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One issue that CSA and student leaders are constantly confronting is, how do we get more students involved in governance?
I know that not every student is going to join one of the college committees, but I do feel that students could be aware of what’s going on around campus. When construction began on the new dorms, there were some students who didn’t know why the ground was being dug up. The college is our home for four years, we should be knowledgeable about events around campus. Not only for our own benefit, but in order to foster the kind of dialogue that will help CSA better represent students.
Part of informing students, which should be one goal of CSA, is giving them a general idea how decision are made at the college. I drew up this diagram last year, based the Walker and Fritz governance blog. Looking at it now, I don’t find it particularly enlightening. Perhaps the best way to introduce students to governance is a web page like this, run by Macalester’s student government. The website’s message is, “Here are things you can do to bring up an issue you’re concerned about.” It would also be nice if the website allowed students to network with other students who shared similar concerns.
One unfortunate aspect of campus life is that I never have enough time to read. Carleton’s stupendously long winter break provides a great opportunity to squeeze in some books. Here are some snippets from what I’ve been reading:
The Latehomecomer by Kao Kalia Yang (herself a Carleton Alum):
My own mother and father questioned themselves out loud, “What if we try to become Americans and fail?”
On the phone, Grandma said, “Lasting change cannot be forced, only inspired.”
For the Hmong, inspiration came in those that were born in this country, the ready-made Americans in our arms, the little faces of boys and girls who spoke Hmong with American stiffness.
Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman:
For in this world, time has three dimensions, like space. Just as an object may move in three perpendicular directions, corresponding to the horizontal, vertical, and longitudinal, so an object may participate in three perpendicular futures. Each future moves in different direction of time. Each future is real. At every point of decision… the world splits into three worlds, each with the same people but with different fates for those people.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami:
“Who is this Noboru Wataya guy, really? … What is he thinking? What does he want? All I know for sure is that we hate each other.”
“Noboru Wataya is a person who belongs to a world that is the exact opposite of yours,” said Creta Kano. Then she seemed to be searching for the words she needed to continue. “In a world where you are losing everything, Mr. Okada, Noboru Wataya is gaining everything. In a world where you are rejected, he is accepted. And the opposite is just as true. Which is why he hates you so intensely.”
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud:
Is it possible for any sequence of [images] to be totally unrelated to each other? Personally, I don’t think so. No matter how dissimilar one image may be to another, there is a kind of alchemy at work in the space between panels which can help us find meaning or resonance in even the most jarring of combinations… By creating a sequence with two or more images, we are endowing them with a single overriding identity and forcing the viewer to consider them as a whole. However different they had been, they now belong to a single organism.
Blood Brothers by Bertil Lintner (writing about the yakuza in Japan):
Through his contacts with gangsters, [Yoshio] Kodama had also managed to mobilise almost the entire mob to protect a planned state visit by American President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960 from possible attacks by Japan’s militant leftists… Never before had so many gangsters been mobilised for a task that would normally be the duty of the government… But in the end, Eisenhower’s visit was cancelled. Tens of thousands of leftists were still marching through the streets of Tokyo to protest against Nobusuke Kishi’s rightest government, which was in power at the time, and the Japan-United States defence treaty. But the mobilisation, as well as demonstrating the potential strength of the yakuza, had also inadvertently revealed how strong their links were to the government and the police.
President Oden announced last year that a new committee, the Campus Design Committee, would focus on the overall map of Carleton. At its first meeting last term, a Minneapolis based firm named Oslund and Associates presented and encouraged the college to redesign its parking.
The CSA appointees report: “Some of their ideas included a 2 storey parking lot (around 200 spaces), and restructuring the driveway from Scoville to Sayles into a “campus drive experience”.”
President Oden has committed Carleton to becoming Carbon Neutral, so why are we talking adding more parking?
In many ways, this discussion mirrors the larger discussion of sustainability at Carleton. There is a dedicated group of students working on green projects like making the dining halls trayless or installing low-flow shower heads. This group is very active in CSA and the governance of the college.
Less often heard are the many students who don’t want to be bothered by green initiatives.
