The Bowdoin Orient

Griffin Metto, a junior at Colby, has passed away, the Colby Echo reported today.

In a campus-wide email, Colby President William D. “Bro” Adams told students that Metto had died in a hospital today near his home in Franklin, Mass., after a brief illness.

Metto was the news editor of the Colby Echo. The paper's co-editor-in-chief Julianna Haubner ’14, told the Orient that the illness was “sudden” and his condition “deteriorated quickly.” Doctors and Metto’s family “don’t really know what happened,” according to Haubner.

Metto was a classics and government major who participated in Model UN, in addition to his work on the Echo.

“He was also just an all-around awesome person—really sweet, kind of quiet, mild-mannered and humble,” Haubner said.

“In my four years working on the paper, I've never seen someone be so committed and dedicated to a group of people and a product the way he was to the Echo and our editorial staff.”

According to Adams’s email, Colby is organizing a memorial service for Metto on campus, though it likely will not take place until after Colby’s spring break, which begins next Saturday.

The Echo will be publishing a special issue next week celebrating Metto’s life. If you have anything you wish to share about Metto, contact Echo co-editor-in-chief Tim Badmington '14 at tcbadmin@colby.edu. 

Editor's note, March 14, 7:55 p.m.: This article has been upated to clarify that Haubner and Badmington are editors-in-chief of the Echo.

Singer-songwriter Mat Kearney will open the annual Ivies concert on Saturday, April 26, according to Kearney’s manager.

“The show is confirmed. Everything is done,” said Josh Terry, Kearney’s manager, in a phone interview with the Orient on Thursday.

According to Terry, Kearney will open at 3 p.m., followed by the duo Timeflies. Timeflies’ management team did not respond to requests for confirmation before press time.

Beginning next semester, student employees of the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) may no longer serve as confidential members of Safe Space when dealing with issues of sexual misconduct.  

Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Director of Residential Life Mary Pat McMahon and Meadow Davis, associate director of student affairs and deputy Title IX coordinator, have been working on this adjustment but were not able to fully discuss the change with all members of Safe Space and Res Life until their meeting on Wednesday evening.

In an interview with the Orient, both McMahon and Davis emphasized that this is a policy “shift” or “clarification,” not a policy change. 

“So are there fraternities at Bowdoin?” Get ready—people are going to ask you this question over and over during the next four years, and probably long after. There is no Greek life at Bowdoin, and the student handbook explicitly prohibits fraternities and sororities. Bowdoin phased out its co-ed fraternities in the 1990s and the College Houses (or, as they’re more commonly called, social houses) were instituted to replace the Greek system.

There are eight social houses on campus—Ladd, Baxter, Reed, Macmillan (“Mac”), Quinby, Helmreich, Burnett and Howell—and they are primarily inhabited by sophomores.

After much discussion and deliberation, the Office of Residential Life has instituted some substantial changes for the College House system this year. In the new system, each floor of a first year brick is affiliated with a different College House; your friends on the floor below you will be affiliates of a different House and your fellow affiliates will all live in different dorms. (Refer to the inset for a full list of floor and House affiliations.)

In light of the recent revelations about the National Security Agency's (NSA) extensive and controversial surveillance programs, the Orient turned to our resources at Bowdoin for analysis and comment on the situation. We reached out to members of the Bowdoin community who specialize in related areas of government, media studies, computer science and information technology.

While the focus of these conversations is primarily national, we heard from Mitch Davis, Bowdoin's chief information officer, about the administrative protocol for accessing student email on campus.

Between the 2001-02 and 2011-12 academic years, the College increased its funding for need-based financial aid grants from roughly $10.4 million to approximately $27.2 million.

Financial aid and grade point average (GPA) have no correlation, according to a nonscientific survey conducted by the Orient, to which 395 students responded.

The survey asked students about their academic success as it related to their financial and work situations.

Forty-six percent of the survey’s respondents say they receive financial aid, which is close to the actual percentage of students receiving grants from the College.

