1 20 32 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/fda154b02efc6d042a755ac7ad4d7182.pdf 34203b7a42b21f00edafe2bc146a1429 PDF Text Text Thursday April 11 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity Collegian Publication Delay This column was intended to be filled by an article on the cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, currently on campus. Unfortunately, this article needs extra time for review and will appear in a future issue. The Collegian apologies to its readers for the delay this caused for the publication of the entire paper, and hopes to be able to publish the article shortly. In the meantime, we would like to encourage students with questions about the disease to check the CDC webpage, https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/index.html. We hope the Polity stays healthy and safe, and takes appropriate precautions to ensure the best croquet weekend possible. The Collegian will, hopefully, resume regular its publication schedule in the next issue. Vol. II Issue 9 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Croquet team prepares for match with navy Inside the Brilliant Minds of our (and their) Croqueteers As your faithful correspondents, namely myself and intrepid journalist Helen Felbek, were walking down front campus last Tuesday, they were enchanted by the warm sunlight lazily shining upon the flowers, and the general air of pacific Springtime of the Atlantic seaboard. This air might have a soporific effect on most, tempting many a Johnnie away from their books and into a nap on the pleasant grass of front campus. One dedicated group on campus, however, had sleep nowhere near their minds. Who, might you ask, if you had not read the title of this article, is this group? Well, ask no further friends, for the croquet team was found industriously practicing away at their art on their newly grown lawn. of playing a mean game of croquet. I asked Lane how she had been preparing for the game, and was told she was “just going to practice as much as possible.” She also made certain to send a message to the polity. “Croquet is not British.” In fact, it’s not even American: “it’s Irish.” The field was shared by Johnnies and Midshipmen, who had, in a gesture most gentlemanly, been invited to practice on our field to get a sense of our home turf. All was abuzz with activity, and your correspondents quickly set to work finding someone who could give the inside scoop on our croquet team. We made the natural choice of heading directly for the man with the most impressive hat, Imperial Wicket Angus Preston. What makes him so imperial, you may ask? Well, I asked him that myself, and was told, “the hat.” Jerome and Sunny, it turned out, were far more friendly than their military bearing might imply, although they were quite overconfident about their team’s chances. “I have zero doubts,” said Jerome. “We’re at a 100% confidence rate right now. There’s nothing that could knock that down. The whole brigade’s supporting us, and we’re feeling great.” He added that they have been preparing every day, practicing at a “secret location.” Preston seemed certain of victory. “I feel pretty confident. We have a pretty good team this year. We have a solid group of players, I think we’ll take them down.” Upon further inquiry, he informed me of the lineup for the game: “Sam and Charlie are on court one, Josh and I are on court two, Agnes and Peter are on court three, the party court. The next rotation will be Henry and Dalton on court one, Caden and Raquel on court two, and then Margaret and Ben on Court three.” My companion then asked what he does to prepare for the croquet game. “I like to listen to music,” said Preston. “Sicut Cervus?” asked Felbek. “Mostly new wave 80s,” he responded. With my natural curiosity, I had to ask what this year’s uniform will be for the team. Preston simply gave me an odd look, and said “You know, the Navy really does pride themselves on their fleets. That’s all I will say.” Drifting further along the field, we encountered two more Johnnies eagerly at work honing their croquet skills, Margret Lane, a member of the team and Meghan Scalley, not on the team, but still capable Having that fact sorted out, we proceeded across the green to a group of generally taller, more composed and intimidating individuals twirling their mallets menacingly: the Naval croquet team. Boldly, and fearlessly, your valiant writer approached them (only needing a little bit of urging from Felbek for courage) and asked for their names. Seeing this as my chance to confront power with truth, your noble correspondent asked them about the allegations that they falsely added Navy victories to the Annapolis cup over Covid and that they attempted to keep the trophy from us after our last victory. “No comment,” Jerome replied. My fellow newshound, Felbek, also had important questions to ask: “Why can’t the Navy carry their own mallets? Why do they need someone to carry them?” “That’s simply display,” Jerome attempted to argue, “of power, rank and intimidation.” Sunny ended the interview with a similar effect to strike fear in our unwavering hearts. “We have a very powerful team, with lots of strengths, made up of students from around the world. We are ready to show our talents.” With that, you faithful correspondents wandered off from the court, armed with plenty of new information about the match, which promises to be amongst the most exciting and heated in the annals of the Annapolis cup. We at the Collegian promise to keep you posted on the conditions surrounding the match on Saturday, and hopefully with an article commemorating our glorious victory. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 4/11: Aristotle: Physics, see official list for selections. 4/15: Aristotle: Physics, see official list for selections Sophomores: 4/11: Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Chapters 1, 2 (#12–27), 3 4/15: J. S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion Juniors: 4/11: Kant: Foundations of Metaphysics of Morals. Remainder of Section II; Section III 4/15: Swift: Gulliver’s Travels. “Advertisement,” “Letter from Gulliver,” “Publisher to Reader,” I, II Seniors: 4/11: Selected speeches of Abraham Lincoln, Fredrick Douglass and Booker T. Washington 4/15: W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, see official list for selections. Saturday, 4/13: Annapolis Cup, 10:30 am, Front Campus. Game starts at noon. Cotillion Waltz, 8 pm, Mellon Lobby Sunday 4/14 KWP’s Shakespeare Compilation, 7 pm, FSK Auditorium. Wednesday 4/17: Francis Scott Key Book Signing, noon, bookstore. The legacy of Francis Scott Key, Class of 1796 Panel, 7:30 pm, FSK auditorium. Friday Night Lecture: All College Seminar on Diego Velasquez’ the Spinners and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Page 1 �Thursday April 11, 2024 St. John’s Collegian From the old collegian: Class of 1924: Graduating amidst change and transition In order to fill space meant for the pertussis article, I reached into the College’s digital archives for material. I thought it might be nice to see another senior class, 100 years ago, looking back on its four years. The class of 1924 graduated right after the disbanding of the military program, and their class history, reproduced here in part, reflects that time of change. On glancing back on our first three years, everything is softened as if seen through a haze, appears; the darker things are blotted out while the pleasant happenings of these years are rendered even brighter by reflection. The path that we trod as Freshmen, though at that time it seemed the proverbial “thorny path” of the “rat”; yet now, under the modifying influence of time, seems to have been at least pleasant... In our Sophomore year, we had a very efficient G.O.H. [Grand Order of Hazers, an organization which for many years flourished on campus, until the end of the military program.] and did our maternal duty towards the Freshmen faithfully and well. We now come to the Junior year, a year fraught with many important events for our class. The Junior year is the most peculiar year of the college course. It is the year which determines the success or failure of a college career; men who have not hitherto worked still have a chance to retrieve their lost opportunities. and to place themselves in a position to graduate with their class…Unquestionably, the most considerable achievement of our Junior year was the publication of the RAT TAT [yearbook]… Undoubtedly, the greatest contribution of our class to the good of the school was through the Dramatic Club… plays were presented not only at St. John 's, but also at many of the important towns on the Eastern and Western Shores… In future years, owing to the activity of several members of the Class of '24, the Dramatic Club will be a permanent feature at St. John's and a college-wide organization… Our class has always showed up well in the Military Department… At the beginning of this year, with the abolition of the old military code, and drill only once a week, apprehension was felt for the welfare of the Military Department… …We have succeeded in publishing a "Collegian " that has been declared by many disinterested parties the best ever published. I have tried to tell, simply, the story of the Class of 1924. I have doubtless made mistakes, and it is too late now to rectify them. However, we may say to the other classes… “Let each subordinate all other interests to class loyalty, and disregarding trivial differences and jealousies, work for her glory.” Come for me vol. iii Continued Conversation on Orgasms In my past two articles I have talked about pleasure solely in the context of orgasm. In this interview my friend and I discuss sexual experiences where orgasm is not necessarily the goal and pleasure as a multifaceted phenomenon. In the pursuit of orgasm, I believe that it is important to discuss the experiences that make orgasm possible. AB: When you masturbate is orgasm always the goal? Anon 2: The thing about orgasming is, it’s nice when it happens, but it doesn’t always have to happen. Sex with two people is not defined by orgasm, and that doesn’t necessarily detract from the experience, so I don’t see why it would be any different when having sex with yourself. When I masturbate exploration and pleasure are my goals, not orgasm, because it’s too much pressure. AB: What does that intentional exploration look like for you? Anon 2: Stimulation doesn’t always have to be overtly sexual for it to be pleasurable. For myself, there’s been times when I’ve been uncomfortable with how my arms, legs or stomach looked, and so when a partner touches them, I’ve shied away from both the touch and from allowing that experience to be sensual. But by consciously touching parts of my body that I’m uncomfortable with when masturbating, I’ve allowed those parts to be sensual and seen that the whole body really can bring you pleasure. I think many people are scared of their bodies and scared of touching their bodies, and they don’t have to be. AB: On the topic of touch, I know that for some people there is a feeling of “too much” that can be confused with orgasm, and/or limit them from reaching orgasm. Anon: With a partner, I’ve definitely experiencedwhat I would call being “touched-out” or overstimulation which has prevented me from orgasming. It often happens when there are a lot of different types of touch or when I’ve been touched in many different places. It might have been pleasurable the whole way through, but even still prevents me from reaching orgasm. Now I don’t think I’ve experienced it with sex toys because when I use them, I usually get straight to the point. With my own hands, certainly, because I could just spend hours touching myself if I wanted to, and that doesn’t have to be just clit or just inside, but the whole body. It can both ways though, there are sometimes when I’ve felt touched out and had an explosive orgasm, but there have also been times where I’ve reached a wall. AB: What do you mean by explosive orgasm? Anon: There are so many different types of orgasm. They can be big, small, loud, quiet, localized or radiating throughout the body. They can look so different for one person and definitely from person to person. But for me explosive orgasms build until you reach the climax and then there is a sense of utter relief and pleasure. I find the experiences of squirting and gushing in some ways gender affirming because men get to cum and I can too, but in a different way. Allyson Brink Page 2 Vol. II. Issue 9 Campus news updates Campus Gathers Together to Watch Partial Solar Eclipse Hundreds of Johnnies gathered all around campus last Monday afternoon: in blankets on the back lawn, in the Mellon observatory, and down by College creek. It seemed like the entire campus was out, eyes fixed upon the heavens, as the moon’s shadow passed across the sun. Annapolis did not experience a full solar eclipse, but much of the sun was covered, with the light growing eerily dim and the air cooling down substantially. The observatory was distributing eclipse glasses, but soon ran out, as the demand for them outstripped the supply. Still, almost everyone got at least a chance to see this dramatic solar phenomenon. DC President Ali Shawamreh Reinstated Olive Shawarma was overthrown by the combined forces of Rachels Hauben and Rozsa, Ladies of the Underquad and Overquad respectively, and Ali Shawamreh was returned to power. Limericks and Sonnets were delivered, and the return of Shawamreh was celebrated with a rousing round of Sicut Cervus. About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Allyson Brink Aphorism of the Week: Mathematics: Sometimes pornography is used because we have no patience for relationship. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, April 11, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 9 of the St. John's Collegian, published April 11, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-11 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue9_2024-04-11_v3 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/37a71f24a8e5184e33c1c0c76b214763.pdf 35344e5881d68ff856170996074857a9 PDF Text Text Thursday April 25 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity Whoops! It’s the Whoop Opinion: on Pertussis By now, you’ve all heard the rumors about whooping cough on campus. For the past few months, students have been succumbing to a violent, weeks-long cough, often with fits so intense they’re left gasping for air. These are the symptoms of pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough: a highly contagious bacterial respiratory infection which doctors have nicknamed the “hundred-day cough.” In fact, these aren’t just rumors: Ms. Lico sent an email out on April 10 confirming that there have been positive cases. However, considering how long students have had symptoms (since before spring break), it confuses me why the college waited so long to acknowledge it. Until Ms. Lico’s email, rumors of the illness were actively denied, both by the health center and by our RAs (who were told to do so by the college). But when I began to develop the same symptoms as my friends, I decided to find out the truth for myself by getting tested off campus. It was only once I’d shown the health center a positive test that they finally acknowledged it. It took another week for Ms. Lico to send her email. Why didn’t this all happen earlier? This article is an account of my personal experiences with the health center, the interactions leading up to Ms. Lico’s April 10 email, and my own opinions about the situation. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m not a trained epidemiologist. I’m just a random sophomore with a cough. But it doesn’t take a professional to ask the questions I pose in this article: why did the college deny the whooping cough rumors for so long, when they hadn’t been testing for it? And why did they delay notifying the polity for a week after I had shown them a positive test? Vol. II Issue 10 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Collegian’s Campus news updates The Past Two Weeks on a Busy Annapolis Campus Earth Day Ivy Removal In honor of Earth Day, Project Polity collaborated with Tutor Ms. Benson to remove invasive ivy from trees on campus. In the beginning of the event the Insect Farming Club led by archon Mr. Rosenberg released painted lady butterflies. The butterfly release was originally scheduled to take place on Friday afternoon, but the temperature was slightly too low for the insects. On Saturday, the temperature reached over 68 Degrees Fahrenheit, creating perfect conditions for the butterflies to be released. The butterflies were a little reluctant at first, but at long last they spread their wings and left their cage, or as some bystanders remarked, their cave. A dozen students, who joined Project Polity and Ms. Benson for the project, received protective gear, clippers, and instructions from Ms. Benson as to how to remove the ivy. Ms. Benson explained the difference between poison ivy and English ivy. The goal of the project was to remove the invasive English ivy, as it chokes the trees, depriving them of nutrients, makes them more prone to disease and fungi, as well as increases the risk of storm damage. Student Activities & Events provided pizza and ice cream for the volunteers. Participants were shocked to find large amounts of ivy on all the tress next to the French monument and the boathouse. Ms. Benson explained the reason why there are so many vines on the trees: most tree-covered areas on campus are not real forests. Vines grow best at the edges of forest where there is enough sunlight. But humans have created conditions where most wooded areas are like edges of forest and not real forests. For months, our campus health center firmly denied the whooping cough suspicions. Many symptomatic patients (including myself) were told rather vigorously by health center staff that there was not a single case of whooping cough on campus, and that we needed to stop talking about it. Strangely, they seemed more concerned about the spread of the rumors than about the potential spread of an infectious disease. They had not administered a single pertussis test. Why were they so certain in their denial? Ms. Benson believes that learning how to remove ivy is useful for anyone because “in half an hour, you can save a mature tree. It would take 60 years for it to grow again. And a lot of people don't realize that ivy is bad for trees.” “I didn't know until a couple of years ago,” she adds. When asked about the event, Project polity’s archon Mr. Briner agreed with Ms. Benson saying, “I think we got a good amount of people and I think we made some good progress.” When I inquired further, I was unable to find any information which justified such vehement dismissal of student concerns. (Cont. on Page 2.) Ms. Benson expressed her appreciation for the participants: “It is always nice to hear what people say after they have done one of these projects. People seem kind of moved by it. They are on campus all the time, but they don't often stop and just pay attention to a tree for half an hour - after freshman year. It turns out to be just a nice experience.” Some participants remarked that removing the ivy had a cathartic effect allowing them to release stress. Others felt a little heroic as they were saving the trees from a slow death. Project Polity vice-archon Ms. Minor added (referring to the ivy) “my dad always called me a tree hugger, but the real tree huggers are no good.” If you would like to support Project Polity in the future, please join the club for the easter food drive on Saturday, 04/27 at 2 pm. Helen Felbek St. John’s Grapples with Mixed Legacy of Francis Scott Key The St. John’s College History Task Force held a panel discussing the legacy of Francis Scott Key on April 17, 2024. Students, faculty, Annapolitans, and other members of the community filed into Mellon Hall’s Francis Scott Key Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. to hear the conversation addressing one of St. John’s most notable alumni and his complicated legacy. “We know that our institution has not always been on the right side of racial justice,” said Annapolis President Nora Demleitner, as she opened the event. The event was moderated by Ms. Chanel Compton, the executive director of Annapolis’ own BannekerDouglass Museum. Panelists included Mr. Marc Leepson, author of the 2014 Francis Scott Key biography, What So Proudly We Hailed; Professor William Thomas, author of the 2020 history of freedom trials, A Question of Freedom; and Professor Mark Clague, author of the 2022 cultural biography of the Star-Spangled Banner, O Say Can You Hear?. Earlier in the day, at noon, the St. John’s campus bookstore held a book signing where community members could purchase signed books and meet Mr. Leepson and Professor Clague; Professor Thomas unfortunately could not be there due to a delayed flight. The panelists addressed a variety of topics, first explaining the origins of the investigation into Francis Scott Key. According to the panel, (Cont. on page 2.) This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 4/25 Aristotle: Metaphysics, see official list for selections. 4/29 Aristotle: On the Soul, I,1; II, 1-7, 11-12 Sophomores: 4/25: Descartes: Discourse on Method, I–IV 4/29: Descartes: Discourse on Method, V–VI Juniors: 4/25: Smith: Wealth of Nations, see official list for selections. 4/29: Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, U.S. Constitution, The Federalist Seniors: 4/25: De Beauvoir: The Second Sex, see official list for selections. 4/29: De Beauvoir: The Second Sex, see official list for selections. Saturday, 4/6: Project Polity’s Spring Food Drive, 2 PM, Quad KWP’s Moby Dick, 7 PM, FSK Auditorium. Friday Night Lecture: KWP’s Moby Dick, Written and Directed by Ranger Kasdorf. FSK, 7 p.m. Page 1 Special Note: At Shammai’s Passover Seder this week, the afikoman was found by Ian Rossomondo, who won honor, glory, and a mention in this week’s Collegian. Congratulations to Ian! �Thursday April 25, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Whooping Cough (Cont. from page 1.) The only reason given repeatedly for such certainty was that there are no reported cases of whooping cough in Maryland. Therefore, it was apparently impossible that anyone on campus could have it. Considering the fact that nobody had been tested, this logic seems backwards to me: the reported case count should not be used as a diagnostic tool. In fact, it should be the other way round: it is up to doctors to read symptoms, determine whether an infection is present, and then report it to the Health Department. That is how cases are counted. How many unreported cases are walking around campus right now? If our health center exemplifies the way medical professionals deal with potential pertussis cases, it’s no surprise to me that there were no reported cases in Maryland. I was unsatisfied by these empty assurances. Everywhere I went, I saw whooping cough symptoms. I thought, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and coughs like a duck… it probably is a duck. So I went off-campus and got tested myself. Turns out—it’s a duck. On April 4, I showed the health center a positive test, hoping they would take pertussis symptoms more seriously. They immediately gave me an antibiotics prescription to eliminate contagiousness. Since then, they have begun testing students and prescribing antibiotics. They also told me that they would ask Ms. Lico (through whom they must go for student communication) to send a schoolwide email with information about the disease, but after several days had passed she’d still sent nothing out. Isaac Boone and I went to the health center again on April 9 to inquire, and were told that Ms. Lico was disinclined to send an email out, even though we now had confirmed cases on campus. Why could this be? No About Moby-Dick: reasons were disclosed, but after another conversation with the health center she did send an email on April 10. If you think you might have pertussis, check the info that she sent out. Keep in mind that if you’ve had it for more than three weeks (as many have) you won’t test positive anymore: the bacteria will have left your system, even though symptoms continue. It’s hard to excuse our health center for denying pertussis suspicions for so long with so little reason. It’s even more concerning that the administration neglected to inform us immediately of confirmed cases. Why could this be? If we had begun testing months ago, when symptoms first started appearing on campus, more cases could have been avoided. I hope we can be more responsible in the future, for our own sakes and for those around us. [Note: on April 18, the health center also offered a clinic for TDAP booster shots, which are needed every ten years for whooping cough immunity. If you haven’t gotten yours recently, make sure you are up to date on your vaccination.] The question of whether these men who we name our buildings after owned slaves began the SJC History Task Force’s exploration into our auditorium’s namesake. The Task Force wondered who should run this investigation, and observed three different options employed by other schools while addressing similar issues, including Georgetown University and the University of Pennsylvania. Some schools handed matters over to their student body; others gave the responsibility to their history departments; and finally, some schools decided to hire a third-party outside research company. The second option was vetoed due to SJC’s lack of a history department – or any particular department, for that matter – and SJC opted for the third option, outsourcing the task but having the historical Task Force, composed of students, tutors and staff, guide the investigation. Known to his family as “Frank,” Key was a Maryland native who attended St. John’s College and later wrote the National Anthem, first called the “Defense of Fort McHenry.” The Task Force looked at Key’s role in establishing the American Colonization Society, which advocated sending all African Americans to Liberia; he also kept enslaved people himself. In his work as a lawyer, Key defended enslaved people in freedom suits, even arguing for their freedom before the Supreme Court, while also defending slaveholders and prosecuting abolitionists. This Friday and Saturday, at 7 PM, my stage adaptation of Melville’s Moby-Dick will, after two years in development, be brought to life in the Francis Scott Key auditorium. In advance of the premiere, I thought I’d answer here a few of the questions I’ve heard many people ask about my adaptation: How faithful is the adaptation? The broad strokes are there, and I keep quite a few specific scenes largely untouched, but much of it is out of order and altered to fit the needs of the stage. It is very much a different experience from reading the book. So, did you keep all those chapters about whales? I kept one of them–the biggest and the best. Is it really a musical? I heard it was a musical. There is music in it, yes. Don’t come into it expecting Broadway, though. How long is it? Approximately three hours, with a fifteen-minute intermission. Damn, really? If you’re familiar with the novel then you’ll know that’s actually on the shorter side. Helen Wagner Aphorism of the Week: Theology is the study of the Creator. Physics is the study of the created nature. Sociology is the study of the corrupted human nature. History is the study of the corrupted human nature compounded by created nature. For this reason, we do not study history at St. John's. Campus News Continued (Cont. from p. 1) the conversations and questions surrounding Key’s legacy were sparked by the rising widespread interest – nationwide and beyond – in the integrity, or perhaps lack thereof, of the important men whom buildings on college campuses are so often named after. Vol. II. Issue 10 The legacies of men like Francis Scott Key are woven into our institutions, still shaping our culture into the present day. To deconstruct these influences, we must recognize the ways their values are incongruous with ours, and persist in having conversations about it. Meliha Anthony A Collection of MomentsThe Magic of KWP’s Shakespeare Showcase Romeo, Juliet, and Caesar walk into a bar, while Falstaff is drunk and asleep on the couch. This crossover sounds like the beginning of a frankly, fantastic joke, but this wacky world became reality with the KWP’s “Shakespeare Compilation” directed by Dolan Polglaze and Jordan Kammeyer. Unrelated scenes from various Shakespearian plays were loosely stitched together by one enduring element: the bar. The aim of this show was to capture moments in time, highlighting the now, rather than the past or future, and it certainly achieved that goal. While watching, I was completely captivated, my eyes glued to the stage. Characters stumbled and laughed and screamed and cried, and while I didn’t understand the reasons for their emotions, I felt deeply connected to the feelings behind them. In the end, the KWP pulled off another incredible show. Chaotic, entertaining, and deeply confusing, I left with a huge smile on my face and the motivation to read more Shakespeare. Vivian Miyakawa Wondering where reporting on croquet is? Keep your eyes peeled for the next Gadfly for in-depth coverage! Page 2 I don’t know if I want to sit through that. I doubt very much that you’ll be bored at any point. My crew and I have taken pains to make the play as immersive as possible; I highly encourage you to just sit back and enjoy the ride. So, who plays the white whale? Well, I guess you’ll just have to come and see for yourself, won’t you? Ranger Kasdorf About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Helen Felbek Helen Wagner Meliha Anthony Ranger Kasdorf Vivian Miyakawa � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, April 25, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 10 of the St. John's Collegian, published April 25, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue10_2024-04-25 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/23dec77e99a4ada18779cea44fcd0772.pdf 5e24be07e1375e4c8a1c440318c26140 PDF Text Text Thursday April 4 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity CSL Report: Forum on the Alcohol on Campus Last Wednesday, March 27th, the CSL hosted a forum on alcohol consumption and how it impacts our community. The focus was on consumption on campus. The use of other recreational drugs was not taken into consideration. Mr. Huntley, Chair of the CSL, started the meeting with a question pertaining to the culture around alcohol on campus asking the participants to share their assessment on whether it is a healthy relationship. Participants considered different occasions in which alcohol is being consumed: college parties and events as well as regular private consumption. Students shared their personal reasons for drinking. The main reason cited was that alcohol helps the consumer to relax and socialize more easily. Regarding private consumption, the question and concern of writing essays under the influence of alcohol was raised. There seemed to be disagreement among the attendees on whether this is a widespread issue but if it was this would be indicative of a dangerous relationship to alcohol. Participants also argued that having an alcohol problem is highly subjective and personal. Most alcoholics self-diagnose. But a college environment can facilitate a blurring of the lines especially if one has a narrow understanding of alcoholism. Many students might not be binge drinkers but sometimes scheduled (binge) drinking could be considered problematic too. Pertaining to alcoholism among the student body, there were different interpretations of whether college life causes the problems or just intensifies already existing addictions. It would be helpful to have accessible campus specific data about this. Regarding campus events, the conversation was mostly centered around the Achilles Rager. Students shared the feeling that this event seems like the most unsafe of the year, particularly in terms of Title IX violations and physical health. The main factor contributing to this seems to be the lack of experience with safe drinking among the incoming first year students who use the occasion to try out new things and might go further than they ought to. This issue is further exacerbated by the fact that they do not yet have a strong social safety net. While some participants called for a cancellation or postponement for the event, others suggested a preventative approach. This approach would include training and raising awareness among returning students about first aid and safe partying. This might also reduce the strain on the RAs (Cont. on p. 2) Vol. II Issue 8 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Mayor presents on bike path Spoke to Students and Staff Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley attended a meeting in the Conversation Room on Wednesday, April 27th to present plans for the bike path on back campus. Along with him was Brian Cahalan, one of the mayor’s advisors, Eric Leshinsky, of planning and zoning, and representatives of the firm Meade and Hunte, who are responsible for making the plans for the bike path. Student and faculty attendance was limited, with only six students present and one faculty member, who left relatively early on. There were a few St. John’s staff members present as well. Buckley began the meeting by talking about adopting Dutch cycling infrastructure models to help address Annapolis’ contribution to global climate change. “The simplest climate solution is right in front of us,” explained Buckley, “We need to walk again, we need to bike again. And we’re not going to be able to do that without separated bike paths.” He claimed that the College Creek Connector would fill a major gap in the regional trail network, which would enable people to not only get more easily to Parole via the West East Express but would also connect to the B&A trail, forming a link all the way to Baltimore. The path, if approved, will meet campus property on the water by the Rowe Boulevard Bridge, which will have widened sidewalks to make it easier and safer for students and downtown residents to get to Graul’s. It will continue along the water until just before the small dock and boat launch, where it will join the dirt path running parallel to the creek for only about 50 feet, and then curve around behind the boathouse and up to Prince George Street. The slope behind the boathouse would be stabilized against erosion and receive better landscaping, while the living shoreline along the creek would be cleared of invasive species and replanted with native ones. A new boatshed would be built to house sailboats, and steps might be taken to improve boathouse accessibility. This would be in conjunction with other projects in the area, like a gateway park in the patch of woods off Rowe Boulevard and watercraft infrastructure at the end of Northwest Street, which are aimed at improving access to College Creek. Buckley emphasized that this plan will not happen without the College’s support and called on students to voice their opinions. “It’s not just an ask for the College, he said, “it’s an ask for the future.” El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Theater review: Much Ado About Much Ado About Nothing Last weekend the King William’s Players 2024 Season opened with a groovy production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Sophomores Eden Kammeyer and Ari David. Decked out with disco balls, flare pants, outrageous polyester shirts, and feather boas, the supremely talented cast boogied and jived their way through the two-hour show. Much Ado About Nothing concerns itself primarily with the relationships between its two main couples, Beatrice and Benedick, and Hero and Claudio, and how those relationships form and fall apart due to the deceptions of the other characters. Kammeyer and David set up this intrigue in a brilliantly colorful and campy 1970’s version of the Italian city of Messina, and they clearly told their actors to have fun with it. Full of cheeky physical comedy, sassy looks, fully committed characterization, and punchy line delivery, it was a riot from start to finish. Highlights include Ms. Rachel Hauben’s entire performance as Beatrice, her second to date, and by her own admission much superior to the first online version. Messrs. Charles Dang, Angus Preston, Ian Rossomundo, and M. Ned Haynie brought hilarious energy and impeccable comedic timing to the constabulary and watchmen. Ms. Katharine Bates played Don John delightfully cold and furious, styled to the nines in bold black and white patterns. And M. Z Larson and Ms. Sadie Lewin fell in and out of love as Hero and Claudio with heart wrenching sincerity. All in all, it was a delightful show and a fresh and funny take on Shakespeare's classic comedy. Keep your eyes peeled for posters going up for the KWP’s upcoming shows, the Shakespeare Showcase directed by Dolan Polglaze and Jordan Kammeyer, and Moby Dick, adapted for the stage and directed by Ranger Kasdorf. Andy Manne Aphorism of the Week: Silence is everywhere, yet no one has heard it so far. This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 4/4: Aristotle: Physics. I (A): 1 (184a10–184b16); II (B): (192b8–200b11) 4/8: Aristotle: Physics. III (Γ): 1–3 (200b12–202b29); IV (Δ): 10–14 (217b30–224a16) Sophomores: 4/4: Shakespeare: Hamlet 4/8: Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book I, Chapters 1–6; 15 Juniors: 4/4: Mozart: Don Giovanni 4/8: Kant: Foundation of Metaphysics of Morals. See official list for selections Seniors: 4/4: The Federalist, 78, 81 (selection); Supreme Court Opinions; Constitution, Articles III and VI 4/8: Dred Scott Decision and Dissenting Opinion, selected speeches of A. Lincoln and F. Douglas Friday-Monday, 4/5-7 Junior and Freshmen writing lounge. Opens Friday at 4 pm, closes Monday 7 am. Mellon 141 and 144. Friday-Saturday, 4/5-6 Graduate Institute Convening Weekend Saturday, 4/6: Admitted Students Day, Club Fair at 3:30 in the Great Hall Friday Night Lecture All College Seminar on "How Should One Read A Book?" by Virginia Woolf, 7:30 P.M., Great Hall Page 1 �Thursday April 4, 2024 St. John’s Collegian DC President Ali