Galleys Related to Governance
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Galleys were informal publications (usually one page in length) that were mimeographed or photocopied and distributed to all members of the Bennington College community. Students, faculty, and staff members used galleys as a forum to comment on campus issues and events, express opinions on national and international issues, and as a creative outlet. While many galleys are signed with the author’s name or initials, some galley authors chose to use pseudonyms or remain anonymous.
The collection of galleys is sporadic from 1957-1964 and after 1979.
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Item Misuse of Galleys and Constitutional Amendment(1958-04-02)1. "It is the responsibility of those who have won a freedom to preserve it. To have overcome the forces that oppose freedom of the press is meritorious, but it is of prime importance to maintain that press in keeping with the standards we have imposed upon it. When we begin to take a free press flippantly and are irresponsible in our use of it, we become easy prey for those who would manipulate us in our carelessness. Galley was re-instituted for the purpose of communication on the campus; as an outlet for the free expression of opinions. We sorely misuse the press by imposing, upon it and the community, personal petty gripes such as the recent "sinological" blurb. Furthermore, the most suspect of illegal literature is that which is unidentified or falsely identified." 2. "The proposers of the "new" constitutional amendment are experienced in the matter, having been voted down once before, and walked out on at the meeting they called to stir up propaganda. What they are doing now is a-thinly-veiled attempt to add to their "aye" vote by softening the blow, and by appealing to idealistic conceptions of what freedom is."Item Library hours and Community Government(1958-04-21)1. "There cannot be many greater ignominies than that of a college which denies access to the library during such times as Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon and evening." 2. "It is a sad comment upon the entire Bennington Community who was very actively involved (either pro or con) in the Proposed issue, that the whole dissension culminated in the accepted 'relief' from responsibility that a definitive figure offered. Yes, we should have remained muddled until three o'clock in the morning valuing the privileges that the principles that our Community Government necessitate. The apathetic note upon which the meeting was terminated was a total negation of these very principles."Item New Constitutional Revision Committee(1960-03-25)"On the agenda for the Community Meeting scheduled for Monday night is the establishment of a new Constitutional Revision Committee. It will be the responsibility of this body to review the work of last term's Committee and to draft a Constitution serving the long-range, deliberate interests of the majority of the Community. This draft will then be submitted to the Community for adoption, hopefully before June."Item New Constitutional Drafting Committee(1960-03-30)"The scanty attendance at Monday evening's Community Meeting may be rationalized. The majority of the Community was perhaps persuaded that the Community Council's proposal, after ample or excessive discussion, would be adopted and a slate of nominees for the New Constitutional Drafting Committee subsequently prepared."Item Statements on the Constitution Committee(1960-04-05)Statements from various community members regarding the Constitution CommitteeItem Fluid Government Structure(1960-04-06)"More than one writer in Galley has recently pointed out the shaky nature of the Community's rather fluid governmental structure. It is hoped that a new or possibly two or more new, constitutions will remedy this. But that is not the worst of it. We simply cannot wait. There is pending right now an issue which will illuminate the cracks in the machinery of democratic self government at Bennington the issue of which may well be to deprive students of all freedom, making them subservient to the unfortunately all too efficient operations of a well-oiled faculty."Item The Passion Flower Motel(1965)A satirical response to galleys about the tension between self-governance and rules/laws, in particular new alcohol regulations. "We have heard that a faculty member suggested that the whole solution to the problems that have recently been discussed in galleys and private protests, is to set up a college-run, cooperative motel on campus. We suggest as a possible name "The Passion Flower Motel." As a site, of course, what could be better than the meadow by the lake?"Item Laws, Rules and Morality(1965)"Girls here seem well able to discipline themselves according to their own moralities without disrupting the community. I think we are intellectually established well enough not to need a moral structure imposed