In the 2001-02 academic year, 39 percent of students received grants from the College. That number rose to 46 percent by the 2011-12 academic year, according to the College’s Common Data Set.

In recent years, the percentage of students receiving aid has increased on a class-by-class basis, according to the online Class of 2016 profile. Upon matriculation, 41 percent of the entering Class of 2013 received financial aid; this year, 48 percent of the Class of 2016 received financial aid. The average grant for all students has increased by $1,100 since the Class of 2013 matriculated, from $34,350 to $35,450. The average grant for students in the Class of 2016 is $38,740.

Director of Student Aid Michael Bartini said that he thinks the reasons for these increases in financial aid are two-fold.

“One, we are recruiting to a broader group of individuals,” he said. “Two, our cost has increased a bit faster than families’ incomes. As we broaden our perspective on who we try to attract and our cost increases, those two factors have led us to believe that our average grants are going to continue to increase probably faster than our increase in cost.”

In February 2003, the Orient reported that the comprehensive fee for the 2003-04 school year would rise to $37,790. According to the Office of Student Aid’s website, tuition alone cost $43,676 for the 2012-13 school year. (The total estimated expenses for this school year were $58,200.)

Because the cost of education has risen, “more and more families with higher incomes are qualifying for financial aid,” according to Bartini.

“I believe the majority of folks—whether you’re on financial aid or not—really struggle and plan about how to pay for college,” said Bartini. “There are a group of families who may not be receiving assistance from us, but they’re also feeling the pain.”

The College’s financial aid policies have also changed over the past decade. In 2008, Bowdoin eliminated loans from its financial aid packages.

In May 2012, the Orient conducted a survey of graduating seniors. The results showed that, of the 30 percent who would graduate with debt, the average amount was $25,895.

According to the U.S. News and World Report, 16 percent of Bowdoin students receive Pell Grants, which are awarded by the federal government based upon financial need. This year, students who qualify for Pell Grants can receive up to $5,500, depending on their financial circumstances and the cost of their college. Thirteen percent of the Class of 2016 received a Pell Grant this year.

In an email to the Orient, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Scott Meiklejohn said that his office is “committed to introducing the College to talented students of all backgrounds, school types and family incomes, in as many places on the globe as we can reach.”

That isn’t always easy. Faustino Ajanel ’16, a first-generation college student from Los Angeles, said that even applying for aid was an obstacle. Ajanel had problems filling out his CSS Profile—a form that allows students to apply for aid—during his senior year of high school.

“I was getting lost” filling out the form, he said. “I had to go to programs to ask for help filling it out and even the program directors didn’t know how to.”

For many of the students interviewed for this report, financial aid packages were significant factors in choosing to come to Bowdoin but were not always the deciding factor.

“I made my decision to come here despite financial aid packages, rather than because of” them, said a sophomore female who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue.

A junior girl who receives $40,000 in aid said that, though she received better offers from other colleges, her “feeling about the school was more important than the money.”

Many students receiving financial aid work to earn spending money or to help cover costs. Students are allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours a week in on-campus jobs. Some, albeit few, students work additional hours off campus.

One sophomore female’s parents made her quit an additional off-campus job “because I wasn’t sleeping. The pressure [to work] comes from myself and it definitely impacts my academics,” she said. “When you’re at work, you’re not sleeping or doing homework or socializing, which are the three things you should be doing at school.

“I always finish my assignments on time...and I think because I’m really conscious of it, I focus a lot more on really getting things done,” she said. But working a lot “does make it harder.”

Students who work fewer hours on campus face less of a challenge balancing making money and academics.

“It definitely takes time to work—eight hours a week is not a pittance—but it’s time that I don’t feel like I need in order to keep up with studies,” said one senior male.

Financial aid can also serve to motivate the students who receive it, according to Anna Chase ’13.

