Take care

Editorial: The old college try

You are on the brink of a host of new experiences: from watching the sun rise on the Quad as you slink home from an essay-writing marathon to dancing on tables in Ladd House. We know the academics and the extracurriculars at Bowdoin will challenge you and define much of your next four years here. But throughout all of this, you will be flanked by 498 other members of the Class of 2017. And, during any given year, you’ll be surrounded by 1300-odd students in different class years. We’re not sure if we believe the mythical statistic that 40 percent of Polar Bears marry another Polar Bear, but we have no doubt that many of the still-strange faces around you will become wonderful friends for years to come.
First Year Orientation is designed to ease the transition from life as you knew it to the brave new world of college. And these first few weeks require you to be just that: brave. Do not immediately cut yourself off from social opportunities by constantly Skyping, texting or Facebook messaging your friends from home. Some of you have not had to make new friends in a while and are loathe to put yourself out there—but isolating yourself on the internet is not going to help.
There is no way you will meet each and every one of your classmates during the five days that Orientation lasts. You will likely find comfort hanging out with your Orientation trip group, the people who live on your floor, and the teammates you meet right off the bat. But everyone comes to Bowdoin from different backgrounds and experiences and you will do yourself a disservice if you don’t branch out from those early clusters. You’ll be much happier moving through Bowdoin if you keep your mind open to new friends everywhere from your Econ 101 review session to the Thorne salad bar to the beer line at Helmreich House.

Editorial: Help yourself

As the Orient reports this week, Counseling Services has seen a 40 percent increase in student visits over the past nine years. This figure does not indicate the rapid decline of our collective mental health—rather, it signifies the growing number of us who are willing to seek out and accept help when we most need it.
Roughly 27 percent of Bowdoin’s student population has utilized individual therapy, a figure that has led Counseling Services to place renewed emphasis on group options and preventative programming this year. This is, in part, a simple response to increased demand, but it also represents a conscious decision intended to prevent Counseling from ever having to turn students away. Ensuring that more intensive care remains an option for students in crisis—as well as those with complex, long-term diagnoses—is a laudable and important goal. This is not always the case at other schools where student counseling visits are capped at five or ten, regardless of the student’s level of distress.
The College’s dedication to preventative mental health programming extends beyond Counseling. Services like those provided by the Center for Learning and Teaching—which opened its Writing Project Workshop on Tuesday—can help students learn to manage academic stress and avoid becoming overwhelmed as workloads intensify.

Editorial

This piece represents the opinion of The Bowdoin Orient editorial board.

September 13, 2013

In March of 2005, a string of drunken physical confrontations in the vicinity of a villain-themed Ladd House party resulted in streaks of blood on a wall, smashed windows and the hospitalizations of multiple injured students. That Saturday night stands out as an anomaly at Bowdoin, where the consequences of excessive drinking often tend to be more embarrassing than violent.

This semester, we are off to a good start. For the first time in several years, you’ll find no reports of alcohol-related transports in our first Security report. To put that in perspective, 11 Colby students have already been hospitalized for high blood alcohol content since the start of the year; seven of them were first years.

The first weekend of campus-wide College House parties is upon us. Whether you’ve never had a sip of alcohol or you’ve been going hard on Saturday nights for years, remember that this is an early Bowdoin weekend. You do not need to come out with your bacchanalian guns blazing. No one will turn you away from Quinby or Ladd if you aren’t sufficiently intoxicated.

Know that the Brunswick Police Department (BPD) is on the lookout. The events of this past weekend hint at BPD’s increased vigilance regarding alcohol-related violations. Walking around in public with open containers is one of the easiest ways to draw their attention. At any campus-wide party, there will be recycling cans by the door for empty cups. Use them. If you do happen to have interactions with BPD or Bowdoin Security, be courteous and respectful. In some instances, it can be the difference between a simple warning and lasting consequences.

On a darker note, across the Northeast, four young people died and others were hospitalized over the last few weeks after a string of overdoses thought to be linked to a contaminated batch of “molly”—the pure form of MDMA that is growing in popularity among our age group for its cheap price and euphoric high. In the drug-use survey conducted last spring by the Orient, 9 percent of respondents admitted to using molly at least once on campus. This number is enough to warrant concern of the danger the drug could pose to Bowdoin students, especially given our proximity to Boston and New York—the sites of the recent drug-induced fatalities.

Enjoy the weekend and celebrate getting through your first full week of classes. But at Saturday’s Epicuria at Ladd, keep an eye on your friends, keep a tally of your drinks, and keep the blood off the walls.

The editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, which is comprised of Claire Aasen, Erica Berry, Nora Biette-Timmons, Marisa McGarry, Eliza Novick-Smith, Sam Miller and Sam Weyrauch.

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