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Number of articles: 74
First Article: March 4, 2017
Latest Article: May 3, 2019
Jessica Piper
Jessica Piper
Jessica Piper
Jessica Piper
Jessica Piper
Jessica Piper
Last weekend, a Muslim student received threatening phone calls from a blocked number, and two Asian students had their identities mocked in two separate incidents. These incidents were likely perpetrated by Bowdoin students. In addition, late Tuesday night, the N-word and other racial epithets were hurled at a black student from a driver and a passenger in a passing car, neither of whom are affiliated with the College.
John Kasich wouldn’t say whether he’ll run for president in 2020. However, the former Ohio governor did speak about his disagreements with the Republican Party and fielded what were, at times, confrontational questions from students during an hour-long discussion in Pickard Theater on Monday night.
Ural Mishra ’20 was elected Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) president Sunday night after prevailing in a three-way race in BSG’s first elections governed by ranked-choice voting. Just 926 students voted in this year’s elections, down from 1,075 last year and 1,234 in 2017.
In recent months there has been a pattern of stories in the Orient exploring the complexities and limitations of Bowdoin’s endowment and operating budget. To add context to the series of articles and op-eds, the Orient has decided to break down the numbers behind the money that makes Bowdoin run.
In recent months there has been a pattern of stories in the Orient exploring the complexities and limitations of Bowdoin’s endowment and operating budget. To add context to the series of articles and op-eds, the Orient has decided to break down the numbers behind the money that makes Bowdoin run.
When Jordan Hsia ’19 was diagnosed with general anxiety disorder, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder earlier this year, she found a silver lining. These official diagnoses, she thought, would allow her to keep an emotional support animal in her dorm.
Students of Arabic will finally be able to put their language classes toward an officially recognized academic program starting next fall, after faculty unanimously voted on Monday to approve a minor in Arabic and a minor in Middle East and North African Studies.
When C.J. Chivers travelled to Afghanistan in 2001 to report on the new U.S. war, he didn’t expect to cover it for two decades. Eighteen years later, he wonders how best to bring public attention to the human consequences of the far-off conflict.
The women’s basketball team fell 81-67 to Thomas More (33-0) in the NCAA DIII championship game in Salem, Virginia, Saturday night. It is the second straight year Bowdoin has fallen just short of the title, after the Polar Bears lost to Amherst in the championship game last year.
Helping students develop practical skills is the focus of the newest initiative from the Career Planning Center (CPC). The renewed push comes on the heels of a report released by President Clayton Rose last fall, which found that students felt they lacked important professional skills such as personal finance and public speaking.
Bowdoin was again lauded as one of the top Fulbright-producing institutions for the 2018-2019 academic year, with 19 students receiving Fulbright Student grants. Among Bachelor’s institutions, only Williams had more awardees, with 22. Thirty-seven Bowdoin students had applied for Fulbright awards, yielding a 51 percent success rate.
Political donations by Bowdoin faculty and staff surged during the 2018 midterm cycle and universally supported liberal causes, according to an Orient analysis of data from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC). Donations made by members of the College’s Board of Trustees were varied between Democratic and Republican groups and candidates, but donations to liberal causes far outnumbered donations to conservative causes.
Middlebury College will begin to divest its billion-dollar endowment from fossil fuels, the college announced on Tuesday. The decision is part of a four-step environmental plan, called Energy2028, that the Middlebury Board of Trustees approved last weekend.
In his first semester at Bowdoin, Henry Zietlow ’22 took in the lobster bake, studied plant ecophysiology and multivariable calculus and played violin in the chamber orchestra. He joined the rowing team, where he quickly became known for his contagious smile and his distinctive headbands.
Henry Zietlow ’22, from St. Paul, Minnesota, died in a car crash in Wisconsin on Monday. According to a release from the Wisconsin State Patrol, Zietlow and his mother were headed north on Highway 63 near the town of Hayward when a southbound pickup truck lost control and crossed into the northbound lane, where it collided with their car.
The Northern flying squirrel can glide 135 feet through the air—and a few of these furry mammals have landed in Quinby House this fall. Jeff Tuttle, senior associate director for facilities operations and maintenance, says the squirrels appear to be gone from the House but advises students to take certain precautions to prevent similar infestations in the future.
Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster will be leaving Bowdoin at the end of this academic year, citing a desire to spend more time with his family before figuring out his next plans. In an email to the student body announcing Foster’s departure on Monday, President Clayton Rose noted the dean’s “profound impact” on the College and said he has already begun a national search to fill Foster’s role.
A sign advertising free menstrual products in the bathroom on the first floor of David Saul Smith Union was defaced with trans-exclusionary language this week. In an email to the Orient, Director of Gender Violence Prevention and Education Benje Douglas said that the Bias Incident Group (BIG) would be convening next week to discuss the incident but declined to comment further.