“I work really hard for personal fulfillment, but in the back of my mind sometimes I want to do really well because I’m getting so much help to be here—sort of to prove that I deserve the help, deserve the aid, and that I can be the best student I can be,” she said.

If commitments become too much, the College provides several resources for students struggling academically or looking to improve study skills, regardless of their background or GPA. One of these resources is the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), which includes the Writing Project, the Quantitative Reasoning Program, and the Baldwin Program for Academic Development.

Director of the Baldwin Program Elizabeth Barnhart said that students have all sorts of reasons for seeking her help, but added that a lack of preparedness is perhaps the most common. She said that the diversity of secondary schools from which Bowdoin draws helps explain the varying degrees of preparedness within the student body.

“I try to help students understand the changes. What’s different from high school? Why is it that some people in your class sound like they know a lot more than you?” said Barnhart. “Is it that they’re so much smarter than you, or is it that they’ve had a very different kind of high school experience?”

Ajanel said his public Los Angeles high school’s curriculum was not designed to get him ready for a school like Bowdoin.

“I honestly was lost [my first semester] because my high school didn’t prepare me as well as other kids,” Ajanel said. “The main purpose of my high school was to allow people to graduate from high school, not to help people be ready for college.”

If students are not succeeding academically, Barnhart said, the College does a good job of encouraging them to seek out the Baldwin Program.

“Counseling, Dean’s Office, faculty, advisors—it’s kind of that network of referral,” she said.

Ajanel said he would not have gone to the CTL during his first semester if not for this network.

“People had to push me to go there. I didn’t want to ask for help,” he said.

Despite the success of the network of administrators and faculty, the College has sought new ways to help students from diverse backgrounds reach their full academic potential.

The minutes of the February 6, 2012 faculty meeting include a discussion on academic preparedness among entering first years. It describes the findings of a 2008-2009 working group “charged with looking at how we help students with different experiences and backgrounds succeed at Bowdoin.”

According to the minutes, “The group studied the transcripts of 40 students in the bottom 10 percent of the Class of 2007 as well as those of an additional 40 randomly chosen students in the class.”

The group recommended several programs to help students adjust to academics at the College, including an intensive advising program and a lower-level math class. The College has since launched the BASE advising program and begun offering Math 050: Quantitative Reasoning.

The BASE advising program pairs first-year students with specially-trained advisors. Faculty Liason for Advising Suzanne Lovett, one of the people behind the program, distributed a report on the success of the program at the February 6, 2012 faculty meeting, according to the minutes. The report indicated that students in BASE were far more likely to solicit and receive help from their advisors than students not in the program.

Lovett could not be reached for comment by press time.

Some students who receive aid said that adding social and extracurricular activities into the balancing act of work and academics is complicated, though most have found few differences  between themselves and their wealthier peers.

“I know people who are paying for everything on their own; they’re a lot more stressed out than I am. I have friends who are here on no financial aid, whose parents donate, and then I have friends who are like me,” said one sophomore female.

According to another sophomore female, money “comes up more in some circles than others.”But for her, the differences between students aren’t based on financial aid; instead, she said, differences are “because of what kind of happens to your consciousness when you’re raised with different levels of wealth.”

“There’s an isolated person here or there that likes to flaunt their [socioeconomic] status,” a sophomore boy said, “but you’d be hard pressed to find a person like that.”

Two students disagreed.

“There’s a clear divide between socioeconomic status,” said a junior female. “I can’t just do the same things...It makes it difficult to talk to your friends about these situations. It’s also a learning process for me, to make them understand what I’m going through.”

Ajanel said he thinks Bowdoin students do not discuss wealth or privilege frequently enough, and that most students make little effort to understand his background.

“I actually feel unsafe now when I go back home. I started to lose my street smarts, I guess,” Ajanel said. “Right here everything is calm—nothing that fast, no violence, no drugs, no gangs—but when I go home, I live through that again. I experience that all over again.”

