The Bowdoin Orient

Many spring sports teams have had to adjust their schedules and practice routines over the last few weeks due to this year’s unprecedented amount of snowfall, which has left the outdoor fields and the track covered in snow.Although the cold winter climate has always forced teams like lacrosse, softball, baseball and tennis to spend an extra week or two training indoors, the huge amount of snow this year has created a substantial delay in access to outdoor training facilities.

According to Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan, the lacrosse teams were forced to practice indoors for a few extra days because of cold weather and excess snow, which caused a change in other sports teams’ schedules. In past winters, snow on the lacrosse field’s artificial turf could be plowed regularly by Bowdoin Facilities Management, but the extreme amounts of snow all over campus created a higher demand for Facilities’ plows.

“We talk with Facilities on a daily basis when it is snowing,” said Ryan. “It helps them inform us of the practice schedules that we may need to adjust—if we can get onto the turf or not. We have a great relationship, but their first priority is understandably toward clearing campus, and then they make their way to our athletic fields.” 

The artificial turf was cleared at the end of Spring Break, but the softball and baseball fields, as well as the Pickard fields, remain covered in over a foot of snow and ice, according to softball player Marisa O’Toole ’17. This makes practicing on their own fields a challenge for the softball and baseball teams, as well as the rugby teams.

“Softball and baseball are traditionally left to clear their fields themselves,” said O’Toole. “This year Facilities shoveled the areas on our field where the sun hits our fields, but other than that we’re pretty much on our own. Right now we’re just waiting for the snow to melt.”

Because of their inability to practice outdoors, many of the spring teams have had to share the Farley Field House facilities and the artificial turf. Although this does involve later practice times, all teams do get regular windows of time for practice.

“The whole competition with other teams just means that some teams don’t get ideal times, but it’s not the end of the world,” said Kyle Wolstencroft ’15, captain of the men’s tennis team. This year, the coaches did a sort of lottery to determine practice times, which made forming the schedule more fair for every team.”

Though rescheduling practices has not been a major issue, rescheduling games and matches poses a different issue for the Department of Athletics. The tennis teams have traditionally been able to reschedule their matches at nearby Maine Pines tennis facility, but softball and baseball have not been as lucky. These teams look to nearby schools with less impact from the snow, including Bates, to host their home games.

“We’re fortunate to have a very collegial relationship with the other schools in our conference,” Ryan said. “With such a short spring season, the goal is to be able to get all of our conference games played, and teams are willing to make accommodations to make sure that that can happen while not adversely impacting students’ abilities to be in class.”

Though the teams expressed some frustration at the extended winter and its effects on their practice locations, most feel that the changes will not affect their performance throughout the season.

“[The changed practices] didn’t affect us at all in Florida; we came away with a really good record,” said O’Toole. “Maine spring is always going to be like this, so we’re used to the sport being affected by weather. I think it’s mostly just a general longing to be outside.

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.”

Newly appointed registrar Martina Duncan ’97 says she hopes to improve Polaris by considering feedback from students and faculty. Duncan worked in the Office of the Registrar during the initial implementation of the system and said she believes it can be improved further.

“We’re always going to continue building on our system’s functionality,” said Duncan. “Our goal is to understand what comes next and always make sure that Polaris is providing the kind of functionality to the campus that is needed.” 

Dean for Academic Affairs Cristle Collins Judd announced that Duncan  had been promoted registrar of the College in an e-mail sent out to students and staff on January 15. Duncan will officially transition from her current role as an associate registrar to registrar on February 2, taking over responsibilities from the Interim Registrar Jim Higginbotham, who is also a Classics professor.

Duncan’s appointment was approved by a search committee which was convened by Judd and comprised of faculty members Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Sara Dickey, Associate Professor of Biology and Biochemistry Anne McBride, Professor of Mathematics Adam Levy and Senior Associate Dean of Student Affairs Kim Pacelli. The committee unanimously recommended Duncan’s promotion, according to Judd.

“[Duncan] has wide-ranging administrative, academic, and managerial experience; she has quickly become a valued member of the registrar’s office since her appointment as associate registrar a year ago; and she is an established and valuable member of the Bowdoin community,” wrote Judd in an e-mail to the Orient. “The committee was impressed by the depth and breadth of her experience, her problem-solving skills, and her commitment to maintaining and enhancing the excellent service the registrar’s office provides to the campus community.” 

As registrar of the College, Duncan’s responsibilities will shift from chiefly academic-related duties to a focus on the student and faculty interactions with the Office of the Registrar.

“In my former position I focused more on the curricular side; now I’m trying to really learn more about the student side,” said Duncan. 

“I really like working in an office that has such a great staff and I really enjoy working with all the faculty and students,” said Duncan. “I’m a Bowdoin grad so it’s nice to work in my alma mater and feel that what we do is really central to the campus.” 

Due to some restructuring and shifting in the office based on the needs of the new program, no one has been appointed to take over Duncan’s former role as an associate registrar. The office recently hired Brett Bisesti as a systems specialist for the Banner program, the program that is the basis of Polaris.

The women’s volleyball team earned an at-large bid for the NCAA D-III Tournament following its win over Middlebury and a loss to Tufts at the NESCAC championships last weekend.

The team was not eligible for an automatic bid—which is given to the NESCAC champion—but impressed the tournament selection committee by finishing the season ranked second in New England. 

According to captain Christy Jewett ’16, the team was confident in its ability to hold that ranking after its success early in the year.

“The NCAA committee looked at our prior wins and said they saw the potential within our team,” said Jewett. “That helped us a lot in securing this at-large bid.”

With hopes of avenging their regular-season loss, the Polar Bears prepped all last week for their match against Middlebury. With the fourth set tied at 23, Jewett notched consecutive kills to seal the quarterfinal victory. 

The following day, the team played a difficult match against Tufts, ultimately losing to the Jumbos in the decisive fifth set 12-15. According to Head Coach Karen Corey, it was the team’s minor errors that led to the loss.

“It was a really tight game. We had a couple errors at the end, which Tufts really got a lot of momentum from,” said Jewett. “It dropped our confidence a little bit and kept their service running.”

The team will focus on improving the skills that they have been working on all season, rather than developing new techniques before the tournament.

“We’re not throwing in something new or learning a new technique. We’re just getting better at what we’re already good at,” said Corey. 

The team is also mentally preparing for the weekend ahead.

“We’re focusing on confidence because we know that our skills are capable of taking us through the tournament,” said Jewett.

The Polar Bears have been analyzing the play of Regis College, their opponent in the first round of the tournament.

“We’re just taking it one game at a time. We want to learn as much as we can about the teams we play so that we are smart players going into the game,” said captain Hailey Wahl ’16.

The team will face off against Regis today at Williams College. If Bowdoin wins, it will face the winner of a match between MIT and Rivier College.

Despite the magnitude of today’s match, the Polar Bears are confident that they can advance through the tournament’s opening rounds.

“I’m very excited for the teams that we have coming this weekend, especially the opportunity to play MIT. We’ll rise to the level of good competition,” said Wahl.