The Bowdoin Orient

Ten local nonprofit organizations that might otherwise have been left unfunded will be supported by the College's Common Good Grant this year. The Common Good Grant program was established in 2001 through a restricted gift by an anonymous donor who wanted to acquaint students with grants, philanthropy, and the needs of nonprofit agencies.

Many students will be pulling an all-nighter this weekend, but this one will be by choice. At least 175 Bowdoin students are expected to walk in Bowdoin's first-ever Relay for Life tonight to raise cancer awareness and challenge the notion that the condition does not affect the student population.

Students who are looking for a formal chance to say "thank you" to faculty and staff will receive some help today. Bowdoin Student Government's (BSG) first ever Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day will offer a variety of events that will allow students to recognize the adults who affect them on a day-to-day basis at the College.

One hundred Bowdoin students were randomly selected to complete a health and wellness online survey, distributed for the second time since the formation of the College's Health and Wellness Committee.

Student use of Smith Union is being monitored in an effort to document how the building is used and how to make it more effective in suiting students' needs.

The Board of Trustees selected the College's honorary degree recipients at last weekend's tri-annual meeting.

Colby College Professor of Sociology Jonathan White called students to action at the Darfur Teach-In Thursday evening and urged them to work together to end conflict and human rights abuses in Sudan. "There's a massive university movement that is taking place," White said. "It is student action from the United States that led the way to the divestment movement. You have no right to say that you can't make a difference," he said.

On January 24, Bowdoin friend Edmund Benjamin died at the age of 86 while at Laurel Point Health and Rehabilitation Center in Fort Pierce. Benjamin was not a Maine native?he was born in Grenada, West Indies?and yet he spent many of his last years here, working as a security officer in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art until he retired in 1999.

Before the start of the new semester, Bowdoin first years and sophomores will have the opportunity to "re-orient" themselves to college life by attending a series of workshops on study skills, time management, health and wellness, and student involvement in the campus community.

With registration for next semester's courses underway, Brunswick residents will continue to have the opportunity to audit courses at the College. Every semester, a small number of local residents opt to audit Bowdoin courses. According to the Office of Student Records, there are 39 people auditing courses this semester. No distinction is made, however, between local residents, students, or faculty members auditing the courses.

After a lengthy search for candidates for the position of dean of academic affairs, the Search Committee has narrowed the field of applicants to four contenders, all of whom have been invited to visit the campus.

Following a national trend, Bowdoin is seeing a consistent pattern of grade inflation, with students earning a rising number of As and Bs across the different academic disciplines. According to Director of Institutional Research and Registrar Christine Cote, the average grade increases every year. The average grade earned by students has increased from 3.20 to 3.33 on a four-point scale in the last ten years. Cote noted that grade inflation is not at all specific to Bowdoin, and said that colleges across the nation are seeing similar trends.

The Board of Trustees meets this weekend to discuss pressing College issues, including the current construction of the concert hall, higher energy costs, and next-year's re-accreditation process.

With the impending vacancies in the positions of Dean of Admissions and Dean of Academic Affairs, the College, with the help of search committees and search consultant Kim Morrisson, is actively seeking strong replacements for these key roles within the school administration.

For those at Bowdoin who are less technologically savvy than they would like to admit or who just want easier access to course material, Bowdoin is aiming to make life simpler through its recent utilization of the web site Blackboard (http://blackboard.bowdoin.edu).