The Bowdoin Orient

When Ian Yaffe '09 submitted his petition for candidacy as president of Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) on Thursday, he assumed that it would be denied. It was. "My candidacy is against the constitution," Yaffe said in an interview with the Orient.

A Bowdoin employee was fired this week after allegedly stealing cash from residents of Coles Tower, and a Bowdoin student said it was his own investigation that cracked the case.

For several months, the Student Affairs Committee, led by Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster, has been working on a proposal to clarify the attendance policy currently set forth in the faculty handbook.

In one of its last meetings of the year, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) brainstormed ways to improve the current College House System and, in preparation for the upcoming elections and position changes, discussed the role BSG should assume in order to serve the student body.

The College, with prodding from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), will undertake new efforts to prevent illegal downloading and file sharing on campus.

Students have not yet been formally asked to contribute any funds toward this year's Spring Gala, but the Office of Student Activities is still hoping that classes and College Houses will be able to contribute a substantial amount of money to the event.

Required academic engagements should be scheduled on a course?s syllabus during the first weeks of the semester. Most required activities should take place during the day. The course should have a clearly written attendance policy included on the syllabus. These ideas are hardly radical, but to some here on campus, they seem to be: The Student Affairs Committee has spent the last academic year reworking the College?s attendance policy, and it remains to be seen whether the faculty will approve it.

Last Friday, Students Embracing Disabilities (SED) sponsored a viewing of "Mind Games," the story of a former Bowdoin student, Dr. Thomas French, who succumbed to Lou Gehrig's disease.

In his "Offer of the College," former Bowdoin President William DeWitt Hyde envisages an education that will equip graduates to "be at home in all lands and all ages." And though the academic curriculum here is broad, the College's lack of course offerings in Arabic language and Middle Eastern culture has made it so that Bowdoin students who aspire to careers in diplomacy or business in the Middle East?or wish to travel there for any reason?will not feel at home in the least.

In response to junior Brian Lockhart's piece on March 30: Dissenting opinions and differing stances on various issues can certainly stimulate the growth of ideas.

As a Bowdoin alum, Class of 2004, and someone who has recently married another Bowdoin alum, I was a little surprised to read the column in the Orient regarding the utter lack of privacy and rampant gossip that some students seem to think prevail at Bowdoin (March 30).

This Sunday, while Bowdoin students slumber in their beds, eagerly awaiting morning, the Maine state Easter Bunny will prepare to leave its burrow, bearing Cadbury eggs, pink saran wrap, and enough Peeps to rot the enamel right off a casserole dish.

Coached on the practice since elementary school, recycling comes as naturally to us as breathing. Future historians may well define us by our compulsion to recycle: The blue-bin generation, they'll call us.

Sex makes most people feel pretty good. Plain and simple, it's one of the more amazing things our bodies are capable of doing. In a perfect world, you would only get pregnant when you wanted to, and there would be no such thing as STDs. But if you're careless and don't plan ahead, there can be a dark side to sex.

Taylor Mali '87, a four-time national slam poetry champion, will be performing at Bowdoin next Thursday to, according to Mali in an interview with Orient, "delight, instruct, and entertain," and to continue his mission of inspiring 1,000 people to become teachers. A student-run Bowdoin organization, "1,000 Teachers," founded by Tasha Graff '07 and Alex Lamb '07, is sponsoring the event.

Meredith Hall's first attempt at college did not turn out as she planned. In the mid-'60s, she dropped out of Bennington College in Vermont after one semester. The second time around was much more successful, though less traditional: Hall, a mother of three, graduated from Bowdoin in 1993 at age 44.

Thanks to the pre-frosh, it's a dry weekend on campus. Snow is inexplicably still in the weather forecast. What's a Bowdoin student to do? Head over to the student film fest, of course.

The Top Five Alcohol-Induced Procrastination Techniques. I think I'm going to stop trying to comment on the weather for a while. It has become pretty clear that Maine is going to take its sweet time arriving at spring, and that time is not today, nor is it likely to be tomorrow. Regardless of how it feels outside, however, the fact remains that this school year is coming to a hasty conclusion. As the days tick off the calendar faster than a snowstorm can drop six inches, the art of procrastination will inevitably become more prevalent in our everyday lives. While many people frown upon such idle dawdling, I think procrastination is merely our body's way of telling us that it's not quite ready to get the job done. So I say listen to your body, grab a Natty Lite, and indulge yourself in The Top Five Alcohol-Induced Procrastination Techniques of "Spring" 2007.

Jonathan's Letham's most recent novel, "You Don't Love Me Yet," is nothing if not spunky. At the nucleus, there is a band comprised of four members with a strange array of day jobs; one is a zoo employee with particular concerns regarding the happiness of a kangaroo named Shelf, another works at a masturbation boutique called No Shame. The book begins with two of the band's members deciding to end their recurring romance for good. To reveal that this resolution leads to a steamy encounter in a friend's art installment is only a taste of the mischief that Letham's youthful protagonists enjoy. As the reader, if you do not identify with any of these characters, you will likely find that they do many of the things you wish you could, enacting visions of a rock star lifestyle.

"Southern Hospitality" by Anthony Hamilton is a compilation album that is not bad by any means. All die-hard Hamilton fans should own it, despite the fact that it leaked onto the Internet a week ago. It is not a defining statement on soul and does not have the punch of his previous two albums because it consists of leftover songs. They were not good enough to get a spot on his previous records, but they are not at all bad, because they showcase his immense vocal skill.

On April 10, Hari Kondabolu '04 will return to Bowdoin, but this night will not be about his comedy. Instead, Kondabolu and Cambodian immigrant Many Uch will be screening the documentary "Sentenced Home," which focuses on Uch's struggles with indefinite detention and his looming deportation without due process.

The men's lacrosse team heads into its meeting with league-leading Tufts with momentum and a winning mentality on Saturday. The Polar Bears ripped off two wins this week and shook off a three-game losing streak.

The Bowdoin Baseball Team continued its frustrating up-and-down play this week. Fortunately for the Bears, at least this week there were more ups than downs as they prevailed in both games of a Saturday doubleheader against Colby, then dropped a tough game to Thomas College on Wednesday.

The men's tennis team earned back-to-back wins this weekend in its matches against MIT and Tufts University.

Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane once said in the critically acclaimed book "Moneyball," by Michael Lewis, that relief pitchers are relief pitchers because they aren't good enough to be starters. And seeing how Beane, arguably baseball's brightest mind, has managed to compile the fifth-best record in the majors since 1998 (when he took over his current position with the club) despite having one of the lowest payrolls, my gut says he's right.

The softball team had a tough opening series this past weekend as the Trinity Bantams swept the Polar Bears in a closely contested three-game series.

The women's rugby team lost to the Division I Providence Friars in a highly contested game last Saturday with a final score of 25-22.