The Bowdoin Orient

Though his book won the Society of Africanist Archaeologists Book Prize, Professor of Anthropology Scott MacEachern did not return from the ceremony in Dakar with a gold statuette commemorating the achievement. "I think I got a beer out of it," he said, smiling. But though the prize itself may have been slight, the book's impact is sure to be less modest.

Professor of Philosophy Scott Sehon said he is looking forward to Bowdoin's first-ever Veritas Forum because he thinks "it's a good thing for there to be more dialogue between religious perspectives and secular perspectives." But one might ask Professor Sehon for a more precise definition of the word "good"—exactly the question he is going to have to answer during next Thursday's forum.

With a record number of applicants to the College Houses, students are practically banging down the doors at the Office of Residential Life. With "well above 300 applicants" for only 206 spots, interest in the College Houses is at an all-time high.

Coming from far and wide, the 45 members of the Board of Trustees convened on campus over the weekend for its annual winter meeting. Among other items, the board granted tenure to three faculty members, chose five honorary degree recipients and listened to a presentation about development possibilities for the land that the College is likely to acquire once Naval Air Station Brunswick (NASB) closes in May.

Most college students spend winter break making money or making merry, but as part of the Alternative Winter Break (AWB) program, eight Bowdoin students spent their last week of vacation in Portland making a difference.

Less than two weeks ago, the field hockey team won its third NCAA championship in four years. It is the only Bowdoin team to have ever won the championship, let alone three, but the one-of-a-kind team operates on a run-of-the-mill budget.

"Has someone discriminated against you because of who you are?" "Have you cried on campus?" "Do you believe yourself to be middle class?" "Have you questioned your class status since you came to Bowdoin?" In an exercise called "Walk the Line," which took place as a part of a retreat for multicultural and first-generation first years held last weekend, students pushed themselves to answer questions like these in order to take a deeper look into their identity at Bowdoin.

Red with anger at Democratic incumbents, Maine voters joined the tide of Americans allying themselves with the GOP. On Tuesday, Republicans took the majority in both of Maine's legislative houses and the governor's office, ousting Democrats after an eight-year stronghold in Augusta.

This year, says the Sustainable Endowments Institute, Bowdoin did its homework. The College's overall grade on the Institute's College Sustainability Report Card rose from a B in 2010 to an A minus in 2011. The uptick was a result of the College's improvements in the categories of Endowment Transparency, from an F to a C, and Shareholder Engagement, from a D to a C. These are two of the nine categories that the Report Card evaluates. The College also improved from a B to an A in Green Building. It received As in all other categories both years.

With the November 2 election less than three weeks away, Republican Dean Scontras, though still trailing, has made a seven-point gain on the incumbent Democrat Chellie Pingree in Maine's First Congressional District.

A new poll suggests a dead heat in this cold state's race for governor. Data released Wednesday shows 30 percent of likely voters supporting Democrat Libby Mitchell and 29 percent supporting Republican Paul LePage. These numbers come just 10 days after a poll that had put LePage at a 13-point advantage and is welcome news for Democrats, with only one month left until the November 2 elections. All polling data was generated by Critical Insights of Portland, Maine. The poll size was relatively small—405 likely voters were polled.

The Bowdoin admissions website poses a rhetorical question—"Does Bowdoin welcome international students?"—and answers it: "Absolutely!" But international students, unlike their American counterparts, are mostly only "welcome" if they can pay up. Though Bowdoin has practiced "need-blind" admissions for domestic students for over a decade, "admission for non-U.S. Citizens," according to The College Catalogue, "may take a family's financial resources into consideration."

They hail from Portland to Pakistan and, at 510 students, they are the largest group of first-years Bowdoin has ever seen. Please welcome the Class of 2014.

"It's never too soon to start thinking about saving for retirement," proclaimed Michaela Cavallaro last Tuesday to a room full of groaning seniors at the workshop "Beyond Bowdoin: Living on Your Salary and Building Wealth after Graduation."

On Monday night, six Bowdoin women came to campus and relived a time when Reagan was president, bright workout gear was all the rage, and Bowdoin still supported fraternities. The panel, titled, "Claiming Spaces: Bowdoin Women of the 1980s," spoke of reclaiming the history of the decade. The event was sponsored by the Gender and Women's Studies program and the Women's Resource Center.

With Phase II of spring course registration ending Thursday, students have finalized their schedules for next semester. However, some students have expressed confusion about why certain courses do not count toward the distribution requirements that they might expect them to.

With a month remaining until Election Day, students are gearing up with the non-partisan "Get Out the Vote" (GOTV) campaign vigorously working to register members of the Bowdoin community to vote.

Applicants to Bowdoin this fall need not worry. Interim Dean of Admissions Scott Meiklejohn hasn't noticed their latest relationship status change on Facebook. Others are not so lucky. Kaplan announced last week that one in 10 admissions officers at some of the top schools in the country have been delving a little deeper into applicants' lives than some might expect.