Connecticut College
Despite the U.S budget passing, support for Planned Parenthood (PP), an organization known for offering females birth control, sex education and abortions (among other services), has clearly been called into question from Congress. For two Conn students, Sokkha Hak ’12 and Megan Reback ’12, support for PP shouldn’t be a question at all, and they are taking their support for the organization across campus.
Hak recently told the College Voice, “Not many people know this, but Planned Parenthood does more than provide reproductive health services like STI testing and access to contraceptives. It also has programs in the community to promote better health for everyone, including youth and men. Most of the people they service are those in lower income communities who don’t have adequate access to health care or can’t afford it. Personally, I think it’s a human right to be able to manage your health, and Planned Parenthood allows these people to do that.” The Voice further reported both Hak and Reback have “lobbied” for PP at multiple events including the campus performance of The Vagina Monologues and on International Women’s Day.
When asked why raising awareness is necessary, Reback replied, “Since there are very few students here who would identify as anti-choice, the opposition does not really feel alive on this campus. However, we need to remember that Connecticut College is a bubble, and that everywhere outside of here, there are people and organizations dedicated to eradicating a woman’s choice and access.” Both Reback and Hak promise to continue to fight for PP and to make sure the greater campus community knows how helpful PP really is.
Wesleyan University
Controversy has erupted within the government department at Wesleyan, setting the stage for heated debate and possible future ramifications. A unique opportunity is given to Wesleyan students majoring in Government and those wishing to receive honors. Students can either present a thesis to the department or take an exam given by the department. Yet this option has caused many to question the fairness of the exam option versus the thesis. According to the Wesleyan Argus, “Those who took the thesis route had reason to celebrate—10 out of 11 received honors, one of whom was awarded high honors, [yet] only seven out of 16 students who took the exam were granted honors, and not one of them was awarded the distinction of high honors.”
“Exam-takers received the two exam questions before spring break and discussed the questions as a class. The first mandatory question on political science tested students’ understanding of the main intellectual connections among the four political science sub-fields. For the second question, students were given a choice of four questions, each pertaining to one of the four sub-fields within the field: political theory, international relations, American politics, and comparative politics.” An anonymous student tells the Argus, “I thought the questions were very broad…the first question in itself could have been a volume of encyclopedias.”
However, Professor of Government Donald Moon disagrees with accusations of the differing difficulties of the thesis versus exam. “We developed this program in the hopes of providing a more effective structure for students who were writing theses to develop the research competencies necessary for first rate work, and to enable more students, including those who do not have a burning interest in a particular topic, to stand for honors by developing a non-thesis track for honors that would be rigorous and demanding in different ways from the traditional thesis track.” Argument aside, this will certainly force the government department to radically reevaluate this choice between thesis and exam. Both students and professors are hoping for a solution, one that will benefit the entire department.