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Number of articles: 41
First Article: October 1, 2021
Latest Article: September 29, 2023
Janet Briggs
Janet Briggs
Janet Briggs
Janet Briggs
Janet Briggs
Janet Briggs
Janet Briggs
Janet Briggs
Have you ever been walking home from a late night in H-L in the rain, staring ahead with squinted eyes to navigate the dark path before you, only to feel your foot splash into a few-inch puddle, dousing the cuffs of your pants and your pride?
As the Mail Center’s start-of-semester bustle of move-in boxes, Amazon packages and textbooks seems to slow down, a new problem arises: getting rid of all the boxes. Starting this month, the Mail Center’s newly-hired student “sustainability analysts” will work to combat its growing amount of packaging waste.
Bowdoin has become synonymous with a bear native to a region over 1,000 miles north of its campus—the polar bear. So I set out to finally settle the question: Why the polar bear? In the first installment of Burning Bowdoin Questions, I seek to discover when the polar bear was first introduced as the Bowdoin mascot and how the abundance of taxidermy made it all the way to Brunswick.
Quarters and swipes no more—Bowdoin is officially offering free laundry this year, and a Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) initiative means access to free laundry detergent is on the horizon. This summer, the Office of Sustainability spearheaded the replacement of all the laundry machines across campus, some of which were over 10 years old.
Trussed above the Androscoggin River running between Brunswick and Topsham, a fight over history has finally been settled. The replacement Frank J. Wood Bridge (FJWB) is officially under construction yards from the original. Construction broke ground in July.
Raids and rivalries plague our campus, not just in the retelling of momentous battles in class or between the pages of a history textbook, but also in the epic pursuit of “catching ‘em all.” Now that the weather has taken a turn for the better, 2016 mobile game craze Pokémon GO has made a resurgence on campus seven years after its release.
Last Friday, students gathered in Jack McGee’s Pub & Grill to watch the friends of their friends perform for their friends. The Friend of a Friend concert, put on by the Entertainment Board (E-Board) and the Bowdoin Music Collective, brought in artists with direct connections to Bowdoin students to perform on campus.
Bowdoin alumni, faculty and community members from all over the world gathered on campus yesterday for the dedication of the recently constructed Barry Mills Hall. Barry Mills Hall and the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies (CAS) are the newest buildings on campus, completing construction officially in December 2022.
Aleksandra Cichocka, a professor of political psychology at the University of Kent in Canterbury, U.K., believes that psychology has failed to account for narcissistic behaviors in rising right-wing populists. In the VAC Beam classroom Monday, Cichocka explained that for the past half century, researchers have largely believed that selfish desire is the primary motivator of human behavior.
Tennessee State Rep. Justin J. Pearson ’17 was reinstated Wednesday to his House seat on an interim basis. After being expelled on April 6 along with fellow representative Justin Jones for staging a gun rights protest on the House floor, protests broke out throughout the state and country to support their reinstatement.
In light of Evan Gershkovich’s ’14 detainment in Russia on March 30, the global Bowdoin community has united to support him and demand his immediate release. Alumni have taken to social media in droves to show their support for Gershkovich’s release under the hashtag #FreeEvan.
Editor’s note 04/07/2023 at 1:28 p.m.: This article mistakingly reported that Oliver Goodrich was hired in May of 2022. This has been corrected to reflect that he began working in June of 2022. A committee on campus worked to create formalized accommodations for students observing Ramadan this year.
What started as an innocent, nerdy obsession turned into a long-running bit and has now become an emotional touchstone of a failing system. I am, of course, talking about my love for former President Jimmy Carter.
From February 9 to February 11, President Clayton Rose met with the Board of Trustees and other College administrative bodies to discuss issues pertinent to Bowdoin’s immediate future at Babson College in Massachusetts. Among the developments made during last week’s meetings was the Board of Trustees’ official approval of the Pickard Field renovation project, which members of the Bowdoin and Brunswick communities have debated over the past several months.
Last weekend, the women’s swimming and diving team took fourth place with 1,092 points in the NESCAC Championships, hosted at Leroy Greason Pool, and broke six school records. All 11 NESCAC teams and 260 athletes were present at Bowdoin for the first time since 2017.
In an event sponsored by the Korean Economics Institute (KEI), a delegation of government officials visited the College on Thursday for a conversation with the Korean Students Association (KSA) with a special focus on Maine’s fisheries.
Extreme temperature lows this weekend require students and facilities to prepare for potential plumbing and heating breakdowns. With an expected low of -17 degrees on Friday night and winds up to 20 mph, students are being advised to stay in place, avoid spending time outside and ensure that all windows and doors are properly closed.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams competed against the University of Maine on Saturday in an exhibition meet, and the Polar Bears proved up to the challenge. While the meet was non-scoring, Bowdoin won the majority of the events against the Division I team.
The midterm elections on November 8 will decide the next governor of Maine, as well as who will assume the first congressional district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, the 23rd state senatorial district seat and 100th state house district seat, with many other races being uncontended.
Students from Assistant Professor of Government Ángel Saavedra Cisneros’s Campaigns and Elections class hosted local representatives this week to discuss their positions in anticipation of the midterm elections. On Monday, the class hosted Town Councilor Dan Ankeles.
