3· "' '"' ~ ;:; ." 2': "::> ,J ' )1 g.~ '~ [/J ~\ ~ == \ \ slc poll results ... facial hair... found art at bard... Volll.llle 18, Issue 2 ~ BIRD October 2nd 2007 Adminstrators Convene Comm.1sssJon on D1vers1ty BY GRACE DWYER Promoting and supporting on-campus cliversity in all its forms has long been an important issue at Bard, both to the students who are clirectly affected by the campus climate they live in and to the administrators responsible for the safety, well-being, and happiness of the community. H ow effective past initiatives have been is open to debate, but this semester marks another attempt: a commission centered around racial diversity led by Dean of Students Erin Cannan and Dean of the College Michele Dominy. The Diversity Commission, a group composed of seven students, five facu lty members, and fi ve administrators, will convene fo r the first time on O ctober 19th in a fo ur-hour workshop. Each subset of the commission will have met beforehand - the goal of the workshop is for its attendees to } express their collective concerns and set an ~ agenda fo r a year of collaborative cliscussion .. ~ and problem solving .~ The commission will meet twice more g' tlu s semester before its official aims are :l determined. Geneva Foster, Assistant Dean of Students, Director . of Multicultural The earnest faces of the eight students that, this year, want to make a differnce in the way you live your life at Bard. Affairs, and spokesperson for the commission, explained that the eventual go al is to present rec~mmendations to the College, along with research supporting the essential nature of suggested steps. C Tacl<les "What I envision for Bard is for everybody to be able to have these clifficult conversations, - have multiple perspectives, and be able to StuOent concerns work together towards a shared vision of BY RACHEL MEADE Ask any Bard student how they feel about administration has control over its money­ non-exi·s tent SLC . ""'ror a year t h e w h o le community," she said. On. a more inunecliate . all scale she referenced gnevances elaborated various aspects of campus life, and you'll we're a really poor school," said Secretary thi ng [st u d ent government] b as1c y went . inevitably hear a plethora of complaints to the Central Committee Oliver Traldi. into· hib ernatlon· , " sa1·d H owe ll . "That , s upon m the 2003 D1vers1ty .R eport that have · b al h"ll b ti fi h yet to be addressed. They include problems centering on Kline, the lack of student Despite their lack of control over going to e a re up 1 . at e to g t . ,, with recrmtment and retention, low space and various other categories of mobilized fi nances, the SLC is hopeful that aga1n st. · h b al percentages of students, faculty, and staff injustice. Though many of these issues have they can begin work on several ongoing A ccorcli ng to T r alcli , 1t as een sever . been the general grumbles of Bard students projects this semester. However, in order years since· t h e SLC h as b een an active. an d of color, a warped pedagogical. philosophy · fl ·al · · D · th h and approach, and lack of soCJal events and for years, there has always been a general to be effective in promoting student needs 111 uentJ orgamzation. unng e sc oo1 . space - all iss ues, as she pointed out, that clisconnect between th ese. concerns and the to admini_stration, the committee needs year of 2002 -03 , t h e SLC was active 1y · l d · h · f M affect the intellectual and social development administration. Luckily, after a dearth of to increase student involvement in the mvo ve 111 t e creation o anor c-c'dle . · · h ali f h h" of the entire commumty, not JUSt rmnonty activi ty last year, the newly revived Student organization and become more accountable an d mcreasmg t e qu ty o t e was mg . Th al k d .th h students. " Life Committee, chaired by senior Shay to the student body machi ne se rv1ce. ey so war e WI t e Th . h f talks e comm1 ss1on 1s an outgrowt o ' H owell, is here to fill that gap. One of the major ways in which rest of student government to develop plans Id b d f ·th p :d 1 The SLC is composed of seven students members plan to their on-campus presence icor reVIvm· · g th e Old G ym an d opemn· g new he y stu ents o co or wi . res1 ent · th · hi h f Botstein last semester. Seruor Noah declicated to working with administration on is by opening their meetings to the student stu d ent spaces. D esp1te · elf