Bowdoin faculty convened on Monday to discuss additions to half-credit course options, recommendations for pre-major advising and policy changes in Academic Affairs. Associate Professor of English Emma Maggie Solberg moderated the meeting in Daggett Lounge.
After approving the minutes from the previous meeting, President Clayton Rose addressed the faculty for the first time since announcing his June 2023 departure from the College.
The Committee on Governance and Faculty Affairs is composed of faculty members responsible for advising the President and Dean on faculty-related issues. The GFA is tasked with overseeing faculty governance with duties ranging from promoting faculty professional development to overseeing department budgets and leading departmental reviews.
After 22 years at Bowdoin, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Arielle Saiber is departing from the College for a new adventure. Saiber will join John Hopkins University as Professor of Modern Languages and Literature following the end of the academic year.
Editor’s Note: 05/09/22 at 9:04 a.m.: An original version of this article included a quote by Professor Aaron Kitch that was changed for an unspecified amount of time between Sunday 05/08/22 and Monday 05/09/22 due to an error.
Last Friday April 22, jazz and classically-trained musician Candice Hoyes led a live masterclass on the art of performing and captivating an audience in Studzinski Recital Hall. Invited as an artist-in-residence, Hoyes spent her time on campus visiting classes and performing for the College community.
At 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, a car that was left unlocked with the keys inside was stolen from the William Farley Field House parking lot. Executive Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols initially announced the theft in an email to the campus community on Saturday.
After a steep decline in active cases in the past week, Covid-19 Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the campus community on Wednesday that masks will be optional again in most locations across campus, with a few exceptions.
Over the last two weeks, the College has seen its largest Covid-19 spike since the beginning of the pandemic. As of 2:00 p.m. yesterday, there were a total of 191 active Covid-19 student cases.
Unlike in past semesters, the College is not providing isolation housing for students who test positive.
College faculty gathered once again last Monday, April 4, in Daggett Lounge for its monthly faculty meeting. Since Associate Professor of English Emma Maggie Solberg was absent due to illness and could not moderate as usual, Professor of Physics and Chair of the Committee on Governance and Faculty Affairs (GFA) Mark Battle stepped in to conduct the meeting.
Bowdoin students last celebrated Ivies, an annual spring weekend of partying and concerts, in April 2019. This past week, the College announced the return of Ivies after two years of cancellation due to Covid-19, albeit with some notable changes from what the weekend has looked like in past years.
The College currently has a total of 50 active Covid-19 cases, with 42 from students and eight from employees, according to the Covid-19 dashboard.
“Some told us they were positive. Many were actually part of teams that were traveling together over break,” Associate Dean for Academic Administration and Covid-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen said.
On Wednesday evening, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) held its weekly meeting with special guests Senior Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Janet Lohmann, Director of Student Activities Nate Hintze, Dean of Students Kristina Bethea Odejimi, Associate Dean of Students Khoa Khuong and Associate Dean for Student Affairs Katie Toro-Ferrari to help answer student questions regarding changes to Ivies.
Rapper IDK will headline this year’s spring concert, along with a student band opener, according to the Entertainment Board (E-Board). The concert will take place on Friday, April 8.
“We wanted to bring [IDK] for the fall concert, but the administration did not allow that, so we moved him to the Spring.
On the weekend of February 10, the Board of Trustees officially promoted nine faculty members from assistant to associate professors, which grants them tenure at the College. The shift goes into effect on July 1, 2022.
After swiping into the double doors of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library (H-L), walking past the circulation desk and passing the printing station, students can now see an addition to the back of the library. Filled with comfortable chairs and dimmed lighting, the Baldwin Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) is making a home out of its new space.
On Monday, the College faculty held their first in-person meeting after nearly two years of meeting virtually. Associate Professor of English Emma Maggie Solberg, who sits on the Committee on Governance and Faculty Affairs (GFA), led the meeting which had roughly 70 members in attendance.
Over the past few years, the Center for Multicultural Life (CML) at Bowdoin has experienced significant staffing turnover. Two years ago, the Inaugural Director of Multicultural Life Benjamin Harris left the College, and after her first semester as Director of Multicultural Life, Kyra Green departed from the College.
For the past eight months, Joycelyn Blizzard has served as the Inaugural Director of Multicultural Alumni Engagement with the goal of increasing engagement between alumni of color and the College.
