The Bowdoin Orient

The College made a move to acquire the Longfellow Elementary School property, detailing its proposal in a Nov. 30 letter to Town Manager Gary Brown. The town initially approached the College about a year ago regarding the potential land acquisition.

Yesterday, the deans gathered for the biannual readmission meeting that decides which students currently on leave will be able to re-enroll for the spring semester. Students must apply for readmission following a medical leave or suspension for either academic or social violations.

For fall semester study abroad students, living arrangements in the spring may be even more cramped than their plane rides home. The housing availability is unusually limited next semester, affecting juniors returning from studying abroad in the fall. "We have enough beds for everyone who wants to live on campus, but this spring semester's available configurations (e.g. singles, doubles, triples, quads) don't equal the number of requests for these specific types of housing," wrote Associate Director of Housing Operations Lisa Rendall in an e-mail to the Orient.

On Monday and Tuesday, the chief student affairs officers of the 11 schools that make up the NESCAC convened in Boston at the Westin Copley Place for an annual meeting. A tradition that started over 20 years ago, this meeting allows the NESCAC deans of student affairs to reflect upon and discuss events of the past year at their respective schools.

Senior Molly Kwiatkowski won first prize for her research poster at the 40th annual Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego this November. Of 120 posters displayed, 14 were nominated for the award, which is funded by the German Graduate Schools of Neuroscience and consists of a fully funded weeklong trip to Germany to explore various neuroscience graduate programs.

This week, the Bowdoin Film Society (BFS) and Bowdoin Cable Network (BCN) leadership announced their upcoming merger to club members. While the two organizations will remain separate entities, they will begin pooling their resources, headquartered in the current BCN News Studio. The studio, located on the first floor of Coles Tower, will be renamed the BCN-BFS Studio.

It may only be December, but excitement for the annual Ivies Concert is already catching on. The anticipation has only grown over the past week as the Entertainment Board (E-Board) sent out a survey regarding the concert to the student body. As of Thursday night, 814 students had responded to the survey.

It is hard to go more than a few hours during reading period without hearing the phrase "I can't wait for next semester" from friends and classmates. In the whirlwind stress of final assignments and exams, we forget that just a few months ago we had looked forward to the closing semester with the same enthusiasm we now hold for the coming term. Like it or not, next semester will bring the same disillusionment once the work begins to pile up again.

Congressional Republicans and the White House, both eager to enact tax reform before the end of the current legislative session, struck a deal on Monday. The legislation would prevent the Bush tax cuts from expiring at the end of the year, and provide stability to a struggling economy as the holiday season nears. The proposal is a good one, but whether or not the Senate will support it remains to be seen. One must wonder why our progressive president has proposed a policy that earned Rush Limbaugh's seal of approval.

Fundamental to the functioning of a free market economy is that individual members work assiduously to preserve its solvency. But regardless of the genesis of the 2008 collapse, we now know that both financial institutions and the free market's invisible hand nearly pushed the global economy toward an extraordinary free-fall into insolvency. Only government intervention prevented an economic Dark Age.

In his column in last week's Orient ("'Bowdoin Bubble' isolates the College from intolerance," December 3), Judah Isseroff argued that Bowdoin's isolation from the broader American society contributes to an atmosphere of tolerance on campus. Besides insulting Bowdoin students, many of whom would doubtless take issue with his claim that "[they] do not know many of the practical challenges of life," he raises the question: tolerance of whom?

Although I am accustomed to the pretentious drivel routinely published on the opinion pages of the Orient, I found Judah Isseroff's column particularly insulting. Referencing support for the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy, Mr. Isseroff demonizes "broader American" sentiment as the byproduct of "ignorance and cowardice." By contrast, Bowdoin students who oppose the policy are "far more complex and intelligent." This claim is patently wrong and seething with arrogance.

I would like to congratulate the McKeen Center for the Common Good staff and Danielle McAvoy '13 for organizing the first ever "Technology Day" for non-profits. As a recent graduate, I am pleased to know that the College continues to strengthen its relationship with, and fulfill its responsibilities to, the mid-coast community.