Chris Erickson, a 5th year Environmental Science intern, writes, “The great surprise for me thus far this year has been seeing the far greater seriousness about and energy toward the issue of environmental sustainability from the faculty and staff… Students are entirely in favor of achieving carbon neutrality by external means: extra windmills, energy saving gadgets, magic buttons. But few are very interested in any solution that factors in behavior: taking shorter showers, washing clothes with cold water, not using computers as often.”
The same logic applies to parking. It’s simply more convenient to have a car on campus, even if it isn’t necessary for most students. Where the rubber meets the road, students aren’t ready to give up their cars.
The Carleton Student Associaton Senate is currently planning to redeign its website to make it more useful to students. Currently the website sees little traffic, as it is used mainly by the people working directly with CSA Senate. The new website should
- Inform visitors about what’s going on around campus
- Engage students in the community
- Help students get funding for their events
- Represent the interests of students to the college
The new website will be some kind of hybrid between St. Olaf’s Oleville and Macalester’s blog.
Please take a look at the website and post a comment or email me with any feedback or ideas you have.
Some of the coolest programs offered at Carleton are the experiential learning trips called seminars. The seminars are groups of students which travel abroad with Carleton professors for one term. There are seminars that travel to all corners of the globe. Biology students study sea turtles in Australia, Economics majors study in Cambridge, and Cinema and Media Studies students travel across Europe learning about new media. Most ubiquitous is the well-publicized Middle East Mosaics, in which President Oden personally teaches classes.
In a few months I’ll be traveling to Asia with forty other Carleton students for the Beijing Seminar. Led by Professor Roy Grow and his wife, the Beijing Seminar focuses on the interactions of politics and economics in China.
Before arriving in China we will be traveling to Thailand, Vietnam, and Burma in order to see China in the broader context. Once in China we will use Beijing as a launching point from which to travel across the country. The seminar is focused on experiential learning and travel.
When I first heard about the Beijing Seminar, I knew I wanted to be part of it. I found during my year in Germany that I do better when I feel out of place. The most foolish person in the room is the most likely to learn something, so that’s the person I want to be. I’m always impressed by students like Khant Khant Kyaw who push themselves outside their comfort zone with travel and volunteer work.
Traveling through China seems like a great way to make myself the most foolish person in the room.
Acceptance to the Seminar is competitive, and I feel lucky to have been chosen. After the Beijing Seminar, I plan to study in Japan as well. For me, leaving the college for more than a year is a significant sacrifice. Sometimes at CSA Senate meetings I look around the room and think, “By the time I return, most of these people will be gone. All the issues will have changed. I’ll have to relearn much of what I know about Carleton.” Besides the institutional change, there’s the people in my life. Traveling means leaving friends all over the world, but I know that’s what I want to do.
I’ve been thinking about this trip for so long now, I can’t wait to get underway. Last term I began auditing Chinese on top of my regular course load. At the end of the term, we made a skit, for which I wore my squid costume. In the skit, I invite friends to my house and they devour me. I will always remember one of my lines, although I don’t know how helpful it will be in China;
你们来吃我的孩子，我很不高兴！
“I’m very unhappy that you came and ate my children!”
Dean Wagner announced in an email on Monday that the new Dean of Students will be Julie Thornton. She will be filling the position of Bucky Zietz, who left last summer for reasons which were never made public. Thornton was one of the four candidates who visited campus recently for the interviews. Wagner writes, “Julie has worked to transform departments on her past campuses and is known for being a visionary, advocating for students, building strong relationships, and working collaboratively.”
Students were well incorporated in the search for the dean, in stark contrast to the hiring of Masman last year in which student input was ignored. The college is still looking to fill the positions of Director and Associate Director of Campus Activities. Hopefully they will again choose to involve students in these discussions.
Before heading back to Des Moines, I made a detour to Chicago to visit a friend. A large number of Carleton students come from Chicago, so it was no surprise that there were at least 10 other Carleton students on the bus I took. It was the Megabus nightline, running from 10:30PM to 6:30AM.
The bus arrived early so I found myself at 5:00AM in downtown Chicago. With nothing else to do, I started walking. Here are a few pictures I took.
I waited a longtime to see the sunset, but eventually I realized that it had already risen behind some other buildings. I gave up and fell asleep in a coffeeshop.
