The Bowdoin Orient

By 2020, Bowdoin may have achieved carbon neutrality on campus, constructed a new social sciences building at the site of the former Dayton Arena, developed land acquired from the Brunswick Naval Air Station (NASB), and initiated a new capital campaign. While administrators are optimistic about plans and changes to come, they emphasized that in many respects, concrete plans for the future remain uncertain.

The start of the decade found the College in a strong financial position, the Orient reported in November of 2000, with an improved bond rating to borrow money with greater ease and nine consecutive years of balanced budgets. The College was not immune, however, to the economic hardships that followed September 11, 2001, which included a depressed stock market and widespread economic slowdown. Then-Treasurer of the College Kent Chabotar told the Orient that the College had been preparing for times of economic uncertainty for about two years. "We're not battening down the hatches or heading for the basement. We're just being prudent," he said in a September 2001 article.

This week, we have compiled the most important stories from the decade pertaining to issues in Brunswick and Maine. We have pulled a selection of actual headlines from past issues, and condensed and synthesized stories relevant to each headline in order to showcase some of the most significant moments and enduring issues covered by the Orient.

This week, we have compiled a selection headlines and stories related to speakers, performers, and lecturers of significance that have visited the College over the past decade.

As part of a nationwide pledge signed by Mills to eventually eliminate the College's carbon emissions, a College committee began meeting in the fall of 2007 to determine how the campus could achieve carbon neutrality, the Orient reported. The committee, which consisted of the faculty, staff and one student on the College's Environmental Action Committee, was charged with establishing a process for fulfilling the pledge's five steps, as designated by the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment.

Record-breaking numbers of applicants over the years went hand-in-hand with increased competition among applicants. In April of 2007, then-Dean of Admissions Shain said the acceptance rate for the Class of 2011, which stood at 18.5 percent overall with only 16 percent admitted in the regular round, was "brutal." In addition to a 10-percent increase in the number of applicants for 2011, the College admitted fewer students in order to keep the size of the first year class small, and to leave space for applicants on the wait list, according to Shain.

The College announced in April 2007 that a Center for the Common Good was scheduled to open by the fall of 2008, and would serve as a central campus resource for supporting, teaching, and researching activities "grounded in community engagement and public service," the Orient reported.

Following months of debate, the faculty voted 45 to 29 to add pluses and minuses to Bowdoin's grading system, beginning in the 2002-2003 academic year. According to a January 25, 2002 Orient article, changes to the system of grading had not occurred since 1954, when Bowdoin adopted a plus/minus system in place of an "ABCDF" system. In 1967, Bowdoin revised the system again, and instituted a grading scale with the distinctions of High Honors, Honors, Pass, or Fail.

Over the decade, Bowdoin students, staff and faculty have committed a significant amount of time and resources to expanding the diversity—based on race, sexuality, gender and economic status—of the campus community.

Since March of 1997, when the Board of Trustees approved recommendations of the Trustee Commission on Residential Life to phase out fraternities at Bowdoin in favor of the more "inclusive" College Houses, the College House System has steadily evolved and matured. In an Orient article from October of 2007, a decade after the College House System replaced fraternities, students and administrators commented on the role of houses at Bowdoin.

Bowdoin's dining earned top marks in 2005 and 2006, holding the No. 1 spot on the Princeton Review list of "Best Campus Food" for two years in a row. In 2008, when dining held the No. 2 spot in the rankings, Director of the Dining Service Mary Lou Kennedy said, "We are proud to have been in the top 10 list in Princeton Review and recognized for excellence for many years...Our primary goal has always been to be No. 1 in the eyes of Bowdoin students."

The Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) as it is known today has not always been officially named or structured as such. In the 1999-2000 academic year, the existing Executive Board (known as E9) ratified a constitution to create a second governing body, known as the Student Assembly (SA). According to an April 2002 Orient article, the SA from 2000 comprised elected class representatives, vice-presidents of the College Houses, a representative from the Inter-House Council, and the Student Activities Fares Committee chair.

