Evening conflicts are becoming more prevalent in the Bowdoin community?so prevalent that College officials say the conflicts may be interfering with education. Administrators are seeking solutions to the problem of conflicting responsibilities such as class review sessions, movie screenings, and tests are conflicting with musical rehearsals and sports practices.
"It is difficult to understand that out of 400 plus students per class, only a handful are able to pursue their passion because of the enormity of evening conflicts," Director of the Bowdoin Concert Band John Morneau said.
"We are as a society and as a college community leading much more scheduled lives," Dean of Student Affairs Craig Bradley said. "With less discretionary time available collectively, these conflicts arise more frequently."
Aislinn Curry '09, a member of the Bowdoin College Chorus, has experienced such evening conflicts.
"I had an art history session for my midterm at the same time as my chorus rehearsal," she said. "I was planning on going to chorus instead of the study session, until the last minute when I decided that passing art history was more important than missing rehearsal."
Morneau pointed to many conflicts that take away from band rehearsals.
"Every rehearsal meeting we have involves a conflict of some sort or another with tests, mandatory review sessions, film screenings, and lectures. Some nights I have only half, sometimes less, of the students who participate in the ensemble," he said.
"[Many] people ended up having to drop chorus because French movies coincided with rehearsal time," Curry said.
She also noted that members of the chorus are only permitted to miss two rehearsals per term since the class is taken for credit.
Morneau agreed that students tend to drop their musical activities after finding out that they have other conflicts.
"By mid-semester, I end up with ten or fewer students," he said.
These evening conflicts have also affected athletics at Bowdoin. Alex Franceschi '09 had a psychology talk that met at the same time as her squash practice.
"I had late practice and a psych lecture, but I decided to go squash practice," she said. "If I had had early practice, I would have gone to the lecture."
Bowdoin Women's Varsity Basketball Coach Stefanie Pemper expressed distress regarding the busy schedule that Bowdoin athletes keep.
"Athletes, like other students, will sometimes choose to miss something academic, whether it's because of an extracurricular or because they don't think they need to go," she said. "They pay up to $42,000 a year to make those decisions."
These evening conflicts are starting to be discussed among Bowdoin administrators and the Recording Committee.
"The Recording Committee is just beginning to address this. We have yet to focus on specific solutions," Bradley said.
There has been preliminary discussion about the option of keeping one night free from classes and academic commitments, much like Common Hour is unscheduled for all students on Fridays. Nothing, however, has yet to be determined.
"We have only just begun to think about the problem," Recording Committee Chair and Associate Professor of Music Jim McCalla said. "We are still at the stage of trying to sort things out to see what we're looking at and what various options might be."
Pemper proposes to have time in the afternoon that is solely dedicated to extracurricular activities.
"I think we're in desperate need of an 'extracurricular time block' from 4 to 7 p.m. A block of time where there can't be academic conflicts. Williams College did this," she said.