Liberate the arts

Editorial: It takes a campus

Results from the Orient’s latest approval ratings survey indicate an 84 percent approval rating for Bowdoin Student Government (BSG), the highest first semester ratings in four years. BSG President Sarah Nelson ’14 also ranked highly this term, with 86 percent of respondents favoring her performance thus far.
This fall, BSG introduced two new programs: TurboVote, a service that helps students apply for absentee ballots, and PolarFlix, a free online film-streaming program. Some of the Executive Committee’s most ambitious campaign proposals from last spring have yet to be realized, and are pending administrative approval. Currently, BSG carries a proposal that would extend the deadline for Credit/D/Fail, and waits for the Recording Committee to take action. We applaud BSG for taking steps towards actualizing this key campaign issue and hope it will doggedly pursue the policy change. BSG has also continued the popular Food For Thought lecture series it began last spring, offering a platform for students to nominate their friends for short, informal talks on topics of their choice. The lectures have been well-attended and wide-ranging, from “Life Without Brakes: BMX and Extreme Sports Culture in Brooklyn” to “Story of My Life: An Inside Look at the One Direction Fangirl Phenomenon” this Monday.
The success of these lectures depends on student engagement, both from speakers and audience. This is true of most BSG initiatives—when they fall short, lukewarm student participation is often partly responsible. Its course review website, for example, is a valuable resource for selecting classes. BSG runs the website, but the utility of the database depends on students submitting up-to-date class reviews. Right now, only one member of the class of 2017 has written a review; just 83 reviews have been contributed from members of the sophomore class. We will all be filling out paper course evaluations for the Office of Academic Affairs during our final classes next week, and we encourage everyone to take a few extra minutes to submit their thoughts on the BSG site as well.

Editorial: A healthy debate

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to overhaul the current health care system in America. The day before, Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster referenced these ongoing reforms when he sent a campus-wide email about the state of the Bowdoin Health Center. In light of Director of Health Services Sandra Hayes’ imminent departure, the school is reviewing the structure of the College’s Health Center. In his email, Foster outlined three possible plans for its future: a partnership with an outside agency to handle increasingly complex administrative work, a complete replacement of the staff with employees of a private firm, or a continuation of the College’s current system with a new director.
We welcome this review. Although the Health Center received its highest approval rating ever—76 percent—in the fall installment of the Orient’s biannual approval ratings survey, it has consistently ranked among the lowest of campus administrators and offices. Even with higher ratings this year, a vocal minority still expressed the need for improvement. One female senior wrote last spring: “Bowdoin should be ashamed of the poor quality of the services provided by the Health Center. It’s a joke.” These complaints are nothing new. A 2005 Orient editorial called for extended weekend hours,continuing a decades-long debate over the availability of health care on campus. Last year, Hayes told the Bowdoin Student Government that the opening of the Mid Coast Primary Care and Walk-in Clinic had alleviated demand for walk-in hours. While we understand that the Health Center is not a 24-hour hospital, we believe that busy students would benefit from a daily drop-in hour after classes.
The Dean’s office could have reviewed the Health Center behind closed doors and announced its findings to the community once a decision was made. We thank Foster for reaching out to the campus in his email. Amidst the confusion and anxiety that have recently characterized national health care, we feel lucky to have a low-hassle system in the serene atmosphere of the Buck Center for Health and Fitness. Under the current system, an ailing student does not have to worry about providing insurance details or other personal information for a checkup. The Health Center’s total integration into the College makes dealing with sickness simple, particularly when health concerns can interfere with a student’s campus life. While we might not immediately notice a change in the Health Center’s staffing, it would—in all likelihood—impact our lives at the College. We are glad that any changes made to the administration of the Health Center will come as the result of a thorough on-campus dialogue. While we may be exhausted by the national debate, we look forward to exploring new options at Bowdoin.

Editorial

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

January 24, 2014

Earlier this month, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art received 320 pieces from the legendary collection of Dorothy Vogel, a donation that—in the words of Colby art museum curator Diana Tuite—“catapults [the Museum] into a whole other league.” A former librarian, Vogel collected almost 5,000 works of art with her late husband Herb, a postal clerk, gathering it in their rent-stabilized, one-bedroom apartment in New York City. Their donation marks a 33 percent increase in the museum’s contemporary art collection and adds work from modern and postmodern artists such as Richard Tuttle and Julian Schnabel. With this addition, the Vogels—long-time friends of Museum co-directors Anne and Frank Goodyear—have furthered the Museum’s developing reputation as an artistic heavyweight. Since the renovated art museum reopened in 2007, it has attracted record-breaking crowds and national attention with Edward Hopper, William Wegman and Maurice Prendergast exhibits.

Bowdoin’s art world is inarguably in the public eye, and with the September opening of the Robert H. and Blythe Bickel Edwards Center for Art and Dance, art has moved closer to the nucleus of student life. Apart from this academic building, the Ramp Gallery opened in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library last semester, creating a forum dedicated to student-curated and created art. Meanwhile, the Art Society’s inaugural interactive exhibit in Ladd House succeeded in turning traditionally social spaces into artistic venues. We applaud these efforts and want to see the trend continue. Why not put artwork in other high-traffic areas like the dining halls or classrooms? By largely confining art to the Museum, the Visual Arts Center and the Edwards Center, the College limits its exposure to people already engaged in Bowdoin’s artistic circles.

Some colleges have taken bold steps in their attempts to integrate visual art into student life. Oberlin College rents artwork to students and faculty, including pieces by Picasso and Dali, for $5 per semester. Bowdoin’s Museum has over 20,000 pieces in its collections, the vast majority of them in storage. It could consider rentals, not only to better take advantage of its incredible quantity of works, but also to expose students to their beauty. The benefit to students is obvious: an original Winslow Homer painting would make a nice alternative to an Animal House poster in your Coles Tower bedroom next year. Another option is designating a public space—like Pomona College’s Walker Wall—where students could create art. These sorts of public projects can be marred by crude expressions, but we believe that Bowdoin students would rise to the challenge.

Art has the power to elevate both aesthetics and attitudes. In 2008, residents of Quinby House partnered with students from Professor Mark Wethli’s public art course to redecorate a basement room frequented by urinating revelers, according to a 2008 Orient article. Designed by Sara Griffin ’09 and Cami Osorno ’10, the “European Portrait Gallery” continues to be appreciated, not defaced. Transformations like this one remind us that we can remake our campus spaces and reimagine the ways in which we interact with art both in and outside of the Museum.

The editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, which is comprised of Erica Berry, Nora Biette-Timmons, Garrett Casey, Ron Cervantes, Marisa McGarry, Sam Miller and Kate Witteman.

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