Call and Response

Evaluating the progress of the Meeting in the Union one year later

February 12, 2016

Matthew Gutschenritter

The Meeting in the Union last February

	They Called For...	The College Answered With...
1	We call on the College to institute a section of first-year orientation that deals explicitly with race.	Leana Amaez, Benjamin Harris, Janet Lohmann, Koa Khoung and a group of students are working to develop a new program for first-year orientation for the class of 2020 that will address issues of race and bias.
2	We call on the College to institutionalize a race discussion for incoming international students.	International students will be a part of the same orientation as first-year students. Dean Amaez does not agree with the view that international students require additional training to that offered to all incoming first-years.
3	We call on the College and the Residential Life department to further train its staff members on race and how to facilitate race discussions.	ResLife staff, Peer Health, College House officers and IHC officers received increased training on race, gender and sexuality. Several student affairs staff are now trained to facilitate intergroup dialogue. More sessions are planned.
4	We call on the College and Residential Life staff to provide its College House members with race training in addition to working to create a more inclusive space within the College House System for all students.	ResLife added a question to the College House application that specifi- cally address diversity, and officers had additional training on facilitating inclusivity in houses.
5	We call on the College and the Bowdoin Outing Club to work with students to make the BOC a more inclusive space and to modify the OZ program so it is more satisfactory to students of color.	According to Outing Club Director Mike Woodruff, OZ training continues to grow and adapt in response to student feedback with the goal of making the BOC a place that all students feel they can take advantage of. The BOC has also implemented intergroup dialogue into some of its programs.
6	We call on the College to support the Women's Resource Center in designing new programs and support systems for women of color at Bowdoin.	The Women's Resource Center holds an annual retreat for women of color and will continue this program into the future along with other programs and trips geared towards building community amongst women of color at Bowdoin.
7	We call on the College to consider a student's racial and socioeconomic background when making decisions about disciplinary action. We further ask that the College uphold consistent disciplinary policy for all students, regardless of parental interaction with the institution.	According to Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster, the College tries to consistently and thoughtfully uphold community standards in all cases. Foster says he stands behind the good work of the Judicial Board.
8	We call on the College to more actively recruit student athletes and coaches of color, and ensure that they are well supported once they are part of the Bowdoin athletic community.	According to Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan, the college is adopting hiring practices to diversify their coaching staff. The Athletics Department has been working with admissions and coaches to place emphasis on diversity when recruiting. Athletics will begin incorporating intergroup dialogue into their programs.
9	We call on the College to set a precedent of actively addressing and adequately reprimanding students and teams involved in these offensive acts. Athletes should not be above or exempt from standard college social policy.	According to Ryan, the College looks at each situation individually and in context, and tries to impose consequences that will serve as learning experiences and positively impact the community.
10	We call on the College to further its recruitment of faculty of color, particularly in tenure-track positions, and increase the diversity of faculty in a way that addresses the diversity in race, ethnicity and class backgrounds that are represented by the student body.	The College has brought in Romney Associates, a consulting group that specializes in hiring and retaining a diverse staff, to conduct workshops with faculty undergoing searches in their departments. The newest group of tenure track faculty (Margaret Boyle, Judith Casselberry, David Hecht, Abigail Kaline, Jeffrey Selinger and Yao Tang) includes several faculty of color.
11	We call on the College to work with current faculty of color to establish or strengthen a support system that would aid in the retention of faculty of color.	According to Professor Brian Purnell, the College has the obligation to create a healthy and respectful work environment, but this is something the community must help them figure out. Romney Associates also works with retention and support of a diverse staff.
12	We call on the College to establish and require a training for all faculty on race, and how it relates to Bowdoin students, particularly students of color. Training must include all new, tenured and visiting faculty.	There is no mandatory yearly training for all faculty on discussing with issues of race with students. Some students have stated that they do not feel there is adequate discussion of race issues in their classes.
13	We call on the College to encourage a more integrated curriculum where topics of race are woven in outside of departments like Sociology, Anthropology and Africana Studies, where discussing race is unavoidable. Furthermore, professors should be encouraged to discuss racial events that affect our national climate (for example: a Chemistry professor ought to have been able and willing to set aside ten min- utes of class to acknowledge the significance of the non-indictment of Darren Wilson, or at the least echo empathy for affected members of the class). Professors will succeed in communicating the value of supplementing intellect with compassion when empathizing with the felt struggles of living in a world in flux.	Although multiple administrators and staff think that there has been more conversation about racial issues this year, the College has not dramatically changed its curriculum, and some students still wish that these issues were given more airtime.
14	We call on the College to release a public statement addressing this support.	President Rose acknowledged issues of race on campus and outlined the steps that the College plans to take in a December 3, 2015 email to campus.
15	We call on the College and the Bowdoin Outing Club to work with students to make the BOC a more inclusive space and to modify the OZ program so it is more satisfactory to students of color.	Student Affairs has outlined several programs to educate students on race and create inclusive spaces. Many departments have worked with dialogue facilitators and Sarah Washington '17 has been elected to the newly created position of BSG Multicultural Representative.
16	We call on the College to expand the staff and programming available to aid students of color who are adjusting both academically and socially to Bowdoin. This task could potentially be the responsibility of the Director of the new Student Center for Multicultural Life. We further call on the College to be more explicit in the mission of programs such as Bowdoin Explore and Bowdoin Experience so that prospective students have more realistic expectations for the program and for Bowdoin as a whole.	Director Benjamin Harris continues to work to develop the Student Center for Multicultural Life through increased programming and funding as well as publishing a newsletter to update the campus community.
17	We call on the College to declare Martin Luther King, Jr. Day an official College holiday, to explicitly state the closure of all offices and classes on this day, and to provide a comprehensive schedule of events honoring civil rights and African American history on this day.	MLK Day will fall during winter break until 2020, after which Bowdoin will adjust its calendar to close the College on that day.
18	1. We call on the College to provide an option for anonymity when reporting the occurrence of a bias incident in order to encourage those students who might want to report a bias incident but who do not feel safe in doing so. 2. We call on the College to promote the option of reporting a bias incident by educating the student body about the process at the beginning of each academic year.	The College is working to create a system for anonymous reporting of bias incidents to be implemented within the semester, as well as a new landing page for diversity and inclusion resources on the Bowdoin website.

