The Bowdoin Orient

In a rematch of last year’s championship final, the Bowdoin volleyball team will face off against No. 5 Williams (13-10, 6-4 NESCAC) in the NESCAC Quarterfinals at Tufts tonight at 8 p.m. The Polar Bears come into the tournament as the No. 4 seed after finishing the regular season 14-9, 6-4 within the NESCAC. 

The team’s postseason experience and success last year will serve as an advantage in its campaign for a second NESCAC title. 

Last year, the team entered the NESCAC tournament in a great position with a record of 20-4, 9-1 NESCAC, earning the No. 1 seed and going on to win the championship in a 3-2 victory over the Ephs. After losing the first two sets, the Polar Bears dominated the next three to become the first team since the playoff system was reformatted in 2001 to come back from a 0-2 deficit in the championship match. The team expects a similarly close match tonight.

“We are fully expecting a tight match,” said Head Coach Erin Cady. “Every time that we’ve played Williams in the past two years, we’ve gone five sets, so [we’re] just mentally preparing for that.”

“[It will definitely be] a very competitive game, which is going to be fun,” said captain Quincy Leech ’17. “Williams always brings their A game, and it’s a great rivalry.”

In September, Bowdoin lost to Williams in a close 3-2 game. During that game, Bowdoin had more kills, blocks, digs and aces than Williams, but the Polar Bears suffered 28 attack errors and 15 service errors. However, the players feel they’ve grown into a much different team over the course of the season. 

“We have had many tough practices, and we are definitely a different team than the one that played earlier in the season,” said Leech. “We definitely are peaking now, which I think is really great. We have worked a lot ...[and] what we lacked we built on.”

However, the team does not underestimate the strength of Williams’ program. According to Cady, the Ephs’ dynamic offense will pose many challenges, such as long rallies. 

“They keep the ball up, they keep the ball in play,” said Cady. “They have really, really good outside hitters that are going to be a big weapon for them.”

“Honestly I think our biggest strength is knowing how hard it is to win NESCACs and knowing [that] the competition is going to be tight,” said Cady. “Mentally preparing for close games is going to be a huge strength of ours—that we’re not going to get rattled when the score is tight or maybe when we’re behind by a few points.”

While the returning players’ experience will be a key advantage this weekend, Leech says the first-year players have proved their value through their maturity and great attitude all season and are looking forward to their first NESCAC playoffs.

“Our [first years] have really stepped it up,” said Leech. “They get to build the program, and it is their legacy starting now. They have come in with a great attitude, and I would not expect anything else from them in the championship this weekend.” 

“As a senior I would love to win, but I also recognize what we built in this program is what is going to last,” Leech added. “The friends and sisters that I have now are what I am going to cherish.”

While political discussions about the presidential election or controversial events on campus are common, the community is still working the navigate the presence of a liberal majority on a campus with a range of views.

The average Bowdoin student identifies as liberal. On a scale of 0-100, with 0 being ‘very liberal’ and 100 being ‘very conservative,’ the average Bowdoin student places themselves at 36.28, though respondents spanned the entire spectrum.

Approximately a third of the student body does not feel safe expressing their political views on campus; 32 percent of students do not agree with the statement “I feel safe expressing my political views on Bowdoin’s campus.”

President Clayton Rose has repeatedly emphasized the importance of full-throated discourse on campus.

The 32 percent of students who say they feel unsafe expressing their views on campus are on average more conservative (they had an average self-identified political score of 47-59 on the 0-100 scale) than are people who do feel safe (they had an average self-identified political score of 24-26).

“If in fact you know students who identify as more conservative are more likely to [feel unsafe expressing their views], that’s an important thing to know. What does it mean? What should you do about it? That’s a little beyond my area of expertise,” said Professor of Government Michael Franz who, along with his Quantitative Analysis in Political Science course, administered the “Polar Poll,” which sought to gauge students’ attitudes on various campus issues.

“A lot of the time...people are afraid to put their voice out there… because they’re afraid of being labeled,” said Nick Sadler ’18, a registered independent who leans conservative and said he does not always feel safe expressing his political views on campus.

Jack Lucy ’17, president of the Bowdoin College Republicans, acknowledges that it is complicated to have a conservative viewpoint at Bowdoin.

“We know we’re in the minority on campus and I guess within our generation as well. I would also say it’s a viewpoint that can at times be harder to articulate clearly and coherently without a lot of explanation, particularly with issues of social conservatism,” said Lucy.

Despite this notion, Lucy feels safe expressing his views on campus and enjoys engaging in exchanges with people across the political spectrum. However, it does not surprise him that people with conservative views don’t all share his sense of safety.

“The word ‘safe’ might not be an adequate word to define it because I’ve never felt unsafe expressing my views here. I think there are certainly times where students of all opinions feel it’s not in their best interest necessarily to get involved on a controversial topic,” said Lucy.

Amanda Bennett ’17, president of the Bowdoin College Democrats, feels safe expressing her liberal views on campus.

“I’m very liberal. I think [Bowdoin] is a great space in order to have political discussion for the most part,” she said.

