text:
Mills says he is divestment liaison, BCA not satisfied
President Barry Mills said on Tuesday in an interview with the Orient that the Board of Trustees informed members of Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA) in October that he would be their point of contact as they moved forward with their campaign to pressure to the College to divest its endowment from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies.
"I have not heard word one from these people," said Mills, who added that he has not interacted directly with BCA since the group delivered its divestment petition to him in April 2014.
In recent weeks, BCA has threatened to "escalate" its campaign if the Board does not appoint a trustee to serve as a divestment liaison to the student body by March 6. Mills, who is a trustee, said that he is the liaison between students and the Trustees.
Matt Goodrich '15, a leader of BCA, said he was surprised to hear that Mills was claiming to be the liaison, and added that he was not satisfied with the choice.
"We've been having unproductive conversations with [Mills] for years," he said. "We already know what side he's on, and it's not climate justice, certainly."
This academic year is Mills' last at the College, and Goodrich said BCA would prefer a long-term liaison.
"We really want someone who we can have developed conversations with," he said. "We want to have relationships with the Board members in a way that will facilitate the process so that we'll end up with divestment at the College in a responsible way."
Goodrich said that BCA will announce in the next few days if it plans on following through with its plans to escalate its divestment campaign, and expressed hope that another liaison could be appointed before March 6.
"We were expecting—and we are expecting still—a member of the Board of Trustees that we can work with," he said.
BCA did not explain what escalation would look like.
Other schools' divestment movements have recently stepped up their efforts and could serve as models. Divest Harvard, for example, has recently occupied the building which houses the offices of the university's president, Drew Faust.
In its recent messaging, BCA has accused the Trustees of over 130 days of silence since they heard BCA's proposal in October. Mills said that this an unfair representation of the Board and its reception of BCA.
Although Mills does not support divestment, he said he believes climate change is a "huge issue" and that instead of focusing on divestment, which would be a symbolic step, Bowdoin students should find ways that the College can continue to become more sustainable.
Mills reiterated his belief that divestment would have a negative effect on the College's endowment and financial aid budget, which BCA has denied.
"If our endowment does not perform well, the idea that our financial aid budget will be immune is naive," Mills said.
In recent years, the boards of peer schools Amherst and Middlebury have formally examined the possibility of divestment from fossil fuels, and both boards determined that divestment was not the best path forward for their respective institutions.
Mills said he is not advocating a similar study at Bowdoin because the Trustees are already well informed on the issue and feel they have yet to hear a compelling argument for divestment.
- March 3
Mills says he is divestment liaison, BCA not satisfied
President Barry Mills said on Tuesday in an interview with the Orient that the Board of Trustees informed members of Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA) in October that he would be their point of contact as they moved forward with their campaign to pressure to the College to divest its endowment from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies.
"I have not heard word one from these people," said Mills, who added that he has not interacted directly with BCA since the group delivered its divestment petition to him in April 2014.
In recent weeks, BCA has threatened to "escalate" its campaign if the Board does not appoint a trustee to serve as a divestment liaison to the student body by March 6. Mills, who is a trustee, said that he is the liaison between students and the Trustees.
Matt Goodrich '15, a leader of BCA, said he was surprised to hear that Mills was claiming to be the liaison, and added that he was not satisfied with the choice.
"We've been having unproductive conversations with [Mills] for years," he said. "We already know what side he's on, and it's not climate justice, certainly."
This academic year is Mills' last at the College, and Goodrich said BCA would prefer a long-term liaison.
"We really want someone who we can have developed conversations with," he said. "We want to have relationships with the Board members in a way that will facilitate the process so that we'll end up with divestment at the College in a responsible way."
Goodrich said that BCA will announce in the next few days if it plans on following through with its plans to escalate its divestment campaign, and expressed hope that another liaison could be appointed before March 6.
"We were expecting—and we are expecting still—a member of the Board of Trustees that we can work with," he said.
BCA did not explain what escalation would look like.
Other schools' divestment movements have recently stepped up their efforts and could serve as models. Divest Harvard, for example, has recently occupied the building which houses the offices of the university's president, Drew Faust.
In its recent messaging, BCA has accused the Trustees of over 130 days of silence since they heard BCA's proposal in October. Mills said that this an unfair representation of the Board and its reception of BCA.
Although Mills does not support divestment, he said he believes climate change is a "huge issue" and that instead of focusing on divestment, which would be a symbolic step, Bowdoin students should find ways that the College can continue to become more sustainable.
Mills reiterated his belief that divestment would have a negative effect on the College's endowment and financial aid budget, which BCA has denied.
"If our endowment does not perform well, the idea that our financial aid budget will be immune is naive," Mills said.
In recent years, the boards of peer schools Amherst and Middlebury have formally examined the possibility of divestment from fossil fuels, and both boards determined that divestment was not the best path forward for their respective institutions.
Mills said he is not advocating a similar study at Bowdoin because the Trustees are already well informed on the issue and feel they have yet to hear a compelling argument for divestment.
- February 27
Remembering campus icon Wil Smith '00
Wil Smith, a Bowdoin graduate from the Class of 2000 who stands as one of the most cherished and well-known recent alumni of the College, died at age 46 last Sunday after a protracted battle with colon cancer.
He served as both the director and associate dean of multicultural student programs at Bowdoin, but he is perhaps best known as the 28-year-old undergraduate Navy reservist and varsity basketball player who attended Bowdoin while raising his toddler daughter, Olivia.
The Bowdoin community was notified of Smith's death by an email from Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster at 10:48 on Sunday morning. At the time of his death, Smith was the dean of community and multicultural affairs at the Berkshire School, an independent preparatory high school in Sheffield, Mass. He also coached the school's girls' basketball team.
An aviation electronics technician in the Navy, Smith came to Bowdoin after being transferred from Italy to the Naval Air Station Brunswick (NASB) during the first Gulf War. He met Head Basketball Coach Tim Gilbride in 1995, and Gilbride encouraged Smith to apply to the College.
"In our conversations he started saying, 'I'm thinking about going to college,' and I said, 'Well, would you be interested in considering Bowdoin?'" said Gilbride. "He said, 'Sure, how do you think it would be?' and I said, 'Well, you haven't been in school for a while, you'd need old transcripts….If that's something you're interested in, I'd love to help.'"
Because of his already atypical circumstances, Smith did not tell Bowdoin that he had sole custody of his daughter, Olivia, when he matriculated at the College. When it became clear that he was playing the role of a single parent and full-time student with limited ways to make ends meet, the Bowdoin administration, Smith's friends and his teammates stepped in to help.
In a video interview of Smith and his daughter, who returned to Bowdoin's campus this past June, Smith said, "From my time at Bowdoin, and different places I've been—where I work now, at Berkshire School, we've been fortunate enough to be around some really wonderful, thoughtful people, so it hasn't just been me. It's literally been a global village which I think has helped shape Olivia."
The common refrain among all who knew Smith professionally and personally is that he was a determined man who inspired the best from people.
"Wil was a giant of a person. He was a peer educator, he modeled the way for others in terms of his work ethic, modeled the way regarding how to treat others, modeled the way about service, modeled the way about care and concern," said Foster, who was the dean of first-year students when Smith was an undergraduate. In fact, Smith was the first student Foster ever met with. "He just is one of the most remarkable people I've known. He was a friend to me, a colleague of mine, and he was a teacher of mine."
Dean of First-Year Students Janet Lohmann, who partnered with Smith on many projects from 2007-2010, noted Smith's ability to connect with Bowdoin students who were having trouble and his humility about the significant challenges he faced as an undergraduate at the College.
"I think that Wil didn't always tell his story as a mechanism for learning," Lohmann said. "I think it certainly came up, and there was a legacy about Wil, but a lot of times it was just like, 'I'm here for you. My experience got me to some place but that's not necessarily going to be the same experience for you.' He was really good at sitting with students and validating their own experiences."
Pieter Mulder, the head of the Berkshire School echoed this sentiment.
"Wil's greatest strength might be empowering the voices of students, particularly the students whose voices aren't always heard," said Mulder. "He was deeply committed to making sure Berkshire's ultimate focus was always the students and meeting their needs and aspirations."
Though few students currently enrolled at Bowdoin knew Smith, first year Hannah Cooke first met him about nine years ago as a middle school student attending public school in Portland. What started as a relationship between a basketball coach and the young Cooke turned into an almost decade-long mentorship that led her from Catherine McAuley High School in Portland, to the Berkshire School and eventually to Bowdoin.
"For the past years, it's been him really leading the path for me," said Cooke. "He's been my guider and advocate."
As the girls basketball coach at Berkshire, Smith encouraged nothing but the best from his players.
"Something he would do before every game is he would give a very similar speech and he would always talk about how lucky we were," said Cooke. "He would remind us that there were girls around the world who didn't have the opportunity to play. He would say, 'We're playing for all the girls around the world who don't have the chance to be where you guys are. On their shoulders we stand.' He would say that before every single game."
Cooke said that even after his 2012 diagnosis of colon cancer and ensuing chemotherapy treatments, Smith was dedicated to his team.
"Basketball is what kept him going," said Cooke. "Even when he was going through chemo, he had this commitment to us. He would never tell you how hard it was, ever. He would wear gloves at practice so he wouldn't get germs on his hands. He couldn't stay away from the gym.
"When he was away at chemo, he would call us before every game and we would put him on speaker and he would give us the same speech about the girls on whose shoulders we stand but we wanted to say, 'We're standing on your shoulders, too.' He was so humble—he never made it about him," she added.
Cooke is now a member of the Bowdoin women's basketball team.
Another outlet of Smith's community work was as the associate director of Seeds of Peace, an international leadership program that focuses on bringing together youth living in conflict zones such as Israel and Palestine.
In a statement issued on the Seeds of Peace website, Executive Director Leslie Lewin wrote, "Thank you, Wil, for the countless gifts you have given us all and for reminding us to 'Do whatever you can, with whatever you have, wherever you are.' In your honor, we will do just that."
Smith's determination was admired by many.
"I don't think I ever saw him defeated at a sense of obstacle," said Lohmann. "He always saw a level of possibility in any number of situations."
Another facet of Smith's personality that was hard to ignore was his humor.
"He was a larger-than-life sort of person and he was a great mentor who really helped a lot of people in different situations, but I think it's really important to understand or remember his humor," said Susan Snell, an administrative assistant in the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs who worked directly with Wil during his time as Bowdoin's director of multicultural student programs. "His sense of humor was such a big part of him."
Cooke recalls many humorous episodes involving Smith.
"At the end of the school year, we had this dance called Prize Night. It's the night before graduation and everyone goes—families can go—and every year, he ended up dancing in the middle of a circle with all the kids around, doing some type of throwback move," said Cooke.
"It just speaks to him in that the entire community surrounded him, cheering him on."
Smith's exuberance was contagious on many levels for those who knew him.
When asked how he will remember Smith, Gilbride said, "As a great person who loved life, who's inspirational to so many people in so many ways, who worked hard to make people believe in themselves and succeeded in that. So his legacy is how many people that he had contact with who are better for having known him."
"He had high expectations for everyone but he was always proud and loved you no matter what," said Cooke. "It's just this way he had about him. He believed in you and when he believed in you, you believed in you and that was the special thing about him."
—Sam Chase, Meg Robbins and Nicole Wetsman contributed to this report.
- February 27
12 hospitalized, 4 arrested in Wesleyan MDMA incident
A total of 12 Wesleyan students were hospitalized last weekend due to complications from using the drug MDMA—popularly known as Molly. Following an investigation by the Middletown Police Department (MPD), four Wesleyan students were arrested on Tuesday night. Molly is a psychoactive drug that has the properties of a stimulant and a hallucinogenic and is known as a party drug.
After taking the four students into custody, MPD searched their rooms and found drugs and/or paraphernalia in each one. Two of the students were charged with intent to sell controlled substances, and all four were charged with possession. Their court date was set for March 3.
According to a February 24 press release from MPD, four of the hospitalized students were transported to Hartford Hospital for more serious care, while the remaining eight were treated at nearby Middlesex Hospital. As of Tuesday evening, 10 of the patients had been released and two remained at Hartford Hospital.
It is believed that the drugs that the students took on Saturday night were laced with a substance other than MDMA.
"This particular batch may have had a mixture of several kinds of designer drug chemicals, making the health risks unpredictable and treatment to combat the effects complex and problematic," said Chief William McKenna of the Middletown Police Department in the press release.
According to a Wesleyan student and friend of the hospitalized students, who chose to keep his name anonymous, said the party drugs taken on Saturday night had effects completely different from those of "normal" Molly, further indicating that the drugs were laced.
"Friends of mine who took very small doses [of the drug] were still hospitalized," he said in an email to the Orient. "Then there were kids who were fine that night and then woke up convulsing, vomiting and in some cases, not breathing, which added a whole other scary dimension to the incident."
The investigation is still underway to identify the source of distribution and the reason for the drug's impurity.
Jennifer Swindlehurst-Chan, a first year at Wesleyan, said the events of the weekend brought the Wesleyan community together out of concern for the friends and peers of those who were affected by the drug.
"Most people are very understanding about [the situation this past weekend], because they realize that it could've been them or one of their friends. There's not usually a ton of Molly at Wesleyan, but there is definitely a drug scene," she said in a phone interview with the Orient.
"At every school you'll have people who do hard drugs and people who don't. In general, Wesleyan students are accepting of people who do drugs and they're not as ostracized."
Bowdoin College Director of Health Services Dr. Birgit Pols cited the cause of the hospitalized students' unusual symptoms to Molly's unpredictable composition.
"Molly, which is often used interchangeably with MDMA, has no consistency in terms of what's in it. The latest information from the Drug Enforcement Agency says that less than 15 to 20 percent of the Molly or MDMA that is seized has any actual MDMA in it. The main issue is that we don't really know what's in it."
According to Pols and Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster, Molly has not been an issue on Bowdoin's campus in recent years. However, Foster expressed faith in Bowdoin Peer Health and Health Services to aid Bowdoin students in avoiding issues like the events at Wesleyan.
"If students were to identify [Molly abuse] as a problem, I think that the peer educators would be a great group of people to address this within our community, along with Dr. Pols," he said. "We haven't had evidence that it has been a problem, but Wesleyan is a place that's very similar to us so it's important that we pay attention."
Dr. Pols believes that the key to preventing an event like this is to eliminate a market for this kind of product.
"I'd like to help folks find better ways to enjoy themselves—better ways to stay safe and healthy that do not involve these harmful and potentially life-threatening drugs," she said. "I'd rather that every Bowdoin student understood all the risks associated with this, and realized that the benefits, if there are any, just are not worth it."
- February 27
After receiving 44 applications, Judicial Board appoints five new members
The Judicial Board (J-Board) received 44 applications this year, six fewer than it did in 2014. Following an intensive application process that began in January, five new members were recently selected to serve on the board for the rest of their Bowdoin career: Indre Altman '18, Daniel Buckman '18, Nora Cullen '18, Sasha Kramer '16 and Justin Weathers '18.
The five new members were announced by J-Board Advisor and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Lesley Levy in an email on Monday.
In the first round of the selection process, prospective candidates were asked to submit a written application which included short essay questions and a recommendation letter from a student or Bowdoin faculty or staff member. All applicants were then interviewed individually by half of the current J-Board.
"They asked a lot of questions that had to do with Bowdoin rules and policies in the first round," said Kramer. "But I don't know if they were necessarily looking for any exact answer. I think it's more about assessing how you reason a difficult situation out or what morally makes sense in your mind."
Following a series of cuts, 24 students proceeded with the group interviews.
During the group interviews, finalists reviewed hypothetical case scenarios—one social and one academic—in groups of four under the observation of current J-Board members. The selection committee—comprised of Levy, J-Board members and Bowdoin Student Government (BGS) representative Chrissy Rujiraorchai '17—then voted on which candidates to select.
"We look for people who represent the student body well and who will be dedicated to the position," said J-Board Chair Jacques Larochelle '15. "Definitely someone who understands the role of the board on campus and has the ability to be confidential as well as to communicate well within a team setting."
Reflecting the ongoing trend of the last few years, first-year applicants continue to constitute the largest portion of the application pool, followed by sophomores and relatively few juniors. According to Larochelle, this year's applicant group was the most diverse in it has been for the past three years. At the same time, he said that the board makes a conscious effort to be as representative as possible of the student body.
"Diversity is something we always consider and always talk about," said Larochelle. "We received a very diverse pool of applicants in terms of gender, race, economic background, geographic location, etc., and I think we have also selected a diverse group to join our board this year."
The newly appointed members will have individual meetings with Levy after Spring Break to go over the general expectations of the J-Board. Additionally, there will be a multi-day training session at the beginning of Senior Week in May to prepare them for the next school year.
"I hope our work on the board will encourage Bowdoin students to be the best that they can be," said Altman. "I have not gone through any case yet...but I think there is a learning experience behind the judicial process in that everyone can make mistakes and everyone can learn from [his or her] choices. I hope the decisions we make will affect each individual in a positive way."
- February 27
Snapshot: Whose line is it anyway?
- February 26
NESCAC deans issue second Alcohol Survey
On March 1, the NESCAC Alcohol Survey will be administered to students at Bowdoin and nine other NESCAC schools. Trinity is the only institution that has elected not to participate this year.
The survey, administered every three years, was first implemented in 2012 and was coordinated by Bowdoin. This year Tufts will coordinate the survey, compile the data and share the results with its peers over the summer.
Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster said that this survey will strongly resemble the previous one in terms of content, consisting of both qualitative and quantitative questions about student's decisions pertaining to alcohol use on campus.
Among NESCAC schools, Bowdoin had the highest response rate, at 79 percent, for the last survey.
"I think the sample is plenty large enough for us to feel like it gives us a pretty good indication of behavior and practices revolving around alcohol on campus," said Foster.
Information from the last survey was used in the fall of 2012 to implement new alcohol education programs such as Alcohol Screening Day. Peer Health also expanded its Peer 2 Peer program by meeting with students individually at the beginning of their first year at Bowdoin to discuss the College's drinking culture.
Programs such as CHOICES and the Alcohol Team (A-Team) have increased their programming on campus since the survey to better address the needs of the student body.
Associate Director of Health Promotion Whitney Hogan said that most of these programs have been very well attended and have certainly played a role in influencing the alcohol culture on campus.
"I would say—anecdotally—that I have seen less transports over the last few years," said Hogan.
Based on what she has observed on campus, Hogan said that this reduction may be related to students' willingness to call Security and Security's willingness to do health and wellness checks.
"I think also a broader conversation that has been happening on campus around students thinking about alcohol use in terms of respect versus disrespect—both respecting themselves and respecting the people around them," said Hogan.
In 2012, 93 percent of students reported that they believed Bowdoin's alcohol policy encouraged seeking help from Security or other staff members, compared to only 77 percent at other NESCAC schools.
"I think the best way to cause change on a small campus is to get students talking about a specific issue and I think there's more conversation about alcohol and alcohol use now than there was a handful of years ago," said Hogan.
Additionally, 42 percent of students reported drinking occasionally in 2012, while 41 percent said they drank often.
By comparing the results of the last survey with this year's results, the College will be able to see the impact that these programs have made on campus.Both Foster and Hogan said that the results of this year's survey will be used to think about how to approach alcohol education going forward.
"I think we have to wait and see what the data tells us, but there were some interesting and somewhat surprising results last time that were then helpful for us," said Foster. Along with the data from its own student body, Bowdoin receives the data of other NESCAC schools, without those schools being identified. Foster said that this aspect does not diminish the importance of the data.
"These are peer schools of ours and so we can see how we compare to schools that are populated by similar students," said Foster.
"While we don't know specifically who the other schools are, we get a good sense of how we compare to other individual NESCAC peer schools in certain categories," he added.
Although Trinity participated in 2012, this year it has decided against participating. Both Wesleyan and Amherst did not participate in the previous survey but will take part this year.
"I think that we have a really robust program on campus compared to a lot of other colleges," said Hogan. "I would say that in general we're doing more to tackle dangerous and disrespectful alcohol use than other campuses are."—Meg Robbins contributed to this report.
- February 26
Fundraising down, alumni participation up in FY '14
Total fundraising for the College declined in fiscal year 2014 (FY 2014) but the alumni participation rate increased. During President Barry Mills' final year, FY 2015, the College is hoping to raise $153.5 million to fund three specific initiatives.
