The Bowdoin Orient

Due to an imbalance in Off-Campus Study (OCS) applications, the College is preparing to accommodate an unusually high number of students on campus next fall. According to Associate Director of Housing Operations Lisa Rendall, 25 Brunswick Apartment doubles will become triples, two Stowe Inn quads will become quints, three Howard quads will become quints, and all 11 Stowe Hall quads will become quints.

While not officially confirmed by Bowdoin's Campus Activities Board (CAB), online concert schedules suggest that Sean Kingston and Santigold are slated as headliner acts for Bowdoin's Ivies Weekend, with Saturday, April 25 performances listed for both on campus.

Teach For America (TFA) has experienced a considerable surge in popularity this year, with a 42 percent nationwide increase in the number of applications for the highly competitive program. TFA Recruitment Director Abbey Prior, who is part of the Boston recruitment team, said that the number of Bowdoin applicants this year reflect the positive national trends. However, Prior did not provide the Orient with the specific number of applicants or the number of accepted Bowdoin students as numbers are not available on a school-to-school basis until the entire application process is complete.

At its Wednesday meeting, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) discussed safety concerns and suggestions to provide students with entertainment and refreshments during Ivies Weekend. BSG President Sophia Seifert '09 told the assembly that Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols would be present at next week's meeting.

On Monday night, six Bowdoin women came to campus and relived a time when Reagan was president, bright workout gear was all the rage, and Bowdoin still supported fraternities. The panel, titled, "Claiming Spaces: Bowdoin Women of the 1980s," spoke of reclaiming the history of the decade. The event was sponsored by the Gender and Women's Studies program and the Women's Resource Center.

As students returned from break, they may have noticed a new face around campus. The health center added a new consulting physician to its staff, Dr. Cindy Asbjornsen. The hiring decision was announced through the student digest during spring break.

Not everyone working in the financial world has been adversely affected by the current economic crisis. Just ask hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller '75, who earned a reported $260 million in 2008 as manager for hedge fund Duquesne Capital.

On Wednesday afternoon, posters popped up around campus with the Greek letters Phi Chi—the name of a former Bowdoin fraternity as well as the title of a traditional Bowdoin fight song now sung by the Meddiebempsters. The posters, which were hung to advertise tonight's a cappella concert, have since been removed, at the request of Student Activities and Residential Life, for the usage of Greek letters.

What is the one thing our environmentalism, romance with urban rap music, and emphasis on study abroad hold in common? I think it is a disdain for suburban life. I can count on one hand the students I've met here favorably inclined towards these post-war dwelling spaces, yet more than half the students at Bowdoin call one of them "home." What gives?

On the first and third Friday nights of the month, you will not find me at Bowdoin. I'll be swing dancing at the North Deering Grange Hall, getting a necessary supplement to my liberal arts education.

After two long weeks of Spring Break, the students of Bowdoin College have finally returned in search of educational excellence. While many students spent those two weeks skiing in the Rocky Mountains or sipping Coronas on some tropical beach, I was busy stockpiling ammunition and firearms.

With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and escalating violence in the Middle East, it can be easy to forget about a war that is fought without missiles and tanks (so far at least). Yet the ongoing Mexican drug war is neither less serious in nature nor less relevant to Americans' lives than other conflicts around the world.

To the Editors: Bowdoin's goal to become carbon-neutral is laudable, but—from a practical standpoint—most likely impossible. Consider that if Bowdoin does not modify its admissions policies and revert to being a regional, "New England," or even "Maine" college (though I am not recommending necessarily that it do so), it will be hard-pressed to compensate for the carbon footprint of all students' travel to and from campus.

The early-morning lines that form outside of the the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program's (MCHPP) food pantry in Brunswick an hour and a half before it opens are longer than ever. When the doors open, the clients (as the food pantry staff respectfully refer to the patrons) file in and wait for a consultation that determines whether or not they are eligible for the free provisions. The clients are split between heads of families and individuals, but many are unemployed or have recently been laid off. The food pantry almost always accepts everyone, and rarely are clients turned away because their income is too high.

As many of you I hope know, March is Women's History Month. It is the month when we remember women from all walks of life who have contributed to most every aspect of human existence. It is a month designed to spark solidarity between women in recognizing that, though there has been much progress in terms of women's rights, we still have some way to go. In honor of Women's History Month, I am dedicating this week's sex article to the fascinating anatomy associated with the "fairer sex." This is because, in reading about all those kick-ass women who excelled in their fields and challenged society and the status quo, I am inspired by the fact that I too have a vagina. Even if I never accomplish anything noteworthy with my life, I'll be able to hang onto the fact that I have one thing in common with Marie Curie and Michelle Obama.

