At Super Snack last Saturday night, students might have noticed a mysterious lack of salt and pepper shakers in Thorne Dining Hall.
In an email to the Orient, Mary Lou Kennedy, director of dining and bookstore services, wrote that the shakers were removed "because [they are] not used for the food being served at that time."
However, the decision left some students wondering if the ever-popular "Bowdoin pepper flip" influenced Kennedy's decision to remove the pepper shakers.
"We haven't removed the pepper shakers to deprive Bowdoin Super Snackers of spices," Kennedy later said, "and we haven't removed them to deprive you of fun or Bowdoin traditions."
"We've done so for two reasons. First, to decrease the mess left behind on the tables from the pepper game. Second, we sadly notice accumulating damage to the wooden table tops from the hundreds of impacts," wrote Kennedy. "Bowdoin students are smart, responsible, resourceful, problem solvers. We'd love to hear your suggestions for a solution that will work for all of us."