The Bowdoin Orient

The Career Planning Center's (CPC) search for a new Associate Director of Employer Relations ended last Friday when Todd Herrmann '85 accepted the position. Herrmann will start the job on October 1. Currently the Assistant Director of Employer Relations at Colby College, he expressed enthusiasm about his new position.

If you build it, they will come. At least that's what Onsite Project Manager of Maine Street Station (MSS) Mike Lyne said he is hoping. Along with being Amtrak's port of entry into Brunswick—a train service is scheduled to begin in early 2012—the station currently offers access to the Maine Eastern train and the Brunswick Explorer, and has recently merged all of Concord Coach's previous Brunswick-area stops into one location.

In an effort to communally commemorate the anniversary of 9/11, the Bowdoin College Republicans (BCR), the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and the Bowdoin Christian Fellowship (BCF) joined forces. The three groups gathered at the flagpole in the evening of September 11 to share memories of the event. Bringing together participants from three different campus groups, the event offered diverse perspectives on 9/11.

The Bowdoin admissions website poses a rhetorical question—"Does Bowdoin welcome international students?"—and answers it: "Absolutely!" But international students, unlike their American counterparts, are mostly only "welcome" if they can pay up. Though Bowdoin has practiced "need-blind" admissions for domestic students for over a decade, "admission for non-U.S. Citizens," according to The College Catalogue, "may take a family's financial resources into consideration."

Brock Cochran's summons to West Bath District Court for September 21 most likely will be postponed. According to Lieutenant Mark Waltz of the Brunswick Police Department, Cochran, accused of stealing electronics in multiple parts of Maine, was revealed to have a prior record of thefts. If convicted, these prior occurrences would bump the current charges against him to felonies.

After a year that saw 26 alcohol transports and a reexamination of Bowdoin's party scene, the campus drinking culture picked up right where it left off. By the second day of classes four students had been transported to the hospital for reasons relating to alcohol, though there have been none since.

The start of the semester marked the introduction of a new printing system, sparking criticism and complaint. Though students in the past were permitted unlimited printing, we are now allotted $60—750 double-sided black-and-white pages—each semester and must pay out-of-pocket for any additional costs.

As I'm sure you all know, the Bowdoin College Republicans placed nearly 3,000 miniature American flags on the Dudley Coe Quad this past week to memorialize the 9/11 attacks. Frankly, I was shocked.

Recent attempts by the Student Activities Funding Committee (SAFC) to bring the Bowdoin Orient to its knees have put this newspaper at a crossroads. It could fight back; it has leverage against the purse-keepers, and might win in a showdown. Or, the Orient could treat this crisis as an opportunity to undergo a drastic but inevitable metamorphosis.

Even as an 11-year-old, I could tell that something was wrong on September 11, 2001. The police officer who helped us cross the street to get to school in the morning was absent and without a replacement. It was the first time I ever had to cross the street alone to get to my elementary school in suburban New York.

I get it. You're a first year and you are already overwhelmed with work. Or you're a sophomore who has made a goal to improve your grades. You might even be a junior or senior who has résumés and upper level classes to worry about. Whatever year you may be, the start of any semester is tough. But take a deep breath. Despite however busy you may be, there is life beyond classes.

I have a bone to pick with both the economy and Bowdoin right now. I am sure people can sympathize with this in many ways, but my bone is not over our endless recession or pricy tax hikes. Nor is my issue over too many dollar signs and too little dough. No, this little bone I have consists of two words: toilet paper.

Thomas Nixon Carver once said, "The trouble with radicals is that they only read radical literature, and the trouble with conservatives is that they don't read anything." The political tug-of-war between Democrats and Republicans leading up to the midterm elections this November seem almost comically designed to bear out Carver's point.

Each April, clubs on campus have the opportunity to submit budgets to the Student Activities Funding Committee (SAFC) to petition for funding for the next academic year. From 2002 until 2009, the Orient consistently requested approximately $20,000 per year and was awarded at least $19,000 by the SAFC on every occasion. Almost all of this money goes to cover the paper's annual printing costs, which totaled $19,169 in 2009-2010.

