The Bowdoin Orient

Students were granted an extra week to rethink their Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) candidate choices last Sunday when President Jay Hafler announced the elections for 2004-2005 were postponed.

Rather than wait until the fall to issue 2004-2005 on-campus parking decals, Security decided to hold a parking lottery shortly after the completion of the housing lotteries for students who plan to bring a car to campus next year.

Bowdoin was ahead of the pack by a wide margin after a recent National Center for Education Statistics study found that 54.4 percent of college students graduate within six years.

The end of the spring semester means that the scramble for summer plans is beginning. The Career Planning Center recently made the process easier for ten students.

The College has and will continue to do its part in facilitating discussion, but no number of forums, banners in the Union, or even editorials can force students to reach out to one another. Instead, it is ultimately the responsibility of students themselves to work towards a genuinely inclusive and accepting community.

I have a personal rule: whenever a political conversation hits the point where someone accuses George Bush, Republicans, conservatives, or me personally of being Hitler, a Nazi, or a fascist, the conversation is over.

As violence exploded in Fallujah last week and American forces in Iraq were pitched into the fiercest battle of the occupation to date, it wasn't hard to predict that the forces of isolationism and feckless pacifism would crawl out of their holes and bang the tired old gong of Vietnam.

Perhaps it's the warmer weather bringing skimpier clothes. Or maybe the sunny days give everyone a more attractive glow. In any case, it seems that at Bowdoin, romance flourishes along with the flowers come springtime.

College is a time for questioning what you believe; it is a time when your thoughts are challenged in the classroom and in life. Nearly three years of college existence have shaken my belief down to its very nuggety center.

We would like to thank Dan Schuberth '06 and Alex Linhart '06 of the College Republicans for an honest and respectful exchange on Tuesday night. It is our sincere hope that in the next few months, this campus will come together and continue this lively debate.

In the Student Handbook, the Bowdoin College Academic Honor and Social Code states: The success of the Academic Honor Code and Social Code requires the active commitment of the College community.

This week's widely discussed article in The New York Times details the extent to which the day in, day out "stress" of college life has apparently overburdened average students, many of whom feel enormous pressure to be "perfect" if he or she is to have any hope of success after graduation.

"Passport! Passport!" I was blasted out of my sleep by a Polish border guard with a heavy accent and a voice that carried the same implicit authority as the hand cannon holstered at his side.

The Orient's news briefs of April 2 included an piece entitled "Iraqi crowds drag U.S. civilians through streets." Although the deaths of these four human beings are deplorable and sickening, the brief's treatment of the event (similar to the treatment by the rest of the U.S. media) is misleading and disguises the role that these "civilians" or "contractors" play in the Iraq war.

We find ourselves sitting in the stadium seats of Whittemore Center, waiting. What were we thinking, wasting our last senior spring afternoons at a political rally?

On the morning of August 13, 1891, Austin Cary '87 and Dennis Cole '88 of the Bowdoin College Scientific Expedition to Labrador started one last hike upriver. They had come 300 miles up the Grand River, but had to turn back the next day, whether or not they found Grand Falls.

They say that April showers bring May flowers, which is probably true. However, the other thing that April showers have been bringing us this month is high releases on some of the best rivers in Maine.

Dear Dr. Jeff: I've been involved with the same guy for over six months now, and neither of us is interested in sleeping with anyone else. I'm on the Pill, and we've both been tested for STDs. Is it safe to stop using condoms?-S.H.

One week ago the Queer-Trans Resource Center (QTRC) opened at Bowdoin, making gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) issues more noticeable on campus. The dominant sentiment amongst GLBT students and their allies seems to be that while Bowdoin is a safe place, it is not welcoming of queer students.

In support of the College's recently-announced effort to expand discussion of diversity-related issues on campus, the Orient is providing this space for members of the community to share their feelings about the questions that President Barry Mills posed in his open letter last Monday. Answers to the first question appear today.

On April 22, 1970, former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day, making environmental protection a major national issue. Thirty-five years later, people across the globe continue to devote a day, a week, or a month each year to participate in events and programs that help to protect the earth and raise consciousness about environmental issues.

Quality over quantity. While the audience was not very sizable, nor the dancers very tall, the Kelly Peters Dance Group performance on Tuesday night was nonetheless impressive. Peters is a teacher/choreographer with extensive training and experience in hip hop.

While listening to the latest Indigo Girls CD, many long-time fans of Emily Saliers and Amy Ray may find themselves asking, "Are we better off for all that we let in?"

What song, artist or album got you into music? HM: My first cassette single was Prince's "Seven"-this song inspired my intense love for music.

Half a decade after the onslaught of mafia comedies, a few proud semi-successes are showing up on the scene. Their presence, however, is not appreciated.

While I usually prefer to take my wine with cheese, there's certainly something to be said for Iron and Wine. Miami-born singer/songwriter Samuel Beam chose this unlikely moniker as his stage name, and whether by accident or intent, the quality of his music is very iron-y and wine-y: a mixture of roughness, delicacy, and unpretentiousness.

There's nothing like the bittersweet anticipation of the second installment of a film that blew you away the first time around. We all saw it happen with The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, and some of you may even be excited to see Spiderman take to the sky again in July.

Through the upstairs floor of the Walker Art Museum, voices of sixth-graders echoed off cavernous halls. Coed groups zipped between two Assyrian reliefs that flank the main entrance hall and a few imposing, dark Old Master paintings.

After battling through two rough NESCAC games this week, the Bowdoin Women's Lacrosse Team fell to Amherst College and Colby College, dropping the team's record to 7-4.

Some words of wisdom for anyone out there who has a hard time gathering up the energy to head to the gym a few times a week: don't look to senior Kala Hardacker for sympathy.

Last Saturday, while most Bowdoin students were basking in the 60 degree heat wave, the women's rugby team ventured a trip south to play MIT in its first match since its England tour.

At the first full-fleet regatta of the season, the Bowdoin Crew met up with its traditional opponents Middlebury and Amherst for the annual Big Three race on the Connecticut River in Hadley, Massachusetts.

The 2004 Masters proved to be one for the ages. Key moments from the final day were two aces shot about ten minutes apart on the same hole by Padraig Harrington and Kirk Triplett.

The Florida Marlins have picked up right where they left off in the fall when they capped off an unlikely post-season run by defeating the Yankees in the World Series. Most of you probably found yourselves for the first time in your lives as die-hard Florida fans as the Marlins thwarted the Yankees' World Series push.