“The intention of the role … is quite straightforward: to further engage alumni of color,” Blizzard said.
Bowdoin students have all received that email sent from Bowdoin DBMail: “You have a(n) item(s) ready for pick up at the Bowdoin Mail Center.” From here, schedule permitting, students make their way over to Smith Union, wait in a meandering line, recite their ID number, flash their OneCard, smile at the mailroom worker as they grab their package et voilà: a parcel of the student’s own.
After COVID-19 forced a lockdown for the residents of Helmreich House during Sophomore Bootcamp, residents have until the middle of next week to move out due to mold found in the House’s basement and first floor.
Last semester, Counseling and Wellness Services saw 435 students with a total of 2,147 appointments scheduled with their counseling staff, a record high for the office. In his first year as director, Dr. Roland Mendiola has been tasked with leading Counseling’s response to the heightened demand.
On December 6, the faculty had its final meeting of the semester where, among other matters, they discussed how to empathetically hold students to high standards. The meeting was facilitated by Associate Professor of English Emma Maggie Solberg, a member of the Governance and Faculty Affairs Committee.
On Tuesday, November 23, the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) banned all commercial vehicles from crossing the Frank J. Wood Bridge. This follows an October 25 MDOT announcement banning school buses and fire trucks from crossing the bridge and lowering its weight limit to 10 tons from 25.
At the third faculty meeting of the year on Wednesday, the faculty addressed strategies for supporting students, staff and each other. The meeting was facilitated by Associate Professor of English Emma Maggie Solberg, a member of the Governance and Faculty Affairs (GFA) Committee.
In an email to the student body on Thursday, President Clayton Rose announced that classes will be canceled the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving break, extending the break to a full week. Thanksgiving break will now start on Friday, November 19, and classes will resume on Monday, November 29.
The Maine Referendum Election will be held next Tuesday, November 2. There are three statewide questions on the ballot, as well as local elections for Town Council and School Board. Bowdoin Votes will be running shuttles to the polls—located at Brunswick Junior High School—every 15 minutes from 7 a.m.
Scott Meiklejohn, following 25 years in various high-profile roles at the College, is retiring from his position as special advisor to the president and focusing more on other aspects of life. Having worked under three administrations, Meiklejohn has worked in many different roles around the College.
In a campus-wide email on Wednesday, Dean of Students Kristina Odejimi announced that Dr. Jeffrey Maher will be stepping down as Director of Health Services to focus on his family and career as a doctor.
For the past thirteen years Dr.
On Monday and Tuesday, Health Services will hold an influenza vaccine clinic. Students will be given the shot after their usual PCR COVID-19 test at Farley Field House. Since all students are required to get the shot this year, Health Services has ordered more vaccines than they do during a typical year.
Although sophomore and junior class elections typically occur in the spring, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) made the decision to hold elections for all four classes this fall. With results finalized as of Sunday, all four classes will be under new leadership this year.
In an email to the community on Tuesday, President Clayton Rose announced that Senior Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity Michael Reed will be retiring on September 30.
Reed joined the College in 2018 as the inaugural Senior Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity.
At the first faculty meeting of the school year, which was held Monday over Zoom, President Clayton Rose announced four new endowed faculty positions intended to honor notable Black graduates of the College. These positions aim to bring new faculty to the College to study race, racism and racial justice at an interdisciplinary level.
In a September 9 email, Senior Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Janet Lohmann introduced NAVICA, a mobile app to help the College’s effort in managing COVID-19 outbreaks on campus. After moving to Yellow status and extending the mask mandate in the past two weeks, this marks another step in the College’s effort to curb infection rates.
After a disjointed year on (and mostly off) campus, the Class of 2024 returned to campus this fall as sophomores. Having experienced an atypical year at the College, the class is still expected to step into leadership roles within the community.
After lacking a masking requirement for the summer, on August 23 the College imposed an indoor mask mandate beginning on move-in day and requiring masks to be worn inside all public areas on campus. Although the College intended to reconsider the mandate on September 4, due to a flurry of positive tests the mandate was expanded to include student common spaces and extended indefinitely on Thursday.
This academic year has been defined by the measures taken by the Bowdoin community to protect against COVID-19, and the cornerstone of the College’s plan to prevent an outbreak on campus has been a robust testing program.
