The Bowdoin Orient

And the year of James Joyce continues. Last night, "The Next Joyce Century: Still Fearing and Loving 'Ulysses'" opened with a panel discussion in Hubbard Hall. The symposium will continue this afternoon with a roundtable discussion in Massachusetts Hall.

Thirteen months after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, Bowdoin students chose this week to remember the disaster and to continue to show their support for the Haitian people. The Bowdoin Haitian Alliance (BHA) is the main sponsor of "Hope for Haiti Week 2011," a week of events designed to raise both awareness of the continuing effects of the earthquake and funds for four Haitian children to attend Institution Verret, a private school in Port-au-Prince.

The occasional series "How it feels" was first published in the 2005-2006 volume of the Orient. In this 2011 revival, Bowdoin students tell the Orient about their experiences—good, bad, or just extreme. Here are their stories.

Saturday will mark the beginning of the first reading period under the new student printing plan on campus. As students make their way to public printers to retrieve copies of papers, problem sets and final projects, many are checking their printing allocations funds and considering whether or not they will have enough to carry them through finals. Starting this academic year, students were each given 750 pages of free double-sided black-and-white print jobs per semester, and as recent data show, this new plan has worked for 96 percent of students.

These days, we know winter is on its way as Bean Boots begin to litter dorm hallways. Two hundred years ago, you could literally smell winter coming from a mile away. One image not commonly seen on the Bowdoin campus now is that of the warm, cozy fire on a cold winter's night. This almost quintessential piece of winter was a part of daily life for students in Bowdoin's first residences.

A new gender-neutral bathroom just opened on the bottom floor of David Saul Smith Union, the College's latest effort to accommodate its LGBTQ population. Discussion and preparation for the new bathroom began last summer and was supported by the administration through the duration of the project. The new bathroom is located in what used to be the locker rooms for the old gymnasium near the Polar Bear entrance to Smith Union. "There are students who need gender-neutral bathrooms here at Bowdoin," said Director for the Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity Kate Stern. Stern and Associate Director of Facilities Operations Jeff Tuttle did an initial walk through the buildings on campus over the summer to assess the number of gender-neutral bathrooms that already existed at Bowdoin.

With the arrival of October today, everyone is getting ready for the colder Maine weather. While everyone will brace against the cold, one group of students stands to suffer more: smokers.

It seems that Bowdoin officially "survIvied" the weekend, judging by the absence of any court summonses, citations, arrests or alcohol-related transports via rescue unit to the hospital.

After a total of 14 years at Bowdoin College, alumnus and Associate Dean of Multicultural Students Wil Smith will be leaving his position to assume the role of Dean of Community Life and Multicultural Affairs at the Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass.

Students may seem a bit more at home this weekend after the triples, singles, doubles, and open beds lotteries wrapped up many students' searches for housing. On Tuesday night, groups of students flocked to Daggett Lounge to secure either triple or single residences next year.

Many notable men and women claim Bowdoin College as their alma mater, and buildings around campus commemorate them: students study at the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, visit the arctic museum that features the work of Admiral Robert Peary and Donald MacMillan, and walk daily past the statue of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. On the list of alumni, though, is a man whose name is not quite as recognized by the Bowdoin community: Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States of America.

Many are far too well acquainted with the word "stress". Classes, books and many other coping devices have been designed to help people lower the amount of it in their lives. Jamie Paul '10 decided to spend a little more time with the concept of stress by making it the subject of her senior honors project this year. Paul, a psychology major and math minor, has been researching how athletes cope with stressful situations during games, and how different gender and personality components effect these various coping strategies.

Last night at Frontier Café, students in the Environmental Studies Capstone Project (Environmental Studies 301) gave the last of three climate action plan presentations for the Towns of Brunswick and Topsham. Over 60 Bowdoin students, faculty members, and town residents attended.

This week marks the halfway point in Bowdoin's energy saving competition. The 21 residence halls on campus have been competing for cash prizes by conserving energy use since the competition began on October 1.

The College's agenda for achieving carbon neutrality was initially due by September 15, but the green game-plan has been set back. The President's Climate Commitment Advisory Committee's report is now expected to be available around the beginning of November.

Cots, discussion booths and tables with juice and snacks replaced the couches and tables in Smith Union's Morrell Lounge on Wednesday afternoon. These changes were part of the American Red Cross's first blood drive of the year.