The Best Places to Study at Bates Wednesday
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9-11 The Bates Student Never forget THE VOICE OF BATES COLLEGE SINCE 1873 WEDNESDAY September, 2013 Vol. 143, Issue. 1 Lewiston, Maine FORUM ARTS & LEISURE SPORTS AESOP interview Bates Dance Festival Women’s soccer off to a strong start Ever wondered what goes into A look into the six week summer 2-1 victory in first conference planning AESOP? Coordinators festival for dancers of all ages hosted game against Tufts led by Sturtevant and Balter ’14 give by the College. Rafferty (12), Stefaniak (4) ’14 insight. See Page 2 See Page 6 See Page 8 Shooting inci- dent on College Bates now Street proves offering non-fatal GRACE PEZZELLA two more STAFF WRITER Rene Jefferson, age 32, was shot in the shoulder while walking down Col- lege Street last Wednesday, September majors 4. As of Thursday, no arrests had been SAMUEL LEARNER made, and The Lewiston-Auburn Sun ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Journal has released no further reports on the subject. While police believe If you’re already confused by Bates’ they have identified a suspect, the de- educational requirements, consider partment will not currently release any this: you now have two more majors to details of the shooting. choose from. What implications does an The first of these two majors incident such as this have for the Bates is European Studies. While the major is community? College Street, after all, is new as of this year, it has been in the home to many students and acts as one works for quite some time. According to of the main thoroughfares that connects Professor Francisca Lopez in the Span- our campus to the downtown Lewiston ish Department, the Faculty has been area. Lewiston may not be New York discussing the idea for seven or eight City or even Boston, but it is still a years. city, and with that distinction necessar- The impetus to finally create ily comes a certain level of crime. a distinct new major came during a re- Students who checked their emails over PHYLLIS GRABER JENSEN/BATES COLLEGE structuring of Bates’ language depart- the summer will be familiar with a series ments. Previously, languages at Bates of burglaries that had Bates Security and were divided into two broad categories: the local police working hard to stop the Orientation focuses on diversity and Lewiston/ Auburn one consisting of Romance and Classi- crimes, and this non-fatal shooting is cal languages, and the other consisting the most recent, if not most dramatic, Junior Advisors. There were 58 OWL’s awkward to continue beating a dead of German, Russian, and East Asian ALEX DAUGHTRY who each worked with about eight stu- horse but it is useful in moderation.” occurrence that may put some Batesies EDITOR-IN-CHIEF languages. However, when the Asian on edge. dents. “I thought the Engaging the Power Studies program emerged, Asian lan- “There were four days of orienta- of Our Differences dinner was really However, the Annual Campus First-years were introduced to life guages became a subset of that depart- tion training for OWL’s which took great,” Sandor said. “We weren’t expect- Safety Report, which is compiled by Se- at Bates in a much different way this ment, leaving the remaining languages place during Short Term and one and ing life-changing conversation to occur curity and available on their page of the year after the orientation process was to reconfigure themselves. a half days before orientation started,” at the dinner, but I believe we did ac- Bates website, shows little to no increase revamped by students and the adminis- “At that point, creating a Sandor said. “We did everything from complish our goal of getting the conver- in the number of violent crimes com- tration working together. European major to incorporate other brainstorming new ideas and program- sation started.” mitted on campus over the past three After the typical administrative languages and all other departments ming.” The final activity was a social jus- years. Aside from a spike in “forcible sex activities such as procuring a Bates ID that deal with Europe seemed to make Another change was the focus on tice lecture from Joe Bertolini and Bill offenses,” which The Student sought to were completed, students and their sense,” said Lopez. discussing diversity issues. The second Leipold which was held in the Peter J. address in a series of articles last spring, parents were invited to panels that ad- Lopez added that Dennis day of orientation included three events Gomes Chapel. the only other category on which Secu- dressed adapting to life at Bates. Browne and Craig Decker, professors of surrounding diversity. The first was a “I thought orientation was well-run rity reports that has grown in frequency President Spencer then welcomed Russian and German, respectively, were talk from Heather Lindkvist, the acting