The Bowdoin Orient

President George W. Bush's budget request for the 2007 fiscal year includes a plan to eliminate the Perkins Loan Program. The Perkins Loan Program provides needy students with loans at a fixed interest rate of 5 percent that only takes effect after the student graduates. Without the loans, students would likely turn to more expensive Stafford Loans, credit cards, and banks.

The Class of 2008 has just submitted its study abroad applications, and with 50 more students requesting permission to study away in the upcoming spring than in the fall, the Off-Campus Study (OCS) Office is scrambling to persuade applicants to change their minds and even out the numbers.

-Attendance: 23/26. Absent: Kendall Brown '06, Mike LoBiondo '06, Sophia Seifert '09. -The BSG Committee on Facilities is working with the administration to create a pilot program for a one-card system that could be used in downtown Brunswick.

Dean for Academic Affairs Craig McEwen presented a draft form of Bowdoin's new intellectual property policy to the College's faculty last week. According to McEwen, the new policy is largely an attempt to codify the College's current practices, replacing an old policy adopted in the 1970s.

As part of the capital campaign, College administrators are in the process of developing the Center for the Common Good, an expanded vision for the future of service at Bowdoin. The center would not be a physical building on campus, but rather a continued pledge to service made by the Bowdoin community to unify academics and community service.

We believe that strong newspapers help to create strong communities. We do our best to provide in-depth, balanced reports that provide news and context for the campus and academic communities. However, the opinion pages are the one place where responsibility for content lies with the campus and academic communities.

Nate Chaffetz's op/ed last week "Think twice before divesting," exemplified much of the confusion that arises when we talk about sweatshops, divestment, and socially- responsible investing. To start with a minor point, a sweatshop is not a place where "laborers work longer hours at lower wages than prevail in developed countries." We do not expect factory owners in Vietnam to pay their workers what it costs to live in the United States, and surely that is not what Chaffetz meant. A sweatshop is a place where workers are forced to work long hours and are paid less than that country's living wage. Working conditions are dangerous and frequently cause injury and death, and attempts to speak out or organize are met with intimidation and violence. Bowdoin is currently working with the Worker Rights Consortium, a non-profit organization that monitors working conditions in foreign factories, to make sure that the companies we buy from for the Bowdoin Bookstore meet certain basic human rights standards. Instead of taking money out of these countries' economies, we are funneling it toward factories that pay a living wage and respect their workers' rights. This is a good first step in the right direction.

There are two new reasons that the world is going to Hell in a hand basket: 1) Kevin Federline's new single, "Popozao," and 2) mainstream media have successfully spent an entire week covering Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident. Every pundit and comedian in the country has been taking shots at Cheney (kinda like that one) for an entire week, alleging a cover-up, intentional deception, and arguing that this proves the Bush administration's propensity for sowing lies. The coverage of this accident, however, speaks to a problem greater than the vice president's aim.

Are you a regular reader of the Orient? If you are, then you probably already know: We've got aliens. Exhibit A: Item one of the February 17 installment of the Orient news section's "Bowdoin Briefs" reads, and I quote: "A mysterious design in the snow appeared early this week on the Quad and left members of the Bowdoin community baffled as to how it got there. While some wrote it off as the work of student pranksters, others suggested that extraterrestrial forces might be involved." Need any more evidence? Didn't think so.

There are times when I read the news and feel like I'm taking freaking crazy pills. You may or may not know that there are currently around 520,000 foster children in the United States, and of those, over 120,000 are available for adoption. Sadly, only about 50,000 of these children are taken into homes each year. So why, one might ask, are 16 separate states discussing?or in some cases already drafting?bills that would ban gay and lesbian couples from adopting?

I urge the Bowdoin community to strongly consider the points made by Nathan Chaffetz '08 regarding divestment.

V-Day is a global movement that helps raise awareness about violence against women and young girls, not a political organization.

