The Bowdoin Orient

The Board of Trustees approved seven faculty members for tenure at its February meeting over the weekend.

Members of the Bowdoin community will be among the first to hear from America's lead negotiator at the six-party negotiations in Beijing regarding the recent deal with North Korea. Christopher Hill '74, an assistant secretary of state, will deliver a specially scheduled Common Hour today regarding the denuclearization talks in Beijing.

Although the Maine Department of Education boasts that the state has an 87.4 percent high school graduation rate, one of the highest in the country, the Mitchell Institute reports that only 50 percent of high school graduates in 2002 enrolled in post-secondary education. This week, nine Bowdoin students presented results from statewide high school focus groups exploring the gap between college intentions and enrollment.

Alex Cornell du Houx '06 candidly shared his observations and experiences as a marine in Iraq during an hour-long talk on Tuesday. He discussed day-to-day life in the country and addressed issues ranging from sectarian violence to President Bush's recent plan to commit 21,500 additional troops to the region.

Over the past four years, Bowdoin has quietly been developing an Environmental Management System (EMS)?a vehicle for communicating and consolidating efficiency efforts on campus.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder spoke at Common Hour about his book "Mountains Beyond Mountains," describing the work as "a shameless effort to promote a vision I felt to be true."

Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) did not meet on Wednesday night due to weather conditions. Items on the agenda were to include finalizing plans for Winter Carnival, the announcement of the Library Advisory Committee, and a debate on election reform.

In last week?s Orient, there were two errors in the story about Andrew Haldane '41.

The Judicial Board (J-Board) plays an essential role in the governance of the College. Charged with considering violations of the Social and Honor codes and making recommendations for appropriate punishments to the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs, which takes its recommendations very seriously, the J-Board is perhaps the most powerful and important student-run body on campus.

As a former chair of Bowdoin's Investment Committee, I was troubled by the report in the February 2 issue regarding Bowdoin's "failing grade" with respect to transparency and shareholder engagement.

Thanks for your article about Longfellow Days in the most recent issue of the Orient, including the reproduction and news about the Longfellow plaque, but I need to correct any impression that the plaque was my design.

By SCOTT SEHON
In last week's Orient, Clark Gascoigne '08, along with a number of other Bowdoin Student Government representatives, expressed frustration with the fact that BSG plays no role in the selection of student representatives to the Judicial Board. Indeed, Gascoigne suggests that the members of the board should simply be appointed by BSG.

I've noticed at points along my two-year Bowdoin career that we seem to have a controversial reality in our midst. Hushed though it may be, it's proclaimed by some with a distinguished sense that "everybody thinks they know this, but I really know the truth."

The inequality in American education is an issue constantly surfacing in politics. Many cry foul that students in affluent communities receive a better education and more opportunities than the underprivileged. However, inequality is inherent in a capitalist society.

By RAASHI BHALLA and ZACHARY LINHART
Over our three and a half years at Bowdoin, we have enjoyed ourselves immensely. We love the school, the people, the atmosphere, everything. Despite this, in the past few months we have begun to notice several fees that not only leave a bad taste in our mouths, but also lead us to realize that Bowdoin is quite stingy in more than a few aspects of student life.

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."

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.

Andrew's English Pale Ale?$7.95 for a six-pack at Uncle Tom's Market On mornings when I awake to that familiar glare of blinding snow through the window shades and the sound of snowplows backing down for another go at the street outside, I am often struck by the perpetual and unrelenting constancy of nature. No matter what we do, or don't do, nature is always doing something around us. Though many of you are cursing every innocent snowflake that hits the ground, bear in mind that with driving winds and 12 inches of snow come some unmistakable advantages as well. Now we all know this is leading to beer one way or another, so why don't I cut to the chase and offer the punch line (before I digress into the many benefits of schooling in a wintry wonderland): We all knew that a whopper of a snowstorm was coming eventually, so now that it's here, I find it fitting to offer Andrew's English Pale Ale, a beer brewed exclusively in Maine, because it is important to remember while trudging to class that there's a far more pleasant and tasty piece of Maine waiting for you back in your fridge.

Now that all you freshmen have experienced your first legit Maine snowstorm, you may be feeling a little cabin fever. But catch youself before you exclaim: "I went to college in a frigid wilderness!" As (most) upperclassmen know, the stretch of Maine around Casco Bay, from Portland to Brunswick, has a surprisingly large number of artistic venues, including independent cinemas. Here's a sampling of the best places to check out.

Meandering between perspectives with ease, Alice McDermott paints a credible picture of a family at the close of the World War II in "After This." The novel is fundamentally about lives formulated by happenstance. McDermott illuminates moments in the lives of the Keane family that the reader would not anticipate.

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.

Coming off a win against Bates that sealed its seventh seed in the NESCAC playoffs, the men's basketball team squared off against the St. Joseph Monks in its final regular season contest on Monday night.

The women's hockey team finished its regular season with a bang, going 3-0 in the final week, beating NESCAC rival Wesleyan twice last weekend and shutting out St. Anselm on Tuesday.

The Polar Bears suffered a heartbreaking 6-3 loss to the ninth-ranked Bobcats on Saturday afternoon in front of one of the largest crowds the Lubin Squash Center has ever seen.

Intense competition at Boston University's annual Valentine's Day Invitational was both overwhelming and inspiring, and drove many of the Bowdoin Women to break personal season records.

Let me first begin by informing all of you that the saying, "The Knicks are awful," or any nuance of this, has officially become a cliché, an annoying one, too. Being a fan of the club that went 23-59 last season (good for second-worst in the league), led by contemptuous Head Coach Larry Brown, conniving General Manager Isiah Thomas, and fickle owner Jim Dolan, I can see where this frequently-uttered phrase got its roots, and how it has managed to sustain itself into this season (Thomas and Dolan are both still there).

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.