More than Orientation

Editorial: Off-campus, out of mind

The number of students living off campus has increased over the past few years and is currently at its highest in recent memory. On one hand, students living off campus engage with the town in new ways both personally and economically. On the other hand, incidents of disorderly conduct and noise late at night place stress on a historically civil relationship.
On Wednesday, Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols sent an email to the student body regarding complaints received from Brunswick residents over the past two weeks. This email reflects tensions between the town and Bowdoin that exist in part as a result of Bowdoin students living off campus.
For upperclassmen living off campus, the relationship with the town of Brunswick is not the only one that changes. As students gain more independence and autonomy, a rift grows between students living off campus and those who remain in college housing.
Students who live off campus often downgrade their meal plans, and thus eat fewer meals in the dining hall with their peers, spending more time in their houses rather than in campus spaces. On the weekends, social gatherings and parties drift away from College Houses and college-owned apartments to the off-campus houses. There is no denying the divide between students who live on and off campus.
Structural changes need to be put in place to maintain our campus community. This is an opportunity for a mutual effort between the Bowdoin administration and those students living off campus to build a formalized structure with the goal of improving relations in our community.
As the market for renting to Bowdoin students grows, the number of interactions with BPD will inevitably increase. In the past, Nichols has met with off-campus houses informally and on a case-by-case basis. It is important to have these conversations in a more official capacity to clarify expectations for students, the College and the town. Creating a mandatory orientation program for students living off campus facilitated by the Office of Safety and Security, the Brunswick Police Department (BPD) and other relevant administrators would achieve this goal.
Additionally, providing formal resources for navigating what happens when things go wrong ensures that all parties involved—Security, BPD, students and/or landlords—engage with incidents in a fair and consistent manner.
Implementing these changes would not be difficult and would help shape a relationship of mutual respect amongst our community as a whole.
This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, which is comprised of Marina Affo, Julian Andrews, Steff Chavez, Grace Handler, Nickie Mitch, Meg Robbins and Joe Seibert.

Editorial: Scheduling sabbatical

For the 2017-18 academic year, more than 50 professors are eligible to take leave. In the last five years, no more than 34 professors have been on leave at one time.
Sabbaticals are a key element to maintaining an intellectual community at any institution of higher education. A year of leave gives faculty the opportunity to conduct intense, high-caliber research and continue to refine expertise in their area. As a result of new research, faculty can become better professors and bring new ideas into their courses, which helps develop a more dynamic curriculum. Moreover, strong faculty research can bring more grants to Bowdoin, as well as attract distinguished faculty and more highly engaged students. Investments in sabbaticals pay off.
Sabbaticals provide a net positive for any learning community. However, they are not without negative ramifications for students. When professors go on sabbatical, the College has to replace them with visiting professors to fill the voids within departments. While visiting professors can provide the same quality of teaching as their full-time counterparts, it’s difficult for students to form long-lasting connections with them due to the temporary nature of their positions.
One of the advantages of a school like Bowdoin is the relationships students build with their professors, as both teachers and mentors. Since visiting professors cannot officially serve as advisors, the opportunity to be a formal mentor throughout a student’s Bowdoin career is lost. Even when informal mentor relationships are developed, a visiting professorship lasts only a few years at most.
Though such inconveniences pale in comparison to the overall benefits of sabbaticals, the disruptions are amplified if such a large number of professors are absent from campus. Small departments suffer when such a high proportion of faculty are away—it places a burden on both the students and the department as a whole.
The administration has a responsibility to better regulate sabbatical leave in a way that benefits everyone. At the very least, the College should make sure that individual departments do not disproportionately feel the impact of professors on sabbatical leave.
In addition, more regulations should be placed on the faculty with regards to delaying sabbatical leave. This academic year, 14 of the 45 faculty eligible for leave chose to postpone their sabbatical, which drastically increased the number of professors eligible for the 2017-2018 school year. The administration should place a cap on the number of professors that can postpone their leave in a given year and be more diligent about the future impact of the number of postponements.
Faculty and administration should be more transparent about long-term sabbatical plans. The administration is aware of the schedule for eligibility and there is no compelling reason why it is kept hidden from students. This would be valuable information for students planning their academic careers at Bowdoin. Releasing the information would come at no cost to those involved but would have a positive impact on both students and departments.
Sabbaticals help a learning institution thrive—there is no question about it. But the College should maintain as much stability as possible for students by trying to keep the number of faculty on leave at a consistent level and being transparent about eligibility for leave.
This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, which is comprised of Marina Affo, Julian Andrews, Steff Chavez, Grace Handler, Meg Robbins and Joe Seibert.

Editorial

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

September 23, 2016

For the Class of 2020, Orientation included a new two-part program called “More Than Meets the Eye,” which directly addressed issues of racial diversity on campus. During the first event, which took place before the start of the semester, 16 current students each shared a personal anecdote related to their experiences with race at Bowdoin.

The second event was about keeping an open mind to new perspectives as first years form social ties at the school. The talk was led by Reverend Dr. Jamie Washington, the president and founder of Washington Consulting Group.

Student voices have called for the inclusion of a program on race in Orientation over the past few years. However, controversial events from the 2015-16 academic year—such as the “gangster” party and the “tequila” party—were a critical push to develop this program because they fueled last year’s discussions on race. The fact that the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs instituted this new Orientation program is a positive step forward in the evolution of Bowdoin’s discourse on race.

Sydney Avitia-Jacques ’18, a member of the sailing team, mentioned one such event, which was hosted by her team. The “gangster” party was a critical component of her experience of race at Bowdoin. Openly presenting events like these to first years gives them an appropriate context to inform their future conversations about race at Bowdoin.

Moreover, it is valuable that this particular Orientation event continued into the semester, modeling the fact that conversations about race will happen throughout students’ careers, not just during Orientation.

There are talks, lectures and discussions dealing with these topics consistently scheduled throughout the year and are open to all students. Consistently taking advantage of these events rather than only engaging when incidents like the “gangster” party occur is crucial for moving towards a more inclusive community.

Furthermore, attending these events and participating in these conversations facilitates a more comfortable environment where students are proactive in having these difficult conversations. If or when instances of cultural appropriation occur, discussions about these events will be more productive since more students will be ready to engage.

An important goal of Orientation is to model how to interact with different parts of our community in a positive way. However, it is also important to strike the right balance of telling first-year students what they can and cannot do. This program did just that.

Uniquely developing this program each year is crucial. Including contemporary stories from current Bowdoin students is important to continue to effectively model productive discourse on race. Giving first years the context of our campus climate while also encouraging first years to engage in conversation about race provides a direction towards a more open community.

This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, which is comprised of Marina Affo, Julian Andrews, Steff Chavez, Grace Handler, Nickie Mitch, Meg Robbins and Joe Seibert.

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