Whether at a party or walking on the street, many Bowdoin students feel a constant, pervasive fear of Bowdoin Security. This concern is reasonable: security officers are older than we are, have more authority than we do, and have the power to incite drastic changes in our lives.
Shockingly, however, it is possible for any Bowdoin senior to graduate with the title of Weary Partier and emerge two months later as a formidable Bowdoin security officer.
It is not uncommon for Bowdoin seniors to graduate and then return to campus as faculty members the following year. Both Jerry Edwards '04, who works in Security, and Julie Barnes '04, who works in the Office of Residential Life, fall into this category.
Although Edwards and Barnes agreed that their exceptional experiences as Bowdoin students inspired them to return to campus so soon after graduation, they also feel that their roles within the college community have changed drastically since September.
Barnes admitted that she no longer enjoys eating in the dining halls because it reminds her that her closest friends are no longer here. Similarly, Edwards said he often feels awkward when he attends campus parties on his nights off because students recognize him as a security officer rather than as a peer.
While he enjoys being treated as an authority figure, he said he tells his friends, "it's still me, but in a uniform." He said he feels that it is strange that many of the people with whom he once socialized are still students. The dynamic between them, however, has altered in a positive way. Rather than view him as a traitor, Edwards said his friends respect him because they understand the importance of his position to the Bowdoin community.
It is easy to assume that any senior who returns so quickly after graduation is simply nostalgic for his college years. Barnes, however, proves that this is a misconception; her position in the Office of Residential Life office is, she said, a legitimate first step in her career path.
Barnes applied to work in Residential Life because she is eager to "create a support network for individuals who need help." Barnes is sure that helping others will be an important aspect of her future profession.
Edwards' position as a security officer has changed his outlook on Bowdoin life. Edwards realized this change as a result the recent security advisory concerning a suspicious Brunswick resident's illegal appearances on campus.
Edwards said he feels that, as a student, he might have feared for himself and his closest friends, but more realistically, he would have disregarded the warning. As a member of security, though, he has become seriously fearful for his friends and all Bowdoin students.
Edwards said he is upset by many students' callous view of security's role on campus, and stressed that in a single day, "if not one student called to be let into a dorm or driven to a parking lot and not one party had to be busted, security would still be busy" for a full 24 hours.
Just as the threat of true crime on campus has served to pop the "Bowdoin bubble" for Edwards, Barnes, too, feels that Residential Life has introduced her to enough real world problems that she no longer views the school as a sheltered utopia.
Every day students approach her with such problems as eating disorders and depression, and Barnes is expected to respond calmly and intelligently. She said she staunchly believes that her Bowdoin education has been extremely helpful in her job. As an anthropology major, Barnes said that she did a lot of independent reasoning and analysis which have made her more perceptive. Additionally, having to conduct interviews has improved her interpersonal skills.
While Edwards agreed that the writing and critical thinking skills he acquired during his four years at Bowdoin are invaluable, his greatest contributions to Security stem from his understanding of Bowdoin student life. In fact, Edwards says that other, older officers often approach him for his opinion on tensions between students and Security. They feel that he can provide the most insight because he has lived as both.
For the same reason, though, Edwards said he is never scheduled to work on big party nights "so that I won't have to bust my friends." This is especially because, he said, "I know where people do illegal things better than anyone else."
Barnes and Edwards are in similar situations in that they know everything about student life, and while they are often still considered members of the student community, they feel more like adults.
Barnes said that while she still has friends who are Bowdoin students, her social life has changed out of both necessity and desire. Her job is extremely demanding and by the time that she returns to her apartment on the sixteenth floor of Coles Tower, she is frequently too tired to go out. But when she reunites with her friends in Portland, they are much more interested catching-up on each other's lives than partying.