The Bowdoin Orient

With the last of the massive snow drifts finally disappearing from campus, numerous students will take advantage of the spring weather to get outdoors and participate in tomorrow's 10th annual Eco Service Day.

Throughout the past week, the Africa Alliance has been hosting its first-ever "Africa in April" celebration. Organized by the 10 members of the student-run organization and sponsored by Africana studies and the music department, the week has already featured a number of programs to generate greater awareness and understanding of African culture.

With frustrations mounting over the lack of electrical outlets in Smith Union, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) followed through on a plan to make power more easily accessible by installing more outlets earlier this week.

With construction well underway, the Inn at Maine Street Station is rapidly nearing completion. Located on the corner of Maine and Noble Streets, the Inn is one of the numerous projects being constructed as part of the new Maine Street Station under the direction of JHR Development, a Brunswick developer.

NESCAC athletics administrators confirmed long-standing rumors that the 2010-2011 season would be the end of the NESCAC-ECAC East interlock in men's ice hockey. The decision was released on January 6.

The women’s ice hockey team has spent much of Winter Break on campus, training for the season ahead and competing in matches against fellow NESCAC teams.

On Monday and Tuesday, the chief student affairs officers of the 11 schools that make up the NESCAC convened in Boston at the Westin Copley Place for an annual meeting. A tradition that started over 20 years ago, this meeting allows the NESCAC deans of student affairs to reflect upon and discuss events of the past year at their respective schools.

Last Wednesday, Information Technology (IT) put the finishing touches on a new online storage system that will enable students, faculty and staff to save and backup large amounts of data on the College's server. According to Chief Information Officer Mitch Davis, IT's decision to increase its storage capacity was born out of necessity. "If we didn't make the change, we would either have to tell everybody to empty their trash and remove all the information they have collected over the last year or have the whole system crash," said Davis.

The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame (NFF) announced on Tuesday that Lonnie Hackett '14 will receive its prestigious High School Scholar-Athlete award.

Although the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the H1N1 pandemic over on August 10, College Health Services is still preparing for the onslaught of seasonal flu. The H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, swept the globe last year, infecting hundreds of thousands of people, including over 200 Bowdoin students. In response to the high-infection rate last year, the College set up quarantine rooms in Chamberlain Hall during September to contain transmission of the virus.

As the results of Fulbright Program winners continue to roll in, it appears to be another good year for Bowdoin applicants.

Despite the sweeping changes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will bring to health insurance policies in the United States, the effect it will have on Bowdoin remain unclear.

German language? Check. German literature? Check. German politics? Check. Sally Hudson '10 seems to have it all covered. A government and German double major and economics minor, Hudson is working on a senior honors project that will allow her to combine her love of German politics and culture. Hudson is researching German nuclear energy policy, and according to her advisor, Assistant Professor of Government Laura Henry, "how a country like Germany arrived at this energy policy and how it changes over time." After she studied abroad in Vienna, Austria, Hudson became further interested in German politics and, particularly, energy policy.

The development of a Student Web Advisory Team is underway, according to Associate Vice President of Communications for Marketing and Publications Robert Kerr. The group, expected to begin meeting in March, will give students the opportunity to "guide Bowdoin's presence on the net," said Kerr.

A Coleman Hall resident was transported to Parkview Adventist Medical Center for alcohol poisoning last Friday, prompting a mandatory meeting for all first year students on Saturday evening. The Office of Residential Life has since requested that proctors continue discussing thses issues with their first-year floors and extend their on-duty hours.

Sick of Seventeen and Cosmopolitan magazines? Junior Joanna Buffum, along with the rest of the Her Campus staff, have just added another option to the pool—an online magazine aimed specifically at college females. After working as an intern for a blog, Zagat Buzz, Buffum was hired as a staff writer by Her Campus, an exclusively female and college-oriented online magazine.

Bowdoin faculty members of the government, economics, sociology and history departments weighed in on the raging health care debate and largely came out on the side of a government-regulated system. Three out of four professors argued forcefully for a government-run model, though the finer points of their positions varied.

Responding to an evident desire of Bowdoin students to go into teaching, this semester the education department is debuting Bowdoin Teacher Scholars (BTS), a new teaching certification program. According the Career Planning Center, 18.2 percent of seniors from 2000 to 2007 entered the field of education. Despite the apparent popularity of the teaching profession, the previous teaching accreditation system was not always easy to navigate.