The Bowdoin Orient

On Sunday at around 12:30 a.m, a student at a registered event in the basement of Baxter House broke a sprinkler pipe on the ceiling, which set off the fire alarm and flooded the room with about five inches of water. 

“I saw someone jump up, and as soon as they made contact with the pipe, it snapped,” said Matt Friedland ’15. “There was a big hissing sound, and people were screaming because [the pipes] sprayed on them. Everyone freaked out and went upstairs.”

Assistant Director of Residential Life Chris Rossi and multiple Baxter House residents have confirmed that the responsible party has come forward; however, no name has been released.  

This coming October, the Brunswick Police Department will move to the new, 20,000 square foot station building currently under construction at the corner of Pleasant and Stanwood Streets. It is currently housed in a 4,000 square foot space in the basement of the Town of Brunswick Municipal Building on Federal Street.

According to Brunswick Police Chief Richard Rizzo, the department has been talking about a change for a long time.

“The police department has been in the basement of town hall since the police department was a police department,” he said. “If it’s not the worst police station in the state, it’s one of the worst.”

Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) spent a large segment of its weekly meeting on Wednesday in conversation with Director of Health Services Sandra Hayes, addressing student concerns with the Health Centers. 

Many members of BSG said that they had heard complaints from students who had not gotten appointments as soon as they would have liked. 

Hayes says that the Health Center can usually make appointments for students within 24 hours. However, some students are unwilling to take appointments that would force them to skip class.

Professor of English Brock Clarke, Professor of Art History Pamela Fletcher, Professor of Anthropology and Arctic Museum Director Susan Kaplan, and Professor of Natural Sciences John Lichter were all recently promoted from associate professor to full professor.

According to the Bowdoin Faculty Handbook, the primary criterion for promotion is that the professor demonstrates “continuing excellence in teaching and in scholarly or artistic work” during the time since the professor received tenure.

In order to demonstrate "continuing excellence," each faculty member must submit their course materials, a personal statement, and the body of work that they have completed since becoming an associate professor. Recommendations are solicited from former students and external experts in the faculty member’s field.

The Green Bowdoin Alliance (GBA) is continuing its efforts to convince the College to divest the endowment from fossil fuels, despite President Mills’ and Senior Vice President for Investment Paula Volent’s assertion that divestment would cost Bowdoin millions of dollars. Both sides of the divestment issue are arguing their case based on different, largely incomparable statistics.

Matthew Goodrich ’15 and Bridget McCoy ’15, who are leading GBA’s push to divest, say they are unwilling to accept the numbers presented by the administration without full disclosure of how they were calculated.  Mills and Volent told the Orient last week that 1.4 percent of the endowment is invested in fossil fuels, primarily through exposure to an enhanced S&P 500 index fund. Based on data from the past decade of endowment performance, they estimated that if the College were to divest, annualized returns would decline by more than 5 percent.

“Over a ten-year period we would lose over $100 million,” Volent told the Orient last week.

On February 15, Bowdoin will celebrate the season with the revival of Winter Weekend, an old tradition of the College. Dani Chediak ’13, president of the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG), and Michael Hannaman ’13, co-chair of the Entertainment Board (E-Board) have been working together to organize an event to bring the campus together during the drab winter season. “This is actually a tradition from back when frats were at Bowdoin,” Hannaman said. “And what we’re trying to do is revive, but also redefine, what it is. We’re trying to make it about sports at Bowdoin, and College Houses and being outside during the winter.”

Over winter break, a group of Bowdoin students returned to campus early to participate in the Fullbridge Program, an intensive learning experience designed to give students practical business skills and expose them to a workplace environment. Fullbridge usually holds residential programs students on its main campus in Cambridge, Mass. and Bowdoin was the site of the company’s first external program at a college exclusively for that college’s students. The Fullbridge program covered topics ranging from financial statements to Microsoft Excel. “A lot of it was financial analysis,” said Daniel Mejia-Cruz ’16.

November is Date Month at Bowdoin, and dozens of students have participated in events ranging from “Screw Your Roommate” to “Date Night in Daggett” over the last few weeks. Two years ago, Simon Bordwin ’13 added a specifically LGBTQ event to what was then Date Week; this year, he is again seeking to make Date Month more inclusive with the launch of Rainbow Seven. Rainbow Seven is an online networking service that will allow LGBTQ students to meet other members of Bowdoin’s queer community. The process happens in several phases. Over Thanksgiving vacation, students sent their names to rainbowseven@gmail.com.

Amherst College, still reeling from former student Angie Epifano’s account of her sexual assault and subsequent mistreatment by Amherst administration—was dealt another blow last week, with the release of former Amherst student Trey Malone’s June 2012 suicide note, which revealed yet another account of a student who felt his assault was mishandled by the Amherst administration. Malone wrote about his struggles dealing with the alleged sexual assault, and said that “what began as an earnest effort to help on the part of Amherst, became an emotionless hand washing. In those places I should’ve received help, I saw none.” Malone’s story echoed that of Epifano, who published an op-ed in The Amherst Student on October 17.

This January, the Fullbridge Program—described on its website as “an intensive, transformative learning environment that prepares highly motivated undergraduates…for a successful transition to the working world”—will hold two sessions for Bowdoin students on campus over winter break. Fullbridge is a program that is designed to simulate the real world business environment and equip students with crucial skills for careers in the professional world. Fullbridge began as a residential program in Cambridge, Mass., and its sessions at Bowdoin will be its first program on an external college campus. President Barry Mills met with Fullbridge Director of Admissions Oliver Snider this past summer, and they began to discuss the possibility of holding the program at the College.

Thumb through Bowdoin’s course catalogue, and you’ll find hundreds of courses ranging from multivariable calculus to interpretive dance. For students who find this list insufficient, however, there is another option. Bowdoin students can take courses at Colby, Bates or the Maine College of Art in Portland, though few students take advantage of the opportunity.

Bowdoin’s sailing team competed in three events this past weekend—the Women’s Regis Bowl at Boston University, the Hood Trophy at Tufts, and the Chris Loder Trophy at the University of New Hampshire.