Though she feels safe expressing her views, Bennett is aware that conservatives might not, and she acknowledges that liberals at Bowdoin can be quick to shut down their conservative peers. Bennett thinks that liberals try to be very accepting of all viewpoints but they do not always accept the views of conservatives, for liberals assume that conservatives are intolerant of others.

“It seems like both sides are kind of generalizing. You have conservatives thinking that the liberals won’t accept their viewpoints and then you have the liberals grouping all viewpoints that conservatives may have and [excluding them],” she said.

Logan Jackonis ’17, who identifies as a libertarian, said he would feel comfortable discussing his viewpoints with his friends, but not in class.

“I feel like classrooms… are dominated by the most passionate viewpoints and mine is not the most intense,” Jackonis said.

When talking with other people on campus, especially about recent controversial topics, Jacknois it is sometimes easier to just say “mhm” in agreement, even though he may disagree with what someone is saying.  

“It’s not an alternate opinion I’m afraid of necessarily, it’s just not particularly comfortable when people are so passionate and I’m so not. I don’t have that same fire. Even if I disagree, it’s just uncomfortable,” said Jackonis.

Alexis Espinal ’17 identifies as a liberal but, due to her Louisiana roots, has more moderate views. She has been able to comfortably engage in political dialogue at Bowdoin.

“A lot more people are liberal here than at home—I think there’s more liberal [people] here anyways. But at the same time I have some weird, more Republican views that I’ve said before and no one tried to murder me. At home if you were a liberal it was a bad word,” Espinal said.

The average Bowdoin student also perceives themselves to be rather on par with the rest of Bowdoin students; on a scale of 0-100, the average Bowdoin student assesses a typical Bowdoin student to be at 29.87.

Franz expected to see a bigger difference between how liberal Bowdoin students assess themselves to be and how liberal they perceive other Bowdoin students to be.

“The respondents assess the average Bowdoin student to be liberal, in fact more liberal than them,” said Franz. “What I thought I would find more was a bigger difference between them. I thought the average student might say, ‘yeah, I’m 36 but that the average besides me is a 10’, or something like that.” 

Espinal attributes conservative discomfort to the fact that liberals outnumber conservatives.

“I think it has more to do with human nature than Bowdoin. People like to feel they have a whole bunch of people supporting them [when they speak out],” she said.  

Franklin Taylor ’19, who identifies as liberal, said that liberals feel safer expressing their viewpoints because most of campus is liberal. 

“Having a community around me where people have the same views as me definitely helps so that I can express how I feel,” he said. 

Charlotte Hevly ’19, who identifies as fairly liberal, said “I think there’s a perception that if you’re an intellectual you’re going to be liberal.”

Lucy echoed the idea that academia is a discipline that attracts professors of a liberal persuasion.

“We’re at an institution and this is a trend present in all of academia that people of a liberal persuasion are more likely...professors,” he said. 

Sadler, Lucy and Bennett want to encourage people to listen and be respectful of people’s viewpoints. Sadler would also like to see more conservative speakers brought in and for people to genuinely consider what they might have to say, so as to spur substantive discourse.

The Polar Poll, which was completed by 358 students after it was sent by email to a random sample of 475 Bowdoin students, also included a question that was designed to examine the effects of peer networks on accepting or not accepting a controversial opinion. The question asked half the sample if they would consider a critical opinion of affirmative action if it came from a Republican congressman; and asked the other half if they would consider a critical opinion of affirmative action if it came from an opinion piece in the Orient written by a student.

Fifty-four percent of respondents said they would consider the congressman’s opinion, while 66.5 percent said they would consider the Bowdoin student’s opinion. Though 12.5 percentage points is a small difference, a greater proportion of students are willing to accept the argument against affirmative action when it comes from a Bowdoin student than when it comes from a Republican congressman.

“[This] might mean that how we evaluate information is in large part determined by whether we like or dislike who’s making the argument,” said Franz.

He emphasized that everyone has people in their social networks—the ‘crazy uncle’, for example—who communicate opposing ideas.

“That might actually be good for us, to have the crazy uncle who posts those crazy stories because we like our crazy uncle and we might be more willing to listen to what our uncle says even if it’s the same exact thing that Donald Drumpf is saying,” said Franz.

Although students appear more likely to consider the opinion of a peer, Sadler said he does not believe many at Bowdoin can be unwilling to change their views.

“I think a lot of the time people here are affirmed in a lot of their views and they’re not challenged to change them and I think a lot of the times they’re not willing to change them even though changing your beliefs is a lot of how you grow up and mature,” he said.

Rachael Allen, Calder McHugh and Lucy Ryan contributed to this report.

One year since the Meeting in the Union, the College has adopted and addressed many policies and practices in response to student concerns. However, an overarching sentiment exists among administrators and students that while progress is being made, it will be made slowly and there is still work to be done.

The meeting was a student-organized demonstration that took place February 13, 2015. It brought to the forefront several social justice issues that impact members of the Bowdoin community, as well as the intersectionality between those issues. After the meeting, an Open Letter to the Community was delivered to former president Barry Mills, outlining 19 calls to action regarding race and diversity on campus.