Shawamreh Overthrown, Evil Alter-Ego Crowned The Delegate Council meeting last Tuesday, the first meeting in April, ended in chaos as DC President Ali Shawamreh mysteriously disappeared. He noted that the agenda had been “highjacked” to feature an item labeled “The Magnificent Coronation of His Majesty Olive Shawarma, Righteous Regent of the St. John’s College Polity, in the Year 2024 of Our Common Era,” got up and disappeared behind one of the wooden barriers in the conversation room. CSL Report Cont. Photo Courtesy of Helen Felbek Mitchell Museum Report In his place emerged Olive Shawarma (pictured, right) who ordered a proclamation to be read announcing him as King of St. John’s College in Annapolis, in Santa Fe, in Cambridge, in Australia, in Canada, in India, and in all other places in which there is a St. John’s College to be king of; Archduke of the Paca Tub Room, etc. Lord Protector of the Delegate Council, and Defender of the Transcendental Idealism, as well as a variety of other titles. He was then crowned in a lavish ceremony and recited a coronation sonnet. The current exhibition in the Mitchell Museum only displays one piece. Entitled “Sampling a Sampler Sampling,” Polly Apfelbaum’s work challenges the viewer’s perspective. The piece is made of several different fabrics purchased in New York City’s Garment District arranged on the floor. Many of the fabric samples feature raw edges, and some of the patterns clash with each other. The originality of the piece prompts the audience to reconsider the place oftextiles in the world of art. What is art really made of? Does it change when we change our point of view? The exhibition runs until April 21 El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Natalie Goldman Come for me vol. 2 Continued Conversation on Orgasms Editor’s Note: This article is the second part of a series first appearing in The Gadfly. In my last article I settled some of the basics of orgasms with Annelise. However, I still had questions. I find that much like every person’s orgasm is different, every conversation about orgasm has new insights. This friend has chosen to stay anonymous. Before getting into the conversation, I would like to address questions I’ve heard about whether everything I wrote in the last article was true. I swear in this column to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. AB: How easy is it for you to orgasm? Anonymous Interviewee: I would say it’s pretty easy, especially on my own, but with more experience it has also gotten easier with a partner. How long does it take you to orgasm? How long do your orgasms last? Approximately 8-10 minutes, the length of the orgasm depends on factors I am unaware of, but it is usually not the sort of thing that is constricted to time. What allows you to orgasm with ease? Not only just practice and experience, but increased ability to let go of my self-consciousness surrounding it. Is there anything in particular you’ve found that has helped you with that? Anon: Mechanically, and I won’t get into too much detail—for propriety’s sake—but I’ve developed the theory of The Rule of Two; being, you can’t just be doing one thing in order to have an orgasm. You must be stimulated in at least two areas. Diversity in Vol. II. Issue 8 performance is key to success. There’s that one episode of Friends where Monica is showing Chandler how to please a woman: it’s kind of just like that. I know you said you don’t want to get into too much detail, but is this stimulation purely physical or mental as well? I would say mental for sure, it’s good to be in a comfortable environment where you don’t feel inhibited to explore what turns you on. Do you feel that your orgasms with a partner are essentially different than the ones you have on your own? Orgasms with a partner are fundamentally different because it is no longer solely your environment that you need to feel comfortable with, but with another person seeing you completely uninhibited. Reaching that state with someone else is an extremely intimate and vulnerable position to be in. I think our modern discussions surrounding sex often disregards that it takes practice and self-knowledge to be able to do this with someone. Do you think anyone is likely to have an orgasm with a partner without having one on their own? I think it’s possible. We all have our own anatomies, and some people are able to explore that with someone else first. Why do people say “When you have an orgasm you’ll just know” with such certainty? I think it has to do with the thing I said earlier about time. When you enter into an experience that exists so outside of time, that the question “Am I having an orgasm?” just isn’t on the table, and then you’ll know. Allyson Brink Page 2 (Cont. from p. 2) during that particular night. Some course similar to the “Get inclusive” course that all new and returning students have to finish every year for first aid and practical knowledge surrounding alcohol consumption could be part of this. The tenor was that the burden should not be placed on the new students who already have a busy and overwhelming orientation schedule but that it should be considered a community responsivity. Overall, students seemed to agree that in such a small community like St. John’s we need to look out for an help each other. As sophomore representative Camilla Lopez put it “what hurts the individual, hurts the whole polity.” To that end, Ms. Lico and Ms. Silver are hosting an event on addiction in general on Thursday, April 18th, during lunch in the Hodson room. Food will be provided. If you are interested in attending a CSL forum, please join us in the dining hall at 11.45 pm on Wednesday. We also appreciate student input on forum topics. Just talk to or email Mr. Huntley or me. Helen Felbek About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Allyson Brink Helen Felbek Andy Manne Natalie Goldman Are you interested in having your opinion heard? Do you want to rant and rave against articles you’ve seen published here? Do you want to amaze the campus with your superior rhetoric? Do you just want a place to review your favorite 19th century operetta? If so, then the Collegian is the place for you! Just send us your articles, and help us diversify our coverage. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, April 4, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 8 of the St. John's Collegian, published April 4, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue8_2024-04-04_Corrected Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/c2dacafc270b5463f3dd60bca2589513.pdf 85f086662d9e0e8a8ca1b9f4709c49be PDF Text Text Thursday December 7 2023 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Vol. I Issue 9 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis From the polity Fall 2023: the Collegian’s inaugural Semester in review A Message from the Randall Worms Looking Back on the First Three Months of the St. Jon’s Collegian, and Looking Forward to the Paper’s Future To the Polity: It has come to our attention that there has been an attempt from residents of Randall Hall 2 to suppress the reality of our plight under the guise of “privacy.” Let the story be set straight. We are the worms. We are the native inhabitants of the Randall 2 showers and refuse to be ignored any longer. In mid-August of this year our modest homes became overrun with human beings who have incited violence towards us. We have been wiped away and flushed down drains. We have been smashed. We have been bleach-bombed. We have had the higher powers of Buildings & Grounds called on us, all in a desperate attempt to eradicate us from our rightful place in the showers. We understand we are not the most beautiful creatures. But if you think it’s traumatic to shower with us, imagine how we feel. Somehow, we are the invaders, not you all, the ones entering our homes— naked, mind you—and attempting to wash us away or crush us underfoot. There are families who have been living on these tiles for generations. Childhood friends have been mutilated by your cruel tactics, and we have had enough. No longer will we suffer in silence. This message is for the aggressors of Randall 2: we won’t be gotten rid of that easily. We have and will continue to survive your assassination attempts and will be exacting our revenge shortly. Stay vigilant. Sincerely, The worms Editor’s Note: This letter was submitted anonymously, and as a publication we cannot speak to whether or not any worms do actually reside in the Randall Two showers, and as to whether or not they can write in English. However, if there were worms, and if they could write in English, a letter from them would be so remarkable, it would be worth publishing here merely on the chance that it may really be written by worms. When I first decided to start the Collegian, it seemed like the task ahead of me was particularly daunting. I recognized the need for a more frequent campus publication, but also saw that with our small student body, it would be difficult to find enough writers to keep up the kind of regular reporting I was hoping for. More than that, I saw the task of keeping myself on a weekly schedule as a challenging one, and a difficult one to enforce for Johnnies, who are notoriously bad at deadlines. The task ahead of me seemed large, and it did turn out to be so. For some issues, such as this one, I did struggle to get enough contributors, not for lack of occurrences on campus, but for the nearly universal lack of time that all Johnnies, including myself, suffer from. Likewise, I often found myself cutting precariously close to my own deadlines, although fortunately almost all of the paper’s other contributors were far more punctual than I was. However, despite all these difficulties, the paper took off, and largely successfully. Certainly, there were no ends of spelling, grammar, and printing errors (largely due to my editorial procrastination), but news was reported on, opinions were presented, and miscellaneous bits of commentary and cryptic aphorisms were spread amongst the Polity. Most of this success is due to the paper’s hard-working team of contributors. We had, in the nine issues since the beginning of publication in September, sixteen different contributors, including, in order of the first publication their articles appeared in, Caleb Briggs, Lainey Rendelman, William Marchman, Augustus Pananas, Georgia Green, Natalie Goldman, Semyon Andruschenko, Louis Rosenberg, Ron Haflidson, Andy Manne, Jack Huntley, Susan Paalman, and Molly Sprout, not to mention the anonymous antismoking crusader, their rival J.S., and the Randall Worms. I must sincerely thank each and every one of these people for their contributions- without them, the Collegian could not exist. In particular, I would like to thank Briggs, Goldman and Manne, who all contributed more than once and helped keep the paper running. In total, the paper had 36 articles this semester: eleven opinion pieces, in the form of letters to the editor, editorials or just very short, opinionated essay about assorted nonsense; nineteen news articles, ranging from reporting on the College Creek Connector to a student attending two seminars, four arts features, on the Mitchell Museum or KWP shows, and then whatever this article and the first introductory piece in the first issue could be classified as. With all this, the newspaper covered important stories. Looking back on the semester’s headlines serves as a sort of summary of the year: September gives us the summer BVG meeting and the College Creek Connector, DC Budgeting, and, most importantly, the incessant ringing of bells during seminar. In October, dialogue on the bells continued alongside the official reopening of Mellon and Public Safety’s Cleary Report, the Polka and Limbo competitions and the DC Budget Omnibus Bill. November continued to be just as busy, with another BVG meeting, a tutor walkout over pay, a suspicious item leading to Mellon being evacuated, and the College Historical Taskforce. In different ways, each and every one of these stories is important to the Polity, and many of them, such as the BVG meetings or the College Creek Connector, might never have gotten any notice had there not been articles written about them. To me with all the challenges the Collegian has faced, the fact that at the end of the day the Polity has become, even just a little, better informed thanks to the work of the Collegian, makes me motivated enough to keep this paper going to next semester, next year, and hopefully further into the future. However, this will not be possible without other people’s help. If you are interested in covering anything, whether it be local Annapolis politics, College administrative decisions, Intramurals, campus music and art scenes, or anything at all, please send in articles! The more regular contributors we have, the better we can keep up the timely, efficient and informative publication of the Collegian, and the more interesting we can make this paper. Save the Polity from having to read any more “year in review” summaries from me- find a topic, and just write! It doesn’t have to be long, it doesn’t have to be complicated, all we need here are articles on things people care about, and I know that things like that are not at all rare on this passionate, busy campus. Farewell until next semester, El’ad Nichols-Kaufman This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Friday Night Lecture: - 7 pm, Great Hall: Summerfield Live Tuesday 12/12 - 7 pm, Great Hall: Collegium and Assistant Dean’s Winter Party Freshman: - 12/7: Euripides: Medea - 12/11: Plato: Symposium, Beginning–198A Sophomores: - 12/7: Christian Creeds, see official list; Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae, Prologue; Prima Pars (First Part), see official list - 12/11: Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars (First Part), see official list Juniors and Seniors: - Preceptorials KWP’s production of the Importance of Being Earnest Page 1 Friday 12/8 - 7:30 pm, FSK: The Importance of Being Earnest Saturday, 12/9 7:30 pm, FSK: The Importance of Being Earnest - 10 pm, Great Hall: Pangaea Just Dance Party Sunday 12/10 �Thursday December 7, 2023 St. John’s Collegian Vol. I. Issue 9 Delegate Council semester ends, Shawamreh elected Dc president End of the Year for Delegate Council Featured Much Legislative Action, Planning for Future Budgeting, and Contested Officer Elections The end of the fall 2023 session was a busy end of the year for the Delegate Council, which in the past has slowed down at the end of budgeting season. This year, however, the council shifted towards working on legislation aimed at improving its budgeting process and better representing student voice to the College administration. Two committees were formed for this purpose: the archives committee and the budgeting committee. The archives committee, which this writer headed in his capacity as DC Secretary, reviewed current acts of council, and looked to find ways to improve them both through amendments and by writing new acts. The archives committee brought forward three pieces of legislation: an amendment to the archives act, to make DC proceedings more accessible to the Polity, as well as two new acts. The first of these, the succession act, outlines what happens if both the President and Secretary are unable to lead a meeting. The second was the new Club Responsibility Act, which formalizes the DC’s recommendation that new clubs receive $500 in their first budget and requires them to submit an official request do so, as well as have the budget passed by a 2/3 majority of the DC. allocation process and give the Treasurer discretion as to decide when budgets should be heard, to allow for more urgent budgets to be heard faster; an amendment to the Budget Role Clarification Act, to help distinguish between emergency and supplemental budgets; and a new act of council, the High-Budget Sports Club act, which provides new guidelines for clubs like Polo or Jiu-Jitsu. The budgeting committee, headed by treasurer Grace Jang, looked to address problems that have arisen from the Council’s often confusing budgeting rules, and pass acts of council resolving them. Amendments provided by this committee included a reworking of the Agora Act, which creates a fund any student project for the benefit of the whole Polity can request money from; amendments to the Allocations Procedure Codification Act, to streamline check Elections were also held for the officers and freshman delegates. The Secretary and Polity Herald’s races were uncontested, with incumbents El’ad NicholsKaufman and Rylee Bain being reelected, while in the Treasurer election, Alexander Paden won in a race against Rachel Rozsa, and in the Presidential election, Ali Shawamreh won, running against Lainey Rendelman. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Behind All that Gadfly BS A Psychological Analysis of Mr. Bennett Scott [Note: Mr. Scott has forbidden this article from being printed, but we shall not be silenced.] Is he a madman, a prophet of modern decay, or simply the weird roommate of Ben Maier who makes those videos? Who really is B.S.? Bennett Scott, man of many wiles, is known around the St. John’s College campus as the archon of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, A Senior, and turtleneck aficionado; lately, he has emerged in the polity consciousness as the sole pursuer of what he deems “SJC Mysteries.” His main output, however, is satire, always signed with his initials: B.S. Bennett Scott...B.S....Based on what he writes, it’s enough to make any good wannabe psychologist wonder whether Mr. Scott would do what he does if his initials didn’t stand for bullshit. It’s almost too perfect. Of course the man who writes about the “Bro Scogan Experience,” the first “Intercollegiate World National Chopsticks Championship,” and who allegedly received a cease and desist from the college for breaking and entering (something he wouldn’t be so stupid to record himself doing) would write under those initials. The be B.S. might not just be a tongue in cheek acknowledgement: it might well be his deepest insecurity. The question is then one reminiscent of the chicken and the egg. What came first? The antics, or the signature? Did Mr. Scott realize the potential of his name and begin playing into it, or was he always like this, sufferer of nominal determinism, the years passing and proving all too apparent how accurate his initials are? The answer to this question was provided by the man himself (in an off the record interview that he has tried to hide, destroy, and block from being published). In his wayward youth, Mr. Scott was a member of Mr. Breck’s sixth grade algebra class. In this class was also the much smarter, kinder, more likable Bennie Surketz. As a result, he explained with clear rage in his voice, his teacher referred to him as “B.S. 2.” Mr. Scott lambasted Mr. Breck as “the worst person [he] ever met,” his face turning red, his hands shaking, muttering the quadratic equation under his breath. Not only did the title come first, it’s a name which represents all of Bennett’s deepest insecurities. To have to bear such worthless initials and be reminded that you are only secondary in such worthlessness!? No wonder Mr. Scott resorts to cheap absurdist comedy and video podcasting. What respectable outlet could be left for a man with so little faith in his abilities that he signs every work with the very moniker that has blighted and shadowed him since childhood? Truly, he should be pitied, or at the very least given a low-level writing job at GQ. Every article in the Gadfly, every YouTube video, each and every one is a desperate cry for help. Each inked B.S. represents the burning soul of a tortured man (just factor the damn equation Bennett!), a man searching for answers in the mysteries of his little world, leaving no cryptic stone unturned or cellar un-rummaged through, searching for the way to overcome his own feelings of inadequacy. Pushed aside even in his weakness, he now presents every sign of narcissism and “pick-me” syndromes, left in the most absurd of fights: he tears at himself in search of the angst to prove that he too is a starving artist. To be B.S, Mr. Scott needs to do what he does, but to do what he does, Mr. Scott must truly be B.S. —A.M. (Assuredly Magnificent, not Ass Magnet) Pensée of the Week If religion is the opium of the masses, then revolution is the crack cocaine of the masses. Page 2 About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400-600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more indepth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Andy Manne The Worms � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, December 7, 2023 Description An account of the resource Volume 1, issue 9 of the St. John's Collegian, published December 7, 2023. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2023-12-07 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol1_issue9_2023-12-07 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a5d4bf0fe212dbbbe761f7965f6bcb9d.pdf 68a27266c8005048513f99c92892ca32 PDF Text Text Thursday February 1 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Vol. II Issue 3 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis From the polity Admissions Update: Looking forward to the class of ‘29 Students in Support of Khafiz Kerimov Discussion Based Application’s First Year Proves Successful, Annapolis On Track to Meet Enrollment Goals In the wake of Mr. Kerimov not being reappointed as a tutor, there has been an outpouring of student voices expressing dismay at this decision. Not only have students gone directly to administrative officials and faculty, but there has also been a great amount of conversation within the student body about Mr. Kerimov’s case and the reappointment process in general. This kind of collective activism is something I’ve not seen in my time at St. John’s. Despite being a community based in large part on thoughtful engagement with texts and each other, I find that important issues are often not sufficiently addressed. I’ve before thought of this as a general apathy. We’re just too tired from studying to care about anything else! However, this time students spoke up. A letter expressing disappointment with the Instruction Committee’s (IC) decision was signed by over 220 students and alumni from both the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses. The chairs of the SCI, the student committee concerned with matters of instruction, co-authored a letter imploring the IC to reconsider their decision. Students presented the Dean with personal narratives of how Mr. Kerimov profoundly impacted them. And last Tuesday, the Delegate Council passed a resolution recommending that the IC reappoint Mr. Kerimov. The DC’s action is momentous as resolutions are rarely put forth. These are formidable efforts all initiated by students to reflect on an issue that pertains directly to our education and what we want that education to look like even after we graduate. This is not just about Mr. Kerimov. It is about our say as students in our education, and how we trust the faculty and administration to uphold academic excellence and adequately value those members of the polity who are rightfully esteemed by us. Reappointment decisions are private by nature and, frankly, I don’t care to know all the intricacies of the IC’s decision. It is enough for me to believe that Mr. Kerimov is a great tutor and an integral member of the community, and that because of this everything should be done to keep him St. John’s. I encourage students to continue discussing this issue with each other, faculty, and the administration. It must be made firmly known that we are invested in the excellence of St. John’s and are willing to act for the sake of its preservation. Emma Cunningham-Bradshaw The Regular decision deadline for applications to St. John’s College passed this January, and the admissions process is in full swing, with Early Action and Early Decision applicants having been notified of their admission on December 1st, and Regular Decision applicants learning of their admission on the day of publication. Rolling admissions, which continue until the summer and account for about a third of the College’s applicants, will begin on February 15th. “Our goals this year are the same as they were last year. In Annapolis, we aim to admit 140-150 people, while in Santa Fe, we’d like to have a little bit more than a hundred students. We don’t know if we’re going to meet those goals yet,” explained Ben Baum, Vice President for Admissions. “We have roughly 1,000 students who have applied, college wide, so far. We anticipate maybe another 500 between now and August. That’s one of the reasons we don’t know whether or not we’ll meet all our goals, because we don’t know how many people will apply between now and then. 1,000 students sounds like a lot, for an institution the size of St. John’s, but it’s a much more complicated story.” Part of the complication comes from the relatively small portion of admitted students who choose to enroll. “With our goals, 140-150 in Annapolis, and 100 in Santa Fe, we’ll probably admit somewhere around 700-800 students. The reason for that is that not every student who we admit comes. Roughly 30% of the students we admit enroll,” said Baum. “30% may sound like a high number, but it is one of the best of our peers.” Additionally, a limited applicant pool constrains the College’s admissions possibilities, especially on the Santa Fe campus, which has historically struggled to meet enrollment goals. Baum explained that “Last year, Santa Fe fell a little short, I think we had 92 students… The reason for that is that we did not have enough applications. That’s a challenge for St. John’s on both campuses…. The breakdown of [applications] skews towards Annapolis. 2/3rd of applicants apply to Annapolis, and only 1/3rd apply to Santa Fe. As a result, it’s harder to meet the headcount goals in Sanra Fe… The reasons for that are probably a matter of geography to a certain extent. There are very few liberal arts colleges in the Southwest, and the population of New Mexico is much smaller than that of the area around Annapolis.” Some demographic trends are also shifting. This year has seen a decrease in international student applications, with an increase in domestic students. Another major change to the college’s admissions process this year is the implementation of the Discussion Based application, an alternative application which replaces the requirement for an essay or letters of recommendation with an interview with an admissions counselor, an interview with a tutor, and participation in a seminar. “We launched it in August, explained Baum. “It was an idea that originated in an officers retreat… we were talking about how while our application covers many great things about St. John’s, it doesn’t cover the discussion centered nature of what we actually do here, and so we asked ourselves to figure out a way we could include that. So we came up with the Discussion Based Application.” So far, 134 students have applied through this process, which has no equivalent in any other school in the country. Baum noted great strength in these applicants. “They are, no question, some of the strongest applications we’ve received. What we think that students saw this as an opportunity to do something different that would be maybe more exciting or maybe comfortable for them in the admissions process for students who already know that St. John’s is where they want to be.” Matthew Holtzman, a tutor who has been participating in some of the tutor conversations, and is also a member of the admissions committee, explained what the interviews look like. “Usually, I try to get a sense of why the student is attracted to the College in the first place, what the student’s impressions of the College were so far. If they attended a seminar, what was the seminar like, and if they had anything they wanted to say in the seminar… usually, that’s a good sign: if the student had something they wanted to say.” Beyond this interview, the student may either join a Saturday seminar, or participate in Summer Academy to fulfil the seminar requirement. Once this and the shorter written portion of the application are completed, the student is notified (Cont. on page 2) This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 2/1: Plato: Sophist, beginning–242B 2/5: Plato: Sophist, 242C–end Sophomores: 2/1: Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae (see official list for selections) 2/5: Christian Creeds, Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae (see official list for selections) Juniors: 2/1: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) 1/22: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) Seniors: 2/1: Essay writing Period 2/5: Melville: Benito Cereno Thursday 2/1 - 9:45 pm, outside the planetarium: long weekend bonfire Friday Night Lecture: No Lecture due to long weekend Page 1 Saturday 2/3 - Midnight*, Studio Theater: Senior Sh*t Show Tuesday 2/6 - 3:45 pm, Hodson Conference Room: Pathways fellowship information session * For all the pedants out there who insist this should be marked as midnight 2/4, note that the AP style guide says midnight “is part of the day that is ending, not the one that is beginning.” �Thursday February 1, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Admissions, Cont. from pg. 1 Theological debate: within two weeks of the admission decision. On the Most Essential Question Learned members of the polity, Corruption comes upon our holy community from all sides, through wickedness and sin, forcing our minds toward ‘practical’ matters of politics, graduation, and actually treating our employees well. I fear that the entire matter of this Godly institution is being lost. Must I remind you, good doctors of this our most holy church, what we are here for? What is the study of chemistry, mathematics, physics, ethics, theology, literature for? You spit in the eye of God when you say it is for human matters. I address you in your darkness: do you not remember our question? What is erudition for? There is only one question worth answering, for it contains the very nature of The Most High: How many angels could fit upon the head of a pin? We must use every piece of knowledge we have in our great canon to give the satisfactory answer of St. John. So let me begin: Proposition: More than one angel may fit upon the head of a pin. Vol. II. Issue 3 Proof: Apollonius will remind us (Conics, Book I) that a conic may be produced by the rotation of a line at some angle. This, clearly, means that a conic, of which the head of a pin is one sort, is a thing with faces, for the line may stop at any point and we call this a face from whence it began. Now, as we are reminded in the Ezekiel 10:12: “And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had.” Clearly, an eye is a thing for a face, two to one, as in the proportion of Man and God. Now clearly the head of a pin is a thing with faces and an angel is a thing with eyes. Thus, because the head of a pin has multiple faces, an angel must be able to place at least part of its surface to each of these faces. Therefore, it is entirely clear, an angel may balance by its two eyes upon one of the many conic faces, leaving the others to its brethren. The rest is obvious from here. QED. Such is only the beginning of a great learning which might be executed by our community. The rest is left to the polity to dispute in these selfsame pages. The Learned Doctor, Bennettus Scotticus Despite the different process, the applications are treated the same as regular applications. “What will happen is that I will submit my notes, and those will become part of the application,” explained Holtzman. Instead of reading an essay, the person reading the application will read my impressions of the student. When I’ve been on the other side of that, reading somebody’s notes, usually hat tells me the same sorts of things that an essay would tell me. I’m getting the same kind of information, just filtered through the eyes of one of my colleagues, which is helpful in the sense that I don’t have to do the same kind of deciphering.” Holtzman also noted that this process is not too different from the existing one: “I don’t think the discussion based application marks a radical change from the way we do things anyway, but it seems like a very appropriate substantive change. It is something different, and appropriate for us.” Both Baum and Holtzman indicated that the process so far had been very successful, and that they were optimistic that it will continue for years to come. “I think we can bring people into the college who can grow in their writing, who might just express themselves better in conversation,” said Baum. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman DC Budgeting And the dishes About the St. Update run back with John’s the spoon Collegian The Delegate Council Budgeting submission closed on January 19th this semester, with budget hearings beginning shortly before that in order to accommodate clubs like Waltz and Reality who planned to host events early in the year. In total, the Delegate Council has $45,000 in its bank account, and aims to allocate all of it this semester. However, clubs initially submitted $51,860 worth of budget proposals, not including thousands of dollars in late budgets. So far, as of the meeting on January 30th, the Delegate Council has allocated $29,994 dollars to clubs, as follows: - Reality: $6,210 Waltz: $4,760 KWP: $3,430 Futsal: $2,310 Jiujitsu: $2,190 Pangea: $1,955 Chorus: $1,646 Shammai: $1,006 Catholic Student Fellowship: $775 Board Game Club: $724 JSPN: $700 Video Game Club: $610 Folk Life: $500 3D Printing: $497 Drone Club: $475 Alexander Hamilton Society: $450 Orthodox Christian Fellowship: $450 Purls of Wisdom: $312 Chess: $221 Baking: $213 TEA: $166 Swim: $160 Law Club: $134 Polo club’s budget was not approved. The polity is not known for having an abundance of small mouths among its members but there is one thing many agree on: the soup spoons of the dining hall as of late are far too large. Luckily, as some may have noticed, the beloved teaspoon has recently made a reappearance. How long will they remain? It is difficult to tell. Their appearance is likely due to a top-heavy ecosystem wherein the dominant predators (soup spoons) have out-populated their own food supply (teaspoons) resulting in ecological collapse and a widespread die-off among predators. But with a lack of predators, the prey begin to come back and fill the empty ecological niche they once occupied. The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. It remains to be seen whether there will be a further evolution of the genus cochlear and if, with a lack of predators, there is an overpopulation that threatens keystone species such as the fork. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 400 words. A longer, journalistic piece may be up to 1,200 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Caleb Briggs, Amateur Cutlerist Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Editor’s Note: Caleb Briggs I’d like to thank the Polity for responding to my cry for help in the last issue by sending in a wave of articles. Thank you all for making this paper possible! Emma Cunningham-Bradshaw I would also like to announce a plan for an upcoming issue of the Collegian on the 22nd. As the BVG will be meeting that week, I would like to dedicate that issue to four essays, of about 600 words each, on the issues students feel are important for the College and for the BVG to act on. If you have an idea for an essay of this type, please write to me! Submissions would be due on the 19th. Page 2 Bennettus Scottius Pensee of the Week Some built high towers, some became nobility, and some injected needles. But they all desired highness. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 1, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 3 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 1, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-02-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue3_2024-02-01 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/43fb1f1e509c5887b31f7ab68dfb7b57.pdf 8e6ec5a5509c7b159f2535e9a04cd5da PDF Text Text Thursday, February 20, 2025 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity A Blooming Garden of Johnnie-Flowers Ah yes, mid-February. That liminal state between Valentine’s Day and spring break, where red heart stickers decorating shirts and hats alike are blown away by ferocious winds sweeping in from College Creek. Boreas, who spread a crisp white blanket of snow one last time over red bricks and faded green fields, now reluctantly makes way for tender Zephyrus. With keen eyes, you may spot his first darling snowdrops lifting their delicate petals above ground. Birdsong, too, will soon return along with warm spring sunbeams breaking triumphantly through the clouds above. Spring whispers the promise of rebirth, rejuvenation, and new possibilities formerly hidden under cover of frost. So, too, do the seniors look toward the promise of the future as they one by one, eyes sparkling with excitement and trepidation, enter the King William Room for their oral examinations. After four short years and an hour-long conversation, they each emerge from the cave into the light of new understanding. Each Johnnie contains great potential within them, their own unique flower seed to be nurtured while both on and off campus. Just like the snowdrops blooming in the harshest snows, the difficulty of the Program makes the beautiful bloom of the Johnnieflower that much more splendid. Underclassmen, heed my words. Do allow yourself to be-at-work-staying-yourself through your wonderful potential for being. You have inquisitive minds aplenty; wonder, explore, laugh, cry, read, sing, love, live! To my beloved seniors: Let us guide the underclassmen with open arms and wisdom as we approach our final few months in this remarkable place. Let us instill curiosity about the magic and mystery of SJC in the years below us. They are our legacy, the ones gracefully stepping into the leadership roles we now hold, the ones to whom we can pass down our secrets. The Underquad, the burnt popcorn of Humphreys, the Paca tub room – these are our true legends to be kept alive by the next generation. Let us spring forward into this new season together, seniors and underclassmen alike, and cultivate even more beautifully unique Johnnie-flowers as we all bask in the glorious sunshine of knowledge. Herschel Reuben Vol. II Issue XIII Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Federal, State Policy Threatens College Affordability & Financial Stability The College often sees itself as insulated from national political circumstances. A more thoughtful tone of political discourse and an absence of student protest culture can lead to a sense that political conversation at the college remains within a sort of bubble, detached from any obligation towards action in local or national politics. However, with the current dismantling of many key federal services and the state budgetary crisis, this much wider political world may very soon have dramatic effects on our College, and the lives of all students who attend it. This article will feature information about federal policy impacts for the College, while next week an article will examine the impacts of state legislation. On a federal level, the Annapolis campus does not directly receive grants from the federal government for programming, and thus has not been affected by the Trump administration’s attempts to freeze federal grants. However, students are direct beneficiaries of numerous federal programs, and the upcoming congressional budget may dramatically increase the cost of attendance at the College, and bar communities who currently form important parts of the College from attending. “When I think of federal money, I actually think first of federal money that supports students directly,” explained Nora Demleitner, Annapolis president. “Loan programs, work studies, the supplemental opportunity fund, that we’re getting from the Department of Education.” As of the 2021-22 academic year, the most recent year that statistics were available from, this federal department, which Donald Trump has proposed to eliminate, provided loans to 46% percent of Johnnies, as well as Pell Grants for 19% of the student body. While the recent, now rescinded, grant freezes were eventually clarified to not include work-study and Pell Grants, and the current nominee for Secretary of Education, WWE executive and failed political candidate Linda McMahon, has clarified Pell Grants are not at risk, the futures of loans and loan forgiveness programs are much less clear. Additionally, the federal government has direct power over immigration, meaning that it may become much harder for students to get visas to study at St. John’s. Our college, which derives great benefit from a wide variety of international experiences, and receives a good deal of funding from Davis Scholars, as well as other international students, stands to lose both a part of its vibrant intellectual community and financial security if the number of international students is severely curtailed. Demleitner said that there are already reports “of more rejections for people from certain countries,” indicating that future classes may be more restricted in countries of origin. Most challenges to these programs come not from the executive branch, from which most changes to spending would be unconstitutional, and thus challenged in the courts, but instead from Congress. The Budget Reconciliation process has just begun, and a wide variety of proposals are currently on the table to be included. In the FY2025 House Budget Resolution submitted by House Republicans, $880 billion are to be cut from areas under the responsibility of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, some of which will likely impact higher education. “There’s a whole host of proposals,” explained Demleitner, “and they range from cutting Pell Grants to expanding programs, not in terms of the dollar amount going up per student, but in the types of programs that could benefit… more workforce programs, short term certificate-type programs that are not currently funded by Pell Grants.” Further injury to students may come from proposals to tax all scholarships, ending public loan forgiveness, which many Johnnies pursuing careers in education or public service benefit from, and, critically for a college with such a large international population, an end to F1 visas for non-STEM majors. Demleitner said that these changes may have long term impacts on college attendance in general, driving people away from liberal arts programs such as St. John’s, where cost is high relative to salary after College, and for the future careers, discouraging necessary professions like teaching or the job of public defenders, which have a high cost of education for low pay. “If any of these proposals were to be implemented, then obviously, there will be long term ramifications about who even wants to go to college, and what type of college.” So called “culture war” issues may have little direct impact on the College, but increased scrutiny from the federal government against any program that they label “DEI” may nationally dampen dialogue, and bring a culture of government repression of academic speech which may, through the students who come to the College, affect the tenor of conversation on campus. In general, the chaos created by the federal government in dismantling many of the systems that support higher Continued on page 2. This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: Thursday, February 20th: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics; Books VI, VII Monday, February 24th: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics; Books VIII, IX Sophomores: Thursday, February 20th: Shakespeare: As You Like It Monday, February 24th: Montaigne: Essays (selections) Juniors: Thursday, February 20th: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason; (selections) Monday, February 24th: Locke: Second Treatise of Government; Chapters I–IX Seniors: Thursday, February 20th: Conrad: Heart of Darkness Monday, February 24th: Freud: “Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through”, “Mourning and Melancholia” Friday, February 21 Book signing: Joshua Rogers reads from Psychedelic Psalms, Edensword Bookstore, 5pm Wednesday, February 26 Seminar Discussion on Smithson Essay, "Sedimentation of the Mind", Conversation Room, 5:30pm Friday Night Lecture: Cancelled :( Page 1 �St. John’s Collegian Thursday, February 20, 2025 Federal, State Policy... (continued) Open Letter to the Board Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the Board, This weekend, you will vote on a proposed revision of the Polity. Such an integral document, instituted by our founders Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan, bears much consideration. I write this letter to make one single request: please, allow students to see these amendments. I have been told that my College is amending its Constitution, and St. John’s has taught me that good citizens inform themselves on public matters such as this. I have dutifully attempted to see these changes; but to my surprise, we students have been forbidden to see what is happening. I hope the Board will understand that this blindness, and on such an important subject, has left me both concerned and confused. How are we to be good citizens of our Johnnie “polity” if we are blinded to such an important facet of its governance? I make this request not for my own personal access, but so that the broader student polity may see these amendments in full. The most likely reason that I can think of to not release these amendments to the student body may be quoted directly from Aristotle. His Nicomachean Ethics tells us that “of the political art, a young person is not an appropriate student, for he is inexperienced in the actions pertaining to life, and the arguments are based on these actions and concern them.” However, this is also a college that immediately follows Aristotle’s Ethics on the freshman reading list with his Politics. St John’s faith in the young political student is implicit in our very list of readings. If the student body cannot think critically and rationally, if we are not capable of approaching a text with intelligence if my mind is not free - then I do not know what we do here. St. John's, above all other institutions, believes in intelligent and rational discourse among its students. Such has been repeatedly emphasized by official speeches and letters to the student body, which have praised students’ dedication to this value. I added my name to the College register at Convocation because I believe that it has found success in that endeavor, and I know that you have joined the Board because you wish to uphold that success. Yet despite being praised as students who engage in intelligent discourse, we have been barred from it regarding this vote. If we share this value between us, I humbly ask that we share in our efforts to uphold it. My thoughts on this are also strongly informed by my own work. Next semester the student Delegate Council will hold its regular constitutional review, in which our own Review Committee will write and propose amendments to the entire polity for a vote. The student body has designed a constitution that not only allows but requires those under it to see what is happening, because the Program has taught us that we must become good citizens of our polity. I do not advocate for students to have a significant vote in your review process, for reasons amply provided by Aristotle. I believe at least one correspondent of mine has thought that I am demanding a formal student committee to provide feedback to the Board, like the Faculty has. In reality, my request is far more simple. If our College’s motto is true - if these books and this balance are engaged in making me a free adult - then I wish the Board to trust the freedom they wish me to learn and allow me to see that which is set to govern my education. All I ask is to not be blind. I hope this letter is received well. I truly mean it with the utmost respect; I value what you do, and it is your efforts that make it possible for my College to exist. I confess that it frightens me when we are forbidden to see these changes. It is too late now to have any effect on the current process, but I request that for future Polity reviews the details may be publicized before the vote is held. If our College is to produce free minds, it must set them free in practice as well as in principle. Trust the education that you impart to me, and I promise that you will find it to be a valuable education indeed. Reagan Bottomley Aphorism of the Week ὅ τι βούλομαι ἐνθάδε ἂν γάφοιμι, τῶν δὲ πολλῶν ἂν λάθοι, καὶ ἁμαρτήματά περ εἰ ποιοῖμι. Tarik Mahmud A Plea And the Lord God shall be to thee as thou art to thy janitors. (One of the gospels, probably) With that verse in mind, here are some virtues that I'd like to add to the whole faith, hope, and love business: 1. If your paper towel misses the trash can, pick it up and try again. Take as much time as you need. A poem 2. Clean up your table and put your chairs back once you're done eating at the dining hall. Sometimes 3. Bus your dishes like you're the one who's going to have to wash them. Think Tetris. A little bag of oranges A little plate of limes A little conversation A little wasted time Salad with tomatoes Vinegar and salt Sometimes things are lonely Sometimes not at all. Vol. II. Issue xiii If you aren't a direct cause of any of these problems, congrats! But don't celebrate for too long--maybe it's time to step up your game and clean up for others. education leads to fears that the greatest damage to the College may come in a still unexpected way. Demleitner recounted a meeting with Maryland’s Congressional delegation’s staff, in which a Republican’s staffer, “literally said to us… if you hear something [about action against colleges and universities], call me.” Demleitner said that this, “was, to me, the single scariest comment… You’re in the building; why would I hear about this long before you?” St. John’s receives far more funding from the State of Maryland, which is also at risk due to a state budgetary crisis. In the next issue, I will provide coverage of the impact state legislation will have on the College. El’ad Nichols Kaufman Liza love’s Beat of the Week: Sandy Toes - Linda Perhacs If the weather be a sign, Ms. Nature is feeling those February blues. It’s a time for introspection and creature comforts, but we won’t let that get us down. Linda Perhacs’ “Sandy Toes” from her 1970 album Parallelograms is a warm beam of sunshine through stratus and pine. A sweet psychedelic-folk track to carry you to the weekend’s approaching shoreline. Ride the wave, dear friends. LL About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email sjca.collegian@gmail.com with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: Helen Wagner, Editor and Writer Jacob Sharpe, Editor These things matter. How you do anything is how you do everything. Reagan Bottomley, Writer El’ad Nichols Kaufman, Writer Anonymous Liza Love, Writer Helen Wagner Rumor has it that Mr. Freeman will be personally renovating the BBC this summer. Further details are unknown. – A different Anonymous Page 2 Herschel Reuben, Writer Reagan Bottomley, Writer Tarik Mahmud, Greek Aphorism � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 20, 2025 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 13 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 20, 2025. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2025-02-20 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol_II_issueXIII_2025-02-20 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/95c7c49377178d5f0c97422988757d34.pdf aae0f710b6b2279e9fdaf9da477a5e8f PDF Text Text Thursday February 22 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Special issue: to the bvg Issue of Collegian Dedicated to Ideas, Student Perspectives As happens once or twice each year, the Board of Visitors and Governors will be meeting on the Annapolis Campus throughout the end of this week. Often, this occasion is either missed entirely by students, or treated as an inconvenience to usual use of spaces on campus. This semester, however, I hope to contribute towards changing this and ensuring student involvement in the decision making of the College. After all, the Polity is at its core a tightly knit community of learners, including, students, tutors and staff, and its governance should take into account the myriad of perspectives that compose it. In this issue of the Collegian, a variety of proposals and perspectives on the future of the College and progress that can be made going forward are presented: Helen Felbek makes a case for free menstrual products on campus, Peter Boersema reflects on enrollment, and Andy Manne reports on break housing, where the College’s decision to have a sliding scale fee should be applauded, and taken as a model for other fees on campus. For my part, I would like to use this slim column to also raise ideas and concerns students have raised in previous issues of the Collegian that I hope any Board member reading will notice, think about, and seek further student thoughts on from the many students around campus who are glad to share their perspectives. A major issue this semester has been tutor pay, which is almost universally seen by students to be low to the point at which it poses a danger to the College. Additionally, staff pay has been neglected for just as long, and makes it difficult to keep our grounds kept up, are buildings cleaned and students fed. Funding salary increases should be one of the board’s top priorities, and if cuts need to be made to student experience to fund such increases, so be it. Additionally, students have written about instituting an honor code, an issue which still divides the student body, and housing prices, where the new tiered system of pricing has drawn much ire. Concerns have been raised about how it will increase inequity on campus, breaking apart our community, and will add to the high cost of attendance. So many things, from laundry costs to meal costs, have been increasing, without proportional increases to (Cont. on page 2) Vol. II Issue 5 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Improving Access. Improving Wellbeing. The case for free menstrual products on Campus An oftentimes overlooked issue to student wellbeing is the issue of period poverty. The NIH’s National Library of Medicine cites papers which define the term as “as the lack of access to safe and hygienic menstrual products during monthly periods and inaccessibility to basic sanitation services or facilities as well as menstrual hygiene education.”1 This issue is oftentimes not associated with developed countries. This, however, is a misconception. In the US 1 in 4 women struggle to purchase period products due to a lack of income.2 At least, residents in Maryland do not have carry the additional burden of the so called “period tax” or “tampon tax” (when menstrual products are taxed the same way as luxury good are) as period products are tax exempt since 1975.3 When we think of the issue, we usually think of demographics such as unhoused people or incarcerated individuals who encounter difficulties to access needed products. But college students too suffer from period poverty. According to a study recently conducted by the intimate health brand INTIMINA 1 in 5 (19%) female college students (from public and private colleges and universities across the country) fell forced to decide between buying period products and paying for food or other expenses.4 Additionally, nearly half (48%) said they have struggled to access menstrual products due to costs or other barriers.5 Other data by a 2021 study in the medical journal BMC Women's Health suggests that 14% of menstruating college students struggle to access period products on a regular basis.6 So, if we believe that St. John’s represents American society at all we have to assume that at St. John’s too some menstruating students are experiencing period poverty with all the negative ramifications that come with it. Thes side effects include but are not limited to health issues due to improper use of products such as Toxic Shock Syndrome and social repercussions such as social isolation which can among other things impact the ability to attend classes regularly. These negative effects even go as far as an increased risk of depression as a study published in the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality found. Thankfully, the college has identified this issue. RAs receive some menstrual hygiene products to distribute to their residents and the Health Center offers free period products as well. This is a good start but not sufficient to fully address the problem. There is no list of how many of the nearly 6,000 universities and colleges in the US provide menstrual products at no cost but there is a growing movement initiatives. In Maryland, HB 205 requires local boards of education to ensure that each public school provide free menstrual hygiene products via dispensers. This bill went into effect in 2021.7 Anne Arundel County Public Library provides free menstrual products to patrons.8 In higher education there are no state requirements. However, in February of last year the University of Maryland proudly proclaimed “Necessities at No Cost. Period.” Sharing the happy news that fee period products were distributed to hundreds of UMD bathrooms. The cost for installation and dispensers amounted to a total cost of $135,000 with the student government contributing $48,000.9 But the University of Maryland has 40,813 at their College Park location alone.10 Thus, their cost does not compare at all to the initial investment necessary to bring dispensers to bathrooms at St. Johns’ Annapolis campus. According to the cost calculator of Aunt Flow, a women-owned company on a mission to ensure every person has access to sustainable and free period products, whose products, and dispensers I first encountered in a restroom at Princeton University, dispensers in 70 bathrooms would cost approximately $22,050 ($315 per dispenser). According to their calculations, the maintenance would be comparatively cheap with an annual operating cost of $800 (to provide 300 menstruating people with products). There are presumably some hurdles such as questions of who should restock the dispensers. But perhaps it is worthwhile to reach out to institutions that have successfully managed to establish free period product programs and learn from their expertise. It seems like a worthy endeavor as part of our never-ceasing efforts to make campus more welcoming to everyone. Helen Felbek 1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10372806/ 2 https://cdn.b12.io/client_media/HJ1wIVtI/e5c8dfb4-95f9-11ea-a54f-0242ac110003Maryland_APS_Period_Poverty_Fact_Sheet_052020.pdf 3 https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-tampon-tax-states-utah-california.html 4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/debgordon/2023/10/10/20-of-female-college-studentscant-afford-period-products new-survey-shows/?sh=218c8ce549f1 5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/debgordon/2023/10/10/20-of-female-college-studentscant-afford-period-products new-survey-shows/?sh=218c8ce549f1 6 https://www.npr.org/2023/09/19/1200291452/should-menstrual-products-forwomen-on-college-campuses-be-free 7https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2021RS/fnotes/bil_0005/hb0205.pdf 8 https://www.aacpl.net/blog-entries/aacpl-supporting-menstrual-health 9 https://today.umd.edu/necessities-at-no-cost-period 10 https://research.umd.edu/who-we-are/facts-and-figure This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 2/22: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Books VI, VII 2/26: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Books VIII, IX Sophomores: 2/22: Shakespeare: As You Like It 2/26: Montaigne: Essays; To the Reader, Of Cannibals, Of Cruelty, Of Repentance Juniors: 2/22: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) 2/26: Locke: Second Treatise of Government, Chapters I–IX Seniors: 2/22: Conrad: Heart of Darkness 2/26: Freud: “Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through,” “Mourning and Melancholia” Saturday, 2/24 Friday Night Lecture: Dan Harrell: Being a Book. FSK, 7:30 pm Page 1 - - 11 am, Studio Theater: Board of Visitors and Governors Meeting Plenary Session 4 pm, Mitchell Museum: Exhibition Celebration for Sampling a Sampling Sampler 9 pm, Mellon Hall Lobby: Archon Gala Wednesday, 2/28 - 5 pm, Conversation Room: Film Discussion: Harry Smith’s Untitled Animation of Seminole Patchwork �Thursday February 22, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Vol. II. Issue 5 How Big Should St. John’s Be? On Enrollment, Budget, and Community The Board of Visitors and Governors meets here in Annapolis on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Enrollment is sure to be a subject of discussion. According to reporting from this publication, enrollment was a concern at recent BVG meetings. Last summer, President Demleitner stated that “low enrollment means stagnant class size, which means stagnant tuition, which means low compensation for faculty and staff.” (See “Board of Visitors and Governors Holds Summer Meeting”) Enrollment concerns were brought up again at the October BVG meeting in Santa Fe. (See “Board of Visitors and Governors Meets in Santa Fe” from Collegian Vol. 1 Issue 6) Enrollment is an important challenge for St. John’s. As of last fall, the college projected a deficit of around $5 million for each of the next three fiscal years. More money must be raised to close this gap even before the college can consider spending on other projects, such as increasing pay for staff and tutors. One way to do this is to enroll larger freshman classes, thereby increasing tuition revenue. This is what President Demleitner was pointing to in her summer comments. The fact that the number of high-school graduates is expected to begin declining in the next few years only makes these concerns more pressing. But enrollment growth, at least on the Annapolis campus, poses obvious issues. Seminars and tutorials already have about as many students as possible in them, so an increase in enrollment would require a proportional increase in the number of tutors. I need not mention the college’s inability to pay adequate faculty salaries, which has been much discussed this year. This year has also featured a housing shortage on campus. The reopening of Campbell Hall next year– which will by then be called Edensword Hall–will certainly alleviate it in the near term. But apartments in downtown Annapolis have become much more expensive in recent years. I see no reason for this trend to reverse. As off-campus rents continue to increase, a greater proportion of upperclassmen will need to be housed on campus. The number of dorm rooms imposes a limit on how much enrollment can increase. St. John’s can’t grow indefinitely. The student body should be able to remain at a sustainable size. We should also ask how greater enrollment would impact the nature of the college. On the one hand, a larger student body could support more diversity and a greater range of student activities. On the other hand, the admissions department must recruit larger classes that are composed of students that are wellsuited for the St. John’s program. Is the intimate nature of the campus community essential to the college’s education mission? I don’t think it is, but I’m open to hearing other opinions. If enrollment is a subject of discussion at this week’s meeting–I’m sure it will be–members of the Board of Visitors and Governors must ask and answer the question of how big St. John’s should be. This means finding a size that is both sustainable and conducive to the college’s educational purpose. Peter Boersema Correction: In last issue’s article on the College Creek Connector forum, some statements from Eric Leshinsky appeared to be responding to statements from the forum. Leshinsky was not present at the forum, and there has been no official response from the Campus Planning Committee to the city on this topic. The interview for the Collegian was conducted before the forum. . NEW CHANGES TO SPRING BREAK HOUSING POLICY FOLLOWING RELATED CSL FORUM If you were an international student, a student otherwise planning to stay on campus over spring break, or just someone who reads all of their emails, you may have noticed an email regarding changes to the College’s spring break policy last week. According to Jen Cline, the new policy stands that any student may request to stay on campus over spring break— provided that it is a last resort due to safety or financial concerns (of course including the usual issues facing international students). Additionally, while the standard fee of $150 per week remains the same, there is now a sliding scale for students whose official Estimated Family Contribution falls below $10,000. These changes are expected to be implemented on a trial basis for this upcoming break and will be evaluated at the end of the year to determine if they will be sustained. This change comes just a few weeks after the Committee on Student Life held a robust forum with students and administrators on the issue of break arrangements. Many of the students who attended conveyed an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction with the then status quo, putting particular emphasis on the difficult position that it placed international students in. With limitations on how many hours they can work, distant and disconnected family, and potential safety risks associated with returning to their home, many international students are put in a challenging position to provide for themselves over break—much less to afford the extra housing fee. While the question of who bears the responsibility for providing housing, the college or the student, is one that bears a longer discussion, it remains that the college’s position states that as of now they cannot afford to house students over break without additional fees. Even without running the dining hall or many other services, the cost to keep buildings open and necessary staff on campus during breaks is not covered by the annual fee. In the course of the discussion a few potential solutions were bandied around: the question of host families was quickly vetoed due to logistical complications, and similarly the thought of imposing a smaller fee on all students to cover those who stay over break. The possibility of a sliding scale was received much more favorably, however, as was the overall level of concern expressed by the students present. While it is impossible to say how much of an effect the CSL forum had on the new changes, it is gratifying to see that the college is trying to meaningfully address the issues facing students. As was remarked in the forum, if the college is going to encourage international and financially disadvantaged students to attend, then they need to make a point of helping them when they struggle— something that this spring break policy will hopefully help accomplish. Andy Manne About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 400 words. A longer, journalistic piece may be up to 1,200 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Helen Felbek Andy Manne BVG, Cont. from page 1. scholarships or financial aid. The task before the board, to balance reducing the burden of high cost of attendance with the need to pay faculty and staff better is difficult, but is essential. Only this balance can ensure the future of the College, and students have many ideas how to reach it. All you need to do is ask us. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Page 2 Peter Boersema Pensee of the Week We call our loved ones baby. What do we love more, their innocence or powerlessness? � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 22, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 5 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 22, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-02-22 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue5_2024-02-22 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/1d40afdcc2cc287f4b06438beacbfe69.pdf e61c640bacf55de6f084625fc6571d0d PDF Text Text Thursday February 27 2025 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Darkness One thing which has disturbed me since the renovation of Mellon is that the lights in the southern part of the building are automatic—if they’re off, they’ll turn back on if someone is in their range. Aside from this fact that this, like much of the renovation, is slightly out-of-place with the rest of the building, I find such a phenomenon rather disturbing. I understand that automatic lights may be a great convenience, but as someone who is averse to convenience when it strays from beauty, I must say that I don’t appreciate the rudeness of these lights. If any of my readers have been in the rest of Mellon when its lights are out, I hope you have noticed the subdued and quiet nighttime atmosphere that the darkness generates—but in the lobby and fishbowl, this atmosphere is entirely missing at night, since the lights so impolitely assume that you want them turned on. Think further how much better it is to work by lamplight than under overweening ceiling lights. I’m not writing just to complain about a minor situation in Mellon. I am reminded by this of humanity’s improper and grotesque obsession with light. Have you ever seen one of those satellite images of the earth at night? They are very upsetting; our hubristic and decadent insistence* that we have glaring lights wherever we go is an offense to nature. The nighttime is supposed to be dark, and I think we ought to respect that. Even right now, as I write this at midnight with my lights turned out, if I exit my room, my dorm’s hall light will be on: I can even see it under the door (and believe me I have looked all over for a light switch to turn it off)! The impairment of vision at night is, I believe, a very important thing. Don’t even get me started on the Naval Academy’s obscene alumni building, which flies in the face of God, who made the night dark. *This is a necessary rhetorical ellipsis. In truth, it is not only hubristic and decadent, but pleonexic, hedonistic, tasteless, insomniac, selfish, cowardly, brutish, troglodytic, vociferous (don’t even get me started), hypertensive, capitalistic, prideful, pitiful, impatient, democratic to the point of tyranny, oppressive, insolent, bad, etc. Most of these adjectives apply to motorcycles, too, those impudent and phallically compensatory vehicles. Some also apply to airplanes, but at least those are fun to ride in, and when I do feel annoyed, I can just point a laser at them. Tarik Mahmud Vol. II Issue XIV Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Bird Poop and the Joy of the Unplannable Last weekend after Saturday brunch, I sat down in the library to read the Wall Street Journal—one of my many small indulgences. I happened across an article in the travel section which caught my eye: a spotlight piece for the Parador Hotel in Cuenca, Spain. A large, color photograph of the hotel covered nearly half the page. It showed the former convent, old and tileroofed and imposing, crowning a sheer hill-top. One sees such pictures frequently in travel journalism; but this one grabbed my attention because I had been there. When I was thirteen, my family traveled to Spain. We rented a car in Madrid, and over the course of a month, drove south through Toledo, Córdoba, Seville, and Granada, then north-east to Valencia and Barcelona. Near the end of the trip, on our way back to Madrid from Barcelona, we stopped in Cuenca, and stayed at the Parador. The town of Cuenca is small. A deep gorge divides it from the hill the hotel is built on—its old houses built flush to the cliff-face on one side, the repurposed abbey standing isolated on the opposite edge. One can imagine the monks in older times looking out from their cloister windows across this geological divide which separated them from the townsfolk, and pondering its apt, spiritual symbolism. Today there are no monks in the abbey, only tourists; and tourists want to go into town. Thus, a narrow, iron bridge was built some time in the last century, which spans the gorge from one cliffside to the other. I remember walking across this bridge. My father is afraid of heights, and fear is contagious; so each time our family crossed it to or from town was an ordeal. Besides the landscape, I only remember a few things from our days there—an old church, meeting a local American expat. Really, we did not do much. In Granada, my sisters and I had got very sick, and though we had mostly recovered, by this point in our Spanish traipsing we were travel-weary; all of us were happy to take things at a more leisurely pace. One episode which remains distinctly in my memory concerns a visit our family made to an art museum in Cuenca. The collection was small, consisting mostly of modern paintings. For me and my sisters—children of nine, eleven, and thirteen, not yet introduced to the pleasures of ostentatiously touting one’s welldeveloped taste for humbug—some creativity was required to enjoy our time at the gallery. We decided to give a humorous name to each painting based on what we thought it resembled (for most of the pieces, the actual subject was entirely inscrutable). Both of my sisters have a great talent for absurdist humor, so it was tremendous fun. The greatest success regarded a large canvas painted with amorphous blotches of white and grey paint. Previously in Granada, at the Alhambra, a bird had pooped on my shoulder. Upon seeing the white-grey canvas, my sister Blythe cried out, “Look, its Jackson’s shirt with bird poop on it!” We were in stitches. Indeed, we found the joke so uproariously funny that we had to leave the museum—my parents embarrassed at the scene we were making. Why do I recount this? Seeing the picture of the Parador in the Wall Street Journal, and finding my memory flooded with my own personal experiences in Cuenca, I found it curious that my happiest memory there had nothing to do with the striking landscape or the medieval architecture or the food—it was a silly joke about bird poop which I shared with my family. Spontaneous moments of human connection— moments of life—can’t be planned. Everyone has memories like this. I hope, reader, you remember your own such moments, and treasure them. Nearly half a dozen and more come to my mind—singing Disney songs in the car with a friend-of-a-friend I carpooled with once; weeping uncontrollably with my sisters after hearing news of a family tragedy; playing Uno with two pretty Belgian girls in an Oxford hostel; lying, sick as a dog, quarantined in an empty squad bay at Marine officer training, and discovering that the cadet in the rack next to me was a philosophy major; restraining a psychotic Ukrainian man at 3 AM with a prominent Presbyterian theologian; swimming in College Creek on a moonlit summer night with a friend—I savor the recollection of these moments, and so many more. They are the grass which grows up through the cracks in the pavement of life. As I make plans for the future, after I graduate from St. John’s, I wonder what unplanned moments will define the next few years. No matter how well I plan, the best things and the worst things will likely be unexpected. Friendship, love, enmity, loss—such is the stuff of real life which does not acquiesce to our attempts to rigidly plan it out in advance. Sometimes your family spends a great deal of money to stay in a beautiful, historic European town, and the best thing you find there is an opportunity to laugh at a poop joke with people you love. Perhaps in such instances, one misses out on more refined pleasures; but in life, it is better to accept the good moments one is given and enjoy them. What a curse it would be to cultivate such good taste that one forgot how to love simple things! Jackson Green This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: Thursday, February 27th: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics; Book X Monday, March 17th: Aristotle: Politics (selections) Sophomores: Thursday, February 27th: Montaigne: Essays; “Of Experience” Monday, March 17th: Machiavelli: The Prince Juniors: Thursday, February 27th: Locke: Second Treatise