Most Conn students are no stranger to some of the outlandish slogans that have graced the Camelympics t-shirts in past years. Last year featured controversial shirts such as Johnson’s “Just Beat It,” or Freeman’s Morgan Freeman shirt that read, “I’m a free man.”
This year, the Residential Education and Living staff decided to augment their censorship of Camelympic shirt designs.
When asked what exactly went wrong in previous years to create so many new restrictions on t-shirts this year, Residential Education and Living Director, Amy Gauthier insisted that ResLife is not actually making that many changes.
“However, because the t-shirts are coming out of ResLife’s Office, and SGA is co-sponsoring and helping to fund Camelympics, the t-shirts must be done in a manner which reflects the entire community. If the t-shirts are not reflective of the entire community, it becomes problematic,” Gauthier said.
After seeing many previous t-shirts referencing drugs and alcohol, the staff challenged whether such designs reflected the entire campus, and in most cases, they decided they did not.
Such was the case with Larrabee’s rumored design involving the slogan “size matters,” because the dorm is the biggest on campus. Some students are uncomfortable wearing a t-shirt with such a design. Senior Rebecca Reel said, “I just feel like I can’t wear that to a grocery store.”
Some Connecticut College students have voiced concerns that ResLife is being too sensitive about the shirts and made a mistake in excluding students from the decision of what was considered “reflective of the community.”
Camelympics 2009 was scheduled a week earlier into the semester, forcing Housefellows to choose their dorm’s designs without input from their house councils. This year, many hoped that by postponing Camelympics until slightly later into the semester, houses would be able to contribute to the designs. Unfortunately, due to the inappropriate content that several dorms submitted, a few Housefellows were once again forced to make the final decisions on shirts without much input from residents.
As one Housefellow stated, “I think there should absolutely be a line drawn, and I think it’s totally understandable and appropriate to ask people to go back to the drawing board. But they took it too far this year, and it took away some of the traditional fun that comes with designing t-shirts.”
When questioned, Gauthier was sure to recognize that ResLife has vetoed t-shirt designs every year. “That’s nothing new, but as far as overstepping this year for censorship: if the college is paying for the t-shirts, there does need to be a standard in place.”
Another Housefellow, equally perturbed by some of the changes this year, commented, “While the issue of censorship was certainly relevant this year as we designed shirts, the bigger issue we faced was working with such a limited budget.”
For those who missed last week’s article on the topic, the budget question has been resolved; thanks to SGA’s support through SOFO and even some contribution from ResLife, students won’t be paying for their own shirts.
The same Housefellow also expressed her disappointment in not being able to have more design choice. “More than anything, we were restricted by the actual practical limitations of making the shirts. Only one ink color, only one side of the shirt to work with and no detail design on the sleeves.”
When questioned about this limitation, Gauthier answered quite simply, “We opted for a [homogeneous] pattern to make the budget more manageable. When each of the houses started using different colors, screenwriting and patterns, it increased the costs dramatically, and there was no way we would be able to cover the costs without asking the students to pay for some of that cost.”
Despite some of the problems adapting to heightened standards and limited design options, an overwhelming number of Housefellows said they empathized with ResLife and understood their difficult decision in deciding what would be best for not only Conn’s image, but also the students who are required to attend events throughout the two day celebration, wearing their dorm’s shirt with pride.
“In terms of censoring the shirts,” one Housefellow wrote, “I think they are doing what they need to do, because school funded shirts should not be offensive to the student body. The shirts are still fun and I feel like we were not too limited by the censorship.”
Another commented, “Camelympics is a bonding experience for each dorm and for the community as a whole. As Housefellows, we do understand why the shirts need to be appropriate. None of us want to risk inadvertently making any member of our community feel uncomfortable on a day that is supposed to be fun.”
“That’s really what it came down to,” Gauthier concluded. “How do we represent our buildings on a t-shirt that everyone would feel comfortable wearing? And sometimes our job is to look out for the people who wouldn’t necessarily say something.”
Gauthier emphasized that the changes instituted this year were not meant to penalize students for past instances, but rather to prompt students to think more broadly. “Is this the only way we can represent our community: through drug and alcohol references? And if so, I think maybe we need to have a larger conversation.”
Camelympics 2010 will run from Friday, October 1 to Saturday, October 2.