Bowdoin's admissions web site describes its athletic facilities as "top-notch." We have a state-of-the-art squash facility, multiple gymnasiums, first-rate sailing and crew equipment, and a competition swimming pool, to name a few. So, why is it that Bowdoin's most basic athletic facility?the Watson Fitness Center in Smith Union?is, as a vast majority of students would put it, so sub-par?

This year's Black History Month is anchored by the death of Coretta Scott King, whose presence was bedrock to a bygone era when racism no longer became fate, but was determined by those whose audacity defined the struggles of a people. Mrs. King's passing comes at a time of deep scrutiny, a time when we must ask ourselves whether our generation has derailed from the path she chose?a path that so many of us celebrate this time each year.

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with someone about my aspirations vis-à-vis my college education and professional future. He asked me what my major was, and as I tried to respond he cut me off. "Doesn't matter," he said, "as long as you learn how to COMMUNICATE." At first I was annoyed, because when he asked about my major he had clearly planned to interrupt me. But he was older, employed, and ostensibly wiser than I (and balding, which I understand also implies wisdom), so I didn't disregard his insight right away. And the more I reflected on my own communication skills and those of my fellow collegians, the more worried I became.

Josh Kelley, a young musician from the South, will be playing tonight in Smith Union's Morrell Lounge at 8 p.m. Kelley is known for his top 10 hit, "Amazing." He last toured with Dave Matthews and the Goo Goo Dolls.

For a very long time this is a tribute I feel I was meant to write. Almost as long as I have loved film, Meryl Streep has been my favorite actor, the grand dame of cinema, not to mention arguably the best actress of all-time. Her consistency time and again, not to mention awe inspiring range and versatility on screen still find ways to surprise me.

A city of sophistication and elegance, Portland is the upscale destination of high-class shoppers, fine dining experts, and souls in need of elegant pampering and five-star service. OK, so maybe not. Not even close. But it's all we've got, and once you go through the two-mile outlet mall that is Freeport, a trip to Portland begins to look a great deal more enticing. Recently, we did a little "important newspaper research" and discovered that some of the shops in Portland are nothing to turn your nose up at.

With the Longfellows and Miscellania performing the "Val Jam" tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel, the obvious question arises?why celebrate Valentine's Day after the fact? Rumor has it that member Dennis Burke '09 was unable to find a date for Tuesday night's festivities, so the rest of the group decided to help a fellow out and move the concert to Friday.

Many claim that Marxism is as dead a concept as the man who invented it. In his play, "Marx In Soho," which will be performed at Kresge Auditorium in the Visual Arts Center (VAC) at 4:30 p.m. today, Howard Zinn resurrects both.

Watching the motion picture adaptation of Curious George stirs that tiny, peach-fuzzed part of the soul that we all thought had been safely put to bed: the inner child. "Hark!" cries the hidden thumb-sucker, back to the days of parental tuck-ins and sweeping picture books. Kids could make magic with a single purple crayon back then, and eggs were best served green and on top of a goat. Nights were usually spent curled up under a swirl of Vicks VapoRub with friendly bear pals of both the Pooh and Berenstain varieties. If the film version of "George" rustles up those childhood pangs, it can't hope to quell them. When the movie does manage to tap the toddler vein, it's thanks only to a lush and faithful visual translation.

The second-half charge from Bates in last Saturday's NESCAC quarterfinals ended the men's basketball team's three-game winning streak and knocked the Polar Bears out of NESCAC tournament play. The fourth-seeded Bobcats recovered from a 34-24 deficit at the half to squarely defeat fifth-seeded Bowdoin 67-51 in Saturday's game.

The Bowdoin Men's Squash Team solidified its 14th-place ranking during nationals at Princeton.

The men's and women's squash teams expected to be playing in their third round of NESCAC tournaments at Trinity this past Sunday. Instead, they found themselves snowed in at their Cromwell, Connecticut, hotel, wondering when they would be able to come home.