Stand down

Editorial: Keep working

On Sunday, Wil Smith ’00 passed away after a battle with colon cancer. As has been widely written, Smith leaves behind a legacy as one of the most influential alumni in Bowdoin’s recent history. One of three African-American students in his class, Smith matriculated to the College when he was 28 and caring for his toddler daughter. Smith experienced hardships at Bowdoin in a time when our community was not as well-equipped to help struggling students adjust to Bowdoin.
In Smith’s first few months at the College, graduation seemed like an unattinable goal. Smith was surely the only Polar Bear to ever study and play basketball as a single parent, and at the beginning of his first semester, he felt underprepared and inadequately supported. That changed quickly. Roy Partridge, the professor of Smith’s first-year seminar, and Betty Trout-Kelly, the assistant to the president for multicultural affairs and affirmative action, marshalled resources and support for Smith. The College provided housing and a meal plan, and an alumnus donated $25,000 for childcare for his daughter.
After graduation, Smith became the director of multicultural student programs at Bowdoin, a position that allowed him to expand access to the College to new populations of students, and—once they arrived in Brunswick—to ensure that they received help if they needed it. According to Dean of First Year Students Janet Lohmann, Smith represents the idea of possibility at Bowdoin. “There was no scaffolding for a 28-year-old who wanted to play on the basketball team,” she said. “He just showed us what was possible—how we, as an institution, could meet people’s needs and how a person like Wil could really make this his home.”
Since Smith enrolled at the College, it has begun accepting a more racially, economically and regionally diverse student body, and it has developed progamming to meet that student body's needs. The administration has implemented the Bowdoin Advising Program to Support Academic Excellence (BASE) program, which provides robust advising to students who did not attend rigorous high schools. The College has also begun offering courses like Quantitative Reasoning, which help students improve the foundational skills they will need throughout their time at Bowdoin. Despite these efforts, there are students who believe that more should be done. Two weeks ago, over 200 community members gathered in the David Saul Smith Union to hear a small group of students talk about a variety of issues, including how Bowdoin can better support students from diverse backgrounds.
Smith worked tirelessly on issues of diversity and inclusion both at Bowdoin and beyond. All who knew him speak to his skill in giving voice to those who were not always heard and his belief in the potential of everyone with whom he worked. As we remember and mourn him, we should also recommit ourselves to the causes he championed. Smith’s story is as an example of how Bowdoin can enable all of its students to succeed, regardless of their circumstances. At the Berkshire School, Smith was known for his catchphrase “keep working.” Bowdoin has worked hard to expand access and better accomodate the needs of all students, but it should honor Smith’s mantra as it moves forward.
This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, which is comprised of Garrett Casey, Ron Cervantes, Sam Chase, Matthew Gutschenritter, Nicole Wetsman and Kate Witteman.

