 |
||||||||
|
1/08/2003 10:25:00 PM | Timothy Swim team press release Look here for the background info on the funding, comments from students and administrators and more on the reinstatement of the swim team. Judging by comments on dartlog.net, it looks like SA president Janos Martin is going to be praised for his efforts [update: I shouldn't have implied that all, or even most, of the statements on dartlog praise Janos, the SA, and other's efforts to reinstate the swim team. Andrew Grossman, for example, is one of the people who questioned ealier on the willingness of some students to protest the swim team cuts but not the earlier library cuts]. But I'm going to repeat some of the queries I've heard, read and thought of: Why was the focus on the swim team? What next Why didn't the large protests start earlier with the libraries? Do we (and how so can we) institutionalize the student voice? What do sports such as swimming have to do with the education mission of the College? Sure, this affects some people rather hard, but so does the reshaping of the certain libraries like Sherman, am I right about this? Was this merely the final straw? If the swim team had been cut first, and then the libraries would something different have happened (why)? The point I'm trying to make in asking these questions is that was it the swim team itself that so many people were angry about or the lack of voice that made the elimination of the swim team possible? Does merely reinstating the swim team restore student voice? If we and can we declare victory and let the other cuts stand, does that mean we didn't care about the libraries or how the cuts happened? And one tougher question from my perspective: what if students' voices are misplaced in their priorities? If students do value the swim team more than the libraries (do they?) is that justifiable? I say that not from some paternalistic perspective that mandates interference, but merely to note that all preferences are not justifiable or rational. Students should reflect not only on how to get an institutionalized voice, but on what that institutionalized voice should be. The administration has a lot of reasons for not giving students (and alums I suppose) a voice and I don't think it is just that they don't view students as 'responsible'. But I mean to say that it is not enough to say that this is the student preference, we have to argue this preference is justified, because one excuse the administration could use to deny student voice is that students don't even offer reasons for what they think, so be sure to when you advance your case, as many (I assume) are already eloquently doing so. To conclude this convoluted post: even if the administration disagrees with what the student voice says, and the reasons students have for justifying their position, it is not wise for students to portray themselves as not even thinking about their justification. perma link |
| 0 comments
0 Comments: |
Dartmouth The Free Press Alums for Social Change The Green Magazine The Dartmouth Dartmouth Observer Dartmouth Review Dartlog Inner Office The Little Green Blog Welton Chang's Blog Vox in Sox MN Publius (Matthew Martin) Netblitz Dartmouth Official News Other Blogs Ampersand Atrios Arts & Letters Altercation Body and Soul Blog For America Brad DeLong Brad Plumer CalPundit Campus Nonsense Clarksphere Crooked Timber Cursor Daily Kos Dean Nation Dan Drezner The Front Line Instapundit Interesting Times Is That Legal? Talking Points Memo Lady-Likely Lawrence Lessig Lean Left Left2Right Legal Theory Matthew Yglesias Ms. Musings MWO Nathan Newman New Republic's &c. Not Geniuses Ornicus Oxblog Pandagon Political State Report Political Theory Daily Review Queer Day Roger Ailes SCOTUS blog Talk Left TAPPED Tacitus This Modern World Tough Democrat Untelevised Volokh Conspiracy Washington Note X. & Overboard Magazines, Newspapers and Journals Boston Globe Ideas Boston Review Chronicle of Higher Education Common Dreams Dissent In These Times Mother Jones New York Review of Books New York Times Salon Slate The American Prospect The Nation The New Republic The Progressive Tikkun Tom Paine Village Voice Washington Monthly Capitol Hill Media ABC's The Note American Journalism Review Columbia Journalism Review CQ Daily Howler Donkey Rising The Hill Medianews National Journal NJ Hotline NJ Wake-up call NJ Early Bird NJ Weekly Political Wire Roll Call Spinsanity Search Search the DFP  |
|||||||
The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Dartmouth College or the Dartmouth Free Press.