Candidates for two of Maine’s seats in Congress took to the stage in Studzinski Recital Hall on Tuesday afternoon for two debates preceding the November 6 election. The first debate, for U.S. Senate, featured independent incumbent Angus King and two challengers—Republican Eric Brakey, a current state senator, and Democrat Zak Ringelstein, a former teacher.
Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) will hold a Town Hall at 4 p.m. today to discuss campus bias incidents in light of swastika graffiti found in the Hubbard Hall stacks last month. “There will be space for students to share honest reactions to this bias incident, and community leaders from both the administration and student body will be present to hear and grapple with these concerns,” wrote Nate DeMoranville ’20, BSG chair of facilities and sustainability, in an email on Monday afternoon on behalf of the BSG Executive Committee.
Eight students received court summonses last weekend after several separate off-campus incidents that occurred late Saturday night and shortly after midnight on Sunday. Brunswick Police Department (BPD) issued summonses to two 21-year-old students for allowing a minor to consume liquor and to six students under the age of 21 for possession of alcohol by a minor or consuming liquor.
In an email to the campus community on Tuesday, President Clayton Rose announced that a swastika, drawn on a carrel and accompanied by the phrase “Heil Hitler,” has been deemed a bias incident. It is the third time the Nazi symbol has been found on Bowdoin’s campus since early 2017 and comes amidst an uptick in white nationalist imagery at colleges and universities across the nation.
Terry Hayes ’80 says she never planned on running for office. The first time she did, she lost, only to rebound and win six races over the following decade. After eight years in the Maine House of Representatives and nearly four as the State Treasurer, she has identified partisan bickering as the central cause of the state’s problems.
Bowdoin’s endowment had a 15.7 percent return on investment during the fiscal year that ended on June 30. That figure is the highest rate of return of any American college or university that has released its endowment returns for this period.
Liquor law violations were down in 2017, according to the Annual Security Report on Campus Crime, Fire, Alcohol and Illegal Drugs, but Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols doesn’t expect the numbers to stay low again this year.
In an email to the Orient Saturday night, Vice President for Bowdoin Student Government Affairs Amber Rock ’19 announced the results of the class council elections for the senior and first-year classes. In total, 260 seniors voted—approximately 53 percent of the class, although not all voters voted in all of the contests.
If you want to work in the White House, it’s better to be hungry. “There are two really important qualities for a leader, or for a policymaker,” former White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told a packed crowd in Pickard Theater last night.
Although Bowdoin has navigated a changing higher education landscape well, it has room to improve upon issues such as course flexibility and the teaching of quantitative literacy, according to a report released by President Clayton Rose in a campus-wide email on September 6.
On Tuesday, Viking Books released “On the Other Side of Hope: The Case for Freedom,” a collection of essays written by educator and civil rights activist DeRay McKesson ’07. The Baltimore native’s debut presents his experiences and memories alongside his suggestions for addressing a range of social problems.
An afternoon storm yesterday knocked out power on campus and across midcoast Maine. According to Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols, no injuries were reported at Bowdoin, although two of the College’s buildings were damaged.
The Bowdoin community lost two valued members over the summer with the passings of Iris Davis ’78 and Jim MacAllen ’66. Both had served on the Board of Trustees and are remembered by those who knew them for their commitment to the College.
Olivia Atwood ’17 and Maggie Seymour ’16 learned plenty at Bowdoin, but they never nailed down the details of what happened during the Watergate scandal. That absence of knowledge is exactly the premise of the alums’ original musical, “Dickie in the House,” which premieres at the Peoples Improv Theater (PIT) in New York on Thursday.
Any north-facing windows at Fort Andross provide a full view of the Brunswick dam, a massive concrete structure on the Androscoggin River with a capacity 19,000 kilowatt-hours, according to the Maine Governor’s Energy Office. Today’s dam is hydroelectric, owned by Brookfield Renewable, a subsidiary of the international asset management company, but dams have shaped Brunswick’s development for centuries—the first was built in 1753 to serve the town’s sawmills.
Last week, the Orient sent out a revised version of its biannual approval ratings survey, known as the Bowdoin Orient Student Survey, which asks students about their habits and opinions in relation to the College. The survey was sent to all 1,816 students and yielded 409 responses.
Behind Hannaford, a five-minute walk from Bowdoin’s campus, sits the primary facility for Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program (MCHPP). The nonprofit, which handles over a million pounds of food each year, combats food insecurity—a perpetual and growing issue that affects over 200,000 Maine residents each year.