To speak about her policy goals with Brunswick residents and Bowdoin students and rally their support, Gov. Janet Mills stopped at the Town Mall as part of her re-election campaign trail on Sunday. Following a speech from the governor herself, attendees ventured into downtown Brunswick to canvass on her behalf.
Professor of Art at Washington University in St. Louis and publication designer Ken Botnick spoke on the creative process and structure of artist books on Wednesday afternoon. The talk was part of the “Bowdoin and the Book” lecture series in the new Special Collections Learning Lab in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library.
Following news that THRIVE students who had already received College-issued laptops were not being included in the Digital Excellence Commitment (DExC), students and administrators addressed their dissatisfaction with the decision through an email campaign. THRIVE students were informed that those who had previously received MacBooks from Bowdoin would not receive new ones through the DExC program this year with the rest of the student body.
The women’s rugby team is slated to play its first game of the season against rival the University of New England (UNE) this Friday at the UNE’s turf. With the Polar Bears coming off of an undefeated season, the game is anticipated to be a tightly contested rematch of last year’s national championship, in which Bowdoin came out on top.
On Wednesday, August 24, the College announced that Toshi Reagon would be the Joseph McKeen Visiting Fellow for the 2022-23 academic year. Reagon was appointed after consultation with faculty and will engage with the greater Bowdoin and Maine communities through course material and various events.
Editor’s note 05/18/2022 at 12:28 p.m. EDT: A previous version of this article included the lecturer’s photograph and name in its headline. The article has been updated to remove both inclusions at the lecturer’s request. Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Bates College Rebecca Herzig addressed the increasing conversation about and presence of trigger warnings in higher educational spaces in a lecture on Monday in the Moulton Union Main Lounge.
Starting last Saturday at 5 p.m., the fencing club embarked on an ambitious 24-hour fencing marathon in Morrell Gymnasium. The fencing club aimed to use this event to attract new members and teach interested students how to fence.
The final Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) meeting of the academic year was held this Wednesday, May 4. Students came forward to fill executive vacancies in BSG leadership for next year, and current members reflected on their time with the organization.
On Tuesday, the English Department and the Asian Students Alliance (ASA) hosted author Nicole Chung in an installment of the Alpha Delta Phi Society Visiting Writers Series and in celebration of Asian and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Heritage Month.
Despite the recent spike in Covid-19 cases on campus, the Office of Admissions is hosting the first in-person open house for admitted students in two years. The admitted Class of 2026 consists of 843 students who were offered admission from a pool of 9,446 applicants, putting the College’s acceptance rate at 8.9 percent.
On Wednesday, Edward Little Professor of the English Language and Literature and Cinema Studies Aviva Briefel gave the inaugural professorship’s lecture titled “‘We Want to Take Our Time:’ The Hard Work of Leisure in Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’”.
Over the weekend of April 2, the Bowdoin Film Society hosted its annual 48 Hour Film Festival in which teams were tasked with writing, shooting and editing a 3-10 minute film over the span of two days.
Radu Stochita ’22 and Mary Nzeyimana ’22 were awarded the 2022 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. In addition, Clara Benadon ’23, Seamus Frey ’23, Ari Geisler ’23 and Kellie Navarro ’23 were awarded the 2022 Barry M.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) opened its newest exhibit, “Jona Frank: Model Home” by photographer Jona Frank on Thursday, February 24. Running through June 5, this exhibit highlights the artist’s childhood in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, through photography and staged scenes.
Baxter House is on House probation until spring break due to an incident in the house one week ago. Baxter hosted a small gathering of a few house members in which they played “Champagne and Shackles.” In the game, two members of the house are handcuffed together and have to drink a bottle of champagne before being “unlocked.” The house members left the handcuffs unlocked, and there was no obligation to drink.
Members of the Bowdoin Information Technology (IT) Department addressed the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) on February 9 to detail plans for expanding the technology distribution program. Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Michael Cato spoke to the group about including MacBook computers in addition to iPads for all existing and incoming students.
As fall semester classes come to a close, the development of the Omicron COVID-19 variant and accompanying potential of international border closure is complicating international students’ travel plans of going home for winter break. Depending on their home countries’ ever-shifting COVID-19 restrictions and regulations, students have been forced to make difficult travel decisions for winter break.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) opened its doors to the public for the first time in over a year this semester, and the staff has many plans to rekindle engagement in the spring. There are two main initiatives set to roll out early next semester: an anti-racism strategic plan and the museum ambassador program.
In honor of National First-Generation College Day, the Center for Multicultural Life hosted a celebration for first-generation (first-gen) students and a panel for students to share their experiences with the rest of the community on November 8.
On Wednesday, October 27, Peer Health hosted an Imposter Syndrome panel and workshop to encourage discussion among students and provide insight into how to find help regarding the issue. An isolating feeling—but not an isolated event—“imposter syndrome” describes the feeling of not belonging in a group of peers, whether socially or academically.
Following a year of virtual programming and intense on-campus restrictions, the class of 2024 was limited in their opportunities to get to know each other, the school and the surrounding area. Now, the College and the BOC are aiming to help the sophomore class make up for lost time.