At the start of the decade, a controversial report called into question the role of athletics at New England Small Colleges Athletic Conference (NESCAC) schools, finding that athletes received an advantage in admissions over non-athletes despite lower test scores, and tended to rank in the bottom portions of their class.

Having established that there is a serious deficiency in meaningful discourse among students at Bowdoin, I set out to solve the problem. The answer can be summed up with two words: "bath" and "house." I am proposing that the old pool building next to Smith Union be turned into a Greek-style bathhouse equipped with saunas, hot tubs, and possibly tanning booths.

After significant debate, the faculty voted at Monday's faculty meeting to pass the Recording Committee's Thanksgiving break proposal. Beginning in the fall, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving will be added to the vacation. Scheduling alternatives to compensate for the extra day will be further explored.

Despite bouts of economic instability and setbacks, it would seem that College officials accurately predicted the future in a February 2004 Orient article that reported that "By 2010, new buildings are expected to include the currently-in-construction Kanbar Hall, two residence halls, a new hockey arena, and a new bookstore. Officials also hope for renovation of the first-year dormitories, a new concert hall in Curtis Pool, a renovated Walker Art Building, and improvements to Hawthorne-Longfellow Library." As the Orient looks back at the College's significant building projects of the decade, it becomes clear that the majority of construction plans for the campus were realized.

The first half of the decade was buzzing with illegal Internet activity at the College, as Bowdoin students discovered—and were disciplined for—music piracy. Over the years, illegal file sharing on the Internet has caused problems for the College, Information Technology and students alike.

The decade has seen two directors of Safety and Security: in January of 2000, Director of Security Scott Kipp resigned and Bob Graves served as interim director. In 2005, Randy Nichols joined the College as the new, and current, head of Safety and Security after spending 27 and a half years with the Maine State Police. A November 11, 2005, Orient article reported that Nichols' list of important issues at Bowdoin included "lighting, pedestrian safety, personal safety, and alcohol abuse."

September 15, 2000 When the Orient reported that Dr. Jeff Benson would step into the position of director of health services at Dudley Coe Health Center in 2000, a companion story stated that Benson's predecessor, nurse practitioner Robin Beltramini, had been told she had to resign after 14 years at the College. According to the Orient article, Beltramini was only told that the decision had nothing to do with patient care.

Now in his ninth year leading the College, President Barry Mills remains modest about the growing list of changes, expansions and projects taken on under his supervision. While he said he recognizes the "pretty important role" he's played in imagining and implementing projects, he noted that "the College, in so many ways, isn't about the president."

In the tumultuous hours following Al-Qaeda's terrorist attacks on U.S. cities on September 11, 2001, the College's Disaster Response team was immediately activated, Residential Life identified students with ties to New York, Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh, allowing proctors and RAs to track students down, and administrators and students convened in Morrell Gym, as President Barry Mills spoke, beginning his term as president in the midst of crisis.

This week, we have pulled a selection of actual headlines quotations from articles published in the Orient within the last decade. We have selected miscellaneous stories that might otherwise go undiscovered in the archives. While not as pertinent to the College's history as those selected for the larger section, they still reflect a piece—however small—of the College's past.

Arthur Monke, former head librarian of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library (H-L Library) from 1968 to 1992, died after a long illness on Wednesday of last week at the age of 84. In his time at the College, Monke oversaw renovations to H-L Library, the design and creation of the underground tunnel between H-L Library and Hubbard Hall, construction of Hatch Science Library, and the early implementation of computer technology in the library system.

Williams College announced plans to revoke its no-loan financial aid policy on Sunday, citing a $500 million drop in its endowment over the past three years, increasing financial aid expenditures, and unstable economic conditions.

In the 2008 fiscal year (FY), Senior Vice President for Investments Paula Volent remained the highest-paid employee of the College, despite receiving a significant decrease in salary from FY 2007. President Barry Mills's compensation ranked him eighth among the 11 NESCAC presidents, just above the president of Colby College, but well below the president of Bates College.

