The Bowdoin Orient

With five probable cases of swine flu in Maine, Bowdoin has revisited and updated its emergency response procedures. "We are taking steps to deal with a possible outbreak," said Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster in an e-mail to the Orient.

In response to the recent economic downturn, the Bowdoin library is seeking to reduce its expenses on periodicals by $150,000 for the next fiscal year.

In his first semester at Bowdoin in 1990, President Robert Edwards wrote a memorandum to the school's financial planning committee detailing the status of budget. "Very simply, Bowdoin is spending at a higher level than its revenues will support," he wrote. As a result, Edwards, his administrative team and the College's overseers undertook the process of balancing the budget.

Behind strong performances by sophomore Colman Hatton and senior Scot McFarlane, the men's cross-country team took seventh at the 2008 NESCAC championships. On a hilly 8K course at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, Hatton ran to 16th place, with a time of 26:23. McFarlane was just behind at 26:37 in 25th place.

Former Senator George Mitchell '54 has come out in support of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

Over the past three years, Bowdoin has gotten straight "A's" in most of the Sustainable Endowment Institute's "Green Report Card," which measures colleges' commitments to sustainability. Belying those marks, though, has been its grade for endowment transparency. For the same three years, it has stubbornly remained at an "F."

President Barry Mills has declined to sign the Amethyst Initiative, a national petition of college and university presidents that aims to invigorate discussion about changing the legal drinking age.

A pants-less student skateboarding behind a car? Another getting stuck in a tree? While these may be anomalies on a normal weekend, on Ivies, they're not out of the question.

Get busted one too many times for drinking, smoking, or using drugs, and Bowdoin won't send you to rehab or a mental hospital, but to mild-mannered, mustachioed Geno Ring.

Bowdoin faculty is considering a proposal that would create a specific mechanism for increasing faculty racial and cultural diversity. The proposal would authorize the allocation of "special opportunity positions," or SOPs?new tenure-track faculty posts for exceptional minority candidates.

As the presidential candidates smile, spin, and spend their way toward November, some students might feel tempted to be cynical about the nation's electoral process. Perhaps it will hearten them to know that election reform is high on someone's agenda: A special committee headed by Will Hales '08 is currently exploring ways to improve Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) elections.

An investigation conducted at the end of the fall semester has concluded that several students on the women's squash team were victims of "mild hazing" in 2006. According to Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster, "in the case of women's squash, there was certainly mild to moderate hazing."

Bowdoin's investigation into allegations of hazing by the sailing and women's squash teams has been completed, but Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster said that because the teams involved have not yet been notified, the results would not be made available to the public until next week. The investigation, conducted by Director of Athletics Jeff Ward and Senior Associate Dean of Student Affairs Margaret Hazlett, was organized by Foster in response to an October article in the Portland Press Herald.

The University of Southern Maine has banned approximately 400 unvaccinated students from its campus after a student was confirmed to have contracted a case of mumps, according to a report by the Associated Press (AP). In the report, Dr. Dora Anne Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control, said that eight mumps cases had now been confirmed in the state, and that 35 other cases were suspected.

Faculty and student leaders are considering whether to bar students from using the College's Credit/D/Fail option to fulfill distribution requirements. The discussion comes on the heels of a proposal that Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) submitted to the faculty last spring that would change the current Credit/D/Fail policy to Grade/Credit/Fail. This would allow students to set the minimum grade that they would be willing to receive in a course?any grade below the minimum threshold but still above failing would appear on the transcript as "Credit."

A Bowdoin employee has contracted one of Maine's first three cases of mumps among residents in the last ten years, state health officials said yesterday. According to Andy Pelletier, a medical epidemiologist at the Maine Center for Disease Control (CDC), all three cases were diagnosed since September 27.

The sight of a Brunswick Police Department cruiser or officer on a Saturday night is usually enough to strike fear deep into the soul of an intoxicated Bowdoin student. However, both Bowdoin and Brunswick Police administrators describe the relationship between the BPD and the College as healthy, and say that the police generally try to resolve situations using the least restrictive means possible.

President Barry Mills has appointed a committee charged with devising and implementing a plan for the Bowdoin College campus to become carbon neutral. The appointment comes after Mills signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment last spring.

Following a commitment signed this spring, a college committee will begin meeting in October to determine how the campus can achieve carbon neutrality.

In a report by a visiting team of educators as part of the College's reaccreditation process, the educators highlighted advising as an area of Bowdoin's academic program that needs improvement.

In response to increased demand, Bowdoin security has upped the capacity of the SafeRide system. According to Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols, two SafeRide vans have been operating during peak hours on Friday and Saturday nights.

A lawmaker has introduced a bill in the Maine House of Representatives that would take away voting rights for college students from out-of-state. The legislature's Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony on the bill Wednesday and will hold a vote on February 7.

Karen Gordon Mills, the wife of President Barry Mills, was nominated by Governor John Baldacci on Monday to chair the newly created Council on Jobs, Innovation, and the Economy, according to a press release.

