The Bowdoin Orient

A disagreement between a group of students and the administration has severely diluted a plan for cooperative living next year.

Schematic plans have recently been released for a new recital hall to occupy the Curtis Pool space next to David Saul Smith Union. The project, now seven years in the planning, will cost an estimated $8.5 million dollars in construction costs and will be ready for use by fall 2007.

In an effort to breathe new life and diversity into academics at the College, the administration has recently created and filled the position of the Dean for Academic Advancement. A committee of faculty, staff, and students helped to select Kassie Freeman, currently the Dean of Educational and Psychological Studies at Dillard University in New Orleans, as the first to hold the position at Bowdoin.

A faculty-approved change to the grading system passed amid a wave of student controversy three years ago still has some students and faculty members debating its impact on Bowdoin's academic environment.

Jim Kim, Assistant Dean of First Year Students and Freeman Grant Coordinator since July 2003, has decided to leave the College at the end of this academic year.

The College is preparing for its reaccredidation visit during the fall of 2006 under the provisions of the accrediting agency the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education (CIHE).

If you're looking to start a co-op, don't look for any co-op from the College. On one level, the breakdown of the co-op initiative, led by Ruth Morrison, Katherine Kirklin, and Mike Taylor, is curious; Bowdoin, after all, prides itself on the visibility and responsiveness of its administration.

DTR. When I asked my guy friends if they knew what this acronym meant, one answered with confidence, "It's bug repellant," while another responded knowingly, "Oh yeah, that's that new birth control pill." No boys, DTR stands for those three little words you dread hearing most?"Define The Relationship."

As an archconservative, it has been difficult for me to admit that I am pro-choice in public. There has been a certain stigma attached to pro-choice folks like myself, so I prefer to keep it on the down-low. Since I am graduating in just a few days and immediately moving across the country, I feel it is my time to come clean and admit it. Let me get one thing straight. I am not pro-abortion. In fact, if Roe vs. Wade were ever overturned, I would celebrate that day like the Fourth of July every year.

It is generally accepted in the literature on the subject that putting toothpaste in a tube was the greatest revelation ever in oral hygiene, and therefore mankind. For all of Edison's genius, he could never put his (relatively useless) "light bulb" into a tube. It took almost 200 years for the railroad to be put into the Chunnel (that's French for tube).

Society is often viewed as the sum of its parts. For example, in The Republic, Plato creates the most virtuous regime, but it depends entirely upon the maintenance of the virtue of each individual citizen. This relationship, however, is not so one-dimensional, for the qualities of the broader society also undoubtedly affect the individuals which make up its foundation.

In philosophy, as in life, asking the right question is usually a substantial part of finding the answer. This was beautifully demonstrated this semester with two public lectures organized by the philosophy department. Both lecturers were from outside Bowdoin, dealt with color, and drew full halls, but that is where the parallel ended.

Unless the procedure has changed since last year, when I, too, crossed my fingers for my top choice, the housing lottery still is based on seniority, though in her letter last week, Nadia Nelson complained that it is not.

Although feedback about the lottery system is always helpful, I would be remiss if I did not respond to last week's letter from Nadia Nelson '06, in which she alleges that the current lottery system is unfair. Contrary to Nadia's claim, the lottery system is based entirely on seniority, and I agree with Nadia that this should be the case.

I am writing in response to Nadia Nelson's letter last week expressing her displeasure with the housing lottery system. I agree that to receive poor housing as a senior is definitely "a huge letdown," at least. However, I sincerely hope that I misunderstood her comment that "...as a student whose parents work hard and pay the full tuition with no subsidies, I expect and deserve better."

The College Republicans' fliers supporting oil exploitation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) fail to recognize the difference between starting a dialogue and inciting pointless controversy. They do not acknowledge the existence of an intelligent dialogue about the future of ANWR that is occurring on campus.

Pulitzer-prize winning author David Shipler visited Bowdoin on Monday to meet with students and professors, and deliver a lecture based on his most recent book, The Working Poor: Invisible in America. Shipler sat down with the Orient to discuss what led him to research poverty in America and some of the lessons he drew from the experience. Here are excerpts from the interview.

Dear Students: Each week, I've written about a variety of health problems and concerns. Most of what I've written has aimed to inform and advise you as individuals who are learning to make your own choices and seek your own well-being. Some have touched on our need to look out for each other and to help support each other as members of a common community. The health benefits of community building, however, far exceed one-on-one mutual support.

