The Bowdoin Orient

Approximately 300 students have reported contracting the flu during the past two weeks, according to the Dudley Coe Health Center. However, officials say that the worst may be over.

Bowdoin's student health insurance program faces drastic changes in the near future. Students who do not have the required coverage will have to buy one of the two policies Bowdoin will offer. The first has a coverage cap of $50,000, while the other has a coverage cap of $250,000.

The White House's budget proposal for the 2006 fiscal year proposes the elimination of 48 Department of Education programs, including Upward Bound, which has had a chapter at Bowdoin for 40 years. The Orient reported last week on speculation that the program would be cut in the budget, which was released Monday.

Bowdoin's endowment performance among peer institutions has been in the top quartile over the one, three, five, and ten-year periods. The endowment's performance following the stock market slide three years ago is exceptional due to the structure of the investment portfolio, which has outperformed those of other Maine colleges, such as Bates and Colby, by as much as eight percent.

Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) passed a proposal Tuesday to extend the hours of the Watson Fitness Center to midnight from its current closing time of 10:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday.

A kitchen fire broke out at Baxter House while residents were making snacks during the Super Bowl halftime show. Stephanie Witkin '07 was baking nachos in the oven when they caught fire. The food had been placed too close to the oven's heat source.

On Wednesday, Quinby House welcomed Professor Jean Yarbrough to speak about Social Security?what it is, and where it might be going. While she admitted she is not an expert on the topic, her talk was lucid and accessible, and certainly helped the students in attendance sort through a system that seems complex and irrelevant to many young adults. In fact, Yarborough expressed surprise that so many showed up, since for many college students Social Security isn't on the list of things to be thinking about.

For those of us who are seniors, it is soon to be the official date of "100 days until graduation," which means the graduation season is finally upon us. For many people, this is a sad time, as people begin to realize that soon they will leave the comfortable confines of friendly Bowdoin and be thrust into the cold, uncaring reality that is life.

One of the most peculiar aspects of American society is that even the most patriotic among us don't think of themselves as having a solely American heritage. Unlike the citizens of nearly every other country, when you ask us about the origin of our blood, the answer is invariably not "America," but rather a list of other nationalities which have been mixed into a complex recipe during generations within the American melting pot.

There was a time when teachers were allowed to punish students as they saw fit. Over the years, the power has shifted to lawyers, who control what teachers do in the classroom. Parents have the ability to call hearings when they feel their son or daughter has been treated unfairly. Many teachers are terrified of the repercussions of discipline in their classes, and as a result the students do not respect authority.

It is a laughable shame that so many Americans know so little about the world that they live in. What's even more concerning, however, is how this translates into actions. Anyone who has been abroad recently knows that anti-Americanism is on the rise, and that the stereotype of the "boorish," "ignorant," or even "ugly" American can be found nearly anywhere.

Last weekend, Bowdoin's Posse scholars and their invited guests?both students and faculty?took part in a retreat in Portland to discuss issues of gender and sexuality on campus...As we talked over issues like queer and transgender safety on campus, it occurred to me that I was hearing heterosexual men talking about these issues for the first time. And that was really cool.

Throughout its long history, Bowdoin has been no stranger to snow. But it can take something like last night's storm to make us stop and take notice.

Despite the facts that Summers had in his arsenal to support his claim, he has been widely criticized as sexist, and his credibility to serve as president of Harvard has been called into question.

Last weekend millions of Americans utilized their inalienable right to property. They stockpiled and consumed enormous quantities of food and alcohol while using incredible amounts of energy to power their sound, entertainment, and climate control systems. I watched the Super Bowl, and it hurt.

How does one learn about Social Security painlessly? Bowdoin students flocked to Quinby House this week to hear an acclaimed Bowdoin professor speak on this hot topic about which, many readily admitted, they were clueless.

Sunday mornings, while most students are still recovering from Saturday night's escapades, a small group of Bowdoin telemark skiers are already slipping and sliding at Sugarloaf. "We leave at 6:30 a.m. and are skiing by 9:30 a.m.," said Max Palmer '08.

Dear Dr. Jeff: I have a friend who probably has an eating disorder. I'd like to help her, but I don't want to get her in any trouble. What are your thoughts? S.S. Dear S.S.: Here at Bowdoin, we do try to look out for one another, and the health and well-being of a friend can become quite concerning.

