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Volume CXXXII, Number 18 |
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BSG lifts SOOC sanctions on Ritalin
EVAN KOHN
ORIENT STAFF
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| Brian Fitzgibbons '05 reads the latest edition of Ritalin in Smith Union. Some members of the Bowdoin community had problems with the humor content in the alternative publication, but not Brian. (Karsten Moran, Bowdoin Orient) |
The Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) voted Tuesday to lift sanctions imposed by the Student Organizations Oversight Committee (SOOC) on the campus' student humor publication, Ritalin. The BSG also voted 11-7 in favor of a new resolution that requires the publication to obtain a faculty advisor to look over all material before printing. Though, discretion is still left to the founders/Editors-in-Chief Jay Kang '02 and Eric Goldwyn '03.
The overturned February 27 SOOC sanctions included limiting funding to accomodate for a 12- page issue instead of the normal 16-page issue. In addition, the sanctions required Ritalin to find a faculty advisor who would have to sign off on all material before printing.
The original SOOC sanctions came as a result of several complaints about the publication's offensive content. Chair of the SOOC Haliday Douglas '05 said, "Dean Bradley and Res. Life have seen concern about Ritalin since its first publication last spring."
Kang and Goldwyn appealed the SOOC sanctions at the Tuesday March 4 BSG meeting, which included an hour-long discussion about the publication's fate. Rushed by an impatient and enormous crowd (with scores forced to listen from the Moulton Union lobby outside Lancaster Lounge) waiting in anticipation of a heated debate about the Iraq resolution, the BSG voted 21-4 in favor of a motion to temporarily lift the sanctions until "further investigation."
After BSG President Jason Haffler '03 warned at 9:10 p.m. that the meeting would end at 9:35 p.m. before the Iraq debate had even begun. The BSG meeting ended up going on well past 10:00 p.m.
With a growing level of interest in the issue campus-wide, the Bowdoin Cable Network (BCN) show BCN Raw, decided to feature a debate between Douglas and Kang on Wednesday March 5, which aired live. Douglas said of the March 4 meeting, "If a BSG member called a motion to have SOOC sanctions sustained instead of lifted until further investigation, I think it could have passed as easily, because of the growing impatience of the crowd."
Tuesday's "further investigation" included an hour and a half discussion about the nature of Ritalin's content. Douglas, Goldwyn, and Kang all sat before the BSG, going back and forth answering questions, with Douglas often citing specific examples of "offensive content."
The fact that not one spectator was present at the discussion, in contrast to the massive crowd for the vote on the Iraq resolution March 4, certainly allowed members to speak more openly about the issue. "I use swear words like that sometimes...It's different when they're directed at JLo or Puff Daddy. Please be more specific in who they're offending," said BSG Treasurer and Student Activities Funding Committee (SAFC) head Tejas Ajmera '04. Laughter even broke out a few times among BSG members as Douglas read some of the controversial content aloud, noting "a gay man's instructions on how to give a blow job."
Citing the usage of the terms "faggot," "pussy," and "whorebag," Douglas said, "Homosexuals are a group on campus that was offended. Even if it's not direct, it's still wrong just publishing the words."
BSG member Ed McKenzie '03 said to Douglas, "Are you asking students to be better than the very society we live in by sanitizing everything? Then you could say that everything students do should be sanitized."
Goldwyn said, "I don't think we're in left field in terms of pushing the line. Maybe at Bowdoin."
When BSG member Alex Cornell Du Houx '06 questioned whether the editors feel the word "queer-ass" is as bad as "nigger," Kang said, "Given the generation we grew up in, or at least for me coming from the South, some of those words are just used without thinking twice. They don't necessarily intend to be directly offensive. We just have to trust the reader." Goldwyn said earlier, "We don't cram it down anyone's throats, it's just there to pick up."
While criticism of the publication's processes continued including citing how the editors took students' faces off the Internet to use as mockery, Kang said, "We're not here to justify our cause, we are here to discuss the flawed processes of the SOOC." Kang said, "Our meeting with the SOOC was more an interrogation process where every answer we had was ignored."
Goldwyn agreed it was "not a collaborative effort." He said, "Ritalin has not been read in its entirety and Hal has taken it out of context. Jay and Hal have had a dicey relationship and they have even gotten into a few shouting matches. Hal may not be the best guy to control this."
Douglas said, "Wonder why I didn't pick up Ritalin the first day it came out. Why would I be out to get it now?" Douglas further said, "It's hard to sit down with someone when you know every action of yours is described as 'a bitch-ass thing to do.'"
Asked by McKenzie whether or not the extra four pages are "just filler," Goldwyn said, "It's hard to fit other people's articles in to 12 pages and Jay and I have a lot of material that we want to use." "Slashing our budget by one quarter is serious," said Kang.
Ritalin is primarily a two-person publication, which could add to the SOOC's feelings about wanting to fund 12 pages instead of 16 per publication. Douglas said, "We had to turn down funding to a community service trip recently. Funds are tight."
Before voting, many members agreed that putting the editors through all the debate certainly opened their eyes to what content has proven bothersome to parts of the community. Ajmera indicated that it was unlikely that the Ritalin editors would publish such offensive content again after the recent uproar.
Rushed once again, some BSG members claimed the meeting had gone past schedule, saying they had to leave unless there was an immediate vote.
After the sanctions were overturned and the new resolution passed to require Ritalin to obtain a faculty advisor (with discretion left to the editors), Goldwyn said, "We don't think Ritalin should be faculty advised. It's a student publication of student voices." Goldwyn said, "We only have one or two issues left since we're both seniors and are going to graduate."
Though the fate of Ritalin beyond Goldwyn and Kang's graduation remains unknown, so remains the question of whether the SOOC and BSG procedures will ultimately affect the publication's content, as final discretion is still left to the editors. "There won't be any big lash-out for the next issue," said Goldwyn. "Jay and I will continue to exercise our best judgment. We listened to the SOOC and BSG, understand their concerns, and will take them into account. We've bounced around a few names for an advisor."
The editors are currently working on the content of the next issue, and,
according to Goldwyn, "no content is offensive in our standards."
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