The Bowdoin Orient

Bowdoin's faculty and staff salary freeze, originally implemented in 2009, will be ending early. President Barry Mills announced Tuesday that full and associate professors, as well as staff, will be receiving a 2 percent pay raise. Assistant professors will see their salaries increase by 2.5 percent. The increase will be reflected in March paychecks, but the move is being made to begin retroactively from July 2010. The freeze was expected to last through the current fiscal year (FY).

Coming from far and wide, the 45 members of the Board of Trustees convened on campus over the weekend for its annual winter meeting. Among other items, the board granted tenure to three faculty members, chose five honorary degree recipients and listened to a presentation about development possibilities for the land that the College is likely to acquire once Naval Air Station Brunswick (NASB) closes in May.

In an event that is already generating conversation around campus, Moulton and Thorne Dining Halls will not be serving meat during dinner on Monday, February 21. "Meatless Monday," sponsored by the Bowdoin College Democrats (BCD) and other campus groups, is intended to raise awareness about the health and environmental impacts of eating meat.

With construction well underway, the Inn at Maine Street Station is rapidly nearing completion. Located on the corner of Maine and Noble Streets, the Inn is one of the numerous projects being constructed as part of the new Maine Street Station under the direction of JHR Development, a Brunswick developer.

On Wednesday, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) examined the success of the new printing policy and allocated funding for student services. Deputy Chief Information Officer Rebecca Sandlin and Director of Finance and Campus Services Del Wilson opened the meeting by addressing Bowdoin's printing policy. Enacted at the beginning of the 2010-2011 academic year, the policy allocated $60 to each student for printing, charging a per-page fee if a student exceeded that amount.

New York Times columnist and author David Brooks will deliver a lecture entitled "Social Animal and Higher Education" in Pickard Theater on this coming Wednesday, February 23.

The Board of Trustees and the Alumni Council announced on Monday the recipients of this year's alumni awards, which recognize Bowdoin graduates who have made special contributions to the College and in their line of work. All three awards will be presented during Reunion Weekend in June.

Hankering for a hamburger? Better not be this Monday night. That evening, Thorne and Moulton Dining Halls, in partnership with the Bowdoin College Democrats (BCD) and other student groups, will not serve any meat. Meatless Monday, a national initiative, is well-intentioned: reducing meat consumption limits carbon emissions and provides health benefits.

In the beginning, God gave mankind dominion over the beasts of earth (Genesis 1:26), and for millennia, the flesh of things that creep has enriched the lives and diets of all humans. The joy of juicy spare ribs, the delight of fried chicken and the ecstasy of freshly seared steak—these are the unparalleled pleasures of life. However awesome the carnivorous lifestyle may be, it is, nonetheless, under attack.

Though "the Great Recession" might have technically ended last year, its political reverberations have grown only more intense. This is especially the case for Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats who, having lost control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections, are struggling to balance their ever-present desire for expanded government with public demands for fiscal responsibility. Prior to the midterms, Democrats could use their majorities to ignore calls for small government policies, but doing so today would only further inflame a movement across the country holding the Obama administration accountable.

Last Sunday, the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. closed one of the most controversial exhibits in its 40-year history. The Institution, sponsor of Hide/Seek, which addressed sexuality and sexual identity in American art, drew the ire of art critics and LGBTIQ activists when it made the decision to remove David Wojnarowicz's video installation, "A Fire in My Belly," due to a seconds-long segment of the film depicting ants crawling over a crucifix.

Try this for me. The next time you sit in the library or in Smith Union doing your work and you have to go to the bathroom, or to the Café, or to dinner, do not take your books and computer with you or ask someone else to watch them for you. Just leave them where they were and go about your business. When you come back, you will appreciate your fellow students just a little bit more than you do now.

With the housing lottery quickly approaching, students have begun eyeing their favorite housing options for the next academic year, and most of those who plan to live off-campus have already signed leases. Bowdoin has, comparably, some of the best student housing around. Tour guides tout our cushy facilities all the time—but how long until a tour guide has to open the door to a first year quint? Slowly, more and more of our spacious rooms seem to be getting a little crowded.

As the Bowdoin-Haitian Alliance gears up for a week of events to commemorate the earthquake of February 2010, I find myself trying to condense my list of campus obligations. What is, after all, realistic? What's most important? I recently realized that the entirety of my interaction with Haiti has been indirect. In 2007, I was a Spanish-obsessed high school student working in what had been a Haitian cane-cutter community in the Dominican Republic. Anyone familiar with Dominican racial currents will understand the controversy of my interest about the flux of Haitians from the other side of the island, but my program directors were eager to tell the tragedy of Haiti.