A new Bowdoin-specific guidebook released by College Prowler and on display in the college bookstore has been drawing the attention of current and prospective students alike for its enlightening, though potentially controversial, student quotations.

One of the most exciting, terrifying, potentially rewarding, and often surreal aspects of going to college is learning to live with new roommates. Regardless of whether a student is an only child who grew up in an isolated palace or the middle child in a family of thirteen, he or she is expected to sleep, sharing the same air with one or two other people.

Dear Dr. Jeff: I think I have the flu?bad. Should I come in to the Health Center for some antibiotics? A.P. Dear A.P.: It is definitely flu season, here at Bowdoin, and it's proving to be a fairly rough one because of the shortage of flu vaccine.

What do you get when you mix together student talent and music lovers with a pinch of activism and a dash of refreshments? This Tuesday's V-day and BQSA sponsored Coffee House at MacMillan emceed by Emily Sheffield '06.

It may not be nutritious, but cotton candy is cute. It's light, pink, fluffy, all sweetness, and bad for your teeth. To exploit the sugary charm amassed within, it only asks that you kindly accept its chronic hydrophobia and forget everything you've ever learned about not eating string. Easy, but fun. Airy, yet irresistible.

Traditionally, England's entertainment exports to America have been music-related. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Clapton, Osborne...and well, everyone involved in the British Invasion. They even throw us a film every now and again. But rarely do the trades blow a British TV show west across the Atlantic. But just under a year ago, a rare gem washed up on U.S. shores, and has since developed a devoted, if not enormous, following.

Mark Knopfler is a more seasoned gentleman at this point'56 years of seasoning, to be exact. But his latest solo album, Shangri La, is devoid of the kind of circularity and staleness that you'd expect from a guy who has been in the limelight of the popular music scene for a good two and a half decades.

Making out to music? I'll have to try that sometime.

Hounsou, Hopkins, and Freeman lead an outstanding ensemble cast in the story of the revolt aboard the slave-ship Amistad and the subsequent trial.

The Orient's Beth Kowitt sat down with Visiting Professor Richard Ford, a Pulitzer Prize winning author for Independence Day. Ford, who lives in Boothbay, has published five novels and several collections of short stories. At Bowdoin, he teaches Writing Fiction and Making Stories, Not Telling Them while working on his next novel, The Lay of the Land The following is a partial transcript of that interview. For the complete transcript, please visit orient.bowdoin.edu.

Whether you are spending Valentine's Day with a date or a group of friends, watching a movie is a great way to celebrate (or remonstrate). There are too many options to include them all here, but these are some of the highlights.

With each run-through of Second Breakfast's self-titled debut album, I'm more and more convinced that this isn't just a cut from your typical pipe-dreaming college garage band. The four-man, one-woman ensemble of undergraduate musicians hailing from Bowdoin, Wesleyan, and Columbia humbly states that their music is "best described as an eclectic mix of pop, rock, funk, R&B, folk, jazz, and even classical." While their music is all that, it is also two heaping servings of smooth listenability, followed by the delicious dashes of lyrical irony and wit.

The Bowdoin Women's Indoor Track Team traveled to New London, CT, where they defeated the United States Coast Guard Academy this weekend.

The men's distance medley relay team of Andrew Combs '06, Greydon Foil '05, Owen McKenna '06, and Steven Bartus '08 qualified automatically for the National Championships last Friday with a time of 10:00.58 at the Valentine's Classic in Boston. The time broke the long-standing Bowdoin record by a whopping 13 seconds.

Bowdoin men's hockey bounced back from a loss against a highly-ranked Norwich team and avenged an overtime loss to Colby earlier this season with a 5-3 win over the White Mules on Tuesday. Bowdoin also defeated an overmatched St. Michael's team a week ago, 7-2. Bowdoin has earned the number nine ranking in the nation with another strong week which improved the team's record to 13-3-3 (9-3-3 NESCAC), good for second in the conference.

The men's track team was host to the Maine State Meet Saturday night. Bates, Colby, and USM all made the trek to Brunswick. Although the men competed hard, the heavily favored Bates Bobcats were able to repeat as State Champions.

When the Bowdoin women dunked Connecticut College last Sunday 92-48 it must have revived their spirits, to say the least. After a disappointing loss to Bates two weekends ago, Bowdoin took it up a notch last weekend, defeating both Wesleyan and Connecticut College within 19 hours.