By Tessa Engel ’11
In light of the current on-campus and online controversy surrounding the recent cancellation of Fishbowl, I would like to revisit several past and current perceptions of Conn, from both inside and outside of the student body. Please keep in mind that I am an alumna, have only been following the online articles and comments, and have been doing so from outside of the U.S.
In my five-and-a-half year long affiliation with the College, I have never witnessed such outrage and mobilization by the Conn student body over any event or decision before this week’s announcement of the cancellation of Fishbowl. Many support the decision, and many do not. And boy, are people from all graduating years feeling compelled to rant and rave from both sides. Regardless of how you stand, such reactions raise a worthy question: What is important to Conn students, and what are they willing to fight for?
In February and early March of 2010, just weeks after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, various students, academic departments, and CISLA organized and sponsored a 3-day-long benefit called “Hope for Haiti,” where 100% of the donations were to be given to an organization that provided direct aid to children who became orphans as a result of the natural disaster. Former Editor-in-Chief Jazmine Hughes ’12 and I co-authored an April 2010 article about poor attendance at the fundraiser and subsequent perceptions of the Conn student body as being “apathetic.” Student attendance of the events was paltry, at best (I know firsthand, having attended nearly all of them). When asked after the reason for such apathy, students voiced that it was not well-advertised and that the $10 donation to attend was too steep. Really? Really?
Fast forward to this week, and it suddenly appears as though a revolt is going to arise on campus. Brenner Green, ’12, who is currently a Teach for America special education teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada, posted a Facebook status on the evening of Thursday, December 6 that said, “Students at my college (alma mater) are concerned about losing a naked run. My students have been raped, abused, or don’t have stable homes to go to. Problems of upper/middle class vs problems of lower class.”
After voices of approval and discontent alike were expressed about the status, Brenner then elaborated upon his statement with, “my comment is being taken the wrong way. I obviously totally support the students’ reaction to Fishbowl (everyone knows I loved that event and always will), especially regarding administration’s disregard of students’ voices now. I am just stating how different issues are for my students and this issue here. It’s more of my own reflection now that I see on a daily basis how severe issues are for people in a different class than my own. Otherwise, I am 100% behind this movement at Conn to regain student voices.”
I am not arguing that all of Conn is “apathetic,” as incredible strides have been made with initiatives such as the Green Dot program, and the College maintains quite a presence in New London through volunteering. I was proud and fortunate enough to work alongside past and current students on Habitat for Humanity builds and Spring Break trips; I felt the palpable sense of empowerment and solidarity while performing in the Vagina Monologues; I had professors and fellow classmates who provided perspectives on the world that I would never had been exposed to elsewhere. I also rejoiced with nearly 90% of the rest of College when Barack Obama was elected on the night of November 4th, 2008.
But I sometimes feel as though too much of the student population only cares about the issues, rights, and decisions that specifically pertain to it and only it.
I, personally, do not support the decision to flat-out cancel Fishbowl. I reveled in the glory that was Fishbowl. I also tripped, fell, and banged up my knee pretty badly during the run itself. And I’ll admit to being one of the many who upped her gym regimen in the weeks preceding the event.
I echo the questions and reactions of others: Why couldn’t the event for the Class of 2013 been altered slightly by reducing the amount of school-provided alcohol first to see if anything would have changed? Moreover, the lack of transparency and student input about the decision is quite stunning. As an alumna, I am proud to stand with current and future students who are outraged and disappointed.
But at the same time, why didn’t more students participate in the Haiti benefit? Why, generally speaking, do too few students care about too few issues that directly affect both the College community and elsewhere?
Maybe, just maybe, the decision by Dean Denard and the rest of the administration was made upon genuine concern for student safety, security, and well-being. Maybe it was not made with the expectation of making the College more appealing to the Board of Trustees nor turning it into a strait-laced, tradition-obliterating, private boarding school. Maybe it was a decision larger than the immediate self-interests of those who made it, designed to encompass benefits for students, the campus, and the surrounding community.
I ask all students, past, current, and future, to deeply question what they care about, when and for what they are willing to voice concerns, and how far they will go to fight for their own rights in relation to fighting for the causes of others. Conn touts producing and educating “students to put the liberal arts into action as citizens in a global society.” How can we, as students and alumni, embrace this descriptive title when the Conn student body sometimes only gets up-in-arms over issues that often only affect the students themselves?