One year since the Meeting in the Union, the College has adopted and addressed many policies and practices in response to student concerns. However, an overarching sentiment exists among administrators and students that while progress is being made, it will be made slowly and there is still work to be done.

The meeting was a student-organized demonstration that took place February 13, 2015. It brought to the forefront several social justice issues that impact members of the Bowdoin community, as well as the intersectionality between those issues. After the meeting, an Open Letter to the Community was delivered to former president Barry Mills, outlining 19 calls to action regarding race and diversity on campus.

Race and diversity issues continue to permeate the lives of Bowdoin community members.
“Race is a dividing line in our society, on campuses across our country, and at Bowdoin. Those of color in our community experience Bowdoin differently than those who are white; the difference can be profound and occurs in every aspect of our lives here,” wrote President Clayton Rose in a December 3, 2015 campus-wide email.

“It can be daunting—it’s a lot to take on,” said Associate Dean of Students for Diversity and Inclusion Leana Amaez. “We’re asking institutions that were built 200 years ago for a very different population to reimagine themselves, and that takes a lot of intentionality and examination of where are our traditions, where are our policies, where are our practices not meeting the needs of students today, where are they not reflecting the diversity of our world, where are they creating barriers to inclusion and equity.”

Amaez and the rest of the office of student affairs have been heavily involved in several efforts that directly address concerns raised in the open letter. Notably, additional programming during first-year orientation will specifically address race and bias; Bowdoin’s intergroup dialogue programming is expanding; and divisions of the College are adopting hiring and retention best practices in order to increase diversity among faculty and staff.

Residential Life (ResLife) has also taken steps towards educating their staff on how to facilitate conversations on difficult subjects by doubling the amount of training on race, gender and sexuality, as well as working with College House officers to improve the inclusivity and accessibility of College House programming. Additionally, ResLife has added a question specific to diversity to the College House application.

A year after the Meeting in the Union, the event continues to have a profound impact at the College, both on an institutional level and for many people individually.

“I think that was the first time I’ve really seen the activist boundaries being crossed in everyone working towards general betterment and getting many pieces together at once which I thought was really, really, cool,” said Maddie Lemal-Brown ’18. “I really liked the Meeting in the Union part; [it was] electrifying.”

One of the meeting organizers, Claudia Villar-Leeman ’15, had several negative racial experiences during her time at Bowdoin.

“For pretty much my entire Bowdoin career,” said Villar-Leeman, it felt [like the majority of campus] was either ignoring or kind of willfully oblivious to a lot of these issues because a lot of these issues are painful to talk about or uncomfortable to talk about.”

Participating in the event has allowed Villar-Leeman to now look back at her time at Bowdoin with positivity.

