College Voice Vol. 35 No. 4
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College 2010-2011 Student Newspapers 10-18-2010 College Voice Vol. 35 No. 4 Connecticut College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/ccnews_2010_2011 Recommended Citation Connecticut College, "College Voice Vol. 35 No. 4" (2010). 2010-2011. 16. https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/ccnews_2010_2011/16 This Newspaper is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Newspapers at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in 2010-2011 by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. Students gather aJ the sundial for the Manhew Shepard vigil CECILIA BROWN/STAFF LGBTQ Teach-In Quit Playing Games, Targets Start Gaming Homophobia cc Gaming Club expands and experiments this year NORA SWENSON both the LGBTQ community and RACINE OXTOBY aficionados play a few rounds of tempted to attract other garners, STAFF WRITER its allies. The teach-in was well ARTS EDITOR Munchkin or SeItlers of Catano especially those who appreci- "It's actually a sizeable club ate the electricity-free games. Five youth suicides have struck attended;· students, faculty and Call them what you want. now," said senior Dan Whitting- "We've been trying to diversify, the LGBTQ community in the administrators filled every seat in Nerds. Dorks. Whatever Jabba ton. He has been the president of and people have been coming past month, the most recent by the 1941 room and many others the Hut-type creatures the South the club for the past two years and with different interests," says a Rutgers University student in stood lining the walls. Park kids turned into in the World a member for three, so he knows Whittington. "My freshman year, Montclair, New Jersey. These re- Personal and emotionally of Warcraft episode. If you think how both the growth and dedica- we didn't play board games and cent tragedies prompted Jennifer charged statements followed from that the members of the Connecti- tion of a club's members can af- this year it's a significant portion' Manion, Director of the LGBTQ Connecticut College community cut College Gaming Club are only fect its survival. of the club." center at Connecticut College, to members who have been person- interested in sitting in a small, Over the years, the Gaming "When I first heard about Gam- host a Teach-In on Homophobia, ally affected by hate crimes and dimly-lit room to play Dungeons Club has been the go-to orga- ing Club I thought it was mostly Bullying and Suicide on Wednes- instances of bullying. Assistant and Dragons, you may be sur- nization for video game events video games and I figured it day October 13,2010. The event, Professor of History Jim Downs, prised to learn that the CCOC is and lournaments. Every month would be nice 10 know people led by the LGBTQ Center and the who could not attend the event in one of the most rapidly· expanding person, started the ceremony by clubs on campus. or so, they take on the responsi- who I could play and talk about Department of Gender and Wom- bility of hosting a popular game video games with," says freshman en's Studies, focused on discuss- Skyping from California where Only two years ago, an average he was conducting research. Af- of five members would attend the event, from Mario Kart to Rock Evelyn O'Regan. "I think the fact ing some of the factors of bully- that Gaming Club does more than ter taking a moment to appreciate weekly meetings, in which gam- Band to Dance Dance Revolution ing and homophobia in the wake (they tend to stay away from Su- video games is awesome because those who put the event together, I ing events were discussed and of the suicides. The event hosted per Smash Brothers urnaments, I love stuff like Apples to Apples, Downs began to speak about his Iplanned. These da~s appro', a series of administrators, faculty whicfi the Mal'liaf Ails Cluff-fr - etc. Basically, the Gaming Club experiences. He explained thati mately sixty memb~ can be and staff who spoke during Com- quently use for their own fund- just seemed like a place to meet we are constantly led to believe I found on the club's emailing list, munity Conversations, a segment raising). and hang out with fellow dorks." that "the world was made for I while Monday night meetings of- of the event featuring members of However, in the last couple of people like you," and yet, he said, i ten extend after their official end CONTINUED ON PAGE IO the community who offered their years, the Gaming Club has at- own experiences and advice to CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 I time as a cluster of board game OPINION College in the Present Tense "Afreshman revisits the college tour EMILY B'ERNSTEIN STAFF WRITER After a day of hiding indoors from the crowds of prospective stu- dents at Connecticut College's fall open house, I went to the second floor of Cro with my roommate and our friends. We sat, heads bowed over our books, brows furrowed in concentration, pens tapping note- book paper while we searched for the right word. My neighbor's face looked ghostly and serious in the blue glow of bis computer screen. Then his expression melted into a smile. "I really love Family Guy," he said. The girl next to him looked up from her highlighting. "You need to do work," she laughed, shaking her head at the cartoon playing on his computer. "I'm tired of looking up and seeing foolish things on your screen. I don't know if you realize this, but you're in college." In the past six weeks, I've experienced my fair share of college cli- ches: I became familiar with Thirsty Thursdays, received much-appre- ciated care packages from home and watched our donn room assume the obligatory trappings of Christmas lights, a coffee machine, and a Salvador Dali poster. All of these hackneyed experiences gave me the assurance that I was doing something right; in the uncertainty and newness of my first month at Conn, these were the scenes of college life I had come to know and expect as a college-bound high school senior. CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Calling all Web Designers: College Relations seeks opinions on new homepage KATHERINE SARTIANO t._' - STAFF WRITER -- ..._ .... Although almost all students would agree that there are things - that should be changed at Con- necticut College, very few would think of our internet homepage as ==:..e.- --- one of them. Our homepage is ...- simple, easy to use, aesthetically .-_~-_.... pleasing and is one of the few r;m;t--,....- ..... w--- ---... things on campus that has never -__ --. --'_ .....- seemed to come under the criti- cism of students. However, by the • n end of 2010, our homepage will =--- .....e-.lwC_~ change. f,l. SEE HOMEPAGE, PAGE5 " . OO ii ii 2---------------- THECDLLEGE VOla EDITO RIALS/LETTERS [email protected] OOOBER 18 2010 THE COLLEGE VOICE Editorial "The views and opinions expressed in The College \bice, as in all student pubhcations, are strictly those of the student authors, and not So Fall Weekend came and went. My parents came There is no need to buy into a particular concept of of Connecticut College. All content and editorial decisions remain down; we went out to dinner; I introduced them to success. You're allowed to figure it out for yourself. in the hands of the students; neither the College's administration nor my friends; my friends introduced me to theirs; it A true waste of our liberal arts education would be to its faculty exercise control over the content." was nice. I tend to enjoy stuff like that. Meeting blindly follow whatever our parents laid out for us. , parents is always fun on some "let's see how overly A college education should drive students to pursue EDiTOR-IN-cmEF nice and polite I.can be" level. an identity that is well-informed and cunous about But this year was different. This year I'm a senior. both themselves and the society around them. And Lilah Raptopoulos No more freshman year, How do you iike Conn so that understanding teaches us that our education MANAGING EDITOR for? questions from parents. No more What are you grants us a lot of opportunities to follow a lot of planning on majoring in? or Where are you thinking different paths. John Sherman of going abroad? questions from sophomore and The great part about a liberal arts education is,!hal junior year. This year, shit got serious. Over and over it is open-ended. It is more focused on developing ~ EDITORIAL BOARD again it was that dreaded So, what are you planning person and a thinker than a particular trade, and so 11 , on doing after you graduate? Are you applying for gives us options. We have options with what we can News Editors Sports Editors jobs yet? do with the next few years of our lives, and we'll This overwhelming focus on my post-Conn life have options after that, too. There isn't just one path Jazmine Hughes Nick Woolf to follow. And that's a good thing. Meredith Boyle Mike Flint left me frustrated. Parents, professors, students, and sihlings all seem to be obsessed with what we will do Moving into our early and mid-twenties, if that next year. On one level it makes sense - in less than a means saving up some money and traveling the A+E Editors Opinions Editor year the senior class' lives will change dramatically.