Race and diversity issues continue to permeate the lives of Bowdoin community members.  “Race is a dividing line in our society, on campuses across our country, and at Bowdoin. Those of color in our community experience Bowdoin differently than those who are white; the difference can be profound and occurs in every aspect of our lives here,” wrote President Clayton Rose in a December 3, 2015 campus-wide email. 

“It can be daunting—it’s a lot to take on,” said Associate Dean of Students for Diversity and Inclusion Leana Amaez. “We’re asking institutions that were built 200 years ago for a very different population to reimagine themselves, and that takes a lot of intentionality and examination of where are our traditions, where are our policies, where are our practices not meeting the needs of students today, where are they not reflecting the diversity of our world, where are they creating barriers to inclusion and equity.”

Amaez and the rest of the office of student affairs have been heavily involved in several efforts that directly address concerns raised in the open letter. Notably, additional programming during first-year orientation will specifically address race and bias; Bowdoin’s intergroup dialogue programming is expanding; and divisions of the College are adopting hiring and retention best practices in order to increase diversity among faculty and staff.

Residential Life (ResLife) has also taken steps towards educating their staff on how to facilitate conversations on difficult subjects by doubling the amount of training on race, gender and sexuality, as well as working with College House officers to improve the inclusivity and accessibility of College House programming. Additionally, ResLife has added a question specific to diversity to the College House application.

A year after the Meeting in the Union, the event continues to have a profound impact at the College, both on an institutional level and for many people individually.

“I think that was the first time I’ve really seen the activist boundaries being crossed in everyone working towards general betterment and getting many pieces together at once which I thought was really, really, cool,” said Maddie Lemal-Brown ’18. “I really liked the Meeting in the Union part; [it was] electrifying.”

One of the meeting organizers, Claudia Villar-Leeman ’15, had several negative racial experiences during her time at Bowdoin.

“For pretty much my entire Bowdoin career,” said Villar-Leeman, it felt [like the majority of campus] was either ignoring or kind of willfully oblivious to a lot of these issues because a lot of these issues are painful to talk about or uncomfortable to talk about.”

Participating in the event has allowed Villar-Leeman to now look back at her time at Bowdoin with positivity. 

“I was very encouraged that students were giving voice to their concerns in a really clear and powerful way, and that the message for me is that our students were really hurting as a result of the institution and its failures in certain places to live up to the Offer of the College,” said Amaez.

“That’s an important message, and an important check that can be hard to hear and sometimes painful, because I think my colleagues across the board are well-intentioned, they really care, so to hear that they might be might be missing the mark and that people might be in pain as a result is really hard, but really important for us as a community.”

Director of Residential Life Meadow Davis said that she has seen a shift in campus conversations towards topics of diversity.

 “A couple years ago it was all about alcohol, it was all about the hookup scene,” she said. “Now I’d say three quarters, a huge percentage, of people who are applying to ResLife are saying, ‘We need more conversations about diversity. We’ve had great conversations and we appreciate it—here’s how we want to do more.” 

Emily Jacques ’17, one of the organizers of the meeting, agreed, saying that she has seen a substantive change in campus discussions on race in the time since the meeting, both as a result of the meeting and other incidents.

“My first year you could avoid these sorts of conversations if you wanted to, but now it’s more present,” she said. “The stuff that’s been happening with locals in cars or the stuff on Yik Yak—I feel like the campus community is definitely more aware of various issues of injustice.” 

Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster echoed Davis and Jacques’ sentiments.

 “[The meeting] was really about the notion of inclusion and what that means,” he said. “Do all members of our community feel that this place is theirs? And the answer to me was no, they don’t. That’s what we should aspire for. That means a ton of work, not work that we can do in a day or a week or a month, or a year, but over many years.”

But for students who only spend four years of their life at Bowdoin, this long-term institutional approach can be frustrating. Michelle Kruk ’16, one of the organizers of the meeting and an author of the letter spoke to these concerns. 

“I know that the College wants to be very thoughtful about the way that it’s handling certain issues, especially with race,” she said. “But I think that we’re capable of working on both a short-term solution and a long-term solution at the same time. I think that we have enough energy.”

Another organizer, Lemal-Brown, still believes that many discussions fail to reach the larger community in both academic and social settings.

“Last semester I know I was a little disappointed that my professors were not talking about race,” she said. “My [sociology and philosophy] classes were places where it should have been brought up.” 

“I know that I was very frustrated with the aftermath of the sailing party—meaning that Bowdoin still [falls back on] discussing things which tend to become conversations in closed rooms by separate groups,” Lemal-Brown said.

Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan acknowledged the role athletics play in the racial climate on campus, both in its hiring and recruitment, and how the department addresses incidents such as the recent bias incidents involving the sailing and lacrosse teams.

“We certainly look at the events that have taken place and try to balance the learning opportunity,” he said. “Thinking about it along the lines of apologizing, educating and trying to leverage the learning opportunities associated with people making mistakes, then thinking about the ways in which we are able to positively impact the community. I think that approach was consistent in both the lacrosse and sailing incidents.” 

