The Bowdoin Orient

When the year's housing lottery begins this spring, students will be given the opportunity to live in gender-blind double bedrooms when they return in the fall, allowing male and female students to share a room together. While no formal announcement has been made to the campus community, students involved in the long campaign for gender-neutral housing options were informed yesterday morning of the change.

Last weekend the Board of Trustees, faculty members and a student representative convened at the Babson Executive Center in Wellesley, Mass. to discuss tenure and honorary degree recipients, as well as the current goals and mission of the College.

A week after Marc Seligson '12 was arrested on assault charges and student leaders gathered to discuss solutions for alcohol problems, a 20-year-old sophomore male student was arrested for drunk driving and the Brunswick Police Department received a $12,000 grant to increase enforcement against underage drinking.

As the Class of 2010 slowly approaches graduation, plans for Senior Week are already underway. Though past classes have struggled to raise enough money to accommodate the traditional Senior Week activities, President of the Senior Class Council, Matt Yantakosol '10, is confident that his class has saved the most money yet.

At the February 1 faculty meeting, the Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee (CEP) proposed a policy that would allow students to participate in unpaid internships that require that students receive academic credit as compensation. Under the current policy, students may only participate in such internships if they coordinate an independent study that ties in with their internship work, to undertake on campus after the internship. If the new policy gains approval at the next faculty meeting on March 1, students who secure such internships would need to request approval from the Career Planning Center (CPC). If approved, the CPC would send a letter to the firm, non-governmental organization (NGO), or organization to establish that the student would receive transcript notation upon their completion of the internship. If the internship sponsor were to disagree to the terms outlined by the College, the student would not be allowed to take part in the internship.

Dean of Academic Affairs Cristle Collins Judd introduced the American Council for Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship program to faculty members at their monthly meeting last week. The ACLS fellowship program was started by the Mellon Foundation as a means to identify exceptional humanities scholars who have recently completed graduate school and place them in two-year positions at higher education institutions.

Megan Brunmier '08, the program advisor for the Entertainment Board (E-Board), met with the Orient yesterday afternoon to discuss the process by which bands are booked for Ivies. Last week, Passion Pit's agent, with whom the E-Board is currently negotiating an Ivies appearance, contacted Student Activities and requested that the Orient remove its January 29 article, "Passion Pit accepts bid, scheduled for Ivies show," from its Web site.

Although many changes in life at Bowdoin may go unnoticed, the appearance of new paper cups in the dining halls has sparked anything but indifference among the student body. In an effort to be more environmentally friendly, the Dining Service replaced the old eight-ounce paper cups with a much-maligned six-ounce version at the start of the semester.

Last week, the Orient made the decision to print the name of a student arrested on allegations of physically assaulting a nurse who was providing him with care after he had been drinking. Following our decision, students have questioned our motives and scolded us for being irresponsible journalists. Though we are not surprised that emotions are running high, we would like to use this space to explain our ethical practices policy and the journalistic integrity of our decision.

In recent weeks this newspaper has run stories with titles like "Alcohol Use a Concern," and the growing atmosphere of worry has caused some people to fall back upon the argument that lowering the drinking age would help remove the motivation to binge drink, and thus save lives. Or at least trips to Parkview Adventist Medical Center. But espousing such a view without considering the consequences on a scale larger than Bowdoin is foolish.

Aside from Rush Limbaugh, no one really wants the president of the United States to fail, whether or not one agrees with his positions. Five, 10, or 15 years down the line, it would be more than unfortunate if the greatest legacy of Obama and his administration were failed attempts at bipartisanship in place of important and historical bills.

Who is at fault for the issues with health care in America? Take a look in the mirror, says CEO of Delphi Financial Group, Robert Rosenkranz in the January 25 issue of Newsweek. Rosenkranz argues that insurance companies are not responsible for the perceived health care issue, citing their moderate profit margins, and instead puts the blame on the government and society. He uses the analogy that people don't call their car insurance companies every time they need an oil change. I agree with Rosenkranz; things have gotten out of hand to the point where people feel that for every back ache that may "need" a massage, their insurance should foot the bill. This is capitalism, and as long as we keep asking for crazier health insurance, companies have every right to provide it.

Companies at the Consumers Electronic Show in Las Vegas last month displayed new gadgets for everything from the home to the office to cars. Much to the dismay of some consumers and experts, car companies like Ford, Audi and Mercedes have presented plans to add screens above gearshifts in their vehicles that can be used to browse the Internet or play videos, among other things. As though text messaging and GPS units were not enough of a distraction, automobile drivers can now look up band biographies, research restaurant menus and check stocks on their dashboards, further expanding the possibility of risky and distracting behavior while driving—some systems even have detachable keyboards!

To our Readers: Last Friday, the Orient was contacted by Student Activities with a request from Passion Pit's agent to remove our January 29 article, "Passion Pit accepts bid, scheduled for Ivies show." By publishing the bid prices (not yet signed into contract and not protected by a nondisclosure agreement) for the spring concert performers, our article had allegedly created a price ceiling for other offers on Passion Pit, and this was problematic for the group.

During a Wednesday night meeting to discuss the presence, prevalence, and perils of alcohol on campus, one consensus was clear: identifying the crux of the problem is as difficult as identifying any potential solutions. While the raw data suggest that students are treating alcohol differently this year than they have in years past, the arguments articulated by students and administrators define the wide spectrum of opinions concerning current alcohol policy: either it is too strict, too lenient, or is simply too removed from the realities of drinking culture at Bowdoin for it to apply.