The people in Haiti do not affect on me. Sure, what happened to them is awful but it does not affect me. As a student who has school work, a job, and social obligations–things that don’t directly affect me really aren’t of interest. This might offend your sense of what Conn, or a liberal arts school should be, but that’s how I feel; I imagine many students feel the same, or tacitly agree via their actions. Fishbowl directly affects my ability to have fun, and what the fishbowl decision is a larger symptom of: administration disregard for student concerns, affects me. I do question what I care about, and I do so regularly, Haiti and the like is not even on my radar.
Okay, yes, sure, I am well aware that the situation in Haiti did not affect you, nor the majority of the student body. But it did directly affect some people in the Conn community. My point is that Conn students ought to be concerned about issues that directly affect them AS WELL AS issues that do not directly affect them. Maybe I am a little biased (though I would not call it bias, rather that I care more and am more informed) as an international relations/Hispanic studies double major.
It can be argued that people in the US and other “developed” nations will be more insulated from global warming and climate change than those in more vulnerable “developing” nations. The fact that rising oceans are causing islands such as Tuvalu and the Maldives to disappear does not directly affect you. But (especially in light of Hurricane Sandy), rising oceans affecting US coasts and major US cities most likely could directly affect you, or at least your friends and family. Maybe the attacks of September 11th, 2001 did not “directly” affect you, but they did affect your country’s (assuming you are a US citizen) national security and its creation of a preemptive war doctrine that completely altered the US’s role in the international arena. What if the Rest of the World did not care about the US immediately after those attacks?
Right, but why? You’re just making normative claims without any real support for said claims. I’ve yet to hear a good account of why I should care, I only hear that I should. So until you or someone provides a reasonable account of why I–and by extensions others that share my sentiment(s)–should care, I’ll continue not to.
The comment from ASlightlyLessConcernedStudent embodies the unfortunate apathy that many Conn students share. I have been lucky to be friends and teammate with many students who were involved in organizations like 1 in 4, Spectrum, and Habitat 4 Humanity, and/or members of PICA and CISLA. If you become involved with these organizations, you can really fight for a cause, help others nationally or globally, and make some kind of positive impact and difference in the world. In my commencement speech this past Spring, I shared my personal story of how Connecticut College provides such amazing opportunities for a student to develop his/her vigor for activism, advocacy, and citizenship (not just on campus, but on a global-scale). Needless to say, homophobic and ignorant comments followed not even a week later, on Conn Coll Confessional. I apologize to these people for not talking about Cro Dances and floor parties in my speech, two of the things most cared about by students on campus. I guess I have to at least commend these student for voicing an opinion. The online anonymity and homophobia is a bit “high-school,” but at least these students compensated for their enduring apathy as college students, by voicing their opinions on how one speech “ruined” their graduation day.
I’d like to reiterate my support for the current student body for advocating so passionately for their right to shared governance. If I was on campus now, I too would be attending the SGA hearings, House meetings, and doing whatever I could do to fight for Fishbowl. However, I would only hope that the same students who were fighting with me would attend other House meetings, other SGA hearings, and even run for class office. If the main concern around losing Fishbowl is indeed regarding the protection of shared governance on campus, then by all means, show administration that you take part in it regularly. I am hoping that if “Fishbowlgate” is an accurate reflection of students’ passion for shared governance/student input, that I can hear from my friends who are current Housefellows, SGA reps, and even professional staff members on campus, that no meeting has poor attendance.
Brenner the reason people were so upset about your speech: you were privileged enough to be selected as representative for the entire senior class, to give a speech that encompassed as much of your grades experience as possible; while making an all inclusive speech is certainly difficult, perhaps even impossible, it seemed that you made no effort to do so. Instead you chose to make it only about your experience, bordering on solipsism. So while you chastise other’s apathy, and in turn making it clear that you have and continue to ‘help others nationally [and] globally’ you do so with such a non-altruistic spirit that your never going to get anything but a negative response.
I mean look at the comment you just wrote, this whole fishbowl issue is about the current students, the current administration. This article is a criticism (while an empty one from where I stand) focused on the current students. Yet somehow you find a way to tie it all back to you and how this relates to you and what you would be doing if you were here. That’s why people were so disgusted with your speech and why some even felt you ruined graduation. Get a grip on reality bud, you’re not the center of the universe.
