Category: Beyond Class Activities

On Monday, November 8th at six in the evening, my roommate Thia and I made the long walk to the Alfond Forum to attend President Herbert’s forum, a debate on “Policing in America”. As the room was brightly lit and there was a highly professional vibe to the room, I chose to not snap a picture of the event.

The debate was moderated by on of UNE’s own professors from the Morocco campus. The debate centered on the topic of policing in America and it was argued by Neil Gross, defending the position that police reform is the best course of action for solving the issues involved in policing in America, and by Brendan McQuade, who argued the position in favor of abolition of the police. Gross and McQuade were both provided the opportunity to offer a five-minute opening statement about their position and some of the facts that support it. Both Gross and McQuade went long on their opening statement and I noticed the tension grow in the room whenever the moderates face indicated that they did. This set the debate up to be uncomfortable, which was fitting for the topic. Neil and Brendan responded to questions in a way that addressed and conveyed their information to the audience. The moderator offered questions referencing books and pieces that Neil and Brenden have written on the subject and anytime the conversation shied away from the focus on policing in America, Neil let us know. After almost an hour of debate, the moderator opened up the conversation to the audience members for questions for Neil and Brenden. Due to their lengthy responses, only five or six questions were able to be answers by the end of the debate. Concluding with the response to a question from President Herbert himself, Thia and I were free to head back, and as we did, discuss the controversial viewpoints we had just listened to.

I personally found myself agreeing with Neil from the opening statements. While Neil tended to be more combative with both Brenden and the moderator throughout the debate, I respected how knowledgeable, prepared and present he was in the discussion. Brenden conducted himself in a way to be unprofessional and simply not respectable, as he seemingly refused to look at his opponent and held an uncaring disposition. I agreed with Neil’s position that police reform is doable and something we can put our hope in because of instances across the country were new strategies have worked. Brenden, in favor of police abolition, didn’t offer much of an alternative besides the repetitive statement “we need to create new systems”. One thing that Brenden suggested that I really disagree with is his position that “we need to at least get the police out of schools”. As a student who has attended a high school with students who have given multiple bomb threats, multiple school shooting threats as well as a known sex offender walking around our school, I personally felt a lot of comfort in knowing there was one police officer always present and ready to deal with any potential threats or issues that arise.

Hearing such vastly different viewpoints from Neil and Brenden, as well as all the viewpoints in between from the questions in the audience, I was able to develop a better understanding of the issue and educate myself on multiple perspectives and better develop my own perspective. This debate was intellectually challenging as well as fascinating, and is definitely an event I would attend again.

On Wednesday, November 3rd at four in the afternoon, my roommate Thia and I attended the “Bake Wars” Arts & Humanities Event, not knowing what to expect.

When we arrived, there were many faculty and only a few students, which gave me a nice opportunity to discuss the Latin American History class I will be taking next semester with one the history professors here at UNE. She talked about how beneficial learning history can be for one’s overall learning experience and how it can really ground your learning.

One of my favorite parts of the event was the pianist and guitarist creating a nice ambience for the event with pieces like “The Girl from Ipanema” and “Linus and Lucy”. I was nice to see and hear live music after being away from my piano for so long and it created a nice artistic background for the arts and humanities event.

Once more students arrived, we were all able to go around the room and state our name and major, or in my case lack of major, and were instructed to try on of every baked good provided and vote for the one we liked the best. Once the “bake wars” was instructed to commence, Thia and I went and filled the tiny little plates with as many cookies, brownies, cupcakes that we could fit and tried them. I don’t remember exactly what number the cookie I voted for was represented by, but I remember it being a particularly flavorful chocolate chip cookie with sweet and salty essences as well as the presence of butter in the recipe and use of brown sugar was made clear in the golden brown color of the soft cookie. Definitely the best of three different chocolate chip cookies I tried within the contest.

After voting, Thia and I said goodbyes and headed to dinner to eat healthier food to balance out the sweets we had just stuffed ourselves with. This event was simple and fun, I would go again.

On Thursday, September 30th at 5pm, I attended the University of New England’s annual Bush Lecture. The seats were packed with many older attendee’s, people I can only assume to have a deeper appreciation for the lives of George and Barbara Bush as he was likely more prominent during their lifetime. The bleachers, where I sat, weren’t as filled, although I did see a few of my fellow students in the GUST program. The main speaker of the evening was Jean Becker, who was long-time Chief of Staff to President George H.W. Bush. Throughout her monologue, Becker did not miss any opportunity to promote her book The Man I Knew, a work she is clearly proud of. Within the lecture, Becker sat down with four of President Bush’s aides from his time in office and shared stories and memories, which I thought was the most entertaining part of the evening. One story in particular that I remember was when there was a devastating hurricane, and there was a region greatly in need to relief and President Bush wanted to take action. When he and his people were discussing what they should do, actions like bringing supplies, and food and other necessities were proposed, but George Bush argued that these people were devastated and need something to bring them joy and comfort them. At that time George and Barbara Bush had been watching the show E.R. and President Bush proposed that they give the people who were affected by the hurricane a visit from one of the stars of the show, George Clooney. Jean Becker and the aides recalled how they dismissed and laughed about President Bush’s wild idea, but still, President Bush was able to get a hold of George Clooney through a friend of a friend and Becker followed this up with showing a photo of President Bush and George Clooney laughing together on a plane, on their way to visit the victims of the hurricane. I remember Becker making a comment about how “pretty” George Clooney is, and all I can say is I agree. This personal and empathetic act by President Bush, reveals his good and optimistic nature through how he reacted to situations and treated the citizens of his country. I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture. Although I wasn’t sure what to expect initially, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about this famous, former President of my country through such interesting personal anecdotes. This is most definitely an event I would like to attend again.

At the Involvement Fair on Friday, I walked the whole loop and looked at all of the club options and a few stuck out to me. First things first I rushed to the Tennis Club sign up and gave them my name and email address. I played tennis all throughout high school and it is one of my all time favorite sports. I hope to continue to improve in my skills and have a lot of fun with the group I end up playing with. I am quite out of practice so I hope there aren’t tryouts, however they have already contacted me so I think it is safe to say I am a member of that club now. I also took quite an interest in the surfing and sailing clubs although I did not sign up. I have surfed a few times before and it was always a great time and I love being on the water. I have never sailed before but my dad has and he talks about what a great experience it is. I wish I could join more clubs but if I’m going to do a work study, tennis club will be enough to keep me busy.