Go to content, skip over navigation

Sections

More Pages

Go to content, skip over visible header bar
Home News Features Arts & Entertainment Sports OpinionAbout Contact Advertise

Note about Unsupported Devices:

You seem to be browsing on a screen size, browser, or device that this website cannot support. Some things might look and act a little weird.

Rebecca Norden-Bright

Orient Staff — Class of 2023

Number of articles: 84

First Article: October 4, 2019

Latest Article: May 5, 2023

Appeal of Pickard Field decision rejected by town Zoning Board of Appeals

A request to appeal the Brunswick Planning Board’s decision to approve the College’s renovation of the Pickard Field athletic field complex was unanimously rejected last night by the Town’s Zoning Board of Appeals. The request was made by Portland-based law firm Fletcher, Selser & Devine on behalf of resident Edgar Catlin, who lives adjacent to the athletic fields.

Read more

Facilities

Pipe bursts wreak havoc in residence halls, academic spaces

Extreme cold temperatures last weekend were not only record-breaking, but also pipe-breaking, as flooding in Coles Tower, Memorial Hall and Hawthorne-Longfellow (H-L) Library forced evacuations and damaged building infrastructure. Just after 1 a.m. on Sunday morning, a burst pipe on the second floor of Coles Tower created a ruckus and set off the fire alarm in the building.

Read more

Bowdoin employee indicted on child pornography charges

Christopher Watkinson, Technical Director and Adjunct Lecturer in Music at the College who also served on the Brunswick town council, was indicted in late November on charges of child pornography. Watkinson is currently on leave from his positions at the College, according to a spokesperson who declined to answer further questions regarding Watkinson’s status.

Read more

Administration

Dean’s Office restructuring aims to better meet student needs for long-term academic support

Over the summer, the Office of the Dean of Students underwent a structural change following an examination of its interactions with students. In the new structure, there is a new assistant dean for case management, and conduct issues are handled primarily by the director of community standards, rather than being distributed between class deans as they were previously.

Read more

Dining halls provide needle disposals

Moulton and Thorne Halls will now provide containers for proper needle disposal, according to an email sent by Interim Director of Health Services Sandra Hayes on December 1. Hayes wrote that the College has seen an increase in improper disposal of needles and medical sharps on campus in the past month, especially in the dish rooms in the dining halls.

Read more

Board of Trustees

Students host teach-in targeting Jes Staley

Last Saturday, during Family Weekend, members of the Bowdoin Labor Alliance (BLA) and other student activists hosted a teach-in on the Main Quad to educate students and their families about the College’s Board of Trustees. Student activists centered their grievances around James “Jes” Staley ’79 P’11—who has come under fire for his relationship with the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein as well as his actions as CEO of Barclays—and circulated an online petition calling for Staley’s removal from the Board.

Read more

News in Brief

College eases campus masking requirements

Masks will no longer be required in student residence halls, administrative or academic buildings, athletic facilities and Smith Union, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the campus community today. Additionally, dining halls will reopen for faculty and staff, effective immediately.

Read more

Family Weekend to return with outdoor events

This weekend, the College will host the first in-person Family Weekend since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, albeit with modified policies to mitigate potential spread of the virus. Visiting family members must provide proof of vaccination upon their arrival to campus, and, where possible, events have been moved outside.

Read more

COVID-19

Mask mandate implemented and extended

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.

Read more

News in Brief

Vaccinations on campus

While the majority of Bowdoin’s student body was fully vaccinated prior to arrival on campus, a few students—primarily international students unable to obtain one or both doses of the vaccine in their home countries—were vaccinated upon arrival through Bowdoin Health Services or at Mid Coast Hospital.

Read more

News in Brief

Student tests positive for COVID-19 after reporting symptoms to Health Services

A student reported symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and subsequently received a positive result from Health Services’ rapid PCR testing instrument, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the community on Monday. The student is being moved to isolation housing, and through contact tracing, the College determined that no additional students are required to quarantine.

Read more

Coronavirus

Over 900 Bowdoin students register for vaccine appointments through College program

On Sunday at 5 p.m., registration opened on CampusGroups for students to receive their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at Mid Coast Hospital’s clinic at the Brunswick Recreation Center beginning Wednesday. Despite website glitches and slowdowns, according to COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen, over 900 students were registered for an appointment within half an hour.

Read more

Coronavirus

Reflecting on COVID-19 two months into the semester

Two months into a spring semester like no other and with over 1,000 students on campus Bowdoin has managed to keep its positive COVID-19 case numbers relatively low. Despite a recent uptick in cases, it has also managed to stay in the least restrictive campus status level—”yellow”—since leaving “Hibearnation” and three days of “orange” in mid-February.

