I have been perusing the first issues of the Orient, which are now available for free online. Archaic and, in my opinion, quite delightful language aside, the papers are surprisingly modern. One of the first editorials—published in the 1870s—argues in a rather humorous tone for the admission of women to the College.
There is also a constant back and forth about which classes are most valuable for undergraduates to take. Even then, ancient languages were considered by much of the student body to be of questionable value, and there was also discontent about the hard sciences. Then—and not unlike today—many seemed to consider them a needless bother. Of course, griping about grades and the difficulty of the courses at Bowdoin has a fine and illustrious history as well.
This is not to say that our modern Orient hearkens directly back to its forbearer. While I would support the elimination of authors' names in the Orient to match the original formatting—à la The Economist—I somehow doubt that would get very far in today's citation-obsessed climate.
Most of the other stylistic changes made over the years have been for the better. I applaud the editors who decided that articles should indeed possess headlines.
But not every facet of progress has been rosy. The amount of community interaction with the current Orient doesn't come close to matching which was present in the very first issues of the paper.
For the first months of the Orient's existence there was a dedicated alumnus who wrote in every issue. The paper also dedicated many more of its pages to the affairs of the Brunswick community and higher education as a whole.
It is understandable that the current paper is more insular, considering Bowdoin students now have access to a variety of news sources; however, it is still pitiful that last week there was not a single letter published in the Orient. In fact, the only time I can remember more than a smattering of community messages appearing in these pages was during the aftermath of this year's Pinefest. What does it mean for the Bowdoin community, as well as the reputation of this esteemed paper, that the only real dialogue the Orient creates involves drunken shenanigans?
This is a sad state of affairs. However, unlike most weeks when I fill up my column with wistful hopes for the future, there is a clear solution to our current predicament. I beseech you, my dear readers, to write letters!
I know that many of you have personal opinions about the topics we cover in these pages. Enough of you comment on my columns to me in person for that to be clear. And to all of you that have sent personal e-mails to writers in the past, why not instead make them letters to the Orient? More people would see your letter; it would bolster the pages of the opinion section; and you may actually get a response rather than having your message get lost in an e-mail inbox somewhere.
In an age of instantaneous Facebook comments, writing an e-mail to the Orient may seem a heinous task, but I assure you that it is worth it. Many other universities, which are—to borrow a phrase from the first issue of the Orient—"every way inferior institutions," manage to spark fierce debate in the opinion sections of their school papers, or at the very least in the comments posted to the online editions. Bowdoin has none of this.
We should make it a priority to transform the Orient from an organ in which we read about the latest dance show and the personal opinions of writers such as myself into a true forum for discourse in the Bowdoin community. This shift will only start if some of you open up your e-mail and send a quick snippet to the paper every week.
Plenty of people like to complain about a perceived dryness and one-sidedness to Orient articles, but no one ever acts to change anything. By sending in letters and being a part of the paper, you can inject a little bit of your own personality into the pages.
What's not to like about that?