The Bowdoin Orient

Ian Yaffe '09 will not be running for Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) president this year, all but guaranteeing that Dustin Brooks '08 will become the student body's next president.

Unrelenting rain and snow have continued to interfere with spring sports and frustrate athletes.

Due to an oversight, all students are now eligible to run for the position of BSG treasurer in this spring's election cycle. Juniors Clark Gascoigne, John Masland, and Nicole Willey have all submitted petitions to run for the position.

Two students who had money stolen by a Bowdoin employee in Coles Tower have been reimbursed by the College. Currently, they do not plan to press charges.

Following this week's shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols attended Wednesday's BSG meeting to address members' questions and concerns about potential crisis scenarios at Bowdoin.

On Wednesday at 7 p.m., a group of students who had been participating in the National Day of Silence gathered at the flagpole, and, on the count of three, let their voices be heard again.

In many situations, the journey is much more important than the goal. Such is the case for this year's fellowship applicants, who were honored by the Career Planning Center (CPC) on Wednesday.

Although he is all but assured the student government presidency, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) elections probably have not gone the way Dustin Brooks '08 would have hoped. Brooks is the only candidate for the presidency, voting for which ends at 8:30 p.m. today. But his seemingly smooth road to the office was made rocky by sophomore Ian Yaffe's decision last week to contest a requirement in the BSG constitution that presidential candidates have served previously in the student government.

Consider the following: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion... it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

By IAN YAFFE
By now you have already found out that the revolution was dealt a crippling setback Wednesday evening as our proposed amendment to Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) failed due to lack of participation in the vote.

This past week's weather has served as a reminder to many students just how much a roof over your head can do to enhance your Bowdoin experience. Those of you who wish to continue to have this comfort for next year's "April showers" have probably noticed that the 2007-2008 housing lottery is happening.

By PHIL SHAW
The Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC) is the largest student organization on campus. For many of its members, the BOC was the primary reason for attending this college.

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.

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.

Long Trail Blackberry Wheat?$7.95 for a six-pack at Uncle Tom's Market When I was little (by little, I mean before I graduated from high school), I approached each night's family meal like a general going into battle. As my mom prepared the meal, I would slink around the kitchen, scouting out what villainous vegetable dish was destined to make my otherwise glorious meal miserable. After I was done with the good stuff, I spread the remaining vegetable medley across my plate as thin as a pancake, in hopes that my mom would not notice and instead think that there had been a new, rainbow-colored plate added to her collection.

Imagine walking around Times Square and being visually assaulted by advertisements that are tailored to your age, sex, previous purchases and personal preferences. Grandfathers see Gene Kelly advertising the latest amenities while 5-year-olds see Babar. George Saunders takes the principles of consumerism that are already deeply rooted in the American consciousness and amplifies them in his novel "In Persuasion Nation." Paying close attention to the trajectory of American dependence on material goods, he follows it upward with comic results. But within these illustrations of American absurdity lies a terrifying truth about the proximity of a world in which the only mode of existence is in compliance with the manipulative extremes of consumerism.

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.

The Bowdoin Women's Tennis Team sustained its winning streak over the weekend, even in the face of highly ranked opponents Middlebury and Amherst. Having broken the previous school record of 13-0 in a season last week with its match against Colby, the team continues to set the standard for the history of Bowdoin women's tennis, advancing from a 14-0 record to an impressive 16-0 total.

The Tufts Jumbos dominated Bowdoin on both sides of the ball this weekend in a three-game series in Medford, Massachusetts, outscoring the Bears 24-2 and winning all three games. But the Polar Bears bounced back Thursday and notched their first win of the regular season, splitting a two-game series against the University of Southern Maine (USM) Huskies.

After having its first meet of the season canceled because of snowy weather, it looked like the women's outdoor track team would miss its second meet scheduled at Middlebury for similar reasons. To avoid the wintery weather, Bowdoin traveled south to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy instead. Joining in on a three-team meet, the Polar Bears finished second, ahead of third- and fourth-place Coast Guard Academy and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, but behind Springfield College.

Bowdoin women's rugby traveled to Williams College on Saturday after the Maine State Tournament in Portland was canceled due to heavy rain and snow.

The Bowdoin Women's Basketball Team's head coach, Stefanie Pemper, may be considered for the recent head coach opening at Division I school University of Maine at Orono, according to newspapers across Maine.