In this column, I strive to offer sources of stylistic inspiration from outside the Bowdoin Bubble: magazines, blogs, experience in different cities and countries. Admittedly, some forays are more inspired than others. My column on novelty boxers is more my plea to humanity to cut it out than "inspiration." However, I do think, since the season threatens to change ever so gently, that I should address questions not as of yet covered by my column: "What is style?," "Why does it matter?," and "Why should anyone care?"

Pickard Auditorium will be the floor for young New York Times best-selling novelist Jonathan Safran Foer on Tuesday. Foer is the author of several short stories and two novels, "Everything is Illuminated" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." He has been hailed as one of the most controversial and influential authors of the decade. With the success of "Everything is Illuminated" in 2002, Foer rose to the top of the best-seller lists. The novel won numerous awards including the Guardian First Book Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Prize.

Ambition is a driving force for many of us; there are few of us who don't aspire to make an impression on the world, or at least attempt to affect a single frontier. Rodes Fishburne's debut novel "Going to See the Elephant" focuses on the journey of a particular aspirant, Slater Brown. For Slater, the place to begin is San Francisco.

It was a deep fly ball to centerfield that seemed to turn the momentum in favor of the Bowdoin softball team for the remainder of its spring trip in sunny Florida. Things were starting to look grim for the Polar Bears after losing three of their first four games on the trip. Their bats had stayed quiet and the competition had proved to be formidable. However, in their fifth game, in the bottom of the third inning with a 0-0 score against a tough SUNY New Paltz team, first year Hillary Smyth made a play on that fly ball to deep center that gave the Polar Bears some needed hope.

Bowdoin sports hit a roadblock over Spring Break, with men's ice hockey, women's ice hockey, men's basketball and men's swimming and diving all facing difficulties in post-season play. The lone winner was women's basketball, which won the NESCAC championships after failing to win the tournament last season. The women's basketball team received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after its conference championship, and pounced on its first opponent Castleton, winning by a score of 72-31. Katie Bergeron '11 led the team with 16 points.

The men's tennis team (5-2, No. 11 in D-III) returned from its two-week stay in San Clemente, California in good shape and on a three-match win streak. Southern California was an ideal location for the players, who were able to catch Andy Roddick, Josh Isner, and Marty Fish in action at the BNP Paribas Open and even attend a Los Angeles Lakers game. "The team was in high spirits," said Stephen Sullivan '11, who won all but one match at the No. 1 singles position.

The women's tennis team defeated Bates 7-2 on Thursday afternoon, kicking off its spring NESCAC season on a high note. The top five singles players and the top two doubles teams overpowered Bates, bringing the Bears to an 4-4 overall record. The match was the Bears' first match since returning from their trip to California, where they won three matches and lost four.

The baseball team had an up-and-down trip to Florida during Spring break, going 11-8 over the course of the two weeks. Still, the team showed streaks of brilliance. In the first game against Amherst, the Bears showed particular late-inning guile. Brendan Garner '11 got things going with a single, and three hits and two runs later, Matt Ruane '11 stepped up to the plate with pinch runner Ian Merry '09 on third base. Ruane shrugged off the pressure and lined a single to left, driving in the game-winning run.

Spring is back, and so is women's lacrosse. Like the recent Maine weather, the beginning of the lacrosse season has been an up-and-down ride for the Polar Bears, who came into this week's game against Wheaton College with a record of 3-3. Over Spring Break, the team was victorious against Drew, Ohio Wesleyan, and Endicott and suffered one-goal losses to Wesleyan, Trinity, and most recently, Amherst.

In the sailing teams' first official races of the spring season, they won the Central Series regatta at Harvard and a race in the Veitor Trophy at Salve Regina. At the Harvard Central Series on March 21, co-captain Doria Cole '09 skippered in the A division with crew Erin Taylor '09. Co-captain Pete Wadden '09, with crew Audrey Hatch '10, skipped for the B division.

A regular season NESCAC championship? Yawn. A league title? Yes ma'am. The NCAA tournament for the 10th straight year? You bet. One of the top 25 teams in the country? Check. If I don't have your attention yet, I'm sorry to disappoint, but you've stumbled on the Orient's sports column. There's not much else the Bowdoin Women's Basketball Team can do. March: the month of mud, spring break and basketball. But in Brunswick, the Madness of March is over and we're left with just the mud and the all-too-distant-and-hazy memories of vacations in the sun. Sure, "The Tourney" still rages on around the country. Brackets are still poised to be made or busted and that company pool prize still seems within reach.