The end of fall semester is a crossroads at Bowdoin. Before Thanksgiving Break, students pore over the catalogue and scour the Internet on sites like RateMyProfessors and BSG's Bowdoin College Course Reviews in an attempt to choose classes for the next semester. The limitations of these resources often leave us with no choice but to rely on the advice of that friend of a friend who took Bio 109 last year, or accept the few, extremist opinions we can find on the Internet.

East Coast liberal arts colleges are often ridiculed for their disconnect from the opinions and experiences of mainstream American society. For the most part, this critique—which certainly contains Bowdoin College in its crosshairs—is a fair one that many students and faculty at the College should pay attention to. Simply put, the quality of life that we enjoy at Bowdoin is unparalleled virtually anywhere else in the world. The consequences of this luxury are varied.

Stress is a natural part of finals, so why not just accept it? Yes, stress is natural, and it is not surprising that Bowdoin students stress as they face mountains of papers, projects and exams. Periods of short-term stress, which release norepinephrine, can even increase performance. However, there are ways to manage constant long-term stress and avoid illness and excess anxiety.

"Privacy is dead; Get over it." So spake Sun Microsystems former CEO Scott McNealy nine years ago, singing the praises of a national ID and implanted smart chips in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Today, the phrase is more often associated with social media than national security, but the two are closely intertwined.

Barry Mills was in the pool, treading water, trying to pass the Bowdoin swim test. There was no end in sight; Charlie Butt, the College's swim coach at the time, had forgotten Mills was there.

Politics and fashion have an inextricable connection; both are fueled by a desire to evoke a response, a reaction. Fashion choices and political views become a part of who we are, empowering us to, as Gandhi said, "be the change [we] wish to see in the world."

'Tis the season for holiday traditions, and Sunday night is no exception. Chamber choir members, chorus members and volunteers will take the stage to sing in the annual Festival of Lessons and Carols.

Performing numerous modern compositions of the 20th century, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), under the direction of Gil Rose, will make its first ever appearance on the Bowdoin campus today in Studzinski Recital Hall, where the orchestra will perform the first program of a three-part series.

Although some would argue that the on-campus music culture has been deafeningly silent this fall, a few student musicians are as busy as ever composing melodies and pushing the musical envelope. Seniors Louis Weeks and Brian Wu are two such musicians.

Some professors make music as a hobby—take Racer X, Bowdoin's most well-known faculty band, as an example. Then there are those professors that make music as a career, like Visiting Artist-in-Residence George Lopez.

Students searching for holiday gifts need look no further than Smith Union. The 14th annual Sunsplash Craft Fair today will be the biggest yet from from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Seniors Kelley "Ping" Hackett and Eileen Palmer have been hard at work with their independent studies in photography. The final result of their semester-long endeavors are on view around campus until the start of Winter Break.

Dear Readers, As the semester is quick in closing, I've decided to leave you not with a film, but a list of books that you might peruse at your leisure over Winter Break.

Ever walk through Studzinski Recital Hall in order to escape the cold and happen to overhear musical masterpieces coming from the practice rooms? Perhaps you have even taken a quick peak inside one of the sound-proofed rooms and discovered that your buddy from down the hall is a piano prodigy. Who knew?

Sometimes, you go 16 games without losing and are flown to Texas to play in the NCAA D-III soccer semifinals. Sometimes, when you get there, you lose. In a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime defeat to Lynchburg College, the men's soccer team ended its most successful season ever.

Women's hockey beats Conn., falls to Hamilton

The men's basketball team rebounded from a loss at Bates last weekend with a decisive win 85-72 victory over Colby-Sawyer yesterday evening. The win came on the heels of the Polar Bears' victory over Maine Maritime on Tuesday afternoon.

The women's swimming and diving team finished sixth of the seven teams at the MIT invitational last week while the men's side came in fifth of six. Head coach Brad Burnham was hoping for more from his teams' performances.

Tickets for the Bowdoin vs. Colby men's and women's ice hockey games ran out on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Department of Athletics. Due to the popularity of both matches, tickets will be required for entrance.

McKenna Teague '12 did not even know it was over. After firing the final penalty stroke past the Messiah keeper in the NCAA D-III Championship title game, she turned around, gave a quick fist-pump, and slowly began to jog back to her team.