The College lost a valuable faculty member when Visiting Assistant Professor Leslie Shaw died unexpectedly on August 29 following complications from surgery. Shaw, who taught anthropology at the College since 1998, “set a high bar for service, excellence and collegiality,” wrote Dean for Academic Affairs Christle Collins Judd in an email to the Orient. In addition to her teaching and research, Shaw served as the adviser to the Native American Students Association at Bowdoin.
SeptemberThe men’s rugby team was required to forfeit two matches after the Office of Student Affairs found the team had violated Bowdoin’s alcohol and hazing policies on September 15, the night of the annual Epicuria party at Ladd House. The Office of Residential Life placed Ladd House on social probation until November 1, and both the president and vice president of the house stepped down from their positions. Four underage students were transported to Parkview Adventist Medical Center for over-consumption of alcohol on the night of the event.
OctoberThe Bowdoin Daily Sun reported a 2.6 percent return on the endowment for fiscal year 2012, with the endowment standing at $904.2 million as of October 12. Despite a projected return of 7 percent, the endowment performed well in comparison to peer institutions.
Results from a December survey administered to graduates of the Class of 2011 show that 68 percent of respondents are employed part-time or fulltime, 26 percent are attending graduate school, and 3 percent are still seeking employment. Over 220 alumni responded to the survey.Compiled by the Office of Institutional Research, these statistics are nearly identical to those from last year’s “one-year out” survey of the Class of 2010, which found that 67 percent of respondents were employed, 15 percent were attending graduate school, and 3 percent were seeking employment.
While these statistics suggest widespread success among recent graduates, Nyle Usmani ’12 pointed out that these surveys include non-career-oriented jobs and part-time jobs, and therefore might be artificially high.
“The statistics don’t lie. Most people leaving Bowdoin will find themselves at a good place. But in my case, I’m still fighting to be at a good place and I’m unemployed…it’s not happening the way that I imagined.”
Recreational drug use among Bowdoin students tends to increase as graduation approaches, with current juniors and seniors reporting significantly higher incidences of drug use than they did in the fall of 2010, according to Orient surveys from 2010 and 2013.
The survey results showed that the number of seniors who have smoked marijuana at least once at Bowdoin increased to 60 percent up from 46 percent during the fall semester of their sophomore year.
Seventy-three percent of respondents from the Class of 2014 have smoked marijuana at least once, a large increase from 32 percent in their first semester at the College in 2010.
Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) released a “Fall Semester Report” this week summarizing completed, ongoing, and cancelled projects from the first half of the year. The report, compiled by the seven members of BSG’s Executive Committee, also specifies the status of BSG’s long-term goals. This is the first time in recent memory that BSG has published such a report. “A lot of our work was preliminary; I think this semester is going to be a lot more active-looking,” said Brian Kim ’13, BSG’s vice president for student organizations. “For example, Dani’s GRE test prep program, which took forever to get off the ground, now is actually getting off the ground, which is awesome.”
The debate over the future of Parkview Adventist Medical Center came to a head on Wednesday, when over 300 community members attended a public hearing to discuss a proposed “acquisition of control” agreement between the hospital and Central Maine Healthcare Corporation. Central Maine Healthcare is a non-profit parent organization that oversees a healthcare delivery system comprised of Bridgton Hospital, Rumford Hospital, and Central Maine Medical Center, based in Lewiston.
Bob White ’77, Bowdoin trustee and chairman of the Romney-Ryan campaign, spoke last night in Daggett Lounge about life on the campaign trail, preparation for presidential debates, and his years of experience as Mitt Romney’s right-hand man. White has worked alongside the former governor since Romney began his career at Bain & Company, and has advised all of Romney’s political races. The two have been close friends for years, and Romney jokingly refers to White as “TQ,” short for “The Quail,” in reference to the bobwhite species of the bird. “As Mitt says, I’m his wingman,” said White in his address at the Republican National Convention. White is also involved in the politics of Bowdoin. He served on the College’s presidential search committee in 2000, and supported the supported the nomination President Barry Mills for the position. “I felt, given the set of opportunities and challenges facing the College, Barry Mills was uniquely qualified,” explained White in an interview with the Orient.
The Office of Residential Life (ResLife) has placed Ladd House on probation until November 1 as part of the response to last week’s Epicuria party. Both the president and vice president of Ladd, where the campus-wide toga party took place, voluntarily stepped down from their positions this week. Ladd faced disciplinary consequences for what Director of Residential Life Mary Pat McMahon referred to as “an unregistered pre-event with hard alcohol prior to Epicuria.” Under the terms of the probation, Ladd House cannot host registered events with alcohol before November 1.
The Office of Student Affairs determined that the men’s rugby team violated Bowdoin’s alcohol and hazing policies in light of events at an off-campus house and at the annual Epicuria party last Saturday, September 15. Tim Foster, dean of student affairs, announced the ruling in an email to all students yesterday evening. On the night of the annual campus-wide party, which is hosted by the men’s rugby team, four underage students were transported to Parkview Adventist Medical Adventist Center due to over-consumption of alcohol. The two first years and two sophomores who were transported to Parkview were all “tied directly or indirectly to Epicuria and the rugby team,” Foster wrote. Two of the students were transported from Ladd House, where the party took place.
