Avitia-Jacques

I wrote about the U.S.-Mexico border in this column a few weeks ago, discussing the potential environmental consequences of a border wall. In the time since my writing, the situation has developed. Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, the focus of my article, has been spared from construction due to immense public outcry and organizing from local activists. Of course, this is meager consolation—one protected refuge in a wildlife corridor still under assault is not enough to curb environmental ruin.

This article is the third installment in the Diversity Matters series, in which students from the Diversity in Higher Education seminar present research based on interviews with 48 seniors. To read the first installment, click here. To read the second installment, click here. Our analyses of self-segregation and insufficient race education at Bowdoin suggest that many students do not understand the impact of racial inequity in their own lives. What happens when this manifests in controversy?

A petition calling on Bowdoin to reform its sexual assault policy has received over 800 signatures. The petition, written by Sophie Cowen ’18, Julianna Burke ’18, Amber Rock ’19 and Eleanor Paasche ’20, was announced last Friday. A poster campaign in David Saul Smith Union and outdoor tabling accompanied the petition’s release, bringing awareness of the petition to the wider Bowdoin community. “It’s been time for a long time to do something,” said Cowen.