The College presented a draft of its Climate Neutrality Implementation Plan to the Board of Trustees this past weekend, officially announcing its commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2020. Now, Bowdoin will seek input and recommendations from the Board and campus community before it submits the plan to the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) by early December.

Bowdoin's Climate Commitment Advisory Committee (CCAC) has created a plan to become carbon neutral by 2020, following through with its 2007 pledge for carbon neutrality. The College will present a draft of its Climate Neutrality Implementation Plan to the Board of Trustees during Homecoming Weekend, then revise and submit a final version in November.

In his welcome address to the Class of 2013, Interim Dean of Admissions Scott Meiklejohn painted an impressive picture of the incoming first years: two Abercrombie and Fitch models, 273 class valedictorians, 42 perfect SAT scores on the SAT, a writer published in the New Yorker, a National Geographic photographer, and the youngest American woman to climb Mt. Everest. Then, at the height of his address, as first years scrambled to find out who the famous few were, Meiklejohn made another announcement: Only one of the things on his laundry list of accomplishments was true, and he was going to leave it to the Class of 2013 to figure out which.

Amid the online-only shift of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a threatened Boston Globe, and the state's own Blethen Maine Newspapers for sale, the news industry today is struggling. With advertising revenues falling for all, print subscriptions down 15 to 20 percent at some Maine dailies in the past eight years, and burdensome debt structures to support, newspapers in Maine are looking, with the rest of the country, for ways to weather the storm.

While not officially confirmed by Bowdoin's Campus Activities Board (CAB), online concert schedules suggest that Sean Kingston and Santigold are slated as headliner acts for Bowdoin's Ivies Weekend, with Saturday, April 25 performances listed for both on campus.

With the global economic crisis worsening by the week, Bowdoin and its peer schools have worked on plans to secure their financial futures. Bowdoin has created a financial planning model and recently approved cost-cutting measures to balance the budget, while peer schools have made other plans to suit their needs.

Following the release of a memo by President Barry Mills last week, outlining a series of recommendations to aid financial planning, 13 students attended a forum on College finances Tuesday night. Part of a series of community meetings also including staff and faculty forums, the meeting sought to clarify student questions surrounding the College's fiscal affairs and plans to reduce future deficits.

For those unenthusiastic students asked to carry course evaluations to the academic affairs office in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library at the end of each semester, consider this: As early as fall, handwritten course opinion forms may be replaced with an online course evaluation system

Tired of hunting down professors and advisers to fill out course registration cards, only to then, days later, wait for hours to access the overloaded Bearings system? In response to ongoing discussion about deficiencies, the College is working to implement a new student information system (SIS), which would involve online course registration, better recording of academic progress and student information, and increased communication between faculty, students, and staff through processes such as advising.

In an effort towards consolidation and improvement, Bowdoin's Committee on Governance (COG) recently presented a draft proposal to restructure committees at Bowdoin. The proposal, which has raised a few concerns among students and faculty, would reorganize most committees, cut others, and emphasize ad hoc working committees to more efficiently target specific issues.

When senior Meg Waterman woke up Wednesday morning, she plugged a string of lights into her Coles Tower bedroom expecting illumination. Instead, she received sparks, second-degree burns to her hand, and visits with campus security, facilities, and medical personnel.

Educator and author Gregory Michie is trying to change common perceptions of urban schooling. In his lecture on Thursday, Michie aimed to debunk the myths surrounding students and the role of teachers in inner-city schools. "We have a very particular sort of image about urban education, what public schools in the cities are about...Michie gives voice to students and young people who are often portrayed pretty one-dimensionally in the media," said Assistant Professor of Education Doris Santoro Gomez.

By 2009, students may be able to visit a nurse, an acupuncturist, and an athletic trainer all in the same building. The College has merged plans for a new fitness center, a health center renovation, and a wellness center proposed by the Counseling Service into a single project.

The house at 30 College St. underwent extensive renovations this summer to become the new Multicultural Center for students and groups on campus, ending its tenure as student housing.

Following months of discussion and editing, the Recording Committee will introduce a revised version of the College's Credit/D/Fail policy at Monday's faculty meeting for discussion. Faculty will then wait until the fall semester to make further changes and vote on a final policy.