Ryan also said that athletics is placing an increased emphasis on diversity in recruiting both students and coaching staff.  

While the majority of the calls to action in the letter were accepted and acknowledged by College officials, some feel that there are certain demands that have not or should not be met.

For instance, following the meeting, members of Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA)—who played a large role in organizing the meeting—made a demand to former President Barry Mills to appoint a liaison to the Board of Trustees to communicate about the potential for divestment from fossil fuels. BCA does not feel their demand was adequately met, as Mills appointed himself the liaison, knowing he would be stepping down at the end of the year. 

“When we asked [the trustees] who to follow up with, as one does in official meetings, they shut us down and didn’t respond. Attempts after that to figure out how to move forward were similarly not moved forward,” said BCA member Allyson Gross ’16.

From an administrative standpoint, Foster disagreed with the necessity of a call to action that asked the college to “consider a student’s racial and socioeconomic background when making decisions about disciplinary action,” and “uphold consistent disciplinary policy for all students, regardless of parental interaction with the institution.”

“We try to consistently and thoughtfully uphold [community standards],” he said. “I think we do that, whether we’re dealing with the son or daughter of a trustee or whether we’re dealing with a first generation college student. I would say [we do] a very good job of being clear about our community standards and expectations and being thoughtful. I’ll stand behind the good work of the Judicial Board.”

The work of campus activists has not gone unnoticed by the administration, and the calls to action presented in the open letter have led to a real effort to shape the College into a place that is both diverse and inclusive. A year after the meeting, its message has not been forgotten.“Powerful,” said Davis. “That’s how I would sum it up.”​

Since a grand jury in St. Louis County, Mo. decided against indicting Darren Wilson, a now-former police officer, for the August 9 shooting of Michael Brown, protests have raged across the nation—and have even spread to Bowdoin. Student activists have held a candlelight vigil, joined protests off campus and are currently planning more events to raise awareness and spur action. 

Across the nation, many have felt called to action to protest the racial dynamics present in law enforcement and to demand justice for these civilian deaths.

Over the past few months, students on a large number of college campuses such as Stanford University, Oberlin College, Texas A&M, Harvard University, Yale University, Colorado College and Howard University have taken action.

At Harvard, for example, students staged a traffic-blocking die-in at Harvard Square where people lay down as if they were dead; Oberlin held a walk out, workshops, and class discussions; and students at Howard took a photo with their hands in the air to demonstrate solidarity and mobilized others to participate in marches in Washington, D.C.

As for Bowdoin, on the night of the grand jury decision, Symone Howard ’15 and the Central Committee of the African American Society organized a campus-wide vigil on the Bowdoin College Museum of Art steps—the first organized event on campus that directly addressed the grand jury decision.

“As soon as the decision came out, we knew we needed to do something because the issue hit so close to home as black women and men,” said Howard. “In the back of our heads, we knew that was the likely outcome.”

Between 75 to 100 students arrived at the John Brown Russwurm African American Center at 10 p.m. for the vigil. Candles were distributed, but the organizers eventually ran out.

On the way to the Museum steps, the group stopped outside of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library (H-L) to announce that the vigil was about to take place, and more students joined them.After the stop at H-L, the group assembled on the steps for five minutes of silence—a minute to represent each of the 4.5 hours that Brown’s body lay in the street.

Following the minutes of silence, several students spoke and read poems, and then the group made a silent walk around the quad. 

Michelle Kruk ’16, who read a poem entitled “Cuz He’s Black,” said in an email to the Orient, “As a campus, we have done an unsatisfactory job–in my opinion–in discussing what is happening in Ferguson and taking some sort of concrete action about it. I am deeply disappointed in the administration’s silence surrounding this topic.”

The vigil lasted about 45 minutes. Noting the diversity of students at the protest–different student organizations, athletic teams and individuals–Howard found the vigil to be very meaningful.

“Honestly, I think that Bowdoin students could do a bit more [about the issue]. The vigil was a start to that,” said Howard. “It shows that even though we’re all part of these different organizations and we all have really busy schedules and do many different things we can come together to confront this issue.”

Throughout the latter part of this semester, there has been a group of students participating in weekly Intergroup Dialogue discussions regarding race and training students to facilitate such conversations.

During their discussion on Monday, the group split into two—people of color and caucasians— to discuss what students of color want from their white counterparts, and vice versa.

 “A big thing for people of color asking white people was to use your privilege and be confident and brave enough to know that you have a part in the struggle,” said Zhang. “A lot of people who are white really question their legitimacy in participating in these actions, but I definitely think that people of color were asking for the courage to speak not on behalf of people of color, but with people of color.”

Zhang also said that the group of white students asked for patience and for there to be a readiness to correct their mistakes.

“A lot of them talked about how they’re here to learn from these conversations and they want to be called out if necessary,” said Zhang.

One of the more powerful things Zhang heard at the Intergroup Dialogue discussion was when one person of color asked that white people interact more with people of color.

“I thought that was really powerful because [the student of color] talked a lot about how the only way to feel like black lives matter is if you actually interact with black people,” she added.From these meetings, A.D.D.R.E.S.S., another student organization, has gathered questions to create further dialogue on campus. 

