The Bowdoin Orient

Hill was already on his way to the Middle East on Thursday night, he told the Orient. "I'm just taking off now from D.C. en route to Kuwait," he wrote in an e-mail to the Orient at 9:44 p.m. Thursday.

Bowdoin is keeping tabs on its apparel licensing agreement with Russell Athletic after the company was accused of anti-unionism. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that 12 universities, including Columbia, Cornell, Duke, and Georgetown, have already cut ties with Russell due to the company's closing of a unionized factory in Honduras.

The Bowdoin Bubble does not keep its inhabitants immune to the nation's faltering economy. Just as Americans across the country are struggling to find and keep jobs, Bowdoin students are having a difficult time breaking into the real world.

Christmas came a day early for Elizabeth Richeda '09 and Cameron Weller '11 this year. On December 24, Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols called each student to let her know that Security and the Brunswick Police Department (BPD) had recovered their laptops, which a Brunswick resident had stolen from Hawthorne-Longfellow Library (H-L) a week earlier.

Geoffrey Canada '74, President and CEO of the Harlem's Children Zone, will appear on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" on Monday.

Across the NESCAC, the global financial crisis has propelled endowments downward. Amherst's endowment has fallen by 25 percent since June 30, while Colby's endowment is down at least the same percentage. Williams has estimated a loss of about 28 percent, and Trinity has calculated an 18 percent loss. Bowdoin administrators with knowledge of the endowment chose not to comment on the College's performance.

For the third time in a month, the Office of Safety and Security has issued an alert for a man identified for following a female student. Brunswick resident Michael C. Barry, 19, was issued a criminal trespass warning on Thursday after trailing a female Bowdoin student in his red 1995 Cadillac El Dorado late Wednesday night.

"No one in their right mind would want to go through OCS again," says Jack Dingess '09, who has spent 12 weeks training to become an officer in the United States Marine Corps. But the rewards of being a Marine officer are worth it to four Bowdoin students. "It's awful right now, but it's so worth the price you're paying," says Mike Dooley '10.

As the number of solvent banks seems to decrease on a daily basis, it is no wonder that Bowdoin students looking for finance jobs are preparing for a very scaled-back recruiting season this year. Several financial companies have canceled expected on-campus recruiting events, including Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank.

In a move that increases the demand for renewable energy in Maine, Bowdoin announced on Monday that it would purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from UPC Wind's Mars Hill Wind project.

Previous service on Bowdoin Student Government should not be a prerequisite for serving as BSG president, according to recommendations of the Election Reform Commission. ERC chair Will Hales '08 reported the commission's findings at Wednesday's BSG meeting.

Though applications for the Class of 2012 inched up only one percent this year, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William Shain isn't worried. Shain sees the small increase as a retention of last year's 10.4 percent jump, rather than a sluggish admissions cycle. "If we only went up one percent next year, I'd be disappointed," Shain said. "But I don't think that this year's small increase is an issue."

On Thursday, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) decided to conditionally restore Charter I status to the College Republicans, a reversal of BSG's action in November to move the Republicans to Charter II status following a taking of unauthorized funds.

Public printing at Bowdoin is now easier and more reliable than it has been in the past, according to Information Technology (IT). The College has replaced its four-year-old CS Print system with Pharos Uniprint. "We recognized some clear issues with the system we had in place," said IT Security Officer and Systems Consultant Steve Blanc.

When campus squirrels finally begin Operation Takeover Bowdoin, their first step will likely be to cut power to the campus.

With black students comprising 8.8 percent of the Class of 2011, Bowdoin has moved toward the top of an annual survey of enrollment of black students at top-ranked liberal arts colleges.

What if you popped a Bruce Springsteen album into your CD player and out came the familiar riff of Tommy Tutone's 1982 hit "867-5309/Jenny"? You might feel cheated, lied to even. Not I.

Upcoming plans to improve Bowdoin's OneCard include the capability to fund students' OneCards online and to use the card at local stores. As the OneCard system moves online, features of the OneCard system that were once tedious will become simpler.

The Bowdoin Women's Basketball Team's head coach, Stefanie Pemper, may be considered for the recent head coach opening at Division I school University of Maine at Orono, according to newspapers across Maine.

The maximum Pell Grant is likely to increase for the first time in four years, thanks to both Congress and President Bush.

The Bowdoin College Dining Service thinks that you might agree to swipe your card at Super Snack if a burly football player tells you to do so.

President George W. Bush's budget request for the 2007 fiscal year includes a plan to eliminate the Perkins Loan Program. The Perkins Loan Program provides needy students with loans at a fixed interest rate of 5 percent that only takes effect after the student graduates. Without the loans, students would likely turn to more expensive Stafford Loans, credit cards, and banks.

At about 1:30 a.m. this morning, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget that may significantly cut college students' financial aid packages. Despite House Democrats' opposition of the spending-cuts bill, the resolution passed by a vote of 217-215.

In the first of three annual Board of Trustees meetings, the board approved a $2.7 million increase to the 2005-2006 budget to compensate for unforeseen expenses.

Bowdoin's number of black faculty is the lowest among highly-ranked liberal arts colleges, according to a recent study by The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE). A summer 2005 article in JBHE showed that of Bowdoin's 152 faculty, only three, or two percent, are black. Of the 21 liberal arts colleges that gave statistics to JBHE, Bowdoin's percentage is the lowest.

Bowdoin's effort to attract minority students has led it to an admissions yield of over 40 percent among black students. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reported Tuesday that Bowdoin's black student yield of 47.8 percent is the highest of the 24 liberal arts schools that the Journal investigated.

Today's Common Hour lecture featuring Paul Rusesabagina sold out further in advance than any previous Common Hour event, according to Assistant Director of Events Brenna Hensley. Rusesabagina is famous for his heroism during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. As a manager at a hotel, he used his influence to shelter over 1,000 Rwandan refugees and orphans. Many students know him as the main character from the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, in which Don Cheadle played Rusesabagina.