“I was very encouraged that students were giving voice to their concerns in a really clear and powerful way, and that the message for me is that our students were really hurting as a result of the institution and its failures in certain places to live up to the Offer of the College,” said Amaez.

“That’s an important message, and an important check that can be hard to hear and sometimes painful, because I think my colleagues across the board are well-intentioned, they really care, so to hear that they might be might be missing the mark and that people might be in pain as a result is really hard, but really important for us as a community.”

Director of Residential Life Meadow Davis said that she has seen a shift in campus conversations towards topics of diversity.

“A couple years ago it was all about alcohol, it was all about the hookup scene,” she said. “Now I’d say three quarters, a huge percentage, of people who are applying to ResLife are saying, ‘We need more conversations about diversity. We’ve had great conversations and we appreciate it—here’s how we want to do more.”

Emily Jacques ’17, one of the organizers of the meeting, agreed, saying that she has seen a substantive change in campus discussions on race in the time since the meeting, both as a result of the meeting and other incidents.

“My first year you could avoid these sorts of conversations if you wanted to, but now it’s more present,” she said. “The stuff that’s been happening with locals in cars or the stuff on Yik Yak—I feel like the campus community is definitely more aware of various issues of injustice.”

Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster echoed Davis and Jacques’ sentiments.

“[The meeting] was really about the notion of inclusion and what that means,” he said. “Do all members of our community feel that this place is theirs? And the answer to me was no, they don’t. That’s what we should aspire for. That means a ton of work, not work that we can do in a day or a week or a month, or a year, but over many years.”

But for students who only spend four years of their life at Bowdoin, this long-term institutional approach can be frustrating. Michelle Kruk ’16, one of the organizers of the meeting and an author of the letter spoke to these concerns.

“I know that the College wants to be very thoughtful about the way that it’s handling certain issues, especially with race,” she said. “But I think that we’re capable of working on both a short-term solution and a long-term solution at the same time. I think that we have enough energy.”

Another organizer, Lemal-Brown, still believes that many discussions fail to reach the larger community in both academic and social settings.

“Last semester I know I was a little disappointed that my professors were not talking about race,” she said. “My [sociology and philosophy] classes were places where it should have been brought up.”

“I know that I was very frustrated with the aftermath of the sailing party—meaning that Bowdoin still [falls back on] discussing things which tend to become conversations in closed rooms by separate groups,” Lemal-Brown said.

Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan acknowledged the role athletics play in the racial climate on campus, both in its hiring and recruitment, and how the department addresses incidents such as the recent bias incidents involving the sailing and lacrosse teams.

“We certainly look at the events that have taken place and try to balance the learning opportunity,” he said. “Thinking about it along the lines of apologizing, educating and trying to leverage the learning opportunities associated with people making mistakes, then thinking about the ways in which we are able to positively impact the community. I think that approach was consistent in both the lacrosse and sailing incidents.”

Ryan also said that athletics is placing an increased emphasis on diversity in recruiting both students and coaching staff.

While the majority of the calls to action in the letter were accepted and acknowledged by College officials, some feel that there are certain demands that have not or should not be met.

For instance, following the meeting, members of Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA)—who played a large role in organizing the meeting—made a demand to former President Barry Mills to appoint a liaison to the Board of Trustees to communicate about the potential for divestment from fossil fuels. BCA does not feel their demand was adequately met, as Mills appointed himself the liaison, knowing he would be stepping down at the end of the year.

“When we asked [the trustees] who to follow up with, as one does in official meetings, they shut us down and didn’t respond. Attempts after that to figure out how to move forward were similarly not moved forward,” said BCA member Allyson Gross ’16.

From an administrative standpoint, Foster disagreed with the necessity of a call to action that asked the college to “consider a student’s racial and socioeconomic background when making decisions about disciplinary action,” and “uphold consistent disciplinary policy for all students, regardless of parental interaction with the institution.”

“We try to consistently and thoughtfully uphold [community standards],” he said. “I think we do that, whether we’re dealing with the son or daughter of a trustee or whether we’re dealing with a first generation college student. I would say [we do] a very good job of being clear about our community standards and expectations and being thoughtful. I’ll stand behind the good work of the Judicial Board.”

The work of campus activists has not gone unnoticed by the administration, and the calls to action presented in the open letter have led to a real effort to shape the College into a place that is both diverse and inclusive. A year after the meeting, its message has not been forgotten.
“Powerful,” said Davis. “That’s how I would sum it up.”

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