Letters
Choosing the New Dean of Students
By Teddy Collins and Jonathan Adler
Published on January 24, 2008 in CXXX no. 28To the Editor:
Ideally, the Dean of Students should be an active member of the Phillips Academy student community. As the students’ chief advocate in the Academy administration, the Dean should have both formal and casual interaction with students, and thereby establish a healthy relationship with the student body. Beyond weekly Dean’s Table meetings, the Dean could enhance his presence with the students by occasionally speaking at All School Meeting, attending cluster munches, campus sporting events and Student Council. The Dean must find a balance between his role as a friend and advocate of the students and as a disciplinarian. In order for the Dean to be viewed more positively on campus, he could emphasize his role in Student Activities and other non-disciplinary fields. With regular emails, Phillipian submissions or a Blackboard page, the Dean should provide the students with updates concerning the projects undertaken by his office...
“Just Cut Us Off” (11/30)
By Alex Dehnert '08
Published on January 10, 2008 in CXXX no. 26As I read The Phillipian of November 30, I found that many of the points made in “Just Cut Us Off” struck me as misinformed.
Before I dissect those arguments, I was surprised that no mention was made of possibility of giving a trial period. Currently, the first week of school doesn’t count for the bandwidth rules. Given that “historically, the first few weeks of the year are always the highest” (according to Valerie Roman, Director of Technology, in Jack Dickey’s Oct. 12 article), I suspect that if those who went over bandwidth in that first week (or two) were warned but not punished, we might see a substantially reduced number of people losing Internet because of that first week with consequences.
The author suggests that bandwidth overages “should be responded to with a cease of use for the rest of the week and not an extended...
A Response to Discussions of Somalia and PetroChina
By Daniel Glassberg ’09
Published on January 10, 2008 in CXXX no. 26Editor’s Note: A draft of Daniel Glassberg’s letter, not intended for publication, was inadvertently printed in the December 7, 2007 edition. The Phillipian regrets the error. Printed below is the correct version of the letter.
This letter is in response to two recent Phillipian articles, one titled “The New Darfur,” from 11/30 and the second “AES Faces Controversy Over PetroChina Shares” from 11/16. First, I would like to acknowledge Annalee Leggett, who wrote the article on the situation in Somalia, for reminding the student body that there are many violent situations occurring in the world and for opening the dialogue on campus regarding Somalia. For those of you who are interested in further discussing these issues or who would like to work to end global genocide, the Phillips Academy STAND chapter would gladly offer organizational help, money and a means to connect to the national program. In the...
A Clarification of Remarks at Last Week’s ASM on Technology
By John Palfrey
Published on December 10, 2007 in CXXX no. 25To the Andover Community:
It was a pleasure to have had the opportunity to engage with the Andover community at last week’s All-School Meeting. You all are fortunate and wise to have preserved a custom, by coming together, in person, in the Cochran Chapel, that both symbolizes and reinforces your vibrant community. It is quite a sight to behold, as an outsider to your community.
I hope I made clear my view that those of you Born Digital (I wish I were, in many ways) should be supported by your teachers, deans and others in making good decisions about your use of digital technologies, not constrained or overregulated. I think what is going on online, with many of you leading the way, is overall a wonderful thing, despite the challenges that come with changing environments.
I also want to clarify one element of my presentation that referenced some recent...
Praise for Andover’s Leap to Need-Blind
By Arjun Sharma ’07
Published on December 10, 2007 in CXXX no. 25To The Editor:
I am writing to thank The Phillipian for its great reporting on the new need-blind admissions policy. I would also like to thank all of the members of the Andover community who have helped make need-blind admissions, a goal at the forefront of Andover affairs for as long as I can remember, a reality. To finally be a school where any student, regardless of socioeconomic status, can apply and be considered equally is truly a milestone in Andover’s 229-year history. Our need-blind admission status has already become a source of pride for me, and it is something that I have not hesitated to brag about to my college peers who went to other New England prep schools. At the same time, I would also like to bring notice to the article “Faculty Discuss Composition of Student Body” in the November 16 edition and how...
Letter from the Associate Head of School
By Rebecca Sykes
Published on November 15, 2007 in CXXX no. 23To the Editor:
Last week’s All-School Meeting speaker hit a home run. Shawn Achor was interesting and well-spoken and left us with several useful tips. He advised that in the pursuit of happiness we should begin each day by listing three things we feel gratitude for. Among the things for which I am most grateful each day is the privilege to work and live at Phillips Academy with a range of talented and thoughtful individuals.
This fall our community has been abuzz with debates over everything from real estate (study areas and student centers) to privacy (one-card system) and identity (sexual orientation and race). We have had petitions, Philo forums, Phillipian Commentary pieces and letters to the editor. Many students and faculty have taken the time and energy to engage in discussion regarding issues that affect them, hoping that they might bring about a better outcome. One might say...
Response to “A Quiet Future For Diversity”
By Lily Shaffer ’10
Published on November 8, 2007 in CXXX no. 22To the Editor:
I wanted to say how astounded I am at Jake Romanow and Kelicia Hollis’s responses to Jenn Schaffer’s article, “A Quiet Future for Diversity.” I believe that Jenn wrote an extremely accurate and interesting article about what diversity is turning into at our school. The responses were convincing but flawed.
In Jake’s letter, he stated that “Public Schools are more segregated today than at the time of Martin Luther King…It is too easy for us to say that race no longer exists simply because we have not had to encounter it.” and “Wonderfully, Andover is not a racist place.”
Well, first of all, he is right: Andover is not a racist institution. So why preach it to us 24/7? And sure, we encounter race daily—who said it no longer exists? Just take a look around, because we do have “Youth From Every Quarter.” And this means...
Response to “A Quiet Future For Diversity”
By Britney Achin ’08
Published on November 8, 2007 in CXXX no. 22To the Editor:
More than anything, I would like to thank Jenn Schaffer for writing her article on diversity two weeks ago. She completely reconfirmed my beliefs that we have an incredible amount of progress yet to make in the field of educating people about equality, civil justice and living in a racially pluralistic society. I was shocked and disappointed at her obvious naïvete about the state of the American general public in terms of racism, especially knowing that she herself is a young woman of multiracial heritage. Maybe on the playgrounds of Phillips Academy or in her hometown there is the multiracial utopia of which she speaks, but on my playground, there were racial slurs and jeers about my skin color—and I am far from considering that acceptable or “the past,” and I am not alone. The struggle for equality is being fought everywhere, and just because...
To the Editor: A Response to Coverage of the CAMD Scholar Project
By Mary Krome '09
Published on November 1, 2007 in CXXX no. 21A Response to Coverage of the CAMD Scholar Project
To the Editor:
First, thank you for the coverage thus far of the CAMD Scholar Project. There are a few inaccuracies in the article concerning the migrant education presentation that took place on October 12. It was written that “…the language barrier is the biggest challenge facing migrant families, who almost exclusively speak Spanish.” This is simply not true. 84% of farm workers speak Spanish as a first language; this statistic says nothing about other languages spoken in farm worker families. (To date, I have not found any data on what percentage of migrant workers speak Spanish.) All of the children that I worked with over the summer were fluent in English and actually had a better command over English than Spanish. The second part of my report was a case study, in which the parents did not speak English. ...
To the Editor: New Perspectives on Diversity
By Jake Romanow '10
Published on November 1, 2007 in CXXX no. 21To the Editor:
I am writing this in response to Jenn Schaffer’s article “A Quiet Future For Diversity.” Schaffer proclaims that “The year is now 2007...the lines between ethnicities are fading fast.” Sadly, this could not be further form the truth. Public schools are more segregated today than at the time of Martin Luther King, and as incidents like the charges levied against the so-called Jena 6 reveal, racism is still not only present, but mainstream in American society. While Schaffer’s goal of racial equality is laudable, her article appears to me as further evidence that the “Andover bubble” can unrealistically wrap our worldview. It is true that the world of Andover does not normally think in terms of race, and equality and diversity are certainly dominant impressions of our campus. But we are not representative. It is too easy for us to say that race no longer...