Total fundraising declined from $46.1 million in FY13 to $41 million in FY 2014, while the alumni participation rate increased from 59 percent in FY 2013 to 59.3 percent in FY 2014, the highest rate since FY 2008.
Of the $153.5 million goal for FY 2015, $100 million is part of the financial aid initiative that President Barry Mills announced last May.
According to the Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Rick Ganong '86, the College is also seeking $21 million for the development of a new Coastal Studies Center and $21 million to expand its Digital and Computational Studies Initiative.
Ganong explained that Mills identified these initiatives as opportunities to make a final impact before he steps down this July.
"Out of the $140 million, we're over halfway there and we still have a lot of lines in the water," said Ganong.
Fundraising may shift when President-elect Clayton Rose takes over, but Ganong is optimistic about the new president.
"He built a global equities business at J.P. Morgan. He's raised money. He's met with hundreds if not thousands of people. He's going to be fabulous and we'll hit the ground running. That having been said, he's got some big shoes to fill," Ganong said.
Bowdoin has had incredible fundraising success under President Mills and its endowment has grown substantially. At the end of Mills' first year, FY 2002, the endowment was valued at $430,623,000, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers and at the end of FY 2014, the endowment was valued at $1.216 billion.
Bowdoin's most recent capital campaign raised a total of $293 million between 2004 and 2009 and was the largest capital campaign in the College's history.
"We will do another capital campaign; it's probably a few years out. I think President-elect Rose needs to get to campus first and understand Bowdoin," said Ganong. "When he, with the Board of Trustees, identifies certain projects or initiatives or a vision for Bowdoin and we know what we need to raise the money for, then I think we'll structure the campaign and go do that." Annual Fundraising
Of the $41 million raised in FY 2014, approximately $11 million was classified as annual giving and the other $30 million was designated as capital gifts. Annual gifts, usually unrestricted, are spent each year and comprise approximately six percent of the College's operating budget. Capital gifts include contributions to the general endowment or to specific funds or projects such as a new building or an endowed scholarship or faculty position.
The alumni participation rate is calculated based on a total of 16,583 reachable alumni. Some living alumni are not included in the College's calculation because they request to be put on a do-not-solicit list. The College's alumni participation rate, which was 59.3 percent in FY14, is one of the highest in the country according to a U.S News and World Report list from December 2014.
The College's goal for alumni participation was 60 percent in FY 2014 according to an Orient article from last February. According to Ganong, 60 percent remains the goal for FY 2015. He explained that in addition to being symbolic, alumni giving rates are critical because they affect rankings such as those published by U.S. News and World Report and Forbes, as well as the college's bond rating.
Getting alumni to return to campus has proved to be an effective technique for increasing giving. According to Ganong, alumni who return to campus are more likely to give (and give more) than those who do not visit. Consequently, class reunions are an important part of Bowdoin's strategy.
In 2013 Bowdoin began an annual one-day campaign to increase participation. During last year's Bowdoin One Day campaign the College received 1,520 alumni gifts.
Additionally, strategic targeting and cultivation is a factor in fundraising.
"When you throw your hook in the water, you want to catch a big fish right? When we fundraise, we recognize that the college has needs and if we can get an extra zero on the check that's very important for us," Ganong said. "I think cultivation takes time. We've had meetings with many alumni, many parents, and sometimes its the second, third, fourth, fifth meeting where they say, 'Ok, this is a great idea.'"
While an increasing number of philanthropic organizations and causes solicit donations from Bowdoin's giving network, Ganong believes this has not detracted from their enthusiasm for giving to Bowdoin.
Giving to Bowdoin increases the value of a Bowdoin degree, he said.
"If we stop investing in Bowdoin, the value of that diploma is going to stay the same or could even drop."
Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Polar Bear Athletic Fund was a capital initiative. It is, in fact, a largely unrestricted annual fund designated for use by the athletic department.
- February 26
Lindemann of Special Collections retires after 15 years at the College
"Regardless of what the general conversations have been recently about whether the book is dead or whether libraries are going away, special collections libraries have a really strong future," Richard Lindemann said. "They hold materials that are unique and have a certain materiality to them which you can't duplicate through digitization."
Lindemann, director of the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives, has dedicated his life to working with these documents, lending his knowledge to Bowdoin for the past 15 years.
Effective March 13, Lindemann will retire and leave behind enriched book collections, digitization projects and exhibits. His colleagues, all of whom were quick and abundant in their praise and admiration for him, characterize him by his "high standards, clear goals, good humor and great baking."
"I can't give high enough praise to what it's like working with him," Marieke Van Der Steenhoven, special collections and archives assistant said. "[He has] both an incredible sense of humor…[and] of professionalism, as well as the ability to manage time and projects. He just sets an excellent example of a working environment."
These strengths have served him well over the years as he executed ambitious projects for the College. From 2008 to 2011, Lindemann planned and organized the George J. Mitchell Oral History Project, an endeavor that compiled oral histories about Former Senator George J. Mitchell '54 and won the 2012 Elizabeth B. Mason Major Project Award, given biennially by the Oral History Association to an outstanding English language oral history project worldwide. In 2013, Lindemann edited an autobiography of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, "'Blessed Boyhood!': The Early Memoir of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain," published by the College.
Lindemann first chose to go into the field of special collections because of these types of projects, working at various archivist positions at larger universities before Bowdoin.
"I was happier when I was doing things, building things, making things, rather than spending a lot of time in my head thinking things," Lindemann said. "Working in a library setting [gave] me a chance to be in an academic community—which I really enjoy and thrive in—but [gave] me the opportunity to work with ideas…in a more tangible way."
Putting together exhibits has allowed Lindemann to do this hands-on work. Currently displayed on the second floor of HL, Lindemann's exhibit "BookART" showcases Bowdoin's collection of artists' books (books created by artists)—a collection the College would not have had without him.
"Richard has grown such an amazing artists' book collection," Van Der Steenhoven said. "It's an incredible resource that we have [that] students, faculty, artists and researchers from all over the country come and access."
Lindeman's digitization work also mirrors this imperative of accessibility. Thanks to a grant (one of many Lindemann has written), the department is in the process of digitizing General Oliver Otis Howard's (Class of 1850) papers. Before he leaves, Lindemann plans to complete his other project—digitizing and publishing 19th century Brunswick resident Kate Furbish's watercolors of Maine flora.
"[Lindemann has] helped to lead both the library and the department transition into the digital age," said Caroline Moseley, an archivist in the department who has worked with Lindemann for 15 years.
"…[He has] that ability [to] see the big picture, see what need[s] to be done and be able to help people to do that," she said.
Leading by this example, Lindemann has thrived not only as a manager but also as a mentor, both for his colleagues and students.
"He has this way of putting people at ease that I've experienced personally and also witnessed," Meagan Doyle, Oliver Otis Howard Digitization Project manager, said.
Lindemann has also collaborated with faculty to teach certain classes, such as a lesson earlier this month on analyzing historical documents for Professors Patrick Rael and Tess Chakkalakal's Reconstruction and Reunion course.
Lindemann's balance of knowledge and humor has allowed him to both teach and connect with people during his time here.
"Working at Bowdoin is a really wonderful privilege because so many of the people who work here are really dedicated and really smart," Lindemann said. "It's wonderful working in an environment where other people care about what they're doing and appreciate what I'm doing…We all have to work but when we can choose whom we work with…Bowdoin's a lucky place to be."
As of yet Lindemann has no goals for his retirement, other than to remain in Maine with his wife.
"We're almost paralyzed by the opportunities—we could do anything and so we do nothing," Lindemann said. "After a year, then we'll reassess and think about things, but for the time being we'll stay close to home."
His home at the department must reassess as well, finding a replacement for Lindemann's position.
"We're going to miss him," Van Der Steenhoven said. "It's going to be a major change, but we wish him all the best."
- February 26
From Senior Commons to Tower parties: 50 years of Coles Tower
In the fall of 1964, Bowdoin's president James Stacy Coles wrote in delight to a friend about the seniors he noticed around the College's new Senior Center, the 16-story tower that would later bear his name.
"[They] seem to walk about with greater pride," he wrote. "They have spontaneously spruced up their personal appearance."
Last fall marked 50 years since the completion and opening of the Senior Center, now known as Coles Tower. Since then, many things have changed on campus. Just as it did in 1964, though, the Tower primarily houses seniors and plays a significant role in the cultural fabric of the College.
Originally, the Tower was conceived as part of a larger program called the Senior Commons. In a senior thesis tracing the history of the program, Benjamin Brennan '08 wrote that it was "an effort to bring about sweeping social and curricular changes at what was regarded as a very traditional school."
This was a version of Bowdoin that would be hardly recognizable to students today: a conservative, all-male institution where the vast majority of social life happened inside fraternities. Classes were held every day but Sunday, and women were never allowed in campus dorms.
The goal was to remake the experience of Bowdoin's upperclassmen, loosening these social restrictions and emphasizing engagement with the outside world. The College felt that its seniors were spending too much time with younger students in fraternities, and hoped to bring them out of fraternity houses and into more contact with one another in the Tower.
"There was this idea that we wanted to find a center for communal life and intellectual life for senior men," said Senior Lecturer in Environmental Studies Jill Pearlman.
To accomplish this, the College created new, interdisciplinary senior seminars that cut across Bowdoin's traditional distribution requirements. They arranged for scholars-in-residence to live among seniors, and planned a new dining hall where they would eat together. Seeing this as an innovative, modernizing program, they wanted a physical structure to match, one where seniors would both live and study together.
Hugh Stubbins, a prominent modernist architect, designed the new Senior Center. While the building was the first example of modern architecture at Bowdoin, many of the College's peer institutions, and larger universities like Harvard and Princeton, had built their own modernist buildings over the previous two decades.
At Bowdoin, students had long desired more modern facilities. An Orient editorial from 1945 lamented that "the only things modern on our campus are our toilets and kitchens." "College campuses are architecturally conservative—rarely does anything new happen at them," said Pearlman.
When colleges do decide to pursue new architectural styles, though, the trends often spread quickly.
"Everyone was getting their own modernist building after the war," she added.
Construction began in 1963. On January 20, 1964, while the fourteenth and fifteenth floors were under construction, an electrical fire engulfed the top of the building. Secretary of Development and College Relations John Cross '76 was then a fourth-grader living in Brunswick. In 2011, he discussed his memories of the fire in a piece for the Bowdoin Daily Sun.
"We slogged through the slush left by rains that had fallen on heavy snow and joined a crowd of students and neighbors in staring up at the tower and the fire crews that battled to contain the blaze," he wrote.
Surprisingly, the fire, whose repairs cost $200,000, did not much delay construction. The building opened on schedule for the fall semester in 1964. At the time, it was the tallest building in Maine (it now ranks second, after Portland's Franklin Towers).
While the physical component of the Senior Center program appeared to be a success, many students saw it as an effort to weaken fraternities and feelings about the academic components were mixed. The College soon struggled to fill senior seminars.
Following the resignation of the Center's original director, history professor Bill Whiteside, in 1970, the decrease in interest among seniors meant that younger students were occupying many of its rooms.
"It was kind of a model that worked for a little while… But by the time I was a senior, it wasn't exclusively a residence for seniors any more," said Cross. "It became sort of another dorm."
By 1980, with the curriculum largely defunct and the building populated by students from a range of class years, the Senior Center was renamed Coles Tower, after the man who had presided over its creation.
Cross said the name change was "a recognition that the Senior Center program had been replaced by a more flexible curriculum."
Coles Tower Today
Having outlived its original purpose and numerous subsequent architectural movements, Coles Tower fills a far different role than it did at its creation.
"It still stands out. It's kind of on its own little island," Pearlman said. "Like many modernist buildings, it hasn't aged very well."
Pearlman was optimistic, though, about the renovations currently taking place.
Today, the Tower is central to the social life of many students in a way that few in the heyday of fraternities would have anticipated.
"The tower is the hub of social life for a lot of seniors," wrote Matt Friedland '15, a Tower resident, in an email to the Orient. "It houses a solid amount of the senior class, so a lot of events both during the week and on the weekends happen in the tower."
"It would be the place from which the Bowdoin Bubble, if it existed, would originate," he wrote."It's definitely a social hotspot," said Lela Garner '16, another resident of the Tower. "It's really easy to access other rooms, not like in Brunswick or the freshman dorms where you have to go and knock on everyone's door."
However, the social atmosphere dissuades some students from living in Coles as well.
"It seems a bit too chaotic and hectic for me. I need a quiet space," said Bintou Kunjo '15, who lives on School Street. "I think it's party central."
While the senior seminars of the 1960s are long gone, classes are still taught at the top floor of the Tower. Visiting Assistant Professor of English Morten Hansen has chosen the classroom in each of his two semesters at Bowdoin.
"The view provides a pretty backdrop and counterpoint to discussions and lectures without being a distraction," he wrote in an email to the Orient. "My sense is that most students like having classes up there overlooking the campus and the surrounding area."
Many residents appreciate the building's social life considerably more than its architecture, however.
"I didn't love it at first, because it felt quite institutional," said Garner. "When I walk into my home, I don't want to see cement walls and lots of doors."
"It's definitely as comfortable and home-y as you make it, but you have to put in a good amount of effort to make it look nice on the inside," wrote Hallie Bates '15 in an email to the Orient.
Despite reservations among students about the building itself, the Tower's status as a central location for seniors seems to be having a resurgence.
In Fall 2006, 22 percent of the apartments in the Tower were occupied by quads of all seniors. This past fall, that number had risen to 70 percent.
Associate Director of Housing Operations Lisa Rendall said that it is typically one of the first housing options to fill up in the lottery, along with Harpswell Apartments and the quads in Chamberlain Hall.
- February 20
BCA calls for Trustee liaison by March 6
The speech on climate at the Meeting in the Union last Friday closed with Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA) calling on the Board of Trustees to appoint a liaison to the student body on the matter of fossil fuel divestment before March 6.
BCA member Allyson Gross '16, wrote the speech, the majority of which was published in the February 6 issue of the Orient.
BCA met with the Board in October to present its case to divest its endowment from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies. Gross said that BCA has not heard from the Trustees since.
"On the date of Meeting in the Union, it had been 119 days of silence from the Board of Trustees," she said. "When we asked for follow-up steps from them, we were cut off."
The speech given at the meeting last Friday indicated that, if a liaison were not appointed by March 6, BCA would escalate protest efforts. Gross declined to comment on the shape that escalation would take.
Gross had an active role in the organization of both the Meeting in the Union and the writing of an open letter to the Bowdoin community, published in the Orient on February 13. Both Gross and Michelle Kruk '16 said that they were happy with the way that the Meeting went.
"I love how things went," said Kruk. "It was such a relief…to get that out there."
The two also said that they were excited by the large number of students who walked from the Union to President Barry Mills' office in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library to deliver the letter. Although Mills was not in his office, Dean for Academic Affairs Cristle Collins Judd accepted the letter on his behalf. Judd said that she has since delivered the letter to Mills.
Kruk said that while the majority of the feedback to the letter has been positive, there has been a bit of a backlash.
"It was that it shortcuts some of the [advances] that certain parts of campus have done," she said.
"So many people are working hard to make this campus a better place, and I just wouldn't want people to read the call to action and feel discouraged, as if their work is being discredited," wrote Jared Littlejohn '15 in an email to the Orient.
Littlejohn said that the Office of Residential Life has held multiple conversations and training sessions on race. The letter suggested that only one such training session took place.
Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster echoed Littlejohn's statement.
"It's hard for students to see how far Bowdoin has come in such a short period of time," Foster wrote in an email to the Orient. "They don't have the same historical perspective."
Foster went on to add that there are reforms already underway in many of the areas that the letter mentions.
"The creation of the new [Student Center for Multicultural Life], the hiring of a new director, the coming together of the Multicultural Coalition, the initiation of Intergroup Dialogue, the gatherings of first generation students, faculty and staff and so on," he said.
Kruk and Gross said that they have not seen any official response to either the letter or the Meeting, although several administrators and faculty members have offered their support.
Today, the group that organized the Meeting and the letter will meet to both discuss last Friday's events and plan for next steps.
- today
Kicking the can: The importance of education beyond the job market
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's presumed candidacy for president recently set off a discussion about the utility and necessity of a college degree. Walker never graduated from college, choosing to run for public office before finishing his degree.
Of course, pundits and everyday Americans alike asked whether the president should have a college degree in this day and age (the last president to only have a high school diploma was Harry Truman). However, those voices were vastly outnumbered by Walker's supporters, who took the opportunity to lament the fact that a bachelor's degree is considered a necessity for many occupations.
On the one hand, they have a point—it is terribly elitist to explicitly or implicitly require an academic qualification for an elected position that represents the whole of the United States. But it is not his lack of a college degree that should disqualify Walker from the White House. It is the utter contempt that Walker and many of his supporters have for the most respected system of higher education in the world that makes him a uniquely terrible candidate for the Oval Office.
When defending the liberal arts, we often point to the value that graduates of schools like Bowdoin add to the workforce. In a world that increasingly calls for technical skills, our alumni, administration, and faculty laud the liberal arts for preparing students to be versatile members of the workforce. Liberal arts students are praised for being "quick learners" and for their ability to "think critically" in the workplace.
That is all well and good, but it is a poor defense of academia and the liberal arts in particular. Education cannot be wholly about vocation. This, in particular, Walker does not understand. As part of a Walker-backed budget proposal, the charter of the University of Wisconsin had to be amended to strike the parts about seeking to "improve the human condition" and the "search for truth," to be replaced by merely meeting "the state's workforce needs."
The ensuing dustup caused Walker to claim that the changes had just snuck their way in there, but clearly either Walker or one of his staffers thought they were a good enough idea to insert into the proposal.
The utility of education, and in particular the sort of "impractical" education offered by Bowdoin and its peer schools, cannot be confined to the workplace. To claim that education should exist merely to enable the next generation of worker drones to be more productive worker drones not only cheapens education, but also cheapens millennia of scholarship in the search for truth and meaning.
It shows immense disrespect for the giants upon whose shoulders we stand to claim that academia should turn its focus to workforce needs alone. Of course, we can all agree that people should have a skill that can get them ahead in the world and that a certain degree of vocational education is necessary for a productive and successful society.
But we should all also agree that while an understanding of the Federalist Papers helps very few job seekers, it helps us to be better citizens and voters. A deep understanding of history or the natural sciences or the wonders of mathematics may not always be the hard skill that we need, but it certainly helps us to navigate the world.
As we get older, many of us will have children. At that point, it will be our duty to impart our knowledge and values to the generation that will replace us. Our academic engagement will help us to present our children with a nuanced view of the world. When they ask us difficult questions about events yet to occur, we will be able to present a reasoned answer. Just as we are now taught, our children will be able to understand rather than to blindly follow.
A purely vocational notion of education does little to further our ability to understand where we came from and where we're headed, and it does not encourage us to be valued members of a society in any way besides contributing to the GDP. (It must be noted that all of the benefits of education I mention theoretically contribute to GDP indirectly.)
Civic engagement, self-examination and cultural understanding are values that must be taught by parents or by the educational system. An academy that teaches the values of great artists, thinkers and scientists will help our civilization achieve its full potential.
Very few people would truly embrace the idea of an educational qualification for higher office. If Bill Gates announced tomorrow his candidacy for the White House, none would criticize his lack of a diploma. Being elected governor of one of the 50 states is no small feat, and especially considering Walker's considerable accomplishments, his lack of a B.A. certificate hanging in his study should not disqualify him from the presidency.
However, his evident lack of understanding of why the academy exists is alarming, and Walker's positions are exemplary of the anti-intellectualism that pervades certain circles in our country. Every member of society can derive value from learning for learning's sake. Perhaps Walker should think about improving the nation's secondary education systems and making higher education more accessible rather than attempting to eviscerate American learning. Plato, whose writings helped form the basis of modern Western civilization, envisioned a society headed by the "philosopher king." He would be dismayed that we are contemplating the elevation of its antithesis to our highest office.
- today
Committing to the climate: taking a stand for divestment by sitting in
I am sitting in for climate justice because I want to see Bowdoin demonstrate its commitment to the common good. I have pledged to join members of Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA) and more than 50 other students in this sit-in for fossil fuel divestment because I am disappointed.
Instead of progress and dialogue, the Trustees have offered a token meeting and continued silence. Bowdoin students, faculty and alumni deserve better. We deserve to have a genuine conversation about how to make climate action a reality at Bowdoin.