After the stop at H-L, the group assembled on the steps for five minutes of silence—a minute to represent each of the four hours that Brown’s body lay in the street.

Following the minutes of silence, several students spoke and read poems, and then the group made a silent walk around the Quad. 

Michelle Kruk ’16, who read a poem entitled “Cuz He’s Black,” said in an email to the Orient, “As a campus, we have done an unsatisfactory job—in my opinion—in discussing what is happening in Ferguson and taking some sort of concrete action about it. I am deeply disappointed in the administration’s silence surrounding this topic.”

The vigil lasted about 45 minutes. Noting the diversity of students at the protest—different student organizations, athletic teams and individuals—Howard found the vigil to be very meaningful.

“Honestly, I think that Bowdoin students could do a bit more [about the issue]. The vigil was a start to that,” said Howard. “It shows that even though we’re all part of these different organizations and we all have really busy schedules and do many different things we can come together to confront this issue.”

Bowdoin President Barry Mills sent an email to the student body Thursday evening addressing the issue.

“Everyone in America must be able to be confident in the rule of law and in the equal and fair application of the law to each of our citizens,” he wrote. “This is a basic tenet of our society. Here at Bowdoin, our steadfast focus on serving the common good means that we must continue to engage these issues that are so central to our future growth, wellbeing and humanity.”

Throughout the latter part of this semester, there has been a group of students participating in weekly Intergroup Dialogue discussions regarding race and training students to facilitate such conversations.

During their discussion on Monday, the group split into two—people of color and Caucasians— to discuss what students of color want from their white counterparts, and vice versa.

 “A big thing for people of color asking white people was to use your privilege and be confident and brave enough to know that you have a part in the struggle,” said Elina Zhang ’16, the head of A.D.D.R.E.S.S. “A lot of people who are white really question their legitimacy in participating in these actions, but I definitely think that people of color were asking for the courage to speak not on behalf of people of color, but with people of color.”

Zhang also said that the group of white students asked for patience and for there to be a readiness to correct their mistakes.

“A lot of them talked about how they’re here to learn from these conversations and they want to be called out if necessary,” said Zhang.

One of the more powerful things Zhang heard at the Intergroup Dialogue discussion was when one person of color asked that white people interact more with people of color.

“I thought that was really powerful because [the student of color] talked a lot about how the only way to feel like black lives matter is if you actually interact with black people,” she added.From these meetings, A.D.D.R.E.S.S., another student organization, has gathered questions to create further dialogue on campus.

On Tuesday, they held a meeting on the shooting and lack of indictment. After setting some ground rules for discussion, eight groups were formed to talk about the Intergroup Dialogue’s questions, including: What was the most prominent and immediate emotion after the non-indictment? And, were you or your family immediately or personally affected by the events in Ferguson? 

The gathering began with a moment of silence followed by a video. Zhang, said the film discussed the inherent frustration of how repetitive and cyclical events like these are. She added that human beings have limits, which is why protesters are now hitting the streets.

For Zhang, it is most infuriating to hear people deny the gravity of what happened.

 “[I want Bowdoin students to] at least acknowledge what’s going on, take time to do research and understand why people are literally quitting their jobs to protest peacefully,” she said. “I want to beg the Bowdoin population to go out of their way to learn about what’s going on. I really, really wish people cared more.”

Zhang also said there will be a die-in, which will take place today in the dining halls. Another member of A.D.D.R.E.S.S., Caroline Martinez ’16, is from St. Louis and went to Ferguson for the city’s Weekend of Resistance, a weekend of protest and demonstration, in October.

On October 8, her first day there, another young black man, Vonderrit Myers, was shot in St. Louis by a police officer. Seeing the action, including marches, protests, and vigils every day, moved Martinez.

“It was great and powerful. It was incredibly sad and at the same time it gave me a lot of hope,” said Martinez. “People were in pain and mourning together.”

One of the more powerful actions she took part in was a protest outside of the Ferguson police station.

“It was pouring rain and people would just not leave,” said Martinez. “In the end, police officers did not end up arresting many people, but it was great to be there with people who I loved and deeply care about his issue and are willing to sacrifice their comfort and financial stability for it.”

Martinez  also spoke to the power of hearing people chanting, especially lines such as “Black lives matter.”

“It is incredibly important because I think that in the U.S. we can see that so many policies or lack of policies show that black lives don’t matter—the fact that Darren Wilson was not indicted, the fact that there’s really poor housing and people of color do not have access to the same type of educational resources,” said Martinez.

Another chant she remembered was, “The whole damn system is guilty as hell. Indict, convict, send that killer cop to jail.”

Martinez said this chant is important because it shows the connection between Wilson and other systems of oppression that are in place in the United States. To her, and to many others, it is not just about Brown but also a reflection of all the systems of injustice that she feels are in place in the United States.

“When I think of Ferguson, I’m not scared of the protesters,” said Martinez. “I’m scared of the police that are literally there with sniper guns and I don’t think there’s been enough attention put on this as much as there has been on the rioting.”