From our perspective, encamped in Maine under several feet of snow, the events occurring in the Middle East are a curiosity. The uprisings across the Arab world appear in many ways to be virtuous: classic cases of unhappy citizens rising up against unpopular and repressive governments. There are many trends that the protesters can rightly blame on their rulers: unemployment, lack of freedom, police brutality, corruption and demographics.

Students recognize Lauren Sweetman as the person who smiles graciously when she signs them up for an appointment in the Career Planning Center, but few ever guess Sweetman is the same person who for 20 years sang in barbershop choruses and repaired boats. Sweetman's professional career has introduced her to many lines of work, culminating in her post at the Career Planning Center.

In the next few editions of my column, I will be focusing on different accessories that can totally rejuvenate your look. Everyone knows just how versatile scarves are. Recently, the scarf has gone through a kind of rebirth, re-emerging in a great number of forms. Its appeal as an accessory has trumped its utilitarian function of keeping the neck warm. Scarves are the ideal accent for any outfit, be it an everyday getup like a sweater and jeans, a weekend ensemble like a little black dress, or garb for a job interview like a blazer and slacks.

Senior spring is something every Bowdoin student seems to look forward to. It's not all fun and games though—there is a lot to accomplish and take advantage of in the last semester of Bowdoin. Naturally, my bucket list involves several food-related items. I have already shared with you some of my absolute favorites—the dal makhani at Shere Punjab and the Rose Begonia at Scarlet Bs, for example. There are several more "hidden gems" that, in my opinion, don't get the credit or notice they deserve. The following list contains a few of these little known treats, as well as a few food experiences I think ought not be missed in four years at Bowdoin.

Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and despite my Ebenizer-esque outlook on the corporatization and capitalization of my innermost thoughts and emotions, I do find this a great opportunity to speak about a common topic around the "Undiscussed" dinner table: Bowdoin relationships. Okay, I realize I'm no expert on the subject, but if you've got health questions I'm here to give you answers.

Boston as we know it would have never developed if it weren't for the cows. Michael Rawson, an assistant professor of history at City University of New York's Brooklyn College, spoke at Bowdoin on Wednesday night about his recent book, "Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston." The lecture took place in Main Lounge in Moulton Union.

For certain artists, "something old, something new," is not just a mantra. Luc¡a Pulido, who will perform at Bowdoin with her trio tomorrow, is one such artist. Pulido, a vocalist and player of the cuatro and small percussion instruments, works with what Assistant Professor of Music Michael Birenbaum Quintero terms "folkloric" music. Pulido will bring to Bowdoin her expertise on "the process of making [modern] musical arrangements of traditional material," according to Quintero.

Strange as it sounds, Bowdoin student band Call It The Truth traces its roots to Oberlin College in Ohio. At the Cleveland airport, on their way to an admitted students weekend in the spring of 2009, Nate Joseph '13 and Fhiwa Ndou '13 met for the first time. The two quickly discovered that they shared similar musical tastes and decided that, if they ended up at the same school in the fall, they would get together and play. A few months later, they were both at Bowdoin.

It's not every day that a well-known movie producer decides to hold a film screening at Bowdoin, but tonight Greg Johnson '77 will do just that. "The Music Never Stopped," a new film which he co-produced, is showing tonight at the College.

Saigon's album "The Greatest Story Never Told" has been delayed for about five years due to one disadvantage of being signed to a major label—album release dates are subject to the whims of the label. This has been a familiar pattern for other veterans like Talib Kweli and Lupe Fiasco, who have complained publicly of similar issues; it is likely the same for many lesser-known artists controlled by the so-called "Big Four" labels.

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art opens its new exhibit "Object of Devotion: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum" on Thursday, February 17. The exhibit features 60 alabaster panels and freestanding figures from England dating from 1350 to 1530. The new winter exhibition marks the first time the sculptures will be viewed in North American.

Men's hockey loses its edge with two conference losses

As the spring season gears up, the women's and men's crew teams embarked on a 24-hour ergathon to raise funds for their Spring Break training.

The women's hockey team will take the ice at Watson Arena for its two final regular season games this weekend against Williams and Middlebury, following another split in Connecticut last weekend.

Prior to Valentine's Day, the Polar Bears were pumping hearts at the Boston University Valentine's Invitational.

It has been a very consistent winter for the nordic ski team, which will look to continue its solid performances this weekend at the Middlebury Carnival in Middlebury, Vermont.

Men's squash falls to Bates, rebounds to overtake Colby