2008 Woodie Awards
One year later, students and faculty gather on steps of Dana to reflect
Jake Blumgart
Issue date: 2/1/08 Section: Features
Immediately after the first Dana meeting, a forum was held at the New Garden Friend's meeting to discuss the incident with senior administrators. The heated meeting reinforced the already apparent athlete/non-athlete tensions.
"Lines began to be drawn immediately after last year's (Dana meeting)," Carter said. "Voices were expressed then shouted down. Within the week, we divided into camps that would not talk to each other. We are still living with that. People retreated behind their defensive walls and haven't come out."
This year's substantially smaller crowd was much more homogenous. Few athletes, international students, or people of color attended and no coaches or non-Quaker staff were present. The college did not officially sponsor the event.
"The college felt it was not an appropriate event to have a commemorative event for," said Aaron Fetrow, dean of students. "You commemorate national tragedies' like 9/11, not the Bryan incident, which was a judicial event. What bothers me was that we had lots of cool things immediately after the incident. Then we dropped it. What I would prefer to see is people reaching out and living in both worlds."
For many people, the Bryan incident highlighted and intensified the divide between the athletic community and the rest of the student body. Few think that the situation has been properly resolved.
"We don't support each other in this community," Pellerito said. "The same people always go to the basketball games and the same people always go to the art openings. It's hard to cross those boundaries and after the Bryan incident it's even scarier to put yourself out there to a new group of people."
"Lines began to be drawn immediately after last year's (Dana meeting)," Carter said. "Voices were expressed then shouted down. Within the week, we divided into camps that would not talk to each other. We are still living with that. People retreated behind their defensive walls and haven't come out."
This year's substantially smaller crowd was much more homogenous. Few athletes, international students, or people of color attended and no coaches or non-Quaker staff were present. The college did not officially sponsor the event.
"The college felt it was not an appropriate event to have a commemorative event for," said Aaron Fetrow, dean of students. "You commemorate national tragedies' like 9/11, not the Bryan incident, which was a judicial event. What bothers me was that we had lots of cool things immediately after the incident. Then we dropped it. What I would prefer to see is people reaching out and living in both worlds."
For many people, the Bryan incident highlighted and intensified the divide between the athletic community and the rest of the student body. Few think that the situation has been properly resolved.
"We don't support each other in this community," Pellerito said. "The same people always go to the basketball games and the same people always go to the art openings. It's hard to cross those boundaries and after the Bryan incident it's even scarier to put yourself out there to a new group of people."
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