ASlightlyLessConcernedStudent, I am embarrassed that you are a Connecticut College student. It is a shame to have someone represent Connecticut College who cannot think beyond their immediate daily life yet alone act on behalf of bigger, more important issues than his/her own privileges. I am disappointed. I am positive Connecticut College is not proud of someone who does not have any intention of living up to the core value of the college. Might I remind you of the mission statement:
“Connecticut College educates students to put the liberal arts into action as citizens in a global society.”
In my opinion, you are the one who needs a reality check.
ASlightlyLessConcernedStudent is completely right. Brenner, nobody is mad you didn’t talk about floor parties and cro dances in your speech. People were mad because your speech was incredibly self-centered and had almost nothing to do with the rest of us. Graduation was a day for all of us, it wasn’t a day for you to rattle off your accomplishments and be in everyone’s face with your sexuality. Quite frankly I don’t care that you are gay or how many miles you’ve run in your life- which pretty much summarizes the contents of your speech that day. I’m sure your mention in this article has made you feel even more special than the rest of us. Congrats.
Back to the topic at hand, the cancellation of fishbowl and Haiti have nothing to do with each other. This article is ridiculous. Not one person complaining about fishbowl thinks it is more important than poverty/rape/ending world hunger/etc. Stop trying to make everyone feel bad and acting like you are the only one that has your priorities straight. Its insulting.
Explain to me exactly why I should give a shit. There have been approximately 100-200 billion people who have lived on this earth (depending on whose account you accept), of which ~7 billion are alive right now. Why should I give a shit about a couple hundred thousand Haitians when I have my own shit to worry about? Billions have equally bad or even worse deaths than the Haitians, and not to mention the suffering sentient animals throughout the eons. 50 years from now no one will be worried about what happened to the Haitians in 2011. Millions will have died and been born between now and then; so excuse me if I’m more concerned about building a good life for myself than to attend a pity party for Haiti. Sure, if you throw it in my face I’ll give a few dollars to help if I have spare change in my pocket. However, my point is simply that I don’t have time to be a bleeding heart for the world, If you want to waste your ~50-70 years you have left (assuming the best case scenario) trying to solve poverty and starvation, by all means knock yourself out. But if you’re narrow-sighted enough to think a realist perspective like mine runs contrary to liberal arts values, you have no idea what liberal arts values are. Liberal arts is about pluralism in study and thinking, the fact that a realist like me, goes to this school, and excels, embodies the school’s missions statement.
I would like to know where your own personal pluralism in study and thinking is; that is, your ability to think beyond yourself?
To ASlightlyLessConcernedStudent (read: immensely), your multiple comments and various sentiments merely reinterate the point the author of the article is trying to make.
ASlightlyLessConcernedStudent,
Of course the people in Haiti affect you. You are a member of a global, interconnected society. Imagine, if you will, if everyone else was like you and didn’t give a single fuck about the Haitian people: an uncontrolled cholera epidemic would be destroying an entire population, multi-drug resistant TB and HIV/AIDS cases would be popping up in countries that had formerly been able to better control said diseases (including the US), and all the economic contributions that Haiti makes to the global marketplace would be diminished, if not destroyed. Luckily, millions of other people don’t think as you do, and they realize that everyone on this Earth is affected by everyone else in some way: we make products that other people depend on, we (unfortunately) spread diseases to each other, and we rely on other populations as our allies when international disputes arise. So yes, in your short-sighted worldview, Haiti may not appear to have much of an impact on your daily life, but where I believe you fail is in your inability to fully appreciate the future and all the consequences that inaction can hold for us.
What will the cancellation of Fishbowl mean for our future? Aside from a few hundred pissed off Conn students/alumni (myself included) and concern about a reduction in shared governance at a small liberal arts college (which will hopefully be addressed one way or another), I’d say it’s a comparatively insignificant event that will have no lasting impact on our lives. I wish you nothing but the best with the rest of your college experience.