Consider this: fifty years ago, over a two-year session of Congress there was exactly one cloture motion filed, the motion the Senate files to ask for a vote to end a filibuster. Twenty-five years ago, there were 41 motions filed. Last session, there were 139 motions filed. The Senate is already on track to set a whole new record for the 111th Congress.

Health care reform is one of our nation's most controversial issues. My question is, quite simply, why? In the second major attempt to pass a bill to reform our nation's health care system, we find ourselves, once again, unwilling or unable to do so.

"Who hasn't had the dream of staring a fire with two sticks?" asked Madelyn Sullivan '09 in an e-mail to the Orient. "It can be done." Sullivan has been working for the Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC), planning new events for the club. Her latest project involved creating a five-week-long naturalist survival tutorial, called the Indigenous and Survival Skills Group, which will include lessons on creating habitation in nature, food identification, and a number of botany talks by guest speakers. Sullivan says that she will be teaching a weekly class for interested BOC members if the remainder of the class is well attended.

Where do you spend most of your time at Bowdoin? Most likely it's not locations like the dining halls or your dorm room, but instead the cyber spaces of Bowdoin. With over 100,000 pages branching from the all too familiar home screen, there are plenty of places for your mouse to explore. According to data that tracked Web traffic from August 1 to December 30, 2009, provided by Associate Director of Communications for Web Strategy Robert Denton, the Athletics page was the most popular destination by far.

During Winter Break, I spent a significant amount of time traveling with one of my closest friends, who happens to be one of my go-to people for in-depth chats about relationships, hooking-up and of course, sex. That said, we started talking about the typical "hook-up" scene at college. You know, the whole "meet someone at a party, head back to bed, brunch the next day, and 'I'll see you around' type of thing." It was interesting to learn from my friend, who attends a large university in New York City, that a similar phenomenon also occurs frequently at large schools. We came to the conclusion that colleges naturally foster "casual hook-ups" that are not only easy to achieve, but also desirable, especially given how explorative they can be. Bowdoin students have been particularly critical of the all-too-common hook-ups, claiming that the College lacks a proper and wholesome dating scene. In short, it has been suggested that hooking up is evidence that students here are neither prepared nor mature enough to pursue more serious relationships.

Wednesday night's Soul Food dinner at Thorne was a huge success. I could not help but overhear numerous eaters sigh contentedly with murmurs of how full they were. To review the dinner as a whole, however, would try your patience, since presumably you were there, and ate everything yourself. (If you missed the dinner, well then, that was your mistake.)

Drawing from a myriad of media, Lecturer of Visual Art Nestor Gil and Assistant Professor of Art Carrie Scanga, this years' new members of Bowdoin's Visual Art department, create invigorating, physically present and engaging art.

Last Thursday night, Crash Kings brought a musical explosion of funk, pop, rock and alternative beats to Portland's popular music venue The Asylum. By 8:30 p.m. the main floor was full of anticipating fans waiting for Violent Soho, Crash Kings, Janus, Lost on Liftoff and Sick Puppies to take the stage.

As the semester's work begins to pile up, the Entertainment Board (E-Board) will bring a weekend opportunity for students to take a break and laugh with live comedy this Saturday at Jack Magee's Pub.

Valentine's Day is on the way, and if you're looking beyond Brunswick for a restaurant that would provide that date-night milieu, Portland could be your place. Eating in Brunswick is great, but taking your valentine to a standard Bowdoin haunt won't get you high marks for originality.

At the end of his senior year, Michael Wood '06 had the challenging and rewarding theatrical experience to which many Bowdoin thespians aspire; Wood embarked on an independent study in which he directed a production of The Laramie Project, the widely celebrated play about the reaction to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming.

While within the boundaries of the United States of America, Maine shares a great deal with our neighbor to the north, Canada. The first thing that comes to mind here are the freezing temperatures that sometimes make winter unbearable for non-Mainers like me.

I want to make horror films for animals. I want to investigate an animal's world—how it appraises the visual field for predators, reacts to ominous noise, heights, bright lights, and optical illusion. I want to direct a film integrating my research into a virtual horizon that will accelerate the heart beat of a jungle pig.

LEAH WANG '12 AND SADIE NOTT '12

Though the men's indoor track team could not best powerhouse University of Southern Maine (USM), the Polar Bears had an outstanding performance on Saturday and proved that they are still among the best in Maine.

The swimming and diving teams cruised their way past a strong Colby squad last Saturday to claim the CBB Championship for the second year in a row.

In a season that began with so much promise, the men's basketball team is finally limping closer to the finish line.

The women's hockey team started strong before giving up seven unanswered goals in two games last weekend at No. 1-ranked Amherst. The losses dropped the Polar Bears to 9-9-2 (6-5-1 NESCAC) on the season with four games left against NESCAC opponents.

The squash teams put up a determined struggle this past weekend at the NESCAC Championships in Hartford, Conn., achieving mixed results but giving their opponents a hard fight.

The long, snowless period that New England has recently experienced has forced ideas of outdoor winter sports out of the minds of many Bowdoin students. Not so for the Nordic ski team, however, which will compete in its fifth race of the season this coming weekend.