Bowdoin students first won the chance to propose divestment to the Board last April, when we delivered a student petition representing five class years to President Barry Mills. From April to October, six other members of BCA and I—representing three class years and a variety of on-campus activities—began to prepare a formal proposal and presentation for the meeting.
Meticulously researched, written and rewritten, our proposal was outlined in both written form and on a Prezzi, to be given to nearly half of the Board on October 17. We worked for weeks. We practiced and edited, and did dress rehearsal presentations with faculty who held a variety of opinions on divestment.
On the day of the presentation, the Trustees were greeted by close to 100 cheering students, and a letter in support of divestment signed by 70 professors. The Trustees appeared receptive, asking us genuine and engaging questions. The positive response to the presentation was promising, and forward collaborative movement seemed possible. I felt hopeful that we would be able to make meaningful progress toward divestment.
At the end of the meeting, however, we were cut off. When we asked the assembled Trustees with whom we should follow up, moderator and trustee Art Black interrupted our question with applause, and the meeting ended. Some trustees left without taking the written proposal. The cheers of the students outside were matched by the subsequent silence of the Board.
In attempting to contact the Trustees in the following months, we were continually rebuffed. Chair of the Board Deborah Jensen Barker and Mills played hot potato with responsibility for moving forward on divestment in the Orient, and when the Board remained silent on divestment at its February meeting, the College's pretense of collaboration dissolved.
We were never given the opportunity to continue the conversation started at the presentation. We were never able to collaborate with Board members. During their spring meeting, we dropped a banner reminding the Trustees that the campus awaited action. It read, "Literary institutions are endowed for the common good," a quotation from former Bowdoin President Joseph McKeen.
Having been ignored by the Board of Trustees, and denied the opportunity to work with the College, BCA publicly called on the College at the Meeting in the Union, a gathering of students expressing dissatisfaction with the campus climate surrounding issues of inequality and injustice, to establish a trustee liaison to communicate with the student body on divestment. President Mills—just three months away from the close of his own tenure at the College—appointed himself the liaison.
For nearly three years, we have organized, petitioned, talked, thought and rallied while the Board of Trustees has dragged its feet. Meanwhile, in the 140 days between October 17, when we proposed divestment to the Board, and March 6, the deadline for a divestment liaison, the New School, the University of Maine System, and Norway's Government Pension Fund Global (the world's largest sovereign wealth fund) committed to some form of divestment. They joined a growing number of organizations across the globe that have committed to divestment.
At Bowdoin, we are taught to pursue the common good, and that the first step on the path to institutional change is dialogue. Yet the College has not responded to our efforts to create a dialogue, ignoring the calls of students, faculty and alumni for fossil fuel divestment. And so the time has come to take a stronger step. This spring, more than 50 Bowdoin students have pledged to join hundreds of students across the country, from Swarthmore, Harvard, University of California-Berkeley, and elsewhere, to sit-in for climate justice.
In a 2006 interview with the Orient about Darfur divestment, Mills stated that "our efforts in community service are designed to bubble up from our students, faculty and staff—rather than being imposed by the College." Noting a lack of vocal campus activism, Mills ended by posing a question to the Bowdoin community: "Where is that outrage?"
Well, here it is.
Clara Belitz is a member of the Class of 2017.
- today
Israeli academic institutions treatment of Palestinians worthy of boycott
In a moment of honesty during the Israeli elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that a Palestinian state would never exist under his watch and warned of "Arabs advancing on the ballot boxes in droves," and then he won a decisive reelection. Netanyahu's political rivals were hardly better. One of them proudly orchestrated Israel's 2008-2009 bombardment and massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, and the other criticized Netanyahu for not bombing Gaza hard enough this past summer.
A straight line can be drawn from 1947-1948, when Zionist troops forcibly expelled over half a million Palestinians from their homes and destroyed over 500 villages, to this week's electoral drama, which demonstrated the fact that Israelis want to maintain Israel's control over the West Bank, where nearly three million Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation and apartheid. Since 1948, Israeli state policy has remained the same: displacement of the native population and replacement with Jewish settlers.
What does this mean for academia in "the holy land?"
Israeli academic and cultural institutions are deeply intertwined with the occupation and ongoing colonization of Palestine. Most Israeli universities are state-run, give admissions priority to soldiers, and discriminate against Palestinian students. Israeli universities conduct research for the Israeli military, including developing remote-controlled bulldozers used in home demolitions, and several of them operate out of illegal settlements.
No Israeli university has spoken out against Israel's occupation and military assaults against Palestinians. Instead, Ben-Gurion University, Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa all made explicit statements of support for the bombardment of Gaza last summer and provided financial benefits to soldiers.
Israeli universities cooperate with the Israeli military and the Israeli government in all functions of settler colonialism, and are essentially inseparable from the occupation itself.
According to a New Israel Fund study published in 2005, the educational system in Israel is segregated, with the state spending an average of $1,100 for each Jewish student as opposed to $192 for each Palestinian. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities regularly kill Palestinian students and professors, raid universities, and subject scholars to imprisonment, torture and travel restrictions. Gaza remains under an intense blockade, and last summer, as in 2009, Israel bombed dozens of its schools and universities.
The U.S. government singles Israel out with preferential trade agreements, weapons, U.N. Security Council vetoes in their favor and more than $3.1 billion in annual military aid. Without facing any sort of punishment for its actions, Israel will continue to oppress and massacre Palestinians.
What does this mean for Bowdoin?
Palestinian academics are denied basic academic freedoms under Israeli colonial rule, and Israeli academic institutions are party to the oppressive system that denies them those rights, so Bowdoin College should honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions.
In the coming week, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) will be holding Justice for Palestine Week, which will feature events focusing on Palestinian experiences in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Afterwards, SJP will bring a resolution to the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) asking it to endorse the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. The boycott has precedent in the boycott of academic and cultural institutions in apartheid South Africa.
The boycott does not target individuals on the basis of their nationality. It asks that ties be severed with institutions complicit in the Israeli occupation. The boycott means a refusal to take part in events, conferences and research that are partially or fully funded by Israeli institutions. In other words, a professor from the University of Tel Aviv is still welcome to speak at Bowdoin as long as she does so as an individual professor, and not expressly as a representative or ambassador of Israeli institutions or of the Israeli government.
Boycotts are a nonviolent way to bring ignored realities to the forefront and to encourage dialogue and action. Not boycotting means placing greater importance on the freedom to maintain partnerships with Israeli institutions than on the basic freedoms and human rights of Palestinians— including freedoms of movement, access to clean water and fair living conditions, which Palestinians are denied.
Given that international state actors are unwilling or have failed to force Israel to comply with international law and end its brutal repression of the Palestinians, the soundest solution for scholars concerned with human rights and academic freedom is to join the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. This movement aims to nonviolently isolate the state of Israel until it recognizes that it must abandon its commitments to occupation, apartheid, and ethno-religious supremacy. It is a chance for Bowdoin to demonstrate that academia is not just a plaything of the privileged and that education is truly a human right. This spring, BSG should vote to boycott Israel.
Christopher Wedeman is a member of the Class of 2015.
- today
My 77 Cents: Dangers of Yik Yak outweigh the benefits
Anonymity is so hot right now. Not that it didn't exist before, but there are now seemingly endless forums that offer the opportunity to speak in an uninhibited manner without any threat of personal identification. Anonymity allows us to speak more freely, perhaps. To say what we've been wanting to say without any consequence. To assign our names to something is to make us accountable for our actions, and where's the fun in that?
Yik Yak is a great example of this phenomenon. In case you're unfamiliar, Yik Yak is a free app in which users can write "Yaks," brief statements of any kind, which are shared with users who fall within a ten mile radius. All users have the opportunity to contribute by composing or responding to posts, as well as by upvoting or downvoting posts. TIME aptly called it a "local, anonymous Twitter."
Full disclosure: I'm not above Yik Yak; on the contrary, I read it a lot. Sometimes I even giggle despite myself at comments like this one: "When my friend asked me to stop acting like a flamingo I had to put my foot down."
But the app's more sinister implications have convinced me that it does more harm than good. When I've complained to friends about some of the upsetting Yaks, mostly I've been told that I'm taking it too seriously. We have no proof these are even Bowdoin students, since there are other people within a 10-mile radius of the College, and we have no proof these people are serious—they might just be trying to get a rise out of us.
My response is usually that it's working. Whether or not these comments are written in earnest, whether or not it would be far more judicious of me to just delete the damn app, I still think it's important to acknowledge that these messages contribute to the social climate of this campus.
Sure, it would be better to just ignore these hateful messages altogether. If you are one of these brave and impervious people, I salute you. But this task, of course, is easier said than done. What makes it even more difficult to dismiss these messages in the case of Yik Yak is that users know these comments are composed within relative proximity to them—close to home, if you will.
The app can be extremely problematic with regard to body dissatisfaction. Along with some other employees at the Women's Resource Center, I am involved in the creation of campaigns, programming and focus groups surrounding healthy body image at Bowdoin. We have discussed Yik Yak's on body image and noted that, more often than not, the app contributes to general distress.
One post I read recently was from a person asking how to tell his girlfriend that she needs to lose weight. Two responses were: "that's why you dump them once they get fat," and, maybe more troublingly, "the fact that you're posting this to Yik Yak and arguing with anyone who tries to offer any insight proves you deserve a fat girlfriend."
Another Yak read, "there should be a weight limit for leggings/yoga pants." There were a slew of comments, including, "Fatties, put down the candy bar and eat a salad," and, "Fat chicks shouldn't wear yoga pants. It's nasty. Not appealing. Go hit a gym." Those are only a few examples.
Now, those aren't the posts that get the most upvotes, nor are they free from contemptuous responses that call them out on their blatant cruelty. However, these sorts of posts do demonstrate that anonymous forums like Yik Yak ultimately facilitate bullying and hate speech.
Just this March, American University administrators issued a public statement denouncing racist statements made by students on Yik Yak. In February, after a female user reported how she was encouraged to commit suicide by other anonymous users, a petition asking for the app to be shut down surfaced online, and was signed by more than 78,000 people.
My point is not to say that everyone at Bowdoin—or everyone who posts on Yik Yak—is malicious. It is to say, however, that these kinds of apps have the potential to be incredibly injurious, and we as Bowdoin students are implicated in this by virtue of reading and contributing to them. The concept of Yik Yak does offer some interesting opportunities by creating a space in which people can share opinions, humor and honest communications. However, I don't think these benefits outweigh its costs.
If you don't have Yik Yak, don't bother. If you do, be aware of the messages you are receiving. Be aware of what you're writing.
We are responsible for fostering a community in which students feel safe, and apps like this, while entertaining, don't really help anyone. A generation of people who take responsibility for their actions would be better than a generation of people who lash out from behind the anonymous comfort of a screen.
- today
Cultural context must be taken into account when discussing oppression
Before Spring Break, many students wrote about campus activism, showing just how pertinent this issue is. However, I worry about the way that Addie Browne's article, in particular, framed activism.
For example, Browne separates cultural appropriation and offensive language from "fundamental social problems." She writes that Bowdoin creates activists "who are setting out to eliminate one offensive word and action at a time." I think that she is trying, perhaps, to argue that simply getting someone not to say "faggot" is different from getting them to truly understand why it is offensive.
Some forms of activism on campus do merely police language and behavior without radically challenging our attitudes and ideologies. But Browne seems to believe that concern over language and behavior is inherently bad activism. She calls it the "ultimately superficial goal of becoming politically correct."
For me, those words and actions that even Browne deems offensive are a fundamental part of larger systems of oppression. There can seem like a distinct distance between Bowdoin and the violence against minorities that we read about in the news.
I certainly agree that we should be more active against this violence. However, the attitudes and ideologies that motivate or excuse offensive language and behavior operate within, and partially reproduce, the systems of oppression that take a much more forceful form elsewhere. For example, disregard for Native American cultures is part of a historical and ongoing privileging of non-Natives and cultural appropriation is a product of the colonial project of eliminating Native personhood. The scale of discriminations might differ, but they all share the same genealogy.
I also wish to challenge Browne's framing of reservations. She writes that stopping someone from appropriating Native American cultures "[does] little to help those who remain disadvantaged by the debilitating environment of reservations." This description of reservations, offered in the name of social justice, proves that being an activist requires self-reflexivity.
If Browne wants to use the plight of Native Americans to further her own arguments about political correctness, then she needs to consider what it means to construct their experiences as a plight. What does it imply to say that reservations, the home of peoples of multiple cultures and histories, are "debilitating environments" that necessitate a white intervention?
Portland Press Herald reporter Colin Woodward recently wrote a series on the Passamaquoddy, a tribe in Maine. He wrote that, "an economic, political and cultural renaissance is underway throughout Indian Country in the United States." According to Woodward, this renaissance, empirically evident in statistics of income, life expectancy, and employment rate increases, results from the "greatly increased control Indians have over their own affairs."
Native Americans have long maintained their agency through complex acts of resistance to, and negotiation with imperialist institutions. Now, through a measure of autonomy that has come from decades of indigenous activism, they are fashioning their own future. When we portray Native Americans as passive victims, "disadvantaged by the debilitating environment of reservations," we not only once again ignore their personhood, but we also distance ourselves from our responsibility within the systems of oppression that work against them.
Fighting for social justice involves collaboration with those people we are trying to help. It involves listening to them and asking them what they want, and how they want us to act as their allies. It involves respecting them as people. It involves educating ourselves and our peers about the systems of oppression that still operate on and off our campus.
Lane Sturtevant is a member of the Class of 2015.
- February 27
Editorial: Keep working
On Sunday, Wil Smith '00 passed away after a battle with colon cancer. As has been widely written, Smith leaves behind a legacy as one of the most influential alumni in Bowdoin's recent history. One of three African-American students in his class, Smith matriculated to the College when he was 28 and caring for his toddler daughter. Smith experienced hardships at Bowdoin in a time when our community was not as well-equipped to help struggling students adjust to Bowdoin.
In Smith's first few months at the College, graduation seemed like an unattinable goal. Smith was surely the only Polar Bear to ever study and play basketball as a single parent, and at the beginning of his first semester, he felt underprepared and inadequately supported. That changed quickly. Roy Partridge, the professor of Smith's first-year seminar, and Betty Trout-Kelly, the assistant to the president for multicultural affairs and affirmative action, marshalled resources and support for Smith. The College provided housing and a meal plan, and an alumnus donated $25,000 for childcare for his daughter.
After graduation, Smith became the director of multicultural student programs at Bowdoin, a position that allowed him to expand access to the College to new populations of students, and—once they arrived in Brunswick—to ensure that they received help if they needed it. According to Dean of First Year Students Janet Lohmann, Smith represents the idea of possibility at Bowdoin. "There was no scaffolding for a 28-year-old who wanted to play on the basketball team," she said. "He just showed us what was possible—how we, as an institution, could meet people's needs and how a person like Wil could really make this his home."
Since Smith enrolled at the College, it has begun accepting a more racially, economically and regionally diverse student body, and it has developed progamming to meet that student body's needs. The administration has implemented the Bowdoin Advising Program to Support Academic Excellence (BASE) program, which provides robust advising to students who did not attend rigorous high schools. The College has also begun offering courses like Quantitative Reasoning, which help students improve the foundational skills they will need throughout their time at Bowdoin. Despite these efforts, there are students who believe that more should be done. Two weeks ago, over 200 community members gathered in the David Saul Smith Union to hear a small group of students talk about a variety of issues, including how Bowdoin can better support students from diverse backgrounds.
Smith worked tirelessly on issues of diversity and inclusion both at Bowdoin and beyond. All who knew him speak to his skill in giving voice to those who were not always heard and his belief in the potential of everyone with whom he worked. As we remember and mourn him, we should also recommit ourselves to the causes he championed. Smith's story is as an example of how Bowdoin can enable all of its students to succeed, regardless of their circumstances. At the Berkshire School, Smith was known for his catchphrase "keep working." Bowdoin has worked hard to expand access and better accomodate the needs of all students, but it should honor Smith's mantra as it moves forward.
This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient's editorial board, which is comprised of Garrett Casey, Ron Cervantes, Sam Chase, Matthew Gutschenritter, Nicole Wetsman and Kate Witteman.
- February 26
Doing it wrong: Oppressed groups need to seek common ground
Unfortunately, wages are still one of the many facets of society where inequality is present. And while bringing light to any form of inequality is a worthwhile endeavor, there is a wrong way to go about it, and Patricia Arquette did just that in her acceptance speech at the 87th Academy Awards last Sunday. While on stage, she said, "We have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America." But to complicate things further, in the press room afterwards, (according to USA Today) she said, "It's time for us all…the gay people and people of color that we've all fought for to fight for us now." Arquette's statements at the Oscars assume two very incorrect ideas. First that, people of color and LGBTQIA people have gained equal rights while women haven't, and second, that the struggles of all of these groups are not interconnected.
To tackle the first misconception, you don't need to look any further than the wage inequality that Arquette referenced. While the wage gap undoubtedly affects women, it affects some women more than others: according to the data from the last census, while white women make 78 cents to the white man's dollar, black women make 64 cents, Native American women make 59 cents, and Latina women make 54 cents. Furthermore, to combat the idea that the wage gap only affects women, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that Black and Hispanic men earn less weekly than White and Asian women ($664 and $594, as opposed to $819 and $722, respectively). The wage gap, and inequality in general, is bigger than gender.Arquette's comments are not only ignorant of the difficulties many communities continue to face, but they also perpetuate the divisiveness of identity politics. In order to advance equality for all, we need to stop seeing our struggles as disconnected.
Women cannot be truly free until all people of color and all LGBTIQA people are truly free. The colonization of the body will not be over until all facets of it are seen as equal. Why? Because feminism doesn't stop at white women, anti-racism does not stop at men of color, and LGBTQIA rights do not stop at the white community or at men. Transgender women of color exist, disabled brown immigrants exist, gay male rape victims exist—people often experience oppression in different parts of their identities. We must continue to strive for the rights of all marginalized people so that these people will feel equal in our society. When Arquette says that it is time for people of color and gay people to fight for women now, she is suggesting that they are three isolated categories; she ignores intersectionality. As a woman of color, I feel that Arquette's statement denies the multifaceted nature of my identity. Oppressions cannot be solved separately from each other.
On top of this, Arquette's statement was offensive on the level that she suggests that she, along with all women, have fought for everybody else's rights. Firstly, I was not aware that Patricia Arquette was an anti-racist and LGBTQIA activist. I was not aware that Patricia Arquette has been fighting so hard for my rights as a person of color.
We are not done fighting for these rights.
To suggest that is to undermine the very difficult struggles of millions of people. Arquette needs to look past her own experience as a white woman and recognize that just because a struggle does not exist for her personally, does not make it invalid.
There are ways to highlight injustice within one community without ignoring the injustices in other communities—evidenced by an earlier speech by John Legend and Common, where they touched on Dr. King's activism as motivated by "a love for all human beings." We must strive for this all-encompassing, inclusive love and fight for each other, instead of further alienating ourselves from each other. The recognition of intersectionality is how we will achieve true equality.
- February 26
Another white guy: Activists must listen and empathize to have more effective conversations
The tone of activism on campus has made it stop working.
The constant repetition of the same few arguments about privilege has resulted in a climate where we feel it is only acceptable to share one type of narrative about injustice. As such, I believe it is vitally important for me to question that narrative and to offer an alternative.Consider the Meeting in the Union the Friday before last. Two-hundred students gathered to listen to speeches about inequality. One speech, billed as dealing with sexual assault, recounted a female student's experience of trying to turn down a man at a party by dancing with her female friend, only to have him follow her and ask, "So you girls like dancing together?"
After this and a series of other stories, the assembled students marched to President Barry Mills' office to deliver a nine-page letter of demands for institutional reform. Among other things, the letter called for harsher condemnation of students who participate in events like Cracksgiving, a public statement of solidarity with students of color, a declaration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as an official College holiday, and more conversations on race in every aspect of Bowdoin life.
Before I explicitly criticize anything about this rally, I want to make an important distinction: I am not trying to discredit the legitimacy of any of these stories or complaints. I am not suggesting that anyone shouldn't be upset or doesn't the have right to be angry at the man in MacMillan House who pursued her after she said no. Those feelings are real and valid.
But this story was presented at a rally for 200 people and followed by a list of institutional demands; there is more at stake than simply whether the story is legitimate.What matters is if that story, when publicized, will effectively combat injustice, if it will motivate people of different backgrounds—students or faculty—to overcome the fear of difference and better understand one another.
