, the houses
put on successful programming events each year. Boody Street, for example,
had a small number of leaders this year. They rose to the challenge and
put on many great events including the annual Broomball tournament, several
parties including the popular Halloween party, barbeques, a trip to the
Portland Museum of Art, study breaks, a dinner with the former Director
of Naval Intelligence, a trip to Yankee Lanes with faculty, and dozens
of others.
Boody Street residents are just a few of the dozens of house leaders
who spend hours entertaining the rest of campus. Their efforts are tireless
and often thankless. Hundreds of students flock to their parties without
offering even once during their four years at Bowdoin to help run a party
at their affiliated house.
Another popular critique of the houses (and seen in an Orient editorial
this year) is that they only serve as sites for campus-wide parties. Again,
this unfairly overlooks the variety of programming underway, including
community service (Habitat for Humanity, United Way, local schools, Adopt-a-Family,
etc.), intramural teams, Loose Leaves, movie nights, Inter-House Olympics,
the chem-free weekend, faculty dinners, and the scavenger hunt, to name
only a fraction of this year's events.
Despite the gesture of credit given to house residents in your editorial,
you have overlooked the improvements in the social and intellectual climate
at Bowdoin. Several of us have been around here long enough to see that
Bowdoin is more lively and interesting now than it was five years ago.
Current and former house leaders deserve some of the credit for affecting
this change.
Perhaps the houses need to better publicize their willingness and need
for more affiliates to get involved. We remind the system's critics that
the houses belong to students, not to administrators, and that they are
dynamic organizations that require input and energy from all corners of
campus.
We hope that rather than undermining the houses' achievements, the Orient will challenge all Bowdoin students to take a more active role in shaping the house system.
Craig Bradley, Dean of Student Affairs
Bob Graves, Director of Residential Life
David Mountcastle '99, Assistant Director of Residential Life
Kim Pacelli '98, Assistant Director of Residential Life
Jed Wartman '01, Assistant Director of Residential Life
Houses don't only benefit residents
To the Editors:
Congratulations on your excellent coverage of the College House system
in the April 26 issue. The Orient has been much less biased towards college
houses ever since those bitter ADPs left.
However, please allow me to clarify some important points for the student
body. The Orient is wrong to think that the college houses serve only
those who live in them. Think about the "Road Wars" charity
bike race this past weekend. Does the United Way live at Baxter? Think
about all the art openings, the scholarly speakers, and the events like
"The Game of Life" project for the women's studies capstone
course that have been sponsored by college houses. How could all those
people who benefitted from or attended these events live in a college
house, let alone fit inside?
Does the Orient believe that the system "seems to work consistently
only to satisfy the small number of people who live there?" College
house events range in size from intimate to campus-wide. There are always
students from all classes and residencies who attend them.
While we are not the center of social life on campus, college houses
are the only part of Bowdoin's social life that is open to all. The house
events that took place this year might not have given everything to everyone,
but they gave all to those who asked.
Hands down, the best way to orgainize an event on campus is through the
houses. As an affiliate, you have 20-plus highly motivated individuals
with intimate knowledge of Bowdoin's inflated bureaucracy at your fingertips.
There's also a lot of money just waiting to be spent.
If you don't see anything you like going on at your house, turn off your
Play Station2, think up a really good away message for your AIM, and go
to a house meeting. From bringing up you favorite band to having your
professor give a slide show to opening up a restaurant, the house system
can work for you if you want it to.
The ultimate survival of the houses lies not with the trustees and administrators, but with the students. The old folks might have a lot of juice with the bigwigs, but they don't have the power to motivate student interest. It would be a shame to see this thing fail, concidering how much potential there is. In the next few years, we'll see if the student body is willing to carry the system from its infancy to adulthood. It's not going to be carried for you.
Simon Gerson '02
To the Editors:
Student Government, in conjunction with Dining Services, is proud to
announce that Thorne Dining Hall will be open for late-night dining from
10:30 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. on May 12, 13, and 14, the first three days
of exams.
The results of the late night dining survey you filled out have been
taken into account in this trial run of on-campus late night dining. The
menu includes bagels, toast, English muffins, graham crackers and all
toppings, cinnamon rolls, assorted seasonal fruit, assorted ice cream
novelties, veggie platters, nacho chips and cheese, assorted cereals,
and assorted hot and cold beverages.
The late-night meal option will be included in all board plans as a normal
meal.
Student Government is very excited about this new meal offering from
Dining Services and hopes this trial will be a success so that late night
dining can become permanent next fall. Feel free to voice your opinion
about this on the comment cards in each of the dining halls.
We would like to thank everyone on Dining Services and CIS for their hard work to make this happen.
-The Student Executive Board and Student Congress
To The Editors:
Professor Levine's letter ["Faculty shouldn't represent public opinion," 26 April 2002] explained that various liberal academic views have been good for the world, but he omitted mention of any valuable contributions made by what are thought of as conservative ideas. A fair historian would have credited conservative heroes in England such as Adam Smith and Winston Churchill for the intellectual questioning and critical thinking that created capitalism, stopped the Nazis, and spread democracy behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe.
Admittedly, conservatives did not act alone to create the capitalist standard of living we enjoy today, nor did they win World War II or dismantle the Gulags all by themselves. Conservatives led these movements by collaborating…with liberals. Adam Smith's free market ideas mixed well with the more socialist ideas of Keynes in our economy. Churchill the conservative collaborated with Roosevelt. Reagan is forever linked in history with Gorbachev, the Russian liberal.
All Gil Barndollar was asking for in his piece ["College faculty out of touch with U.S.," 19 April 2002] was a collaboration in academia between liberal and conservative thinkers. It is interesting to reflect every now and then on whether it's right to have all male or all white or all liberal professors dominating college faculties.
Professor Levine noted that some conservatives opposed democracy in the 18th century. He also knows that despite their gift for critical thinking and questioning, some liberals supported communism as both a theory and in the specific practices of Lenin and Stalin in the 20th century.
Barndollar's piece critically questioned whether or not Ivy League colleges really provide stimulating intellectual environments if liberals outnumber conservatives in faculties by 64 to 66 percent. Conservative intellectuals have made some powerful contributions that Professor Levine probably points out in the balanced presentations he makes to his classes.
Peter Slovenski
Athletics