For all the students interviewed, navigating financial situations is trickier when it comes to off-campus activities.

“I’ve never been out to eat [in Brunswick] except when my friends’ parents take me out,” said the sophomore male.

“There are times when I really wish I could go to New York for a weekend,” one sophomore girl said. “When people are comparing their summer plans, that’s when I feel it most.”On campus, though, money is less of an object.

“I definitely think Bowdoin makes a lot of effort to make things equally accessible to everyone. You don’t pay to go to most of the events, it’s a package deal. There’s a ton of stuff you can do without spending any other money,” said a sophomore female.

The senior male agreed.

“Everything’s pretty equal opportunity,” he said.

“Bowdoin does a really good job—you don’t have to spend any money really,” said another sophomore female.

One sophomore male who receives $40,000 in aid found that getting rid of his meal plan significantly reduced his expenses.

“I can never go to the dining hall with people,” he said, but he tries to make up for it by having friends over for dinner. “Other than not going to the dining hall, everything’s pretty much the same,” despite his financial situation.

“Work doesn’t make it harder,” he said. “I still do a lot of extracurriculars. I have time for social stuff.”

The men’s tennis team will forfeit its next four matches and will be barred from post-season competition as a result of a hazing allegation and subsequent investigation by the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs and the Athletics Department. 

Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster and newly appointed Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan ’98 informed the student body of the incident in an email sent Wednesday evening. This is the first hazing event brought to the Bowdoin community’s attention since the men’s rugby team was found to have hazed first years at its annual Epicuria party in September. 

“This latest incident was brought to our attention late last week by a concerned student unaffiliated with the team,” Foster and Ryan wrote in the email.

The Dean’s office originally planned to talk to all members of the team as part of its investigation into the incident, but “we didn’t have to,” Foster said in an interview with the Orient.

“It became pretty clear after talking to a number of the members of the team that this happened,” he said. “The team took responsibility for their mistakes from the outset. That’s not always been the case.

“To the credit of the team, they owned this. They realized that what had happened was not okay,” Foster said.

“We met with the team and had an open and honest conversation with them,” Ryan said in an interview.

Neither Foster nor Ryan would discuss the incident in detail.

The Orient reached out to many members of both the men’s and women’s tennis teams, all of whom declined to comment. 

The men’s team is ranked No. 5 in national D-III tennis, though it is now ineligible for individual and team competition in the post-season. 

In the email, Foster and Ryan wrote that Head Coach Conor Smith “supports these sanctions.” Smith could not be reached for comment before press time.

The email also stated that “there will be both individual and team sanctions for those involved.” Foster would not comment on what those consequences might be, though he did say that they would be limited to the upperclassmen on the team.

Upon completing the investigation, Foster and Ryan wrote that it was clear that “the team engaged in activities that clearly violate the Bowdoin Social Code as well as our very-well articulated and frequently explained policy that prohibits hazing.” 

The Bowdoin Student Handbook broadly defines hazing in a five-paragraph description, which includes questions to help determine whether or not an event can be considered hazing. These include: “is a person or group being singled out because of status?” “Is alcohol involved?” “Was it demeaning, abusive or dangerous?”

“It is important to note that none of the actions taken by team members placed any individual in physical danger,” Foster and Ryan wrote in the email. “That said, this is clearly a case of poor judgment by team members and an unfortunate example of a lack of leadership by students who should know better. 

“We heard from students in this case that they were simply continuing a long-standing tradition for which they felt a sense of obligation,” they wrote. “We also heard again that the activities defined as hazing were ‘optional,’ and that participants could simply choose not to participate. Neither of these explanations stands as a valid defense.” 

“There’s no place for hazing of any kind within our campus community,” Ryan said, in response to a question asking how the incident qualified as hazing despite a lack of harm or force.

“I am particularly discouraged that some of our alumni would continue to urge our current students to not let such traditions falter,” Foster said. “I know that that happened in this case—there was some pressure being put on some of our current students and I think that’s a real shame.”