What is the purpose of writing a letter demanding a public statement on the national racial climate when Mills already sent out an email encouraging empathy with students feeling affected by the Ferguson, Mo. non-indictment?
Why demand that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day be recognized as an official College holiday when Mills already publicly announced that he is trying to achieve that very goal by 2020?Why damn the administration for failing to show solidarity following Cracksgiving, when Tim Foster, Dean of Student Affairs sent out a page long email condemning the actions of the men who participated in that act?
What do we achieve by pointing out problems that the administration has already acknowledged exist and are already trying to solve? All it seems to prove is that inequality still exists.
But I have never heard a Bowdoin student articulate a belief that racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, or transphobia don't exist. The only disagreement on our campus is to what extent they exist and how to best eradicate them.
It is no longer productive to simply point out that racism exists. We need to take the next step. We need to stop entrenching ourselves in our identities and start reaching out. We need to start asking how we can overcome the barriers we face and find a sense of belonging together.
That man in Mac House is not hopeless. That story didn't end with sexual assault, just with a man needing to be told "no" a few times before it sank in. I am not excusing this, but to me he sounds more misguided than malicious. He probably didn't realize how he made that woman feel, and she probably didn't realize that he didn't know.
He could be taught to understand if we attempted to empathize with him, to patiently educate him, and—following Martin Luther King's approach to battling injustice—to love him.You may argue that it is not the responsibility of a marginalized group of people to teach its oppressor to be better. That is true. You, as a woman, have no responsibility to teach a man not to harass you.
But choosing to be an activist is committing yourself to a cause that transcends just your identity. An activist must strive to take action that continually moves the community forward, even if that action involves educating those you'd rather shame. An activist has a responsibility to remove blame, recognize that we all want the same thing, and strive for understanding.
This fall, while working on a US Senate campaign, I learned that by far the most effective way to persuade someone is to listen to them and truly try to put yourself in their shoes—to show that you understand why they view the world the way they do.
No one will listen to you if you don't listen to them first.
The two most important questions we as activists can ask ourselves are: "What does it feel like to be that man in Mac?" and, "How do I show him that I understand, so that he might try to understand me?"
- February 26
Paradoxes of intolerance stifle progress
Does being intolerant of intolerance make Bowdoin an intolerant place? During the two and a half years that I have been on campus, the Bowdoin administration has taken an increasingly assertive stance on social issues, ranging from the table tents scattered throughout the dining halls that inform their readers that gender is a spectrum, to the more recent disciplinary action taken against 14 men's lacrosse players who dressed up as Native Americans at a Thanksgiving-themed off-campus party.
The College's "Statement on a Liberal Education" states that "the liberal education rests fundamentally on the free exchange of ideas—on conversation and questioning." When it comes to social issues, Bowdoin makes it explicitly clear which ideas are permissible on its campus and which are not.
These social policies, championed by a relatively small percentage of faculty and students, are more same minded than they are open-minded. So my question is this: Are we, thanks to our zero-tolerance approach to perceived social injustice on campus, inadvertently becoming the narrow-minded people we so vehemently condemn?
Stephen Covey, an American author and businessman, was most well known for his theory that success in the business and personal spheres stems from changes to a person's "character ethic" rather than his or her "personality ethic." He noticed that America has become infatuated in the last half-century with "personality fixes."
A personality fix, often summarized by optimistic adages such as "attitude determines altitude" or "think positive," is superficial in nature and fails to provoke a more substantive change in character.
Covey ultimately argues that only by addressing the underlying character motivating our thoughts and actions can real change occur.
I fear that Bowdoin's approach to social justice not only stifles debate and free speech, but also takes a superficial "personality fix" approach to solving social problems. Banning words and actions and telling students how to think about race, gender and culture not only discourages discourse, but also fails to address fundamental social problems.
When someone uses the expression "that's gay," the real insult doesn't come from the words themselves; the insult comes from knowing that somewhere between the age of one and 20, that student was taught that people of different sexual orientations are somehow lesser than those who are heterosexual.
Unfortunately, debating microaggressions does nothing to change the underlying social fabric that gives rise to them, and confounding ignorance with the manifestations of ignorance is not only ineffective, but also counterproductive. What good does silencing those who disagree with you do if you fail to change their underlying beliefs? Imposing one opinion on another is not the path to a more accepting, compassionate world.
My fear is that Bowdoin isn't producing a population that is going out into the world to make the world a better place. It's creating a generation of self-labeled "activists" who are setting out to eliminate one offensive word and action at a time.
This mindset exerts powerful control over Bowdoin's campus. In the most recent Orwellian development, the administration "strongly discouraged" the annual Inappropriate Party, leading to its cancellation, and thereby preventing any potential offense from occurring. Unfortunately, graduates emerging into the real world are bound to be disappointed, as the Bowdoin administration will not be there to condemn at will any act that offends.
The true tragedy comes from the realization that Bowdoin could be doing much, much more to battle social injustice. The reality remains that the time, energy and resources put into prohibiting a Native American Halloween costume unfortunately did little to help those who remain disadvantaged by the debilitating environment of reservations.
Rather than expending energy on the seemingly unachievable and ultimately superficial goal of becoming politically correct, we could be making real change at the root of social issues. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say."
Bowdoin students are bright. They are passionate. And they have a billion dollar endowment. I want to go to a liberal arts school that inspires leaders, not martyrs. Rather than telling students what to do and how to act, Bowdoin should be welcoming a diversity of opinions on social issues.
It has to be OK for us to say that we don't really agree with the "hands up, don't shoot" photo, or that we aren't so sure about where the limits of cultural appropriation end, or that not everyone finds the same words offensive.
We have to be able to speak without fear of persecution or looks of derision. Only through voicing and discussing these different opinions will we stay true to the mission of our liberal arts school and become articulate, educated citizens.
Addie Browne is a member of the Class of 2016.
- February 26
Addressing climate justice through systemic change
Growing up in New Haven, Conn., I was always reminded that we lived in a state with one of the highest rates of income inequality in the country. I also grew up in a family thoroughly engaged in sustainability—my dad made a compost bin for our backyard and installed storm windows to save energy.
I absorbed those values, committing myself to both social justice and mitigating climate change, but I saw them as separate issues. Caring about the environment was always sold to me as buying more efficient light bulbs, not as systemic change. It's easy to feel that there is no way to take action beyond personal behavior, so I focused on what I could do. I recycled, turned off lights and ate less meat.
I missed the larger picture. I missed the fact that the coal plant in Bridgeport, Conn. has been ranked the fifth most environmentally unjust in the country. I left Connecticut to major in environmental studies, thinking it was about improving sustainability, but I learned the field is completely intertwined with social justice, and that systemic change is necessary.
I chose to come to Bowdoin because I believed, and continue to believe, that it is a place full of people who care very deeply about bettering society. Bowdoin's commitment to the common good was something that resonated with me.
Two years later, I am still inspired by this College, by the conversations we are able to have, and by my peers working so hard for causes they are so passionate about. But for me, there is a difference between being proud and being complacent. I joined the divestment campaign led by Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA) last year because I know Bowdoin can do better and I wanted to take concrete action.
Two weeks ago, we did. Over 200 Bowdoin students gathered in Smith Union to reflect on and listen to the experiences of their fellow students and how they relate to five themes of justice: race, gender, class, sexuality and climate. We heard one student's story of how the fossil fuel industry is polluting her home and how it is antithetical to Bowdoin's values to continue to profit off an industry that is perpetuating injustice.
We have a responsibility to act because the fossil fuel industry is negatively impacting our own classmates. The fight is about real people, some of whom you may know. It's about more than carbon—it's about a common fight against larger systems of oppression. As Claudia Villar '15 closed the series of speeches with her story, she reminded us, "It's impossible to choose just one issue to care about."
I, for one, needed that reminder. Every day, a group of us meet at 4 p.m. in front of the polar bear statue outside of the David Saul Smith Union for the climate justice minute. For me, this is a time to reflect on climate justice and how it is linked to other issues I care about.
However, it is also a time to emphasize the continued silence from our administration. At the kick-off panel of Intersections: People, Planet, and Power, several professors affirmed that action for climate justice must be demanded from the grassroots.
Since BCA met with the Board of Trustees in October, there have been 131 days of silence. In that time eight schools have committed to some form of divestment from fossil fuels, bringing the total to 26 worldwide. Divesting is both morally imperative and entirely possible. Bowdoin, with its dedication to the common good, is at risk of falling behind. But right now, we have the opportunity to lead and show our peer schools what climate justice and the common good look like.
Among other calls to action at the Meeting in the Union, BCA reiterated its call for divestment and asked for a Trustee to be appointed as divestment liaison to BCA by March 6. We also pledged to escalate our action this spring to show the College that if it won't act, we will. Bowdoin must choose by March 6—it's students fighting for climate justice or the industry hell-bent on stopping us. Whose side are you on?
Julia Berkman-Hill is a member of the Class of 2017.
- 1 days ago
Friendsy frenzy: new social app polarizes student body
Friendsy, a mobile application that combines elements of Facebook, Tinder and Yik Yak, quickly became the latest social media craze at Bowdoin after its introduction before Spring Break, and had been downloaded by nearly half of the student body (849 students) as of Monday.
Requiring a ".edu" email address to sign up, the app allows students to connect with one another on a friendly or romantic level.
Users are given the option to select "friends," "hookup" or "date" on other students' profiles. If the feelings are mutual, both parties receive a notification saying that they have been matched. Students are then given the chance to message their "mutuals" with the help of conversation-starting prompts.
The app was founded in 2013 by two Princeton students, Vaidhy Murti and Michael Pinsky, in hopes of giving students an easier way to connect with each other and branch out of their social circles on campus. After testing the app at a small number of campuses over the past year, the app launched nationwide earlier this month.
Speaking to USA Today, Murti said, "Our goal of Friendsy is to go back to the roots of what made Facebook once successful—and that's to put the college social scene online. Where everything you do and everything you see is very much relevant to your day-to-day life."
Danny Mejia '17 and Laura Plimpton '17 played a large role in getting Friendsy on campus.Plimpton heard about the app last year from her sister who attends Hamilton College.
"We had heard of other schools that had Friendsy and we thought it was really funny and wanted to see if there was any way we could bring it to a smaller school, because we've seen it work at other small schools" said Mejia. "We figured we'd try to make it a thing at Bowdoin."
In order to make the app available on campus, Friendsy requested that students express interest by entering their email address on Friendsy's website. After Thanksgiving break, Mejia and Plimpton told their friends to join the app.
"There was a group of six or seven people already on it when it went live, so we weren't patient zero and patient one on the app," Mejia added. "Once we heard it opened up and now only needed people to join to make it a thing then we sent it to a lot of people. All those super annoying texts? Those came from us."
Immediately after opening to Bowdoin, the app's usage on campus exploded.
"Dinner was at 7 p.m. and by like, 11 p.m. there had been 80 people who had joined and then the next day it was over 200," said Mejia. "We meant for it to just be a funny thing within our friends, kind of. Then it became a Union phenomenon that night."
Even Plimpton and Mejia are wary of the app's presence in Bowdoin's social scene.
"I think the point of something like Friendsy is for big schools where it's actually difficult to run into people," said Plimpton. "You can only scroll through so many people. Once you've scrolled through everyone you're like now what?"
"We have so many resources as undergraduates at a small school that's easy to get around and has a lot of community focus that there's so many different options for people to meet each other and get to know each other well," said Mejia. "Asking somebody to dinner is a really simple thing. We don't need an app like this. I don't agree with it morally. I think it's fun."
Despite its popularity on campus, a contingency of students disapprove of the app. For many, Bowdoin's small size renders the idea of the app useless
"Excuse me to all the people who say they want to hook up or date on Friendsy yet remain anonymous in real life" said Liam Finnerty '17. "It will never cease to amaze me."
"I used it for three days and it's boring. It was a fun idea but it just doesn't work. It's not the same as in person," said Andrew Brenner '18
Casey Krause '17 does not use the app but has some strong opinions about its use on campus.
"I think it's the stupidest thing ever," she said. "I know that people joke about it. If people actually do it that would really piss me off. It's like worse than hooking up blackout in the Baxter basement. I've talked to people who say they have it on their phone but they're not active on it. They just like to hear who wants to hook up with them to boost their ego. I'll be in a group of people and somebody will be like 'I just got three hookup requests on Friendsy' and I'll throw up in my mouth a little bit."
Roughly 950 students were active on Friendsy last week. This week, that number has dropped to just under 850, signifying that the app may be beginning to lose steam.
"I deleted it because I didn't know what to do with it anymore," said Plimpton. "It was just really cool to watch. Seeing it start to finish in 48 hours was the most fun part."
"Better than Tinder, worse than everything else," said Mejia.
- 1 days ago
Mind the gap: Sullivan '17 takes gap year to travel America
What do road trips, Frontier and the Appalachian Trial have in common? Answer: junior Paul Sullivan's gap year.
"I decided I wanted to take a gap year to hike the Appalachian Trial my freshman year of high school, initially because one of my sister's friends was doing it, and he had a blast, so it seemed like a lot of fun," said Sullivan, a Brunswick native. "As I progressed through high school, I was working hard, and I just wanted an experience that was different than schoolwork and academics."
Sullivan would not reach the Appalachian Trial until the very end of his gap year. Instead, after his high school graduation, he began the first leg of his adventure with a two-month road trip with a friend.
"We did a huge loop—going out West we stayed North, so we went to Chicago and the Midwest, and we went through Yellowstone and Grand Teton, to Seattle, to Olympic National Park and then went down the California coast—Redwood, Yemini, San Francisco, L.A.—and then went diagonally back to Maine, covering the Southwest," said Sullivan.
After his trip, Sullivan started working at Frontier.
"Working was probably the toughest part because almost all of my friends had gone away to college and town was empty," said Sullivan. "It was a lot of hanging out with my parents and repeating the same thing day in and day out."
When March rolled around he was ready to begin the last leg: hiking the Appalachian Trail. He started the trip in Georgia and ended in his own backyard in Maine, a week before his pre-orientation trip.
"It was weird—on the one hand it felt great because I just completed the trail, but part of me wanted to keep going," Sullivan said. "I was sad that all the people I had met along the way were all dispersing."
Finishing his gap year experience, he immediately went on his on his pre-orientation trip—biking to Popham Beach. Back on campus, he faced some difficulty transitioning to college life.
"As I look back on it, it was a very weird experience, but I think everyone is going through a weird experience [during] freshman fall—trying to get used to this new place, new home and new group of friends. I think I was pretty unhappy sitting inside, in a classroom because I had gotten used to being outside for most of the day," said Sullivan. "I wasn't super psyched with the structure of school and I also didn't know exactly what I wanted to study—so I enjoyed my classes but I wasn't passionate about anything in particular."
That didn't stop him from engaging in the Bowdoin community. That fall, Sullivan became involved with the Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC) and went through leadership training. He is still an active member of the BOC. In the winter, he takes advantage of the snow, trying to make it up to Sugarloaf once a week to ski.
"Getting outside is a big part of my life and a big part of how I stay balanced and calm in the whirlwind Bowdoin can be," said Sullivan.Sullivan would recommend the gap year experience to anyone interested.
"I think, overall, one of the most fun parts of the gap year was having the opportunity to pursue my interests and just relax and take a deep breath because that doesn't happen in school," said Sullivan. "Coming back to Bowdoin, things weren't overwhelming to me because I had done something outside of school. It lends a nice perspective.
- 1 days ago
Faculty chats: Professor Hadley Horch on 80's movies, Dairy Queen management, aviation
Ask Hadley Horch what her interests are, and her answers might surprise you. Horch is Associate Professor of Biology and Neuroscience and the director of the neuroscience program. Her lab work is focused on conducting studies on crickets.
"I love my work, but I don't eat, drink, and sleep it," she said. Horch is a Midwesterner who grew up in the suburbs of Indianapolis.
"It didn't resonate with me there, and I got out as quickly as I could," she said.
Horch decided to head east for college, enrolling at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.While Horch discovered her passion for neuroscience and held lab jobs at Swarthmore, she was not without any prior work experience. The summer before college, she decided it would be interesting to get a job painting parking meters.
"I worked at the Indiana Department of Transportation, but never did get to paint any meters," said Horch. "I had applied because I thought that sounded kind of fun to be outside all summer. The lady I interviewed with thought it was inappropriate for a girl to be on that team, so she invented an office job for me."
In this job, she was once asked to rip up documents and ended up with blisters on both of her thumbs.
"I did that for days, and it was ridiculous because I think they had a shredder," Horch said. Horch also recounted the misadventures of a former occupation: being the manager of a Dairy Queen.
"There was one night when [the other employees] changed all the clocks on me so I closed up an hour early–I was that kind of kid. I remember a massive ketchup and mustard fight in the back that I was responsible for, even though I didn't take part in it."
Despite the trials of her high-school jobs, Horch looks back on them fondly. When remembering her college years, meeting her husband is one of Horch's favorite memories.
"It's kind of a funny story," she said. "Two friends of ours decided we should date. They were telling me he was talking about me, which was untrue, and they did the same to him. I was a sophomore, and one night I was hanging out and doing homework in my room and my friends threw this man into my room and locked the door. He literally looked like he was about to leap out the third floor window, and that is who I married."
Horch lives in Brunswick with her husband and children, and is a dedicated gardener.
"I'm starting to do permaculture in my yard, and I just built a hugel mound," she said enthusiastically.
Horch describes hugel mounds as brush, mud and sticks buried in a trench covered in leaves.
"They become a sort of nursery and the idea is that whatever you plant in a mound, in theory, you will never have to water for twenty years," she said.
Horch recently ordered blueberry bushes to plant in the mound.
"I think I might have ordered kiwi vines, too. There's a northern variety that can grow here, you eat the peel and all. I'll need to build a trellis, though."
Horch admits that although gardening is a real hobby for her, sometimes she would rather dream about projects than actually carry them out.
"I would love to flip houses. Not that I would have the taste or skills to do that, but I really like fixing up old houses, and this is a fantasy of mine. I thought about this when I was up for tenure [which she received in 2010], about what I would really want to do other than [teaching], and all these crazy ideas came about. I also think it would be really fun to be a movie critic."
In her free time, Horch enjoys watching her favorite 80's movies with her daughter and any show with a comedic, female-driven narrative.
"I kind of like vapid movies," she said. "I like Will Ferrell and romantic comedies. I am able to turn my brain off and be pretty uncritical with those. In college, I was into dark movies about Vietnam, but I just can't do that anymore. I just need to be pretty fluffy. I think a lot of deep thoughts at work, and that's enough."
Horch sipped coffee from a 30 Rock mug throughout the interview. When asked what Bowdoin students might not know about her, Horch revealed that she has her pilot's license. "My husband and I had money burning in our pockets, so we got licensed at Chapel Hill," she said. "The last time I flew I was getting certified on a Piper. I hate the feeling of doing stalls, what it does to your stomach. That particular day, I really felt like I was going to hurl. Turns out I was pregnant with my first child. After that, I became more risk-averse and haven't flown alone since, but I'm glad I did it."
Despite her willingness to share her eclectic hobbies with the Bowdoin community, Horch ultimately wants students to know how glad she is to be teaching here.
"I really love interacting with my students. It's kind of nerdy to say that, but I just love watching light bulbs go off. There's really no better feeling. It's a passion for me."
- 1 days ago
Alternative Spring Break program enjoys another successful year
Every year, Bowdoin students set off on service-based Alternative Spring Break (ASB) trips, and this year was no exception. Students this year traveled to different service organizations in Maine, Florida, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and Guatemala, working on a number of issues ranging from poverty to education to gender equality and equality for the LGBTIQ community.
In order to prepare for these trips, participants attend seminars planned and taught by their trip leaders.
"The leaders are responsible for creating eight-week seminars that help participants prepare for entering into the community," said Andrew Lardie, Associate Director for Service and Leadership at the McKeen Center. "They learn both about the history of the community they're going to and the issue itself, which might be local or a broader, historical, more national focus."
Leaders have varying degrees of scholarly expectations of their groups, and often draw from their academic backgrounds while creating the seminar curriculum. Going on an ASB allows students, both leaders and participants, to engage with issues they've studied in the classroom.Caroline Montag '17 a gender and women's studies major, went on the new trip to San Francisco created by Alice Wang '15 and Karl Reinhardt '15 to work with issues of gender and sexuality. Part of what compelled her to participate was the chance to see what she studied at Bowdoin in a different context.
