The Bowdoin Orient

For several nights this semester, Super Snack will be facing some competition. In an effort to extend weekend nights in hopes of reducing alcohol-related problems, Dining Services will try keeping Jack Magee's Grill open until 2 a.m. on select weekend nights. According to Director of Dining Services Mary Lou Kennedy, the plan is to try the idea on three Saturday nights spread out across the course of this semester. "One of the things I have heard over and over again is the compressed social time on the weekends," Director of Student Activities Allen Delong said.

The Bowdoin Daily Sun, a new daily blog of College news and features hit the Web on Wednesday. "[The Daily Sun] was my idea. I read a number of blogs every day," President Barry Mills said. "These blogs give me interesting information about what's going on in the world." "I may have had a unique idea," Mills added. "I don't know any other colleges that have done this."

The development of a Student Web Advisory Team is underway, according to Associate Vice President of Communications for Marketing and Publications Robert Kerr. The group, expected to begin meeting in March, will give students the opportunity to "guide Bowdoin's presence on the net," said Kerr.

Bowdoin Student Government's (BSG) said yes to hip-hop, no to hydration. At Wednesday's BSG meeting, members cast votes on last week's proposal to replace a water fountain in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library (H-L Library), and a new proposal to co-fund the annual Hip-Hop Concert for accepted minority students during this year's "Experience Weekend." While the proposal to co-fund the annual Hip-Hop Concert was passed by a large margin, last week's hydration station proposal failed to gain approval.

Only 69 percent of the class of 2010 is taking four or more credits this semester, indicating that no matter the weather, senior spring is in full swing. According to Registrar Christine Cote, 31 percent of the senior class is taking three credits, the same as last year's seniors. In addition, six percent are taking three and a half credits. In the fall, 92 percent of seniors took four or more courses.

As of 5 p.m. yesterday, the Office of Residential Life had received 238 College House applications. "That's down from the 300 last year, but still much higher than previous years," wrote Director of Residential Life Mary Pat McMahon in an e-mail to the Orient.

A Coleman Hall resident was transported to Parkview Adventist Medical Center for alcohol poisoning last Friday, prompting a mandatory meeting for all first year students on Saturday evening. The Office of Residential Life has since requested that proctors continue discussing thses issues with their first-year floors and extend their on-duty hours.

The $12,000 grant awarded to the Brunswick Police Department already appears to be having an effect. Early Sunday morning, Akiva Zamcheck '11 received a court summons for underage possession of alcohol by consumption while walking home alone on Page Street.

On Monday, faculty will vote on a measure that, if approved, would allow students to pursue and accept unpaid internships that require academic credit from the students' college or university. In the proposed policy, the College would acknowledge a student's successful completion of an internship with a notation on his or her transcript.

Last weekend, the student body reached a semester milestone: we made it to Monday without a single alcohol-related hospital transport. While some mark this as an achievement, the alcohol issue is still very much a reality.

Just before 11 a.m. on Friday, February 19, the volume of equities traded on the New York Stock Exchange fell slightly. Fifteen minutes later, the backlog appeared in a burst, and for a short time the frequency of trading was more than double the day's average. Surely, an event which held Wall Street enraptured must have been critical to firms' profits. Given the events of recent weeks, it's not surprising that something suitably momentous could have come to light. Perhaps Greece finally acted upon its debt, or the Fed made an announcement which could determine a firm's future profitability. But no, the only event which occurred during that 15-minute period was rather less important to, well, everything: Tiger Woods's press conference.

In the past few years especially, since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the theme of American exceptionalism, first introduced to the cultural consciousness by Alexis de Tocqueville, has cropped up continuously. It has mostly been used by the leaders of the GOP as a justification for selfish and United States-centric foreign policy decisions, such as President George W. Bush's refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol and his decision to invade Iraq and "bring democracy" to the people living under Saddam Hussein. It has become a theme again in the past year as conservative pundits attempt to criticize and discredit the policies of the Obama administration.

