The Bowdoin Orient

Beginning in the Fall 2005 semester, students will not be allowed to sign up for a fifth full-credit class until after Phase I and Phase II registrations.

The Education Department made some cuts this week.

An object flying through a window isn't high on the list of safety issues for most students?but it became one for Jake Stevens '08, after he came perilously close to being hit by an airborne beer bottle while relaxing in his door room late Saturday.

The fight to save Upward Bound and other federal education programs slated for elimination in President Bush's proposed budget has cleared an initial obstacle in the U.S. Senate. The body passed an amended version of the 2006 federal budget that included immediate increases in Pell grants and restored funding for the TRIO programs, of which Upward Bound is a part.

After receiving the largest number of applications in the history of the College?5,026?and making some tough decisions, Bowdoin has sent out acceptance letters to prospective members of the class of 2009. They are expected to arrive on Monday.

That Pope John Paul II was a great man and one of the twentieth century's most consequential leaders needs no further reinforcement. To the poor, both in material and in spirit, he was a symbol of hope and encouragement.

One of the joys of a liberal arts education is experiencing the variety of courses and majors that people are in. Quite obviously, one's worldview is affected by the discipline one studies. For example, it is a joy to hear an economics major and a sociology major debate politics?just like Fox News, except Bowdoin students know how to speak in complete sentences.

Recently the Maine College Republicans heralded the "academic bill of rights" proposed in the Maine State Legislature. Ostensibly, the bill would ensure that students hear a variety of viewpoints in the classroom, and that they are not discriminated against on the basis of their political beliefs. In reality, it is a politically-motivated scheme designed to increase conservative power on campuses and intimidate liberal professors.

If you're lucky, you read the Orient last week and caught my colleague Ben Peisch's column, "Saving society from the seven deadly sins." In response to my complaint that the President's social security plan "has no safeguard for hubris," Peisch suggested that by that logic, government ought to take up complete moral responsibility for Americans.

I find it astounding that so many educated people do not understand money. Every day I hear people arguing that our public schools need more money, the minimum wage needs to be raised, welfare needs to be expanded...on and on. Sometimes, I even hear economics majors argue that public school teachers should be paid as much as investment bankers.

Bowdoin students respond to 1986 graduate Mike McCullom's letter "Pious reaction to violence at Ladd troubling" (April 1), in which Mr. McCullom equates Ladd House Proctor Steve Gogolak with Animal Houses's Douglas Niedermeyer.

I am writing to express concern over the value placed on student art work at Bowdoin. The Visual Arts Department and Visual Art students are often given the opportunity to present their work in the numerous spaces provided by Bowdoin.

Among the myriad of ignorant statements published weekly in the Orient, I believe Benjamin Kreider's letter in last week's edition perhaps surpassed them all, in which he stated, "Perhaps Republicans face hostility because they bring it upon themselves... They constantly complain about being a victimized minority, yet they don't see anything wrong with their actions."

We write to express our opposition to many of the ideas expressed by Phyllis Schlafly during her Monday speech on the "Failures of Feminism." One of the principles of feminism and liberalism is the ability to respectfully disuse and appreciate diversity of opinion. Schlafly made the claim that feminists are close-minded. This is clearly not the case. Kresge was filled to capacity and liberals in the audience outnumbered the conservatives by over three to one. Feminists came to learn and pose thoughtful and respectful questions.

Bowdoin students?here's some bad news. Lift your nose from Ellison or Petrarch, wrap up that Facebook meditation, forget the kid who broke your heart on Alternative Spring Break: Peru, and for God's sake, quit the frisbee team. Why? According to Admissions Dean Jim Miller, our Bowdoin experiences won't pay off until we turn 51.

"The Solo can be one of the most rewarding parts of the Outward Bound experience," Shane, one of the instructors, tells me and the nine other people in my group. "After we dock and clean the boat at Hurricane Island and go through a bunch of safety briefings, you all will be dropped off at different isolated locations on the island for 48 hours," he said.

Despite the medical advancements that people accomplish every day, sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS remain ominous and pressing issues that warrant the world's earnest attention. H2O, a campus group that formed last semester, strives to spread awareness of STDs throughout the Bowdoin community.

Dear Dr. Jeff: I like to smoke a little pot now and then. Is that a problem? W.N. Dear W.N.: An increasing body of research suggests that marijuana is neither the deadly toxin its foes portray, nor the benign herb its advocates promote. What has become clearer is this?heavy, regular use of marijuana may be more harmful and habit-forming than previously suspected.

When thefacebook.com was launched at Bowdoin last summer, it caught on quickly and spread through the Bowdoin community like wildfire. By the first week of school, nearly the entire campus was signed up, and numbers today are topping more than 1700, with loyal members including not only current students and alumni, but also a few faculty and staff members. With such a fast and successful introduction, it's hard to imagine another web service that could rival thefacebook.com?until BowdoinMatch.com.

Dear Dr. Jeff: It seems like there are a lot of people here struggling with eating disorders. What can we do to help out? P.W. Dear P.W.: We don't know the exact prevalence of eating disorders on campus, but we do know that it's too high.