"I wanted to study these topics in a place totally different from Bowdoin, in a big city with a lot of interesting queer and women's history," Montag said.
"Seeing things in a much more hands-on, direct historical lens was really interesting. We even went on a queer history tour of the city. Taking what I've already learned about the gay and women's liberation movements and putting it into the direct historical lens of where it happened was really great," she added.
On this trip students worked with organizations such as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, where they helped prepare clean needle kits for heroin addicts as part of the organization's needle exchange program, which strives to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Sam Mayne '16 also had the opportunity to see what he studied in anthropology classes during his trip to Pleasant Point, Maine where ASB participants worked with the Passamaquoddy tribe. Mayne has taken some anthropology courses specifically about native peoples, and this helped him go into his experience without any preconceived notions.
"It doesn't relate quite how you might expect it to," Mayne said. "When you're actually there, you're not constantly thinking about the fact that the people are natives. They're just people," he added.
Mayne went on the Passamaquoddy trip last year, and hopes to go again next year and would even like to return at the beginning of the summer to run a weeklong literacy challenge to encourage students to read.
Although the ASB application process typically gives preference to new applicants, the Pleasant Point trip gives past participants priority. The trip is free of charge. President Mills's office supports it as part of the Wabanaki-Bates-Bowdoin-Colby Collaboration. In order to foster a deeper connection with the Wabanaki, the McKeen Center tries to send familiar faces like Mayne on orientation and ASB trips.
"It's challenging because of the distance, and it isn't convenient to go there often, so what does it look like to build a relationship with people who you only see twice a year?" Lardie said.
With Mills departing at the end of the year, President-elect Clayton Rose must make the decision regarding the continuation of Bowdoin's participation in the collaboration and determine the fate of the program.
Lardie, the trip leaders, Security Officer JT Tyler and trip advisor Roy Partridge have all discussed ways in which they can sustain a connection with the Wabanaki throughout the year.
ASB trips aim to work as a springboard from which Bowdoin students can continue engagement with the material presented during the week.
Above all, Lardie is impressed by the level of student initiative that he sees in ASB trips. Students propose trips in the spring and plan all aspects of them with minimal supervision from Lardie and the assistance of two student McKeen Center ASB Fellows. Looking forward, he hopes to see proposals for trips that deal with different issues, like environmental justice, domestic violence and public health.
- 1 days ago
Sew what?: Crafts provide opportunity for cross-cultural bonding
Beatrice Rafferty Elementary School on the Sipayik reservation in Pleasant Point, Maine has an art room, craft corners in the classrooms and the Passamaquoddy Language and Culture classroom, home to beads, dream-catcher rings and crayons that smear rainbows on small hands.
Sipayik is the larger of the two Passamaquoddy tribal reservations in Downeast Maine; Beatrice Rafferty is the only school on the reservation. After kids finish their worksheets in Passamaquoddy class, they grab coloring pages and the crayon dust flies. A droopy-eared pajamaed rabbit is captioned, "Mahtoqehs—rabbit."
I spent a week on Alternative Spring Break (ASB) in the language classroom of the school, which overlooks the Passamaquoddy Bay. I came home with a stack of drawings and colored pages inches thick—I have "mahtoqehs," "pesqahsuwehsok—flower," and images of the traditional Passamaquoddy double curve.
On Friday, we met with Madonna Soctomah, a former tribal representative to the Maine state legislature. She told us about her experiences growing up on the reservation and then about her time in the legislature, where she worked with politicians who knew nothing about her community. On the reservation, she faced poverty. Off it, she faced racism and a government that wanted to erase her language and alter her way of life.
One of my ASB members asked what she thought our group, which traveled to Sipayik ostensibly to help with the issues facing the community, could actually do with our week.
Soctomah told us to absorb everything we possibly could, to listen and to learn, and then to tell other people what we had seen and heard. She also asked us to treat her people as humans.
Working in the classroom—my organized community service project—I met nearly every child who attends Beatrice Rafferty. Five-year olds sat on my lap and thirteen-year olds told me about their crushes. All the while, we colored and drew, heads together, attracted by the quiet spell of craft time.
The two teachers in the classroom told me about their childhoods, opened their library of Passamaquoddy history books, showed me the craft of beading a dream-catcher, and patiently corrected my Passamaquoddy pronunciation. (The Passamaquoddy "s" sounds like an English "z," "d" like a "b" and "t" like "d"). As children filed in and out, the teachers would quietly tell me whose parents were separated or gone and who had suffered unspeakably in her five, or seven, or twelve years of life.
On my last day in the classroom I cut out dozens of paper flowers—pesqahsuweskil. The teacher gave me green tempera paint, and on the glass doors that framed the bay glittering with chunks of snow and ice, I created an image of spring.
Before I left, the teacher asked me to close my eyes, and she clasped a bracelet around my wrist. She had beaded it in blue and cream and violet. When I expressed how beautiful it was, she laughed, saying that beading was easy, her hobby. She pointed at the paper and paint on the doors and said that my work was something she could not make. We hugged good-bye.
We gave gifts to each other—colored-in mahtoqehs, bracelets, even window decorations—because we connected on a fundamental level, through conversation and crayons. To receive a craft made by someone else—someone you have known for a short time but will never forget—is a tremendous gift.
To share everything that I learned about Passamaquoddy culture, language and life would take endless pages and hours.
Stories of suffering and oppression, stereotypes that evoke a mythologized way of life, can never define people. I cannot define their entire community in words, but I can tape rabbits to my walls—rabbits colored in during craft time by five-year-old kids—and tell college students about my new friends who made them.
- February 27
Talk of the Quad: My extracurricular is nothing
At the first affiliate event we hosted at Burnett House, a few first years asked me, "What do you do here?" They did not ask, "What is your favorite meal? Who are your friends? What classes do you like? How do you survive the workload?" They also did not ask, "Are you happy? Have you found love? Have you found yourself?"
I was struck by this question because I was at a real loss for how to answer it. We were standing in a small circle, one of many small circles at the party, holding cups filled with cider and eating a lot of cheese. There's something about a small circle of people that makes it easy to forget you don't know anybody in it. After all, we have been practicing standing and sitting in circles since pre-school.
Two of my best friends were standing on either side of me. They answered orchestra and a women's discussion group, Student government and organic gardening, Peer Health and outdoor leadership.
"Feel free to contact me if you're interested in any of these," they said to the first years. Their lists probably could have gone on, but these were their main activities. These two friends of mine are bright eyed and beautiful and funny and smart. They are musical and mathematical and read entire books in one morning.
Upon hearing their lists, the first years looked energized instead of intimidated. So many options, so many ways to get involved. It was just what was promised in the college brochure.
I had no idea what to say. I could not answer with a list. I wanted to say, "Sometimes I watch cooking tutorials on YouTube. I fill up journals and can't read my own writing. I struggle to finish all my essays and readings and take-home exams. Sometimes I call my mom and talk for forty-five minutes."
What do I do at college? I spend hours lying on the Ikea rug in my room on the third floor of an old house listening to Patsy Cline.
What else? Well, I'm in love with someone 3,000 miles away, and loving someone takes more energy than any extracurricular I've ever done. Sometimes I unroll my yoga mat. When I feel sick with worry, I walk to the next town over. I get coffee and let people rant to me about the things that hurt. Often, I bake bread and it goes horribly, horribly wrong. I'm not the head of an organization, but I have conquered an eating disorder.
If there's anything I've done here, it's learn that it is so much harder to slow down than to speed up.
So here's to doing nothing. To the quiet moments. To the days you sit within yourself and just watch. To soft music, handwritten words, silence. To listening to the way snow sounds underfoot. To watching dusk and dawn come and go.
We should be proud of the moments we do not try to fill. Not that activities and extracurriculars and essays aren't tremendous and important. But sometimes I want to gather the busy students, the ones with crunched faces and big backpacks, and say, "Shh. It will all be okay. Let yourself settle. Enjoy the nothingness." There will be times in our lives when the car breaks down, when the children are crying—times that will be much noisier and certainly more difficult than college. And even then, we must commit to the moments of nothing, the moments of sheer, simple joy. Eating a perfectly fried egg. Opening an untouched notebook.
Doing nothing does not mean failure. Pausing does not mean stopping. We are stirring up the dust by learning so much, and we must create a space for that dust to settle.
We are all superheroes with an Achilles heel: We are afraid to stop moving, afraid that if we for one second return to our introverted Peter Parker/Clark Kent selves, the world will be too far gone to save. But the reality is, it won't. After all, it does take some time to figure out what our powers are in the first place.
Raisa Tolchinsky is a member of the Class of 2017.
- February 27
Behind the Name tag: Dowd finds inspiration in art he protects
For Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) security guard Dan Dowd, guarding the museum's collection is more than just a nine-to-five job; it's brain food for his own creative aspirations.
A Mass. native, Dowd moved to Maine in 2001 to pursue art. In 2007, he joined Bowdoin's new security staff after the BCMA reopened following its renovation.
After taking studio art and art history courses during his undergraduate years at Framingham State University and immersing himself in a project to renovate a 19th century home, Dowd discovered his passion for found materials and objects since moving to Maine.
"I'm really interested in objects—why they were made, how they were used, how long they were used, and ultimately why they were discarded," said Dowd.
Dowd draws inspiration from his local transfer station—where waste is deposited—collecting materials, fibers and random objects to use as fodder for his work.
"Documentation of items, events, people and places is the driving force behind my found object and installation work," Dowd writes in his artist statement.
His work aims to highlight parallels between the lives of humans and the lives of objects.
Dowd analogized the "patinas that objects develop and [the] wrinkles that humans develop and how people change through their lives."
According to Dowd, patinas—the thin layer, such as rust oxidization, that materials acquire over time—may convey a variety of emotions, from comedy to tragedy to drama. His goal in rescuing these forgotten items and giving them a "second chance" is to depict and show the beauty and history of items that wouldn't normally be praised for their aesthetic value.
In addition to his current Gallery Framing exhibition on Pleasant Street, Dowd has been showcasing his artwork predominantly across the Northeast for over 10 years. Past solo exhibitions of his include "Anna Hepler's Head" at the Coleman Burke Gallery in Brunswick and "Born Again" at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. He has also been featured in several group exhibitions.
As a museum security guard, Dowd is constantly exposed to new artwork, which continuously gives him new ideas.
"I'm certainly influenced by the works on the walls," Dowd said. "As soon as new work goes on the walls, I can't wait to eat it up and find out about it."
Dowd said he is particularly excited to see new pieces from the museum's upcoming exhibit: "PAST FUTURES: Science Fiction, Space Travel, and Postwar Art of the Americas." According to Dowd, the best part of his job is meeting people and learning about new artists. As far as aspirations for the future, Dowd hopes to continue showcasing his work in the community.
Dowd's work will be included in Art in the Park in Worcester, MA, this summer, in addition to a solo installation at the Masonic Temple in Portland this July.
"I would love to eventually be affiliated with and be represented by a gallery," Dowd said. "My ultimate goal is to be a working artist that survives solely through my artwork."
Dowd's work is on display through Saturday at the Gallery Framing in Brunswick as part of the "Paired Devices" exhibition—a gathering of the work of five mid-coast Maine artists surrounding tools, hardware and everyday objects.
- February 27
Snow problem: Admissions shows it can handle the cold
Making a good impression on prospective students in the midst of one of the coldest winters in recent memory may be a daunting task, but Bowdoin's Office of Admissions is up to the challenge.
While some schools may be able to provide friendlier climates, Bowdoin has come up with a unique offering of its own—a sense of humor.For the last few weeks, Admissions has adopted a Hawaiian theme. Snow-covered tiki torches and beach chairs grace what is left of the front lawn, and tour guides have been donning Hawaiian shirts from Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Scott Meiklejohn's personal collection.
Admissions has also installed a hot chocolate bar, over which a banner reads, "It's Snow Big Deal."
"Admissions was concerned that visitors coming to Brunswick would be a little bit scared away by our harsh weather conditions," said Head Tour Guide Adrienne Chistolini '15. "They wanted to do some sort of visually pleasing campaign to make jokes out of it and show that we're really lighthearted and optimistic people at Bowdoin."
The "Hawaiian Shirt Campaign," has garnered a fair amount of attention, with WMTW, the local ABC affiliate, picking up the story last week.
Michelle Johnson '15, was interviewed by an WMTW news crew.
"That was kind of an accident. The news was coming during my tour slot and [the other tour guides] picked me because last semester I was the assistant head tour guide," she said. "They gave me about an hour warning and were like, 'Be camera ready!' and I was very unshowered and had just come from volunteering at a preschool, and I was like, 'Whatever, I can work with this!'"
Chistolini and Johnson feel the program has been a success. Both said that prospective students and their families have been, at the very least, amused by Admissions' latest antics, and anything that helps Bowdoin stand out must be considered a positive.
"[The campaign shows that] we can make light of a potentially very dismal and depressing situation," said Chistolini. "Hopefully it makes us stand out on their long college tours as a school that's a little bit different, a little bit kooky but in a funny way."
Even in late February, Bowdoin has many more weeks of snow to look forward to, and as it continues to trudge through the winter, one thing can be certain: Admissions will not allow a little snow to become a big deal.
- February 27
Talk of the Quad: The Trojan horse
In kindergarten, Ms. Poger had a big bowl of buttons. They were "counting buttons"—meant to help us with math. If I have eight buttons, and I give you three, how many do I have left? Now, a little bit you need to know about me…
Growing up, I had what my parents termed a "special drawer." It was below my sock drawer, above my shirts, and it was where I kept all of the small objects I compulsively squirreled: diminutive unfilled notebooks, miniature rubber dog models, tiny binder clips.
I had a glass cup of coins—not even special coins or foreign coins—just shiny nickels, mostly. So, being a small, strange child obsessed with collecting useless and unexceptional things, I was naturally drawn to the buttons.
And they were beautiful. One was tin-colored and conical, with complex cutouts and curlicues. One was brass, square shaped and deceptively heavy, with two-thread loops on the back. All together, they were enchanting, tumbling over one another and tinkling conspiratorially.
Sharing may be caring, but thievery is far more gratifying, and the buttons were like insects to my flypaper fingers. I started to steal them, every few days, after our math sessions. If Ms. Poger has one hundred buttons, and Stevie takes three each week for seven weeks, how many buttons does Ms. Poger have left?
When Ms. Poger discovered that the button bowl was losing weight—that students were pilfering—she took the bowl away in draconian fashion.
The idea was this: that if we were abusing her generosity in sharing the buttons, we lost the privilege of having them at all. In front of the class, Ms. Poger made a big deal out of locking the bowl away in the bottom drawer of her desk. No more buttons.
Thursday at 2:40 p.m. and I'm wondering if the same sort of logic is operating in Coles Tower, except that now, being 22, I've graduated from buttons…
Let me explain: There are five Tower RAs, all of whom are wonderful people. I have no unkind words to voice against them. They put nametags on our doors, they have cellphone numbers posted to theirs, and they host pizza parties on the 16th floor catered by Flipside. I have no real complaints.
But it's Thursday at 2:40 p.m. and I'm looking for condoms. Ok, ok—not for use at 2:40 p.m. admittedly. But it's important to be prepared—for anything and everything. That's a rule I also learned back in kindergarten, when, after being confronted with the impossible and explosive nature of the milk cartons, I started always opening my chocolate milk with the spout pointing away from me, at my friends.
So I go down a few floors, to the nearest RA's door. I'm looking for that Halloween-style, serve-yourself vessel full of the small, light blue packages. No luck.
I know RAs aren't proctors, and maybe they aren't told to provide seniors in the Tower with condoms, but why not? I guess I'd just assumed that all Residential Life staffers had access to an off-putting number of condoms with which to arm us residents.
Disappointed on this floor, I head down a few more and stop by the next RA's apartment. Same thing. And none at the next RA's floor, either.
There are, surprisingly, no condoms in the Tower.
And here's the Ms. Poger connection—are you still with me? I wonder if, like the bowl brimming with "counting buttons," there used to be an awe-inspiring bowl of Trojans made available for students, a privilege which Tower residents abused for too long—stealing condoms, hoarding them, hiding them in their "special drawers." Then I think about the bowl being locked away forever in someone's desk. No more condoms.
Not that I'm blaming anyone— I'm certainly not one to judge. But no matter, I still have no condoms, and now it's 2:50 p.m. And so I do what any rational senior would do when the weather is below zero with windchill, and head for the nearest first year dorm.
So I'm headed to West. Hey—when you got to go, you got to go. (I think I'd rather not tell you all about the day in kindergarten when Ms. Poger's class learned about that.) On the first floor, I beeline for the proctor's door, made evident by the whiteboard and—at last!—the condom bowl.
I sort of wish I'd been discovered—a senior hunched greedily over the condoms and, for the first time in my life, choosing something over chocolate, which the kind proctor had also left in the bowl—because it was probably hilarious. Or incredibly frightening.
I'm trying to imagine some analogous scene—to throw some metaphor in here—and I keep thinking about Santa feeding from his plate of cookies, but everything about that comparison is disturbing. Anyway, I stuff the condoms into my bag, and kindergarten math comes rushing back. If the West first years have nine condoms, and Stevie takes them all, how many condoms do they have left? Sorry, West.
Am I embarrassed? A little. Did I abuse the system in taking all of the condoms from West? Undoubtedly. Am I judging myself just as much, if not more so, than you? Likely. But I hope that this, besides being a mildly entertaining story you read this morning while eating breakfast alone and feeling a little socially awkward about it, can be a lesson.
For all those of you who call the Tower your home on campus, don't waste your time looking for the free condoms. There are none. In the interest of efficiency, head straight to the closest first year dorm—maybe you pass Coleman on your way to the library?—and stock up. And for all of you still in the dawn of your Bowdoin days, living in the first-year bricks—if your condom bowl is empty, it was probably us.
Stevie Lane is a member of the Class of 2015.
- February 27
Ben AppÉtit: Libby's Market: a local gem we shouldn't forget to love
When you spend this much time overanalyzing food, sometimes it's important to get back to the basics. Though I'm sure much of the Orient's readership is well acquainted with Libby's Market, it seems only right to remind everyone that Brunswick's best offering is available year-round, even in the dark midterm days leading up to Spring Break. Located only a few blocks away from Maine Street on Jordan Avenue, Libby's serves a no-nonsense lobster roll that could easily be considered the best Maine has to offer.
The modest setting—a small clapboard structure with the appearance of a gas station sans gas pumps—enhances the culinary surprise that waits behind the counter. Food-obsessed Orient writers before me have questioned Libby's supremacy with mentions of Red's Eats, Brunswick Diner, and other crustacean-peddling competitors. I would just like to throw my hat in the ring with an emphatic endorsement of Libby's as the ideal lobster roll experience just so happens to be the most convenient option as well.
Though the convenience store interior may seem like the typical place to stop for soda and chips during a long car ride, a few more dollars can buy you a generous helping of fresh-caught lobster in a toasted hot dog bun. Though it may lack the maritime décor of Maine's quintessential seaside restaurants, the real spirit of the state is alive and well at Libby's. The Libby family's approach to food—all quality, no kitsch—makes for great food, great conversation, and limited seating. Don't worry though; devouring the whole roll while standing at the counter is by no means discouraged.
Aside from some butter on the toasted bun (which is potato bread, of course), Libby's roll is all juicy lobster meat with just a touch of mayonnaise for cohesion, rather than the dousing of mayo and celery too often used to compensate for a lack of shellfish. Many laud the inclusion of a claw in the roll at Red's Eats, but we should all be honest and admit that the rubbery pincer meat is more of an aesthetic gimmick than a gustatory treat.
Libby's doesn't advertise at all, nor does it feature the press clippings and banners characteristic of its competitors, but the impressive quality of their product has made it an accidental attraction. Locals, enlightened Bowdoinites, and Yelp-savvy tourists come to the counter year round, but a small, yet noticeable price-hike accompanies the arrival of warm(er) weather every year. In the off-season, Libby's rarely ever sees lines out the door, so winter is an ideal time to get your lobster fix in a hurry.
The birthday of my dear roommate Jake Reiben '17 occasioned my most recent visit to Libby's. Arriving just before the 7 p.m. closing time, our group was rewarded with free chips and challenged to a homemade dice game—a chance to win the contents of that day's tip jar—while waiting for our rolls. Dan Libby shamed me into buying a female friend's lobster roll, citing chivalry as a major part of his successful marriage, and the meal that followed was undoubtedly worth the doubled price. When the texture of the golden-brown potato bun contrasted perfectly with the smooth lobster chunks, the stars aligned, and I had a spiritual encounter with a three-ingredient sandwich. Simplicity, in both quality food and friendly atmosphere, is what truly makes Libby's the best around; and fortunately, it doesn't look like that will be changing any time soon.
