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Volume CXXXII, Number 8 |
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Oxfam fights world hunger
To the Community:
Around the world, billions of people are plagued by hunger and poverty. One in five live on less than one dollar a day. Over a billion lack access to safe water, sanitation, and shelter. What's more, poverty can not be compartmentalized as a problem for developing countries only. In the United States, 32.2 million people, about 12 percent of the population, live below the poverty line. Hunger plagues 31 million U.S. citizens and vast numbers do not have access to adequate healthcare.
On Wednesday, November 13, 2002, Bowdoin students, faculty, and staff, along with members of the Brunswick community, will join nearly a million others around the country who are participating in Oxfam America's Fast for a World Harvest campaign to help fight poverty and hunger around the world. The event is a Hunger Banquet, a dramatization of the unequal distribution of resources and wealth in the world.
Each guest at the Hunger Banquet will be randomly assigned a low-, middle-, or high- income tier and will be served a corresponding meal. The Banquet also includes speakers like Professor Jonathan White, the founding director of Sports for Hunger, and a program that brings to life the inequities of our world and challenges participants to realize how our decisions affect others in the world.
The Banquet costs one dollar for students with transferable board and five dollars for non-students and students without board. Further, several local businesses have donated services and goods for a raffle. Raffle tickets are one dollar each. The funds raised from the Banquet and the raffle will all go to Oxfam America's hunger- and poverty-relief programs in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Americas, including the United States.
Poverty is not inevitable. It is the result of the denial of such opportunities as education, economic options, and participatory government. For more information on what we can do, or for tickets for the Hunger Banquet or raffle, stop by the Global Help table in Smith Union or email Molly (mfarneth) or Debbie (dwissel).
Sincerely,
Molly Farneth
To the Editors:
I write in response to a letter in last week's Orient and to clarify that my opinions reach far beyond grieving over increased grade competition.
I am indeed upset that student opinion was not given greater consideration in changing the grading system, and I doubtlessly believe that grade competition will increase. What bothers me most, however, is that our new system, at least on paper (and, in my opinion, in reality), has changed the tone, focus and mission of Bowdoin College.
In over three years of college, it has become quite apparent that work for and inside the classroom comprises a small percentage what it takes to round and improve our lives. The new grading system can do nothing but increase student focus on our studies, which must come at the expense of enhancing our lives. This change in the spirit of the student body will arrive (or has arrived) simultaneously with a change in the spirit of Bowdoin as a whole.
I do not agree that our task as students is "to relentlessly pursue academic excellence," but rather, to use our time and resources to become better, fuller people, an endeavor which extends far beyond the confines of our curriculum. If choosing a college means nothing more than choosing a place to pursue academic excellence, what distinguishes Bowdoin from anywhere else?
Two years ago, I might have agreed with your willingness to accept such a change. But having gained a more intimate knowledge of Bowdoin's essence and it's significance to my life, I choose to continue to "beat this horse" while I yearn and plead for the message and spirit of our system of old.
So yes, I am distressed that our voices have gone unheard, but even further distressed by your call for passivity and silence. What once made Bowdoin uniquely great was the school's apparent understanding that the realities and truths of life cannot be uncovered solely through our studies, and that we should worry less about how much room we have for improvement on paper and more about actually improving ourselves as people. More than anything, I guess, I'm distressed by the apathy and lack of ideals that seem to lurk among us.
And for those who have chosen to float in between classes and the library, concerned with little more than "achieving their 'best' possible work," why are you even here in the first place? I'm sure you'd fit right in as another face in the crowd at any school as devoid of personality as its diploma-hungry student body.
Sincerely,
Eric Abrams '03
To The Editors,
As the moderator of the Student Digest, I would like to respond to last week's letter. The student digest is an important tool. According to the digest itself, "the student digest is a moderated daily bulletin which includes notices and information relevant to the entire student body." Each message is reviewed by the Chair of the Student Computing Committee (the moderator) and either accepted or rejected based on its content and formatting.
I would like to clear up a number of facts. The Bowdoin Women's Association sent a message on October 20 to be included in the next days digest. The original message spoke of a group with a mission, but did not include information regarding where, when, and how people could participate; i.e., no table information was included nor was any specific event announced. The request was made by the moderator that the group simply include a time and place of meeting.
A sample message was to the BWA to facilitate inclusion. Additionally, the moderator offered to re-moderate the digest later that evening to ensure the message would be included. Ultimately, the BWA violated the Computer Use Policy by bypassing the Student Digest and sending their message to the affiliate lists. The SCC received a number of student complaints about this action, as some students found the message to be "invasive" and "inappropriate." A number of explanatory emails were exchanged, and eventually the BWA sufficiently modified the message for it to be included - basically, an event was announced.
The original messages may be viewed at http://www.bowdoin.edu/~mcowger/. The moderator reviewed the message with several others, including college staff, and concluded that the message needed to be modified. The allegation of censorship is without merit, as a message did go out once it had proper information attached. There was no desire to limit the freedom of speech; there was only the intent to have all individuals follow the guidelines that have been historically used by moderators throughout the years.
An active and involved community is in the best interest of all and therefore the BWA was invited on October 1 to appoint a member to help the SCC review these policies. To date, we have yet to receive a response of any kind. As has already been stated, the SCC would love to hear student's ideas and policy suggestions-we have a number of things on the burners and hope to hear more of your ideas! You can contact us about this matter or any other any time by emailing scc@bowdoin.edu.
Sincerely,
Matt Cowger, Student Computing Committee Chair.