According to Associate Director of Housing Operations Lisa Rendall, roughly 6 percent of students live off campus. While many stick close to the campus frontier, others live as far as five miles down Mere Point Road. All represent conduits piercing the membrane of the "Bowdoin Bubble."

Since 1927, the Bowdoin Magazine has connected College alumni with their alma mater. Now, as it continues its transition from print to online media, the Magazine is becoming more accessible to students and expanding its role as a facilitator of communication between all members of the Bowdoin community.

The campus knows them, loves them, and arrives at their concerts up to an hour before doors open to guarantee they get a seat. A cappella is a part of Bowdoin—a big part—and last night, it got just a little bit bigger.

For mathematicians like Professor Pietraho, questions of symmetry are of great theoretical importance and carry far-reaching ramifications in mathematics and beyond.

The newly opened Trattoria Athena, located near Fort Andross on Mill Street, is not the type of place that you would find unless you were looking for it.

When I returned to Bowdoin, I was flooded with a host of wonderful and nostalgic feelings, and of course the excitement of being a senior. Chatting away with friends who studied abroad while happily munching through my first Bowdoin meal never felt so good.

This article was originally conceived as a showdown between Maine Street's two Indian eateries, Shere Punjab and Bombay Mahal.

If you're walking down Maine Street toward the Androscoggin, turn left on Lincoln Street, pass the Church of Scientology, and find yourself standing in a pebble-packed courtyard. This is the antechamber of The Book Barn: a cluttered den of "trash" antiques, yellowed paper-backs, chipped enamels, tin gimcracks, a "Manhattan-Billiards Table," and, most fascinating of all, the owner himself —Richard Fisco. He's a townie you should meet.

For those who love to dance, wish they could dance, or enjoy watching dance, there is a new face on campus that can assist with all three. Charlotte Griffin has joined Bowdoin's faculty as an assistant professor of dance.

Historically, the drive to explore has opposed to the desire to conserve land. After all, it takes a very conscientious explorer not to alter a landscape while passing through. Senior Evan Farley's current exhibit—located in the Fishbowl Gallery of the Visual Arts Center—not only reconciles the ideas of exploration and conservation, but beautifies the eventual union of these two ideas.

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art is an imposing sight. Its glass entryway juts sharply into the sky, juxtaposed against a prestigious stone building inscribed with the names of historic artists and flanked by standing lions. Rather than be intimidated by this awe-inspiring scene, Chris Omachi '12 decided to help make it a little more welcoming.

What is your favorite lyric, and from what song? The answer to this always changes, but right now it has retreated to Belle and Sebastian's "But if there's one thing that I learned when I was still a child it's to take a hiding" (from "I Don't Love Anyone"). It's exactly what you think it means.

The editors requested that the first article of the film column directly relate to the Bowdoin community. By this request do they assume that there is a Bowdoin film community? Suffer me to ask another question: Why do I hear war drums reverberating beneath this simple observation, which I didn't intend to be accusatory? Why does a college need to be, like a prospective high school senior, well-rounded, diversified and in all categories excellent?

Sufjan Stevens has never been one to stay in the realm of convention.

International performers the Lydian String Quartet (LSQ) will join cellist Rhonda Rider in a "Quintetssentials" performance at Studzinski Recital Hall on Sunday.

During the second game of one of the most highly-anticipated seasons for the men's soccer team, the Polar Bears showed their true colors and proved why they are setting their sights on a NESCAC championship.

The first week of the season was filled with ups and downs for the women's soccer team. After experiencing a tough loss versus conference rival Amherst, the Polar Bears rebounded from Saturday's loss with an exciting victory against Husson on Wednesday.

After only a single week of play, the men's golf team faces a busy and critical weekend of competition. The team heads to Boothbay Golf Course for the Maine State Tournament on Friday and Saturday, before returning home on Sunday for the annual Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Championship at the Brunswick Golf Club.

The sailing team welcomed the start of the fall season this past weekend, finding both success and room for improvement at regattas across New England.