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The underestimated value of political correctness
January 31, 2015

Journalists have always faced difficult ethical questions about what to publish and how, and in light of the attack on Charlie Hebdo as a result of their editorial decisions, these conversations about presentation seem pressing. In the densely entangled layers of questions that involve religious tolerance, the freedom of the press and western hegemony, the role of offense consistently appears as a core dispute. Whether or not you are going to offend someone is an answered question – you probably will, but whether or not that offense should be enough to stop you from publishing or speaking requires more consideration. Writers should ask themselves first: what is accomplished through offense and second, is there another way to achieve the same end while minimizing the offense to others. This second route is called being “politically correct,” and while such correctness dangles somewhere between stifling and compassionate, there are definitely circumstances that require more attention to limiting offense more than others. The difference between Enquiry and The Duel Observer best highlights this circumstantial difference – the line between news and comedy. More ...

Protecting Journalistic Integrity
January 23, 2015

The safety and importance of free expression has a complicated history, and in a media landscape that has intensely evolved in the last decade, its future looks even more confusing. Looking back on other historical events, the attack on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is not unprecedented. History is littered with endless examples of violence against writers and journalists. The Iranian Ayatollah threatened the author Salman Rushdie’s life, Senator Joe McCarthy blacklisted un-American citizens in the 1950s, and Martin Luther was excommunicated for publishing his 95 Theses. And while typically such continued displays of hostility from so many groups would indicate a clear flaw in the system of published word, they all in fact exemplify the continued ubiquity and desperate necessity of writers and publishers. Newspapers, at their heart, are forums for the promulgation of information and the articulation of opinion regardless of political or ideological leaning. They are bastions for the fleeting pursuit of the truth. More ...

Reflecting upon another semester
December 12, 2014

Believe it or not, the fall semester is drawing to a close.  As more and more snow begins to fall and Hamilton students spend dreadful amounts of time in the Library in preparation for the upcoming exams, The Spectator is reflecting upon the major events of this semester. More ...

College must inform students
December 5, 2014

The Spectator is reporting that Hamilton College is under federal investigation by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR).  Hamilton is one of 90 post-secondary institutions being investigated by the office.  As indicated in the article, the OCR launches investigations “based on complaints of alleged discrimination.”  The investigation itself in no way implies that Hamilton has engaged in discriminatory practices — the inquiry is merely investigating to see if the alleged discrimination did in fact happen. More ...

Setbacks should not prevent environmental efforts
November 14, 2014

Currently, Hamilton College is a participant in the NY6 regional competition of the Campus Conservation Nations.  Despite our strong showing in previous years, as reported in The Spectator’s front page story, we are off to a slow start.  Members of HEAG point out that there are likely several reasons for this including the timing of competition and the systemic problems of how Hamilton heats its buildings.  While it may be true that these roadblocks keep us from being as competitive as we have been in past years, they do not represent valid excuses for individual environmental apathy. More ...

Did you vote?
November 7, 2014

Are we doing our civic duty and voting? Nationally, the Pew Research Center, pending analysis by the National Census Bureau, reported that voters under the age of 30 comprised 13% of those who voted on Tuesday.  Similarly, an informal poll of students in the Student Media office on Wednesday night revealed that only one third of the students present actually voted this week. This is certainly not a new story. The self-righteous have long bemoaned the chronically low voting numbers in US elections, particularly in midterm elections. While this phenomenon is disappointing, The Spectator cannot tackle American mid-term voter apathy, choosing instead to focus on the lackluster political climate on campus. More ...

Ignorance is no excuse for inaction
October 31, 2014

In recent weeks, it has become clear that the ideology of The Movement has expanded to encompass even more minorities groups on campus, including gender nonconforming students. The Movement has been pushing for a specific number of gender-neutral bathrooms on campus. They say, “We demand Hamilton College to make one gender neutral restroom for every two gendered restrooms in every residential, academic, and administrative buildings.” More ...

Senior Gift should reflect senior class
October 24, 2014

Two weeks ago, the Senior Class Gift Co-Chairs announced the Class of 2015 Senior Gift– an outdoor classroom named for the late James L. Ferguson Professor of Psychology Jonathan Vaughan.  While the Senior Gift Campaign generally makes a positive impact on campus and allows seniors to give back to the school, we at The Spectator wanted to point out a few things the Senior Gift Committee can do better. More ...

Over-worked and over-booked: students overwhelmed by fallcoming weekend
October 9, 2014

In a rare occurrence, this year’s Fallcoming is the same weekend as Family Weekend.  While it is nice that both families and graduates of the College can converge upon the Hill at the same time in order to be present for the dedication of the Kevin and Karen Kennedy Center for Theatre and the Studio Arts, the merging of the two weekends into one presents several challenges for current students.  The first regards the timing of the weekend. More ...

Change must come from student body
October 3, 2014

For white, privileged Hamilton College students—the majority of the student population—it may be hard to believe that some students feel isolated or even targeted because of their gender, their sexual orientation, their race, or a combination of those categories. On the surface, Hamilton seems like a place where nothing could go wrong, where students are treated equally, everyone is open-minded and no one holds prejudices.  Underneath the surface, however, this is not always the case.  In the last several years, many incidents have rocked the Hamilton campus.  Whether they may be racially charged posters, insults hurled at students, or sexual assaults, Hamilton has been forced to confront these issues head on. More ...

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