Casting a wider web

Editorial: Creating a safer space

Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster wrote in a campus-wide email on Wednesday that the College is creating the position of Director for Gender Violence Education and Prevention. According to Meadow Davis, associate director of student affairs and adviser to the Student Sexual Misconduct Board, this new director will advise the student groups that deal with these issues and work one-on-one with students who come forward with complaints. Th e establishment of this position comes at a time when many of our peer institutions have come under fire for their treatment ofsexual assault violations and allegations.
Most notably, Amherst’s procedure for responding to accusations of sexual assault came into the national spotlight in October 2012 when former student Angie Epifano penned an op-ed in the Amherst Student revealing how poorly Amherst had responded to her report of sexual violence. Dartmouth—which has also incurred heavy criticism for its handling of sexual assault cases—announced last week that it is creating a campus center for the prevention of sexual assault and violence.
Although Bowdoin has not come under the same scrutiny as Amherst or Dartmouth, its handling of sexual assault cases has not totally escaped criticism. In 2010, the Center for Public Integrity reported on the case of a Bowdoin student, to whom it gave the pseudonym Ariel Brown, who alleged that she was raped by a male student in December 2007. The College found the male guilty of sexual assault, not rape, a decision which Brown found inadequate. Her testimony is proof enough that there is always room for improvement.

Editorial: Beyond the game

In last week’s issue, we published “The pretty game: objectification, humiliation and the liberal arts,” an article written by an anonymous female first year. The article ran as an off-week installment in the biweekly Features column “The Bears and the Bees,” but was written by a guest contributor. As of press time, the article had received 69 comments and garnered over 6,800 page views. The writer’s words have started a substantial dialogue on campus; on Wednesday, approximately 45 female students attended an informal discussion facilitated by the Women’s Resource Center which addressed the content of the piece.
This article was unorthodox for the Orient. We only publish anonymous contributions when we have verified the author’s identity and when the content cannot otherwise be obtained. We encouraged the author to include her name, but decided that her words held enough significance for the Bowdoin community to merit anonymous publication. Of course, there are also benefits to withholding names. Granting anonymity can help readers focus on an article’s content and the issues it raises rather than on the identity of its writer. In this case, the author also sought the advice of leaders in Peer Health for guidance in narrating her experiences. And the article was just that—one person’s story. Both online comments and campus conversations suggest that her sentiments resonate with a wider population of students, and not just women. People of all genders face social alienation and self-consciousness about their bodies.
One misses the point of the article if the terminology of “the pretty game” is the only takeaway. By featuring this phrase in the headline, we highlighted one facet of the article’s analysis of Bowdoin’s social scene. The focus, however, should not be on the prepackaged term but on the greater forces at work that contribute to its reality. Students have responded to the article’s discussion of body image issues that lead to eating disorders, social pressure to go out, and the sense of failure some feel when going home alone after a party. We also feel it is limiting to read the article as just a condemnation of off-campus houses and their residents; the author implicates a culture that pervades Bowdoin and beyond.
The article has provoked a broad range of impassioned reactions on campus. While some applaud and identify with its astute observations, others criticize it for relying on perceived generalizations or thinly-veiled accusations. We do not know where these conversations will go, but we think they are productive nonetheless.

Editorial

This piece represents the opinion of The Bowdoin Orient editorial board.

February 14, 2014

The Curriculum and Education Policy Committee (CEP) recently proposed a revision to the College’s transfer credit policy that would allow departments to start awarding credit for online courses. The CEP’s proposal is progressive for a college that just introduced online course registration this year. Courses taken online are often viewed as antithetical to the small, interactive learning environment of a liberal arts school. Bowdoin values the close interaction between professor and student, and frequently boasts of its low student-to-faculty ratio. However, it is time to acknowledge that scholarly work can be accomplished through web-based classes.

While it is unlikely that many students will take online courses in addition to Bowdoin curricula, this allowance would enable students taking leaves of absence to earn credit while away from campus. Students on leave—medical or otherwise—often enroll in several classes, either to prove they are capable of completing academic work or to avoid falling behind in their degree progress. Not all students have access to an institution of higher learning while away; online courses provide an alternative.

The proposal would give departments the authority to determine whether an online course meets the high standards of the College, and we are confident that online courses would be held to the same scrutiny as any others. That is why the CEP proposal would neither threaten the College’s commitment to classroom learning, nor diminish the quality of a Bowdoin education. What it would do is provide further academic options to Bowdoin students—particularly those who need them the most. We encourage faculty to vote in favor of this proposal.

The editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, which is comprised of Erica Berry, Nora Biette-Timmons, Garrett Casey, Ron Cervantes, Marisa McGarry, Sam Miller and Kate Witteman.

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