{"id":463,"date":"2010-04-21T16:02:50","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T16:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hub-dev.bates.edu\/magazine\/?page_id=463"},"modified":"2017-09-06T11:38:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T15:38:41","slug":"open-forum","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/magazine\/back-issues\/y2008\/spring08\/departments\/open-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cat O\u2019-59-Tale<\/h3>\n

The story \u201cA Bobcat for the Ages\u201d (Quad Angles, Fall 2007) discusses the formation of a Public Art Committee to establish guidelines before a Bobcat statue by the Class of 2004 can be properly executed. Because there is historical precedent here, I offer a recollection that may sway the planning process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

Please Write!<\/h4>\n

We love letters. Letters may be edited for length (300 words or fewer preferred), style, grammar, clarity, and relevance to College issues and issues discussed in Bates Magazine. E-mail your letter<\/a> to or postal mail to Bates Magazine, Office of Communications and Media Relations, 141 Nichols St., Lewiston ME 042402006. <\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Prior to the 1957 Bates-Bowdoin football game, a group of Bates hooligans traveled to Brunswick in an attempt to correct a defect in the Bowdoin polar bear statue. Realizing the gender-neutral bear was intended to represent a ferocious male,\u00a0anatomical alterations were made utilizing a pliable putty-like substance. The enhancement was noted by many beneath the pines of dear old Bowdoin, but drew little attention on the Bates campus.<\/p>\n

The following fall, using advanced soldering techniques, the group returned with sophisticated composites hoping to achieve permanency for the bear\u2019s gender designation. Communication between the two potted ivies resulted in a covert investigation by the deans that failed to identify the Bates bad boys.<\/p>\n

In the spring, the Class of \u201959 voted to give a Bobcat statue to the school using as initial funding residual class fees. Bates officials, with visions of the Bowdoin polar bear firmly implanted in their memories, refused the gift \u2014 perhaps fearing the Bates statue would be the fuse setting off a long testicular war between the two schools.<\/p>\n

The spunky Class of \u201959 accordingly invoked a quid pro quo and demanded that each student be refunded their just portion of their class fees. Thus history was made: The Class of \u201959 became the first and only class in the history of Bates to forgo a class gift. This nugget of Bates history is revealed here only to alert the current gifters that the devil may indeed be in the details. It is this writer\u2019s sincere desire that the\u00a0Bobcat statue be erected near the entrance of the Merrill Gym before both 1959\u2019s and 2004\u2019s Reunion in 2009. Maybe this will symbolize the final chapter \u2014 regardless of how ferocious the Bobcat may appear.<\/p>\n

Tom Johnson \u201959
\nSt. Augustine, Fla.<\/strong><\/p>\n

History suggests that the College turned down Bobcat statue proposals twice: in 1959 and the year before, from the Class of 1958. In April 1958, The Bates Student reported on the \u201chard feelings\u201d around the statue issue, adding that President Phillips wished that the \u201ctradition of leaving something to the school be discontinued.\u201d Happily, the tradition endured; this year\u2019s Class of 2008 will make their gift to the Bates Fund. \u2014 Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

Course Approval<\/h3>\n

As a student, I was always impressed with the faculty, the course selection, and the diversity on campus. I am now more impressed after reading the article about how and why Associate Professor of English Lavina Shankar created her Short Term course (\u201cFor the Love of Dogs,\u201d Fall 2007). Since graduating from Bates, I have had the privilege of becoming a veterinarian, and am a resident in canine and feline internal medicine at Texas A&M University\u2019s Small Animal Hospital. Though my academic training was excellent at Bates, I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of veterinary medicine\u2013related topics, including human-animal relations. I can\u2019t tell you how very happy I was to find that a course like Professor Shankar\u2019s is available at Bates, and can only assume that it was very well received and attended. In short, thank you, Professor Shankar, for creating this course.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Quinn \u201900
\nCollege Station, Texas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everywhere a Sign<\/h3>\n

\"\"
\nThis photo from\u00a0our story in the\u00a0Summer 2007 issue<\/a> focuses on Vermont veterinarian Amy Dowd Bartholomew ’88, but what caught the eye of letter writer Chris Urban ’04 were the Hispanic names on the farm sign at upper left.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The story by Wilson Ring \u201979 about Vermont large-animal veterinarian Amy Dowd Bartholomew \u201988 (\u201cSmall Farms, Big Challenges,\u201d Summer 2007) was interesting, but the background details in one photograph were even more intriguing. In the photo showing Amy on the phone outside her vehicle at the Lussier farm, one can see family names painted beneath a sign on a barn wall. Also seen are recently added names of undocumented migrant Mexican workers. I know this because in my work for the Vermont Migrant Education Program we completed statewide research about the migrant Mexican population. In fact, I just happen to know those guys. And though their names appear as just one detail on a white, paint-flecked wall, their presence in Vermont is a window into a larger story that connects all of us.<\/p>\n

Chris Urban \u201904
\n<\/strong>Monkton, Vt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In February, Urban was in Mexico visiting his\u00a0former students\u2019 families and their towns.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful opportunity to see what Vermont-earned money provides, what pieces of American culture are carried back south, and just to see my former students-friends in a place where they are free of fear,\u201d writes Urban. \u2014 Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

Name that Writer<\/h3>\n

Comments by Carrie Curtis Young \u201994 regarding the late Professor Williamson (Open Forum, Fall 2007) mention that she initially encountered her favorite author in his class. So, what is the name of that Afro-Caribbean author?<\/p>\n

Norman Morford P\u201983
\n<\/strong>Indianapolis, Ind.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carrie Young replies: \u201cI am always happy to spread the word about a favorite author! She is Maryse Cond\u00e9, the Guadeloupean, French-language author.\u00a0I would be hard pressed to name a favorite novel, perhaps Heremakhonon or Les derniers rois mages \/ The Last of the African Kings. We read Moi, Tituba: Sorci\u00e8re \/ I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem with Dick Williamson.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

King Day 2008<\/h3>\n

I was heartened and inspired to see the online slide show about Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities at Bates. As a freshman at Bates, I was happy for the day off but I was also impressed with Bates\u2019 effort to make it a \u201cday on.\u201d Many schools offer a token lecture or nothing at all; Bates plans a day with activities and workshops and discussions. I didn\u2019t realize the scope of Bates\u2019 commitment to MLK Day until I was teaching art history\u00a0at a college that did\u00a0not\u00a0openly celebrate it.\u00a0To remedy this situation somewhat, I did a lesson on Charles Moore, photographer of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. We analyzed photos of King, and I emphasized that this injustice took place just 40 years ago. Who was at the heart of the movement? I asked. I then showed a photograph of a group of black and white students, maybe 19 years old, marching together. It wasn\u2019t only \u201cadults\u201d but students like themselves who had made a difference. Thank you, Bates, for continuing the discussion. It has inspired me to honor this day every year, and for the past two years I\u2019ve attended\u00a0a fundraising breakfast that supports my high school\u2019s transportation program for inner-city teens.<\/p>\n

Lindy Forrester \u201900
\n<\/strong>Jamaica Plain, Mass.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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