Arts & Entertainment
- today
Portrait of an artist: Jarred Kennedy-Loving '15
Jarred Kennedy-Loving '15 was not always encouraged to embrace his body. It was only after he took his first dance class with former Visiting Professor Nya McCarthy-Brown his sophomore year that he felt inspired about dancing. Now a senior, he is a gender and women's studies major and dance minor who is completing an independent study in dance that explores identity, reflection and perception—thanks to and in spite of any and all of obstacles that stood in his way.
Coming from a lower socioeconomic background, dance wasn't on his radar when he was growing up. When one of his foster families put him in a church production as an angel, the pastor approached him and told him boys shouldn't wear tight clothing like his. After that experience he became self-conscious and discouraged not only about his body, but how he moved it.
"I didn't dance that much," said Kennedy-Loving. "But I always knew that I could."
At Bowdoin, working with McCarthy-Brown was a turning point for him.
"She changed my life; she believed in me," he said. "She taught me how to isolate my rib cage—I could move it like Shakira."
In class, Kennedy-Loving liked observing how different people move and figuring out how they did it.
"I got to the class and it was like food for me," he said. "It's so good to see what people are coming up with."
From these experiences, Kennedy-Loving started to think about the questions that would evolve into his independent study: How do others view us in our space? How do we interact?
But before his independent study was completely underway, Kennedy-Loving had a setback.
On February 7, he started the day breaking records with the track and field team at the Maine State Track Meet, including his personal record of 23 seconds in the 200-meter dash. He ended the day, however, in the emergency in Lewiston, Maine. While running the 400 meter race, he suffered a compound fracture in his leg.
"It was an emotional time for me," he said. "I was in my hospital room thinking, how am I going to finish my minor?"
For Kennedy-Loving, being an athlete and a dancer work together because both demand his attention and awareness of his body in space.
"I listen to my body," he said. "It's more important than the beat itself."
In addition to his experiences on the dance floor and the track, Kennedy-Loving brings another level to his personal journey with identity, reflection and perception. While he has been supported at Bowdoin, he still finds it difficult to navigate his identity as a gay black man.
"Whatever you may be, you have to find that creative truth," said Kennedy-Loving.
For his independent study, Kennedy-Loving is choreographing a piece based on his favorite poem, "And Yea...This is a Love Poem," by Nikki Giovanni. He emphasizes that a lot of his work is about making choices and accepting them.When choosing dancers it was important for him to emphasize that no dance experience was necessary.
"It's ludicrous to say only certain people can move in space," he said. Teresa Liu '15, Adaiah Hudgins-Lopez '18 and Christabel Fosu-Asare '18 are dancing in this project.
When it comes to the actual choreography, Kennedy-Loving said he sees it as a collaborative effort. Throughout the process, Kennedy-Loving said he has felt inspired by his dancers and their energy.
"I have to watch these three [people] move in space to work through the choreography," he explained.
His piece is comprised of angular movements and fluid motions that focus on the upper body as a representation of the constrained identity.
"Am I an artist? I don't know if I'm an artist. I love movement and patterns and space and expression," he said. "But I struggle to call myself a dancer, so I just call myself Jarred."
- 1 days ago
Conover '83 shares film created for Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
Coastal Studies Scholar and documentary filmmaker David Conover '83 screened his eight-minute film created for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum on Wednesday in Kresge Auditorium. The event was followed by a conversation with Conover and Professor of English and Cinema Studies Aviva Briefel.
A stark contrast to his typical ocean and outdoor-focused works, Conover's film provides Auschwitz visitors with a portal to witness the horrors of the camp prior to their entry into the primary gateway. With the exception of Wednesday's audience of Bowdoin students and community members, the film will be shown exclusively on-site in the newly-renovated cinema room at the visitors' center, starting in four or five months.
Conover has spent the last 25 years producing films that explore human relationships with the earth, often focusing on the ocean. Since 1992, he has been executive producer and director of the Camden, Maine-based production company Compass Light, which has received over 250 commissions from various publishers and broadcasters, including PBS Nova and the Discovery Channel. Conover has also taught two Bowdoin courses in documentary film: Seashore Digital Diaries in the fall and Science to Story: Digital and Beyond this semester.
Conover's Auschwitz Gateway Film serves as a preamble to the visitor experience and aims to prepare the museum's annual 1.5 million visitors, who come from a variety of geographical and cultural backgrounds, to experience the camp. "The challenge was how to position people for what really is the most important experience, which is just being there and being in this authentic place," said Conover.
The film included archival images and video clips superimposed with contemporary shots of the camp. Conover and his production team shot and framed exact picture-frame matches, filming in locations that have been photographed in the archives.
The aerial drone shots, revealing the magnitude of the camp through picturesque grassy landscapes, were juxtaposed against the harshness of black and white photographs of people in the camp.
"There is something very beautiful about the way [the film] establishes and constructs the shots initially, and then recreates a history of what this place actually is through the superimposition of color and black and white," said Briefel.
Though documentation of the camp is scarce, the film employed photographs from the Lili Jacob collection, an archive of 180 photos taken by Nazi photographers. Several video clips were taken by Ukrainians who came to the camp in January of 1945 while it was closed but still occupied.
Many photos in that collection were taken with the agenda of dehumanizing Jews and other people in the camp, depicting them almost exclusively in crowds. The bias of the camera informed the way the images were contextualized in the film. Using research conducted by the museum, the film superimposed nametags onto the families portrayed in the photographs to restore their individuality.
Briefel and Conover discussed the poignancy of seeing photographs from Auschwitz camps for the first time, and our tendency to resist looking at the harsh and often disturbing images.
"There's this paradox that it is really an unknowable experience and yet you're compelled to convey it," said Conover.
Conover didn't see a necessity for dramatizing the film in any way. His decision to make the film dispassionate was guided by knowing that people would be there experiencing Auschwitz for themselves.
"Although we were displaced in the sense that we're here in America and not actually at the camp, we still get a sense of being there," said Emiley Charley '17. "It lets [visitors] remember history for themselves," she added.
By providing an entry point to experience the legacy of such a significant landmark with a devastating history, Conover's film makes no claims to make sense of the events that took place in Auschwitz during the Holocaust.
"This is really an atrocity; it's not a tragedy," said Conover. "There's no real counterweight; it's just horrible, and that's it."
- 1 days ago
Brown discusses creating black identity through image and text
The Beam Classroom was overflowing on Tuesday night as students and faculty packed the seats to hear Kimberly Juanita Brown, Ph.D. speak. Brown's talk, entitled "Afterimages of History: The Poetics of Photography in the Contemporary," used photography and poetry to discuss the subjectivity of African American experiences over the past 60 years.
Brown featured photographs from black artists like Roy DeCarava and Carrie Mae Weems.
DeCarava captured the lives of African American men and women in the 1950s and 1960s—working, protesting for rights, mourning, enjoying the small moments. Weems' work is more recent—from the 1990s and early 2000s—and focuses on the recognition of African Americans' places in Louisiana history.
Brown matched these images with the words of poets of color. She believes the pairing of the words and imagery help to convey historical events and feelings of African Americans.
"Owing to a history of racial subjugation in the United States...the juxtaposition of imagery practiced by black artists in this country is also about the power of photography, whether it is a record of pain, violation, joy, or comfort," Brown said in her talk on Tuesday evening. "Similarly, African American poetry is a catalogue of historical events."
Many of DeCarava's photographs were published in a 1955 book co-authored by Langston Hughes, "The Sweet Flypaper of Life." This book captivated African Americans and became a "bible" to them, according to Brown.Brown's own experience with this book is noteworthy. In her very-hard-to-find copy (originally from a library in Vermont), she noticed the word "discarded" stamped inside the front cover. She could not let that word go."I hovered over the idea of this discarding," she said in her talk. "It somehow brings together a myriad of concerns animating black poetic and photographic representations—remove, reject, toss out, refuse."
Brown covers this issue as a lecturer in the Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University, though she will be leaving Harvard for Mount Holyoke College at the end of the academic year. She is also writing a book that will be published this fall.
"[The] book project...explores the cultural facility of dead black bodies [that appeared] on the cover of the New York Times in 1994," said Brown.
Assistant Professor of Art History Dana Byrd was one of the proponents of bringing Brownto campus, with funding from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the Blythe Bickel Edwards Fund.
"It seemed nice to have someone who was trained in literature and in African American studies," said Byrd. "[She] offer[ed] a slightly different method for working on photography and working at the intersection of the visual."Byrd was thrilled by the large audience that attended the talk.
"There was a broad spectrum of students and faculty and people from the community, and that was really heartening," said Byrd. "It suggested that people in this community and on this campus are really engaged with the arts and thinking deeply about visual things."
Brown recognizes the less publicized but still incredibly worthy work of African Americans in the past sixty years.
"Poets and photographers mine the vast archive of black subjectivity," Brown said. "[It] allow[s] the space to pause, to contemplate, to acknowledge and [to] engage in the spectacular presence of African American visual production."
- 1 days ago
Hipster drivel: Josh Tillman and the evolution of the singer-songwriter
There are many ways to be an asshole with an acoustic guitar: cover "Wonderwall," for example, or play Dave Matthews. The democratization of music consumption (once, you had to be nobility to hear Mozart) mirrors, I think, the decline of earnest musical talent (see: your Spotify Free usage and the number of milquetoast Coldplay wannabees dotting your Facebook newsfeed). The advent of audio recording meant you no longer had to read sheet music in order to experience Gilbert and Sullivan—but can we call this a happy development if it culminates in Iggy Azalea?
The asshole-with-guitar rarely means to be such a thing. He picked up the instrument either to accommodate for his lack of personality or to lyricize sentiments best left in his diary, yet we heap on him derision rather than pity. Why? Because the storied history of the singer-songwriter progresses from sincere to sweet to sentimental to saccharine. Singer-songwriter as a quote-unquote genre has already had its wunderkind beat poet protestor (Bob Dylan), its self-loathing and conflicted sneerer (also Dylan), its Brill Building cinematic sell-out (Burt Bacharach), its soft-rock schmaltz establishment crooner (James Taylor), its alcoholic roustabout raconteur (Tom Waits), its whimsical psychedelic druggie (Harry Nilsson), and its fuck-it-I'll-play-harpsichord virtuoso (Van Dyke Parks). Which is all to say: it's tough being a white guy in show biz these days. A six-string and a broken heart don't get you as far as they once did.
Maybe the singer-songwriter of today has been reduced to your annoying acoustic first-year floormate, but it wasn't always so. Let's remember that before he turned us all into hanky-soaked nostalgists with "You've Got a Friend in Me," Randy Newman was an acerbic pianist. Instead of sentiment, he laced his songs with scathing satire. His song "Rednecks," for instance, sends up the trope of the titular southerners who "can't tell [their] ass from a hole in ground" while damning white northerners for their hypocrisy and complicity in systemic racism. Far from the middle-of-the-road emoting of Ed Sheeran, Hozier, and your cousin whose cover of "Fearless" was retweeted by Taylor Swift, Randy Newman had edge. Who will deliver us from Sam Smith in 2015?
Enter Josh Tillman, alias Father John Misty, asshole-with-guitar, but not the kind who only knows the chorus to "Wagon Wheel." Under an abbreviated name, he used to perform mopey folk music, the kind of "sensitive lumberjack" tunes that made Bon Iver famous. After a stint with Fleet Foxes, a band that injected emotional highs into listeners straight through a catheter of pastoralism and four-part harmony, he abandoned white-male melancholia. I remember his Facebook post from the Fleet Foxes page declaring, "into the gaping maw of obscurity I go."
You know what they say: if you can't beat 'em, caricature 'em. Tillman's new project, Father John Misty, is the Adult Swim version of Bon Iver, a Newman-esque satire of the possibility of a singer-songwriter in 2015. He even has his own (anti-)origin story: depressed dude fails at music industry, takes psychedelics, internalizes life's nihilism, and transforms into shamanic and cynical asshole-with-guitar who knows he's the asshole-with-guitar. Tillman is the kind of asshole who would laugh at the kid trying to lead the entire camp in a sing-a-long of "Skinny Love," and then sleep with his mother. Bon Iver sings about losing love and innocence alike; Tillman thinks you can recapture the former with his specialty perfume called "'Innocence' by Misty" (it goes for $75.00 on his website).
The funniest part of the Father John Misty joke, then, isn't the absurdity of a singer-songwriter releasing an album of love songs in 2015—although "I Love You, Honeybear" is full of self-referential asides suggesting Tillman is as bored with singer-songwriters as the rest of us. No, the punch line is that the Father John shaman character isn't really a character at all. Tillman really is just that bitter, scathing, outrageous, hilarious, and at times, brilliant. He was faking it while drumming for Fleet Foxes, champions of sincerity. Maybe it's the difference between Tinseltown and Medford, Wisconsin, but Tillman's only himself when he lets his asshole-with-guitar run free.
"I Love You, Honeybear" plays with performance. The title is tongue in cheek, but only because Tillman knows what it's like to have been chewed up and spit back out, both by love and by commercial failure. "Save me white Jesus," he sings over canned laughter on "Bored In The USA," clearly expecting no salvation from either the Lord or the Boss. Tillman even leaked a version of his album early, with his voice and instrumentation compressed into Super Mario Bros.-style blockiness.
Despite such ironic affectations, there's a brutal honesty to these songs, which document Tillman's neuroses, sins, and lexicon. Addressing his honeybear:"I've brought my mother's depression / You've got your father's scorn and a wayward aunt's schizophrenia." Addressing a judgmental hookup who "hoovers all [his] drugs": "She says, like literally, music is the air she breathes / And the malaprops makes me want to fucking scream." The album is an account of how he met his wife, and surely Tillman makes a loving if troubled husband but the misogynistic womanizer in him is never wholly disowned. That's the point, though. Tillman is through with hiding, even his nastiest characteristics.
Father John Misty is too clever for his own good—that sharp tongue is bound to puncture his cheek—but he never backs away from who he is, which is a giant asshole with a mariachi guitar. He's a jerk whose honesty is almost lovable. By serenading us with snark couched in sentiment wrapped up in equal parts schmaltz and cynicism, he delivers this truth to a dying industry: sometimes, it takes sarcasm to be sincere.
- 1 days ago
Neal Gabler dispells Hollywood's anti-Semitism
Neal Gabler, a distinguished author, cultural historian and TV commentator, gave a lecture entitled "How the Jews Invented Hollywood and Why," about the Eastern European Jews who created the modern silver screen.
Gabler, who has written for publications such as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, also served as the "liberal" panelist on Fox News Watch and replaced Robert Ebert as a movie reviewer on the PBS show "Sneak Previews."
A professor at Stony Brook Southampton with interests in American culture, Gabler has written leviathan-like biographies on both Walter Winchell and Walt Disney, and has received multiple awards for his book "An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood," from which Tuesday's lecture drew its name.
Gabler was chosen to give this lecture by Bowdoin's Harry Spindel Memorial Lectureship committee. This lectureship, founded in 1977 by Rosalyne Spindel Bernstein in memory of her father, selects one lecturer per year to speak on various aspects of Jewish culture. Past topics have included art, poetry and activism with lecturers like Art Spiegelman.
This year, according to Associate Professor of Classics and chair of the lectureship Jennifer Kosak, the committee agreed to select someone who could speak to Jewish involvement in the film industry.
"Neal Gabler's name came right up," said Kosak. "There was no question that he would be a superb speaker for that topic."
Kosak said that this annual lecture, which serves as a headline event on Jewish Studies at Bowdoin, brings together not just members of the Bowdoin community, but the greater Brunswick community as well.
Gabler attended lunch with students Tuesday afternoon and later visited a film class."I thought he was fantastic. I think it's a really uniquely Bowdoin thing that he would come to lunch with us and then walk with us to class," said Nick Magalhaes '15, who attended the lecture and joined Gabler for lunch. "It's great that we can incorporate an intellectual into student life."
That evening, Gabler addressed a packed auditorium. He opened with a story about his childhood relationship with film and then launched into his account of how Eastern European Jews transformed Hollywood into the glamorous institution of the 1920s that we recognize today.
Although anti-Semitic stereotypes portray Jewish film studio presidents—people who headed production giants such as Warner Brothers Entertainment and Universal Studios—as greedy men who sacrificed art for profit, Gabler disagrees.
"They were not the impediments to art. In many ways they were the engines of it," Gabler said.In fact, according to Gabler, Jewish studio moguls had a direct hand in the creation of most cinematic masterpieces from the era as well as in the elevation of the movie-going experience and the accompanying lavishness that has so influenced American culture.
"There's this wonderful irony that America is created in the image of Hollywood, to a great extent, and Hollywood is created by Eastern European Jews," said Gabler. "So if you take the syllogism, America is created by Eastern European Jews."
These Eastern European Jews, Gabler argues, idealized an alien country and people in their films as a means of assimilation. This assimilation, says Gabler, was both ruthless and relentless.
"When you create a whole country by abandoning who you are, which is essentially what they did, you do pay a price," he said.
Ryan Szantyr '16, who attended the lecture, said, "I think that movies have always been about establishing an identity, and for these people to give up their identity in order to assimilate themselves into American culture was, in a sense, sad."
"I love to entertain people, I want people to be engaged, and what I want [the audience] to take away is to understand the dynamics of the creation of the American film industry. Who created it and why they created it," said Gabler. "If they take that away, that they'll have an understanding that will help them appreciate two things: American film industry and American culture."
- 1 days ago
Hafu film explores mixed-race in unfamiliar context
While issues of race and identity are currently at the forefront of the minds of many Americans, the Asian Studies Department exposed campus to race relations abroad with a screening and discussion of the Japanese documentary "Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan." The 2013 film follows the lives of several half-Japanese individuals—"hafus"—as they attempt to fit into a racially uniform culture.
"Hafus are actually quite popular in Japanese media—but they are also stigmatized. They are supposed to live a certain way," said Professor Toru Shinoda of Waseda University in Tokyo who moderated the discussion following the film.
"No matter how long you live here, you're not Japanese. You're not accepted as a Japanese," said Sophia, a half-Australian, half-Japanese woman profiled in the film.
The hostility expressed towards hafus can be so intense that some parents choose to hide the fact that their children are not completely Japanese.
Fusae, a half-Korean, half-Japanese woman in the film described the moment where she found out that she was not actually fully Japanese. Her mother concealed her Korean ancestry in order to protect her. Fusae's mother warned her that she should be careful when telling men that she is only half-Japanese.
Fusae recalls, "I really felt that I did not belong anywhere in Japan. I wished to be either fully Japanese or Korean."
The film also follows Mixed Roots—a group that connects and supports hafus struggling with their racial identity.
Senior Lecturer in Japanese Language Hiroo Aridome noted that students will enroll in Japanese Language courses in order to find their own identity.
Though Japan's demography is different from America's, the challenges that accompany a multiracial identity still resonate.
"I'm a first generation American. That has really complicated the answers to 'What is your nationality?' and 'Where are you from?'" says Jorge Gomez '18, who attended the event and is of mixed race. "I've struggled with the question of whether to identify as American or Mexican. That's why I identify as Mexican-American, as that includes both."
Wednesday's screening was followed by a discussion moderated by Shinoda that featured student panelists Emily Licholai '18, Greg Stasiw '15, Justin Ehringhaus '16 and Alex Mathieu '15.
"People perceive Japan as a homogeneous society with no race issues. I hope that students can understand that this is not true," said Professor Shinoda.
- February 27
'Light/Dark' experimental show: a departure from traditional plays
"Light/Dark"—which opened last night—explores one of the most crucial aspects of any theater performance: light.
Sponsored by the Department of Theater and Dance and directed by Professor of Theater Davis Robinson, "Light/Dark" experiments with the role of light in theater, poetry, dance and science. Robinson produced the show with his longtime friend, Tony Award-winning lighting designer Chris Akerlind.
"We found this play, 'Middletown,' which we both really liked as being something that is very open. [It] lets you focus on the people and how they're affected and the references of lightness and darkness," Robinson said.
Robinson and Akerlind worked with students in Robinson's class, Theater Topics: Action, Light, and Meaning in addition to students outside of the class who work for the department.