A vomiting University of Southern Maine student shut down the C-Store, and Bates students and Bowdoin alumni caused Security some headaches, but for the most part, Bowdoin's biggest party weekend of the year ran smoothly, according to College officials. Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols called the event "as a whole, a successful Ivies," noting that "the Brunswick police had virtually no interaction with any Bowdoin students." One Bowdoin student was transported from Coles Tower due to overconsumption of alcohol and energy drinks last Friday. According to Nichols, one transport is "fairly typical for a standard weekend, so we were pleased," given Ivies' potential for more
ASAP, which acts as a unifying organization to combine the efforts of multiple campus groups, was formed in 2008 under the direction of Davis. "There were so many groups working in different ways on the spectrum, from healthy relationships to sexual violence, that we decided to create this umbrella group," said Davis. In its first year, ASAP was made up of groups such as Bowdoin Men Against Sexual Violence (BMASV), V-Day, and Safe Space. The alliance has since grown to include 16 organizations, ranging from the Bowdoin Outing Club to the Spirituality Circle.
This year is the first in Bowdoin's history that the faculty is composed of an equal number of men and women.
The annual Spring Gala almost fell off this year's social calendar after the event was left without a overseer. In past years, an ad hoc committee comprised of students has collaborated with the Office of Student Activities to plan the event, but this year no such committee was formed, an oversight that was not caught until two members of Bowdoin Student Government discovered that financing for the event had not been secured.
A total of $7,899 in damages to student residences occured in fall 2011. According to the report compiled by Lisa Rendall, associate director of housing operations, Baxter House accrued $3,193 or 40.4 percent of the damage costs.
Problems with printers? Cross-referencing crises? The Measuring Information Service Outcomes (MISO) Survey offers participants a chance to vent library and IT woes. Created at Bryn Mawr College in 2004, the MISO Survey collects student, faculty and staff opinions on both library and IT services from numerous campuses, allowing each college to compare its performance point by point to peer institutions. This is Bowdoin's first year using MISO; it is one of 30 participating colleges.
After five years of heading the women's soccer program, Maren Rojas has stepped down from her position as head coach. She recently accepted an assistant coach position on the Boston College women's soccer team, and left for Massachusetts on Wednesday. Nonetheless, Rojas attributes her decision to leave to more than just the offer from Boston College.
As part of an ongoing campaign against homophobia in sports, Paul Tagliabue, former commissioner of the National Football League, will visit campus on Monday. Tagliabue, who has a strong history of supporting gay rights, will deliver the keynote address at the third annual "Anything but Straight in Athletics" event. Created in 2010, the annual event is aimed at supporting the Bowdoin LGBT athletic community and eliminating homophobia in sports. One of the founders, Ben Chadwick '11, was an openly gay member of the men's lacrosse team.
On Sunday, students returned to campus for the start of a diversity awareness week aimed at stimulating conversations about difference and identity in the Bowdoin and Brunswick communities.
Bowdoin will host the annual Skate With the Polar Bears Food Drive on Sunday, inviting children from the greater Brunswick community to come for a free skate with the men's and women's hockey teams. The two-hour event will take place in Watson Arena starting at 12:15 p.m.
Students will soon no longer have to guess whether the shuttle is worth the wait. In the next few weeks, Information Technology (IT) will finalize and launch a website that allows students to track the location of shuttle vans in nearly real time. The service has been in development over the past month and will be accessible online through the student gateway.
Thirteen Bowdoin students have been transported to Parkview Adventist Medical Center due to over-consumption of alcohol since September. According to Tim Foster, dean of student affairs, this number shows that "we are tracking almost identically to last year," when 12 students had been transported by the third week of November. Yet this year, the numbers rose quickly. In September alone, six first year students were transported to Parkview for alcohol-related reasons. The head proctors of each first year dorm sent an email to the entire class of 2015, in an effort to curb the heavy drinking.
On Wednesday, a former Bates student was imprisoned with two concurrent 14-day sentences after his involvement in a campus-wide melee in Lewiston in May, 2010.
Between September and May of this academic year, a projected total of 215 students will study abroad in 46 different countries. Eighteen juniors will remain abroad for the entire year. The OCS has reported that this year an estimated 47.1 percent of the Class of 2013 will study abroad, a marginal increase from 46.8 percent of the Class of 2012.
Quinby House is on social probation after allegedly providing hard alcohol to two first years. The house will be unable to host events with registered alcohol through October 30.
Michaela Calnan '11 was announced as one of the nine finalists for the 2011 NCAA Woman of the Year award on September 14. A record 471 collegiate players were initially nominated for the honor, and the top 30 contenders were named in August before the top three finalists from each division were chosen, Calnan among them. The final Woman of the Year will be announced next month.