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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Final reflections on four great years
When I look back on the four years I spent as a student at Bowdoin, I will remember them fondly. I arrived here as a seventeen-year-old student who had not been to school in America since fourth grade.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: It’s time to share your love of Bowdoin with prospective students
During the past two weeks the College has apparently taken it upon itself to remind graduating seniors that in about a month we will no longer be students at Bowdoin College. From the letters in our mailboxes asking us how to pronounce our names at graduation to the emails asking us to request our cap and gowns and the bittersweet reminders that in a few months we won't have access to the soon-to-be-defunct Bearings, Bowdoin seems intent on waking us up from the dream that we'll always be college students. On behalf of the Class of 2012, we get it.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: GOP threatened by conservative division
The race for the Republican nomination has intensified in recent weeks, but it doesn't look like the GOP is moving any closer to the finish line. With each passing election, it's becoming increasingly clear that there is no candidate in the Republican field that can appeal to all the major voting blocs that make up the party's base. And this is a big problem for Republicans.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Romney should risk speaking his mind
From the outset of this campaign season, Republican presidential hopefuls have sought to capture support from the disgruntled Republican base. Mitt Romney appears to have adopted the strategy of hiding his true values and opinions in an effort to appease the GOP base, but his time would be better spent making the case for a new direction for the Republican Party.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Leaving Bowdoin, leaving home in June
Four years ago I wrote an essay about finding home.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Longer Thanksgiving break? Definitely.
Two weeks ago, faculty gathered to discuss a proposal recommending a weeklong Thanksgiving break. The new schedule would add two days to the current three-day break in Bowdoin's academic calendar. The proposal calls for the extra class days to be made up by shortening fall break to a single day and by having the first Friday of the semester follow a Monday schedule.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Occupy Wall Street should not be ignored
Occupy Wall Street was initially dismissed by conservative pundits as nothing more than a fringe extremist movement composed of a cocktail of the most liberal people imaginable. However, Democrats have been reluctant to claim ownership of this movement either, for fear of being compared to the right-wing Tea Party movement and of moving the party away from the center.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Perry’s promise to diminish presidential role is misguided
The idea of campaigning for a job with a goal of diminishing its importance has always confused me, but that's exactly what Republican hopeful Rick Perry has pledged to do.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: The printing policy aids environment but impairs learning
The printing policy enacted at the beginning of the 2010-2011 academic year needs to be reevaluated. At the time, the arguments in favor of a new pay-as-you-go printing policy made sense. Paper has a cost and the College's efforts to make students aware of that cost is understandable.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Branch out of usual dining routines and eat with someone new
"Hi, do you mind if I join you?" Those were the words of one stranger at lunch this Monday, and they definitely caught my lunch partner and me by surprise. At Bowdoin, we have a knack for falling into routines. We find a place where we are comfortable, and we do not often venture out of it. Be it a cozy chair at the Union where we go to study every night, or a carrel in the stacks where we can block out distractions and work until Security kicks us out, we find out what works and we keep doing it.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Spiritual growth at Bowdoin
The last few weeks have been filled with papers, midterms, occasional sunny days providing hope for the coming of spring and the anticipation of everyone's favorite week of the year, Ivies. Amid piles of homework, busy extracurricular schedules and time consuming social obligations, what was once one of my favorite days of the year—next to my birthday and Christmas—snuck up on me. This Sunday is Easter. Five years ago, the idea that I would be unaware of when Easter Sunday was less than a week out was unfathomable.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Springtime presents enjoyable outdoor alternatives
Spring has arrived. After months of wondering when—and if—the snow would melt, we now can take comfort in the small pleasures derived from walking across campus without worrying about wet socks or falling on an ice patch. At Bowdoin, spring semester always has been somewhat of a misnomer, but when the snow does finally melt to reveal the brown grass and the pathways we forgot existed, the months of trudging over snow mounds and navigating through icy pathways suddenly seem worth it.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: ‘Meatless Monday’ raised campus awareness, incited discussion
This Monday, a nationwide initiative known as "Meatless Monday" finally made an appearance at our beloved dining halls. The concept—a dinner without any meat to get students talking about the environmental impact of eating meat—actually worked. While initially appalled by the idea that I would have to go someplace else to enjoy a dinner that included a main course, I thought back to my experience in Italy, where eating meat twice a day was an idea so foreign to my Italian roommates that they sat with mouths agape as I explained American dietary tendencies. I decided to go to "Meatless Monday" with an open mind and a hungry stomach.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: The Bowdoin bubble provides room for thought
The proverbial "Bowdoin bubble" is in full effect. Just two weeks into the semester, I already feel like I have been here for two months. As we get caught up in routines, it is easy to lose sight of what is going on in the outside world. Everyone knows something is happening in Egypt, but try to broach the subject with your average Bowdoin student, myself included, and he or she probably could not tell you exactly what that "something" is. Bowdoin's ability to envelop its students in a world apart from the one everyone else lives in is striking. But is it necessarily bad?
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: The anticipation of returning from abroad
Sitting out on my veranda overlooking the pool and the blue Caribbean Sea while taking in the warmth of another cloudless, sunny day in Barbados, a strange thought entered my head: "I can't wait to go back."
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: As Ivies approaches, pray Mother Nature has a soul
Last week something happened that reminds us all how dependent we are on the uncontrollable. We don't generally appreciate things that disrupt our plans.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Football playoff could unite Washington
Now that our politicians have finally taken care of that little thing called health care reform, perhaps it's time they try to solve a different problem. The issue I'm referring to is none other than the money-driven, archaic and, quite frankly, boring way college football decides its national champion.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: Bowdoin is part of the real world, too
College is a place for a lot of things. A place to make friends, a place to expand our horizons, a place to try things you never had the opportunity to try before, and, yes, a place to drink. While it's probably not what our parents are paying thousands of dollars for, drinking has been part of, either directly or indirectly, virtually every college student's experience for as long as alcohol and education have existed simultaneously—in other words, a very long time.
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The Cold, Hardt, Truth: One thing is certain: Americans need health care reform
Health care reform is one of our nation's most controversial issues. My question is, quite simply, why? In the second major attempt to pass a bill to reform our nation's health care system, we find ourselves, once again, unwilling or unable to do so.