Editorial: Fill in the blanks

President Barry Mills’ announcement on Monday that Dean for Academic Affairs Cristle Collins Judd will be leaving the College for the Mellon Foundation means that two of the highest-ranking officials in the College are stepping down this summer. Since Judd is the administrator with the most impact on the College’s curriculum and faculty, her departure gives us an opportunity to evaluate the state of academics at the College and to share our hopes for certain changes under President-elect Clayton Rose.
The Dean for Academic Affairs Office may seem detached from student life, but it has a tremendous impact on the academic experiences of the entire student body. And while the College has found several ways to collect student input on academic matters—including class surveys at the end of each semester, lunches with prospective professors, and student-written recommendation letters for faculty who are up for promotions—we would like to see more direct and impactful student involvement. Students should be be part of tenure and faculty search committees, and student feedback should weigh heavily in any decisions regarding the curriculum. Our next dean for academic affairs should institute changes that increase the transparency of what is now an opaque office.
In 2005, the year before Judd’s arrival on campus, the Orient reported that just three of Bowdoin’s 150 instructional faculty members were African American. That same year, 20 out of 190 faculty members identified as minorities, according to the College’s Common Data Set. This year, that number is 32 out of 235, meaning that even now, less than 14 percent of Bowdoin’s professors are minorities. Bowdoin has the third lowest percentage of minority faculty in the NESCAC, trailed only by Bates and Connecticut College. Increased faculty diversity has been a goal for at least 10 years, yet the College still has a long way to go. It will be the responsibility of the new dean for academic affairs to follow through on achieving that goal.
In the last few years of Judd’s tenure, her office has sought to adapt Bowdoin’s curriculum to the needs of the information age and defend the liberal arts against those who question its value. In an effort to incorporate modern technology into traditional classroom settings, Bowdoin began the Digital and Computational Studies Initiative (DCSI) two years ago. Additionally, computer science has become so popular in the past few years that some prospective majors and minors have been unable to enroll in the department’s courses. The new dean of academic affairs will need to expand the computer science department and continue to carefully integrate technology with the rest of our curriculum.
When President-elect Clayton Rose appoints Judd’s replacement, he will set a tone that will endure for the rest of his presidency. The Board of Trustees indicated its priorities—a balance of financial and academic leadership—when it elected Rose, and now Rose will indicate his academic priorities for the College by selecting a new dean for academic affairs. Unlike President Barry Mills, Rose has experience as a faculty member, and we hope that he will take a leading role in setting the academic policy of the College and working to facilitate collaboration and trust between the faculty and the administration.
This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, which is comprised of Garrett Casey, Ron Cervantes, Sam Chase, Matthew Gutschenritter, Nicole Wetsman and Kate Witteman.

Editorial

This piece represents the opinion of The Bowdoin Orient editorial board.

March 27, 2015

Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA) announced over Spring Break that it would escalate its fossil fuel divestment campaign by turning to civil disobedience, starting with a sit-in that will occur in the coming weeks. The group distributed a press release stating that more than 50 students have pledged to participate. BCA says “divestment is the tactic, climate justice is the goal.” We, and many members of the Bowdoin community, agree with BCA’s goal of working toward climate justice, but we do not believe that a narrow focus on pressuring the Trustees to divest is BCA’s best path forward.

The group has honed the rhetoric it uses to justify its escalation, repeatedly stating that since BCA members presented their case to the Board of Trustees in October, the Trustees have been silent for over 140 days. Group members also accuse President Barry Mills, who recently stated that he is the liaison between the Board and BCA, of failing to engage with them and failing to take climate justice seriously. Though Mills has been an imperfect liaison, we believe that BCA’s argument is misrepresentative. Both Mills and the Trustees have met with BCA and engaged with the group’s proposal. According to Mills, the Board concluded that divestment was not viable for Bowdoin, yet BCA continues to focus on this singular goal.

BCA would be better off reaching out as opposed to sitting in. In a recent survey conducted by Associate Professor of Government Michael Franz, only 24 percent of 311 respondents supported divestment, while 37 percent opposed it, and 35 percent reported that they did not have enough information to make a decision. If BCA wants to continue the divestment conversation, it should engage both the 37 percent of students who are opposed and the 35 percent who are undecided. BCA often asks, “Whose side are you on?” Until there is a more meaningful and balanced debate on the issue, many students will not know their answer to that question. We are beginning to see students who do not support divestment speak out. Kuangji Chen ’15 wrote a detailed op-ed this week in which he argues that the financial costs of divestment outwiegh its symbolic value.

BCA might also consider putting its divestment campaign on the backburner and focusing its efforts on other climate initiatives. There are other steps that can be taken toward the goal of climate justice. For example, when Middlebury announced that it would not divest from fossil fuels in 2013, Divest for Our Future Middlebury changed its tactics. It began encouraging Middlebury to increase its investments in renewable energy companies. BCA could also shift its focus away from the endowment entirely. Maine is confronting a number of environmental issues. Environmentalists working on local problems and climate change researchers at Bowdoin and elsewhere could all benefit from the work of committed college activists like those involved with BCA.

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues our generation faces. However, the single-minded pursuit of a symbolic goal is not the best way for Bowdoin students to address it. Sitting in will do little more than perpetuate a divestment campaign that is, for the time being, a lost cause. If BCA wants to make a difference, it should begin to pursue other options.

This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, which is comprised of Garrett Casey, Ron Cervantes, Sam Chase, Matthew Gutschenritter, Nicole Wetsman and Kate Witteman.

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