Martinez said that more action is needed–especially on campus.

“I haven’t seen people connect this with how race is dealt with or not dealt with at Bowdoin,” said Martinez. “If we just think about important resources and groups on campus—for example, if we think about the Outing Club, the Outing Club is the largest club on campus and it is predominantly white. I love the Outing Club, but most trips that I go on I am not just the only Latina, but the only person of color. I think that that’s very telling—that the College isn’t putting a big effort getting students of color at the Outing Club.”

Justin Pearson ’17 would like to see more people participate in conversations surrounding race, class, gender and privilege.

“We, students at a prestigious institution and benefiting from the best education in the country, must create the initiatives and address the problems head on. We cannot become comfortable with the status quo,” he said in an email to the Orient.

This week brings more developments around the issue of race in the US. On December 3, a New York grand jury did not indict white police officer Daniel Pantaleo for causing the death of a black man, Eric Garner, with a chokehold. This decision has ignited even more protests across the nation.

 “Bowdoin, as an institution and as a student body, ought to, at the very least, acknowledge that these tragedies are happening and that they do affect us—even here in Brunswick, Maine,” wrote Kruk in an email to the Orient. “There are students at this school who do care. We need to mobilize those students.”

This article is the second in a short series exploring the history of the College Houses. Information for these columns was collected through online research and interviews with Secretary of Development and College Relations John Cross.

Despite its popularity among college house applications, few students know that Ladd House is worthy of a stop on the Haunted Bowdoin Tour.

The fraternity Zeta Psi occupied what is now Ladd House from 1927 until the 1990s.In 1927, a new Zeta Psi chapter house was erected at 14 College Street—directly in front of the place where the previous house once stood for 24 years. Sir Harry Oakes of the Class of 1896 donated over half of the $40,000 necessary to build the new house.

Oakes later became a successful entrepreneur in the United States and New Zealand, making his fortune from a Canadian gold mine. King George VI of the United Kingdom made him a baronet in 1939 for his philanthropic work. 

After acquiring his wealth, Oakes wanted to give back to the fraternity that shaped his youth.When the house was dedicated to Samuel Ladd in 2002, many Zeta Psi alumni felt the house should have been named for Oakes. The College disregarded their complaints since Oakes was not a very pleasant person and was thus rather unpopular.

Due to his business endeavors, Oakes acquired various enemies throughout his life.

In 1943, Oakes was brutally murdered on his estate in Nassau, Bahamas. He was found bludgeoned to death in his bed with his body set on fire and partially covered in feathers. Due to Oakes’ considerable wealth and his apparent ties to the then governor of the Bahamas—the Duke of Windsor (formerly known as King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom)—his murder became an international sensation.

Upon discovering his body, investigators on the island reported Oakes’ death to the Duke of Windsor. The Duke, knowing full well that the murder of such a wealthy man would cause a scandal, called in detectives from Miami to investigate, even though local Bahamian investigators, Captains Melchen and Barker, were capable of handling the investigation.Oakes had company on the night he was killed: his friend and property developer Harold Christie. Christie told investigators that he was completely unaware anything had happened—he had slept through the murder. 

He was never suspected because most people on the island were convinced the murderer was Oakes’ son-in-law Alfred de Marigny, husband of Oakes’ daughter Nancy.

De Marigny certainly had a motive: upon her father’s death, Nancy would receive quite an inheritance. Since there was a gap of approximately 30-minutes in his alibi, de Marigny was arrested.

While de Marigny was being interrogated, the Duke of Windsor arrived. He had a private conversation with the investigators and left. Citing a perfect fingerprint found on a screen in Oakes’ bedroom, police formally charged de Marigny with murder two hours after the Duke left.

During the trial it was revealed that Melchen and Barker had taken the fingerprint off of a box of de Marigny’s cigarettes and planted it on the screen. When this came to light, de Marigny was acquitted.

Even today, nobody knows why de Marigny was framed. One possibility is that the Duke wanted the case closed as quickly as possible. If locals handled the investigation, it might have gone on much longer and the Duke might not have wanted an international spotlight on the island for an extended period of time.

Oakes’ murder remains unsolved, but several books and films have been made about his strange story, each supporting a different theory about what transpired at Oakes’ home on the night of his death.

Author William Boyd tells a version of events in his novel “Any Human Heart,” which was adapted for TV.

As Boyd tells it, according to an article in “The Guardian,” the fire that burned Oakes’ body did not destroy all of the evidence. 

Boyd suspects Christie as a potential killer since Christie allegedly owed Oakes a good deal of money.

It appears that the Duke of Windsor conspired with investigators to incriminate an innocent man for the murder of the man who provided more than half the money to build what is now Ladd House.

Over half a century later, after Zeta Psi became Chi Delta Phi in 1991, the misfortunes tied to Ladd House continued.

Tragedy struck on March 15, 1996, when 20-year-old University of Maine-Orono student Cameron Brett fell off the roof of the chi Delta Phi house during a party and died. This was the final straw for the College when it came to dealing with fraternities. Administrators decided to begin the process of phasing out the fraternities and establish a new residential life system—the College Houses we know today. 