For the past three years, Bowdoin has participated in Dump and Run, an organization that began when a Syracuse University student lost a ring and decided to search the dumpster for it. She did not find the ring, but instead found lots of still usable items. Over time, she continued to search the dumpsters and decided to have yard sales with the salvaged items to generate money for non-profit organizations. The Dump and Run organization grew out of this and has spread to colleges and universities across the country.

Over the centuries, people of many cultures have centered festivals and celebration around that glowing celestial orb, the sun. This Saturday, Sustainable Bowdoin and the Evergreens are holding SolarFest on the quad from noon to 5:00 p.m., with dance performances and lessons from 11:00a.m.-2:00 p.m. sponsored by FUZION. The festivities are open to Bowdoin students and staff as well as members of the Brunswick community.

I guess it's possible that you may not be as movie mad as I am. Maybe you haven't memorized Regal Cinema's floor plan or the Eveningstar's popcorn prices. Maybe you didn't shed tears of joy at Sin City. Heck, some of you have read this column in the past four years and laughed at my all-too-obvious malaise. And that's okay. I won't take it personally. But as high brow as you might consider yourself to be, you can't deny this: there's no escaping movies in college. If you hooked up at the toga party, you have Animal House to thank. Everywhere you turn, Scarface posters. Kill Bill soundtracks. Tyler Durden as your Facebook friend.

So, readers, we have reached the end of the wine reviewing year. Of course, I fully intend to continue trying new wines over the summer in anticipation for the fall. For those of you who are graduating, my gift to you: the cheap and dirty guide to drinking wine.

Hollywood always did love a formula, so did you really expect it to change it for its most lucrative season of the year? As per usual, this summer will abound with sequels, remakes and blockbusters just waiting to be bestowed with your hard-earned cash, and most of these films will make it at least past the $100 million mark. But there are also some prestige pictures and smaller independent dramas that may be more worth your time. And then there are always the surprises every summer (á la Napoleon Dynamite). Here's a sampling of films most likely to tickle your fancy, whatever that fancy may be. So read them over, choose wisely, have fun, and may the force be with you!

Green Day treated Maine to one of its best concerts in years last Thursday at the Cumberland Civic Center in Portland. Riding the success of their hit comeback album American Idiot, their best work in a decade, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool came to please the sell-out crowd.

Critics have lauded Cold Roses as a return to Adams's roots, with a more organic, lo-fi sound. It does not disappoint, measuring up quite well to all of his earlier work, but most notably to Whiskeytown's three stellar albums. More obviously than Adams's recent work, Cold Roses reflects the influences of musical greats like Bob Dylan, Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash as well as contemporary artists like Wilco, Neko Case, and Jesse Malin.

Political thriller. What an oxymoron. Luckily for us, Hollywood always loves a challenge, and in this case, they usually deliver. Resembling the disaster movie's ability to make water and air exciting, the political thriller gets to say, aw, the hell with it, and put C-SPAN in a big, swirling tornado of stuff that just doesn't happen but would be really really cool if it did. But the best in the genre buckle their seat belts. The explosions can't blow up more brain cells than are required to follow its high-brow smarts, after all. You know, the kind of smarts that ooze out of every scene in The West Wing, where the speed at which characters scamper aimlessly through corridors matches their speaking rate, and all the overlapping dialogues rush just as quickly right over your head (though you'll never admit it).

Talking Heads inarguably had one classic live soundtrack, Stop Making Sense, and one good live album, The Name of This Band is Talking Heads. The latter was updated last fall with bonus and previously unreleased material, thus effectively replacing Stop Making Sense as their definitive live document. This double album forces listeners to ask: why aren't Talking Heads admired or even referenced as much as some of their contemporaries for the effect they've had on modern rock?

The Bowdoin Women's Track Team began its championship season this weekend with the NESCAC meet held at Colby College. Coming in seventh overall, the women faced tough competition and a variety of weather conditions, ranging from warm sun in the morning to rain and wind in the afternoon.

Second guessing is like second nature for Boston sports fans. Every move a general manager makes is scrutinized, and every plan a coach employs is critiqued. However, recently the front offices for sports teams in the Hub have proven themselves worthy of the trust of New England's fanatic sports fans.

The hard work in the off-season is paying dividends for the Bowdoin Men's Lacrosse Team. After a tough loss at Amherst on Saturday, the Polar Bears bounced back with a convincing win in Lewiston.