On April 9, The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) reopened with limited hours, allowing students living on campus and in residence an opportunity to explore the exhibitions on view. Up until this point in the semester, the Museum has only offered limited engagement opportunities for classes and individual research projects.
Yesterday, Moulton Union re-opened for lunch for the first time since closing last week after six positive COVID-19 cases emerged among the dining hall’s staff beginning April 6. After the initial case, the College began administering rapid antigen tests to Moulton employees, which led to the identification of four more positive cases.
During public comment time at Thursday’s Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) meeting, many students expressed their displeasure with BSG’s decision to distribute masks reading “Hate is A Virus” at a vigil recognizing anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) racism and violence on Monday.
Editor’s Note 04/04/21 at 10:38 p.m.: This article has been edited to correct an accidental omission. The article previously stated that Thais Carrillo ’23 felt that skipping class did solve the problem. It has now been corrected to note that she stated the opposite.
With indoor gatherings limited by low occupancy limits in private residential common rooms, the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) recently partnered with Facilities to purchase outdoor fire pits as a means to give students another option to safely socialize—the most recent initiative to enhance the student social experience in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) has announced it is releasing its Student-Driven Behavioral Expectations—a document meant to help clarify how students can safely enjoy the spring semester.
“We’ve already signed a community agreement form, and the purpose of this is to help explain how to live student life,” said BSG President Marcus Williams ’21 in a Zoom interview with the Orient.
College tours are typically most high schoolers’ first chance to get to know a school on a deeper level and get a glimpse of campus life. At a time where visiting Bowdoin’s campus is not possible, given COVID-19 restrictions, the Office of Admissions has shifted to an online format for its tours and information sessions.
After recognizing potential obstacles not addressed by the College’s formal plan for welcoming students back to campus last week, Thomas Bao ’21 and Maddie Hikida ’22 launched Polar Bear Community Action (PBCA), a mutual aid network intended to streamline the process for students arriving back on campus.
In addition to transforming life on campus, COVID-19 has complicated the plans of students who were intending to study off campus during the 2020-21 school year. Only 15 of the 29 students who, as of this past fall, intended to study off-campus were able to, three of whom are studying with domestic programs while the rest are at various institutions in the United Kingdom.
The Office of Off-Campus Study (OCS) is allowing 29 students to study away next semester, significantly more than the five that did so this fall, but small in comparison to the 130 to 160 students that study away in a typical semester.
On Wednesday, Senior Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Michael Reed announced the first College-wide action on racial justice: a Bowdoin-sponsored online learning program about diversity, equity and inclusion. This course is required for all faculty, staff, students and trustees.
With the results of the presidential election still unclear three days after Election Day, Bowdoin students, along with the rest of the county, are stuck in a state of limbo. Emotions run high, off and on campus.
Ranked-Choice Voting Explained: Maine voters will use ranked-choice voting for the Presidential, U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives elections.
Maine absentee ballots must be returned to your municipal clerk by 8 p.m. on Election Day, November 3.
In a normal academic year, Bowdoin’s six a cappella groups would have finished recruitment several weeks ago. The week-long process, which typically takes place in late September, consists of a first round of auditions, a second round of callbacks and the “draft,” where the A Cappella Council meets to express interest in singers and then issue bids to them.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) has unanimously approved and released an Anti-Racism Action Plan with hopes of pushing the Museum towards greater equity and inclusion.
“This statement represents a recommitment on the part of everybody who’s a member of the [BCMA] staff since everybody had an opportunity to read drafts and contribute recommendations,” said Frank Goodyear, co-director of the BCMA, in a Zoom interview with the Orient.
On Wednesday, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History Kate Gerry gave two talks about her recent exhibition on the Wyvern Collection—one of the most important privately owned medieval art collections in the world. The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) secured a long-term loan of 100 of its objects through an anonymous lender.
The Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good is hiring a student antiracism fellow for the first time this year and re-evaluating their programming and leadership structures to incorporate more voices of people of color.
Over the summer, McKeen Center staff created an antiracism subcommittee, composed of Sarah Seames, director of the McKeen Center, Andrew Lairde, associate director of service and leadership and Avery Friend, administrative coordinator, to reassess the Center as a whole.