of Government; Chapters X–XIX Monday, March 17th: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice Seniors: Thursday, February 27th: Freud: Beyond the Pleasure Principle Monday, March 17th: Dostoevski: The Brothers Karamazov Friday, February 28th Enjoy your Spring Break! Friday Night Lecture: None Page 1 �Thursday, February 27, 2025 St. John’s Collegian The Other Board Meeting On Saturday, February 22, 2025, the Board of Visitors and Governors (BVG) held its plenary session. Among other things, the much-discussed polity review was passed with one opposing vote. But there was another board meeting taking place the same day. After the BVG and all the spectators had left the Conversation Room, another, much smaller group entered: the Alumni Association Board (AAB). The BVG and AAB have some common concerns, including enrollment numbers, state and federal funding and the future of international students. During the four-and-a-half-hour meeting, Dean Paalman was invited to speak to the board. In addition to discussing recent changes on campus, such as the discovery of a military uniform from the War of 1812 and the Greenfield Library’s partnership with BetterWorldBooks, she also covered academic updates, including the college’s new ability to award degrees in December and changes to the reading list (switching the Protestant Reformers). Alumni were eager to learn how they could better support the college and its students. Ms. Paalman emphasized that alumni already provide invaluable support by mentoring students, particularly in career guidance, serving as positive examples, providing hope and increasing students’ self-confidence. Alumni suggested resurrecting an old tradition of senior dinners and proposed new ones such as an Alumni Association-sponsored enablement event. AAB President Katharina Wong shared that the new initiative to combat food insecurity on the Santa Fe campus during winter break was, thanks to local volunteers, a great success. She expressed the board’s intent to expand the program to spring break and potentially to the Annapolis campus, pending campus leadership approval and the availability of local volunteers. The AAB’s career development group provided insights on the restructured Odyssey program, which shifted from a one-on-one mentoring model to a group format based on the eight career pathways developed by Career Development Services (CDS). This year, 88 students and 35 alumni are participating, with the program set to conclude by the end of March. The AAB hopes to survey participants to improve the program and to host additional alumni career panels, offering opportunities for alumni who could not commit to the program but still wish to contribute. Vol. II. Issue xiv Liza love’s Beat of the Week: Eye Know – De La Soul, Otis Redding Spring break is here at long last! Prepare for quad lunch, four square, barefoot frisbee and contracting a bacterial infection from College Creek with hip-hop love song “Eye Know” from De La Soul’s 1989 album 3 Feet High and Rising. It’s an upbeat dance track that samples Otis Redding’s whistles from his 1968 classic, “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay.” Mentally, I’m kicking my feet on the field in 70-degree weather, with this in my ears and Shakespeare under my thumbs. L.L. The AAB meeting highlighted that alumni do not only show up once a year for the Annapolis Cup, but that they care deeply about the college and its current students. Alumni are eager to be more involved, but it might not always be clear how this involvement should look like. Helen Felbek Aphorism of the Week Ἕκαστον διᾷδον συνᾴδοντος ἕνι βάσει διαφέρει “Jacob Klein Snowman”, from SJC Digital Archives Tarik Mahmud Threats to Sellinger fund Maryland is one of the few states in the nation that provides substantial funding for private institutions of higher education. St. John’s, along with twelve other private colleges and universities, receives state funding primarily through two programs: capital grants, such as the one that enabled the recent renovations of Mellon, and the Sellinger Program, which provides Colleges with money primarily to give financial aid to students, making private higher education more accessible in the state. In the 2023 fiscal year, the most recent year I was able to procure information from, the College received $1.6 million in Sellinger funding, about $1.4 million of which went to financial aid, with the remainder going to career development and support for a graduate institute program for teachers. This legislative session, this funding is in jeopardy. The state is facing a $300 million deficit this year, as well as a nearly $3 billion deficit in the fiscal year 2026 budget, with billions more projected in the following years, leading legislative leaders to look to make deep cuts in the upcoming budget. Funding for the Sellinger program was already cut in half last session, and a further cut in half is proposed this session. “The governor’s original budget looked like it was keeping us at last year’s funding level, explained Nora Demleitner, Annapolis President, “but a new proposal by the legislative division looks like it would we would look like substantial, and uncertain cuts.” State budget negotiations are shifting rapidly, as this article is being written, with the Senate’s Budget and Taxation Chair Guy Guzzone announcing on Friday, February 21st the potential for up to $500 million more in potential cuts, on top of what would otherwise be necessary to address the deficit. This is because Maryland faces a disproportionately large impact from federal level policy changes, with much state funding depending on pass-through federal funds. State officials fear substantial cuts, or, worse, a federal shutdown later in the spring, leaving a moving budgetary target and uncertainty about the wide variety of cuts to programs and tax proposals currently on the table. As Maryland has a large number of federal workers, large-scale firings of civil servants may also put a permanent dent in Maryland’s revenue, leading to further budget crunches, and thus to the state’s funding for the College. To deal with this uncertainty, the state has pushed back its budgeting deadlines, and proposals have been raised to meet for a special October session. Dangers to the Sellinger fund could be dangerous to scholarship opportunities that enable students to attend the College, as well as funding for the internship and supplemental coursework funding programs (formerly Hodson and Pathways) and other Career Services activities. Additionally, mental health supports and student activities funding might be lost in order to cover cuts on the College’s end. Legislators are still discussing the budget, with various proposals for the Sellinger funding on the table leaving time for Polity members to advocate for the College by contacting their delegates and senators. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email sjca.collegian@gmail.com with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: Helen Wagner, Editor Jacob Sharpe, Editor Helen Felbek, Writer Jackson Green, Writer Liza Love, Writer Tarik Mahmud, Writer, Aphorism El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Writer Page 2 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 27, 2025 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 14 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 27, 2025. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2025-02-27 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol_II_issueXIV_2025-02-27 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/19bcfc1971eeea4e1204402fce9e1e47.pdf 7295bbc7bc9e928d0821d2720b60b589 PDF Text Text Thursday February 29 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Vol. II Issue 6 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis From the polity Board of visitors and governors meet in annapolis A Response to And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon Board Announces Fund for Improving Tutor Pay, Discusses Finance, Enrollment and Retention I have recently read an article written not too long ago concerning the ecosystem and possible imbalance thereof among Dining Hall cutlery. The study of this particular ecosystem and its functioning and ecological niches being still quite nascent, I find it proper to show the fruits of my own inquiries here. The question is as to the fluctuating populations of two species of spoon in the dining hall, particularly the large and rotund soup spoon (Cochlear jurulentum) and the comparatively smaller and more narrow tea spoon (Cochlear theaticum). Among various more subtle differences, we find that the most prominent morphological distinction between these species is in the shape of the food receptacle, which in C. jurulentum is far greater in volume, and more circular in shape: that of C. theaticum being, in addition to its comparative smallness, more tapered toward the anterior end, which distinction in anatomy is indicative of the disjunction of their ecological niches; this disjunction is confirmed by their separate population fluctuations, which was noted by the esteemed and ingenious gentleman Mr. Briggs. The extension of this conclusion to a predator-prey relationship, however, must be examined in more detail. While it is true that the sequential decline and rise of C. theaticum is characteristic of this relationship, it is not yet altogether clear whether this relationship is reflected also in the populations of C. jurulentum. For it remains to be seen whether the increase in the population of C. theaticum is accompanied by a correlative increase in that of C. jurulentum: the latter’s prevalence during the dearth of the former is not necessarily due to an actual increase in their numbers, but could be merely an increase in proportion. It is therefore still quite possible that the populations of these two species are largely independent of each other, and that the decline of C. theaticum is its own phenomenon. The hypothesized explanation for this decline, then, could be a scarcity of their primary food source; certainly I have found that I have been drinking more tea in the Dining Hall after C. theaticum’s reappearance. Tarik Mahmud The Board of Visitors and Governors met again on the Annapolis campus this semester from the 22nd of February to the 24th. While the board members were in town for the meeting, a rededication ceremony was held for Campbell Hall, now to be named Edensword Hall, in honor of Karen Pritzker’s father. The renovations currently underway at that building were made possible by a $15 million grant by the Jay Pritzker foundation and are expected to be completed by the end of the summer. Speakers at the event included Santa Fe president Mark Roosevelt, Annapolis president Nora Demleitner, Board Chair Warren Spector, and future Edensword RA Peter Quinn. During the meeting itself, a major announcement made was the creation of a fund for tutor and staff compensation. Spector said that in order to recognize Mark Roosevelt’s retirement, it was decided to focus on fundraising for salaries. An idea was proposed by vice-chair Pamela R. Saunders-Albin, in conjunction with Roosevelt, to create this special fund. The fund has received contributions from all the board members, and currently eight of the ten million dollars needed have been raised, with fundraising on track to meet the goal by the summer. This fund comes at a time when tutor salaries have been at the forefront of conversation in Annapolis, with a walkout held earlier this year to protest wages which have been largely stagnant since 2008, and were not properly adjusted for rising cost of living. This was especially seen to hit junior faculty members harder, due to the pay system for St. John’s tutors, where faculty receive a step increase every year at the College, which lets them progress from a minimum salary while beginning at the college to a maximum salary 1.82 times the minimum. “The most important thing to do in the short term is to raise junior faculty salaries, but in the long term, we need to raise all faculty salaries,” said Spector. Susan Paalman, Annapolis dean, who called on the board to address the issue at the previous board meeting, noted the urgency of the issue, given increased cost of living and the loss of qualified new tutors due to the low salary. She thanked the board for addressing it now, saying “this could not have come at a better time… This will give the community hope, and help us through difficulty.” This fund will allow the minimum salary to be raised to $70,000, and also allow for 2% annual increases, This Week in Seminar separate from the normal annual step increases. While this is still below inflation, it is an improvement from the previous situation in which no adjustments were made for inflation at all. The fund will also cover increases for staff, although these increases were not detailed in the board meeting. This fund should be sufficient to provide these increases for seven years, and afterwards the salary funding must be picked up by the College’s general fund. “This is vital to the future of the College,” said Spector, “I want to make sure the faculty knows we recognize their sacrifices.” Roosevelt concurred, adding that “No matter what differences there might be [between the board and faculty], they are all immaterial, compared to the enormous respect we have for the faculty.” Although the Board has managed to find a way to fund these much-needed increases to pay, many financial challenges still loom large for the College, and were discussed at the meeting. In addition to the fiscal year 2024 deficit, they are projecting a five million dollar deficit in fiscal year 2025, with increasing deficits in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. These are primarily caused by continued high costs of building maintenance and salaries, while tuition revenue is still below where it was in 2008. The College’s shift to a philanthropy focused funding model has helped alleviate this but has not been able to meet all needs yet. However, major bequests of several million dollars are expected in the next few years, which should remove some of the pressure on the college. One of the important financial considerations is the endowment, which has reached record sizes recently thanks to Hodson funds and other donations. It currently totals about $250 million. However, yields from the endowment have been lower than expected, with the seven year rate of return being 7%, lower than the passive benchmark rate of return. To address this, the board has begun a search for a new manager for the endowment. Another topic of discussion was enrollment, with incoming freshmen classes so far projected to meet goals on both the Annapolis and Santa Fe campus. In Annapolis, the target enrollment is 140 to 150 students, with 100 to 110 students hoped for in Santa Fe. Demleitner noted the success (Cont on page 2.) Upcoming Events: No regularly scheduled activities because of Spring Break. If, however, you will be on campus during the break, the following event will be occurring: Freshman: 2/29: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 3/18: Aristotle: Politics (See list for selections) Sophomores: 2/29: Montaigne: Essays, III, 13 (Of Experience) 3/18: Machiavelli: The Prince Juniors: 2/29: Locke: Second Treatise of Government, Chapters X–XIX 3/18: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice Seniors: 2/29: Freud: Beyond the Pleasure Principle 3/18: Dostoevski: The Brothers Karamazov Saturday 3/2: Day trip to Andrew and NC Wyeth Studios, run by the Mitchell Museum. Sign up at the Museum office. Friday Night Lecture: No Lecture due to break Page 1 �Thursday January 29, 2024 St. John’s collegian Vol. II. Issue 6 Theological debate: Angelic Respona Written by I, El’ad son of Asher the scholar, son of Shimon, may his memory be a blessing. To Benettus Scottus and Andronicus Manifold and all the holy Kahal of St. John’s College in Annapolis Maryland, may the spirit of God rest upon them and may the Lord keep and protect them all. In a letter addressed to me a question of grave importance to the practical exercise of faith was posed: How many angels may fit upon the head of a pin? I am flattered by the reaching to me for an answer, a sign of great praise and esteem. Verily, I am one of the most humble scholars of the west, and not fitted to answer questions posed by such learned men, but as you have written me, I have no choice but to give some semblance of a response. The existing opinions on this are quite confounding. The Rambam says that the angels are not material bodies, but only forms distinguished from each other, which would seem to indicate that no angel could fit on a material pin. Scottus argues an angel could, however, and it is also known that Angels may touch things in contact with those they are ministering to, as it is written, and once the fetus emerges into the airspace of the world, an angel comes and slaps it on its mouth, causing it to forget the entire Torah, as it is stated: “Sin crouches at the entrance.” Thus, since the torah is a physical object in the mouth of a new born child, it can be touched by the angel as it belongs to its charge. Hence, it is possible for an angel to touch a pin, if a man be touching the pin. Mannicus, however, argues the question instead is whether an angel can touch an angel, since a pin is an angel, as it is like a needle, which has eyes. While we grant that a pin may be a needle, we ask, what do they mean by needle, must a needle have an eye? It is written that a woman may not go out on Shabbat with a needle that is not perforated, meaning that such a thing is still a needle. However, this raises an important question that must be addressed: what day are the angels touching the pin? What if this is a matter of shabbat? For an angel to reach a needle, the needle must grow relatively closer to the angel, which, as Rav Huygens teaches, means reaching for it is the same as throwing it. Throwing a needle on Shabbat is prohibited, as it For an angel to reach a needle, the needle must grow relatively closer to the angel, which, as Rav Huygens teaches, means reaching for it is the same as throwing it. Throwing a needle on Shabbat is prohibited, as it is written, Because the weavers of the tapestries in the Tabernacle throw their needles to each other when they need to borrow the other’s needle. Throwing was a labor performed in the Tabernacle; therefore, one is liable for performing it. However, the Gemara asks: it clear that they had to throw needles to each other? Perhaps they sat next to each other. The Gemara answers: It is clear that they kept their distance from each other. If they sat too close, they would reach each other and hurt one another with their needles. The Gemara asks: Perhaps, even though they kept their distance, they sat within four cubits of each other, and they would not throw the needles farther than that. Thus, we have managed to make great progress on the question: on Shabbat, no angels may fit on the head of the pin. Now, the future authorities examining this question only need to address the remaining six days of the week. Rav El’ad ben Asher Gems from the BVG meeting in About the St. John’s old collegian annapolis Collegian St. John’s first student newspaper, also called the (Cont from page 1.) of the discussion based St. John’s Collegian, ran from 1887 to 1976. Here are some finds from February 1895, 129 years ago to the month, which should be of interest to students today: “The sad drowning accident of Herman T. Wooters, a student at St. John’s, while skating in Peterson’s Cove, an inlet in College creek, between four and five o’clock, on the afternoon of January 23, cast a deep gloom over his fellow students, as well as those in the city who knew the young man.” “For the first time since it’s establishment in 1696, St. John’s can boast of a married man amongst her students. This somewhat unusual condition was brought about by the fact that one of the Juniors has taken unto him a wife. From all that can be gathered, it seems that the gentleman in question was married about a year ago, but kept the affair secret until a few days ago, when he boldly announced it... At present, the happy Benedict and his wife are living very happily, and the COLLEGIAN extends to them its congratulations and best wishes. P.S. Much speculation having arisen as to why the student married before he left the college, we beg to offer the following explanation: We are told, on good authority, that the gentleman contemplates ‘taking orders’ after graduation; in fact he has already begun to ‘dig’ into the bible. Now, he could not have advanced very far before he came to the passage ‘It is not good that a man should be alone.’ So we naturally suppose that the gentleman abided by scripture and took unto himself a helpfeet (sic).” “The second hop of the series occurred on Friday night, Feb. 1st, and was a source of pleasure to all who participated in it. The weather was down on us, but this seemed to only increase the zeal of the ‘fellows to get the femmes.’” application in helping meet these goals. “It not only completements our pedagogy perfectly,” she said, “but also answers many questions in higher education, like those on AI and discrimination in applications.” Approximately 140 people applied using the discussion based application. This year, a high rate of early applications helped improve prospects for enrollment, while a larger number of domestic applicants counteracted the decrease in international applications. Graduate admission, particularly in the low residency program, is also up on both campuses. Currently, there are 87 Graduate Institute students in Santa Fe, with another 27 in Annapolis. Retention, also a frequent topic of conversations at the Board Meeting, was also discussed, with members mentioning improved performance this year, with only a 3.9% withdrawal rate this year so far in Santa Fe. However, efforts to improve retentions are still a major focus, given the disproportionately higher withdrawal rate at the College compared to other peer institutions. Efforts to address this include continued support for the Career Development Office, which continues to offer funding through the Hodson and Pathways program, as well as host increasingly high number of events for students in a wide spectrum of fields. Additionally, the Deans of both campuses presented a planned program also called Pathways which will provide more resources for students interested in pursuing the ten most popular career pathways for students. Facilities were another major focus on for the Board, with approval being given for renovations to Pinkney over the summer after next, and a long needed IT overhaul. The Mayor of Annapolis presented information about the College Creek Connector, although the board did not make a final vote on that path. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Page 2 The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Tarik Mahmud Once again, I am making my request for contributors: If you want a paper that reflects your interests, please write on the issues you care most about! Only through this can we continue to make the Collegian the best newspaper possible. Aphorism of the Week: We claim that we have conquered nature. If that is true, why has no one killed themselves by not breathing? �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 29, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 6 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 29, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-02-29 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue6_2024-02-29 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/45e17019a3bd11b5effedb37ab6a438d.pdf f295e7af057e8ff28720e5f517fd298a PDF Text Text Thursday February 6 2025 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity “Seniors Manic in Mellon” With winter’s chill lingering across campus, the ghosts of Humphreys drift soundlessly across the remnants of snow. So too do the living wraiths, seniors haunting the halls late into the night. The witching hour lulls almost everyone into silence. Underclassmen dream fitfully of Kant and Aquinas, or sigh themselves to sleep in the flattering belief that they would never fall prey to the Sophist’s argument. All is quiet. That is, except for the frantic scratching of pen on paper and the furious click-clack of keyboards under shaking hands. In the words of graduated senior Chloe Steer, who endured the whirlwind of last year’s writing period, “Your RA is but a shell of a woman. If you see her, give her a hug.” Hope for a normal sleep schedule having vanished from view, the seniors subsist on 3am ramen, tea, coffee, and manna—I mean, Oreos and surprise pizza deliveries. The writing lounge is a sacred place, a sanctuary for those losing their minds in pursuit of essay satisfaction. Without the structure of classes, a variety of readings, and ordinary social activities, the seniors enter into a state of writing intoxication. They gorge themselves on their chosen text, linking their souls to the generations of former Johnnies who have taken up this quest for knowledge. Poring over Plato, obsessing over Ovid, agonizing over Austen, and haggling with Hegel, the seniors reminisce and ruminate on their years exercising intelligence. Just a few more days remain for their time in limbo, caught between the land of the living and the world of their writing. They will not join the Humphreys ghosts, but will rather rise above the whirlwind of writing period through obtaining a better sense of their own selves. Read your books, tell your stories, and find reassurance in your contribution to the tomes of human memory through your very existence. Let yourself live on in legend. Herschel Reuben Vol. II Issue XII Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Cathlodoxy and SJC student government How does one communicate an experience to someone who wasn’t there? How can you defend a memory, when your hearer has only the faintest image of what you are recounting? I attended Divine Liturgy at Holy Archangels’ Orthodox Church for the first time in November to celebrate the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I piled in the school van along with the usual crowd of Orthodox Johnnies, and we drove out across the Bay Bridge to Fr. Robert Miclean’s farm on the eastern shore. Since losing a rental property in downtown Annapolis, the parish has been relocated to a corrugated steel barn on Fr. Robert’s property, a stone’s throw from his family’s house. Altar, iconostasis, and dozens of icons have transformed the inside of this large garage into a place of beauty—a sanctuary, a holy place. As I entered (genuflecting from Catholic habit), the rich, deep base of Eastern psalmchanting wafted to my ears like incense. At the front of the nave, kneeling before the icon of Christ on the iconostasis to the right of the holy doors, a friend was confessing his sins to Fr. Robert, and receiving absolution. Reader, if you have never attended the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, you will not understand the solemnity and beauty and fierce vitality which animates Eastern Christianity. You have not heard the singing—ah, the singing! Don’t say that you have listened to recordings of Orthodox chant—that is not what I am talking about. You have not been taken up into the music, been almost possessed by it, found yourself singing it, wanting nearly to shout it. One almost wishes one could sing ‘Lord have mercy!’ again and again until the very return of Christ. The beauty of Holy Archangels’ is not limited to its liturgy. The parish really is a family business. At the altar, Fr. Robert led worship, while Matushka (his wife) directed the choir. The priest’s children were everywhere—two boys wearing vestments assisting their father, a little girl sleeping in the arms of my friend, Adora, and a handful of others, all finding different ways—reverent or rambunctious—of being adorable. After the final blessing, we all crossed the gravel driveway to Fr. Robert’s house, where Matushka This Week in Seminar Freshman: Thursday, February 6 : Plato: Timaeus; Beginning-57 Monday, February 10: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Book I Sophomores: Thursday, February 6: Chaucer: Canterbury Tales; General Prologue, Knight’s Tale Monday, February 10: Chaucer: Canterbury Tales; Miller’s Prologue and Tale, Reeve’s Prologue and Tale Juniors: Thursday, February 6: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (selections) Monday, February 10: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (selections) Seniors: Thursday, February 6: Nietzsche: Use and Disadvantage of History for Life Monday, February 10: Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil; Preface, Books 1, 2, 3 Friday Night Lecture: "On Written Speech" - Mary Elizabeth Halper Page 1 had prepared a feast. We ate and drank and laughed together—simple, hearty pleasures. I found the family piano, and the children and I took turns playing pieces we knew. When the festivities were come to an end, we piled back in the school van, and drove home to St. John’s. My poor powers of expression prevent me from doing justice to what I experienced. That beautiful, holy evening lives in my memory; but I cannot give you my memory, only a crude sketch in words. Why do I write this? Recently there was a kerfuffle in the Delegate Council regarding the OCF budget. Two freshman delegates, especially, objected to OCF’s request for gas-money to drive to Holy Archangels’. As I sat in the second budget hearing, last week, I felt as if I was about to burst. It made me so angry listening to Theodora and Lukas being grilled on why they had to attend a church so far away. If you had only been there… Afterwards, I reflected: what made me so angry? Of course, someone who’s never been there can’t possibly understand what this parish means to so many Johnnies—it’s unfair to expect them to. Even so, I hope that moving forward, the DC will give more deference to its constituents’ lived experience. As I said in the meeting last week, some things are not just about dollars and cents, but are about human beings and community. Fortunately, the St. John’s polity is small enough that prioritizing human relationships over cold, rigid legalism is actually possible. I write this with a selfish motive: as the archon of the Catholic Student Fellowship, I have requested $825 from the DC for four Sunday feasts this semester, including our biggest of the year, Easter. If you have ever enjoyed good food or drink, joyful friendship and rich community at a Catholic Student Fellowship brunch, I encourage you to come to our budget hearing to show your support (the date for the hearing is still TBD). Thank you all, and may God bless you. Benedictum Nomen Jesu. Jackson Green Upcoming Events: Tuesday, February 11 SJC Supplemental Coursework Funding Program Information Session, Hodson Conference Room, 4:30 PM �St. John’s Collegian Thursday, February 6, 2025 Vol. II. Issue XII Reflections On Delegate Council Here is a theoretical scenario to consider. Imagine you are the captain of a small ship, placed in the middle of the ocean. You had two air-inflated supports along the side of your vessel, but they both popped, and now the ship is beginning to sink. You have in your company, among others, an Orthodox Christian, a gamer, and a play director. The weight must be reduced, somehow, or people will die. If you cannot decide on what to do in order to stave off the impending disaster, the people will become restless and decide to throw others overboard in order to save themselves at the last minute. As the captain, you are the only person who knows how to control the boat. You must calm these pressures, and make the hard decisions in order to get everyone safely home. You have in your ear an intercom system. People from the mainland are invested in the crisis, and some of their friends are on the boat. “Save the Orthodox Christian!” one of them pleads through the speaker. “She is a good, spiritual person!” It’s true. She is a good and spiritual person. But is the gamer thereby bad and unspiritual? Should you kill the gamer? Should you throw him overboard? There is one option to save everyone, but it isn’t easy. It is to reduce the possessions of the people onboard. The Orthodox Christian must give up one of her shoes. It will be harder to walk, but she will at least live to walk. The gamer must give up his new video games. He will miss them, but there are video games he can play back home. The play director must toss out another actor’s wig from her knapsack, even though she’s already sacrificed far more than that. There are so many people on the boat, and they should each be given a chance to live. If the captain is weak, people will die, but he may avoid the resentment associated with compelling people to give up their possessions (including their food). If the captain is strong, everyone will live, and hopefully - despite the passions of the moment - at the end of the day, the passengers must agree that it was better to live in a reduced state than to perish under the waves. The requested club funding amount currently exceeds the available finances by $17k+. The Delegate Council is not nearly on track to get that excess under control, and people are already feeling pressed. To that end: Every single club that has had their budget approved this semester received more money than is sustainable. The pain of this is not felt yet, but if we do not gather our commitment to avoiding the worst fate possible, some people will have to drown. Unless someone has started a “Murder Club,” a “Fentanyl Club,” or a “Tax-Evasion Club,” I do not think we will find an easy way out of this. Will Pickering Really, we are not even close. This is a matter of economy, just as the analogy of the boat is a matter of physics. We cannot pull money out of thin air, just as the captain cannot generate a floatation device from behind his ear. No matter how people feel, it does not change the reality, and I want to communicate that this is a challenge that the entire community is facing. It is not in any sense personal. It is a matter of inevitability. Aphorism of the Week Οὔτοι ἀληθῶς οἴει ὅτι, ἐάν πως τοῦ φωτὸς ἡ στιγμὴ ἔν τινι ἢ τοῦ κάλλους ἢ τοῦ βάθους εὑρετέα, σφόδρα χρή σε τοῦτο λαβεῖν ὁλώτατον καὶ μεγίστῳ ζήλῳ οὔτε λῦσαι; Tarik Mahmud ”Burning Notes for Senior Papers in Common Room Fireplace” From SJC Digital Archives SCI Updates Questions after Successful Death Forum Last week’s lunchtime forum drew an unusually large crowd when the Student Committee on Instruction posed the question, “how does the program prepare us for death?” Senior Representative Mr Domanski, asking the question, was his usual smiley and chatty self, while the conversation as a whole was unusually somber. The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Many students were eager to get their voices heard: Mr Green, a senior, opened up the conversation, saying, “All I see is death. I walk into the fishbowl and I see death. The dining hall is a mausoleum and Humphreys is a morgue.” Mr Zitler, a junior, got right to the heart of the matter, asking questions like, “Where did Grandpa go? They said he was sleeping, but it’s been years. Where is he now? Can I see him?” About the St. John’s Collegian “Tutor and Students Seated at Seminar Table” From St. John’s College Archives Pleased with the attendance and engagement, the SCI has decided to update some of their questions to maintain high engagement. The polity can look forward to upcoming forums addressing pressing program matters like, “Why are mom and dad fighting?” and, “Does the program inspire us to wait for Chuckie’s pasta bar even when the line is long?” Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400-600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email sjca.collegian@gmail.com with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: Helen Wagner, Editor Jacob Sharpe, Editor Nate Burke, Writer Jackson Green, Writer Will Pickering, Writer Herschel Reuben, Writer Tarik Mahmud, Greek Aphorism We hope to see you all there! Nate Burke Page 2 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 6, 2025 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 12 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 6, 2025. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2025-02-06 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol_II_issueXII_2025-02-06 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/2b66476ec7790f975709befa9264b9ae.pdf 36213ad5927cae32590f47f46a123d18 PDF Text Text Thursday February 8 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Vol. II Issue 4 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis From the polity Forum held on proposed path on college creek Bike Path: The NIMBY Mentality Needs to Stop New Plan for College Creek Connector Presented, Discussed by Students, Faculty and Staff Friends, Johnnies, countrymen, lend me your ears. I have a bike-related bone to pick with you. The college recently held a forum about the proposed city bike path which would cross a portion of our campus by College Creek. I was surprised to hear students expressing negative sentiments not only about the project itself, but also about the city of Annapolis and its relationship to the College. I’d like to address this broader issue: the prevailing Johnnie attitude towards outsiders calls for a re-evaluation. It concerns me to hear students voicing fears about strangers coming onto campus from the bike trail, as if this isn’t already the biggest public green space in town. This seemingly reasonless distrust of the city of Annapolis and its individual residents doesn’t sit right with me. It saddens me to hear students talk about this city as if we are at war with it. I’ve heard things like, “We’re surrounded by Annapolis on three sides already. We can’t let them have the fourth, too.” We are not besieged. We are in a location. It surrounds us, in a spatial manner, as locations tend to do. This location happens to be the city of Annapolis. (In fact, I hate to break it to you, but they already have the fourth side, too. It’s a public waterway.) There are lots of good reasons to consider rejecting the bike path proposal (e.g. maintenance and security costs, pollution concerns, crew and sailing safety issues). But the vague, isolationist sentiments I’ve heard in recent days have no place in such a discussion. Let’s talk about real things and stop worrying about hoi polloi encroaching on our oasis. It would be a shame if we obstructed the city’s attempt at community (and shoreline) improvement for no better reason than our fear of the outside world. Let’s take a break from being the most contrarian college in America, please, for just a moment. We don’t need to live in opposition to everything around us. Let’s look over our hedges and acknowledge our neighbors. Let’s at least ask ourselves— to what degree should we consider our responsibility to the greater community we belong to, beyond the private interests of our college? St. John’s does not and should not exist in a vacuum. To operate under such a (cont. on page 2.) In 2021, the City of Annapolis first approached St. John’s College with a proposal to build a bike path across back campus. That proposal, Ally Gontang, the College’s Vice President for Finance and Operations explained at a forum this week, involved having the path run along the access road that lies parallel to the creek. However, concerns from the Campus Planning Committee prompted the city to return with a new plan that would have the path run on a boardwalk off of the College’s property, in the creek. However, as this would cut off the College’s water access, and be more expensive for the city, a third proposal was made, which was the subject of a forum hosted by Assistant Dean Robert Abbott. “It’s a critical link between two other funded trail projects to connect Annapolis to Anne Arundel County and beyond,” explained Eric Leshinsky, Chief of Comprehensive Planning at the City of Annapolis who has been responsible for some of the planning work. Currently, Annapolis has a gap between trails running through the northeastern part of Anne Arundel County like the B&A Trail and proposed expansions to trails running in the northwestern part of the county, and this trail would make Annapolis more bike friendly and accessible by connecting to these regional networks. Additionally, the trail was proposed as part of a wider goal to improve public water access in the City. “College Creek is one of our least publicly accessible creeks and yet one of our most important natural resources,” said Leshinsky. While other creeks are surrounded by private development, College Creek is mostly surrounded by public semi-wild land, making it a rare amenity for city residents that has the potential to be more accessible. The forum was held at a stage when the plan is very much still in the early planning stages. Gontang emphasized that “nothing is set in stone,” saying that student perspectives are still very valuable at this stage, as it is not yet clear whether the College will agree to the plan, or what conditions it might attach to potential agreement. Leshinsky said that the plan “is at a conceptual design phase...The conceptual design for any project we do is informed by community input and we work to get as much support as possible from adjacent communities. We’ve already met with Bloomsbury Square residents and St. Anne’s Parish, and they are very supportive.” The current plan for back campus involves a boardwalk running along College Creek, with the path then crossing onto land about halfway down the College’s shoreline and continuing on land behind the boathouse. The construction would involve improvements to native plants on the living shoreline, construction of a “boat pavilion” to shelter kayaks and canoes currently stored outside, improvements to the floating dock and renovations to the boathouse focusing on accessibility. “It doesn’t obstruct the boathouse at all or any college activities along the waterfront. That’s really the big thing, explained Leshinsky. “We’re also adding some improvements to the campus around the boathouse that address existing College needs including a fully ADA-accessible path around the boathouse.” At the forum, concerns were raised about the view of the creek, environmental impacts of construction, practical ability of the sailing team to practice on the creek, safety concerns and damage to the character of back campus, as well as the fear of strangers coming onto campus. Suggestions were raised such as the creation of a bicycle rental program like the one in Santa Fe, and of ways to make the project be either more secure or less intrusive. Leshinsky said that feedback from the College’s leadership at this stage is very valuable. “Right now we are in a bit of a holding pattern as we wait for more input from the college on how to proceed… We’ve been listening at every stage to make sure it works for the college… this project won’t be successful unless it has a benefit to the college.” Many of the conversations focused on whether or not the College should engage more with the Annapolis community, and make its campus accessible to more people, with students arguing both in favor of more isolation and of more community involvement. Leshinsky noted that he finds this kind of conversation promising. “There is a certain segment of the student body that I know is interested in connecting with the city and working with it… the college can be more public facing and connected to the city and not loose its ethos. I don’t think this trail will change the ethos of the College. It will improve the campus experience and connect it to the city and county, but it won’t fundamentally change the college.” El’ad Nichols-Kaufman This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 2/8: Plato: Timaeus, beginning–57 2/12: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Book I Sophomores: 2/8: Chaucer: Canterbury Tales; General Prologue, Knight’s Tale 2/12: Chaucer: Canterbury Tales; Miller’s Prologue and Tale, Reeve’s Prologue and Tale Juniors: 2/8: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) 2/12: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) Seniors: 2/8: Nietzsche: Use and Disadvantage of History for Life 2/12: Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil, Books 1, 2, 3 Saturday, 2/10 Friday Night Lecture: Leslie Kay: Are brains computers? A smelly challenge to assumptions. FSK, 7:30 pm Page 1 - Lunar New Year - 4 pm, Mitchell Museum: Why do we need third spaces? Conversation with Manual Reyes Restrepo and Maria Del Carmen Montoya 9 pm, Mellon Lobby: Pangaea Lunar New Years Party Sunday 2/11 - 3 pm, Mitchell Museum: Sampling a Sampler Sampling tour with Jenny Cawood. Wednesday 2/14 - Valentine’s Day �Thursday February 8, 2024 St. John’s Collegian NONE KILLED, AT LEAST 0 INJURED BY BLAZE ON MARYLAND AVENUE: Fusebox in Ruins On Monday, February 5, a fire broke out on the northwest side of Maryland Avenue between Prince and King Georges Streets. The blaze was largely contained to a fuse box on a utility pole, where it is believed to have originated. Rachel Hauben (A25) and Peter Quinn (A25) were walking past when they noticed the inferno and notified the authorities. “We were walking down Prince George Street and saw an orange and yellow column wrapping itself around the fuse box,” said Ms. Hauben, adding that the flames were “not terribly significant.” She estimated the 911 call was made sometime between 5:30 and 5:56 P.M. EST. Mr. Quinn tells a different story when it comes to the size of the conflagration. When questioned he said, “Oh it was incredibly large. We saw a fire and I figured there was a department for that.” The fire crew apparently had some trouble locating the combustion and, in fact, missed the site of the immolation before being shown where it was by Ms. Hauben and Mr. Quinn. In the midst of the confusion following such an incineration, one thing is certain: the fire department was called, had cordoned off the site, and would not respond to a request for comment by the time this reporter arrived on the scene. Caleb Briggs Theological debate: A Retort to “The Most Essential Question” The honorable scholar and learned doctor Bennettus Scotticus has proposed a new proposition to our perpetually pondering polity. He proposes that more than one angel should fit on the head of a pin. I take him to be an utter fool, and a man hardly worthy of Letter of appreciation for college Creek In downtown Annapolis, I have found it difficult to find many places of rest. Most areas in the vicinity that are calm require a bit of a walk, which I have no problem taking if I have the time, though sometimes, and especially late at night, I do not want to spend this walk. This, then, is the primary significance that College Creek has to me: it is a little place of quietude, far away from the clamor of Upper Campus, and is always within reach. Countless nights having been spent on your docks, myriad waves seen roll by: here’s a little letter of appreciation to you, College Creek, related in my wonted sentimental manner. Reader to reflect a little on this quiet corner of Campus and what it means to them. As someone who has long had a profound fascination with natural bodies of water, I for one have found such a beautiful connection to this brook. I think it’s easy to overlook a spot that doesn’t usually have much going on around it, but that is really what makes it so special. Tarik Mahmud I love your wine-dark water, and its salty taste is a little sweet to me, I admit. Translucent in the day and obscure at night, it is shallow enough to wade in but deep enough to swim in. delusion, in my opinion, would endanger much of what the college stands for. We spend so much time here discussing man as a “political animal,” in Aristotle’s words. From the Republic to Politics to Locke, Rousseau, and Hobbes, the program compels us to be interested in the human community. The very word “polity,” which we use to describe ourselves, asks that we examine what it means to be a citizen. Upon graduation, we will each enter communities of our own. I believe that part of the St. John’s education is learning how to participate in such a community— a πόλις— wherever that may be. I love your residents, the fish and crabs and birds and spiders, each of them tucked away in their proper place, and reliably found—the crabs on the pier-posts, the fish rising up and falling away like the tide, the spiders hanging on the railing and from the light, and the heron taking up his perch upon the dock. I love your coldness: refreshing in the summertime, potent in the winter. I love your voice, which has no sound—but I think there are some sort of words about you, since I always seem to be in dialogue around you. I love your ears, how they listen eagerly whenever I sing to you. I love the sky above you, which you so faithfully reflect on your face. I love the stars above you at sunrise, and the clouds over you at sunset. I hope this small epigram of love will encourage the Bike Path (cont. from page 1) So, please, discuss the bike path proposal all you want. Take whichever side you prefer; there are reasons for both. I only ask that we consider the broader citizenship of our institution. Yes, we are members of the St. John’s polity. But St. John’s itself is a member of the Annapolis polity, and therefore so are we. Do we act like it? Helen Wagner Pensee of the Week A man pointed a gun to another man, trying to force him to do something. He responded by saying "I will not obey you, and now you are forced by me to shoot." Who has more power? Page 2 Vol. II. Issue 4 the titles he claims. He has clearly not taken into account the nature of the pin. I will grant him the truth that pins are things with heads, but that is not all they are. They are intimately related, and often interchanged with needles, both in description1 and in use. Doctor Scotticus' omission of the relationship between pins and needles calls into question the veracity of his findings. A pin may be a thing with a head, but a needle is a thing with an eye. Just as, quite significantly, an angel is supposed to. If the good Doctor is correct in his statement that an "angel is a thing with eyes" therefore it may well be that a needle is an angel. And if a needle, so commonly interchanged with a pin, is an angel, then it may be said that a pin is an angel in and of itself. And if a pin is an angel, then it remains to be asked first a foremost—a necessary prerequisite before one can question how many angels fit on the head of a pin— whether two angels can occupy the same space, one upon the other as they must be for one to fit upon the head of the other. To think a man so learned as Doctor Scotticus would overlook such an important principal question truly calls one to question the deservedness of his reputation and the worth that he brings to our fine institution. Such is the beginning of a great learning to be done by Doctor Scotticus, and I await his humble return to the chalkboard. The Esteemed Barrister Andronicus Manifold About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 400 words. A longer, journalistic piece may be up to 1,200 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Tarik Mahmud Helen Wagner Caleb Briggs Andy Manne CLASSIFIEDS INFORMATION WANTED Everyone keeps talking about this guy, I think his name is Herschel? Last name starts with R. Junior, SF transfer, music assistant. I just want to figure out who he is and why everybody seems to know him. If you have any info, email me! (befuddledjohnnie@gmail.com) �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 8, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 4 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 8, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-02-08 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue4_2024-02-08 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/2e54def6d8e5d939b771a030611a8af8.pdf fab76a4b9ebd3709b61359ce4e81d9e5 PDF Text Text Thursday January 11 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Vol. II Issue 1 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis From the polity College releases plans for new housing price structure For the Improvement of Collegium Tiered Housing Price System to go into Effect Fall 2024, Campus Dorms to See Price Increase Collegium is one of the most wonderful institutions we have on this campus. It is an excellent way to end the semester, getting to hear the beautiful result of the hard work campus musical groups have done, and seeing the wide variety of campus talent, while also gathering one last time as a whole Polity. However, this beautiful moment of community togetherness is often marred by simply having it run too long. Four hours is too much for any performance, even if all the performers are very skilled. With this length, people get antsy, you have large numbers leave the hall before it is finished, and few people stay for the other great campus traditions like caroling. The good news is that this can be easily remedied. The students running Collegium are good at what they do, and with a few changes, could help remedy the problem of excessive length. While I recognize that actively screening performances for quality is off the table, I would like to propose five easy improvements in the form of rules for performers, which would reduce the number of acts, and thus overall length: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. No group should be allowed to perform more than one piece. No person may be in more than one solo, duet or trio: we should try to give as many people the chance to perform as possible. Solos should be discouraged. While many of our solo performers are incredibly skilled, Collegium should be a space where campus groups share with the polity, it is not a private recital. A possible exception to this should be poetry and writing. No group should perform with backing tracks: while some of these performances are quite good, the focus of Collegium should be on our campus’ artists. The program should be adhered to, and organizers should avoid having new groups added in who were not originally registered. Hopefully, by adopting some of these recommendations, or other rules, the organizers of Collegium will be able to make the event more enjoyable for us all. If you disagree with me on these recommendations, or have ideas of your own, please write a letter in response, we need more opinion articles! El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Shortly before winter break, an all-campus email was sent out notifying the Polity of a major change to the pricing system for dormitories on Campus. The change was first announced at an earlier Committee on Student Life Forum, but the full details were only sent out on December 7th. This email announced implementation of a system widely used in other institutions of higher education at St. John’s, with pricing for each dorm adjusted for the quality of each type of room and the building that they are in. “Since I’ve been here for four years, every year, I have received a couple questions, as have my colleagues Ms. Lico and Ms. Waters, from students themselves, as well as parents, about why every room is the same price when clearly some rooms are much newer than others,” explained Jen Cline, Coordinator of Student Services. In response to these concerns, the College administration looked into the issue, and decided to implement a new pricing policy, aimed at making sure students pay for the quality they receive. “The difference between some of the dorm rooms and their prices just helps some of the prices be more equitable across campus,” continued Cline. Many students on campus, however, have raised concerns that changing the pricing structure will actually lead to more inequity on campus, with an unhealthy social dynamic developing between students who can afford more expensive, nicer dorms, and those who cannot. Up to this point, the divide in dorm quality has mostly been an underclassman/upperclassman divide, and a change from that to a potentially more economically based divide concerns some. When asked about this, Cline responded that the price differences are not significant enough to cause problems with social dynamics. “I don’t think it will make much of a difference than how singles are more expensive than doubles. I’ve rarely ever seen a student choose a double just to save a couple extra hundred dollars.” The new system divides the dorms into eight tiers: four tiers of singles, three tiers of doubles, and quads. The most expensive dorm rooms will be a special category of singles, which will be in what are now the lofted doubles in Paca-Carroll. These four dorm rooms will be rearranged to allow for a divided living and sleeping space, and will cost $10,000 per year, or $5,000 a semester, although Cline noted that the way This Week in Seminar Freshman: - 1/11: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, II, 55–78; III, 1–87; IV, 1–74 - 1/15: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, IV, 75–end; V, 1–26, 84–116; VI Sophomores: - 1/11: Dante: Divine Comedy, Inferno XVIII–XXXIV - 1/15: Dante: Divine Comedy, Purgatorio I–XVIII Juniors: - 1/11: George Eliot: Middlemarch - 1/15: George Eliot: Middlemarch Seniors: - Essay writing Period Friday Night Lecture: All College Seminar on Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Great Hall, 7:30 pm Page 1 the rooms are laid out means that they can be reverted to doubles should any trouble arise, or if there should be demand for them as doubles from students. The next tier of singles, in Gilliam, Spector, Campbell, Fielding and Pinkney 1, will cost $8,550 per year, while tier C, in Chase, Pinkney 2-4, and Paca will cost $8,300. Split doubles in Gilliam and Spector Halls will cost $7,850, while doubles in Gilliam, Spector, Campbell, Fielding and Pinkney 1 will cost $7,600. Doubles in Chase, Pinkney 2-4, and Paca will be $7,450. Quads, which include the Paca loft and new rooms in Campbell, will cost $7,670. The current price of a single on campus is $8,054, and the current price of a double is $7,340, meaning all housing prices will be increased by between $246 and $510. For upperclassmen, the process of selecting rooms will be the same as in previous years, with selection taking place first for Seniors, then Juniors and finally Sophomores, with the order of selection chosen through a lottery. Cline explained that the system for freshmen room assignments will also not be changed drastically. “The prices will be made clear, and if they have a preference, they can do what is already an option, which is to request a specific dorm in the housing questionnaire, which every student fills out to be paired as roommates… That could be how they would request a hall if they wanted one that is less expensive than another.” Freshmen will continue to be in Humphreys, Fielding and Paca Halls, while the newly renovated Campbell Hall will primarily be for upperclassmen. The renovations in Campbell are on track for completion by the beginning of the Summer, with drywall already being installed before winter break. “The rooms will definitely be done by the end of the semester,” said Cline. “The rooms are the first priority.” The basement area, featuring the Coffeeshop and bookstore, is also important for the project, but the completion of the rooms will be prioritized. With the addition of the rooms in Campbell, and the return of some rooms that are currently triples to their previous status as doubles, there will be a total of 390 beds available on campus, a much higher number than previously, which should allow for more upperclassmen to stay on campus if they choose. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Upcoming Events: Tuesday 1/16 - 3:45 pm, Hodson Room: Career Services Wayfinding Workshop It’s a quiet second week back on campus! Look out for next issue for more information on upcoming events in Annapolis as the semester continues to pick up steam. �Thursday January 11, 2024 St. John’s collegian Vol. II. Issue 1 Cowards, Every Last One of You, All Cowards: Or: A Better Gadfly Dearest cowards, On the street, in the hallways, at parties, people say to me: “Hey I liked your articles in the Gadfly. Have you ever thought about writing on [topic which clearly interests them and not me]?” Any time anything even remotely funny happens in one of my classes, I’ll get a knowing look from someone across the table inevitably followed by: “You should write about that in the Gadfly.” Woe is me! Constantly getting good ideas for articles! (My own fault really: I write three god damn articles for every single issue. It gets to the point where even tutors tease me for using our college newspaper as my own personal playground.) And you know for a fact that I am a megalomaniacal narcissist who loves the attention being solely on me, but my f*cking editors won’t let me write even more articles per issue. So let me ask something of you, sweet cowards: write for the Gadfly. Don’t do it for the sake of school spirit or civic duty or art. Do it for all the wrong reasons: do it for your own ego (I know half the bitches at this school want to be writers); do it because you’re tired of reading Bennett Scott, Luke The yellow coffee shop I have been sitting in the coffee shop for a few hours now. I am not sure how many, but I am alone. It is a rare treat to get the whole place to myself, but I am starting to get a little nervous. Though I really have no reason to be. It is nice to be in the coffee shop alone. With it being so dark and wet outside, and I am fairly sure I caught a cold on the way home from break, it is nice to be somewhere quiet and warm. The lighting is very warm here. A comforting amber, not really fluorescent at all. I think it has something to do with the new paint job. All the previously white and sterile walls are now a soft yellow color. It is soothing. I like looking at it. Yet, the more I look at it, the more nervous I feel. The light casts these odd shadows on the wall now. Especially around the fireplace. If I let my eyes focus on one place for too long it almost seems like the bricks are moving. Swirling around into hypnotic whorls. The white of the baseboards seems like it is bleeding up into the walls, and the chalk dust on the floor is flowing about as if blown by an unfelt wind. I have been sitting in the coffee shop for many hours now. The walls feel like they are pressing in, and out. Undulating like the stomach of some great beast. The light is still playing tricks on my eyes. The shadows are moving across the lemony walls, they almost look like human figures. I think that they might be. I'm almost sure of it actually. There is someone in the yellow walls of the coffee shop. They are trying to get out, to escape the canary-colored bars of their prison. I approach the wall. Scrabbling at the paint with my fingers, I need to release them. The light keeps shifting and I keep scratching. I break through the paint, a layer of drywall, I push past the studs of McDowell. I emerge out of the darkness into the light on the other side of the yellow yellow walls. I am sitting in the coffee shop. Briner, Bennett Scott, Luker Briner; do it because if you don’t this entire publication will succumb to the inevitable sludge of boring mediocrity that inevitably consumes all such uncontested empires. 6. 7. 8. Look, I know you’re worried about how long it’ll take (a good article takes thirty minutes drunk and one hour sober, no more) and about not having anything decent to write on, so I’ll make it easy; here’s a baker’s dozen of article ideas that people have pitched around me that someone needs to write: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. An advice column (multiple people have said they will. No one has.) An admonishment of the seniors for not getting in relationships. A series of out-of-pocket quotes from tutors (a game where you have to match quote to tutor?) Actual investigative journalism into the power structures of the college. A Joseph Smith-esc series of found tablets telling the real story of the New Program’s founding. A little New year’s sonnet Like snowflakes falling light upon the ground, the year in silent rolling passes o’er, turning over days without a sound and, sighing, turning hours all the more. Like drops which drip with sopping coat of rain, the times with weight of ages slip in rule 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Dear Incels of the College. A meta-Johnnie typology (every semester we get typologies/taxonomies of Johnnies: why not a taxonomy of taxonomies?) A declaration of the rights of students (anyone should be able to get up to the board during any class. Even during Spinoza seminars. Fight me on it.) A dialogue between Socrates and Bad Bunny. Interviews with SJC legends like the PubSafe staff and the Dining Hall workers. The Classiflieds (Classifieds with an SJC twist). A stream of consciousness story from the POV of a middie entering an SJC Waltz for the first time. An analysis of which St. John we are named after. I have a dozen more article ideas of my own which you can come accost me for in person. Just write one, cowards. Cause I may be your one but I do not want to be your only. B.S. About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. in bright mosaic when the fire is fierce, Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400-600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. the ticks and sequent tocks of clocks suspend Contributors for this issue: the brazen bells that morn and even pierce— El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor and puddle bigly in successive train and under bearded shadows rise to pool. Like sunlit leaves how off the bough descend The thrush and wren together sing their round like snowflakes falling light upon the ground. B.S. Andy Manne Tarik Mahmud Tarik Mahmud Aphorism of the Week: Ashes are the best fertilizer for new plants. Are corpses the best fertilizer for new men? A.M. Page 2 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, January 11, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 1 of the St. John's Collegian, published January 11, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-01-11 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue1_2024-01-11 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a354c3d7bf3483a226d67cc5ae30f08b.pdf f4467a7e98811ea599a16a05045fdb51 PDF Text Text Thursday January 16, 2025 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication FROM the polity Keep Our Fishbowl Clean An exhortation to all returning seniors: I entreat you all, as we enter this season of essay writing, to not make the mistake and fall into the errors of our forebears and turn our beloved Fishbowl into a den of iniquity. We ought to treat our public spaces like public spaces and refrain from using them as personal repositories for books, papers, half-drunk and now-cold coffee cups, plant life, gnawn muffins, and shrines to the Blessed Virgin. If these things help you to write, then by all means, bring them; but also remember to take them. The writing period is a wonderful time for us Seniors to take our time with a text we truly love and create our Johnnie magnum opus. This activity can and should be, in the words of our dean, “exhilarating and satisfying” but it needn’t be a selfish one. In fact, I would argue that the writing of a senior essay, while a seemingly-solitary one, is intensely collaborative. The Johnnie essay has been described to me as “a continuation of the conversation.” In any Johnnie essay and especially in the senior essay, we get to collaborate and learn from our peers, our essay advisor, and the authors themselves–from the reading of the text to the drafting, to the editing, and finally, to the public oral. Every step along the way, we are reminded of the thoughts and words of others and the fact that we are not alone in this journey. So, let us put pen to paper and enjoy this month as a privileged and extended conversation. And, as we think of others’ thoughts, let us also think of the other people, and keep our Fishbowl clean. Happy writing. Caleb Briggs A dirty fishbowl. [Credit: r/shittyaquariums] Vol. II Issue X Printed Thursdays in Annapolis At AnnEbeth’s, with AnnEbeth A Casual Interview On a given Tuesday afternoon, around 3:35 pm, you might find me trudging hungrily down Prince George Street in search of an after-school snack. My walk home takes me along Maryland Avenue—an agreeable necessity— and I often can’t resist stopping into Annebeth’s for a sandwich or some focaccia bread. I know I’m not the only one: Annebeth’s is an Annapolis staple—and so is its eponymous owner, Annebeth herself. I recently stopped in for a conversation with her, hoping to get to know the woman behind it all. She’s a familiar face to many, with her dark hair, youthful smile, and friendly disposition. But she manages nevertheless to be somewhat enigmatic. Her shop, in varied forms, has existed for 26 years, longer than most of us can remember (and longer than some of us have been alive). Its steady presence on the corner lends it a mythic aspect, like that of a timeless monument. Whether you’re a frequent customer or a passerby, this feature of the modern Johnnie landscape is as familiar to us as the quad and College Creek. But how did it get here? On Friday, I stood across the counter from Annebeth, eating steak bites and asking her questions between customers. “I moved to Annapolis in the mid 80’s,” she said. “I was a teenager and went to high school around here… my parents lived a couple blocks away. Going to my bus stop for school, I would walk Maryland Avenue in my teens. I just loved that street. My bus stop was right off of Duke of Gloucester.” Her first job was at Dimitri’s, a Greek restaurant on Main Street where Preserve is now. Her coworkers downtown were often Johnnies. “I went abroad to Europe for a while, after college, and when I came back, I wanted to start my own thing,” she continued. So, on Black Friday of 1998, the first Annebeth’s opened— right up the street from its current location. “My background was in hospitality, but I knew I didn’t want to open a restaurant. But I did want to be around food and drink.” Along with food and drink, the first iteration of Annebeth’s was also a movie rental store. “It was kind of a date-night theme,” she recalls, “You could go in and get your movies, snacks, wine, beer. Now everything’s just streamed, so that’s changed.” Here, our conversation diverged to movies: Annebeth’s favorites are classic romances, like My Fair Lady and Roman Holiday. She also mentioned that Patriot Games has scenes filmed in Annapolis. But I digress. 15 years after opening the video store, Annebeth moved down the street to her current location at the This Week in Seminar Freshman: Thursday, January 16th: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, VII; VIII, 1-6, 45-end Monday, January 20th: Plato: Parmenides, beginning–148D, 166C Sophomores: Thursday, January 16th: Dante: Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, XIX–XXXIII Monday, January 20th: Dante: Divine Comedy, Paradiso, I–XVII Juniors: Thursday, January 16th: Hume: Treatise of Human Nature (selections) Monday, January 20th: Hume: Treatise of Human Nature (selections) Seniors: Thursday, January 16th: Writing Period! Monday, January 20th: Writing Period! Friday All-College Seminar: On Frederick Douglass’ “The Mission of the War.” Page 1 corner of Prince George and Maryland Avenue. She’s been there for the past 11 years. Annebeth’s is integral to the St. John’s community: she has furnished the wine for many a Johnnie soirée, the bread and cheese for springtime picnics, and the kombucha to accompany us in our late summer sunbathing. She also has family connections to the college. Her dad, Gerald Bunker, was a tutor in the ‘60s. Her stepsister’s dad, John Sarkissian, taught here in the 80s. She loves having the college nearby. “I’ve always had at least one Johnnie on staff,” she said. “I only have three employees, so it’s pretty small, but there’s always a Johnnie.” She feels more of a connection to Johnnies than to Middies, but she’s happy to do business with both. “I always get a giggle when I see a mid and a Johnnie dating,” she added. I asked her if she has any advice for future small business owners. “Consistency,” she said. “Make sure you’re open when you say you’re open and closed when you say you’re closed. Follow through.” She certainly exemplifies this herself: it’s her reliability, among other things, which makes her a Maryland Avenue staple. “I love being my own boss,” she said. “Making the decisions. I can’t imagine going back to work for somebody else. And I like the social part of it. If I’m at home too long, I need the outlet. I get energy from seeing people.” People seem to enjoy seeing her, too: at one point we were interrupted by a customer looking for a vegetarian sandwich. Unfortunately, his herbivorous intentions were thwarted by the chicken fajita. As Annebeth closed the transaction, she handed me a caramel candy. “For later,” she said. I put it in my pocket. Helen Wagner Left: “Portrait of Gerald E. Bunker.” SJC Digital Archives Right: Annebeth, photo by Helen Wagner Upcoming Events: Friday, January 17 All-College Seminar, Great Hall, 7:20pm Saturday, January 18 Eva Brann Memorial, Great Hall, 2pm Pajama Waltz, Boathouse, 9pm �Thursday, January 16, 2025 St. John’s Collegian Vol. II. Issue X Next, Winter Comes Softly Reforming Deicing Practices on Campus The return from winter break is an interesting one, where the sudden need to face the bracing cold is met by all, some of whom are not adequately prepared, seniors fight a losing battle writing their essays in the fishbowl, and everyone is sick. Over the past few days, I’ve returned inside from a delightful wintry walk or an adventure sledding down the lower field hill to hear a booming cough reverberate down the hallway. snow day is a thing of joy and wonder that propels even room Johnnies outside to enjoy the outdoors. Salt ruins snow’s texture, stains its pristine color blue, destroys footwear, and makes spaces indoor and outdoor feel chalky and weird. The intentions in which salt is used are certainly noble, but I would argue its use creates other issues that are perhaps even more dangerous. Winter at St. John’s is a time when everything is shared, from barbeque lids used as improvised sleds to chronic pulmonary illnesses. The ingenuity of Johnnies when they see snow never fails to impress. From the aforementioned barbeque lid, which performed surprisingly well and resulted in few injuries, I also witnessed students using undersized cookie sheets stolen from Spector and Gilliam kitchens, garbage bags, and sleds hijacked from townspeople in their efforts to speedily descend the slope. New sledding techniques were developed, one of which involved sitting backwards and was aptly named “gruesome style”. One recent morning, I was going to breakfast, exited Paca, and almost died. Several days prior, salt had been laid on the steps to melt the accumulation of snow, but this watery slush became diluted and refroze in the night. I confidently placed my foot on a smooth glassy round of ice, and, if I had fallen, there would’ve been no snow to cushion my fall. The railings saved me, not the salt. The sledding fun waned, the hill compacted to thinning ice with grass visible in patches. The ice receded from the dock and is merely a distant temptation. Another dusting of snow came again to refresh the landscape. But its boon was limited, and the eternal enemy of salt was to blame. Salt is worthless, good for nothing but to be thrown onto paths and trampled underfoot. It reduces the charming crunch of snow and ice underfoot into a wet slush that fills the shoes and leaves white trails in the hallways. Most of all, it makes me really sad. A This is not a criticism of the school’s actions when it snows, certainly it is a great and meet thing to keep paths clear and accessible, but the issue with salt is that on days below 20° F, any benefit it is able to grant is turned into another obstacle. This is why I propose the school move to other means of deicing the walks and heed my chemical knowledge. Aphorism of the Week ὁ τροφός ἐστί ἀνὴρ σὺν ἀγκιςτρῷ. Jacob Sharpe Walking in a Winter Under Land Breaking news! The Lady of the Underquad was recently spotted frolicking about our winter-kissed campus in the wee hours of the night. Witnesses say frosty fairies danced about as snow surrounded her in its pure white glory, though these visions may very well have simply been clusters of snowflakes falling from the heavens. torch of its knowledge is passed along. The Lady of the Underquad especially implores the newest members of SJC to open their minds to whimsy, mirth, and wonder just as she and many other Johnnies have done before. Therefore, let us join her frolicking and journey through the world of wonder together! Either way, this snowy jubilation indicates the promise of wondrous new beginnings. Far below the frosty blanket wrapping SJC in its glittering splendor lies a realm where fires never deprive the people of comforting warmth, long-forgotten tomes whisper wisdom to those frantically typing up senior essays above ground, and gossip runs rampant about the unknown new successor to the Underquad’s throne. Assured by their Lady that a new heir shall indeed be selected well before the last Ab Major chord has resounded through the halls of Mellon, the Paca gnomes have turned their attention and energy towards preparing for the new ruler’s advent. Goldsmiths are hard at work sketching designs for a new crown, while politicians debate relentlessly over the proper proceedings of the coronation. Herschel Reuben Yet the Underquad’s new ruler must be aware of the lore they will one day pass along to the Polity’s next generation of eager young minds. Therefore I, Herschel Reuben, shall do my best to faithfully convey tales of the lore and life of the Underquad from this day forth until that fateful time when the The humble element of hydrogen is cheap, abundant, and, most importantly, freezes at the nippy low of -434.5°F. Were hydrogen scattered on the paths instead of salt, and were it also soluble in water, our problems would be solved and paths on campus would remain clear and safe. This latter problem, on making hydrogen an amenable solute for water, as well as lowering its vapor pressure so that it might hold a scatterable form in standard atmospheric pressure, is a project I assign to worthier minds than I. Until then, I recommend everyone watch their steps. Godspeed. Jacob Sharpe UPCOMING SCI FORUMS Courtesy of the Student Committee on Instruction Jan 22nd: What do we gain from studying and participating in music? Jan 29th: Does the program prepare us for death, as Socrates suggests in the Phaedo? Feb 5th: Is it wrong to maintain preferences for certain kinds of texts on the program? Feb 12th: How do we cultivate good relationships between students and tutors? Feb 19th: How do we approach the process of planning for and writing our annual essays? Feb 26th: How can we best use our breaks? WEDNESDAYS. 