"Middletown" tells the tale of a seemingly average American town and how its residents interact with one another in their daily lives, which often intersect in unforeseen ways. Those involved with "Light/Dark" have taken great liberty with the show's scenes in order to more deeply examine and emphasize the power of light.
"Most of the time, a playwright will give you her or his play and then there's a great deal of sense of respect for that," Akerlind said. "In this, the entire company are the writers in a weird way so we're not subservient to some writer, even though the event sort of revolves around one play that shows up a lot. That's the spine of it, but it's not the totality of it."
Monique Lillis '17 plays Mary Swanson, a woman who just moved to the town. "It's really exciting to devise your own play because you get to try out a bunch of pieces and see how they fit together," Lillis said. "There was a lot of material we tried at the very beginning of the semester that just got scrapped because it didn't fit in with the show or it didn't go with our final idea of what we wanted."
The cast and crew—in total 12 actors and 10 stagehands—have been working up to 20-hour weeks for the past month.
For audience members, the experience begins before the show starts. Robinson and Ackerlind chose to begin the narrative in the lobby, where attendees will be greeted by shadow puppetry. From there, showgoers are led up Pickard Theater's back staircase on a tour of the exposed theater, where multiple lighting elements will set the stage.
"And then when the actual journey begins, it really is a journey. They need to go up those stairwells so that they enter the space and see it from three floors up and see all three floors activated at the same time," Robinson said.
From there, the audience will be seated very close to the stage. The show both begins and ends with elements related to black holes, which Robinson connects to "life and death and bigger and bigger issues."
While the show presents light one way, audience members as well as the cast and crew are likely to have different interpretations of its meaning.
"Your initial thought is that light is good and darkness is bad, but one of my favorite images that didn't make it into the final cut was one of the guys sitting in the woods just encompassed by the darkness but feeling really at home," Lillis said. "[It showed] the idea that darkness can actually be warmth as well as welcoming and that some things stay in the dark and are secret and better that way and sometimes how light can be so harsh."
"Light/Dark" runs for 75 minutes and will be performed in Wish Theater. Tonight's and tomorrow night's 7 p.m. showings are sold out, but a limited number of tickets will be available at the door. The portion of the show located in the theater's lobby will begin around 6:40 p.m.
- February 27
Beyond the Proscenium to explore theater, space
Beyond the Proscenium, a new theater group on campus, received a large audition turnout for what will be its first production, "Spring Awakening." The cast will include students who frequently act, students who have never acted at Bowdoin before, and everyone in between.
The group hopes to reshape the way students view theatrical productions on campus. It plans to distinguish itself from other theater groups by staging performances in various campus spaces other than theaters. "Spring Awakening" will be performed in Chase Barn Chamber as opposed to Pickard or Wish theaters.
Cordelia Orbach '17 and Sarah Guilbault '18 were motivated to form Beyond the Proscenium in order to create more opportunities for people who were interested in theater but not more traditional productions. Both Orbach and Guilbault have theater backgrounds themselves and wanted to make acting accessible to more students.
Phoebe Smukler '17, who was cast as the female romantic lead Wendla Stiefel in "Spring Awakening" has not been in a show at Bowdoin yet and is excited to get involved.
"Beyond the Proscenium presented the perfect opportunity with 'Spring Awakening,' a very energetic and compelling show that I have wanted to perform in for quite some time," wrote Smukler in an email to the Orient.
The demand for a group like Beyond the Proscenium was made clear to Orbach earlier this fall when she noticed first years discussing how they were interested in participating in plays, but weren't sure about all the opportunities available to them.
"Everyone started talking about how there are a lot of people who want to be doing theater on campus, but cannot necessarily commit the time to it or are not sure where to find it," said Orbach. "With only two traditional productions per semester, people who ended up doing theater were either minors or people who were very interested in it."
Orbach believes that Beyond the Proscenium's off-stage productions will make the prospect of performing more welcoming for those looking to participate in theater for the first time.
"The idea was to found a group that did another production per semester and to do theater in site-specific locations, rather than in theaters," said Orbach. "We thought by bringing it out of the theater and onto campus it would make it more accessible and available to people who might not have been able to find it before or who were intimidated by a theater setting."
The name of the group also promotes its open nature, Orbach said.
"The proscenium, which is the fourth wall of the stage, captures the idea of pushing through so we can access the people who weren't necessarily on stage already," she said.
"Spring Awakening" will be performed later this semester. Although the group is new, Guilbault says the upcoming play is already generating buzz on campus.
"I keep having people coming up to me saying how eager they are to start, and I think that will make it a really good show," she said.Adam Glynn '17, who was cast as Melchior Gabor, the romantic male lead, is "psyched" to be part of the production.
"[The leaders] are really committed to diversifying the kind of theater we see at Bowdoin," wrote Glynn in an email to the Orient.
Glynn performed last year in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" which took place in Ladd House, another non-traditional space for a show.
The group chose Spring Awakening, a spirited rock musical that deals with teenage sexuality and other contentious themes, in part to draw attention to its first production.
Jae Yeon Yoo '18 will serve as the musical director for "Spring Awakening." Yoo said she is excited to deal with the the unique challenges presented by the play's staging.
"Since it's so location-centered, that relieves a lot of the tech burden," said Yoo. "I am hoping to get a lot of musicians involved. This is a chance to break out of the more traditional chamber ensemble groups on campus, but still create music together."
Many of the group's early members are underclassmen, providing hope that the young company will grow together over the next few years and recruit others to join its ranks.
"I am hoping new people will try out for new and smaller projects," said Guilbault. "I hope the people who did audition for this production come again and I hope that they bring all of their friends."
- February 27
WBOR brings pop band SUN CLUB to Ladd tonight
SUN CLUB, a pop band from Baltimore, is coming to Bowdoin for the first time tonight to play in Ladd House. Hosted by WBOR, the show is being billed as "a warm concert for a cold Maine." Treefarm, a student band, will open starting at 9 p.m.
Noah Fardon '16—who handles concert bookings for WBOR—says that he has been trying to set up this event since first hearing SUN CLUB at the Elberta Mansion in Nashville, Tenn. several years ago. Their music, according to Fardon, is exactly what Maine needs right now to counteract the cold and snow.
"SUN CLUB's name is perfectly indicative of their sound," he wrote in an email to the Orient. "They write hyper, spontaneous, guitar-driven pop with a summertime sheen to it."As for the band's genre, Fardon could only describe it as "spunky-fun-love-super-ultra-jungle-music."
SUN CLUB first came together while the members were still in high school. Over the years they have toured throughout the U.S. and Canada, received critical acclaim on music blogs, and amassed a dedicated fan base. They are currently preparing for the upcoming release of their first official full-length album and European tour in May.
Friday's concert will mark SUN CLUB's fourth-ever concert in Maine. SUN CLUB guitarist Shane Justice McCord, in a phone interview with the Orient, shared that he was looking forward to the event in part because of positive past experiences in the state.
"Maine is usually really cool. Pretty weird," McCord said.
The concert is part of a larger WBOR objective to expand Bowdoin's music scene."We at WBOR chose SUN CLUB because they are a phenomenal, incredibly wild live act that few people have heard of," wrote Fardon. "And thus they fulfill two major goals that we have: to throw an incredible party that is rooted in the brilliance of music and to challenge our peers to broaden their musical horizons by checking out a band that all are certain to enjoy, though their name might not be familiar."
WBOR leaders have been working to plan a "house show" concert for more than a year, because intimate settings like Ladd House give bands the ability to connect with their audience in a way that other, larger venues do not. So when Ladd House members approached WBOR about the concert, WBOR eagerly jumped on board.
The concert will be held in conjunction with the Fifty Shades of Groutfit campus-wide party that Ladd is holding instead of the Inappropriate Party.
Treefarm—composed of Ryan Fowler '15, Greg Stasiw '15, Sky Monaco '16, Evan Montilla '17, Arindam Jurakhan '17 and Ben West '16—is looking forward to the concert. Founded in 2013, the group usually plays an eclectic mix of its own music and covers of indie pop songs. Jurukhan, a trombone player and the group's most recent addition, said that Treefarm often performs songs and sets with jazz and blues influences.
Jurakhan said that he gets excited whenever a live music act comes to campus. For him, that excitement is multiplied since he will be performing as well.
Jurakhan agreed with Fardon that the two groups will meld well. While not intimately familiar with SUN CLUB, he said that he had listened to several of their songs and felt that they had a similar, energetic feel.
"There is a lot of potential power in a band's ability to connect with audiences in such a vulnerable scenario as a house show, and SUN CLUB has mastered the art," wrote Fardon.While many upperclass students expressed disappointment at the cancellation of the Inappropriate Party, Maddi Kuras '18 felt quite the opposite.
"I'm really pumped to be perfectly honest, because Treefarm is supposed to be great and I love live music," she said.
- February 27
Student film looks at Thai land rights
While most Bowdoin students use downtime to catch up on movies on Netflix, Paul Sullivan '16 and Wilder Nicholson '16, who both hail from Brunswick, used theirs to create a movie of their own.
Their 15-minute documentary, entitled "The Master Plan: Solving Deforestation or Yet Another Strategy to Remove and Evict People," was created as an independent study project during their semester abroad in Thailand.
The documentary was created with the purpose of giving back to the Thai community that had given so much to the two students during their time there.
The documentary focuses on Thailand's changing laws regarding land rights and deforestation. Thailand recently enacted laws to slow deforestation. These laws have targeted forest communities and forced citizens off their own land.
"We were both interested in the land management policies," said Nicholson. "The leaders of the Land Reform Network nonprofit wanted a film that would educate citizens about the government's new policies."
Although the pair was able to complete the project within four weeks, the production process was anything but simple.
"During the first week, we sat down and drafted an outline. We discussed which Thai villages we wanted to go to and came up with interview questions. We then actually visited the villages, conducted interviews [with the help of a translator] and collected footage," said Nicholson.
According to Sullivan, the pair worked on the documentary almost every day. Luckily, both students felt that they were doing something they actually wanted to do.
"It wasn't like working on a long essay," he said. "Making a film is fun and we were doing something that was beyond us."
Though the production process was exhaustive, the editing process proved to be even more difficult.
"We originally had a 30-minute long video, so we had to edit out half of the original product," said Sullivan.
The editing process was complicated by the necessity of remaining neutral. The pair had to ensure that the film did not lean too far in one direction or another, although it was clear which side of the argument they were on.
"The Thai government's actions are undemocratic, so it was easy to pick a side," said Sullivan. "However, we really wanted to make an argument without presenting it in a biased way. We tried to keep narration neutral and simply let the interviewees speak for themselves."
Despite their efforts at being unbiased the film was significantly censored before its first screening in Thailand. Luckily, Sullivan and Nicholson were able to censor the film themselves.
"Sadly, the content of the film was completely compromised," said Sullivan. "We made it very clear that it was censored and the film itself almost became a comment on the infringement of free speech."
The filmmakers were, however, able to hand out uncensored DVD copies of their film to villagers.
The uncensored version of "The Master Plan" was screened at Bowdoin on Tuesday to an audience of about 50 students.
"Although the target audience of the film was rural Thai villagers, we wanted to spread awareness of the issue within the Bowdoin community," said Nicholson.
The reactions within the Bowdoin community were overwhelmingly positive.
"We just happened to be talking about land rights in one of my classes today and a student in my class brought up our film," said Sullivan. "That was pretty awesome."
"I'm actually from Thailand, so it's really nice to hear them talking about the problem from the coup because it's a big issue there. I think it's pretty cool what [Sullivan and Nicholson] did," said Ponpavi Sangsuradej '16.
Both Sullivan and Nicholson plan to continue making documentaries. In fact, the pair will soon be taking on a year-long independent study documentary project with Director of the Environmental Studies Program, John Lichter.
This time, the two will explore how the collapse of Gulf of Maine fisheries has impacted local Maine communities.
"I can see myself making documentaries in my future," said Nicholson. "We will see."
- February 27
Women's basketball storms through Midd
The women's basketball team will play Amherst at 4 p.m. tomorrow in the NESCAC semifinals after defeating Middlebury 80-52 at home last Saturday. The Middlebury win marked Bowdoin's fifteenth consecutive trip to the semifinals of the NESCAC tournament play. It is the only team to reach the second weekend every season that the NESCAC championship has been held.
Last Saturday's game was a huge score increase from the team's last matchup against the Panthers, when the Polar Bears won 53-43. The game was also a step forward from last weekend's loss against Tufts.
"I do think it was a response to not playing our best against Middlebury the first contest," said Head Coach Adrienne Shibles. "Also some of the things that we recognized in our game against Tufts we really needed to improve on. The team worked very hard all week on those items, specifically on the defensive end, and I think it really showed in the game."
The last time the two teams faced off, the Panthers were missing a key player and point guard, Christina Nowak.
"The fact that they had her back this time and we won in such dramatic fashion I think shows the improvement of our team in those areas—rebounding and defense," added Shibles.The game was closest during the first half Bowdoin kept a lead but Middlebury followed close behind. The Panthers scored a three-point shot and brought the score to 26-22 with only seven minutes remaining. However, Bowdoin's strong defense only let up five more points from Middlebury before the half. The Polar Bears scored 18 more points in the same time. Sydney Hancock '17 made a 30-foot buzzer-beater jump shot, and the Polar Bears closed the half ahead 44-27.
During the second half, the Polar Bears continued with unrelenting defensive intensity and offensive execution led by Shannon Brady '16 with 25 points and eight rebounds. In addition, Ally Silfen '17 scored 17 points off the bench. Kate Kerrigan '18 followed with eight points, five assists and 11 rebounds.
Bowdoin was outstanding in rebounds during this game, and outscored Middlebury with a 50-29 rebounding advantage, including 27 offensive rebounds.
The Polar Bears also exceeded the Panthers in field goal percentage, holding 43 percent against Middlebury's 37 percent.
"Megan [Phelps] was our leading rebounder and really brought a presence to the paint," said Shibles of dealing with the loss of their injured starting senior. "So that has been something we have had to really focus on, step up, and everyone has had to really improve."
Looking forward, the Polar Bears will play against Amherst at Tufts for the semifinal game on Saturday.
"Winning NESCAC championships is something we've worked for very hard this season," said Kerrigan. "It's been one of our goals that we're trying to accomplish. The semifinals is just another game in the way of that goal."
The result of this game will determine which team goes to the final round. Last weekend, Amherst beat Colby 62-40 in order to advance to the semifinals. During their last matchup, Bowdoin beat Amherst (23-2, 8-2 NESCAC) in a successful but close game, winning 60-51."Every game is critical at this point," said Shibles. "Our number one focus is going to be on Amherst and they are really hot right now…If [the team is] well prepared, my goal is that they can just relax, enjoy the moment, and play to their potential."
Kerrigan is hopeful that the team will perform well.
"It's all about the preparation," Kerrigan added. "And if we execute the way we can, and play the way we can, we should come out with a victory."
- February 27
Men's hoops rallies past Williams into semifinals
Head Coach Tim Gilbride thinks that men's basketball has a solid chance of winning its first-ever NESCAC title this weekend at Trinity, but said that doing so will require the Polar Bears to continue playing their best basketball of the year.
"I think we have a real good shot," said Gilbride. "Any of the four teams there for sure can win it. We have as good a chance as anyone."
After its come-from-behind, 87-74 victory over Williams in last Saturday's quarterfinal in Morrell Gymnasium, the team will take on Amherst in tomorrow's semifinal. Amherst defeated Bowdoin 81-66 in late January, but the Polar Bears think they have become a different team—and in many ways a better team—since that loss.
When the Polar Bears last met Amherst, they had just lost senior captain Keegan Pieri to a season-ending injury and were adjusting to a new playing style. Captain Bryan Hurley '15 said that the team has settled into that new style since that loss to Amherst.
"That was early on when we were getting used to not having [Pieri], and getting used to playing with a smaller team with a more up-tempo pace on offense, and getting used to defending with a smaller team," said Hurley. "It's starting to come along now, and we're starting to play well together as a team."
The team's recent record supports Hurley's claim. Since the Amherst loss, the Polar Bears have gone 5-1, with big wins over Middlebury and Bates. A large—and lanky—reason for that recent success is Lucas Hausman '16, who became the first player in NESCAC men's basketball history to win three straight Player of the Week awards after his 37-point performance against Williams last weekend.
Hurley said that Hausman will need to maintain his impressive form tomorrow against Amherst, and that the Polar Bears cannot allow the Lord Jeffs to get off to a strong start."If they get off early to a good shooting start then they're going to be a tough team to beat, but if you clamp down defensively they can start to implode," said Hurley.
The Polar Bears were able to recover from a slow start of their own against Williams last Saturday. In the first half, Williams guard Hayden Rooke-Ley hit six three-pointers—many of them uncontested—to give the Ephs a seven-point lead. That lead could have been larger were it not for senior John Swords, who went a perfect 8-8 from the field during the first half, scoring 16 of his eventual 23 points.
Gilbride made some tactical adjustments during halftime, and the Polar Bears started the second half on an 8-0 run, turning a seven-point deficit into a one-point lead in less than two and a half minutes. Hurley said the team knew it could score against Williams, but that it made some changes on the other side of the ball.
"Defensively we made sure we got out on shooters, especially [Rooke-Ley]," said Hurley. "We let him get open way too much in the first half."
The adjustment worked. The Polar Bears held Rooke-Ley to only seven second-half points, and zero points in the game's final 14 minutes, meaning that the Williams senior finished his career with 999 points. The Ephs, who shot 52 percent from the field in the first half, hit only 28 percent of their shots in the second.
The offense also found its groove, led by Hausman who scored 25 of his 37 points in the second half on 7-9 shooting and six trips to the free-throw line. Hausman said that because of the game's high stakes, the Polar Bears were motivated to come out aggressive after halftime.
"There was a general realization in the locker room that this could be the end of the season and I don't think anybody wanted that," he said. "And I don't think there was anyone in our locker room who thought that Williams was a better team than us."
The players are focused on this weekend's NESCAC tournament, but the NCAA D-III Tournament is not far from their minds. Gilbride said that they are a bubble team at the moment, and while a NESCAC title would earn the Polar Bears an automatic bid, Hurley said that a win in tomorrow's semifinal would likely be enough to secure them a spot.
For now, however, the Polar Bears have their sights set on a NESCAC title, and although they lost to all three of the other semifinalists—Amherst, Trinity and Wesleyan—during the regular season, Hausman said he remains confident.
"There's no doubt in my mind that we can hang with or beat any of them," Hausman said.
- February 27
Ben Brewster '14 signs with Tulsa Roughnecks
Last Tuesday, Ben Brewster '14—a former two-sport Polar Bear—signed a contract to play with the Tulsa Roughnecks of the United Soccer League (USL). While at Bowdoin, Brewster earned All-New England honors in both soccer and lacrosse. Brewster was one of only seven D-III athletes invited to display his skills to professional soccer teams at the Major League Soccer (MLS) combine last summer, earning him eligibility for the 2014 MLS draft.
A Maine native, Brewster won his first accolade early, as he was named NESCAC soccer Rookie of the Year as a first-year, and went on to lead Bowdoin's defense as a starter throughout his four-year career. He was given the honor of First Team All-New England during his two final seasons at Bowdoin.
His senior year, his play led Bowdoin to allow only 16 goals throughout the entire season. He was then named to the First Team All-American Team—the only NESCAC player that year to win the honor—to cap off his decorated D-III career.
After his final soccer season in Brunswick, Brewster turned his attention to lacrosse, temporarily halting his off-season soccer training. However, as soon as the lacrosse season ended in May, he jumped straight back onto the pitch to continue his soccer training.
He joined the Seacoast United Phantoms, a New Hampshire Premier Development League (PDL) team. After being named captain of the Phantoms, he led the team to a Northeast Regular Season Championship with a record of 11-1-2. While he was playing for the Phantoms, Brewster was attending trials for the USL. After visits to Sacramento, Calif. and Wilmington, NC, he was offered a spot on the roster of the Tulsa Roughnecks.
"I have always wanted to play soccer at a high level" said Brewster. "When I started playing soccer at Bowdoin I was more concerned with my career in college, and did not necessarily focus or think too far after that. Following my junior and especially senior season, I began thinking about the possibilities of continuing my soccer career after college."
In addition to the excitement of competing at a professional level, Brewster will be competing with a newly reformed team. The Roughnecks are rejoining the USL after an absence of almost 30 years.