g 1eve 1 o . · th bl ak Odabashian, one of several current acting ways of dealing with students' top concerns. body at large. "It's always seemed weird to comrmtinent, ey were una e to m ·e d f LASO d H . co-hea s o was an atten ee. e Their main resources to communicate these me that the Student Life Committee met s1gmficant progress on the issue of student . d h . c ' al alk.s · th . eA'P 1a1ne ow 1111orm t ' grew mto e concerns are surveys, the first of which was behind closed doors," said Howell. "I really space. In add1t:J on, many of their projects . tallied this weekend. In one of the highest want to kn ow what's on people's rninds." seemed to center around administrative comrmssion, TO PAGE THREE returns in recent SLC history, 490 surveys Thus far, few have taken the opportunity lo concerns rather than student issues. were filled out in the last few. weeks. Top voice their complaints at meetings. While Two years ago, in the SLC's last operational he clhre1·sit\r priorities for students concerned quality Howell had envisioned 15-20 students year, they seemed to suffer even more from a (!()ltllt11!;!;1()11 of food and hours at Kline, availabili ty per meeting, only l or 2 have showed up. lack of focus on student concerns. The one of wireless dorms and the trailers, a new This is due both to tl1 e SLC's failure to student-oriented concern they managed to students: student space, and the reliability and advertise and the general lack of knowledge address was the creation of ·a study space, dwoa Adusei '09, Carlos Apostle frequency of shuttles. concerning the committee. although even in this small victory, the •1 ·1, Roberto Meza '09, Elijah Strauss The SLC plans on presenting the survey In fact, accorcling to the survey results, results fell far short of expectations. •1 ·1, Belle Zatlin '09, unconfirmed, results to administration and working on students seem to know very little about any Their other main projects were priorities unc:onfirmed solutions fo r stud en ts ' top concerns, but stress of the branches of student govermnent. not of students, but of administrators, acuity: that their power to make immecliate changes Many wrote "we have that?" or complained such as a ca111paign for alcohol awareness Susan Alberth, l<enji Fujita, l<ristin that entail large financial expenclitures is that they had no idea of the functi ons initiated by Dean of Students Erin Cannan Lane, Catherine O'Rielly, Geoffrey limited. "I think [a lot of these concerns] or members of various committees. For and mobilized by the SLC. In addition, most Sanborn will be on-going projects," said Howell. She Howell, making student government a of the second semester was spent tallying added that the administration is unlikely more central presence on campus is a key the Middlestate survey, a job they were staff: to start any new financial projects until component to the success of the SLC. commissioned to do by administration. "I IVlary Bacldand, Alchna Briggs, Erin the capital campaign is made public. "It's Howell says she is struggling against last TO PAGE THREE Cannan, Nli<:hele Dominy, Geneva easy to over.estimate the extent to which the year's lackluster student government and Foster 1 FEITLERvs FRAT: the debate surrounding theme housing at bard BY EMILY NAGIN Until recently, if someone had asked me to define theme housing, I'd have replied that I wasn't really sure what it was, but that it probably had something to do with frats and sororities. I would not have said "Oh, it's where they keep the vegan kids." Then I came to coll ege and learned that, at least at Bard, that's pretty much exactly what it is. Feitler House, the vegan co-op, is Bard's sole example of theme housing, and it's not a bad one. Founded by a student in the late '90s, it is the first dorm visitors come upon when entering Annandale Road from 9G. The students who live there are all upperclassmen who applied for one of the ten available spots. Although Sophomore Molly King surveys the crisp autumnal morning from the vantage point of the Feitler porch it is called a vegan co-op, only one of the members is vegan. The rest cited reasons living in Feitler is "a good way not to feel the academic advantages of theme difference and to cut down on for applying such as a desire for better so isolated from life." Other members housing oriented around speaking cliqu es. H e argued that we wilJ food and a more communal environment.