Respectfully,
Nick Woolf ’11
To 2012alum, I draw upon a clear connection between Fishbowl and the Hope for Haiti benefit with the question I pose in the second paragraph. But the bigger point, and the point that you have blatantly missed, is the fact I (and, evidently, others) believe that more Conn students ought to care about more issues that are beyond their immediate concerns. Since you have failed to recognize that the article asks readers to envision a picture bigger than Fishbowl, bigger than the Conn campus, and bigger than Haiti, you have failed to understand the argument I made and defended. As for me “trying to make everyone feel bad and acting like [I am] the only one that has [my] priorities straight,” considering the fact that I cite a number of current Conn organizations that are making strides with issues pertaining to the campus and elsewhere, you clearly poorly read and intentionally misinterpreted my statements.
To ASlightlyLessConcernedStudent, I am choosing to forego detailed responses to every single fallacy of every single claim you make, particularly of those in your most recent post. You made obvious in the first three sentences of your first post that you just don’t care. Fine. Go ahead and just don’t care. But since you have wound up sounding like a blithering, bigoted, unfounded, heartless, and egotistical idiot, please spare us from further comments about how you just.don’t.give.a.shit.
I’m sorry I’ve upset you so much, my only point in all this was trying to get an account of why I—or anyone for that matter—should care. I realize humanitarian work is something you hold near and dear, that’s great, if it gives your life purpose and puts food on your table, good on you. My point is simply this: I’m genuinely disinterested in people outside of my immediate, perhaps even slightly extended social circle. I’ve never heard a good account of why I should try (assuming I could) to change my attitude, or at the very least change my actions (though the merit of non-altruistic actions might be questionable as well).
Also, I’d love to hear what’s fallacious in what I’ve written. I’m a philosophy major, quite sure there isn’t anything fallacious in there but would love to be shown that I’m wrong.
Cheers
I’m going to take a little bit of a different perspective here. I graduated from Conn in 2010, worked at the UN for a year, have traveled extensively in the developing world and witnessed the terrible effects of oppressive governments, poorly developed infrastructures, lack of basic freedoms, etc… I care deeply about all of these issues and have donated time and money in support of various ones. (I hope these credentials are enough to chime in on this issue)
However, I believe that it is articles like this and comments like “(though I would not call it bias, rather that I care more and am more informed) are detrimental to the efforts people are making everyday to help others in countries like Haiti. There is very little relationship between attending a fundraiser for Haiti and being enraged by the cancellation of Fishbowl. If we are speaking honestly, a majority of the world is going to care more about an event that directly affect them than one that happens thousands of miles away, and there is nothing wrong with that. There is a minority of people out there who feel that all humans are connected and that it is the right of the more privileged to help those who are less fortunate, and there is nothing wrong with that either.
The problem is the people who do care about issues like what happened in Haiti cannot understand why others don’t. Instead of actually trying to understand why they come up with loosely tied argument that successfully insults those that are considered “less moral” and in the end accomplish nothing.
Now, (I may care more and I may be more informed) but instead of trying to connect an issue like Fishbowl to the lack of attendance at Haiti fundraisers I suggest educating yourself on how the world actually works, on what really does motivate people and on how to engage people in issues that they do not care about. Do not hijack one issue in an attempt to push your social agenda. Making an argument like this is counterproductive. It isn’t a coincidence that the most successful fundraisers for international events involve famous faces, people attend these events to see Bon Jovi play and bask in the social halo they get from saying they just spent 10k to fight hunger in South Sudan.
Scott,
I appreciate your (mostly) constructive comment, and am going to attempt to respond to it in a constructive manner. My IR/Hispanic studies focuses at Conn were human rights and Latin America. I was fortunate enough to study abroad with a program that concentrated on human rights and social movements in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. I studied border issues, the lasting effects of the Argentine economic crisis of 2001, clandestine detention centers, torture sites, and the 30,000+ ‘disappeared’ peoples, and the lack of contraceptives and sexual education in rural areas (among other things). During the summer of 2010, I interned with an NGO in Guatemala City, Guatemala through CISLA. I investigated international and national jurisprudence on genocide and crimes against humanity (in the context of the Guatemalan internal armed conflict), and alongside co-workers, I represented victims of the internal armed conflict for their first public court testimonies (many of whom spoke indigenous languages Ixil and K’iche, so their testimonies were instantly translated into Spanish by interpreters). I am currently back in Guatemala City working at a human rights research organization that addresses and investigates issues similar to the ones you witnessed in various developing countries: pervasive impunity, a horribly corrupt government, the effects of drug trafficking, human trafficking, and organized crime, and a population where (according to The World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Equity page), 75% of inhabitants are classified as living below the poverty line. I just contributed to the publication of a report about discrimination and state-sanctioned violence against Guatemala’s LGBTI population, and am currently collaborating with co-workers on a manual about access to justice for Guatemalan women who are suffering from sexual, psychological, and economic violence.