"I am very excited to be a part of this new professional soccer franchise in Tulsa," said Brewster. "Everyone seems extremely excited that professional soccer is coming back to town."
- February 27
Men's hockey stumbles into fifth seed in NESCAC
In their last two games of the regular season, the men's hockey team (14-7-3 overall, 8-7-3 NESCAC) fell to Connecticut College (13-9-2 overall, 10-7-1 NESCAC)at home, 4-1, on Friday night but rebounded Saturday against Tufts, 4-0, in the seniors' final home game at Watson Arena.
The loss put Conn. College ahead of Bowdoin in conference standings, and took away any chance of the Polar Bears hosting a playoff game next week.
The loss to Conn. College was only the second loss at home for the Polar Bears this season. Zach Kokosa '17 scored Bowdoin's lone goal, which tied the game late in the first period. Kokosa received the puck in the neutral zone and skated into the Camels' defense before burying a snapshot over the goalie's right shoulder into the back of the net.
However, Conn. College retook the lead with less than two minutes to go in the second period, and padded its lead with two more goals before the end of the game. Despite the loss, Bowdoin outshot the Camels, 35-23, and had two shots bounce off the post.
"We didn't get a lot of red lights on Friday night and we would have liked to have gotten a few more timely saves," said Head Coach Terry Meagher. "That was the main difference between Friday and Saturday night."
With seemingly little to play for against Tufts in the final regular season game, Bowdoin still came out firing, and finished with a satisfying shutout victory.
"For me the highlight of the weekend was that the team came back from the loss on Friday and played with energy and intensity," Meagher said. "It showed that this a team of character to come back and play a complete game. This team is not a mail-in team, they don't mail in any games or practices."
Bowdoin took a 1-0 lead 8:35 into the first period when Spencer Antunez scored '18 scored the first of his two goals in the period. Connor Quinn '15 fed Antunez a pass to the right post where Antunez one-timed it for the lead. On a power play in the 16th minute, Antunez doubled the lead with a shot that deflected off the crossbar into the net.
In the final period, Mike Schlagel '15 scored his first Bowdoin goal in his final regular season game. With the goalie pulled, Schlagel maneuvered his way around the Tufts defense and slid the puck into the back of the net. One minute later, with the goalkeeper back in net, Danny Palumbo '15 secured the 4-0 win after knocking in a rebound off a Ryan Collier shot '15. Max Fenkell '15 earned his fifth career shutout in his final regular season game, and made 20 saves in the win.
This weekend, fifth seed Bowdoin will travel to four seed Williams for the first round of the NESCAC tournament. Bowdoin will look to defend its NESCAC title for the third straight year, winning as the one seed in 2013 and the five-seed last year.
"Williams and Bowdoin have had a lot of exciting competition over the last five or six years in these single elimination tournaments so we're ready, they're ready, and both teams have great respect for each other," Meagher said.
The teams have played twice this season. The first game was a 3-3 tie at Bowdoin, and the second was a 5-2 Polar Bear loss at Williams. The teams will meet this Saturday at Williams at 3 p.m.
- February 27
Athlete of the Week: John Swords '15
Men's Basketball
Center John Swords '15 finished Bowdoin's 87-74 NESCAC quarterfinal win over Williams with 23 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and three blocks in 33 minutes. He tied a NESCAC tournament record of most shots taken without a miss by going 10-10 from the field. This season, Swords is averaging 12.8 points per game, is third in the conference with 9.9 rebounds per game and second with a shooting percentage of 70.7. Swords, whose shooting percentage benefits from a general affinity for layups, maintained that he attempted an actual jump shot in the game.
"I did take a real shot," he said. "It was more of a gamble than the usual place or the direct deposit. I don't really think about that in the game. People told me [I went] 10 for 10 after. I said 'Oh yeah, I guess so.'"
After comparing his streak to Ethan Embry's gambling streak in "National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation," Swords was quick to acknowledge junior teammate Lucas Hausman's 25-point second half, Hausman's total of 37 was two points away from breaking the NESCAC tournament scoring record. Swords and Hausman have a good-natured relationship as Bowdoin's offensive fulcrums; the two scored 60 of Bowdoin's 87 points in the Williams game and have led the team in scoring since senior forward Keegan Pieri was lost for the season with an injury. This comes despite benefiting from very different offensive schemes—Swords prefers the slower pace while Hausman excels in an up-tempo game. Regardless, Hausman's emergence has been a large part of the team's success.
"He scores from everywhere," Swords said. "This late in the season, teams know I exist, I think. Having me as the first and only offensive option is not going to work. I get scouted."And Swords has no problem allowing point guard Bryan Hurley '15 to dictate the pace of the game.
"Bryan knows the pace," he said. "If we're playing a team of five Lucas' who won't finish as well as Lucas, he knows to slow us down. But he'll also make sure we're not running slow just because I'm slow or running slowly."
Swords noted that the Williams game was a tale of two halves for the Bowdoin offense. He scored most of his points in the first while Hausman scored most of his in the second. In addition to Hurley, Swords also wanted toacknowledge junior Matt Palecki's near-double-double and sophomore Neil Fuller's return to the lineup from injury.
"It's been a great season," Swords said, "All that cliché stuff that goes into a [senior] season has been present. My personal forecast was that it wasgoing to be very hard to fill the void left by [Matt] Mathias, [Andrew] Madlinger, and [Grant] White, three really complete players. Pretty quickly this season has turned into something special on its own."
He also referred to the team's perseverance through injuries, saying that at times the team has not even had 10 players who could suit up to scrimmage.
Swords has feelings typical of a senior approaching his last few games, but jokingly recognized the positives of being able to move on from basketball.
"I don't really want it to stop, but I know when it does stop, my body will probably thank me," he said, then quipping about how his minute total and the up-tempo offense might leave him in a wheelchair. Still, an avid rafter and Outing Club member, Swords does not seem to feel the need to give his body too much rest.
"Post-basketball, I will certainly be spending more time outside. Basketball's an indoor sport, in a windowless gym. It's good for the winter," said Swords.
The sports editor of the Orient chooses the Athlete of the Week based on exemplary performance.
To suggest an athlete, email Sports Editor Jono Gruber at firstname.lastname@example.com.
- February 27
Men's swim and dive places sixth at NESCACs
The men's swimming and diving team finished comfortably at sixth place in the NESCAC championship meet last weekend. The finish was the Polar Bears' best team score since 2012, and the meet was highlighted by the admirable performance of several swimmers and divers.
Michael Netto '18 was named All-Conference in the 50-yard breaststroke, and diver Tommy Kramer '15 was recognized as the Four Year High Point Diver. The NESCAC championship took place at Middlebury College over three days.
Compared to other schools, the Polar Bears possessed considerable strength in the short races. According to Head Coach Brad Burnham,the Polar Bears did well all the way up to the 200m.
Netto stood out in his first appearance in a NESCAC championship meet.
He posted the highest individual finish of the weekend for the Polar Bears by taking second in the 50 breaststroke (25.64), sixth in the 100breaststroke (57.24) and seventh in the 50 butterfly (23.14). Logan House '17 placed the seventh in the 50 butterfly (23.14). He also set the school record in the 100 butterfly last year.
"My butterfly was definitely not as strong as last year, but on the bright side my freestyle got a little bit faster," said House. "Next year I'll start over and make a better balance between strokes."
Senior diver Kramer closes out his NESCAC career by achieving the best combined finish at the conference championships. He took fourth in the 3-meter dive (469.45) and fifth in the 1-meter diving competition (432.25).
Overall, the Polar Bears had a smooth run without major hiccups, unlike last year where the team bore a 48-point loss due to the disqualification of a relay team.
According to Coach Burnham, the major challenge is the exhaustion from such a long event. Despite this fact, Bowdoin's best relay of the weekend came on Sunday when the 400 free relay team of House, John Lagasse '16, Will Hutchinson '18 and William Shi '15 placed fourth with a time of 3:06.02.
No major injuries were sustained during the championship, but two swimmers—Shi and Greg Koziol '17—had just recovered from concussions.Shi hadn't been in the pool for two weeks prior to the competition.
"When they went to rest, they were not quite in the same place as everybody else," said Coach Burnham, "They had two weeks of no activity. [But] we were in the process of building up physical capacity. I don't know what's exactly going on physiologically. It's definitely a different thing for them."
Bowdoin and Bates have a long-time rivalry in swimming. Last year, the Polar Bears snatched the fifth spot over the Bobcats by a merehalf point, under the pressure of the unintentional 48-point loss. This year, Bates stands ahead of Bowdoin with 190 points.
"We have hopes, dreams and goals we would like to achieve. Sometimes the guys choose dependent goals, which means no matter what we do, we have to worry about other teams," said Coach Burnham. "Bates has been our rival for years. We've been going back and forth with them for years in team totals. It's always on the guys' mind. That's a kind of instinct of how we are doing. This year we fell behind Bates. They just have people who can swim faster and won more points."
This weekend, Kramer will participate in the Northeast Regional Diving Championship in Springfield, MA. He is confident and looking forward to this meet.
"I feel weirdly calm about it. Again it's just really practice. It's no different from anything I've done any other day. I just went and did that meet this past weekend. And I'll just have to do it again," he said.
- February 27
Polar Bears place second in three events at NEs
The men's track and field team finished seventh out of 26 teams in the New England Division III Invitational last weekend at Springfield College, while the women finished ninth in a field of 30 teams at Smith College.
On the men's side, first-year jumper BrianGreenberg leapt to the best finish of the day for the Polar Bear men, placing third in the triple jump (13.83m).
"Greenberg has had such a terrific season," said Head Coach Peter Slovenski. "It was very impressive for him to place among the top three in New England Division III."
Solidifying the Polar Bears' strong showing in the jumps, senior Chris Genco and Greenberg placed fourth and sixth in the long jump, respectively. On the track, Jacob Ellis '16 had another strong showing, placing fourth in the 800m run with atime of 1:55.63. In the relays, Bowdoin's team of Calvin Henry '16, Liam Nicoll '18, Ellis and Conor Donahue '18 placed second with a time of 10:25.59.
"We were in the running for a podium spot for most of the race," said Donahue. "I tried to channel the anger deep inside me to outrun all the competition, and it worked. We knew coming into the season that we had the potential for a strong [distance medley relay], and today we showed that,"
"The distance medley runners showed a lot of courage on every leg moving back and forth from second to first," said Slovenski. "Calvin, Liam, Jacob, and Conor competed with a lot of fire on every leg."
Many on the team also overcame their seeding to place strongly in the field."We had three big upsets during the day," said Slovenski. "Liam Nicoll was ranked 19th in the 400 and finished seventh. John Pietro '18was ranked 18th in the shot put and finished sixth. Jibrail Coy '16 was ranked 15th in the [60-meter] dash and finished sixth. Those were great clutch performances."
On the women's side, senior pole vaulter extraordinaire Erin Silva continued to perform well, placing second with a vault of 12'5.5". Silva's vault was the top finish of the day for the Bowdoin women. Hayleigh Kein '16 kept up her excellence in the high jump, placing sixth with a jump of 5'3".
The relay teams made a statement with their stellar showings in both the 4x800m and distance medley relays (DMR). In the DMR, the team of Aly Fulton '16, Naomi Jabouin '18, Demi Feder '17, and Sarah Kelley '18 placed second with a time of 12:18.19. With this strong showing, the relay squad rose to twelfth in the national DIII track & field rankings, placing them in a position to advance to nationals should they maintain the ranking.
"The thought of qualifying for nationals didn't evencross my mind during the race," said Kelley. "I had a Williams girl breathing down my neck the last lap, and I knew I couldn't let those purple cows take down our all-star squad. Our combined efforts were able to culminate in a nationals-worthy performance, and I couldn't be more excited."
In the 4x800m run, Kelley, Feder, and Fulton teamed up with Meghan Bellerose '17 to finish fourth with a time of 9:37.26.
Both the men and the women face Division I competition next weekend at the Open New England's Invitational, hosted by Boston University.
- February 27
Men's squash finishes season at CSA Nationals
The men's squash team ended its season last weekend after finishing 22nd at the College Squash Association (CSA) National Team Championship held at Wesleyan University.The Polar Bears lost their first match of the championship to Brown 9-0, with only one of the individual matches going to five sets. However, the team then bounced back to defeat Hobart College 8-1 the next day.
With the win against Hobart the Polar Bears paired up against Colby in the 21st place match. The Mules won fairly easily, with none of their six match wins going to five sets. The loss marked Bowdoin's third loss to Colby in its underwhelming 5-16 season.
"Our hopes always are to play our best squash of the season at nationals," said Head Coach Tom Fortson. "Unfortunatelywe only achieved that partially. The entire team played very well to avenge a loss to Hobart during the season."
Despite the weak showing, there were still a number of bright spots for the Polar Bears over the weekend.
"Against Colby, a few of our players played very well," said Fortson. "However, the three winners, [Captain] Andrew Ward '15, Benjamin Bristol '17 and George Cooley '18, played excellently. Ward was a hghlight, playing great in his last collegiate match."
The win in his final match meant a lot to Ward.
"It was a great to end my career with all of my teammates, family and some recent squash alums there supporting me," said Ward, crediting the influence of teammates, both past and present, in his victory.
"The captain of the team my freshman year, Barrett Takesian '12, told me before I started that I needed to play with no fear and tonot hold anything back, which is exactly what I did," said Ward. "It was awesome to beat the Colby player that I had lost to two weeks before."
Although 22nd place is not the result the team was hoping for, Fortson is optimistic about next season.
"We currently have a young team," said Fortson. "We expect our players to improve significantly."
- February 27
Left of pesky pole: Isaiah Thomas: the lucky charm the Celts need?
Don't look now, but the Celtics are about to matter again. The fourth wheel of the Boston sports world made a splash at last week's trade deadline, acquiring a dynamic scorer with a famous name: Isaiah Thomas. No, he's not related to Isiah Thomas, the Pistons Hall of Fame point guard and Boston's Public Enemy #1 in the late 80s. He shares the name (with different spelling) because his father lost a bet in the 1989 NBA Finals. And no, he may not project as a future Hall of Famer. But young Isaiah gives the Celtics something they haven't had since Pierce and KG left town: fire.
Thomas has a Rudy-esque underdog story. At 5' 9", he stands almost a foot shorter than the average NBA player. As a result, scouts doubted his NBA potential despite a stellar college career at the University of Washington. He was the final pick of the 2011 draft, earning him the title of "Mr. Irrelevant" for that draft. But he fought his way into relevancy in a hurry with the Sacramento Kings, making the NBA All-Rookie 2nd Team in 2012 and being one of 19 players in the league to eclipse 20 points per game in 2014 (20.3). The Phoenix Suns signed Thomas in the offseason to a four-year, $27 million contract, on the lower end for a 20-point scorer, and he played third fiddle behind two other point guards, Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic. The chip on his shoulder just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Haters continue to point to his height or mediocre defense and say that he has the ceiling of a borderline all-star. But with the Celtics, Isaiah has a chance to break through into stardom. He becomes the best pure scorer in a three-guard rotation with Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart. He demonstrated that on Monday night, when he scored 21 points and hit two clutch shots down the stretch to help the Celtics beat his former team. The night before, Thomas also scored 21 in an overtime loss to the Lakers.
But his immediate impact on this team extends beyond the box score. He gives the Celtics somebody that can drive, as he fearlesslytakes the ball to the hoop against forwards that tower over him. And most importantly, the man visibly wants to win. On Monday, Isaiah stared down the Suns bench after hitting a big shot. His competitiveness even got him ejected on Sunday night, when he slammed the ball into the ground after a bad call and received his second technical foul. Foolish and a little immature? Sure. But he brings passion to a Celtics team that has looked like it has just been going through the motions for the last two years. Since the departure of Pierce and Garnett, the best players on the Celtics have been Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green. Rondo looked bored and out-to-lunch in his last few months with the Celtics, and Green was a shining model of Greek stoicism on the floor—no fun or emotion whatsoever. Thomas' intensity should be infectious on this young team, and will help unleash the ultra-competitive spirit of rookie Marcus Smart.
For the fans, Isaiah gives us a reason to watch the Celtics again. With his diminutive size and underdog spirit, he will become a fan favoritejust like Nate Robinson was a few seasons ago. Will he ever be as loved in Boston as the previous Isiah was hated? That depends on whether he can deliver an eighteenth championship banner to the TD Garden rafters. For this season, he gives the Celtics a legitimate shot to grab the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, which would be a huge accomplishment for a team ranked 19th out of 30 in ESPN's preseason power rankings. But, the Celtics are still one big piece away from title contention.
They need a center that can protect the rim and be a post presence on the offensive and defensive ends. We know the Celtics can score; they rank fifth in the East in points per game, and Thomas will only bolster that ranking. But they still rank dead last in points allowed per game in the East. Kelly Olynyk and Jared Sullinger lack the toughness and height, respectively, to be the defensive presence that they need in the post.
Maybe Danny Ainge will work some magic in free agency and acquire a big man like Marc Gasol or LaMarcus Aldridge. But for now, let'enjoy the Celtics' return to relevancy in the NBA and in the Boston sports world. Isaiah is bringing the fire back to the Garden, and this scrappy, high-scoring team may shock some folks come playoff time.
- February 27
Women's hockey splits weekend, will travel to Conn. College
The women's hockey team (10-9-5, 6-7-3 NESCAC) slid into fifth place in the NESCAC last weekend after splitting games against Amherst (16-4-4, 10-3-3 NESCAC) and will to travel to Connecticut College (12-9-3 overall, 7-7-2 NESCAC) for the NESCAC quarterfinal tomorrow at 7 p.m.
The team looked strong at the outset on Saturday, leading the game 2-0 early in the second period. But after three straight second period goals and a fourth in the third by Amherst, the Polar Bears found themselves in a hole they could not climb out of and ultimately fell 4-3.
"The third period, it was just a grind," said Head Coach Marissa O'Neil. "We made a serious attempt to push in the last two and a half minutes to put one in and just fell short."On Sunday, Amherst's Senior Day, Bowdoin returned to the ice with a renewed focus and came away with a 3-2 victory. First year Miranda Bell led the attack with two goals and one assist, while goalie Lan Crofton '17 was a brick wall in net, tallying 39 saves on the night.
"[Crofton] definitely stood on her head [on Sunday]. She saved about 40 shots," said O'Neil.In an email to the Orient, captain olleen Finnerty '15 wrote that Crofton and Bell's crucial plays built the team's momentum.
"[Crofton's] incredible saves in the net definitely gave us momentum and kept us in the game," wrote Finnerty. "As for Bell, she has a knack for the net. Her ability to finish plays in clutch moments of the game has been very important for our team this season."
Sunday's game was a nail-biter, coming down to the final minute of play.
"There was a faceoff in our offensive zone with 30 seconds left, and they had pulled their goalie already, so it was a six on five from their zone," said O'Neil. "They came down and one of the best players in the league got by our defense and had a breakaway chance at 20 seconds. That's when Lan, making that save, was the exclamation point on the weekend."
O'Neil said that a positive attitude is crucial for success in the NESCAC tournament.
"We're the underdog going into the playoffs, [but] we have wins now against the second, third, and fourth seeded teams, so in that way, we're going into it with the right mindset, so I'm really happy about that," said O'Neil.
The Polar Bears split their two games during the regular season. O'Neil said that her players will need to play with heart to pull out a win.
"It's definitely a matter of who'll show up. And it may take more than 60 minutes to figure out. It's going to take our entire team.," said O'Neil.
O'Neil is confident that if the team comes into the weekend playing to it potential, it will be a tough team to beat.
"This will be the first time we'll be on the road for our quarterfinal matchup. Seed placement really doesn't make a difference—that's the best part about NESCAC hockey," she said.
Finnerty also touched on the nature of play-off hockey.
"The most important thing for our teamto remember right now is that our seeding in the tournament is not indicative of our capabilities, just as our record this season is not indicative of our talent and potential," wrote Finnerty.
Eager to see what her team can do, Finnerty expressed confidence in her teammates' ability to put up a fight under pressure."In the past couple of years, we have made good runs in the NESCAC tournament, so I don't think that this year will be any different. Our team has a tendency to rise to the occasion and play great when a lot is on the line," she wrote.
Finnerty listed a string of clutch performances from this season, including scrappy play against first seeded Middlebury and a four-goal surge against Trinity to overcome a 3-2 deficit.
"With the threat of the end of the season, I don't foresee us coming home from New London this weekend with anything but a win," said Finnerty.