The Bowdoin Orient

Due to what Information Technology (IT) is calling a "possible breach," confidential information was accessible to anyone with a Bowdoin username and password for an unknown length of time. The data included student Social Security numbers, insurance information, lists of students on medical and disciplinary leave, internal health center contracts and employee reviews, yearly budgets, and e-mails.

In the offices that overlook the serving lines at Thorne Dining Hall, whose top-ranked fare was celebrated most recently this week in the style pages of the New York Times, a team of literal and figurative bean-counters are constantly brainstorming ways to maintain Bowdoin's dining reputation in the face of spiking food prices.

Get busted one too many times for drinking, smoking, or using drugs, and Bowdoin won't send you to rehab or a mental hospital, but to mild-mannered, mustachioed Geno Ring.

While some Bowdoin seniors will pursue graduate school or enter the working world after graduation in May, a handful of students from the Class of 2008 will be studying in various corners of the world?for free.

Kiel McQueen '08 had one goal when he brought Relay for Life to Bowdoin three years ago: not to fail. But since McQueen's first Relay for Life at the College, the fundraising event has been nothing short of an unqualified success.

Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) discussed gender and sexuality on campus and the group's next step in the issues surrounding Credit/D/Fail at a bill-less meeting on Wednesday night. "I don't think we're going to be able to necessarily pass a resolution that will change the Bowdoin culture," James Harris '08 said regarding gender and sexuality on campus, "but having the discussion is something that's worthwhile."

In response to student requests for longer gym hours, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) teamed up with Facilities, Athletics, and the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs to keep the Watson Fitness Center open between 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on weekdays.

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has approved Bowdoin's application to acquire 175 developable acres of land at no cost from the Brunswick Naval Air Station (NASB) when the base closes in 2011. With formal support from both town officials and the DOE, the College now awaits final approval from the U.S. Navy, a process that could take three to four years.

For those unenthusiastic students asked to carry course evaluations to the academic affairs office in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library at the end of each semester, consider this: As early as fall, handwritten course opinion forms may be replaced with an online course evaluation system

For an unknown length of time, private student data including Social Security numbers, insurance information, and lists of students on medical and disciplinary leave were available on the campus server to anyone with a Bowdoin username and password. While the accessibility of the data was surely an error, with such sensitive information on the line, it was an inexcusable one.

In the coming weeks, a survey designed by students in a Bowdoin psychology class will make its way around campus. This survey, which asks questions on a variety of topics, including Facebook, parents, and the environment, will provide Bowdoin students with an opportunity to contribute to academic research?one they should take advantage of.

When I visited Bowdoin two years ago, a professor still unknown to me was lambasting Christianity as the great cause of violence in European history. Despite the ranting of modern academics, this is far from the truth. In fact, Christianity has acted as a constraint on unbridled violence and for centuries prevented Clausewitz's notion of the inevitable tendency of conflicts to move towards totality.

To the Editors: Brian Lockhart's April 4 column, "Responding to Hitchens's ethical challenge," presented religion as "a much-needed antidote to improve our lives." However, Lockhart couldn't refute Hitchens's point. Lockhart concedes that religion can be problematic on the political level, but maintains that it is positive in the lives of individuals.

This weekend, students will decide whether candidates for Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) president will need to have had prior experience in the body to be eligible for election. If students trust themselves to choose their own leaders wisely, they should vote in favor of opening up eligibility to everyone.

As author of this column, I feel compelled to respond to Christopher Hitchens's Common Hour last Friday. If you are not familiar with him, Hitchens recently published "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." During Common Hour, Hitchens gave a brief summary of his dislike for religion. He also gave a challenge he believes is unanswerable.

After a trying first two weeks back at school, full of gray skies, falling slush, and the discovery that I actually was assigned homework over vacation, my Spring Break memories are now distant, soft flickers.

We are writing because we feel that it is our obligation as upperclassmen to inform you of a crisis overtaking the Bowdoin community. It is not something to take lightly and it is surely not something to cast aside as trivial or irrelevant. If we are to overcome this ailment, we must articulate it in order to understand its full and enduring implications.

To the Editors: I wanted to express my heartfelt appreciation for the article and editorial in last week's Orient?I cannot begin to express the personal and professional satisfaction gleaned from your kind words.