Earlier this year, team members “chose to discontinue” another tradition that was “not a hazing-related tradition, but they really decided that it wasn’t who they were as a team,” said Foster. He declined to provide details of that tradition as well. 

“Men’s tennis alumni support the men’s team and will continue to support them through this process,” wrote one alumnus of the team in an email to the Orient. He commented on the incident on the condition of anonymity. “While we support Bowdoin’s aim to provide a nourishing environment for its student athletes, we find these punishments entirely excessive, unwarranted, and contrary to the promotion of team unity.”

Foster said he did not know how the third party learned about the team’s hazing.

“We’re appreciative that a student came forward with a report of an incident that caused them a lot of concern,” Ryan said.

Three hundred and nineteen students have applied to live in College Houses for the 2013-2014 school year. 

Rising sophomores submitted the bulk of the applications, though 10 of the applicants are upperclassmen, according to Director of Residential Life Mary Pat McMahon. 

There are 200 available spots in social houses, not including eight beds reserved for proctors. College House applications allow students to apply to multiple Houses, so total numbers of applications can be calculated in two ways: how many students rank a House as their first choice, and how many students applied to a House in total (regardless of rank). 

Ben Farrell, former associate director of residential education, left the College at the end of January. “Ben Farrell is no longer working at the College,” Director of Residential Life Mary Pat McMahon wrote in an email to ResLife staff members on January 25. “He is currently pursuing some interesting creative and professional opportunities.”

The management of Pedro O’Hara’s called the Brunswick Fire Department last Sunday morning to respond to a flood at the restaurant, according to the Bangor Daily News. A sprinkler pipe burst and flooded the restaurant with three to four feet of water. The BDN reports that the fire department had to temporarily shut off electricity, gas and water to safely drain the restaurant.

Shortly after being sworn into office on January 3, Senator Angus King had already begun making the political rounds in Washington, meeting with at least 30 of his new colleagues on Capitol Hill and appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” opposite Newt Gingrich. Since winning the Senate seat in November, King and his team have been busy setting up the Senator’s Maine and Washington offices, reviewing hundreds of applications for only 35 positions.

The annual pilgrimage of summer interns to D.C. was in full swing by the time I began my first full-time internship at the end of May. There were scores of college-aged kids on the Metro with me every morning, doing their best to look like young professionals in their suits and ties, pencil skirts and heels—because even in the heat and humidity of July, Washington is a very formal city. 

On days when I took the blue Metro line into work, most of the people who boarded the train at Foggy Bottom/George Washington University were student-types, living in George Washington University dorms and interning around town, like Simon Bordwin ’13, who was the public policy intern at the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) this summer. 

Last summer, Bordwin lived at home and commuted into New York for work; this summer he came to work for GLSEN in D.C., because their headquarters in New York “weren’t sure early on enough.” Washington also offered him a new social scene to explore. 

The women's water polo team won its first division championship last Saturday, qualifying it as the No. 14 seed for nationals. After beating Bates 14-7 in the semifinals earlier in the day, Bowdoin scored the final goal in overtime to win 7-6 over top-ranked Wellesley. "Previously our best finish was third place two years ago," said captain Sarah Hirschfeld '13.

Last Saturday, the Maine Republican nominating caucuses drew a whopping two percent of registered Republicans. Americans are known for their lackluster voter turnout, but this is a paltry showing even for us.

Today marks the publication of the Bowdoin Globalist's inaugural issue. The content was initially published online this Wednesday, though hard copies of the magazine are now available on campus. This issue of the Globalist, an international affairs magazine with chapters based at other colleges and universities, focuses on "youth in revolt." The magazine's executive staff includes Lauren Speigel '12, Aaron Wolf '12, Gus Vergara '13, Stanton Cambridge '13, and Max Staiger '13.