On Wednesday, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) hosted the first installment of “Art Up Close”—a five-part series where students, staff and faculty come together to discuss art. The first webinar brought together 20 community members to discuss “Protest Art and Black Lives Matter.”
Claire Traum ’21 and Lucy Siegel ’22, two members of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art Advisory Council, developed the idea after gaining experience with webinars during summer opportunities.
Over the past few months, the College has implemented various measures to safely bring some students back to campus during the COVID-19 pandemic. From altering dining halls to cleaning common areas more often, many departments on campus have been hard at work.
During their first full weekend on campus, many first years and their Residential Life (ResLife) advisors found ways to connect and build community that complied with the College’s Residential Community Agreement. However, in an email to the campus community on Sunday, Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Janet Lohmann explained that some students had engaged in behavior that violated current College protocols.
Geoffrey Canada ’74, founder and president of the Harlem Children Zone, recently became a senior adviser for Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign. Canada endorsed the former New York City mayor on January 19.
Canada has known Bloomberg for years.
When you walk into the Boyd Gallery on the second floor of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA), you encounter “Fast Fashion/Slow Art”—an exhibition that scrutinizes the contemporary garment industry through videos, installations and collaborations with contemporary artists and filmmakers.
In 2006, the midst of the 2000s mainstream pop-punk acts, The Friday Night Boys formed with Bowdoin junior Robert Reider ’07 as its bassist. Fourteen years later—after two albums, three EPs and multiple tours with names such as Boys Like Girls, All Time Low, We The Kings and Cute is What We Aim For—Reider is back at Bowdoin as the assistant director of annual giving at the College.
Since its founding in 1969, the Black Student Union (BSU, formerly the African American Society), has played a prominent role in campus life. From organizing the annual Ebony Ball to inviting speakers to campus, including Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou, BSU members actively contribute to intellectual and social life at Bowdoin.
Three students have been involved in serious bicycle crashes on campus in recent weeks, Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols wrote in an email to the campus on Tuesday. All three students received minor to moderate injuries and have returned to campus.
The Bowdoin Shuttle service, available for students travelling around campus past 6 p.m., will no longer offer service past 1:30 a.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday or past 1 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Previously, the service ended at 3 a.m.
Fashion is an essential part of my identity; it’s partly rooted in my personality, but it truly stems from a cultural expectation of dress I learned while growing up in an African family living in Boston.
This academic year marks the 10th anniversary of the creation of the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good. The McKeen Center has had a short existence compared to that of the College, but it has come to play an integral role in the Bowdoin community.
As contemporary interests drift away from physical books in favor of online media, people are beginning to doubt the power of literature. Yet, Wednesday night in the Beam Classroom, Dr. Alaa Al Aswany, world-renowned author and Egyptian reformer, reclaimed the agency of the written word in his lecture titled “Power of Literature.”
Currently a visiting professor in Middle Eastern studies at Dartmouth College, Al Aswany is best known for his 2002 work, “The Yacoubian Building,” which offers a poignant dissection of modern Egyptian society under the facade of fiction.
When she took to the stage in Kresge Auditorium on Tuesday night, April Ryan faced a nicer crowd than she’s encountered at the White House lately.
In front of a packed audience of students and community members in Kresge Auditorium, Ryan spoke about her experience covering the White House and the long quest for a “more perfect union.” The event, sponsored by the African-American Society, was the the final program of Black History Month and Beyond and the first of Herstory, a celebration of Women’s History Month.
As you move towards the private rooms in Thorne Hall during dinner on any given night, you may be able to catch the sounds of an unfamiliar language. From Spanish to Hebrew, dinnertime language tables provide students with an opportunity to practice their native tongue or develop skills learned in the classroom.
Bright colors, wheels and an endless amount of materials can feed anyone’s artistic hunger in a small, white building tucked away behind the Office of Admissions. Bowdoin’s Craft Center offers a range of creative activities beloved by students, from knitting to sewing to jewelry-making.
After ending the last two seasons with losses to Middlebury in the semifinals of the NESCAC tournament last year, the women’s ice hockey team (0-4, 0-2 NESCAC) is set its sights on the NESCAC championship this season.
Last night, a day before the holiday, students gathered at Baxter House to honor Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, the first time in current students’ memory that the holiday had been celebrated at Bowdoin.