and the organization of things was well is “drug law violations referred for dis- the class of 2017 to campus and all first- instrumental in this process. Professor director of the Office of Equality and thought out,” Crum said. “However, ciplinary action.” In 2009, there were years bid farewell to their parents and Browne is currently teaching an FSA in Diversity, outlining Bates’ policies on some of the activities for students were 78 cases reported on campus as opposed their comfort zones. St. Petersburg. Because the idea of Eu- sexual consent and respecting others. not well advertised. I went to all of the to the 96 cases reported in 2011. Even While the first day of orientation ropean Studies was not new to Faculty “We worked very closely with Holly lectures and then realized there were burglary has stayed relatively the same was largely the same, the second day and the administration, the major was Gurney, the Associate Dean of Students more fun things I could have been do- for the past three years. brought the much anticipated changes. easily approved. who planned orientation for the past 14 ing.” Bates is fortunate in that it has “Alyssa [Morgosh] and I were the “The administration was very or so years,” Sandor said. “Alyssa and In addition, the second day includ- a relatively safe campus, which is not to co-directors this year,” said senior orien- open to the creation of this major,” Lo- I were given the freedom to introduce ed OWL-led adventures throughout the say that Lewiston is an unsafe city. Yes, tation leader Jake Sandor. “That means pez said. “And it really didn’t take much. and redesign any and all programming, Lewiston-Auburn area. crimes are committed outside of Bates. we organized the entire orientation --- It was just a matter of lining up courses. as long as the powers-that-be approved “Personally, I would focus even Yes, bad things sometimes happen in- to booking all of the spaces and present- There was no money for extra faculty or it.” more on an orientation to off-campus side Bates as well. But for students con- ers --- to paying all the bills.” personnel, so we had to work with the The second was a dinner in New life and particularly the Lewiston-Au- cerned about their safety, the best de- One of the most apparent changes resources we had.” Commons where OWL’s led a discus- burn community, even though this year fense is common sense and a familiarity was the addition of upper-class students The requirements for Europe- sion about diversity in small groups. began the focus on that,” Sandor said. with all of the resources that the College to the orientation process. Orientation an Studies are similar to those of other “The diversity portion of orienta- The third day of orientation focused has to offer. Week Leaders (OWL’s) were upper- majors. Students must take two “foun- tion was useful but overdone, every lec- on community engagement. The Har- As a new year begins, take the classmen who were trained specifically dation courses,” one of which is a re- ture was about diversity,” said first-year time to look over the list of services that on how to lead orientation and act as Chris Crum. “At some point it becomes See SHOOTING, PAGE 4 another on-campus resource beyond See ORIENTATION, PAGE 4 See MAJORS, PAGE 4 Ladd Library’s (slightly) new look: Is there more change to come? LYDIA O’BRIEN enough to allow for group conversa- colored stickers that essentially coded MANAGING NEWS EDITOR tions. for “Yes!” Because of these hints of more The elimination of the old com- extensive changes, the current redesign Throughout last fall semester, large puter tables and the new configuration has not completely met students’ expec- poster boards in the entrance area of of desks have been the most drastic tations, even if perceptions of the baby Ladd Library showed plans for a com- changes in terms of spatial arrangement. steps toward change are not negative. plete renovation of the building. Fab- Seating near the computers has been re- “I really like the way the com- ric swatches indicated completely new duced, or at least partially moved to the puters are put in groups of three, and furniture on several floors, such as sleek area near the Peer Writing Center. The the chairs are really nice,” said Sophie new lounge chairs and raised swivel reference books’ shelves have also been Salas ‘15, “but I hope they add new chairs for higher tables. Floor plans rearranged, and the shelf of featured furniture to the other floors as well. I showed signs of a future cafe area, for books selected by the librarians now hope they continue with the rest of the which many students showed support stands between Circulation and the flat- LYDIA O’BRIEN/THE BATES STUDENT building--adding a coffee shop-type with stickers coding for countless Yes’s screen television –– better for students area would be awesome.” and twice-underlined Absolutelys.