The Bowdoin Orient

Pending final approval from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and the U.S. Navy, Bowdoin may nearly double the size of its campus by 2012?for free.

When Dr. Jeff Benson suddenly left his post as college physician and director of Dudley Coe Health Center last January, the College scrambled to bring in outside physicians to fill Benson's vacancy. After a summer of searching, the administration has decided to make the switch from a full-time doctor to contracted physicians a permanent one.

Following a commitment signed this spring, a college committee will begin meeting in October to determine how the campus can achieve carbon neutrality.

Through their new partnership in engineering education, Bowdoin and the University of Maine?Orono (UMaine) aim to boost the number of Maine engineers who pursue a career in their home state. The program, available only for Maine residents, will expand the "3-2" shared studies engineering program already in place at Bowdoin.

The house at 30 College St. underwent extensive renovations this summer to become the new Multicultural Center for students and groups on campus, ending its tenure as student housing.

Nearly as well-worn as the notion of the "Bowdoin bubble" is the observation that Bowdoin does not actually exist in a bubble, but as part?an extraordinarily large and important part, in fact?of a community that has its own interests, needs, and ambitions.

A lot of people have been asking, what is going on at 17 Cleaveland St.? We hope the following lines both clarify the situation and reassure the readers of the Orient. The controversy is not about the students who have rented rooms at 17 Cleaveland for the year. It is about observance of Brunswick's zoning plan and preservation of an historic residential neighborhood, both of which are undermined by turning the home into student housing.

A journal entry from July 24, 2007: "My goals for the school year: first, up each day at seven! Sleep is for the weak.

This summer I spent a lot of time thinking about pain. I tore my hamstring in early May, and an orthopedic surgeon said it would probably take four to five months to heal. I am well aware that a torn hamstring is trivial in the overall scheme of life, but, as an active individual forced to forgo summer league basketball, I spent May and June complaining about my ailment, "why me?" However, my self pity was short lived, as a series of events drastically transformed my thought process throughout the rest of the summer.

When Michael Moore's newest film, "Sicko," debuted this summer, just about everybody in the media claimed it was his most honest and important effort yet. The film contrasts anecdotes that portray the American for-profit healthcare systems as terrible, with others in which people in Canada, France, the UK, and Cuba talk about how great their government-run healthcare systems are.

To the Editors: Recently the United Kingdom's Universities and College Union (UCU) proposed a boycott of Israeli universities and affiliated academics. We the undersigned deplore this action.

The Editors have no agenda for the Opinion section of the Orient. These pages belong to the Bowdoin community, and we urge students, faculty, staff members, parents, and campus neighbors alike to use them to learn from one another. Indeed, the discourse that takes place on these pages each week is an invaluable resource, as it encourages us all to better articulate our viewpoints and challenges us to consider new perspectives.

In the days following July 21, thousands of readers of all ages turned the last page of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," concluding both Harry's journey and their own.

When pondering what to write for my first Orient column, I figured the standard "10 tips for first years" would work nicely. You know, the good ol' "go to class, eat your vegetables, don't take Organic Chemistry, etc.," but then I realized that Bowdoin has an entire support staff dedicated to helping you lil' munchkins navigate the "large and terrifying" Bowdoin campus.

It has been almost six years since the fall of the Twin Towers and the literary world, as well as the world at large, continues to respond to and grapple with the repercussions of the attacks. Don DeLillo, a New Yorker himself, contributes with the publication of his novel "Falling Man." The prominence of the attacks in the fictive literature that has appeared after September 11 is multifarious, but DeLillo's novel does not shy from keeping the fall of the World Trade Center as an ever-present shadow in his readers' minds.

The stage is set for the most epic rap battle since the infamous Notorious B.I.G.-Tupac feud of the early '90s. This week, 50 Cent and Kanye West announced that they would move the release dates of their new LPs to September 11 in order to initiate what seems to be slightly unhealthy competition. To add fuel to the already blazing fire, 50 Cent has announced that he will retire from his successful solo rap career if Kanye's album, "Graduation", outsells his album, "Curtis" (from his real name, Curtis Jackson). This seemingly unnecessary ego trip has fans shifting uncomfortably in their seats as they are forced to choose sides and determine whose overly explicit tirade they prefer.

As the school year starts and classes begin to intensify, we bid a sad farewell to the freedom and intemperance of the first days after returning to school. Fear not, that which flowed so freely during those cherished days is still something that can be enjoyed, regardless of the number of problem sets or papers we may be assigned. Such enjoyment can come from gaining a deeper respect for beer, revering the means and not the end. Beer is a unique and magical food (yes, like wine it can be classified as food), and there are hundreds of breweries making hundreds of types of beer, yielding hundreds of opportunities for discovery of new tastes and preferences. We are especially lucky to live in what I consider to be one of the best brewery regions of the world. Maine alone hosts such gems as Geary's, Gritty's, Shipyard, Casco, Sea Dog's, and Allagash, among others, producing some of the most unique and tasty beers available.

The cozy, quaint setting of the Eveningstar Cinema becomes John Carney's "Once" so perfectly that you may just overlook the artificial dialogue and occasional absurdity. This movie-musical hearkens back to a brighter era of cinema, when films shunned grandiosity in favor of genuine, warm emotion that brought with it a humanity now rarely seen.

On both the Bowdoin campus and the athletic fields, the fall always marks the start of a season filled with new faces, new goals, new challenges, and eager anticipation. For the Bowdoin Women's Soccer Team, this is possibly more true than ever.

After a long year, replete with snowy winter nights and hot summer days, the grass is finally green again for the Bowdoin Polar Bears to come out of hibernation to tee up for the 2007 men's golf season.

I had a revelation this summer?football is the world's greatest sport. I'm not quite sure exactly when this illuminating discovering of mine ultimately culminated; however, I do have an idea as to when it began.