The Bowdoin Orient

Senator George Mitchell '54 will speak to a sold-out Common Hour audience today, kicking off a week's worth of events celebrating service and the common good. Senator Mitchell's visit serves as the opening ceremony for Saturday's Common Good Day, to be followed next Friday by the official opening of the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good.

Last spring, the New York Times profiled the Bowdoin Dining Service as one of the best in the nation. This high-profile attention was far from undue: this summer the College retained its No. 2 spot on the Princeton Review's list of Best Campus Food. Wheaton College in Illinois was ranked No. 1.

United States Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Class of 1953, presented a lecture entitled "Priorities for the Next President of the United States in Foreign and Security Policy," to a packed Kresge Auditorium on Tuesday.

Students who walk into Bowdoin's Career Planning Center (CPC) this fall will encounter new faces as well as a new model for advising. The driving force behind the CPC's revamped program and staff is the new three-phased advising approach aimed to help students explore, experience, and pursue a goal, whether it be full-time employment, an internship, or graduate school.

Meadow Davis started this semester with not one, but two new positions: Special Assistant to the Dean of Student Affairs and Advisor to the Student Sexual Assault and Misconduct Board (SSAMB).

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) made its presence known on campus last spring when it dealt out 11 pre-litigation letters to members of the Bowdoin community. But since then, according to Chief Information Officer Mitch Davis, the association has only ratcheted up its efforts to curb students' illegal downloading at the College.

After two years at the helm of Bowdoin admissions, William Shain has left the College. Shain's departure was announced in an e-mail on June 5 by President Barry Mills to faculty, staff, Trustees, and members of the Alumni Council. In the statement, Mills explained that Shain, who had admitted the Classes of 2011 and 2012 in his post as dean of admissions and financial aid, was leaving the College on June 30.

President Barry Mills has declined to sign the Amethyst Initiative, a national petition of college and university presidents that aims to invigorate discussion about changing the legal drinking age.

Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of Common Good Day, a day when hundreds of Bowdoin students, employees, and alumni gather to participate in a few hours of service projects in the local community. The event, which has grown enormously since its inception, symbolizes the Bowdoin community's dedication?and eagerness?to promote the common good.

As the 2008 Common Good Day Fellow, I have grown accustomed to the occasional cynical comments: "You can't get important service done in one day," or, "people only do it to feel good about themselves," or, better yet, "what is the common good anyway?"

To the Editors: Oscar Wilde once wrote, "Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing."

To the Editors: President Mills does not deserve the criticism he received in last week's editorial for his decision not to sign the Amethyst Initiative.

To the Editors: When I was 12, my friends and I read Seventeen Magazine out loud at slumber parties, acquiring information on our changing bodies and speculating on the whether the cute boy in science class was Mr. Right.

Since it was drafted in July, more than 120 college and university presidents have signed the Amethyst Initiative, a statement that calls for a public discussion about the 21-year-old drinking age. College presidents who have signed the statement are not asking for a specific change in policy; instead, they hope to stimulate "an informed and dispassionate debate over the effects of the 21-year-old drinking age." The signatories represent schools ranging from Ohio State University to Hamilton College?but Bowdoin is absent from the list.

"What do you think about Sarah Palin?" I first heard this question a week and a half ago after returning from a pre-orientation backpacking trip. Having missed John McCain's announcement of Sarah Palin as his running mate, I was utterly baffled as to why anyone would care about my governor.

A couple weeks ago, I pressed my nose up against the small square of Plexiglas next to my seat as JetBlue Flight 606 hovered over Portland. I've made the same descent countless times during my time at Bowdoin, but I still can't help feeling a little awe-inspired by the scattered lakes and bewildering forests of Maine's landscape. Born and raised in the Midwest, New England still has an exotic draw for me; the curious charm of lobster boats, in fact, eliminated any need I ever felt to study overseas. Land's End would suffice.

