Do you belong at Bowdoin? What sort of person does belong? Why does that kind of person come to mind? These questions were posed to the Bowdoin community last week and were the subject of this past Tuesday's debate. The debate was the first in a series of three discussions organized by President Barry Mills in an attempt to keep the discussion of diversity alive on campus.
In a letter to the members of the Bowdoin community Mills said, "Recent campus events have sparked an immediate interest in how greater diversity impacts our lives. Rather than permitting questions to linger or points of view to be misunderstood, we now have an opportunity to come together and to respond to the challenges before us in a meaningful way."
According to Mills, the school has been making an intentional effort to increase all aspects of diversity on campus over the past few years. Because of recent events on campus, discussions have taken place in classes, but Mills noted in his letter that students and faculty wanted the dialogue to extend beyond the classroom.
The first debate to extend the discourse on the subject attracted over 200 faculty members, staff, and students. Members of the community also participated in the dialogue through a "graffiti sheet" in Smith Union as another way to share their thoughts.
The debate was moderated by Emily Scott '04, professor of history and Africana studies Randolph Stakeman, and Professor of English David Collings.
Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Dean Tim Foster asked Scott, who also helped organize the Un-PC talks on campus, to moderate this past Tuesday's event. Scott said, "I think the discussion had a tendency to center around the question of the legitimacy of the question itself-whether or not there is actually a 'diversity problem' at Bowdoin. The debate was a successful introduction to the series, and I believe that in the next two sessions the discussion will become more focused and challenging."
Participants also discussed the role of the Office of Admissions in choosing who "belongs" at Bowdoin. Many students felt that through the admissions office certain students were chosen to "belong" at Bowdoin, while others were not. Most people had a choice to be here and they chose the College based on their needs just as much as the College chose them based on their abilities.
One student thought that the school could possibly be trying to be too diverse for its size. "Maybe we are spreading ourselves too thin so no one feels like they belong," he said. Other students pointed to the fact that given the current admissions policies, it is impossible to make the Bowdoin population reflective of the nation as a whole considering there are no questions about sexual orientation or social class on the admissions application.
Some addressed the idea of comfort zones and the fact that the stress of the transition of coming to college is alleviated by joining teams or clubs with similar people.
Students also wondered whose responsibility it was to make sure that everyone felt like they belonged and if that was even a realistic goal. A few students felt that minorities should not be asked to educate the rest of the school about their culture and it is unrealistic pressure to have a few individuals represent a whole ethnic group, class, or sexual orientation.
Hari Kondabolu '04 said, "For diversity to be an effective tool for learning, a commitment needs to be made by people from all backgrounds. Furthermore, using the Pub incident as an example, when an effort is not made by all parties, it must be understood that the group that chooses to initially branch out may get discouraged and the process may get stunted."
Although there was a lot of debate on certain topics, one relatively less controversial fact was that students do have a certain degree of power over their sense of belonging on campus. One student pointed to a member of their class, Ayidah Bashir '04, who came to Bowdoin and started the Unity Step Team because it was important to her sense of identity and she didn't see it on campus already.
Students also talked about some students who choose to spend their four years at Bowdoin with people much like themselves, while others will take a risk and step outside of their comfort zone.
The next collective debate will take place this Monday. The topic is "Learning from Others." Responses to this topic are included in this week's edition of the Orient.