The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Opinions

Anuj Kapur

I am so sick of the administration going over our heads. So in the interest of saving you the frustrating feeling of not knowing what significant changes are happening at your school for any longer (although you may be used to it by now), I'll get to the point: devastating changes are being made to COOT. These changes aren't the ones we were hoping for; the ridiculous speakers talking to us about how to make friends and play nice are not going anywhere, the mindless discussions that pry into the personal lives of students who have never seen the other members of their group are seemingly being developed, and that time we spend on campus with no friends, i.e. the time before we leave for COOT, is being lengthened (so more kids can go to the hospital?). I do know that the details are still being ironed out, but what I do want to discuss are the significant changes that have already been made, while students, leaders, and even committee members have been kept in the dark.

There are two changes to COOT that I believe are the starting steps of ripping the heart out of the experience. The first is to the time spent on campus before students leave for COOT.
Students will now spend two full days on campus before heading off into the outdoors. The first day will be an "academically focused" day, because after all, Colby is an academic institution, and apparently first-years don't seem to get that? The second day will be a "civic engagement" day focused on the community, which I do like, but judging by the turnout at this year's Burst the Bubble, I don't see it as being relevant to a student's second day of college (for many of us, ever). As upperclassmen remember, we used to leave the morning after arrival. This was the best scenario yet, as the first-year students would not meet their COOT leaders more than eight hours before the trip, and the students would have minimal time on campus in an environment unfamiliar to them. This would allow the first few hours on campus to be quick and painless, because once on the trip, we all know that we soon made close friendships and developed trust with our fellow cooters.

This year, the first-year students had a day on campus before heading off. They met the COOT leaders during the day, met their cooters during the day, and had horrible, intrusive conversations with people they had never met, most of which went nowhere. I was a leader this year, and when the questions started getting personal, the few people that had spoken up before abruptly stopped, and who can blame them? First-year Judy Merzbach took this issue to Bro Adams: "I went to Bro after hearing about these changes to tell him how uncomfortable I was when I first arrived here. I was astonished to hear that Bro prioritized freshman students first impression of Colby as academic over their comfort." Personally, I would not want to tell a complete stranger anything personal on my FIRST DAY at college. The bottom line: this is ludicrous, unnecessary, and if it must happen, why not after the students get back from the outdoors when they feel a little more comfortable?

Continued...

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