Shortly after Kansas became the first state in the union to outlaw alcoholic beverages in 1881, a woman by the name of Carrie Nation set about personally enforcing the new state law. Considering herself "a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn't like," Nation quickly became well known for storming into bars and saloons, reprimanding the patrons for their actions, and smashing any bottles of liquor with a hatchet.

After one full week of classes and over two weeks to settle into Bowdoin this fall, many of us may already feel our absorption into the Bowdoin bubble. And while our inboxes are flooded with reminders of meetings and parties, we are possibly forgetting to consider what is easily one of the largest events of this fall worldwide: the election taking place on November 4.

Take a deep breath. Hold it. Do you smell what I smell? That's right, it's the crisp aroma of September in Maine. It's the soft fragrance of clean bed sheets and new underwear. It's the reassuring scent of a CLEAN SLATE.

Scully '09 had no idea that a student digest post could change her life. Sandwiched between posts about lost ID cards and student activities was information about applying to the Japan America Student Conference (JASC), a prestigious cultural exchange program.

Going to school at a small, liberal arts college like Bowdoin means that friends are always close by. It's almost impossible not to run into them on your way to class, at the gym, or in the dining hall.

Until last week, I must confess that the only other Coen brothers' film I had seen was "The Big Lebowski." I am not a Coen brothers' groupie, or even a modest fan of their films. But I liked the look of their most recent work, "Burn After Reading," so I decided to trek down to the Eveningstar Cinema. I was not disappointed.

Epigraphs are a somewhat less superficial way to judge a book than by its cover. The inscription usually hints at the essence of what is to follow or is the work of a favorite author. I was sold on Alan Drew's "Gardens of Water" at the sight of the page after the epigraph.

The Portland String Quartet will embellish the Bowdoin fall concert series with a performance of music by Felix Mendelssohn, Joseph Haydn, and Ernest Bloch in Studzinski Recital Hall this weekend.

The town of Brunswick will provide an alternative, hands-on experience for Bowdoin students not participating in Common Good Day on Saturday: the Family Arts Festival. The project, which will take place on the Brunswick Green, is aimed at attracting art aficionados of all ages.

They're musicians, not aliens, but the band "Project Blue Book" promises to shake up Bowdoin's nightlife nonetheless. The group, which identifies itself as "Unidentified funky orchestras" on its MySpace page, is bringing its music and sense of humor to Bowdoin tonight at MacMillan House. The band took its name from the government-sponsored UFO research conducted in the 1960s known as "Project Blue Book."

Navigating the most difficult course of the season during last week's Tufts University invitational, the men's cross-country team proved its mettle over the rough 8K course, finishing first overall in the field of 10 schools. The competition, which took place last Saturday in Medford, also featured NESCAC rivals Bates, Connecticut College, and host Tufts.

The men's tennis team was unstoppable in its very own Bowdoin Invitational last weekend. The Polar Bears competed against Colby and Brandeis, going a remarkable 32-1 over the weekend and making it to the finals fo their flights. Co-captain Alex Caughron '09 noted that the victory was a perfect way to start the season.

The women's tennis team kicked off the season on a high note, winning the ECAC Women's Tennis Open Championship at Trinity last weekend. The Bears had players in all of the championship matches and won four of the five flights to down Brandeis, Trinity, Connecticut College, and RPI.

In the seconds after the gun went off at the Jumbo Invitational last Saturday, spectators may not have been optimistic for the Polar Bears' finish. As runners climbed the first hill of the 5K race that sultry afternoon, Bowdoin's varsity runners loitered between the 30th and 40th place runners.

The women's rugby team opened its season at the Beantown Collegiate Women's Rugby Tournament. Its first game on Saturday, was a drubbing Plymouth State University, whom they beat 48-0. "[Plymouth State University] clearly had a young team and didn't have sophisticated or physical enough defense to stop our offense," captain Alivia Moore '09 said.

In the world of athletics, it is almost impossible for any team or player to find the path to success without taking a few knocks along the way. For the men's soccer team, it must hope that the first few games have been just a few slip-ups and not an indication of the rest of the season.