Read more

Coronavirus

Many Bowdoin students left behind by age-based vaccine rollout

Despite Maine’s relatively efficient rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine—the state is currently ranked tenth nationally in percentage of the population that has been fully vaccinated—the state’s transition to an age-based distribution plan has placed many Bowdoin students at the end of the line, resulting in a sense of uncertainty, disappointment and a scramble to find alternate solutions.

Read more

News in Brief

College employee tests positive for COVID-19

In an email to the community sent on Saturday afternoon, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator announced that an employee of the College tested positive for COVID-19 in Friday’s on-campus testing. The employee is isolating at home. One other employee was identified as a close contact through contact tracing and is now quarantined at home.

Read more

Campus

On-campus students depart early as COVID-19 cases rise at the College and in Maine

As COVID-19 cases surge nation-wide, the Bowdoin community has not been immune. Confronting rising cases of the virus on campus, the administration and on-campus students are evaluating steps forward as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches. In a Microsoft Teams interview with the Orient, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen said that he was not surprised about the recent positive cases on campus.

Read more

Elections 2020

Haaland talks policy and Native representation in Zoom event

On Monday night, Representative Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) spoke to members of the Bowdoin community over Zoom on a range of issues, including the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the recent presidential election and climate change. Haaland was elected to the House of Representatives in 2018, and, as a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, was one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress.

Read more

Coronavirus

Faculty member tests positive for COVID-19

A faculty member who is infrequently on campus and teaching completely remotely tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to an email sent Thursday morning to the Bowdoin community from COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen. The individual is the first faculty member and the second College employee to test positive since the beginning of the semester.

Read more

Coronavirus

Off-campus student tests positive for COVID-19

A student living off campus in Brunswick tested positive for COVID-19 last Friday, Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Janet Lohmann said during a town hall with off-campus students on Sunday. “We became aware of this on Friday because the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] (CDC) contacted us,” said Lohmann.

Read more

Elections 2020

Local candidates speak at Zoom forum

Last Friday, local candidates for the Maine State Senate, Maine State House and Brunswick Town Council congregated on a Zoom screen to share their campaign platforms and address questions posed by Bowdoin students. The forum, sponsored by Bowdoin Votes, Bowdoin Democrats, Bowdoin Republicans and the Government and Legal Studies Department, was moderated by McKeen Center Associate Director for Service and Leadership Andrew Lardie and Bowdoin Votes fellow Wilder Short ’22.

Read more

COVID-19

Third student on campus tests positive; number of active cases stays level at two

According to an email from COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen sent to the Bowdoin community on Saturday, a third student on campus has tested positive for COVID-19 and is now in isolation. Three additional students, identified through contact tracing, will be placed in quarantine for 14 days because they were in close contact with the student.

Read more

Campus

Campus COVID-19 testing program sees success in initial rollout

The first week of the semester saw the rollout of the College’s ambitious testing program for the fall. The plan dictates that students must be tested three times a week—Monday, Wednesday and Friday—for the first two weeks of the semester, and then twice a week—with one group tested on Mondays and Thursdays and the other tested on Tuesdays and Fridays—until campus closes before Thanksgiving break.

Read more

Dance

Dance Marathon raises record sum for Portland children’s hospital

Last Friday, Bowdoin College Dance Marathon hosted its third annual Dance Marathon to raise money for Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland. This year’s Dance Marathon had more students registered than ever before and raised a record amount of money, an increase the leaders of the event attributed to improved collaboration with athletic teams and College Houses.

Read more

Door to door, day by day

Saturday, February 1—Rochester, N.H. The calluses first appeared around day 12 in Sioux City, Iowa, says Penny Mack ’22. “You knock like two doors, and the calluses are already coming back,” she says, making a fist with her right hand, her knocking hand.

Read more

No Hate November

‘OUTLOUD’ photo exhibit showcases Asian student identities

“Representation.” “Identity.” “Pride.” The walls of the Blue Gallery tell a complicated story of solidarity and individuality—photographs of 15 Bowdoin students encircle the room, printed in color and black-and-white, pasted on red backgrounds. Quotes, taken from interviews with the students pictured, are printed in varying styles and colors directly on the photos, highlighting the diversity of individual experiences with Asian and Asian American identities.

Read more

Panelists address the complexities of land acknowledgements

Sitting on the floor and squeezing into the back,  faculty, staff and students packed Main Lounge in for the panel, “Land and Waters Around Us: A Discussion on Indigenous Land and Acknowledgements.” The event, organized by the Native American Students Association (NASA) as a part of both Native American Heritage Month and No Hate November, discussed the importance and complexity of land acknowledgements.

Read more