on us from without. We have all experienced conventional morality and made our own judgments on it."Item Galley from "Captain Normal Monad"(1965)"That statement your Acting President made about the drink has just been brought to my attention by one of my subordinates, and I thought that even not being a member of what you kids call The College Community it might still be all right for me to put in my two cents' worth of contribution to all that free discussion you have going on up there on the Hill."Item We Did Not Want That Type Of Education(1965-04-02)Many of us came to Bennington because it was a community in which we could exist without extra imposed restriction. However, there is a tendency, a pronounced tendency, on the part of the administration to further structure the Bennington student community, thus to impose limits on it.Item Student Freedom(1965-04-14) Dovydenas, Liuda; McCormick, Jane; Rosenberg, Judy; Snow, Julie; Sunila, Joyce"Only through vociferous self-assertion can the students make clear their understanding of the "Bennington way", and thereby influence the evolution of the Bennington experiment."Item We Are All Responsible for the Evolution of the "Bennington Experiment"(1965-04-16) Sunila, Joyce"Without waxing euphoric over brotherhood or berating radical individualism, I tried in my last galley to indicate that we are all responsible for 'the evolution of the Bennington experiment.' Probably the particular issues at hand had something to do with it, but even so I think it is indicative that Mr. Pearson read it as an irresponsible tract, the alarm-signal of the anarchist calling her renegade hordes to battle."Item Freedom and Ambiguity(1965-04-16) Hollins, Martha; Munter, Carol"Those students who are advocating freedom are, by asking for delineation, negating that freedom. The questions, the fears about limitations of freedom stem from what we would like to think is non-recognition of, but may well be withdrawal from, the underlying working concept of this community, one which we would like to call the concept of ambiguity...a working principle which involves grays, shadows, uncertainties, rather than sharp distinctions. It is this concept which must be investigated and confronted."Item To Provoke a Little Thought for Tonight(1965-08-15)"If this college is, for you, anything more than just a place to exist for four years or if you want it to be something more than that; then be willing just once, to be honest. Look at the college - is it fulfilling its goals (does it even know them any more?), is it the school you came here for? Look at yourself - are you taking your part of the responsibility that this school asks? Or are you hiding, are you using the school only as a shield from responsibility and commitment?"Item Quality of Education and Communal Responsibility(1966) Dworkin, Andrea"This college seems determined to bury what is unique and important here, and to normalize into a dwarf-like reproduction of conventional colleges all over the country."Item Changes to the Educational Policy Committee(1966-04-04) Levin, Ginny; Morgan, Kate"We wish to call to the attention of the student body the proposal for changes in EPC policy now being presented at student house meetings. Because student-faculty communication has always been a unique and integral part of Bennington, and because it has been the subject of much discussion over the past year, we feel that careful consideration of this issue is in the best interests of the community. The recent proposal provides for student discussion of departmental, inter-departmental, and general educational policy via a questionnaire to be distributed to students and returned to divisional EPC representatives We fully support this proposal. We do not, however, support the second provision which seeks to make optional the class EPC meeting and abolish the representative's written report."Item Discrepancy Between Rules and Standards and Practice(1967) Judicial Committee"What we are calling for is some serious, rational deliberation about the place and nature of regulations in this community that is fundamentally concerned with the opportunities for learning and doing and being of its individual members in an atmosphere of freedom and responsibility."Item Meeting with Trustees(1967-05)"There will be an open meeting of trustees and students on Friday, May 5 at 8:30 pm in Commons Lounge"Item Meeting with the Trustees(1967-05-04) Marshall, Lisa; Dworkin, Andrea; Meyers, Libby; Elzey, Diane; Berg, Leslie; Beaver, Janis; Gates, Barbara; Parker, Margaret; Seldin, Nancy; Zenge, Judy; Black, ErmetraWe wish to ask the trustees questions in four areas: 1. their relationship to community laws and standards 2. their reasons for/understanding of the expansion program 3. what powers they have, what standing committees, etc. they have 4. whether they feel they should be included in the constitutional structure of the community, as a limited constituency.