You are right; my claim of being “more informed” was pompous and polarizing. But I think that it is valid to uphold the claim that I “care more,” especially since that comment was directed towards ASlightlyLessConcernedStudent, and especially when taking under consideration his/her additional statements and opinions on “not giving a shit.”
I am more than well aware that the vast majority of the Conn population couldn’t care less about what I am doing and what I am passionate about. I will go a step further: I am more than well aware that my parents, siblings, and many of my closest friends haven’t a clue about what I am doing and couldn’t care less about the fact that I am doing it. None of the things that I care about in Guatemala have any direct connection to any of them.
I also have read, discussed, and written about the topic you mentioned at the end of your post, celebrity diplomacy, for several IR classes at Conn. What does it mean for Don Cheadle to be the face of Darfur refugees on national US television? What messages are Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt trying to convey by continuing to adopt children from impoverished African countries? Why do bands like U2 and others decide to host benefit concerts for hunger/Hurricane Katrina/poverty? The general public connects to such famous figures, and by extension, connects to the causes they support. But the general public often cannot connect to such issues without the link that celebrities establish.
I am also far from naïve in thinking that a single celebrity act, or multiple opinion articles, or multiple news articles, or the publication of graphic photographs are going to mobilize a population and are going to make people care about something that doesn’t affect their economic security or the safety of their lives. In this line of argument, I have also read, discussed, and written on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s 2005 article “The Secret Genocide Archive,” where he publishes 4 graphic images of dead bodies from Darfur’s genocide. He opens the column with, “Photos don’t normally appear on this page. But it’s time for all of us to look squarely at the victims of our indifference.” He continues by imploring readers to, at the very least, stop and think twice about the realities of the violence-ravaged country, even though nothing about Darfur’s conditions will likely directly affect the security of the lives of any of the readers. If you are unfamiliar with the article, I suggest you look it up.
So, back to the specific issue at hand, if you and others want to limit the scope of my article to Haiti, you are misinterpreting my aims. Maybe my choice to include the Haiti benefit was not the best example, but it was one to which I was connected and in which I was disappointed. I have never been to Haiti, and can argue that the majority of Conn students have not been there either. How should I, or any of them, have any genuine knowledge of the country or any visceral connection to the political, economic, and natural disaster issues that take place there? Regardless, that does not stop me nor other students from caring about the effects of the earthquake on Haiti’s population by doing a tiny bit to try to alleviate the destruction.
I am beyond aware that this article is not going to incite Conn students to action or to get them to care about more international issues, and about ones that don’t directly affect them. I suppose, if nothing more, my objective was to highlight my mixed sentiments (and, evidently, those of other students) surrounding, again, what Conn students (generally) care about, and what they are willing to fight for.
All of this being said, I must say that I am offended by your statement, “I suggest educating yourself on how the world actually works, on what really does motivate people and on how to engage people in issues that they do not care about.” I am not claiming to be an expert on IR, or human rights, or Latin America, or social movements, or women’s rights, or Haiti. In fact, I would be the first to admit that I am far from it. But I do think I have the right to believe that I have a bit of a sense of what I am talking about, and that I had the right to express an alternative perspective to the student mobilization surrounding Fishbowl and other issues that directly and indirectly affect the Conn student body.
To preface my comment, I just want to say that I almost never feel swayed to comment on articles. However, after reading your piece, Tessa, and the comments that followed, I feel compelled to tell you that you have made me think. I understand why you chose to use the Hope for Haiti example, but I think perhaps to some, it comes across as a bit “holier-than-thou”. I don’t necessarily see it that way, but I can see how others might get caught up in that idea, and therefore completely miss what is important about your argument.
Rather than getting distracted by the Haiti point, I take away from your article the point that Conn students CAN mobilize and feel passionate about certain topics. I’m proud to see Conn students fighting for Fishbowl. However, your article has made me think, imagine what Conn students could do if they focused that same Fishbowl energy/rage on another issue that maybe affects the world beyond Conn College.
Let me start by saying that I think it is promising and three-cheers to Conn for having turned out a compassionate, active and well informed steward of the world in Tessa Engel. If readers could get past her use of the Hope for Haiti and see it for what it was – AN EXAMPLE – than her larger argument is clear and hard to counter.
Conn students —past, current and future – want to be treated as adults. We want to have shared governance, we want to have a say, transparency, respect, claim over matters academic, disciplinary and institutional. This is a noble desire when it is authentic, and plenty of people DO participate in SGA and attend meetings and stay informed about the issues. I would argue, however, that the majority of students have no idea what is going on UNLESS it is something that they feel they have the right to be upset about, ie: something that ruins ASlightlyLessConcernedStudent’s “ability to have fun”.
While I myself am bummed that what was a very hilarious and riotously fun night and a bonding experience for my class will not continue as a tradition, and while I am in action impressed by the students who rallied to defend the way it was handled, I simply am not convinced. In discussion with another alum we questioned to authenticity of what was said by the students gathered at the SGA meeting. The students (by way of spokesperson) stated that they “want to have the conversations that weren’t had” to be involved in the discussion. What if the Dean had simply given in and said, “You know what? You’re right, we should have Fishbowl.” Would the 50-odd students who were gathered have stood and said, “NO! We want to have the discussion! You can’t just decide what we will and won’t do, we are adults!” Of course not, they would have been proud that they got the answer that they wanted and walked away with neither side having heard what thoughts went into the decision.
My point is that until Conn students REALLY want to be treated like adults, not just when they want to use it as a cover for being annoyed at a decision that they don’t like, I don’t believe that the Deans will or should take arguments like this seriously. You have to mean it, and you have to mean it all the time. If students come out and rally around all of the issues, argue about shared governance because of principle not because they didn’t get their way, support positive initiatives and decisions AS WELL AS fight against those that they disagree with, THEN we can call ourselves adults and take on that responsibility.
I get the point you are trying to get at, but process is not inherently good in and of itself. The point of process is to provide a minimum level of protection to people whose interests are affected. Thus, it is not the person who gets what they want that should be asserting it because, by getting their way, their interest is more than adequately protected.
I agree with the cancellation of Fishbowl. While it may seem liberating to some people, I had a bad experience. I was told by a classmate to put my clothes back on and was insulted about my body at both the dance and later on the Internet. It was not a good memory of senior year.
people like you suck, ‘oh i had a bad time, so let’s make sure no one else can ever have a good time.’
I think Tessa’s got it right. There is a definite disparity in the kinds of things Conn students are most willing to stand up for, and I’m sure the same could be said about many other colleges in the U.S. Personally, I’m not ready to pass judgment on the CC student body, because there are many individuals that carry a complex variety of concerns specific to themselves. But I would agree that in my four years at CC I observed a similar brand of apathy that Tessa describes above, and admittedly probably participated in.
In fact, the only two times I’d say the campus was distinctly NOT apathetic was 1) when a student tragically passed away in a car accident. I was moved to see so many students come to the memorial event held in Cro (I’ve never seen it so full); I was moved to see how many students were affected, directly or indirectly by the events that occurred. It indicated a sense of awareness and community and showed that people really DID care. It was a lesson in community-building.
In another instance (2), a Harris holiday prank resulted in a deeply profound discussion across campus about privilege and the treatment and perception of the minority population on campus. For weeks there were discussions amongst friends and in class rooms, as well as multiple student organized events and meetings revolving around topics that are relevant outside the Conn community.
Sometimes it’s a circumstance of coincidence and “good timing,” sometimes only fleeting, other times enthusiasm never sparks. I don’t have any answers. Which is a pretty apathetic and non-committal thing to say, but I agree with Tessa in that we should all examine what we’re willing to stand up for and decide if that’s something we can happily live with, or if it’s something we’d rather change.
