Choose a presidential candidate who can embolden BSG

Imagining Bowdoin: Prospective students: Choose Bowdoin to confront intellectual conformity

Dear visiting students, Congratulations on your admission to Bowdoin College. The task of the admissions office here is not an easy one—many of the students who apply can handle the course load at the college and would be great contributors to the community, but admissions saw something special in you, and we want you to come here.

Imagining Bowdoin: Culture of public paganism seeks a unifying goal

Dear Bowdoin College, Over the past few weeks, a fruitful controversy erupted surrounding my use of the word "pagan" to describe cultural currents I saw streaming through elements of Bowdoin's GLBTQ community. Through hours of conversation with professors, discussion with fellow students, and book browsing in the library, I came to see that there is a lively debate about the meaning of the word "pagan." So I should clarify—when I wrote it, I had just read the provocative 1994 essay, "A Pagan Theory of Sexuality" by Camille Paglia, who transfigures and glorifies paganism invoking the word as shorthand for our "Greco-Roman" inheritance as compared with the more traditional inheritance from what she calls the "Judeo-Christian moral tradition." In any case, after these discussions, and after Ivies weekend, it is clear to me I was in the wrong.

Imagining Bowdoin

Choose a presidential candidate who can embolden BSG

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

April 17, 2009

Elections for Bowdoin Student Government begin today and you need to decide if, and how, you are going to vote. But, in order for you to believe that voting is a worthwhile use of your time, you need to understand why, or if, BSG matters. This is exactly what I was wondering as I walked around campus this week taking note of the hundreds of posters plastered on every wall—specifically, I asked, "What exactly is BSG for?"

For these kinds of inquiries, it is always best to consult those who have done the most to craft the vision and goals of the institution. I began with DeRay Mckesson '07; he told me how the organization came about. Apparently, BSG as we now know it was established in 2001 with the tacit goal of recreating Bowdoin's community life after the removal of the fraternities. The first presidents were Jason Hafler '04 who served from 2002-2004 and Haliday Douglas '05 who served during the 2004-2005 school year.

Mckesson, who will undoubtedly go down as the most charismatic Bowdoin student of the decade, brought a rare, creative exuberance to BSG. He expanded the scope of BSG and won the institution a new sense of legitimacy. When I touched based with him, he accentuated three goals, the first of which was "solidifying the structure and purpose of BSG." Beyond structure, he tried "cultivating and supporting a strong sense of student leadership" through enabling cooperation between BSG and the class officers. Finally, and most ambitiously of all, he "positioned BSG to be seamless and intimately involved in every facet of College life."

Mckesson swung hard using a driver, and then a 4-iron, to get us as close to the green as possible. Yet, his goals were so lofty that he had a tendency to neglect the details. During his two-year tenure, he established, stabilized, and energized BSG, but his overreaching left us in the bunker.

Then came Dustin Brooks '08 in 2007-2008, another government major and a future sovereign in the state of Maine. Dustin strolled in with his glasses and sand wedge, declaring himself to be the man who would refocus BSG after Mckesson's orgy of grandiosity. I spoke to Brooks as well and he said the goals during his term were more sober indeed—he stressed "creating a voice for BSG in academic policy discussions" and "increasing the transparency of BSG," while "improving the BSG election process."

Brooks got us to the green just before Sophia Seifert '09 was elected president this year. Her administration took out the putter and focused on important details. When we touched base, she emphasized "keeping a balanced agenda," going beyond the handbook to get "involved with student's lives" while "developing specific administrative relationships." According to rising BSG star Rasha' Harvey '12, the central accomplishments this year included: the installations in the union, movie ticket subsidies, airport shuttle service refinement, and a health center policy investigation. BSG is a trustworthy institution that can get stuff done.

Now we can see why this year is so important—with the first hole finished, we need a real swinger to propel BSG down the new fairway. From watching Monday night's debate, I am confident that both Rutledge Long '10 and Michael Dooley '10 can bring BSG the big ideas it needs to succeed.

Long is a junior from Charleston, a former football player, an English major with surprisingly tremendous depth, and has single-handedly breathed life into the Poeting Club. Dooley is a junior from Long Island studying Arabic and government, and is largely respected by BSG members for his graceful composure and for his diligent work as vice president for facilities, the capacity in which he secured us newspaper and airport shuttle services. After reading their platforms this morning (see pages 14-15), we will choose one of them as our president. As we consider how to vote, we should ask ourselves—which candidate is better prepared to seize the opportunities created by the legitimacy previous BSG leaders have worked so hard to earn?

Thanks to three solid presidencies that laid the groundwork, the next president can finally put aside petty concerns and take a part in the shaping of Bowdoin's culture. Instead of asking, "What hassles can we eliminate to make student life as easy as possible?" BSG has earned the right to lift its gaze to a higher horizon and ask, "What trends might be interfering with Bowdoin's cultural task of educating great human beings?" and "How do we engage fellow students in the quest to overcome these obstacles?" BSG needs to join the administration and faculty to help Bowdoin live up to its high reputation for giving birth to scientists, geniuses, scholars, magnificent political leaders, activists, philanthropic titans, and poets.

BSG can now find time to address our noble fear—cultural sterility. If there is a yearning I see in the students, faculty, and staff here, it is a yearning to believe that we dwell, and that Bowdoin students will forever dwell, in a womb capable of birthing great human beings. With the financial crisis threatening to distract students from their studies, urgent questions about the proper role of athletics, rise of technologies like the cell phone and internet, a student body without the common language provided by shared intellectual experiences, and the possibility of careerism and consumerism seeping even further into student life, BSG has its work cut out.

BSG is the only democratically elected body representing the whole school, and given the real cultural challenges we face in this digital age, it is its duty to help Bowdoin students hear a call transcending everyday hassles. It is clear to me that both Long and Dooley have the strength and passion to recommit the Bowdoin student body to a collective reach for excellence. The real question is whether they will get a council and a student body that will let them shine forth on a new stage of politics at Bowdoin.

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