The leadership of the College has decided to prohibit the possession or consumption of hard alcohol. They believe in doing so they are removing the key element of unsafe drinking, thus promoting a healthier campus environment. An honorable goal, but given the latest incidences of hard alcohol related misdeeds, the question must be asked: is the policy working? First we must understand the nature of the problem. Although it has been branded by most as a "drinking problem," dangerous drinking is merely a symptom of what is actually a social problem.

Who doesn't love a friendly contest? People love competition, be it a race, a ball game or the new sport of who can be the first first year to get a ride to Parkview on Saturday night. May I use this forum to be the umpteenth person to implore fellow students to show a little more responsibility? But I digress.

While I'm abroad right now in Spain, I am naturally less in touch with campus happenings. However, I checked the Orient site to read about a friend's photo exhibit in the Visual Arts Center and found the article "Foster calls meeting over 20th transport."

As if nicotine, strip joints and MTV's Jersey Shore weren't enough, the Lord above layeth a new addiction upon me this past week: Chatroulette.com. For the record, all anecdotes in this article are true, either from personal experience or interviews with fellow users. To readers not familiar with Chatroulette.com, this exposé may appear shocking, grotesque, X-rated and, at times, pathetic.

In last week's op-ed, "Alcohol hosting: A responsibility not for the faint of heart," Chris Rowe's suggestion that the Office of Residential Life does not inform alcohol hosts of the liability they assume when hosting registered events on campus is not correct.

In last week's op-ed "Strengthening our intellectual discourse," Amanda Gartside quotes me as declaring the academic climate of Bowdoin dull. For the record, what I complained of back in 2004 was not a lack of "intellectual discourse" on campus, but a lack of candid debate over contentious issues.

Despite bouts of economic instability and setbacks, it would seem that College officials accurately predicted the future in a February 2004 Orient article that reported that "By 2010, new buildings are expected to include the currently-in-construction Kanbar Hall, two residence halls, a new hockey arena, and a new bookstore. Officials also hope for renovation of the first-year dormitories, a new concert hall in Curtis Pool, a renovated Walker Art Building, and improvements to Hawthorne-Longfellow Library." As the Orient looks back at the College's significant building projects of the decade, it becomes clear that the majority of construction plans for the campus were realized.

The first half of the decade was buzzing with illegal Internet activity at the College, as Bowdoin students discovered—and were disciplined for—music piracy. Over the years, illegal file sharing on the Internet has caused problems for the College, Information Technology and students alike.

The decade has seen two directors of Safety and Security: in January of 2000, Director of Security Scott Kipp resigned and Bob Graves served as interim director. In 2005, Randy Nichols joined the College as the new, and current, head of Safety and Security after spending 27 and a half years with the Maine State Police. A November 11, 2005, Orient article reported that Nichols' list of important issues at Bowdoin included "lighting, pedestrian safety, personal safety, and alcohol abuse."

September 15, 2000 When the Orient reported that Dr. Jeff Benson would step into the position of director of health services at Dudley Coe Health Center in 2000, a companion story stated that Benson's predecessor, nurse practitioner Robin Beltramini, had been told she had to resign after 14 years at the College. According to the Orient article, Beltramini was only told that the decision had nothing to do with patient care.

If you think you hear electric guitar riffs that sound eerily like Mozart while passing Gibson Hall, chances are you are hearing parts of the senior honors project of Peter McLaughlin '10. With the guidance of the music department, McLaughlin is working to arrange a non-traditional composition with the use of a computer.

A student's college experience is determined by a seemingly infinite number of variables. However, demanding academics and loaded extracurricular schedules often overshadow other essential components. In an effort to ascertain the key factors that impact their students' experiences, seven liberal arts colleges are participating in the New England Consortium on Assessment and Student Learning (NECASL). Funded by the Teagle Foundation, NECASL began as a collaborative project at Bates College. In the program's first year, Lee Cuba, a sociology professor at Wellesley College, led a group of investigators to design a qualitative panel study focused on the learning and decision making processes of students throughout their college careers.