11:45. PRIVATE DINING ROOM. Free lunch for off-campus students! Page 2 A student enjoys the sledding medium of ice-grass amalgam. About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email sjca.collegian@gmail.com with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: Helen Wagner, Editor and Writer Jacob Sharpe, Editor and Writer Caleb Briggs, Author Herschel Reuben, Author � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, January 16, 2025 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 10 of the St. John's Collegian, published January 16, 2025. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2025-01-16 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol_II_issueX_2025-01-16 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/ec88d855dd80f9b808bbae2991e9e475.pdf 2b3233664d7c4635f16f42b86b0c5e17 PDF Text Text Thursday January 18 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Vol. II Issue 2 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Editorial All college seminar held on do the right thing Against the New Housing Price System Seminar Scheduled to Commemorate Martin Luther King Day, Saw High Tutor Attendance Often, it seems as if a new policy decision by the College administration is well intentioned but was not properly thought through, particularly in the impact it might have on the student body. The new housing price tier system, recently unveiled by the College, is a perfect example of this. It has the potential to cause much harm to our campus community, while also does not seem to have any actual benefit besides increasing College housing revenue. There is a principle of common experience at the College that I worry the new pricing system endangers. With the requirement to live on campus for our first two years here, a community is created of people who not only read the same books, but who live in the same buildings, and eat the same food. A special kind of unity is created, one that really brings together our small, close-knit community, and which is so solid that it is kept together even after people begin to move off campus Junior year. As of now, the differing quality of dorms does not hinder this campus cohesion: if someone complains about rats in a dorm, there is sympathy, as anyone could have ended up there. Likewise, jealousy over good dorm conditions in the suburbs only goes so far; it is simply taken as a privilege of having spent more years on campus, and as a sign of luck in the housing lottery. However, with the change from flat rates for housing to ones based on income, I worry that this cohesion could be damaged. If someone’s housing condition is determined by how much they are able to pay for a dorm, there is not a sense that everyone is on the same boat: on the contrary, there is a sense some paid for a much nicer educational experience than others. The argument that the difference in prices is too small to cause this kind of socio-economic stratification is ridiculous: if someone already has difficulty affording college, which many Johnnies do, every dollar counts, including the $400 between a Chase double and a Gilliam split double, without even mentioning the $2,550 that will divide some residents of Paca. Students already sometimes go to ridiculous lengths to save a few dollars on expenses, it is perfectly reasonable to presume they would do the same if they needed to on housing, and the divide between those that do need to save, and those that don’t, would grow much more visible. There are also many issues that are (Cont. on Page 2) This semester’s first All-College seminar was unusual in two ways. First, it was not hosted by the SCI, who has traditionally hosted such events, with organization instead being lead by Assistant Dean Robert Abbott. Secondly, the seminar was on a film, a medium which has not been discussed before at an All-College seminar. The movie, Spike Lee’s 1989 Do the Right Thing, shown at 4 pm on January 12th, the day of the seminar, with the actual conversation occurring at 7:30, in the place of a lecture. The screening, which was attended by several dozen students, as well as a handful of tutors, was slightly delayed by audio problems in the FSK, but after moving to the Hodson Room, the remainder Lee’s beautiful, chaotic, poignant and thought-provoking work was shown. The seminar itself was slightly better attended, although many students who came to watch the movie did not come to the seminar. Instead, a large number of tutors turned out for the discussion. There were enough people to split the participants into three groups, led by Abbott, tutor George Russel and tutor emeritus Jonathan Tuck. Russel began by asking an opening question that informed the conversation for all the groups, focused around the statement made by da Mayor which gives the movie its name: What does it mean to do the right thing? Groups then split off, with each seminar leader asking another opening question. The seminar ran for an hour and a half, with participants congregating over coffee, tea and snacks afterwards to continue discussing the film. Abbott explained that this seminar was intended to commemorate, and spark discussion about Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which took place the following Monday. “In the past few years, the dean has ended up asking the SCI to have their second semester all-college seminar on texts that had something to do with slavery or the civil rights movement. This seemed like an uncomfortable arrangement since the SCI should be able to have two all-college seminars every year on whatever they decide. Also, last year, the president formed a committee of staff, faculty, and students to plan an event around MLK day. I volunteered for this committee and my contribution was to hold a Tuesday night seminar on a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, 'The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock, Fall 1957,' but only a few students attended. The then- dean and I talked this over and decided to have a separate all-college seminar on a Friday to give the event more prominence.” The College does not commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a holiday created to honor civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. shortly after his assassination, as part of a general policy not to respect religious or civil holidays. ““We don’t recognize any of the holidays, it just so happens that long weekend often coincides with a holiday. I just really value that. I feel like at the college should honor any individual’s practices, and as an institution, we should be pretty careful to remain open and neutral… I think about this in terms of Herodotus. Particular cultures are important, because they’re a way to understand what’s universal… I want people to be able to be themselves in the classroom and out at the college, but we also need to say, this place would come apart at the seams if we’re improperly recognizing some individuals and not others,” explained Abbott. “At the same time, we have found ways to use the occasion to do something that is good, that is harmonious or consonant with what we’re doing at the college anyway.” The choice of seminar subject was proposed by Xena Hitz, a tutor. “Ms. Hitz suggested discussing the film, Do the Right Thing,” said Abbott. “I thought this was an excellent suggestion for many reasons. The film speaks to everyone; it asks the viewer difficult, pressing questions about race, community, history, and violence, without giving easy answers; it puts Martin Luther King Jr. in conversation with Malcolm X. There are a number of reasons I thought it would be good for a seminar. And for all those same reasons, I saw this all-college seminar as continuous with conversations that develop out of reading works on the program e.g. by Tocqueville, Twain, Melville, Conrad, Lincoln, Douglas, Washington, and Du Bois, among others…Human freedom is at stake; I can think of few things as serious.” Holding a conversation on a film posed a new challenge, but one that was successfully met by most participants in the seminars. In the seminar that I participated in, the conversation hovered in generalities at first, before plunging straight into a thorough and interesting analysis of cinematographic choices, of the role of characters, and of the (Cont. on page 2) This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 1/18: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, VII; VIII, 1–6, 45–end 1/22: Thucydides: Peloponnesian War, IV, 75–end; V, 1–26, 84–116; VI Sophomores: 1/18: Dante: Divine Comedy, Purgatorio XIX–XXXIII 1/22: Dante: Divine Comedy, Paradiso I–XVII Juniors: 1/18: Hume: Treatise of Human Nature (see official list for selections) 1/22: Hume: Treatise of Human Nature (see official list for selections) Seniors: Essay writing Period Friday 1/19 5 p.m., Mitchell Museum: Sampling a Sampler Sampling Exhibit opening Saturday 1/20 11 a.m., Studio Theater: Careers in Law Alumni Panel 9 p.m., Boathouse: Pajama Waltz 9 p.m., McDowell Great Hall: Pangaea Lunar New Years Party Wednesday 1/24 2:30 p.m., Hodson room: Hodson Internship info session - 4 p.m., Conversation Room: Eams Power of Ten film discussion. Friday Night Lecture: Concert by New York Polyphony, 8 p.m. in the FSK Page 1 �Thursday January 18, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Vol. II. Issue 2 First measurable snow in two years covers campus: Two Hour Delay Implemented By the time this writer exited Mellon for the first time On Monday, January 15th at 11:30, he saw the snow which had started in the morning had picked up once more, and a thin layer was beginning to accumulate on the grass, although not yet in paved areas. By the time he returned to campus around 2:15, the snow had not stopped, and it began sticking even to warmer brick and asphalt. Speculation began, buzzing around campus from eager freshmen to weary Juniors: will they cancel seminar? Do they ever even do that? When classes ended for the day, the snow was finally great deal of frolicking going on, and a few snowballs being tossed around. After receiving a tip-off that a big scoop might be found on back campus, your writer continued down towards the creek to find Johnnies whizzing down the hill on sleds, trash can lids, cardboard, garbage bags, and their own backs. The enthusiasm of a child before a snow-day in 3rd grade was in the air, and everyone was feeling it. Walking along, this writer crossed paths with a very enthusiastic Johnnie who perfectly summed this up: “It’s snowing, it’s snowing!” he repeatedly declared, while giving energetic hugs to all who went by. By the 7:30 seminar time, there was no news about any delays or cancellations, although the snow continued to fall as the campus made its way towards Mellon and McDowell. During seminar, however, an Housing (Cont. from Page 1) less obvious, but likely to cause problems likely not foreseen by the College administration. For example, this new pricing system would make housing selection far more fraught. If there is higher demand for the cheaper dorms, as I suspect there will be, there may be less affordable housing available for people lower on the list, who may be penalized and have to pay more, perhaps even more than they can afford. What happens if someone can only afford a Group B double, but when they get their chance to pick there are only Group A doubles and split doubles left? Likewise, this causes a problem for dorms set aside for specific purposes. In the past, Spector has been designated as a quiet dorm, and one floor has been set aside as an alcohol-free floor. Would people who prefer quiet, or to be further away from alcohol, have to pay extra for that? It is wonderful that the college tries to accommodate these needs, but it would be a shameful undermining of what they seem to be trying to accomplish to have access to them determined by price. The reasoning given for this change in housing pricing is that people “have been asking for it.” I would like to ask who these people are. I have not met a single student who speaks in favor of this system for reallocating housing. The argument that many other institutions price dorms this way is also a bad one, since many small liberal arts colleges do not, and that something being done by other institutions has never been a reason in itself for St. John’s to do something. I suspect the true motivation for this change is not to respond to some swell of student requests for this system, but a desire to raise housing prices without upsetting people as much. At some level, I understand this; prices need to be adjusted for inflation, even though they are already very high. However, if this way of raising prices is likely to cause harm to our Polity, I think the decision to implement this system should be reconsidered. email was sent out by Aly Gontang, Vice-President of Finance and Operations: “The Annapolis Campus will be opening at 10:30 am on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, to allow facilities staff time to clear parking lots and walkways – and to allow time for staff, students, and faculty to travel safely to campus.” Gontang explained that this decision was made according to set College policies. “When we are experiencing or expecting inclement weather, we usually coordinate early in the morning to determine road conditions, how long it may take to clear parking lots and walkways, and if there are any other operational challenges to opening on time. We try to coordinate between 4:30am-5am to have facilities or public safety staff check on campus conditions – so we can post a notification no later than 6am by campus alert, email, and website update. In the case of [Monday’s] weather, with the extremely poor conditions we monitored into the evening last night (some of us were driving home late after work after 8pm) – and with the forecast of alternating freezing rain and snow combined with low temperatures during the ‘rush hour’ when most are driving into campus – we posted the notice last night following many of the county schools and agencies. When we expect inclement conditions – just to also call out the wonderful dedication and care of the Bon Seminar (Cont. from Page 1) between the events on the screen and pressing concerns about communities relevant in our own lives. Abbott said that in his seminar, he also found success in the challenge of discussing a movie. “I really love film. Scott Buchanan, one of the founders of the program, thought film was going to have a place in the cannon. One of my worries about this seminar is that we would treat the film simply as a text, and only discuss ideas. I feel like my seminar didn’t fall into that, which was nice… it was much more about the way ideas were represented through the film and the character who speak about them. It was much closer to a discussion of the film as a film.” Coming away from these seminars, and into the discussions over coffee and tea, many participants expressed a wide range of thoughts sparked by the movie. By providing a space to reflect on race, discrimination, representation, identity, violence and resistance, and community, the seminar provided a place to touch on many matters that often don’t come up in day-to-day classes. The conversations begun that night, however, are still very much alive as this paper is going to print, at least amongst those who attended that seminar. Appetit staff - the dining service staff will oftentimes nearby accommodations or even stay overnight find in available residence rooms, that are separated from students, to ensure food service remains on time.” This delay, however, did not mean that classes were canceled. While operations delays are determined by the Gontang, academic delays are decided by the Assistant Dean, who instead sent out an email saying that class cancellations would be determined by individual tutors, who could best determine whether they could safely reach campus. The possibility of classes, however, did not stop students from celebrating the snow with Johnnie passion. A massive, all-campus snowball fight developed on the quad after seminar, with this reporter being targeted for repeated pelting by a frequent Gadfly and Collegian contributor who often goes by his somewhat vulgar initials. After this spirited combat, this writer set off on a walk with someone rather special into an Annapolis transformed into a silent, white mirror of itself. While the following morning, classes resumed as usual, (albeit with some confusion as to whether they would begin at 10:30), the spell cast by the snow on this campus will be fondly remembered for years to come. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor El’ad Nichols-Kaufman An interview for this article was conducted by Meliha Anthony for the Communications office. We would like to thank Communications for helping us with our reporting, and Anthony for supporting journalism on the Annapolis campus. Aphorism of the Week: "Does it make sense?" Says an American. "Does it become a word?" Says a Korean. I am clearly the one who is making sense, but who is the one making the word? Page 2 You may have noticed this edition only has one contributor. This, to put it mildly, is a problem. Not only is it better for the College to have a diversity of view represented instead of just my ramblings, but it is also not sustainable for me: I cannot write a full edition of the Collegian every week. If you want to see this paper continue to exist, and to continue to bring up to date news reporting to the Polity, please send in some submissions! You can write about anything: enrollment trends, tutor retention, crazy moments in your seminar, intramural games. Just write. The Polity needs everyone to pitch in if we are to remain engaged and well informed. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, January 18, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 2 of the St. John's Collegian, published January 18, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-01-18 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue2_2024-01-18 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/aa7cfd25056d2953ffe0628a0d1361a2.pdf b5b67df2c1798dc5fdc9431d7598865f PDF Text Text Thursday January 30 2025 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity Reflections on Huron Forum A few weeks ago, I attended a student forum with two representatives from Huron Consulting. The purpose of the forum was, primarily, to provide Huron with an opportunity to learn directly what we believe the spirit of St. John’s to be, and what is most necessary to preserve to keep that spirit alive. It was also an important opportunity for students to put names and faces to the suspicious Huron Consulting and their Strategic Visioning Plan that has been spoken of with unease and mistrust for so many months. The consultants asked us a series of basic yet important questions about St. John’s, hoping to hear personal and honest accounts of what we love most about our college, what drew us here in the first place, and what changes would improve our experience. Though many students initially seemed wary, it was not long before we were all giving earnest accounts of our own experiences. The consultants seemed genuinely interested in our stories and were constantly asking us to elaborate further so that they might better understand each of our unique St. John’s experiences. Though the idea of an outside consulting firm becoming involved in our small, intimate college is uncomfortable to us all, the people running this project seem to be intent upon preserving what we love about St. John’s and ensuring that we have a long, bright future ahead of us. I spoke personally with one of the consultants, and when I asked him what the goals of their project were and how the forum would prove useful, he said that their goal was to help the school attain financial stability for the sake of ensuring the long-term survival and success of our Program. It is impossible that one short forum can fully calm our worries about what kinds of changes Huron will suggest, or what the future might bring for St. John’s as we struggle to maintain an unconventional program and survive in the modern world. But I can say that, on first impressions alone, the Huron consultants displayed real curiosity and interest in getting to know students and becoming familiar with everything that makes our life and education here so important to us. It is up to us students to build strong relationships with the people that will decide our future, and to remember to use our voices in times of change, in order to ensure that our future properly reflects who we are. Vol. II Issue XI Printed Thursdays in Annapolis A Well-Examined life: Memorial Service Honors the Legacy of the Late Ms. Brann Saturday, January 18, 2025, was a day marked by somber skies and slippery roads. Temperatures in the thirties did little to deter the steady stream of attendees arriving to honor Ms. Eva Brann, who passed away on October 28, 2024. By 2 p.m., the Great Hall was alight with warmth and conversation. Among those present were Grace Cavalieri, Maryland’s 10th poet laureate, and former Santa Fe president Mike Peters. At the right side of the podium stood a portrait of Ms. Brann, in front of an impressive bookshelf, holding her book Feeling Our Feelings: What Philosophers Think and People Know. Her wise, warm smile seemed to embrace all who had come to celebrate her extraordinary life. Ms. Brann always maintained that she was not a refugee. In the US, she had not found refuge, she had found paradise. Where else would a college like St. John’s be possible? President Demleitner opened the program with a heartfelt welcome. She spoke of Ms. Brann’s immense contributions to the college, emphasizing that her legacy would endure not just in the institution’s history but in the lives she had touched. The formal tributes began with Tutor Joan Silver, who had assembled the program. Other tutors delivered tributes, including former president Christopher Nelson, Eric Salem, David Carl (Santa Fe, in absentia), Steven Crockett (in absentia), and Janet Dougherty. Former students, alumni, and friends Robin Tzannes, Paul Dry, Sharon Bishop, Barry and Gretchen Mazur, and Kimo Mackey delivered the remaining remarks, painting a colorful picture of Ms. Brann as an educator and friend. Tributes from friends and colleagues revealed her singular impact as a teacher and mentor. When Ms. Brann began her tenure at St. John’s, there were only four women on campus. She became the college’s first female dean in the 1990s. She had to keep her address a secret because otherwise students would just show up to discuss the books. Born into a Jewish family in Berlin, her father, a doctor, introduced her to Kant on their walks in the park when she was five. Her early years were marked by a duality: though she grew up in Nazi Germany, her childhood was remarkably protected. In 1939, Ms. Brann’s father was attending a conference in the US when the pogroms of the Reichskristallnacht took place. The family told him not to return to Germany. In 1941, at 12 years old, she left Germany for Portugal alongside her mother and 9-year-old brother Wolfgang. Their destination was the United States, where they would finally be reunited with Ms. Brann’s father. Despite traumatizing experiences—including the suicide of her younger brother, a veteran of the Korea War, who she viewed as “the gifted one”— people described her as a woman without grief. In fact, some even called her the least angst-ridden person, i.e. the complete opposite of Achilles. She returned to Germany once. This one trip revealed to her that she was in fact an American. She recognized that if the Nazis had not come to power, she would been doomed to become a professor which would have forced her to specialize and would have brought about her tyrannical side. Ms. Brann loved her new country— especially the Southwest—and described the United States as a “country growing upwards.” She did not aim to be an expert at the seminar table, but rather an expert in conversation. This approach resonated deeply with students and colleagues alike. Tutor Janet Dougherty recalled Ms. Brann’s practice of “governing through conversation.” Musical interludes during the service provided pauses for reflection. Tutor Chester Burke (flute) and alumnus James Siranovich (piano) performed the first movement of Bach’s Flute Sonata in B minor. Later, a group of students, staff, and tutors, conducted by Ms. Paalman, delivered a rendition of Dona Nobis Pacem from Bach’s B Minor Mass. Especially to current students, Ms. Brann can appear a larger-than-life figure, but tributaries were able to develop a three-dimensional vision of the person that Ms. Brann had been. Surprising facts about her were part of this. Here is a selection that elicited chuckles from the audience: she had fondness for McDonald’s, cowboy novels, sailing trips, and children— which explains her desire to open a day care on campus. There were also allusions to Ms. Brann’s unique sense of humor. Apparently, when she said after lunch that she was going to “go and read the Bible,” this was a code word for her taking a nap. Ms. Brann received the National Medal of Humanities twice. Thus, she met Continued on Page 2 Catherine Greer This Week in Seminar Freshman: Thursday, January 30: Plato, Sophist, beginning – 242B Monday, February 3: Plato, Sophist, 242C – end Sophomores: Thursday, January 30: Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, selections Monday, February 3: Christian Creeds and Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, selections Juniors: Thursday, January 30: Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, selections Monday, February 3: Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, selections Seniors: Thursday, January 30: Writing Period! Monday, February 3: Melville, Benito Cereno Friday Night Lecture: No Lecture (Long Weekend) Page 1 Upcoming Events: Friday, January 31: Long Weekend begins Saturday, February 1: Senior Essays Due at Midnight (Bell Ringing at McDowell Hall)! Sunday, February 2: Groundhog Day Monday, February 3: Long Weekend ends with seminars at 7:30pm �St. John’s Collegian Thursday, January 30, 2025 Vol. X. Issue XI Annapolis Receives Solar Energy Grant For anyone attending the Board of Visitors and Governors meeting in October, a certain measure of jealousy was undoubtedly directed towards Santa Fe. Not only did attendees have to hear about how the energy costs for our campus are a whopping $700,000 per year compared to their paltry $140,000, but it was revealed that much of their energy is now supplied by a shiny new solar panel installation on their campus. Their access to green energy has been enough to turn the rest of us green with envy! Fortunately, news has reached your humble journalist that our dear Annapolis is not far away from solar energy itself. St. John’s has recently been approved for a Maryland grant to advance green energy on our campus. The Higher Education Clean Energy Pilot Program has granted us $1.03 million, and finally we shall have solar panels! The plan is to install these on the roof of Mellon and the nearby heating plant. Also included in the grant are funds to create a new master plan for our campus that focuses on promoting green energy, as well as the framework for multiple student internships on campus. Over the next few months the Career Development Office will be working to finalize these internships, which will be offered to the Polity as soon as they are available. The process will begin fully in February, when members of the administration will meet with structural architects from the Kezlo group and solar contractors from Solar Energy Services, including Johnnie alumn Ethan Goddard who is the latter’s VP of Energy Technology. Before solar panels can be directly installed, we must carry out desperately needed repairs on the Mellon roof. The College also has to apply for permission from the Annapolis Historical Society along with the State of Maryland. According to our CFO Ally Gontang-Highfield, “They are primarily trying to ensure that we are taking care to preserve our historic buildings and that the design is acceptable under historic standards for the city of Annapolis.” Once all permits have been secured and the plans have been approved, installation can begin for these solar panels. The administration hopes that work can begin this semester and that we will have a fully functional solar array as soon as this fall, but ultimately the timeline is up to how quickly the city and state will approve the details for the project. The solar installation size is still not firmly planned, but current estimates sit at a 346.9 kW/h (kilo-watts per hour) array on the Mellon roof, and a smaller 64.9 kW/h array on the roof of the heating plant for a total size of 411.8 kW/h. This is smaller than our sister’s newly installed array, but it must be remembered that the Santa Fe campus has much more open space and Southwestern sunshine than we do in our crowded downtown Northeastern campus. Again, estimates are not yet firm, but the expectation is to cut about 5% off our annual utility bill and avoid sourcing a comparable amount of energy from the main power grid. Aphorism of the Week Reagan Bottomley About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Ms. Brann was well traveled and had friends around the world. She would visit her former student and friend Robin Tzannes on the Greek island of Kythnos. There, she liked to “cook up a storm.” Barry Mazur shared that she was so curious about the world that she asked him to “spy” for her on Mount Athos, where women were prohibited. Helen Felbek Special thanks to CFO Ally Gontang-Highfield, who was instrumental in providing the information for this article. Tarik Mahmoud President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. When asked to describe these men, she called Bush “very fit,” and Obama “interminably charming.” After the memorial, attendees were invited to the FSK Lobby for light refreshments and conversation. Though the skies remained gray, those who departed did so with a renewed sense of purpose, honoring Ms. Brann’s demand: “we must continue the conversation.” While Santa Fe may still have a leg up in terms of green energy, Annapolitans can be glad to know that we too can soon harness our own piece of sunshine. As the administration works to implement large-scale changes, don’t forget that the student body can have a huge impact on energy consumption! I urge you, student or faculty, to be on the lookout for ways you can cut down on energy uses around campus. As always, don’t forget to turn out the lights! Ἐκτὸς τῆς πόλεως οὐκ εἴσι θύραι. Eva Brann Memorial, cont’d As the program drew to a close, Sharon Bishop’s words lingered in the minds of all present: “We are her legacy.” Ms. Brann’s life was a well-examined one, full of conversations with texts, with students, with the world. Her ability to live without regret, to govern through dialogue, and to inspire others to think deeply and broadly will be remembered. Even those who did not know her personally felt the weight of her absence. In addition, depending on the decision of our current Federal administration, we may be able to apply for annual renewable energy credits to further decrease our energy costs. This will likely be the largest solar installation anywhere in downtown Annapolis, including recent installations by the city. These solar panels are only a piece of our new energy grant. Along with internships that we students can apply for, the College will also be implementing a new master strategy that focuses on green energy. This is not connected to the plans being laid out in conjunction with Huron Consulting, which are primarily focused on fundraising and student enrollment. This master strategy will be a plan for the physical layout of the College, and will replace a severely outdated strategy from several years ago. Tailored to our more modern needs, this plan will ensure that as the College renovates and constructs buildings around campus, it will follow a guide to grow as green as possible. “At the retirement party for Eva Brann, the dean reads with surprise at a galley copy of her newest book, The Past-Present, delivered by tutor Pamela Kraus and designer Adrienne Rogers, 1997,” St. John's College Digital Archives. Editor’s Note: While scouring the college’s digital archives for a photo of Ms. Brann, I discovered scans of the autobiography she wrote when she was 14, titled I Came Across the Ocean. Pieces of it were quoted during her memorial. You can read it if you search the archives! Go to https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400-600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email sjca.collegian@gmail.com with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: Helen Wagner, Editor “We save up the events of our days to tell our friends, feeling that until our affairs have been told they haven’t quite happened: Thus do our friends confirm our lives.” - Eva Brann, Open Secrets / Inward Prospects: Reflections on World and Soul Page 2 Jacob Sharpe, Editor Reagan Bottomley, Writer Helen Felbek, Writer Catherine Greer, Writer Tarik Mahmoud, Aphorism � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, January 30, 2025 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 11 of the St. John's Collegian, published January 30, 2025. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2025-01-30 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol_II_issueXI_2025-01-30 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d590264b6a9513b4c062a1e0b592f4ed.pdf dcab19f315dd90c2e5513eb66051497e PDF Text Text Thursday March 28 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity Vol. II Issue 7 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Interview with Walter sterling jr. CSL Report: Forum on the Incoming Santa Fe Campus President Discusses Background, relationship between the city Thoughts on the Future of the College It’s just been the long arc of experience at of Annapolis and St. John’s This interview has been edited for length and clarity. challenges. the College. We’ve never been a luxurious institution. The first CSL forum after Spring break was held last Wednesday, March 20th. Despite the sophomore writing period many attendees were sophomores. The topic of the forum was the question of the relationship between the college community and the wider city of Annapolis. Mr. Huntley, Chair of the CSL, explained that there is a need for this forum due to recent conversations surrounding the plan of the city of Annapolis for College Creek Connector which seem to relate to this question. The conversation was also supposed to offer a space to prepare for the Bike Path Forum with Mayor Buckley and other people involved with the project to be hosted on Wednesday, March 27th. The consensus among attendees of the forum seemed to be that the college community should strive for more personal interactions with the residents of Annapolis. But the group identified a number of hurdles that might contribute to students isolating themselves from the wider city life. While many participants voiced the desire for more interactions with Annapolitans, many felt as if the city is not particularly inviting to college students. The downtown area, while walkable, is too expensive for most students’ budgets, too touristic, and the Naval Academy seems to have an overwhelming presence. But there was the acknowledgement that there are many events and resources that are useful and interesting to Johnnies such as events offered at Maryland Hall. The conversation also touched upon the concept of the “Johnnie Bubble.” One participant characterized the student life at St. John’s as a “non-secular monastic lifestyle” which many interpret as inherently insular. However, some participants argued that this monasticism should also include some outreach and engagement with the world. The argument was made that some people interpret the program and the reading list in a more action driven way than others. In the context of social engagement, the question was raised whether more students should “put the program into action” while being in college and not wait until after graduation to do so. This kind of engagement could improve relations with more marginalized groups in Annapolis as well. (Cont. on p. 2) How would you introduce yourself to the students of Annapolis? In terms of my background, I’m Walter Sterling. I’m a longtime tutor at the College. I joined the faculty in 2003, and had the opportunity to serve twice as dean, including over the past five years. I’m also a graduate of the college, graduated Annapolis, ’93, started with the class of ’92 in Santa Fe, took a year off, and then spent two years with the class of ’93. As many people know, my father is a tutor emeritus in Annapolis, and as maybe fewer people know, both of my parents are alumni of the College. So it’s fair to say that the College has been my life in a lot of ways. But it’s been important to me that I’ve had other experiences out of St. John’s. I went to graduate school in philosophy, I taught at some other colleges and universities. I left academia for a few years to work for a nonprofit in Philadelphia. I might just build on that comment to say I’ve always been restless about not being just inside the classroom, the world of books and study. As vast and important that world is, and as much as it shaped me, I’ve wanted to make a practical difference with part of my energy too. Why did you feel yourself called to apply for the position of president? Part of making that [practical difference] is doing the work that creates conditions that allow the heart of what we do to flourish, and thrive, and survive. That’s the sense of calling that connects to the work of the presidency. The way I put it in an interview for the Santa Fe New Mexican is that as a tutor, I’ve looked down the bench and seen other tutors who can do that work as well or better than I can. I see fewer people that have one foot in both worlds, deeply rooted in the mission, deeply shaped by it, but also deeply interested in budget, finances, marketing, fundraising, and all the practical exigencies. I’ve always wanted to stitch the academic and practical together, and wanted to have a foot in both worlds. How do you plan to address the some of the financial challenges the College is facing? I would say that pretty much for as long as I’ve been at the College, we have faced fiscal and enrollment We’ve always been a small place focused on our mission and the character of our community, and trying to preserve that, make it available to folks and keep it as vital as it can be, but we’ve always done that in a lean way. I would say, above all, what we need is to keep the education strong, keep the community of learning strong, so that we never want to do anything that leads to a steady weakening of the heart of what we do in and around the classroom. That’s why we’re all here. That’s what we’re trying to support, and that’s what gives us the opportunity to go out into the world and say, “come as students, come as faculty, come be a part of this ‘community dedicated to liberal education.’” That’s the phrase that starts the statement of the program that I like to cite over and over again. To keep that community strong and vital, we have to make it visible; be strong in our advocacy for it, and the difference it makes in our lives and in the world; fundraise in the name of that; and recruit students that are going to benefit from this by putting it out there for all to see and making it financially accessible to students for whom cost might be an obstacle. We’ve got to continue what we’ve been doing in recent years, which is to try to raise more money to keep up with the increasing costs of doing what we’re doing; and to continue to fight a difficult battle in contemporary culture, to show that this education is not only still relevant and vital, but that it’s needed now more than ever. Could you say more about advocating for the liberal arts outside of St. John’s, and how that fits in with the role of president? In terms of the role of president, we all know our presidents have many important roles on campus, but the presidents are also the primary face and voice of our institution to the outside world. They are the people that get in front of other educational leaders, potential friends and donors and foundations, and folks who are interested in supporting the College. They are the folks that can get a quote in an article here, or get a talk in there, etc., etc. ) So it’s always important for our presidents to be out there making the case for liberal education. (Cont. on p. 2) This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 3/28: Euripides: The Bacchae 4/1: Aristotle: Poetics, Chapters 1–19 Sophomores: 3/28: Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part I 4/1: Shakespeare: Othello Juniors: 3/28: Rousseau: The Social Contract (See official list for selections) 4/1: Molière: The Misanthrope Seniors: 3/28: Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse, “The Window” 4/1: Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse, “Time Passes” and “The Lighthouse” Friday, 3/29: Pangaea’s Soccer vs. Football game, 4:30 pm, Lower Field Saturday, 3/30: Much Ado About Nothing, presented by the KWP, 7 pm, FSK Auditorium Essay Hell, 9 pm, Great Hall Sunday, 3/31: All-Day Knit-a-thon, 1 pm, Mitchell Museum Much Ado About Nothing, presented by the KWP, 7 pm, FSK Auditorium Wednesday 4/3: Erik S. Kristensen Memorial Lecture, 7:30 pm, Great Hall Friday Night Lecture: The Value of Suffering, delivered by Gregory Freeman at 7:30 pm in the FSK Auditorium Page 1 �Thursday March 28, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Vol. II. Issue 7 Commentary on Frog and toad Bk I, Ch. i: "Spring" The indifferent raptures of a cozy bed are by no means unfamiliar to any of us. Every day, so it seems, our wonted cradle holds tightly to us, and no more wants us to leave it than we want to do so. Thus we find lethargic Toad, overcome utterly by the lulls and ablative inebriation of a deep stupor, while outside his den the yellow-green tongues of Spring flick forth from the April branches. Verdant Frog him awakes but to no avail—for Toad will not have any disturbance to his slumber, insisting that he be let to sleep until “half past May.” Polytropic Frog moves to his calendar, unattended since late Fall and still bearing the face of November. He updates the calendar—and continues to pull the pages off until he is greeted by May, which, having been shown to Toad awaking, convinces him to get up, and they take to the fresh road of Spring together. The core aporia of this chapter is the beguilement of a friend. Frog subtly deceives Toad—for what end and at what cost? Frog says that he will be lonely without Toad in the coming month if he awakes not, implying also his loneliness during the winter, which, given his surprise at the calendar’s unattended state, was borne by him in Toad’s absence. Toad, overcome by the coils of sleep, is unmoved by his friend’s pleas, which friend is moved to trickery. This trickery cannot have gone unnoticed by Toad for very long, for the environment of April is, of course, quite different from that of May. Nor is it in Frog’s interest for Toad to be thus permanently deceived—for then he would make his next hibernation in October, quite before his wonted time, which would grieve Frog no doubt. Nor is it at all the intention of Frog, a true and loving companion, to so drastically deceive his friend. Frog wishes instead to rouse his buddy in time to bear witness to the nascent verdure and accompany himself in his delight of Spring. Is it not in the nature of a true friend to want to, having enjoyed something of great delight, introduce his friend to such pleasure? Now, it’s important that College education help people with careers, but at the heart of our dedication to liberal education, the case we have to make is that almost every trend we see on a wider social stage shows why liberal education is needed now more than ever. I think, even if they wouldn’t express it in the idiom of liberal education, most people see the crises and they have a yearning for the kind of intellectual and spiritual resources that the liberal arts and liberal education are the natural home for, and we have to unapologetically carry that forward. What is the relevance of the Santa Fe president to Annapolis? In what way will your role impact us here? In a certain sense the most important role for the College officers on each campus in relation to the other campus is to maintain and sustain the health of our unified college. Our campuses only exist as part of this larger whole, and we stand and fall together, and always risk a certain kind of entropy, or a kind of benign neglect of each other. It’s our job to keep us stitched together, to continue to understand that we have one program. It takes work and a high degree of collegiality. I guess I could simplify my thoughts this way: the Let us therefore make no delay in welcoming Spring. We may learn from our tale that our greatest pleasures lie beyond our bed-covers; let us be not trapped by our idle chains, and let us venture beyond the warmth of our cozy haunt and into budding April, where the pleasant drops of Springtime ichor fall upon and reward us for our attentiveness. Let us join our friend Frog in welcoming the sunlight, and shed a little of our joy onto others. Tarik Mahmud The foolish reader conceives of Frog as a knave, a selfish deceiver who manipulates his pal for his own pleasure. But the wise reader knows that Frog has no ill intention at all in his guile, for by this little noble Interview with Walter sterling (Cont. from p. 1) What is this case? It is, to use the phrase from the capital campaign, that it’s about freeing minds. It’s about education meeting the fullest potential of our natural faculties, both to live a good life, and to give us the kind of agency to be able to serve as able, humane, skilled, self-conscious and self-possessed people in all areas of life. It’s also a requirement of citizenship in a democratic republic, and I think when we look out at the world and see constant and deepening crises that concern us on the political side, technological side, and social side. No one should pretend that liberal education solves those, but without liberal education, they’re insoluble and irremediable. So, in short, we equip our students for private and public life. lie he exposes to Toad the grandeur of a not-yet complete Spring and the largeness of the flowering April, while if Toad had remained in his languid state until halfway through the month of May, he would have beheld only the trailing tail of primaveral beauty (and would have been in grave danger of sleeping through my birthday on the tenth of the latter month). president on the Santa Fe campus, and the officers on both campuses, need to both be caring stewards of their local campus community with all of the preoccupation and partiality that that brings with it, and counteract that with constant attention to maintaining the good of the whole. To end on a lighter note, I’ll ask a question that in a very Johnnie way, can say a lot about a person: what is your favorite place to read? My favorite place to read is the library in Santa Fe, the Meem Library, which is my favorite building on campus. I find the architectural space warm but also sublime in its openness. It’s always felt to me like a wonderful place to nest and read, and uplifting place to do it. Thank you very much! I appreciate your taking the time to meet with me. About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: Thank you! El’ad Nichols-Kaufman El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Tarik Mahmud CSL Report (Cont. from p. 1) But the concern was raised that to a certain extent more engagement with the outside world would come at the cost of being less able to be an active participant in campus life as most Johnnies have the tendency to overcommit to extracurricular activities. Attendees expressed the sense that there is great value in interactions with non-students and people from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life. How to have these meaningful interactions is ultimately each individual person’s responsibility but for some projects and issues an attempt at a collective response to this question might be necessary as well. Helen Felbek Page 2 Helen Felbek Croquet is coming up, and we are searching for people to cover the happenings around the game. If you are interested in doing player interviews, spectator fashion reviews or, actual coverage of the game itself, please write us to make sure we can give the biggest event of the year the attention it deserves. Aphorism of the Week: Corruption can sometimes be healed only by fire. That is why we sometimes have to burn our own houses. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, March 28, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 7 of the St. John's Collegian, published March 28, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-03-28 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue7_2024-03-28_corrected Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d8b33cb3fcc11ee9043aa7889d122f71.pdf ee61fc6d6e114976144ffc338c6c1855 PDF Text Text Thursday May 2 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity On the Commencement Speaker Controversy On April 5th, the senior class received the announcement that Mark Roosevelt, outgoing allcollege president and president of the Santa Fe campus, had been invited to deliver the commencement address for the Class of 2024. This was meant with a nearunanimous disapprobation. While his name had appeared on the ballot of possible commencement speakers—at the urging of the administration—he received by far the fewest votes. And yet he had been invited all the same. To be clear, the senior class does not in any way seek to disrespect President Roosevelt. This is not an issue of personal grievance, or any reaction to his actions during his tenure as president of the Santa Fe campus. We recognize the great work he has done in guiding our sister campus through the pandemic, and in his establishment of a fund for tutor pay—an issue which was brought to the fore just this year. Notwithstanding, we of the Class of 2024 feel disrespected, as if our choice, once solicited, was ignored. The motivation for selecting President Roosevelt as our commencement speaker was not communicated to us beforehand. Certainly, he ought to be honored for his work, and had such a justification been presented to us beforehand, our class would likely have little objected. It has been pointed out to us that St. John’s is not a democracy, and that, though we could advise, the ultimate choice of speaker lies with the administration. We recognize this. There is little doubt that factors of which the student body knows little play a great role in selecting the commencement speaker. Nor do we wish to accuse anyone in the administration of malice or malintent. Nevertheless, the manner in which the choice was made this year, manifestly against the wishes of the Class of 2024, stings. President Roosevelt will be our commencement speaker. Yet we hope that future years will bring greater transparency as to a process whose outcome so closely concerns the graduating class. Charles Dang Vol. II Issue 11 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis An editor’s fond farewell to the collegian Parting Remarks on Free Speech, and Thanks to All Who Made this Paper Possible. As many of you may already know, this is to be the last issue of the St. John’s Collegian. This is not because I feel like there is no longer a need for such a paper; on the contrary, I think weekly reporting is incredibly important. However, as I am going to be taking on the editorship of the Gadfly next year, I will not be able to edit the Collegian at the same time. I hope, however, to continue the tradition of up-to-date, relevant, and quick news in that more venerable publication. As this will be the last issue of the Collegian, I wanted to take a moment to write about something that has become increasingly important to me as I have become more involved in student journalism. When I developed the idea for the Collegian, I hoped to fill a gap that I saw in campus news reporting. Little did I realize that it would create an opportunity for the expression of something that would give a far greater benefit to the College: a forum for presenting their opinions on topical, pressing issues when they were relevant, and not long after questions had been resolved. In the single, short year of the Collegian’s operation, we had opinion articles on a proposed honor code, the College Creek Connector, smoking policies, tutor reappointments, menstrual products on campus, the administrative response to the pertussis outbreak and the commencement speaker selection. I often hear from campus leaders that they feel that students need to reach out to them directly more often with their concerns, since they cannot know what students are thinking about without direct communication. Likewise, I often hear students who are less engaged with campus politics surprised that they haven’t been notified about something as important as an infectious disease outbreak or the construction of a bike path on campus. Certain students would have had, and would have discussed, issues like these privately regardless of whether or not there was a forum to print them in. However, the existence of a newspaper which lets opinions like these be published makes these conversations move from private gossip to communal discourse, and gives them a concrete communal impact instead of merely fostering discontent with the state of things as they are. There have been moments this year when the question of what should be published in a paper has been up for question, due to concerns from the College administration. Obviously, there are limits to the benefits of the published word: direct attacks against Polity members, or false information would not build a stronger, more informed community. However, it is of utmost importance that all other speech, even if it might seem offensive or overly critical of the administration, should be allowed published. Even if it touches on a sensitive topic which might create controversy, like sexism in the College, it still contributes a kind of discussion that is much better held in the open, than in unhappy mutterings behind closed doors. I hope that moving forward, students continue to submit controversial articles to student publications, and that college leadership continues to facilitate their publication. After all, we have the first amendment right to publish with or without College oversight, but a collaboration between administration and students makes the paper stronger. As this paper comes to its end, I would like to thank all the people who made it possible. First and foremost, I want to thank Taylor Waters, who has worked with me even when I am running behind deadlines to make this the best paper possible, and to print in a timely manner. We haven’t always agreed on what is fit to publish, but she has always been immensely helpful and supportive of this paper, and it could never have existed without her. I would also like to thank Michael Jordan in the print shop for accommodating tight time schedules and always printing very promptly and putting up with my strange formatting issues. This paper would also not be possible without its contributors, and I would like to thank them all. In particular, I am grateful to my frequent contributors: Caleb Briggs for his entertaining articles, Andy Manne for their assorted cleverness, Natalie Goldman for her wonderful arts reviews, Helen Wagner for her well-considered opinion, Tarik Mahmud for his whimsy and poetry, Helen Felbek for her excellent reports, Allyson Brink for her column, and the Sage of Gorman Street for his wisdom and enlightenment. Now, the drama’s done. The Collegian is finished, but the work of campus journalism is just begun. I bid farewell to you from this page, and hope to see you, and all your opinions, reports, and essays, once more, with the start of next fall, in the pages of the Gadfly. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 5/2: Aristotle: On the Soul, III, 1–13 5/6: Plato: Phaedrus, beginning–257 Sophomores: 5/2: Shakespeare: Macbeth 5/6: Shakespeare: King Lear Juniors: 5/2: Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, Articles of Confederation, see official list for selections 5/6: Articles of Confederation, see official list for selections. Seniors: 5/2: Heidegger: Introduction to Metaphysics, see official list for selections 5/6: Heidegger: Introduction to Metaphysics, see official list for selections Friday, May 3: Intramural marathon and On the Body Lecture, 4 p.m., outside Temple Iglehart Saturday, May 4: Reality Weekend Music in the Park, 1 p.m., back campus McDowell Live, 8 p.m., Great Hall Sunday, May 5: Hydrathon, 3 p.m., Boathouse Energeia Release Party, 8 p.m., Great Hall Tuesday, May 7: Spring Collegium, 7 p.m., Great Hall Thursday May 9: Yearbook & 814 Magazine Party, 9:45 p.m., Quad Friday Night Lecture: No Friday Night Lecture Page 1 �Thursday May 2, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Proposal to Replace the Copernicus Illustrations in Mellon Hall In the penultimate week of my senior year, I must confess there is one thing that still weighs on me, one straw that threatens to break the proverbial camel’s back. And that straw is the series of mathematical illustrations in Mellon Hall across from the fishbowl. I have walked this hall a thousand times, and each time I have at the very least cast a glance towards these paintings, and with every glance something has been building inside of me that I cannot keep silent any longer. The painting representing Copernicus’ heliocentric cosmology sits fifth from the left, between Ptolemy and Galileo. Unlike the other seven, the Copernicus illustration is not representative of a mathematical diagram present in the original text, nor is it particularly mathematical in nature, rather it only gestures vaguely to a picture of a heliocentric cosmos (which, at the risk of sounding overly pedantic, isn’t even accurate, since Copernicus himself did not put the sun at the exact center of the planets’ orbit, nor did he consider the planets to be precisely concentric with each other). And what’s more, the illustration depicts seven planets, despite the fact that Neptune would not be discovered until a full 200 years after Copernicus’s death! With all this in mind, and given that the artist, Neil Harpe, still appears to be alive and active, I propose that he be contacted and a new painting be commissioned. And since far be it for me to critique without offering a remedy, I have also included four suggestions for potential replacements, in order of perceived suitability. 4) Copernicus’s demonstration of the Earth’s threefold movement in Book 1, Section 11, of On The Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres. If we want a diagram from Copernicus, this is probably the best option. While it still isn’t as explicitly mathematical as the others, it does at least show up in the original text, and provides an intuitive illustration of how Ptolemy’s ecliptic translates onto a heliocentric model. 3) Newton’s proof of Kepler’s second law in Book 1, Section 2, Prop 1 of The Principia My personal choice for the most elegant mathematical proof on the program, an incredibly mathematical proof on the program, an incredibly influential and widely known diagram that is arguably the pinnacle of ancient astronomy. Of course, this would mean that Newton would be represented twice in the collection, but I think one could argue that, given his influence, he is deserving of such an honor even among other program authors. 2) Kepler’s recalculation of the Earth’s orbit in chapter 24 of Astronomia Nova. While this is admittedly not as widely recognized as the other suggestions on this list, no student of the history of astronomy can deny the importance of the diagram where Kepler first demonstrated the nonuniformity of the Earth’s motion. This is also one of the few parts of the Astronomia Nova that students study in more or less unabridged form. 1) Minkowski’s space-time hyperbola in section 1 of Space and Time. This is my number one suggestion for one simple reason: currently there are two freshman diagrams, two sophomore diagrams, three junior diagrams, and only one diagram from senior mathematics. Replacing Copernicus with Minkowski, whose geometric representation of spacetime has arguably eclipsed even Einstein's original account in terms of needed recognition. Thus ends the rant of a jaded senior, four years in the making. If you have not been roused into action by this article, I hope you have at least been entertained. Troy Herner-Brown A Letter to the Junior Class Dear fellow Juniors, In 1937 when the New Program was instituted at St. John’s College, there were only two books on the reading list written by Americans: The United States Constitution, and The Federalist Papers. It was not until the late 1960s that Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn received the distinction of being the only book of American literature to be included. Very soon, we will have our seminar on this book—from which, according to Hemingway, “all modern American literature comes”. My reason for publishing this letter is simple. I want to communicate a message: read the damn book. It is well known that Huckleberry Finn is an eminently skippable seminar text. This is not because of its difficulty, dryness, or the disinterest of students in its story or message. Most who do not read the book do so because of its length and location in the seminar reading list at the end of the year. It is easy for tired, burnt-out Juniors to phone this one in. Don’t do it! Besides being fun to read, full of wit, adventure, and colorful characters, Huckleberry Finn grapples with some of the major questions which are not only at the heart of American life, but life as a human being generally. Twain does this in an unexpected way. Unlike Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Austen, and Eliot, Twain’s great book does not center on a great figure or event—even the magnitude of a Dorothea Brooke, Falstaff, or Don Quixote is absent from the novel. Huck Finn is a poor, half-literate boy, the son of the village drunk, who must navigate his way through a series of adventures rafting down the Mississippi river through Missouri and Arkansas. Apart from his unusual cleverness, he is unremarkable. He does not engage with moral, political, and philosophical questions in the way Kant, Locke, and Jefferson do, nor even like Elizabeth Bennet, Will Ladislaw, or Milton’s Adam. Like most of us, Huck regularly engages with the big questions of life in humble, unrefined, messy circumstances. You will find little that is self-evidently philosophical in Huckleberry Finn, but I hope you will see that even in the back woods, even for someone at the bottom of the social ladder, there are big questions which must still be asked and answered. On a practical note, I encourage all of my fellow Juniors to begin reading now, not only so to successfully finish the book, but to provide adequate leisure to enjoy reading it. To the Seniors, I do not wish to impute any shame to those who did not read Huckleberry Finn last year. You may count yourselves absolved if only you undergo the penance of going back and reading the book in full. Vol. II. Issue 11 Garner Finds Peace, Whimsy in New Home After being kicked off campus last week, Kirk Garner has happily moved into the little cottage made of books at the back of the Old Fox garden. He is integrating well with his new community, befriending the birds, squirrels, fairies, and garden gnomes who call Old Fox their home. During the afternoons, he enjoys making tea for his new friends, or gathering nuts and berries to share with them for dinner. “It is a much more whimsical lifestyle than I’m used to,” Mr. Garner states. “There are several magic dwarves who visit me, although I’m unsure whether or not they’re the class of 2028.” He has also begun planting a community vegetable garden in collaboration with local gnomes. He’s discovered a sense of peace in the garden which he’s never felt before. “It’s a place of true freedom of expression,” he says. “I wish everyone could experience this kind of joy.” He hopes that you’ll stop by to visit him next time you’re at Old Fox. Mr. Garner would also appreciate any orange peels and apple cores that you can spare for him to flavor his stews. Mr. Garner’s favorite things to read in his new home are The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, and Martin Luther’s speech from the Diet of Worms. You can also catch him listening to his favorite Grateful Dead concert, Fox Theater Atlanta 1977. If you’re lucky, he might even give you a bite of stew. Helen Wagner Aphorism of the Week Madness is the only way to immortality by oneself. That is why it is called madness. About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Charles Dang Jackson Green Whoop-jamboreehoo! Jackson St. John Cliffe Kingston Green Troy Herner-Brown Helen Wagner Page 2 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, May 2, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 11 of the St. John's Collegian, published May 2, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-05-02 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue11_2024-05-02 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a3682dadaf0b88f5e97bc455e30ea8ae.pdf 962cb804bad4d527fecc548ec50c41b9 PDF Text Text Thursday November 16 2023 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity Vol. I Issue 8 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis College Historical taskforce organizes panel on key It’s a Road! It’s a Way! It’s a… Taskforce, Created to Examine College History and Examine Desire Path? the College’s Responsibility Today, Hopes to Spark Dialogue Chances are you’ve seen them around and barely noticed them: short dirt paths eroding away well-kept sod. Have you ever wondered how they got there? The answer is base human instinct. Desire paths are created by humans taking the shortest route between two points and typically occur when the paved/planned path takes a longer or more-circuitous one. In some places, desire paths are actively studied by landscapers and engineers to learn from the wisdom of the herd and pave accordingly. In others, they are roped off to prevent further soil erosion. In the U.S., due to our lack of pedestrian infrastructure, desire paths can be found where the sidewalk ends, along the sides of roads, and between car parks and stores. Another place is on college campuses since they are some of the few pedestrianized areas in the country. Poor planning and hurried students combine to create desire paths on many campuses around the world. In a place like St. John’s, we have few desire paths. 300 years of constant habitation have allowed many of our naturally-created paths to be paved over in an orderlyangled array of bricks. There are a few left, however, where the aversion to paving over everything has us keeping some grassy plots. The Quad may be the most glaring example, as many different desire paths crisscross the grass square and turn it into a mud patch. A more classic example would be the one next to ChaseStone, leading to the East side of Pinkney . Some see desire paths as a nuisance and an eyesore. Others laud them as they fly in the face of the rigid lines of modern landscaping. There’s even a whole subreddit (r/desirepath) dedicated to them. Love them or hate them, they’re sticking around until we can always predict the movements of a crowd. And even then, we may still surprise our landscapers. Caleb Briggs Editor’s Note: this is not a typical From the Polity article, but I did not have any submissions of opinion this week. I know all of you have opinions, please send them to me. The Collegian needs them! St. John’s College has seen much in its 240 years of history, from its founding in the tumultuous days immediately following the American Revolution to its slow and quiet decline throughout the last half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, and into the new program that has defined the past 87 years. This history is inseparable from the state of the College today; every aspect of life in the Polity is shaped by it, with an even greater impact on the relationship of the College with the wider world. However, much of this history, especially that which predates the New Program, is forgotten or unacknowledged, outside of a few anecdotes about Humphreys Hall having been a morgue, or McDowell burning down. We pay lip service to our history, claiming the distinguished 1696 founding date (a myth that I hope to dispel in a future article), and displaying pride in our 19th century architecture, but we rarely pause to think about how the College’s history, and particularly history of discrimination and slavery, has made the Polity we have today. While it might be nice to imagine the New Program as its own isolated bubble, a Republic in Speech brought forth by the sheer intellectual will of its founders, it is not. Because of this reluctance to look back practically, there has long been a need to reckon with the historical legacy of the College. In the summer of 2020, a group arose hoping to do exactly that. “It was the summer of George Floyd’s murder,” explained Adrian Trevisan, Chair of the College Historical Taskforce. “Roughly the same time, there were two open letters from alumni to the college, and a webinar.” These events, all calling on the college to address systemic racism, and to make concrete changes in the day-to-day operations of the College, and which lead to the creation of the campus Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Taskforce inspired Trevisan to think. “Well, let's look at our Annapolis campus that's built in the 1700s for a bunch of white kids in Maryland. So there's got to be slavery in there. And we really ought to be doing something to research our history and to figure out some way to acknowledge it.” Trevisan, who is a board member, reached out to the then Board of Visitors and Governos chair Ron Fielding, who agreed that this was an important project. Trevisan expected that Fielding would then pass the task to someone else, but instead found himself responsible for putting his idea into action. By This Week in Seminar the Fall of 2020, Trevisan had put together a group of tutors, students, board members, staff members and historians to begin examining the College’s history. Since then, they have been researching, discussing, and seeking ways to get funding to do more detailed work on the history of the College. Central to the work of the task force was the question of what it means to address the College’s history. Many other institutions have been struggling with similar questions, with particular focus on who gets to be commemorated by names of buildings, or how the institution’s impact on the community may be built on legacies of discrimination. In Annapolis, there is a long history of slavery that is irrevocably tied up with the founding of the College, but hard to document, as well as later tensions between St. John’s and the neighboring Clay Street community. The way we remember important Annapolis figures is also caught up in this history: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carrol all held slaves, while the College’s most famous alumnus and the namesake of the FSK auditorium, Francis Scott Key, had a complex history as a slaveholder, as well as a lawyer for Black people suing for their freedom. How to address these issues remains a major topic of discussion. At St. John’s, there are additional complications created by the unique position of the College’s campus in Santa Fe, which, being created in the middle of the twentieth century, sometimes seems to have a level of distance from many of the injustices in New Mexico’s history. Salomon Cordova, a former student representative from Santa Fe, argued otherwise. Beyond the responsibility anyone who purchases land in New Mexico has to address its theft from indigenous people, he said, “St. John’s kind of triggered the beginning of gentrification in Santa Fe, they started to bring in mostly white facing individuals who are intellectuals… and they came with money… I think addressing that requires a bit more nuance and more work to be done by the College.” “Knowing history gives people a better, a more complete sense of what it means to be a Johnnie,” explained Trevisan. “Slavery, that's part of it… you need to know about it and then you need to figure out what you're going to do about it.” For now, the taskforce has begun by commissioning a series of Cont. on page 2 Upcoming Events: Freshman: - 11/16: Plato: Phaedo, 57A–84B - 11/29: Plato: Phaedo, 84B–118B Sophomores: - 11/16: Plotinus: see official list for selections - 11/20: Augustine: Confessions, I–V Juniors and Seniors: - Preceptorials Friday Night Lecture: Marcel Proust's Turning of the Table, Rebecca Goldner Page 1 Thursday 11/16 - 3 pm, Mitchell Art Museum: 20 minute tour of exhibitions Friday 11/17 - Noon, Private Dining Room: Montessori International info session Saturday 11/18 - 7 pm, FSK Auditorium: Duchess of Malfi Sunday 11/19 - 7 pm, FSK Auditorium: Duchess of Malfi �Thursday November 16, 2023 St. John’s collegian Duchess of malfi: Play Showing this Weekend Exclusive Interview of Director Jack Domanski about The play, The Duchess of Malfi, is set to be performed this weekend in the FSK. To get a better idea of the dramaturgical delights that await us, I accosted the director, Mr. Jack Domanski, on a dark Quad. through the means of their spy Daniel de Bosola who is a mercenary who served the Cardinal for several years as a galley slave. What unfolds from this is a series of death and tragedy. Question: Without using the phrase “a Jacobean Revenge tragedy” give a brief summary of the play. Q. Does it end well? Answer: It revolves around the Duchess of Malfi who is recently widowed who has two brothers, Duke Ferdinand and the Cardinal and they are both jealous over her domestic life and encourage her not to marry again– Q. What comprises her domestic life? A. Her domestic life is one– she decides to marry her steward, Antonio, in secret, against the wishes of her brothers and they lead a secret life with three children for several years until their brothers find out Time is of the essence New Exhibit at Mitchell Museum Shows Video Art The combination of different sounds from different places in the room is striking. Screens and projected videos line the walls, and the floor plan is open, so all of the audio mingles to create a single backdrop. Nonstop speech collides with the sound of a person imitating a wolf howl, and it takes a moment to realize that the majority of the pieces don’t have audio at all, but are silent by design. The performance art movement of the early 1960s gradually turned to film and video as new mediums through which to express their art. The Mitchell Art Museum’s current exhibition, which runs until December 10, highlights seven pieces of film and video art from the late 1960s and 1970s in the United States. It’s important to note that the only information written on the labels on the walls next to the pieces are the artist’s name and the duration of the video. One piece features a cat eating out of a bowl while a person circles it slowly (15:37 min), and one shows the artist putting on makeup and getting dressed for the day (38 min). Don’t worry, the names of the pieces and the years they were created are still displayed on the wall near the door of the exhibit, but it’s important to this exhibition to focus the most on the element of time. Some of the videos are more flashy and less mundane, but even these ones are made fascinating by their durations. How much time to spend with each piece of art is up to the viewer, but seeing the exact amount of time the artist intended for the piece to take up can compel the audience to stick around to see the whole thing. It’s illuminating to find out which pieces are worth the wait. Natalie Goldman Pensée of the Week Dish washers are the prime example of modern capitalism. We put dirty things in a closed box and hope someone else would take care of them Vol. I. Issue 8 A. I think you could well infer from “death and tragedy” that it does not end well but– Q. Very good, next question: What part of the play are you most excited about? A. I am excited for the Duchess’s final scenes of the play. I think that Acacia gives a phenomenal performance and the audience will be quite astonished by it. I think also the scenes where Ranger Kasdorf goes wild as Ferdinand will also blow the audience away. I’m also excited– Historical Taskforce, Cont. reports on figures that have buildings named after them who were important to the College’s founding, and which should prove helpful for promoting more informed conversation about their legacies and how the College can address them. These reports should be completed this winter, and be distributed throughout the Polity. They should also form the starting point for a series of forums, beginning with one on Key later this year. The forum, which will feature Annapolis community members and historians, to help examine who Key was, what his impact was on the College, and Annapolis as a whole, and why it matters how we remember him. In particular, Key’s complex relationship with slavery, and his close ties with the College, including his founding of the alumni association, will be discussed. In part, this conversation hopes to be a starting point for more concrete action, whether that may include suggesting the College rename the hall, work to help mend legacies of its impact on the Annapolis Community, or help educate about Key’s complex past. The task force is not primarily aimed externally, however. It hopes to encourage conversation and reflection within the Polity, particularly amongst the student body, who often have not been very well informed about College history. “Your years on campus are the beginning of your life as a Johnnie. You’ll be a Johnnie all your life, so the history of the college will matter for you for a long time,” said Trevisan. “I would hope that in addition to students studying history for knowledge for its own sake, students would be interested in reading the histories that we will have, and tell us if it matters or not. If they read it and say ‘eh, I don’t have any problems with that, then that’s as good information as saying that we have to change things. What we’re asking is, read these reports, and tell us what you think.” It is not easy to address so many centuries of history, but in a way very appropriate to the College, the taskforce hopes to do so by conversation. Only by discussion, based on the grounding texts of the stories of our own past, can we, as a Polity, decide what our responsibilities are to address our College’s legacy, and what it really means to be conscientious citizens of the Polity’s present in light of its past. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Page 2 Q. This is a short article; we’re going to move on. What part of the play has been the most challenging? Mr. Domanski buried his face in his hands for a moment before muttering “Jesus.” A. Almost all of it– Q. And finally, are you bothered that we look the same? A. I am deeply bothered by it. The Duchess of Malfi, a Jacobean revenge tragedy, featuring Acacia Burnham, Ranger Kasdorf, Max Mersmann-Jones, and Khanya Mnisi is coming to the FSK at 7 p.m. on November 18th and 19th. Caleb Briggs About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 350450 words, while opinion should be kept short at 300 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Caleb Briggs Natalie Goldman Notice of Elections The Delegate Council will be holding elections on Tuesday, December 5th for four Freshman Representative positions, as well as the positions of President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Polity Herald. People interested in running should contact the Polity Attorney, Ranna Kisswani, with any questions about eligibility or election procedure. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, November 16, 2023 Description An account of the resource Volume 1, issue 8 of the St. John's Collegian, published November 16, 2023. Corrected version. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2023-11-16 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol1_issue8_2023-11-16 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/93d7a32f9ef643413482ff195f24c92a.pdf 84300c9d102bb0657a9758e6cfff8f91 PDF Text Text Thursday, November 14, 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication What’s So funny about a dead seagull? Musings on The Seagull’s Opening Night TREPLEV: Today, I have done something despicable— I have killed this seagull. I lay it at your feet. NINA: What’s the matter with you? (Picks up the seagull and looks at it). TREPLEV: (After a pause) Soon, in the same way, I shall kill myself. When Jack Huntley delivered this line as Treplev in The Seagull last Saturday night, he had the audience in hysterics. In fact, the whole play was like this— actors often had to wait 2 or 3 seconds for laughter to die down before continuing their lines. How could this be? It’s a story full of unrequited love, unfulfilled dreams, narcissism, regret, and depression— it even ends with a suicide. Yet Chekhov called it “A Comedy in Four Acts”— and it was received on opening night with genuine laughter. Why? Chekhov’s play, directed by Margaret McConnell (’25), centers around the variously depressing lives of four characters: the embittered older writer Trigorin (Arel Foster, ’25), the tortured younger writer Treplev (Jack Huntley, ’25), the self-absorbed retired actress Irina (Jordan Kammeyer, ’25), and the young and ambitious actress Nina (Sadie Lewin, 27). Each of them deals with their own personal tragedies throughout the play, alongside several equally troubled secondary characters. When I emerged into the FSK lobby after the play, I was tickled to discover that much of the post-show discussion was not about the performance itself—it was about the audience. Why did we laugh? people asked. Was it right to laugh at such depressing scenes? Was it supposed to be funny? Was it a tragedy? Was it a comedy? What’s going on?! “I think the audience was wrong,” Avery Bravo (’26) told me. “There were moments when people definitely shouldn’t have been laughing.” For her, one such moment was the scene with the dead seagull. I, on the other hand, did laugh at that scene— but I didn’t really know why. Was I wrong? Is the audience ever wrong? I’m not sure. If people laugh at something, surely it Continued on page 2 Vol. II Issue VII Printed Thursdays in Annapolis College History Task FOrce Report: An Overview, Part One The history and legacy of the College exist for most members of the St. John’s community in a mist of halfremembered facts, lies told on admissions tours, and the odd plaque commemorating soldiers or Francis Scott Key hanging around campus. Because of this, it is understandable that for some, it feels like the College exists, or at least should exist, in an ahistorical void, where inquiry can be pursued without the burden of time and space. However, the longer I spend at the College, and the more I read about the College’s history, the more I recognize the vital importance of understanding our place in history to any intellectual pursuit, and that pretending to not think about the College’s past is, in effect, choosing one interpretation of it and its significance to tacitly support. In particular, legacies of slavery and discrimination leave a stamp on communities to this day, and the College’s impact on the communities around it has been too long ignored. For this very reason, the Board of Visitors and Governors, sparked on by Adrian Trevisan, put together a task force four years ago to examine the history of the College. Its work has finally come to fruition in the form of a report recently distributed to the College community, which features a general history of the College, biographies of all the men after whom buildings on campus are named, and an architectural survey. By examining these histories together as a community, we will be able to avoid stumbling unthinkingly into a certain interpretation of the legacy of the College, and instead be able to make an active choice, with proper thought and discussion, about what our responsibility is in commemorating the history of our institution. The taskforce is calling for comments on the report in order to encourage this kind of conversation, and to make recommendations to the Board of Visitors and Governors about steps the College can officially take to remember its history. The full report, which everyone should read, a discussion guide, and a form in which to submit comments may be found online at sjc.edu/chtf. However, recognizing that some people may not have the leisure to read the entirety of the report, I will provide here some extracts from the section on the individual men, which is the focus of the task force. This Week in Seminar However, these lack some important context present in the original report and are not a replacement for it. Rather, I hope to make the report as accessible to the largest number of members of the community as possible, to ensure that the conversation about our historical legacy is well informed and includes the whole Polity. Hector Humphreys (1798-1857) Hector Humphreys was born in Canton, Connecticut in 1797, near his cousin John Brown, the abolitionist who led a raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859. Humphreys attended Yale College, after which he moved to New York City to pursue theological studies. He was admitted to the order of the Deacon in Trinity Church, New Haven on March 21, 1824. Humphreys was appointed Professor of Ancient Languages at the newly established Washington (present day Trinity) College at Hartford, and his success at that institution made him a promising candidate for president of St. John’s College. Hector Humphreys served as the principal of St. John’s College from 1831-1857, and he is credited with recovering the college from the financial struggles it faced in the early nineteenth century. Many of the organizational changes that Humphreys made had a lasting impact on the curriculum and campus at St. John’s. During his time as principal, Humphrey placed a greater emphasis on science and established a laboratory for research purposes. He made military training voluntary and split the preparatory school into two sections, the Grammar School and the English School. The Grammar School served those who aimed to attend college, and the English School was for those who did not. Humphreys also led the department of “Moral Science” and covered the Greek and Latin departments due to limited faculty. In addition to his adjustments to the curriculum of St. John’s College, he also raised funds for the construction of a Boarding House which was completed in 1837. This building, now known as Humphreys Hall, was intended to relieve crowding in the College Building, present-day McDowell Hall. In 1855, Humphreys encouraged the Board to expand the campus again with the addition of faculty housing and Continued on Page 2 Upcoming Events: Freshman: Thursday, November 14th: Plato: Phaedo, 57A–84B Monday, November 18th: Plato: Phaedo, 84B–118B Sophomores: Thursday, November 14th: Plotinus: (selections) Monday, November 18th: Augustine: Confessions, I-V Juniors: Thursday, November 14th: Preceptorial Monday, November 18th: Preceptorial Seniors: Thursday, November 14th: Preceptorial Monday, November 18th: Preceptorial Friday, November 15th Friday Fare: Cannoli and Berries, FSK Lobby, 4pm-5pm Saturday, November 16th Listening Session of Original "Theatre of Turmoil" Soundtrack, with Composer Zachary Konick, Conversation Room, 2pm4pm Energeia’s Open Mic Night, Boathouse, 9pm- 12am Friday Night Lecture: "Aristophanes' Clouds and the Power of Logos" - Stephanie Nelson Page 1 �Thursday, November 14, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Should Society Be Harmonious? Socrates says that the ideal republic is harmonious, and this has become a common image in political thought. People form a city like notes form a chord. But Zuckerkandl taught me a new word, an alternative to harmony: polyphony. So, extending the metaphor, could a polyphonic society be better than a harmonious one? Harmony and polyphony are two forms of multitoned music. Harmony is “melody plus accompaniment.” The melody is in charge, and the alto, tenor, and bass lines are for the sake of it. Sure, the harmony has some power to change the ‘vibe’ of the melody, but for the most part it is subservient to the laws the melody sets down. The biggest of these laws is rhythm—every part in a harmonic piece will sing the same words at the same time. If this were a city, it would be hard to see the backup parts’ individuality, and even harder to imagine them free. Polyphony is the opposite. The parts sing different melodies at different times, and there is no one leader that dominates the piece. Each part gets its time in the sun, and once that time is done, the part steps aside to make room for another. With no eternal ruler, polyphony is more democratic than harmony. Moreover, each part in polyphony is unique and whole. In Sicut Cervus, the sopranos give us one musical idea, the altos another, and so on. Unlike in harmony, in polyphony every part can rightly be called individual. This makes polyphony truer to human nature. I am not my neighbor transposed a fifth up—I am someone else entirely. When I join a society, I want this fact to be recognized, my me-ness to be affirmed. It would be easy to take this line of thought too far, though. ‘Let me do and say whatever I want!’ But a society built on this idea would be like a song made of a dozen different chants all playing at once. No matter how good each may be on its own, when they all come together they create “nonsense [and] disorder.” Absolute freedom is unmusical. This is why, in polyphony, each part’s “right of selfassertion” is constrained by duty to the song. Every part shares the same key, time signature, and lyrics. They strive for the same end, coming together in one chord on the final syllable. These constraints elevate the piece to something beautiful. They also create the circumstances that allow glimpses of harmony to appear. But these glimpses come about naturally, like a murmuration of sparrows, rather than by the melody’s strict command. Vol. II. Issue VII Hector Humphreys Profile (continued) a new dormitory. Humphreys argued that fair compensation included staff housing and adequate dormitory space, believing such benefits would attract a higher standard of teachers to join the faculty, leading to an increase in enrollment. According to the 1840 census, Humphreys housed one free African American man and woman while living in Annapolis. Historic records do not indicate that Humphreys enslaved any individuals. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Aphorism of the Week Οὐδένες ὁμοιότεροι τῶν ἀλλήλοις μαχομένων. Tarik Mahmud So which city is better, the harmonious or the polyphonic? I know I would choose the latter. I think the former image, much like cell-state theory, is a friend of tyrants (but if you want to hear more about that, let’s talk face to face). But regardless of which city you would choose, I hope this encourages you to be intentional with the images you use. Because if we understand these metaphors and use them with care, we will know what kind of community—what kind of world—we want to live in. Cast and Crew of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull Henry Haggard What’s So Funny About a Dead Seagull? (cont’d) must be funny—especially in a theater. Who is a better judge of comedy than the audience itself? But, of course, it’s not all up to the audience. Director Margaret McConnell was expecting some laughs. She reminded me that Chekhov himself considered the play a comedy, albeit with some very tragic themes. It’s certainly not a comedy in the Shakespearean sense. “I guess you would call it dark humor,” said McConnell. “I think part of what can make something funny is the tragedy that goes along with it.” She ultimately wanted to preserve this balance of comedy and tragedy, keeping a bit of both. Until opening night, McConnell didn’t know what would get laughs: “As often happens in comedies, when you’ve been practicing a show for weeks and weeks, you forget that things are funny,” she said. “[The actors] found the audience laughing at things we’d never laughed at in rehearsals, and they would change the way they delivered certain lines, because they knew it would get a laugh.” In this way, the audience does influence the show environment— for better or worse. There were some truly poignant moments during the second half of the play which felt lost on an audience primed for comedy— for instance, Nina’s reunion with Treplev, or old Sorin’s lament of his unfulfilled dreams. “I wanted to get married—” he said, “and I never got married. I always wanted to live in town— and here I am ending my life in the country, that’s all.” Quiet little tragedies such as these fell through the floorboards on opening night: the audience just wasn’t prepared to take them seriously. They are sad things for me to write. Yet when I saw them, I laughed. How strange. “It is not a complete farce at all,” says McConnell. “We are laughing at Treplev, but at the same time we can understand his pain. We can relate to him.” In her opinion, to present the show only as a comedy would miss its depth. Some of it is meant to touch us in a different way. And then, of course, there is the final scene: Treplev’s suicide. After four acts of laughter, the play ends on a decidedly tragic note. Irina presides over a card game, laughing and talking loudly about herself. The other characters, worn out by life’s disappointments, distract themselves with cards and music. When Treplev shoots himself offstage, they even laugh, thinking that the gunshot was a bottle of ether exploding in the doctor’s bag. This final moment encapsulates much of the play’s mystery for me: is it a tragedy or a comedy? Is it a suicide or a bottle of ether? Chekhov answers the second question in the last line of the play: Treplev really does kill himself. What are we to make, then, of his subtitle, “A Comedy in Four Acts”? After the final scene, the audience walked into the lobby unsure of whether to laugh or cry. Aristotle writes in the Poetics that “comedy aims at representing men as worse, tragedy as better than in actual life.” (1448a) So, which is the Seagull? Insofar as its characters are ridiculous, melodramatic, narcissistic, and absurd, it is a comedy. We laugh because they are worse than us. But perhaps the tragedy appears in those few moments when we see them as something more— something better than us— or maybe, even, when we see in them something of ourselves. Helen Wagner Page 2 About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email sjca.collegian@gmail.com with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: Helen Wagner, Writer and Editor Jacob Sharpe, Editor Henry Haggard, Writer El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Writer Tarik Mahmud, Greek Aphorism � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, November 17, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 7 of the St. John's Collegian, published November 17, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-11-17 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issueVII_2024-11-17 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/617a5ad44c3d7f77e9774ffadd630606.pdf 0efe75cc33b881c28f8ccfab7732db4b PDF Text Text Thursday November 9 2023 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity Vol. I Issue 7 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis calls alleging suspicious items made, buildings evacuated Why Smoking is Frickin’ Epic Local and State Police Conducted Check of Campus, Found No Explosive Objects, Investigation is Ongoing I hear the concerns of a tragically misguided member of the polity and raise them the age-old aphorism, “live and let live,” applicable in the sense that you should let me live my life of peace, freedom, and looking damn cool whilst you live your pedantic, nitpicky life of cold unfeeling sobriety. Big Anti-Tobacco has been in the limelight for far too long, propounding such fiction as “lung cancer” and “emphysema,” which has poisoned public nicotine discourse in the way smoking does not poison the body. It pains me to see the noble gifts of my good and unbiased friend, Phillip Morris, so treated with base contempt. We could speak for hours on the claim that well over 10 people die of smoking related illness per annum, but I digress. We have issues closer to home to discuss, and such arguments are beneath such esteemed sophists as we. Did Socrates ever decry the baseness of smoking? I think not. Moving onto my anonymous friend’s claim that smoking grants one an unattractive nature and an unpleasant presence. I’d in fact like to argue the opposite, that you non-smoking squares and your whining tires my fellow smokers and I, gives us a headache, and makes us really need a smoke. When you think about it, you’re the problem. But my low, sexy voice and existential joie de vivre allow me to suffer such blows without complaint. If you insist upon being so bent out of ideological shape, perhaps you should consider the good of the whole. Does the presence of smoking not elevate the mysterious and pseudo-intellectual atmosphere that the polity aspires to cultivate here? In standing in opposition to smoking, you stand against progress, truth, and freedom. After all, academia is best seen as the process of peering through the veil—in this case, one of smoke. Now, to the author of On the Smoking Policy, I hope this refutation is not deeply offensive to you, but rather that it has encouraged you to entertain the truth, that there exists no art more dear to—nor more conducive to—the St. John’s spirit and culture of passionate truth-seeking. Please cease your attacks on the cornerstones of our college, and our intrinsic, God given right to smoke on the quad. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a Lucky Strike. You know where to find me. That’s all. –J.S. (Jilted Smoker) Classes in Mellon on the morning of Thursday, November 2nd, were interrupted at about 10:40 by the harsh ringing of the fire alarm. For many students, the reason for the alarm was unclear at first, with some speculating that there might be a fire drill that was not announced, or that there was actually a fire going on in Mellon. However, the word quickly began spreading amongst students standing outside of Mellon, and was confirmed by tutors and staff nearby, that a suspicious package was reported to be somewhere in Mellon, and that the Annapolis Police Department had ordered the building to be evacuated. Students who were signed up to the Public Safety Emergency Alert System received emails and texts warning them to evacuate Mellon at 10:47, and students who were in the building at the time were moved over across the fields of back campus, before being told to continue down towards the boathouse. At this time, Fielding Hall, Campbell Hall, Carroll Barrister House, and the Harrison House were also evacuated. The buildings remained closed until an all clear message was sent out to the Polity at 12:44. Due to this, 1 pm classes were canceled, and the dining hall was opened from 1-2 pm, with campus operations returning to normal at the start of 2:20 classes. The evacuations were triggered in response to a call made to admissions earlier that morning, in which an unidentified person suggested he knew that there was a student in possession of a dangerous object on campus. “It was Thursday, and I had a 8:30 am to 12:30 pm shift,” explained the student who received the call, who asked to remain anonymous. “I opened things up as I usually do, and I was returning calls that were missed… there was a call that came in at 7:40 am, which I thought was odd, because admissions doesn’t open until 9, and why would you call admissions at 7:40?” The student proceeded to call the number back, and a voice of someone who didn’t sound like a student responded. “He said, ‘did you know that there’s a student on your campus that has explosive material that can bet turned into a weapon?’” continued the student who answered the phone. “He said, ‘I don’t want anyone’s arms or legs to be blown off.’ That is where the call began to feel threatening.” The student kept the caller on the phone while trying to transfer him to Public Safety, but was unable to, This Week in Seminar and so gave Public Safety’s phone number to the caller. After the call ended, the student called Public Safety, and explained what had happened. “They basically said, please come over right away,” he continued. After he arrived at the public safety office, he was given a statement to fill out. “At some point while I was there, the person actually called public safety again… as far as I could tell [the Public Safety Officer] was mostly trying to get his name.” Upon receiving this call, which specified the dangerous materials were near a “chemistry classroom,” the Annapolis Police Department was notified, and Dean Susan Paalman went around talking to tutors before 10:20 classes to inform them of the situation, and to say that they were awaiting the Police Department for further instructions. Danielle Lico, Vice President of Student Affairs, who helped coordinate the response, said in a statement that “upon [the police department’s] arrival to campus and after a review of the information available, the decision was made to evacuate Mellon Hall… Public Safety continued to work with onsite law enforcement, including the Annapolis Police Department, Maryland State Police, Capitol Police K9 Unit, the US Navy Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, including explosive detection canine units, to determine if any explosive materials were present. After searching multiple locations on-campus, no explosive materials were found.” Paalman, in a statement to the Collegian expressed appreciation that the response was quick, well organized, and that the first priority was to keep students safe. “I'm not sure what led someone to report that there might be a dangerous object on our campus. It was frustrating to have to leave everything for a couple of hours. I am grateful that there was, in fact, no dangerous object and that students, tutors, and staff were calm and listened to instructions. I'm grateful for the beautiful day and the extra time many of us had to enjoy it. I'm grateful for the people who were not able to enjoy the lovely day, but whose job it is to respond to emergencies. I especially note the calm professionalism of Ms. Lico, Mr. Abbott, Ms. VanNess, Chief Boston, our Public Safety officers, and others I'm not thinking of at the moment.” El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Upcoming Events: Freshman: - 11/9: Aristophanes: Clouds - 11/13: Plato: Apology and Crito Sophomores: - 11/9: Bible, First Corinthians - 11/13: Bible, Romans and James Juniors and Seniors: - Preceptorials Friday Night Lecture: All College Seminar on Ecclesiastes, Hosted by the SCI Page 1 Saturday 11/11 - Noon, Library Patio: Library Book Sale - 9 pm, Great Hall: Masquerade Waltz Tuesday 11/14 - 3:45 pm, Hodson Room: Internship Search Workshop - 4:30 pm, Conversation Room: Shakespeare in the Fall, Coriolanus Wednesday 11/15 - 2:30 pm, Hodson Room: Maryland Public Service Scholars Info Session �Thursday November 11, 2023 St. John’s collegian Vol. I. Issue 7 Editorial: The Gadfly Publication Delays, and Why Both Campus Publication’s Review by Administration and Independence is Important For the third time this year, the Gadfly’s publication has been delayed, with none of the three issues scheduled to come out to date having been published on the week they were supposed to. The first time was purely an internal issue, which has been resolved, but the remaining two times have been because of concerns over the Gadfly’s content during its review by the administration of the College. The most recent issue, which should have come out last Thursday, is not yet out at the time of the Collegian’s publication. Publications are delayed on campus for two good reasons. The first is practical: we receive our funding from the College, and the College cannot have a publication that operates with its money spreading disinformation or harmful content without exposing itself to liability. The second is more philosophical: these reviews often function as a check for truth and moral character of the publication. In one incident that occurred this year, the Collegian was delayed because I had mis- recorded some important financial data from the BVG meeting, and the treasurer wanted to offer a correction. This kind of fact checking is important for the publication, and was a good reason for a delay. Likewise, an article in the Gadfly held up the second issue because some of it might have seemed insulting to individuals on campus. The author of the article had secured the permission of the people mentioned, but the person doing the reviews did not know that, and it was very reasonable to make sure that the paper wasn’t personally attacking or hurting students on campus. However, the most recent delay caused by these reviews is not necessary for ensuring the factual or moral soundness of the paper, and has continued a trend of more administrative involvement in the day-to-day operation of the Gadfly. The Gadfly is currently being delayed because Ms. Demleitner wants to publish a response to an interview I conducted on tutor pay. While I respect that there may be a need to provide factual corrections, Balancing our books and our bodies: Musings on the Campus Problem of Student Health (or Utter Lack Thereof) Recently my friends and I were imagining a Hunger Games-type situation at St. John’s; a fight to the death with the entire student body. While entertaining to think of, and maybe even intriguing (Reality Club... maybe something to work on?), there was a thought that came to me: we are all incredibly weak. And yes, this is ignoring some of the student body that does really have their shit together and could probably kill a lot of us with their bare hands. But for the most part our weakness is accurate and unavoidable. And this isn’t just due to the student body comprising mostly of previous high school nerds, and we can hear why in the conversations we have outside of class. Does any of this sound familiar? “I haven’t eaten anything all day” “I only got three hours of sleep last night” “I’ve just been drinking coffee and eating the dining hall fries for the past week” “I had ten (10) shots of Jack Daniels last night” “I have had bronchitis for eight weeks but will continue to smoke half a pack a day” This campus is malnourished, under slept, and sick. With our college’s motto being “Books and a Balance” one would think that we would attempt to execute this. Our failure to do so raises the question of what kind of balance the student body is seeking. If it is not the balance of a healthy life with an immersive study of books, then what exactly is it? With the obsession with acting thoughtlessly and unhealthily along with the need for our peer’s eyes, it seems as though we are seeking the balance of someone on a tightrope, teetering on the thin line we have created for ourselves, made for the spectacle of it. Because it is not that we are just drinking too much or eating and sleeping too little, but that it is done alongside perfection in school. It is an attempt to do the impossible; reduce your body and health to nothingness while turning in a beautiful essay in on time. We must be the impossible to everyone we know! And as glamorous as that sounds, being a functional alcoholic with a great Don Rag, it is impossible. We can try to convince ourselves that the essay we turned in after seventy-two hours of not sleeping is good, but it really isn’t. Instead of reaching perfection and self-destruction at the same time all we have done is hurt our bodies and our minds without anything to show for it. As much as we avoid this conclusion it is inevitable, and we can all see it when we cry to our friends about not being able to keep going as tired as you are. To offer a solution for this is to throw a stone in a glass house. I smoke an incredible amount and absolutely do not work out. So, really what I have done is offer up useless critique on a mass problem of young people in academia. But I will say that each and every one of you would benefit from drinking a glass of whole milk and eating some vegetables. Molly Sprout holding up the publication of the newspaper to give a greater voice to the administration is an abuse of the review power. If Ms. Demleitner really wants to have her voice heard about tutor pay, she should be able to either offer an official statement outside the Gadfly, or wait until the next issue. Once the paper is ready, the primary aim of the review should be to get a factually sound Gadfly out as fast as possible. Otherwise, the Gadfly loses its relevance as a source of news and information. To hold up this key part of what a campus publication is just in order to give more voice to people on campus who already have many other platforms of communication seems irresponsible and infringes on the independence of the Gadfly. I hope that moving forward, the Gadfly and administration can work to build better communication, to ensure that we can find a balance between publishing an independent, relevant newspaper, and reasonable review of its content. About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 350-450 words, while opinion should be kept short at 300 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: Pensée of the Week The observant reader will note that this is now classified as the pensée of the week, rather than the aphorism. This is because a new manuscript, attributed to the same sage of Gorman Street, was found by my friend, clarifying that these were in fact inspired by the scattered philosophical musings of Pascal. Upon receiving this information, I quickly corrected the title of this reoccurring feature, as most of these really don’t make sense as aphorisms to begin with. Whether they make sense as thoughts in general is another question, but one I feel more comfortable to let the reader decide. The Leviathan ruled the wide sea on his majestic throne. One day, he was sitting on his throne for too long, and he drowned because he forgot to breathe. Page 2 El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor J.S. Molly Sprout Enjoy intramurals? Want to see more coverage of games, scores and standings? The Collegian wants you! We are looking to provide comprehensive coverage of College sporting events going forward, and would like to have a sports writer on staff. If this interests you, please email El’ad Nichols-Kaufman at the email listed above, and we can get started on giving our campus sports the attention they deserve. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The St. John's Collegian Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. The St. John's Collegian began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16">The Gadfly</a>. Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks The Gadfly is published. Earlier publications with the title The Collegian and The St. John's Collegian are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26">The Collegian Collection</a>. Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, November 9, 2023 Description An account of the resource Volume 1, issue 7 of the St. John's Collegian, published November 9, 2023. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2023-11-09 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol1_issue7_2023-11-09 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly