Posted by Erik Woodbury on April 23, 19100 at 22:43:30:
Howard Affiliates-
Having just returned from election night, let me first congratulate all our new officers. I'm sure you
will strive to make Howard a great House next year. The low numbers of upperclass affiliates
who turned out to vote was discouraging, but hopefully this will improve as time passes.
Also disappointing was that the candidates did not feel the need to comment on the questions I
proposed earlier. With one exception I did not hear from any of the candidates. Perhaps my
intent was unclear. I was not looking for the candidates to win my vote. Rather I was proposing
a series of questions that I thought any person serious about being a House leader, particularly a
House Officer, should take the time to think about and react to for the House in general. I had
hoped to provide the impetus for a type of email platform through which the upcoming leaders
could tell us about their views. I also posted the questions on Howard's Online Forum, which can
be accessed through our home page. However, I know traffic there is low and so posted it to
email as well. (Our home page is at http://www.bowdoin.edu/studorgs/howard/ for those of you
who don't know. Click on the online forum button on the left to access it.)
This is running a bit long and I realize that I have probably lost a good percentage of my audience
as delete keys are just so easy to reach. As a final point I would like to reemphasize the questions
I sent out earlier. These are not questions that are important only during some sort of electoral
race, but rather are serious questions that I believe the House will have to seriously examine both
next year and in the future. I include the questions again below this text in the hopes that all
Howard affiliates will take the time to read them and take a minute to think about them. Perhaps
they will even spark some discussion as plans for next year begin to be made. I encourage that
wholeheartedly. And to those of you who see this email as just another bit of clutter in your
inbox, my apologies.
Respectfully,
Erik Woodbury
Class '01
1) My favorite issue from this year was the one surrounding Singled
Out. I would like to know where the candidates stood on this issue and
how they would have handled it had they been in charge. Do you agree or
disagree with how it was handled?
2) What is your position on getting a house and what do you think having
a house will change about Howard and its events?
3) What was the biggest problem facing Howard this year and how would
you propose to solve it?
4) How would you propose to draw more people to Howard events?
5) What do you think could be done to foster a greater sense of
ownership and belonging both within the Howard/Hyde family as well as
within the House system in general?