A new online study will ask students to direct their browsers away from Facebook for a few minutes and instead spend some time thinking about the behaviors which have defined their college careers.

After being sidetracked by Spring Break's glamour and the Pub controversy, I'm finally back in my journalistic wheelhouse writing about sex. It's about time to revisit the enigmatic yet simple question: "What's your number?"

While many Bowdoin students start thinking about college early in their high school careers, this is not the case for high school students in the tribal schools of the Wabanaki Confederacy.

Hundreds of millions of people may speak Russian, but at Bowdoin, the language is dying.

The scene is a familiar one. A student arrives at Watson Fitness Center to find that the weight room has been closed due to an infectious outbreak. After the area has been quarantined, it is reopened to a wary public. As a student sits down on a newly disinfected weight bench, he discovers a trace of slime on the machine, and proceeds to culture it in the Petri dish that he carries on his person at all times, only to discover that it's a strain of a zombie virus that's simultaneously wrecking havoc on the rest of campus.

I always had an aversion to jeans. Growing up in a family where denim was not a permissible pant to wear to school didn't help.

Underneath Dudley Coe, down an unassuming staircase and through a nondescript door, lies a haven for Brunswick's music lovers. The WBOR station is a popular hangout for the fledgling DJs of the local community. This week the station will hold its annual concert, featuring the popular artist The One AM Radio.

On Tuesday, some of Maine's jazz professionals will take the stage in Kanbar Auditorium, Studzinski Hall to benefit fellow musician Andrew D'Angelo, who was diagnosed with brain cancer earlier this year.

Tomorrow, Bowdoin will host the Wabanaki Festival of Arts in an effort to familiarize students with various aspects of the Wabanaki culture. The event includes art exhibitions, as well as musical, cultural, and oral performances.

Zarah Ghahramani, a 20-year-old student in Tehran, spent a month in Evin, the Iranian prison with which opponents of any regime are threatened. She was physically and psychologically tortured for her participation in student sit-ins and her desire for a little liberty.

Top five desert island albums? JV: Stephen Marley's "Mind Control," Bob Marley's "Kaya," Silly Walks's "Songs of Melody," Shaquille O'Neal's "The Best of Shaquille O'Neal," Mitch Hedberg's "Mitch All Together." MR: The Band's "Music from Big Pink," The Grateful Dead's "American Beauty," Bob Marley & The Wailers's "Catch a Fire," Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band's "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.," Toots & the Maytals's "In the Dark."

After back-to-back losses to St. Joseph's, the last thing the Bowdoin Baseball Team wanted to do was extra running. However, upon returning to Bowdoin, the Bears headed straight to Farley Field House and proceeded to run two timed miles and 20 sprints before finally being set free to crash into their beds.

The women's tennis team will face strong competition from Middlebury and Amherst this weekend, after being soundly defeated in the Bears' only match last weekend. The men secured three strong victories over the weekend, and they will also compete against the Panthers and Jeffs on Saturday and Sunday.

The 12th-ranked Bowdoin Women's Lacrosse Team (6-3 overall) dropped two spots in the latest Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) poll after falling to Trinity College (5-3 overall) at Ryan Field on Saturday.

After a winter spent huddled around the 200-meter tracks of various field houses, the men's outdoor track team embraced spring in its full 400-meter glory, with a convincing second-place finish in its season opener at Middlebury. Bowdoin ceded victory to Springfield College, which finished with an 80-point lead, but showed great strength in beating Colby-Sawyer and Middlebury by a triple-digit margin.

The Bowdoin Women's Outdoor Track and Field Team finished second at Middlebury this past weekend, in its first track meet of the season.

As most of us know by now, the NCAA men's basketball tournament has officially ended (congrats Kansas fans) and the MLB season has just begun (sorry Tigers fans). But what most of us seem to forget is that something special started April 9. That "something special" was the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, with 16 teams all fighting to win one of the most historical and prestigious trophies in all of sports.

Seven innings pitched, five strikeouts, one earned run. On any other day, sophomore Carter Butland's performance surely would have guaranteed the baseball team a victory. But not this day, not against the now 15-0 Trinity Bantams. Despite Ben Higgins's '11 scoreless eighth, the Bantams would win 1-0, with the lone run coming off of a home run in the sixth inning.