A Bowdoin student was issued a court summons early Saturday morning after failing to pay his bar tab at MyTie Lounge & Bar, a club about half a mile from campus on Maine Street. Brunswick Police Department (BPD) received a call from MyTie reporting a man who had left without paying around 1 a.m.
Thirteen portraits on a slanting wall in David Saul Smith Union show students’ faces superposed over images that remind them of home. The art is striking, as is the message behind it. Cheng-Chun (Kevin) Yu ’19 and Shinhee Kang ’18, who created the exhibit together, hope to shed light on the presence of international students at Bowdoin and the unique challenges they face as they try to fit in and access the same opportunities as domestic students.
Along with 48 other college presidents, President Clayton Rose signed a letter to Congress at the beginning of March, calling for a repeal or amendment of the recently-passed tax code, which imposes a 1.4 percent tax on certain college endowments.
The Brunswick Town Council formally approved the second phase of Bowdoin’s plans to renovate Whittier Field, the Forecaster reported yesterday. The project includes building a new road to connect Pine Street and Bath Road. The decision this Tuesday followed a vote in December to allow the College to discontinue Pine Street in order to build new athletic facilities alongside Whittier Field.
Jose Antonio Vargas is home. His California driver’s license may look a little different than a citizen’s, but—in front of a packed Kresge Auditorium last night for the Kenneth V. Santagata Memorial Lecture—he shared his personal struggle to feel like he belongs in America as an undocumented immigrant, and he challenged Bowdoin students to undertake the uncomfortable conversations necessary in today’s immigration debate.
Students have until Sunday to vote on a string of amendments to the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) constitution. For the constitution to pass, at least one-third of the student body must vote in the election, and at least two-thirds of those students must vote in favor of the changes.
“good morning.” “Come sit on my Dick.” “It misses u.” That’s one of the 18 messages on display in “Texts,” an art show that opened in the Blue Gallery in David Saul Smith Union on Tuesday.
Police investigated threats of violence at two Topsham schools last Friday. Woodside Elementary School was evacuated after a bomb threat while Mt. Ararat High School was placed on heightened security due to student statements about violence, the Portland Press Herald reported.
Journalist and undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas will be speaking on campus next Thursday in the Kenneth V. Santagata Memorial Lecture. His talk, titled “Define America: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” will take place in Kresge Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.
Half of Bowdoin students who applied for Fulbright awards for the 2017-2018 academic received them, the best ratio among any of the nation’s top undergraduate Fulbright Student producers, according to the Fulbright Program. Forty Bowdoin students applied for Fulbrights last year, and 20 received them, the most from Bowdoin since data became available a decade ago.
Eleven percent of seniors have used cocaine during their time at Bowdoin, according to data from an Orient survey conducted this past December. Use of the drug among the class of 2018 substantially outpaces the other class years, and represents an increase from the last Orient survey on drug use, conducted in 2013.
As falling temperatures, rain and snow hit midcoast Maine this week—knocking out parts of campus power on Wednesday—Facilities staff got to work extra early to clear ice from the College’s streets and paths. Over the course of Wednesday afternoon and evening, Brunswick received about seven inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service.
Bowdoin students, and anyone with an iPhone or Android device, will soon be able to use a lobster emoji thanks to lobbying efforts from Senator Angus King H’07 (I-Maine). The Unicode Consortium, a Silicon Valley-based group of individuals and corporations that is responsible for designing emojis, unveiled the lobster along with 156 other new emojis on Wednesday.
The Amtrak Downeaster, which currently runs from Boston to Brunswick, could go as far north as Rockland this summer if the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) approves a pilot program in March. NNERPA wants to ensure that Maine communities will be active Amtrak partners before it finalizes the service, the Maine Free Press reported last week.
Citing student concerns about the short timeline for applying to live in Ladd House, the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) extended the deadline for the senior-only College House to next Wednesday. ResLife initially notified the junior class that living in Ladd for the 2018-2019 academic year was an option on January 18.
The College received 9,047 applications for the class of 2022, up from 7,251 from last year. It was an increase of roughly 25 percent and the highest raw number since admissions data became available in 1989.
Ladd House, one of the eight College Houses on campus, will be senior-only housing next year if enough rising seniors apply next week. The decision to convert the House, traditionally occupied by sophomores, into senior housing was proposed by a group of juniors, and occurred amid numerous conversations about how to make College housing more appealing to upperclassmen.
At its meeting on December 18, the Brunswick Town Council granted Bowdoin permission to discontinue a section of Pine Street between Bath Road and Bowker Street. The 7-1 vote came after several weeks of conversations, during which some town residents expressed concern about increased traffic on residential streets.
In commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Bowdoin on May 6, 1964, the College will unveil a plaque in Main Lounge of Moulton Union this summer. King was invited to Bowdoin in 1964 by the Bowdoin Political Forum, a student group.
