The Bowdoin Orient

After another year with a record number of applicants?just over 5,400?the admissions office has mailed acceptance letters, according to Dean of Admissions Dick Steele. Due to the upcoming housing crunch, the acceptance rate of 22 percent was slightly lower than usual, though that number will rise as students are admitted off the waiting list, Steele said. Last year's acceptance rate was 24.3 percent.?We purposely planned to come in under our target because the housing situation is going to be so tight in the fall,? Steele said.

Following the deaths of Katie Scott '06 and Taryn King '07 earlier this academic year, students found different ways to cope. Some attended College-sponsored vigils. Some attended funerals. Some sought the counsel of college staff, family, and friends. Some posted on King and Scott's Facebook "walls."

After a two-month trial period, Dudley Coe Health Center has decided to keep its new weekend hours. College Physician and Director of Health Services Dr. Jeff Benson was pleased with the effectiveness of the weekend hours' trial period.

When candidates for Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) office file their petitions next week, they will begin their campaigns under a set of reformed election rules. Petitions for candidacy are due Wednesday at 8 p.m. for the election that is slated to take place April 19 through April 21.

Campaigns for Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) and class officer positions are about to begin. Interested students must file petitions for candidacy by Wednesday evening in order to run for office.

We were pleased to learn that the Dudley Coe Health Center has made its weekend hours permanent.

Walking through the halls of Smith Union the other day, a flyer depicting a young baby caught my eye. The posters, which have been strewn up in massive quantity, depict a fully formed child with the title, "The American Holocaust: 47 million and Counting." Being an ardent advocate of free speech, I swallowed my initial disgust and asked myself if there was really anything wrong with these posters. It didn't take long for me to realize that there are some very serious lines that these posters cross, and that the people who put them up need to apologize and take them down.

As the hand at the helm of the College, the administration is responsible for making tough calls, protecting institutional interests and traditions, and providing the student body with the resources and guidance it takes to maintain Bowdoin's reputation as a beacon of higher education. These duties are anything but trivial. As wide-eyed fledglings, hungry for a socially and intellectually rich four years, we, the students, depend on the College administrators to vomit a nourishing Bowdoin experience down our throats, having already chewed and digested it themselves; so to speak.

While trying to stay afloat on our life-size inflatable Shamu in the middle of the Caribbean Sea this past spring break, a few of my friends and I stumbled upon the question of "game," as in who had it and who didn't. Both yours truly and my friend, who we will call "Ellen Grenley" for the sake of her privacy, were accused of having, and I quote "mad game," due in most part to an impromptu spin-the-bottle game that took place on the deck of the local dive bar the night before. This proclamation immediately spawned a debate of what exactly constituted game, and subsequently, a rather heated discussion of whether or not either of us actually possessed such a thing.

A little less than a year ago, Representative Charlie Rangel of New York was chastised by the Anti-Defamation League when he likened the war in Iraq to the Holocaust. As a rule of political discourse, one should never be so bold as to equate an individual or event with Hitler or the Holocaust. Not only does such a comparison cheapen the experiences of those who survived and the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, but it also weakens the argument because nothing short of genocide is so atrocious. On Tuesday, the Concerned Bowdoin Students?an organization whose membership is unknown?wallpapered the Smith Union with pro-life posters. The posters, which featured a sketch of a sleeping infant, proclaimed abortion is "The American Holocaust" and numbered its victims at "47 million and counting."

On April 6 and 7, 1994, genocide broke out in Rwanda. Radical Hutus indiscriminately murdered Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect Tutsi friends and family or refused to participate in mass murder. After only a few months, the Rwandan genocide claimed 800,000 lives. Each day Western countries failed to deploy more peacekeepers, 10,000 more people died unnecessarily.

After reading the March 31 article "Housing crunch prompts more students per room," I was saddened to hear that, once again, Bowdoin's housing is taking an additional hit. I have always believed that three things separate Bowdoin from wide array of small New England colleges: its food, its people, and its housing. Although these three things seem trivial on the surface, they truly are an important and essential aspect of your college atmosphere.