When it comes to Hollywood, Brad and Angelina just don't do it for me. Give me hilarious and adorable instead of untouchable and elegant any day—my "couple crush," if you will, is on comic geniuses (and married couple) Amy Poehler (former "Saturday Night Live" darling) and Will Arnett, best known for his role as Gob in "Arrested Development."

The lists of allies and advocates are all across campus—anyone who's used a bathroom at Bowdoin has seen an OutPeer, OutAlly or SafeSpace "bathroom list."

With the final polls for Bowdoin Student Government's (BSG) spring elections closing this past Sunday, the final BSG positions for the 2011-2012 academic year have been determined.

After leading the women's lacrosse team to victory over Bates and Williams last week, Katie Stewart '12 was named NESCAC Player of the Week on Monday.

After polls closed for the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) elections last Sunday, the results were almost immediately sent to students via email. Derek Brooks '12 will serve as BSG president for the 2011-2012 academic year. Brian Kim '13 was elected treasurer, Dani Chediak '13 won the race for vice president of student organizations, and Chase Taylor '12 was successful in his bid to become vice president of facilities.

In its third meet of the season, the women's track team posted strong individual results at the New Hampshire Invitational last Saturday.

Though Carolyn Gorajek '13 scored half of the women's lacrosse team's goals in a 10-9 victory over Connecticut College last weekend, she was not aiming for a personal record.

After almost three months of consideration, the Office of Admissions sent out regular decision letters for the Class of 2015 last Friday, March 25. This year's acceptance rate—15.6 percent—is notably lower than last year's, which was 19.7 percent. Admissions had initially targeted March 25 as the final date to mail decision letters, though letters were mailed out a day early last year.

Following the announcement of performers for the 2011 Ivies concert last Friday, student praise and criticism for the Entertainment Board (E-Board) selections began flowing immediately. Janelle Monáe, Mac Miller and Local Natives are the three acts who will perform at the April 30 concert.

The deadline for off-campus study applications for the 2011-2012 academic year has come and gone. On Monday, approximately 46 percent of the Class of 2013 submitted an application to study away to the Off-Campus Study Office (OCS). OCS received a total of 229 applications, 19 of which were applications to study away for the entire year. 116 students elected to study away in the fall semester, while 94 opted to study away in the spring of 2012.

Associate Professor of Economics at Colby Philip H. Brown resigned from his position after he was informed that the college intended to fire him, after allegations of taking pictures of female students in a bathroom during a college-sponsored trip.

Walking into a quad in Moore, the door is ajar, the lights are off and three first year students holding laptops sit on the couch facing the TV. "You're looking at the way we've spent the past two weeks—except 'Dexter' was on the screen," said first year squash player Stephan Danyluk, who, along with his three teammates (and temporary roommates), has been on campus since January 2. "We watched the first three and a half seasons of 'Dexter' in two and a half weeks."

The Early Decision (ED) committee will convene today to begin the admission process for the first members of the Class of 2015. "We are pleased about the 11 percent increase in ED I applications," wrote Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Scott Meiklejohn in an e-mail to the Orient.

Because of the popularity of the Bowdoin vs. Colby ice hockey last season, tickets will be required for entrance into both the men and women's games.

An unprecedented number of Early Decision I (ED I) applications is flooding the Office of Admissions. As of Wednesday afternoon, the College had received 561 ED I applications—over 10 percent more than last year's total—and there are more still to come.

The results of last spring's Health and Wellness Survey were reviewed and released by Bowdoin's Senior Officers this week, though the data will not be officially published by the College. The survey was voluntary and anonymous. It was administered to all students in the spring semester, elicited 934 respondents. Of that number, 42.8 percent were men and 56.9 percent were women.

This fall marks Rick Scala's 25th year as men's rugby coach.

This Tuesday, Brunswick will welcome Flipside, a new, by-the-slice pizza restaurant at 111 Maine Street. Before its official opening, Flipside will host an open house today from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., allowing Brunswick residents to sample free slices of pizza.