The Bowdoin Orient

After almost three months of consideration, the Office of Admissions sent out regular decision letters for the Class of 2015 last Friday, March 25. This year's acceptance rate—15.6 percent—is notably lower than last year's, which was 19.7 percent. Admissions had initially targeted March 25 as the final date to mail decision letters, though letters were mailed out a day early last year.

Since arriving in Brunswick over two decades ago, Bill Torrey has traveled the world over raising money for Bowdoin. As the College's chief development officer, it's not unusual for him to be in London one week and Los Angeles the next. Yet his days of tracking down alumni are numbered, as Torrey, senior vice president for planning and development, will step down from the post this coming June.

Members of the Class of 2013 recently made decisions that were far from sophomoric. With the March 10 deadline for major declarations having come and gone, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Jim Higginbotham said there were a "couple of interesting trends" in the non-binding choices made by this year's sophomore class.

After 18 years of service to the College, Registrar Christine Cote announced that she will retire from her post this June. Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Jim Higginbotham said that Cote hopes to pursue photography and other artistic interests in retirement, building upon an already blossoming career in the fine arts.

On March 6, approximately 200 students, faculty, and staff attended an open discussion in Daggett Lounge about acts of racial and sexual intolerance both at Bowdoin and in the broader Maine community. Triggered by the March 1 bias incident in Coles Tower, the meeting was organized to shed light on these events and provide a productive forum to generate ideas.

Dining Service recently announced two employee changes as Tricia Gipson, formerly the manager of cash operations and student employment, will assume the position of Dining Service business manager on April 4. Adeena Fisher, a graduate of Ithaca College and the Culinary Institute of America, will replace Gipson as manager of dining retail operations.

Eight student groups spread out across the North American continent during the first week of Spring Break as part of this year's community service Alternative Spring Break (ASB) trips, sponsored by the McKeen Center for the Common Good. 81 students participated this year and their feedback on the 2011 ASB program has been overwhelmingly positive.

Before Spring Break, roughly 200 students, faculty and staff took part in a demonstration called "I am Bowdoin." Participants processed from the Polar Bear statue into Smith Union with duct tape on their mouths, one by one pulling off the tape and professing a statement about themselves followed by the phrase "I am Bowdoin," intending to signify that though students have multifaceted identities, they are all part of the same community. The demonstration followed a public meeting of students, staff and faculty addressing the March 1 bias incident in Coles Tower. At the gathering a number of students candidly voiced their experiences of feeling unwelcome and unsafe on campus and in Brunswick. The "I am Bowdoin" event was powerful by virtually all accounts. But for many observers and even demonstrators, the message was not entirely clear. What, exactly, was this act protesting?

In a speech given Monday night, President Obama attempted to clarify his philosophy on military intervention. He laid out what the United States has done to this point in Libya and then attempted to respond to his innumerable critics by explaining his rationale for American intervention. In doing so, the president showed himself to be a man of strong conviction. To begin with, President Obama lauded our troops for effectively stopping the progress of Qaddafi's forces.

"[It is] validating to be who you are—even if you had to fight to be who you are," said Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Judith Casselberry on attending the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival and producing the "Amazon 35 Project." On Friday, March 4, 2011, eight scholars gathered in Lancaster Lounge to celebrate black women's resistance. "Testify, Witness and Act: Black Women's Resistance" was co-sponsored by gender and women's studies and Africana studies, with support from the Edith Lansing Koon Sills Lecture Fund, the Women's Resource Center and the history department.

The hate speech and its results, events that rocked the Bowdoin campus in the weeks before Spring Break, have definitely left a scar. I am hopeful that tempers have cooled in the intervening weeks, but we should not let the events be forgotten. Bowdoin is not a place of hate and intolerance, but there are definitely ways in which we as a student body can improve. The events should encourage us to work harder to understand each other, regardless of our backgrounds.

Spring has arrived. After months of wondering when—and if—the snow would melt, we now can take comfort in the small pleasures derived from walking across campus without worrying about wet socks or falling on an ice patch. At Bowdoin, spring semester always has been somewhat of a misnomer, but when the snow does finally melt to reveal the brown grass and the pathways we forgot existed, the months of trudging over snow mounds and navigating through icy pathways suddenly seem worth it.

To the Editors: I am appalled by the racial hate speech incident reported in the March 4 issue of the Orient, "Bias Incident Strikes 15th Floor of Tower." It makes me wonder if the perpetrator has learned—or will learn—anything of value during his/her time at Bowdoin.