Looking for some good live music to spice up your weekend? Search no further than the Reel Big Fish concert this Saturday at 8:00 p.m. in Morrell Gym, with special guest emo/pop-punk band the Spotlight, which features Rob Reider '07 on bass.

"My boobs are more beautiful!" "No, my boobs are way better!" What a great argument. I wish all girls could debate like that instead of staring at MTV and wishing they could trade bodies with some over worked and over primped shell of a celebrity. "V-Day is an organization aimed to fight violence against women," Britta Bene '05 explained. "Violence not only in a physical sense but body image and what the media can do."

Almost 100 years after Peary and MacMillan made their storied trek to the North Pole, another Bowdoinite will journey North in search of a polar bear. Unlike his predecessors, however, he won't poach and stuff his furry friend?he'll fall in love with it. This romance is the subject of The Thing About Hunting Polar Bears, a new play by James Nylund '06, which premieres tonight in Wish Theater as part of the Bates-Bowdoin One Acts festival.

Odelay was the album that made Beck Hansen's critical reputation, turning the slacker-jokester-one-hit-wonder into a genius in the eyes of Rolling Stone, Spin, et. al. Since that genre-mashing mid-90s masterpiece, Beck has remained a critical darling, but never again pervaded the nation's airwaves as he did with "Loser," "Where It's At," and "Devil's Haircut." He gave himself a significant makeover for every new album, turning from Odelay's rock/hip-hop/folk blend to Mutations' spacey coffee shop tropicalia to Midnite Vultures' disco funk to Sea Change's sad cowboy, but consciously tried to avoid "following up" Odelay, even trying to release Mutations on an indie label, Bong Load, before he was informed that he was too big a rock star for that sort of thing.

As one of the half-credit classes at Bowdoin, the World Music Ensemble has had more performances and put more work into its drumming than the work required for some full-credit classes at the College. It is probably also the only half-credit class with connections to Dizzy Gillespie and Tito Puente. These students have danced and added their rhythms to Chamber Choir performances in the Chapel, and also held a few concerts of their own. Now, the group has learned techniques, beats and dances from the masters and from the source: Talking Drums, led by Abraham Adzenyah and Helen Mensah.

Hurrah for spring and with it the resurrection of the weekly wine column! I have finally returned from Egypt, where the wine industry is only just recovering from its nationalization under Nasser in the 60s. To date, there are only four major brands of wine in Egypt: Omar Khayyam, Obelisk, Grand Marquis and Cru de Ptolemees. The first three produce a red and a white varietal; Cru de Ptolemees only produces a white. Of the four brands, the best is the Grand Marquis label, which, if not exciting or delectable, is at worst very drinkable, if a bit bland. General opinion is that the whites and especially the Cru de Ptolemees are not very good. I have not imbibed the Cru de Ptolemees, but from what I hear, I would rather drink the salty desert sand. However, it is best not to dwell on the swill of the past, and instead let me move onto the wine I tried last night.

What is the best song to make out to? SM: Well to be honest I like making out to just about any song. But if I had to pick, I'd say for a slow make out session Autolux is a good choice, and then maybe some Strokes to get the blood pumping. JG: It obviously depends on the mood. If the making out is innocent and sweet, then I like listening to something light, like Belle and Sebastian or Air. Air is a good one. But I mean, if the making out is like... you know... going somewhere... then maybe listen to something a little louder.

Comedian Mitch Hedberg, one of the most popular stand-up acts today and a cult figure on college campuses, is reported to have died Wednesday while traveling between gigs on the East Coast. He was 37. As of Thursday night, his cause of death remained unconfirmed, although some have speculated that his passing may have been correlated with recent drug problems.

Zach De La Rocha, the former frontman of Rage Against the Machine, called Saul Williams's said the shotgun to the head "an invitation to live and die in the moment, a confrontation of the politics of empire, a dare to transform oneself in the face of fear, and a post-9/11 love song all in one." Thanks to the Kenneth V. Santagata Memorial Lecture Fund, Bowdoin students have a chance to see this landmark slam poet, considered one of the most familiar and critically acclaimed in America.

Michelle Branch has teamed up with friend and Missouri-based singer-songwriter, Jessica Harp, to form The Wreckers, producing a sound similar to Branch's, with a little of Harp's country influences thrown in for good measure.

The Bowdoin College Women's Lacrosse Team suffered its first loss of the season against Trinity College this past Saturday. Trinity improved to 6-0 record, its best start in the past six years, while Bowdoin dropped to 6-1 (1-1 NESCAC). This weekend, Bowdoin has conference games against Connecticut College and Williams.

The Bowdoin College Softball Team lit up Florida in the team's annual spring trip, returning to Bowdoin with an 11-3 record, good for the best start in school history. After dropping their first two games, the team won 11 of 12, including their final eight games of the trip. Bowdoin plays their first games outside of Florida on Sunday, April 3 against Plymouth State at UMass-Dartmouth.

The men's and women's track teams crowned a combined five All-Americans at the Indoor Track Nationals, held at Illinois-Wesleyan on March 11.

Members of the men's and women's track team overcame adverse weather conditions to post many good performances at the Santa Barbara Relays after spending Spring Break training in southern California.