The Bowdoin Orient

The lack of transparency in Judicial Board elections has prompted the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) to try to change the committee's policies. Members of BSG voiced concerns that neither BSG nor the campus community as a whole has enough say in the elections, especially when the board makes decisions that impact students' lives.

BSG unanimously voted to adopt the Community Response Committee (CRC) proposal put forth at its meeting Wednesday.

The Board of Trustees will meet this weekend to discuss faculty tenure, financial aid, and the College's budget.

This June, the College will no longer coordinate the annual Dump and Run sale. Instead, a group of non-profit organizations are taking control of the event, now known as Give and Go.

The maximum Pell Grant is likely to increase for the first time in four years, thanks to both Congress and President Bush.

The administration is proposing a $111 million budget for the 2007-2008 fiscal year, representing a 5.5 percent increase over the current fiscal year, Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Katy Longley said at Monday's faculty meeting.

Last week, Dudley Coe Health Center announced that it would no longer provide students with free birth control after losing its contract with its contraceptive provider, Organon. This turn of events was sudden and unexpected, and has caused Bowdoin students?both women and men?a great deal of anxiety.

I disagree with Ian Yaffe's suggestion in "Invest endowment for common good" that Bowdoin make its endowment more transparent irrespective of whether such transparency hinders returns on investment.

Brian Lockhart voiced a common theme of those who are lukewarm about environmental protection in his article when he said, "Protecting the environment is remarkably inconvenient. It also happens to be very expensive."

Man has a new best friend. Spot may be able to catch and return a tennis ball, but I'm willing to bet that you can't throw him a word and have him bring back 3,482,976 pages of information on it. Rover may nuzzle your leg when you're blue, but he probably doesn't sing you your entire collection of Sarah McLachlan albums in one sitting.

By CLARK GASCOIGNE
Some of the most important decisions that personally affect students at this college are made behind closed doors. Shockingly, however, students are making these decisions. Yes, I am talking about the Judicial Board (J-Board).

As February trudges patiently along, Bowdoin first years may find themselves doing some serious introspection. At least, that's what happened to me two years ago.

By COLIN BECKMAN
Can too much education be dangerous? I will argue here that it can, that it is. At least in a sense. The danger begins with this: As we sit on our chairs in our climate-controlled rooms, thinking and perceiving, we are separate and apart from the world on the other side of the window.

Upon hearing news that President Barry Mills and the officers of Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) had reached a tentative agreement regarding a proposed Community Response Committee to consider international humanitarian issues, our first reaction was one of disappointment. BSG wanted a college-level committee that would recommend institutional actions when humanitarian issues arise. Mills, on the other hand, proposed that student government create its own committee. This committee would include volunteer faculty and be given financial support. The problem with this sort of group, we thought, is that it would have no official power within the College as an institution.

I am writing in response to Alex Williams in the January 26 issue of the Orient ("Social scene keeps Bowdoin warm"). To state that disbanding Greek life at Bowdoin has escorted in a "warm atmosphere" that has made "the winters at Bowdoin a far more bearable time of year" is unfounded and disrespectful.

I had the pleasure of attending a public forum held by the Davis Park Brunswick collaborative of four Bowdoin College classes (davisparkbrunswick.org) on Tuesday night. I found the work, even at this early stage, to be stimulating and exciting.

People come to college with varying degrees of sexual experience. Some of us have lots of it, while others arrive never having even kissed someone. Regardless of where you stood upon arrival your first year, you knew after the first few weeks of school which of your close friends were virgins and which weren't. Somehow there was an invisible line that separated the ones who'd had sex and the ones who hadn't.

A second helping of curly fries in the dining hall is less guilt-ridden when its nutritional values are unknown. But now, a perusal of the Dining Service Web site will tell you that one three-ounce serving of curly fries contains 291 calories, 15.67 grams of fat, and 315 milligrams of sodium. It also has 9.9 milligrams of Vitamin C.

Jazz pianist and singer Norah Jones has been a critic's darling ever since her first album, "Come Away With Me," was released in February 2002. It blew away everyone else on the jazz scene and took home a trophy case of awards, including eight Grammys. Her sophomore effort, "Feels Like Home," changed directions from jazz to country (not severing the pop influences that marked both albums) and sold even faster than the first one. The album also earned her three Grammys.

Negra Modelo?$9.15 for a six-pack at Uncle Tom's Market Two weeks ago, I stressed the importance of putting the reconnection with friends high on the list of things to do upon returning from Winter Break. Now that the hollow "so how was your break" questions have all been asked, the icy kegs tapped, and the preliminary open bars (classily) attended, what stands chief atop the priority hill now? Why, Spring Break, of course!

Perhaps this year's biggest cinema story, and my favorite, is the three Mexican directors?Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Guillermo del Toro?who have been dubbed the "three amigos." All produced major films achieving widespread critical success in America. "Children of Men," "Babel," and "Pan's Labyrinth," respectively, rank among the year's best.

This year's winner of the Man Booker Prize is a novel told from the perspective of an illegal immigrant. Through this immigrant, the author reveals the miseries of India and America, and the destructive dredges of imperialism.

Even though Paul Adelstein '91 now stars on the Fox series "Prison Break," he still remembers his small victories as a beginning actor.

Led by former Dispatch frontman Chad Urmston, roots-rock and reggae band State Radio will hit Sargent Gym on Saturday at 8 p.m. for a very promising show.

The men's basketball team celebrated its Senior Night, the final home game of the regular season, with a 98-45 victory over the University of Maine-Presque Isle on Monday. But earlier in the week, the Polar Bears suffered a conference loss to Colby in a game with critical playoff implications for both teams.

Although this weekend is officially the final weekend of regular season games for NESCAC Women's Basketball, one might call this weekend's games the start of the playoffs, as Bowdoin jockeys for the top seed in the NESCAC playoffs. The Polar Bears return home today after six straight road games for two of their toughest matches of the regular season.

It seems like Brunswick has a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to deal with after last weekend's results for the Bowdoin Men's Ice Hockey Team (11-5-3, 8-5-2 NESCAC) . The men went from the highest of highs, defeating high-ranking Amherst (12-6-1, 9-5-1 NESCAC), 5-1, to the lowest of lows, losing to NESCAC bottom-dwellers Hamilton (6-13-1, 5-9-1 NESCAC), 2-1, in a 24-hour span.

For the second year in a row, the Bowdoin Men's Indoor Track Team entered the Maine State Meet as underdogs, and for the second year in a row, the Polar Bears emerged victorious. The team's confidence was not unfounded as the Bears defeated Bates, the University of Southern Maine, and Colby.

The Bowdoin Women's Track Team reclaimed the Maine State Championship from the University of Southern Maine (USM), the two-year defending champion, in a close meet, earning enough points in the last few events of the meet to put the Bears 16 points ahead. The Bears finished the meet with 164 points to USM's 148.

The Polar Bears continued their march towards the top of the NESCAC conference, routing rivals Trinity and Hamilton at home, though losing to Colby on Wednesday in an overtime thriller.

It must have been when Colts head coach Tony Dungy was being showered with Gatorade by his players in rampant celebration of their Super Bowl victory when it dawned on me: The NFL season had reached its abrupt conclusion, just like last year, and the years before it. And suddenly, it felt like someone had turned out the lights, leaving all of us in the dark. Or maybe that was the Bears' disappointing performance, or even Shawne Merriman perhaps? (Please do the dance now if you feel so inclined.) Nope, neither. It was looking ahead and searching for athletic entertainment/competition in the immediate future that did it...and it scared me. A lot.