Quinby House raised $402 for charity in its dinner date charity fundraiser last week. According to house historian Darren Fishell '09, Joshua's Tavern, Shere Punjab, The Great Impasta, and Pedro O'Hara's all donated at least 10 percent of all profits they made from Bowdoin students on November 3.

The Board of Trustees has voted unanimously to refrain from directly investing in companies with business dealings in Darfur, and to avoid indirect investment in such companies if possible.

Members of Maine's Franco American community joined Bowdoin this week in a symposium celebrating the state's French heritage. The symposium, which ran from Monday to Wednesday, featured three panel discussions and a documentary. The panels considered the Franco American community's contributions to business and politics in Maine, as well as its culture and art.

Lance Armstrong added another athletic feat to his to his impressive array of accomplishments when he completed the New York Marathon two weeks ago. But not without help.

Student groups are gearing up for what could be a close vote on the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR), a referendum issue on the Nov. 7 ballot.

With the departure of both the director and an assistant director of alumni relations, and another assistant director on maternity leave, Bowdoin's alumni office will be relying on temporary staff to manage Homecoming this year, according to Randolph Shaw, vice president for development and alumni relations.

Green Party gubernatorial candidate Pat LaMarche spoke at Bowdoin on Wednesday night, as the Bowdoin College Democrats (BCD) warned that she might draw potential voters away from Gov. John Baldacci, who is campaigning for re-election.

Students apprehensive about having to brave Maine winters now have one less reason to worry. A new arrangement with Cingular means that by the end of this month, students should get cell phone service in their dorms.

President Barry Mills plans to make public his recommendations on Bowdoin's investment policy regarding the humanitarian crisis in Darfur within the next two weeks.

Along with final papers and presentations, the end of the year also brings another dreaded annual ritual: the housing lottery. For some, this year's lottery was particularly stressful. The College is suffering a housing crunch, leaving the Office of Residential Life to face the task of navigating through the difficulties.

As part of Professor of Government Christian Potholm's class, Conflict Simulation and Conflict Resolution, seniors Ben Martens and Antwan Phillips have been selected by their classmates to be the two candidates in Bowdoin's annual mock congressional race. Over the next few weeks, the two candidates and their support teams will raise money, create a constituency, and square off in a debate before the election is held on May 7. The election has been held each year for the last 15 years.

After another year with a record number of applicants?just over 5,400?the admissions office has mailed acceptance letters, according to Dean of Admissions Dick Steele. Due to the upcoming housing crunch, the acceptance rate of 22 percent was slightly lower than usual, though that number will rise as students are admitted off the waiting list, Steele said. Last year's acceptance rate was 24.3 percent.?We purposely planned to come in under our target because the housing situation is going to be so tight in the fall,? Steele said.

With the start of kNOw Poverty Week on Tuesday, the College will put a spotlight on a theme that has been growing in prominence over the last year and one that many hope will continue to draw attention and action.

Dean for Academic Affairs Craig McEwen presented a draft form of Bowdoin's new intellectual property policy to the College's faculty last week. According to McEwen, the new policy is largely an attempt to codify the College's current practices, replacing an old policy adopted in the 1970s.

After passing a resolution that some took to be an endorsement of the Academic Bill of Rights (ABOR), Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) worked quickly on Wednesday to distance itself from it. Following a visit to BSG from Dean of Academic Affairs Craig McEwen, who said the College will not create a proposed Academic Bias Incident Group (ABIG), and a discussion in which many of the members of BSG expressed disappointment and anger in the way the resolution had been construed, the body passed two subsequent resolutions intended to clarify its intent.

In a partnership with a local internet service provider, the College is planning an extensive wireless network that will provide access to both students and town residents throughout the Brunswick downtown area, Fort Andross, and even parts of Topsham. The network is a pilot project scheduled to last six months.

As U.S. Marine Alex Cornell Du Houx '06 heads to Iraq, he now has the distinction of his story being documented on a major television network. The feature, shown on NBC's "Nightly News," aired Sunday night alongside topics such as Saddam Hussein's trial in Iraq.

Members of the College community came together for an intimate, somber gathering at the chapel to celebrate and remember the life of Kathryn Scott '06 last Friday. Scott, who had been on leave from Bowdoin since September, died after a New Hampshire car crash last month. "We gather together this day, surrounded by the mysteries of life and death. We come because in the great tapestry of human life the threads of our lives have been woven together with Katie's," said Reverend Mary Baard, who officiated Saturday's service.

The Bowdoin campus has become a battleground for groups fighting on both sides of Maine's upcoming referendum on gay rights, Question 1.

The U.S. Senate is considering a new version of the Higher Education Act with potentially broad implications for the Bowdoin community. This new version calls for widespread changes to the previous version of the act, including fixing interest rates on federal student loans while at the same time increasing the maximum size of Pell Grants, the primary form of federal education grants.

Bowdoin received a grant from the Mellon Foundation six years ago to keep programming strong as the college began to phase out its fraternity system. The grant is used to fund activities that expand the College's programming and stimulate both intellectual and social life.