(for the record, as much as i dreaded and enjoyed fishbowl, i can easily see the reasons for its cancellation. i also have the benefit of having been able to participate. i might feel differently if i was a current student being denied. then again, to put this all in perspective, this won’t even be an issue in a few years cause nobody will really know about it. will shared governance still be an issue? perhaps. THAT’S a topic that i hope continues to be important to the student community. not just that you don’t get to run naked across campus at the end of the year…)
It is clear from the comments made by the slightlylessconcerned dude that he/she does not give a shit, besides his/her immediate surroundings/life. I do not agree with this person what so ever, but I am not surprised to hear such comments since the majority of Americans share this same sentiment. What bothers me most is the self righteous comments being made by people who actually think theyre better because they’re giving a few years of service with a non-profit.
Karl,
I would like you to specify where I point out that I think I am better since I have spent a few months working with non-profits. I mentioned my experience and what I have done just as Scott did in the explanation of his past experience and his statement “I hope these credentials are enough to chime in on this issue.”
I illustrated my past experience to counter Scott’s unfounded stance against my ability to hold and defend the argument I made in my article when he writes, “I suggest educating yourself on how the world actually works, on what really does motivate people and on how to engage people in issues that they do not care about.” What I have done and continue to do does in fact prove that I have at least a few notions on how some parts of the world work, and have some sense of social movements and mobilization.
As I previously wrote, “I am more than well aware that the vast majority of the Conn population couldn’t care less about what I am doing and what I am passionate about. I will go a step further: I am more than well aware that my parents, siblings, and many of my closest friends haven’t a clue about what I am doing and couldn’t care less about the fact that I am doing it. None of the things that I care about in Guatemala have any direct connection to any of them.”
This awareness and the fact that Guatemalan issues do not directly affect most Conn students, nor my parents, siblings, and friends does NOT mean that I think that I am better than them, that I find my priorities to be higher than theirs, and that I consider them “less moral” (which, again, is what Scott writes I believe). If you think I am incorrect, please indicate where I express otherwise.
Oh, my comment wasnt directed towards you. Quite the contrary, I enjoyed the article and it expresses a sad reality about the Conn. student body.
An interest in and knowledge of certain issues, and a decision to choose a job that works to address those issues, does not characterize someone as “self-righteous”, nor demonstrates that the person believes him/herself to be “better than everyone else.”
Honestly, I don’t think anyone is arguing that in and of itself “an interest in and knowledge of certain issues, and a decision to choose a job that works to address those issues makes someone ‘self-righteous.'” The accusations of self-righteousness stem more from comments like “Maybe I am a little biased (though I would not call it bias, rather that I care more and am more informed) as an international relations/Hispanic studies double major.”
I appreciate that the author acknowledged that this came across as pompous. I do think what the author is doing is very important (and I certainly believe that some level of caring is important, unlike ASlightlyLessConcernedStudent). But the tone and the words the author used in this article and in the comments are very important and, I think, responsible for much of the criticism commentators have directed at her. Statements like these set up a false dichotomy wherein you are either informed and care (good) or uninformed and do not care (bad).
By phrasing the conflict in this manner, the author made this conversation even more adversarial, putting anyway who does not agree with her on the “uninformed” or wrong side. I say more adversarial because ASlightlyLessConcernedStudent already made this a very combative discussion. But the author needs to realize that even when responding to one commentator, she is speaking to a larger audience.
I read in the Day this morning about the cancellation of the spring “Fish Bowl” party. I can understand that the students are upset about the cancellation of an event that they were looking forward to—kind of a rite of passage. I am from another generation and see the part of the party that is unhealthy and dangerous. You should have some event that will be fun to close your years at the college—a transition. Fun does not have to be dangerous. Did you every watch a child at a an outdoor concert? They hop, wiggle and dance with abandon, not caring who is watching. Maybe instead of trying to break your way into the “real world” by exhibiting some of its baser ways; you could try a different rite of passage— living life to the fullest for a day as a kid before you have to let it go. If you want to get dizzy and fall down, go to a grassy area, spread your arms out and twirl till you can’t stand anymore—then laugh, laugh, laugh. See who can be the last standing! Play dodge ball, kick the can, tag, marbles, pick up stix, jacks. Race for the fun of it. Dance, wiggle and jiggle to music with abandon—a natural high! Eat ice cream and hot dogs until they come out of your ears. The next day you will remember what you did and who you did it with, and feel connected. This is truly life at its fullest and you deserve this!