Place: Alpha Kappa Sigma House Location: 38 Harpswell Road Intrigued by rumors of the old fraternity house on the corner of Harpswell Rd. and College St., I made it my mission this week to uncover the truth. Was it true that members of the Alpha Kappa Sigma house poured wet cement down sinks and toilets to destroy the plumbing system? Why had the college not done anything with the house since its purchase ten years ago? My imagination ran wild. I called Jeff Tuttle, associate director of facilities, asked for a tour of the building and began my research.

Now in his ninth year leading the College, President Barry Mills remains modest about the growing list of changes, expansions and projects taken on under his supervision. While he said he recognizes the "pretty important role" he's played in imagining and implementing projects, he noted that "the College, in so many ways, isn't about the president."

It's an "American art extravaganza," said Curatorial Assistant Kate Herlihy of the six-part lecture series kicking off today at the Bowdoin Museum of Art. The American Art Lecture Series runs in conjunction with two exhibitions, "Learning to Paint" and the upcoming "Methods for Modernism," both of which focus on American artists from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The banjo has traditionally been viewed as an instrument associated with country music, cowboys and the song "Home on the Range." Béla Fleck, the world-renowned banjo musician who will be playing at Bowdoin this upcoming Tuesday, has devoted his life to changing that mindset.

Everyone knows that brunch at Moulton or Thorne offers one of the best meals around, but when Bowdoin students begin to tire of the tried-and-true weekend lineup, Portland beckons as a brunch haven.

With the 2010 Winter Olympics drawing to a close, Professor John Gold's upcoming talk "London 2012, Olympic Legacy, and the Challenge of Sustainable Urbanism" holds particular global relevance. Gold's talk and recent research focuses on London's urban planning as the city shifts to accommodate the Summer Olympics in two years' time.

Never before has more love been felt in Jack McGee's Pub than at "Heart's for Haiti," Bowdoin Musical Collective's (BMC) all-acoustic fundraising concert last Saturday. The pub was packed for the event, with students filling the space to the brim for the show, sitting in chairs and booths on both levels, layering onto couches and spilling onto the floor. The show offered the perfect means of kicking off Haiti Week. Beyond raising over $700 through open donations given willingly by students throughout the event, it also brought students together in a collective effort to support Haiti relief efforts.

The musical quartet In Flux will perform at 7:30 p.m. in Studzinski Hall on Friday February 26. The group consists of mezzo soprano Rachel Calloway, violinist Noah Geller, violist Eric Nowlin and cellist Jason Calloway. All four performers are graduates of the Juilliard School in New York City.

Guitarist Dan Lippel will perform this Wednesday, March 3 at 7:30p.m. in Studzinski Hall.

"Show, don't tell," is a mantra repeated in classrooms from middle school through college as teachers push their students to bring narratives to life. After graduating from Bowdoin in 1984, Kary Antholis has taken this advice to heart and brought it to its full potential.

In the final week of the regular season, the women's hockey team (11-11-2; 8-7-1 NESCAC) achieved an impressive upset against Middlebury (15-6-3; 11-4-1 NESCAC), followed closely by a heartbreaking loss against Williams (12-10-2; 9-6-1 NESCAC) that assured the Lady Polar Bears a road trip for the first week of the NESCAC Championships.

Facing Bates in a thunderous Alumni Gymnasium, the men's basketball team saw its season come to an abrupt end, losing the NESCAC quarterfinal matchup by a final score of 80-64.

Against the best small school athletic programs in New England, the women's indoor track team finished fifth at the Division III New England Championships. The Polar Bears were led by several strong individual performances, including three school records and three provisional qualifiers for the NCAA Division III National Championships.

The men's squash team ended its season as a team this past weekend at the College Squash Association Nationals at Yale University. The Bears started the tournament off falling to Williams 9-0, in a repeat of a match earlier in the season.

As Spring Break draws closer, the Nordic ski team is working toward its final meet of the season, the Regional Championships, which will be held at Middlebury College this weekend.