As Steve Kolowich's former religion professor in at least one course (Maybe two? I forget.), I was glad to read his well-written piece, "Have Faith in Understanding" (March 31). Without taking credit for your walk in the way of wisdom, I may be permitted to see at least some tiny glimpses of insights you may have gleaned in Religion 216, say.

The College is currently trying to overcome a housing shortage for next year by, among other things, planning to cram more students into certain existing rooms designed to accommodate fewer people.

Dear Dr. Jeff: Are sports performance-enhancing drugs dangerous? What about other body-building supplements? ?J.P.

Dear Dr. Jeff: I've been reading reports about adolescents not getting enough sleep. Do you think that's a big problem at Bowdoin? - A Concerned Parent

Soulive isn't going to let its audience take jazz sitting down. The trio of Alan and Neal Evans and Eric Krasno proclaims its brand of music to be "jazz that you can dance to," which will fill Bowdoin's Sargent Gym today at 9 p.m.

An overflow of talent led to the creation of a second women's a cappella group on campus. Its formation instilled a healthy balance to the a cappella community, rounding out the numbers to two co-ed, two all male, and two all female groups. BellaMafia, which performed for the first time on March 31, as the opening act for the Meddiebempsters, was formed because there was the feeling that if there was talent yet to be employed, someone should find a way to do it.

It's around this time of year, after the Oscars have passed and the depressing repetitiveness of the current slate of movies seems inescapable, when studios announce their slate of films for the coming year. And most of their release dates are far in the distance, but at least this will give us all something to look forward to as we trudge through Mel's continuing descent toward insanity in "Apocalypto" and Mr. Scientology himself in "MI:3," with MI now standing for Maximum Irritation.

Sam Adams White Ale - ($7.99 for a six-pack at Hannaford). As the beautiful month of April unfolds in this great state, I sit and ponder two of my biggest life questions: when will the spring ales begin to be brewed and, more importantly, why are there three inches of snow on the ground? Luckily, Sam Adams beat most other breweries to the punch, delivering its seasonal drink in the form of a Witbier, a Belgian style white ale.

Funnily enough, for all their production, there are relatively few Portuguese wines available to buy in the States. Below, two that I've drank lately that you can track down for your own pleasure.

What is the best album ever created? DW: Of albums produced during my student years, "Freak Out" by the Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. During my student years, this was something completely different. It was the one that said we were living in different times. LVS: All the albums with the music of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jules Stein, Mel Torme, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, early Barbara Streisand and all the great duet albums of the '90s. And any albums or single made by the great Ray Charles.

For WBOR's annual concert tonight, The Hold Steady brings its straight-ahead accessible rock to Smith Union.

The Academy is a farce. Most people already knew this to be a statement of some truth, but after this year's Oscars walloped us with a one-two punch of irrelevancy, it certainly bears repeating. Not only did the Hollywood voters deny "Brokeback Mountain" its deserved Best Picture award, they snuck "Crash" in for the gold with a pivot of self-righteous posturing. I've been singing the praises of "Brokeback" and the criticisms "Crash" for months now, but this latest Oscar rant isn't about a mere film-geek scorned?it's about an art form undermined by its own shepherds.

Are you ready to shed the layers and lose the wool? Sure, it's not quite that time yet, but soon enough you'll be able to expose more than the occasional collar bone. Spring fever will undoubtedly take hold in the next few weeks, so while you strip down, remember to style up.

The Bowdoin Women's Tennis Team had mixed results last weekend, dropping a tough match to MIT on Saturday, then rebounding to dismantle Trinity on Sunday. In doubles against the Engineers, Polar Bears fell 8-5 to their opponents at the No. 1 and No. 3 spots.

The Celtics are a sore topic among Boston fans. After being one of the most dominant teams in the NBA from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, the team has fallen off the map over the last decade and a half. Since the team's loss in the 1987 finals, the Celtics have not made an appearance in the championship

Despite a magical run to the Division III Elite Eight, the Women's Basketball Team fell to the University of Southern Maine (USM) in the sectional final three weeks ago. The Polar Bears, who lost in a 56-53 heartbreaker, finished the season with an impressive 27-3 record and their sixth-consecutive NESCAC Championship.