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Volume CXXXII, Number 17 |
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Ritalin's prescription running short
EVAN KOHN
ORIENT STAFF
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| Co-Editors-in-Chief, Eric Goldwyn '03 (left) and Jay Kang '03 were recently hit by SOOC sanctions. (Karsten Moran, Bowdoin Orient) |
The Student Organizations Oversight Committee (SOOC) met with the editors of Ritalin, Bowdoin's humor publication, on Wednesday to discuss numerous complaints regarding the paper's content. The magazine's most recent issue sparked controversy over what appeared to many as homophobia and misogyny, with the terms "faggot" and "f--king whore" provoking the most complaints.
The meeting between the SOOC and Ritalin founders/Editors-in-Chief Jay Kang '02 and Eric Goldwyn '03 lasted an hour before the committee briefly discussed the issue among themselves. Afterwards, the committee proceeded to vote 6-0 to require that the publication obtain a faculty advisor. The committee also voted 5-1 in favor of limiting the publication to 12 pages instead of 16. The SOOC officially informed Ritalin of their decision last night at 10 p.m.
"We voted to limit space to encourage concise and selective quality control, and for an active advisor to attend to editing," said chair of the SOOC Haliday Douglas '05. "Their charter was not revoked, though Ritalin must report to the committee that they do in fact have a faculty sponsor before they receive funding for their final two publications."
In response to the vote, Goldwyn said, "This is clearly illogical censorship. There was no precedent to rely on to give us this bizarre editing process. Jay and I put over 100 hours into each issue, expecting people to read [the publication] as a joke. Some people have just read too closely."
Ritalin's charter began last spring and the magazine has published three times since the fall, with a circulation of 800 copies per issue. Emphasizing how each issue receives wide readership after circulation, Goldwyn said, "A majority of students enjoy Ritalin. The SOOC responded to the issue unilaterally, without seeking to get a sense of Bowdoin's overall opinion, beyond the individual complaints. That's unprofessional."
The magazine has been criticized for its willingness to direct its critical humor narrowly at individuals and groups within Bowdoin. For some students, however, this should be considered a boon to the campus. "I support it because it's a risqué publication and provides an alternative media to the mainstream Orient," said Sam Kapelle '05.
Student Activities Fee Committee (SAFC) member Sue Kim '05 said, "In the beginning I thought it was a good publication on campus. The last issue really disappointed me because it's not enriching life on campus or promoting tolerance within the community."
Dean of Student Affairs Craig Bradley has been assisting the committee in sorting through the controversy. "The question is whether the publishers of Ritalin are using the funds that were allocated to them by the SAFC in a manner consistent whether their mission statement. The degree that people think it is in bad taste is not in and of itself grounds to pull their funding completely."
Goldwyn further said, "I don't think the process and makeup of the committee is fair. The committee harped over a few isolated words assuming everything in the magazine is offensive. We wondered if they had even read through its entirety." Goldwyn also commented on Douglas and Kang's "history of not getting along."
Douglas felt that the committee went about the situation in an appropriate manner after they, as well as the Dean's office, received numerous individual phone calls from students and faculty concerning the publication's offensive content. "We respond to concerns in the community and look out for the health of student activities on campus. We used constitutional prerogative to determine whether the publication is truly healthy for the campus. Ritalin was found to have mildly violated the constitution, making them subject to be sanctioned."
Douglas described the meeting itself as "running smoothly as both editors were polite and there was a nice tempo in the room."
On the other hand, Goldwyn said, "Nothing new was really discussed since we had exchanged several emails and talked face to face about the issue to Douglas beforehand. We felt like everything was already decided."
The publication has expressed interest in appealing to the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG). Ritalin can appeal the SOOC decision in the next seven days in which case 13 of the 26 members of the BSG (seven of whom are SOOC members) would have to vote to overrule the decision. Rejection of an appeal would only require six more BSG members, beyond the seven SOOC members, to vote in favor to reject the appeal.
Goldwyn spoke of petitioning for a referendum if an appeal is defeated, and possibly entertaining some fundraising activities as well. "We would like to raise enough money for the normal 16 page format and maybe longer for our last issue, since we're both graduating and write almost all of the material between the two of us," said Goldwyn.
Though the editors "wouldn't see it as a torch being passed on," they are open to passing on the publication to Bowdoin students after they graduate this spring.
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