Contributors
All articles
-
The 32 percent: New chem-free system will heighten "diversity as feeling" among first years
The current chem-free housing model is deeply flawed, and we should all be glad that it’s changing next year, when affiliation will be determined by floor instead of by brick.
The College House application process is nearing its end decisions will be in student mailboxes by April 8—and all the nervous chatter about pending House placements made me think about how the Houses will adapt to the new chem-free system.
I’ve come to believe that Bowdoin is moving in the right direction with the new plan, which was announced this fall. Dispersing chem-free floors throughout the first-year bricks will lead to an emphasis on what I call “diversity as feeling” at Bowdoin.
-
The 32 percent: A first year's perspective on diversity at Bowdoin
Stepping onto the Bowdoin campus was too exciting and emotional for me to put into words. During my first week here, I noticed nothing but the things I love most about the College: the food, the town, the architecture, and the people, to name a few.
However, being here has led me to question some aspects of my life for the first time. With just a few weeks of school behind me, I’ve grown as a person and have come to understand myself more, partly through questioning things that I took for granted before arriving on campus. One question that I asked myself, and that I had never thought about before, was whether any of my accomplishments have been inflected by the fact that I’m a student of color.
I think this was on my mind because of the predominantly white demographics of the campus. I come from a 4,000 student high school in Houston, Texas. And I have only this to say: Bowdoin is not racially diverse compared to my high school, but it is more diverse than I expected it would be. And I want to stress that these thoughts came to mind as the result of my own observation, reflection, and conversations—not because of any observed or experienced racial intolerance on campus.