Whenever I see groups of visitors being led around campus on admissions tours, I wonder about the kinds of things that they must notice as they walk around Bowdoin’s campus. What do they think about the Quad? Do they think—as I do—that Smith Union is a little too bright and its colors a little too garish? Are they frightened by the thunder of basketball being played in Sargent Gym? 
They inevitably will start thinking about the cost of going to a school like Bowdoin. Going to college in the United States isn’t cheap; Bowdoin is certainly no exception. So you will forgive my surprise when I see people racing around campus at breakneck speeds, endangering the brains they have invested in so dearly: helmet-wearing cyclists are few and far between at Bowdoin. 
“Well if they don’t need to use their brains, they don’t need helmets!” quipped one professor who always wears a helmet when cycling. If we assume that the cost of a Bowdoin education is related to the value of your brain, then your cerebral matter is quite valuable indeed. For argument’s sake, let’s say that four years at Bowdoin costs $200,000. And let’s just say that this represents the approximate value of your brain. If you owned something of a comparable value—say, an expensive car, a house, a small yacht or a light aircraft—I’d guess that you would try to protect your property. So why can’t you afford the same protection for your head? 
There’s no denying that helmets are effective. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that wearing a helmet reduces “the risk of head injury by 85 percent and brain injury by 88 percent.” Injuries to your legs and arms can often be healed. But severe trauma to your head is far more dangerous. According to a report from 1996-2005 by the New York City Department of Transportation from, 97 percent of cyclists who died following an accident weren’t wearing a helmet. Every year, across America, hundreds of people die because “helmets are too expensive.” Because “helmets are uncomfortable.” Because “helmets can’t protect me.” 
I don’t mean to say that a helmet is some kind of panacea. Like wearing a seatbelt when you’re driving, donning a helmet will not immunize you against injury or prevent you from dying. Yet it is clear that wearing a helmet largely increases your chances of surviving an accident. Cycling accidents happen all the time and not just out on the street. Last year, I witnessed a student from Brunswick High School hit a squirrel while cycling at some speed across the Quad. He flipped over the handlebars and landed on the path. By some stroke of luck, he walked away with only a few scratches. I shudder to think what might have happened had he not been wearing a helmet. 
Let me be clear: I have nothing against cycling, nor do I wish to force helmets onto your heads. There’s nothing wrong about not wearing a helmet. You are all adults and are quite capable of making your own decisions. But all of you have exceptional minds: you are Bowdoin students after all. Wouldn’t it be an incredible shame if it all went to waste? 

Whenever I see groups of visitors being led around campus on admissions tours, I wonder about the kinds of things that they must notice as they walk around Bowdoin’s campus. What do they think about the Quad? Do they think—as I do—that Smith Union is a little too bright and its colors a little too garish? Are they frightened by the thunder of basketball being played in Sargent Gym? 

They inevitably will start thinking about the cost of going to a school like Bowdoin. Going to college in the United States isn’t cheap; Bowdoin is certainly no exception. So you will forgive my surprise when I see people racing around campus at breakneck speeds, endangering the brains they have invested in so dearly: helmet-wearing cyclists are few and far between at Bowdoin. 

“Well if they don’t need to use their brains, they don’t need helmets!” quipped one professor who always wears a helmet when cycling. If we assume that the cost of a Bowdoin education is related to the value of your brain, then your cerebral matter is quite valuable indeed. For argument’s sake, let’s say that four years at Bowdoin costs $200,000. And let’s just say that this represents the approximate value of your brain. If you owned something of a comparable value—say, an expensive car, a house, a small yacht or a light aircraft—I’d guess that you would try to protect your property. So why can’t you afford the same protection for your head? 

There’s no denying that helmets are effective. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that wearing a helmet reduces “the risk of head injury by 85 percent and brain injury by 88 percent.” Injuries to your legs and arms can often be healed. But severe trauma to your head is far more dangerous. According to a report from 1996-2005 by the New York City Department of Transportation from, 97 percent of cyclists who died following an accident weren’t wearing a helmet. Every year, across America, hundreds of people die because “helmets are too expensive.” Because “helmets are uncomfortable.” Because “helmets can’t protect me.” 

I don’t mean to say that a helmet is some kind of panacea. Like wearing a seatbelt when you’re driving, donning a helmet will not immunize you against injury or prevent you from dying. Yet it is clear that wearing a helmet largely increases your chances of surviving an accident. Cycling accidents happen all the time and not just out on the street. Last year, I witnessed a student from Brunswick High School hit a squirrel while cycling at some speed across the Quad. He flipped over the handlebars and landed on the path. By some stroke of luck, he walked away with only a few scratches. I shudder to think what might have happened had he not been wearing a helmet. 
Let me be clear: I have nothing against cycling, nor do I wish to force helmets onto your heads. There’s nothing wrong about not wearing a helmet. You are all adults and are quite capable of making your own decisions. But all of you have exceptional minds: you are Bowdoin students after all. Wouldn’t it be an incredible shame if it all went to waste?