Before it was known as Helmreich House, 238 Maine Street was home to two fraternities. Sigma Nu occupied the house from 1921 to 1951, before selling the building to Alpha Rho Upsilon (ARU).  

German professor George Taylor Files and his wife commissioned the house, built as an early Colonial Revival structure with a gambrel roof in the Shingle Style.

ARU was a local fraternity formed in 1946, originating from the Thorndike Club for the five percent of students on campus who were not fraternity members. Ernst Christian Helmreich, a professor of history and political science, served as the advisor to the club, and oversaw its transformation into a fraternity.

ARU signified not only “Alpha Rho Upsilon,” but also as “All Races United.” On campus, ARU was better known as the latter. “All Races United” came from a desire to include students of all races and faiths in fraternity life at Bowdoin, including Asian-American, Jewish and African students who did not fit the membership criteria for other fraternities.

The fraternity offered a sense of identity and pride for its members. ARU wanted to change what it meant to be in a fraternity at Bowdoin and to make the fraternity system more accommodating. Bowdoin’s first female graduate, Sue Jacobson ’71, was an ARU member.

An underground group known as the Green Hornet Construction Company was an ARU trademark. The Green Hornet, started in the 1960s, would construct a structure on Monday mornings that was often a satirical statement on campus life.

One of its best-remembered pranks took place in 1973, when all pre-med students were required to take an introductory physics course. 

Professor Will Hughes decided that too many students in his class were unworthy of being doctors, so he flunked approximately one third of his class. He proceeded to throw away the exams and go on sabbatical, leaving a mess for the College to sort out.

 In light of this situation, the Green Hornet erected the Will Hughes Pre-Med Memorial Cemetery in the area where the Visual Arts Center is now. They put a cross in the cemetery with the name of each student flunked by Professor Hughes.

When new curbstones were to be laid out on Park Row, the Green Hornet took the stones and built a pyramid. The group then sent a bill for millions of dollars to the deans charging them for camels and help building the pyramid. 

Apparently this was not the first time the group billed the deans for a structure so a dean wrote back saying that he understood the workers were unionized, but that the price was too steep. This became a continuous back and forth between the Green Hornet and the deans.In other shenanigans, the Green Hornet raided several farms and took animals to make a petting zoo to Bowdoin. A dean had to return sheep, goats and chickens back to the irate farmers.

ARU often won the fraternity cup that went to the fraternity with the highest collective GPA.As such, Helmreich House carries a legacy of intelligent, diverse students, some of them dedicated jokesters, who sought equality and diversity and helped pioneer a change in the Bowdoin fraternity system.

Each academic year, Bowdoin Dining Services loses roughly 960 knives, 1800 forks, 2400 spoons, 800 mugs and 1500 cups. While some of this loss is due to general wear and tear, diminishing amounts of dining hall utensils are due to student removal of those items.“Technically, maybe, it is [theft],” said Head of Dining Service Ken Cardone. “But that’s not the intent.”

Dining Service understands that students, faculty and staff will all take cutlery from the dining halls throughout the year and they try to prepare for it. With roughly 23,000 meals a week, the dishes and silverware get quite a lot of use.

Operating budgets for each dining hall allocate thousands of dollars for dish and silverware replacement and Cardone said Dining Services spends about $12,000 to $14,000 per year on replacing china and silverware. However, it is hard to tell how much goes to replacing missing dishes and silverware versus those that are worn out.

The reality is that Dining gets very few of the missing dishes and silverware back once they leave the dining hall and they do not want the dishes and silverware to be thrown in the garbage. It can be a frustrating experience for Dining, especially when they’ve just acquired a new set of commercial china, which is more costly than residential china.

In order to help recover cutlery and china, Dining has enlisted the help of Bowdoin’s housekeeping staff.

If housekeepers find dishes or silverware belonging to the dining hall in a common area of a dormitory, they can put them in a milk crate, and exchange a full milk crate for a free meal.“It could take me a month, it could take me two months [to fill a crate],” said Sabrina Bouchard, housekeeper in Coleman Hall. “On average, during the year, I fill maybe a couple of crates.”

“I have a crate downstairs that I started at the beginning of the school year and it’s about three-quarters full.” 

Dining reached out to housekeepers who often find dishes in common areas within student dormitories.

Bouchard said she enjoys the exchange.

“I usually bring my own food so it’s a treat for me to go the dining hall,” she said. 

Joyce Mayer, housekeeper for buildings on Federal Street, cashes in on the deal in the summer after students move out and leave behind many dining dishes and silverware. At the beginning of the summer, it is very easy for housekeepers to fill multiple crates.  

“I find dishes in the trash and I’ll pick them out, but I don’t go looking for them,” said Mayer. “I just want to thank Dining for doing that and to keep it up!” 

Hope Marsden, housekeeper for Baxter House, prefers to pass her dishes along to other housekeepers.

“I give them to other people since I don’t eat in the dining halls,” said Marsden. 

The removal of dining hall dishware and cutlery is increasingly becoming an issue on other college campuses.