In its final meeting of the year, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) passed an amendment that would affirm its role in the selection process of the Judicial Board (J-Board). While BSG still needs to work with the J-Board to codify the process, the amendment would appoint one BSG member as a full member of the J-Board's Selection Committee. That member would have voting privileges.

Following this week's shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols attended Wednesday's BSG meeting to address members' questions and concerns about potential crisis scenarios at Bowdoin.

In one of its last meetings of the year, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) brainstormed ways to improve the current College House System and, in preparation for the upcoming elections and position changes, discussed the role BSG should assume in order to serve the student body.

Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) voted against two constitutional amendments this week: one that would have made all students eligible to run for BSG president, and another that would have allowed juniors studying abroad to serve half-year terms as class representatives.

Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) has voted to recommend the replacement of the College's current Credit/D/Fail policy with a Grade/Credit/Fail policy. After hearing concerns from students and faculty about the shortcomings of the current policy, BSG members suggested that their support would help the Recording Committee in further discussion and policy revisions.

Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) received a first look at a proposed revision of the academic attendance policy developed by the faculty's Student Affairs Committee.

Although the Maine Department of Education boasts that the state has an 87.4 percent high school graduation rate, one of the highest in the country, the Mitchell Institute reports that only 50 percent of high school graduates in 2002 enrolled in post-secondary education. This week, nine Bowdoin students presented results from statewide high school focus groups exploring the gap between college intentions and enrollment.

This June, the College will no longer coordinate the annual Dump and Run sale. Instead, a group of non-profit organizations are taking control of the event, now known as Give and Go.

The start of the spring semester has left some students scrambling for new courses as at least four courses have been canceled, and others have been added or rescheduled to meet student demand.

Students returning from Winter Break are noticing some changes in their usual laundry routine: a 20 percent price increase of 25 cents per load, as well as the convenience of newly installed LaundryView software. The software allows students to check the status of washers and dryers across campus from their computers. While some students are embracing this new convenience, others are displeased with the price increase.

Some Bowdoin officials received substantial pay raises during the 2004 fiscal year, public tax documents show. Though President Barry Mills's salary became significantly higher than what the presidents of Bates and Colby colleges earned, it was still lower than presidents at comparable top liberal arts colleges.

Feeling blue? Need to talk to someone about it? Get in line. With a 37 percent increase in services provided to Bowdoin students by the Counseling Service in the 2005-2006 year, an earlier-than-usual waiting list developed and has required students to wait up to three weeks in some cases.

An eight-member reaccreditation committee from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) has presented an initial summary of its findings to the College. In a preview of a report to be submitted to the NEASC, the team commended Bowdoin for its commitment to a liberal arts education and change since the last accreditation, but expressed concern about the College's planning for the future and focus on academic advising.

In recognition of Bowdoin's ties to Maine's Franco American roots, the College is holding a three-day symposium entitled "Celebrating the Franco American Heritage of Maine." With visitors expected from Canada, New England, and Maine, the symposium will feature panel discussions, a documentary, and a closer look into the Franco American lifestyle.

There is a plaque in Boody-Johnson House recognizing the Abromson family's provision of "funds for the promotion of ethnic, cultural and religious understanding in this house." However, the 2007-08 academic year may find this plaque, along with the College's multicultural student groups, inhabiting 30 College St. instead.

In an effort to ensure a safer student body and campus, Bowdoin's Residential Life and Security staffs have teamed up this year to conduct pre-party checks at registered campus events.

As experts in their fields, professors not only write articles and texts for their colleagues in the academic world, but some also incorporate them into the classroom as assigned or supplemental reading for their students.

After resolving a series of technical and logistical issues, the College is now finalizing plans to extend its wireless network into downtown Brunswick. Students and faculty will have access to the network along Maine Street indefinitely, while Brunswick residents will be able to use the wireless Internet during a free two-month trial period.

This week, students did well by McKeen's legacy, snatching up every spot for Common Good Day 2006.