A fire at a Hannaford warehouse in South Portland left a number of the supermarket chain’s Maine locations—including the store in Brunswick—short on refrigerated products this past weekend. The Portland Press Herald reported on April 27 that the fire started in a truck’s refrigerator pump and then spread to the warehouse.
As a continuation of the Free Flow initiative, baskets of menstrual products will soon be replaced with mounted dispensers in six men’s bathrooms on campus. Administrators and student leaders hope that the dispensers will help to stop ongoing incidents involving the products being damaged or thrown away.
In an email to the Orient Sunday night, Vice President for Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) Affairs, Reed Fernandez ’17 announced the results of the BSG Executive Committee elections. A total of 1,234 students voted, about 69 percent of the student body.
NExpress, one of the interschool library-loaning systems Bowdoin uses, will be retired in May. April 30 is the last day that schools can request books from NExpress and all items will be due by the end of May.
International students face unique difficulties at Bowdoin, which enrolls the fewest non US citizens in the NESCAC, such as navigating career opportunities, advisors and campus resources that don’t fully understand their experiences and a foreign social culture.
Former Vice President Joe Biden will speak at Colby’s commencement ceremony on May 21, the college announced on Monday. Colby will also issue Biden an honorary doctorate. The event will begin at 10 a.m. and is open to the public.
The Bowdoin Experience program is one day shorter this year and overlaps completely with the College’s Open House for all admitted students. The program aims to bring admitted students from low-income backgrounds or otherwise traditionally underrepresented in higher education to campus.
Brunswick Landing—the site of the former naval base, located approximately 10 minutes from the College—will become the site of a production facility for amphibious sport aircraft, the Times Record reported on April 4. Atol Avion, a Finnish company, partnered with an American investor group to form Atol USA, and plans to have its North American headquarters at Brunswick Landing, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Susan Faludi, research associate in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies (GSWS), was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the autobiography category for her memoir, “In the Darkroom,” (Metropolitan Books). The book explored her relationship with her father, a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor who underwent gender reassignment surgery at age 76.
Jes Staley ’79, a member of the Board of Trustees and CEO of Barclays, received a significant cut to his 2016 bonus pay after an internal company investigation revealed that he sought to unmask the identity of a whistleblower who had expressed concern about one of the bank’s executives, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
Former President Barry Mills will become the interim chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass) effective July 1, after current chancellor J. Keith Motley announced his resignation on Wednesday. Mills was named deputy chancellor and chief operating officer at UMass Boston on March 2, signing a five-year contract.
Brunswick Police Department (BPD) has a shortage of patrol officers due to the department’s struggles to fill vacant positions, WLBZ2 reported on March 30. Police Chief Richard Rizzo said BPD has received only a few applications for four vacant positions.
Moody’s Investors Service gave a Aa2 rating—the third-highest rating it assigns—to $45 million of the College’s proposed bonds. The bonds will mature in 2047. Moody’s also affirmed its previously assigned Aa2 rating on approximately $264 million of the College’s existing revenue bonds, according to a release by the agency on March 17.
I have the voice recordings from every interview I have conducted as an Orient reporter. At last count, I had 105, an average of slightly more than two interviews per week. They occupy a non-negligible portion of my phone’s memory space.
The Metro BREEZ bus will extend its service to Brunswick this fall after receiving approval from the Brunswick Town Council for a two-year pilot program on March 8. Bowdoin has pledged to contribute $10,000 to the service for each of the next two years, approximately 20 percent of the program’s cost.
Students packed into David Saul Smith Union last weekend for the College’s third annual CBBHacks Hackathon. About 50 students from Bowdoin, Colby, Bates and Williams participated in the Hackathon in some capacity, and several Bowdoin students took home prizes for their creations.
The Brunswick Town Council will vote Monday on a proposal which would extend the Metro BREEZ bus service to Brunswick. The commuter bus service, which launched last summer, currently connects Portland, Falmouth, Yarmouth and Freeport with 10 round trips on weekdays and five on Saturdays.
The Office of Residential Life (ResLife) extended the application deadline for students hoping to live in Howell House to February 28 after the house did not get enough applicants during the initial round of College House applications.
Administrators at Middlebury College were forced to cancel a public lecture by Dr. Charles Murray, a political scientist and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, due to overwhelming protest by students before the event began. Students chanted and waved signs expressing that Murray’s beliefs—which they perceived to be white supremacist—did not deserve a platform on Middlebury’s campus.
Former Bowdoin President Barry Mills was named the deputy chancellor and chief operating officer of University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass), the university announced yesterday. Mills will oversee the university’s academic and research programs and work alongside UMass Boston Chancellor J.