Cardone said that the University of Montana recently reached out to other institutions of higher education via a Listserv email explaining that Montana had been experiencing an increased amount of theft in their facilities. The cost of replacing stolen items was starting to add up quickly, and they asked other schools for advice. 

According to Cardone, the food service director at the University of Connecticut responded, “Chopsticks, order chopsticks.” 

After participating in a three-week entrepreneurship program, Fiona Iyer ’18 knew she wanted to take a year off before coming to Bowdoin. So, supplied with money from babysitting, she packed her bags and embarked on an adventure to South Africa, Argentina, Mauritius, and Italy.

Iyer started off by spending four months at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa studying entrepreneurial leadership. She was also the marketing director and business strategist of a media-house business run out of the academy.

There she encountered Veda, her entrepreneurial leadership teacher, who became a great source of inspiration for her.

“He was just brilliant,” said Iyer. “He had such a sense of clarity in that he knew what he was passionate about, he knew what he wanted, he knew where he was going. Eventually I want to get to that stage.” 

Though she greatly values her time in South Africa, Iyer does not miss the dangers of living there. South Africa has a murder rate of 31.1 per 100,000 people, which is 4.5 times higher than the global average. The academy where she studied was surrounded by barbed wire and electric fences in order to prevent intruders from stepping on campus.

In addition, Iyer found that the legacy of apartheid still resonates in the country.“We think the inequality between blacks and whites here [in America] is an issue—it’s so exacerbated in South Africa,” she said.

Iyer waitressed at a French café in Johannesburg where she was usually tipped eight or nine times more than the black waitresses.

“I had to stop working there because I didn’t need the money and they did,” said Iyer. “It was just very tense.”

The next leg of Iyer’s journey took her to Buenos Aires, which she says is the part of her gap year she enjoyed most. She initially didn’t have a place to stay and spent her nights sleeping on people’s couches, but ultimately found an apartment and a roommate who became one of her best friends

“I was convinced I was going to stay there,” said Iyer, who was enthralled by the culture, art, and music of the city. She quickly found a job as a graphic designer for the New York-based company Juicy Canvas.

After Argentina, she ended up in Italy. 

Iyer was staying on the Amalfi Coast when she took a transcendent bite of crusty bruschetta with spicy extra virgin olive oil and fresh tomatoes. After asking to watch the chef, Patricia, cooking, Patricia proposed that Iyer work in the kitchen (with no working papers) for food and accommodation. In exchange, Iyer would give her English lessons.

“I learned how to cook. That was the most amazing part. The workday was thirteen hours. It was a lot of time,” said Iyer. “It was almost torturous because the Mediterranean Sea was right outside the window so when I was chopping and slicing and being a little sous-chef, I could just see the sea calling  to me.”

Iyer found a “warm Italian mama” in Patricia, who didn’t speak any English.

“She always wanted a daughter,” said Iyer. “And she was angling to set me up with one of the other chefs who was her son.”

Iyer said her time in these three countries taught her a lot about herself and the world. But her deepest experience took place on the island of Mauritius, a place where she only stayed for a week—attending a friend’s wedding. 

“[Their] family was so big and loud and close,” she said, “That’s when I realized how important family was. And so when I think of my gap year, that was really the most striking moment.”Iyer had some of the most amazing experiences of her life during her gap year and said she always felt trapped by the thought of having to go back to college. She is having a hard time dealing with the new environment finding that the most difficult part of the transition to Bowdoin is missing the sense of anonymity that she had in the city.

Though it’s tough right now, she is giving Bowdoin a fighting chance. 

“Everything is temporary and we have so much choice. We can really do whatever we want,” said Iyer. “It’s your life, you’re living it for yourself. It’s very liberating. You realize that you are never stuck in a place. You can pack your suitcase and go. And I think the thought that I am liberated is making the transition easier.”  

Have you ever wandered up to the second floor of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library (H-L) to see a special exhibit on display and wondered how that exhibit came to be? 

The first and most difficult step of putting together an exhibit, according to Lindemann, is to select a theme. 

“These are the kinds of things that come to you either at three o’clock in the morning or in the shower,” he said. 

Senior Interactive Developer for the Information Technology department David Francis likes to explore other worlds—the cyber and supernatural, that is. 

Francis, who hails from rural Indiana, has become a Maine history buff since his arrival to Bowdoin in 2001,  where he discovered a passion for the haunted history of Bowdoin’s campus.

“I thought to myself ‘I’m sitting in this New England campus that’s 200-plus years old—all these buildings—it just seems like there must be stories’,” he said.

There can be a stigma associated with attending college close to home. But the small group of students from Brunswick here on campus couldn’t be prouder to represent the town we all consider a second home. 

“Just because I was so close shouldn’t exclude the possibility of attending a really good college that seemed to have a lot of things to offer me,” said Mark Richter ’14, who said he felt he had a lot of exposure to Bowdoin growing up and always heard good things.  

“The relationship between Bowdoin and Brunswick is so cohesive. Anyone feels safe and welcome here,” said Chelsea Bruno ’14. “And being part of both communities is great.”