To the Editors: Thank you for including coverage, in Lily Harriman's "Afro-Colombian artist and activist lectures, student ensemble joins in traditional dance," in the February 25 issue of the Orient, of the lecture and dance recital of Julio César Montaño for Black History Month. As the organizer of the event, I was pleased to find my introduction of Mr. Montaño quoted in the article. Less gratifying was the fact that my name and title were cited in the article as "Director of Chamber Ensembles Roland Vazquez," when in fact I am "Assistant Professor of Music Michael Birenbaum Quintero," a mistake that I can only assume comes from the search for a Hispanic surname on the music department webpage.

Recent graduates have proven that life after Bowdoin can lead to many paths, from designing cutting-edge fly-fishing technology to sports writing, to talking about sex. Scott Caras '08, a Government and Legal Studies and Anthropology double major, always had an avid interest in fly-fishing. While at Bowdoin, Caras and fellow students Ted Upton '07 and Max Key '08 would seek out fishing spots along the Androscoggin River and around Casco Bay and Popham Beach. While all three took corporate jobs after Bowdoin, they maintained a strong interest in fly-fishing. After gaining experience in business, the fishing buddies joined with Providence alumnus Peter Crommett in December 2009 to found Cheeky Fly Fishing, a manufacturing company targeted at what the website describes as "progressive fly fishermen."

While most avid baseball fans were glued to the TV yesterday for Major League Baseball's opening day, many followers could also be found checking their teams online. For some fans, opening day signals not only the beginning of the baseball season but, sometimes more important, the fantasy baseball season. The idea for fantasy baseball, according to ESPN, was first established in 1980 and was originally referred to as "Rotisserie Baseball" after the French restaurant where the creators met. It is now an empire that allows approximately six to seven million people to call the shots in their own leagues, drafting teams and making trades to compete for prizes ranging from bragging rights to cash.

Welcome back! First let me begin by welcoming you all back to the final stretch of this marathon known as the school year. Spring break is probably my favorite break, but if any of you are like me, you come back for these last six or so weeks pretty run down and unprepared to resume the march. I am mixing metaphors. I blame the break. But here we all are once again, meaning here I am ready to answer your post-spring break health questions. Q: I heard that some STDs take a while to register on an STD test, meaning anything

In conjunction with the current exhibit at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, "Object of Devotion," the music department will sponsor "Requiem," a concert in Early Renaissance music by St. Mary Schola.

Philadelphia native Kurt Vile is a rocker. His name is Kurt Vile, for starters ("it's the handle my mama gave me"). His black, wavy hair is long and hangs like a curtain over his face when he performs. Watching him play on stage is like witnessing a religious experience—he is so wholly absorbed in the chords he is strumming or picking, it's clear that whatever he's playing is coming from somewhere deep inside his grungy façade.

Last night, William P. Harman, professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Tennessee, discussed the relationship between religion and female suicide bombings of Sri Lanka in his lecture.

Thanks to the impressive wartime feats of famous alumnus Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Bowdoin has a special connection to the Civil War era. Jonathan Sarna, the Chief Historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History, offered a new take on this legacy when he delivered this year's Harry Spindel Memorial Lecture in Kresge Auditorium on March 29.

As students eagerly await the all-star Ivies line-up featuring headliners Janelle Monae and Mac Miller, a very different, up-and-coming group, the avant-garde Capillary Action, will grace the stage of Studzinski theater, offering a taste of the contemporary music scene that promises not to disappoint.

"Sucker Punch" is the work of director Zack Snyder—whose previous efforts include "300" and "The Watchmen"—so walking into the theater, you have to know what type of film you are getting yourself into. The introduction, featuring dramatic, booming music, a majority of slow motion shots, close-ups and bleak and textured scenery, is to be expected. It is essentially the same visual strategy that Snyder used in his previous two films, and though it's not a surprise here, the technique is still very effective.

Amid the bustle of a West Coast metropolis, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) curator J. Patrice Marandel uses his expertise to present "Old Masters" in new ways. Introduced last night as one of "the most important curators in America," Marandel provided the Bowdoin community insight into his work purchasing and exhibiting European art and sculpture.

Fresh from a week of sailing in Florida, the Polar Bears returned to chilly New England to post strong results in Boston and Newport last weekend.

The women’s tennis team finished its Spring Break trip to California last Wednesday with two more victories, improving its record against D-III schools to 6-0.

After the most successful season in program history, including a 34-14 record and a program-first NCAA tournament win, the women's softball team looks to keep improving this season.

Although many Bowdoin teams were riding hot streaks going into Spring Break, the Polar Bears struggled to continue their successes in postseason play.