The Bowdoin Orient

Approximately 25 students have begun Bowdoin Climate Action’s (BCA) sit-in for fossil fuel divestment this morning on the second floor of Hawthorne Longfellow Hall, which houses the offices of President Barry Mills and Dean for Academic Affairs Cristle Collins Judd.

BCA is staging the sit-in because it believes the Board of Trustees has not taken their calls for divestment seriously. Sit-in organizer Matthew Goodrich ’15 said that protesters, many of whom are skipping classes, will refuse to leave until the College engages with them about divestment, adding that BCA's current plan is continue the sit-in overnight.

Mills is currently out of town—something that BCA was not aware of until the Orient mentioned it in an interview with spokespeople Allyson Gross ’16 and Goodrich, who said that his absence from campus would not have affected their choice to sit in today.

Administrators continued to work inside their offices with their doors closed. None of them were willing to speak to the Orient.

The sit-in was quiet, with protesters doing homework or browsing the Internet on their laptops. Many students wore orange patches on their clothing—a national symbol for the divestment movement.

Protesters were careful not to interfere with administrators. At one point, Judd walked through the reception area, politely asking several students to let her by. A few minutes later she walked past again, and protest organizers called out for other students to step aside.

Goodrich said that BCA does not plan on chanting or singing, which he says would be disruptive for the administrators in the office.

“We want to let them do their work and they’ll let us do ours,” he said.

Gross said that protestors are prepared in the event that the Office of Safety and Security asks them to leave the building.

“We have plans for all different levels of contingencies. We’ve been planning for a while and are prepared for whatever comes,” she said.

Goodrich said that BCA has not yet determined what it will do if protesters face disciplinary action from the College. 

“We’ll have to see. I’d like to see what happens first before we say what we’ll do,” he said.

The sit in could violate the College's Social Code, which prohibits, “Disruption of the orderly processes of the College, involving obstruction of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary proceedings, or other College activities, including its public-service activities.”

BCA also published a letter endorsing the sit-in that was signed by 16 parents of current students and 38 alumni, including Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Bob Ives '69.

Wil Smith, a Bowdoin graduate from the Class of 2000 who stands as one of the most cherished and well-known recent alumni of the College, died at age 46 last Sunday after a protracted battle with colon cancer. 

He served as both the director and associate dean of multicultural student programs at Bowdoin, but he is perhaps best known as the 28-year-old undergraduate Navy reservist and varsity basketball player who attended Bowdoin while raising his toddler daughter, Olivia.  

The Bowdoin community was notified of Smith’s death by an email from Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster at 10:48 on Sunday morning. At the time of his death, Smith was the dean of community and multicultural affairs at the Berkshire School, an independent preparatory high school in Sheffield, Mass. He also coached the school’s girls’ basketball team.  

An aviation electronics technician in the Navy, Smith came to Bowdoin after being transferred from Italy to the Naval Air Station Brunswick (NASB) during the first Gulf War. He met Head Basketball Coach Tim Gilbride in 1995, and Gilbride encouraged Smith to apply to the College. 

“In our conversations he started saying, ‘I’m thinking about going to college,’ and I said, ‘Well, would you be interested in considering Bowdoin?’” said Gilbride. “He said, ‘Sure, how do you think it would be?’ and I said, ‘Well, you haven’t been in school for a while, you’d need old transcripts….If that’s something you’re interested in, I’d love to help.’”

Because of his already atypical circumstances, Smith did not tell Bowdoin that he had sole custody of his daughter, Olivia, when he matriculated at the College. When it became clear that he was playing the role of a single parent and full-time student with limited ways to make ends meet, the Bowdoin administration, Smith’s friends and his teammates stepped in to help. 

In a video interview of Smith and his daughter, who returned to Bowdoin’s campus this past June, Smith said, “From my time at Bowdoin, and different places I’ve been—where I work now, at Berkshire School, we’ve been fortunate enough to be around some really wonderful, thoughtful people, so it hasn’t just been me. It’s literally been a global village which I think has helped shape Olivia.”  

The common refrain among all who knew Smith professionally and personally is that he was a determined man who inspired the best from people. 

“Wil was a giant of a person. He was a peer educator, he modeled the way for others in terms of his work ethic, modeled the way regarding how to treat others, modeled the way about service, modeled the way about care and concern,” said Foster, who was the dean of first-year students when Smith was an undergraduate. In fact, Smith was the first student Foster ever met with.  “He just is one of the most remarkable people I’ve known. He was a friend to me, a colleague of mine, and he was a teacher of mine.”  

Dean of First-Year Students Janet Lohmann, who partnered with Smith on many projects from 2007-2010, noted Smith’s ability to connect with Bowdoin students who were having trouble and his humility about the significant challenges he faced as an undergraduate at the College. 

“I think that Wil didn’t always tell his story as a mechanism for learning,” Lohmann said. “I think it certainly came up, and there was a legacy about Wil, but a lot of times it was just like, ‘I’m here for you. My experience got me to some place but that’s not necessarily going to be the same experience for you.’ He was really good at sitting with students and validating their own experiences.”

Pieter Mulder, the head of the Berkshire School echoed this sentiment. 

“Wil’s greatest strength might be empowering the voices of students, particularly the students whose voices aren’t always heard,” said Mulder. “He was deeply committed to making sure Berkshire’s ultimate focus was always the students and meeting their needs and aspirations.”

Though few students currently enrolled at Bowdoin knew Smith, first year Hannah Cooke first met him about nine years ago as a middle school student attending public school in Portland. What started as a relationship between a basketball coach and the young Cooke turned into an almost decade-long mentorship that led her from Catherine McAuley High School in Portland, to the Berkshire School and eventually to Bowdoin. 

“For the past years, it’s been him really leading the path for me,” said Cooke. “He’s been my guider and advocate.” 

As the girls basketball coach at Berkshire, Smith encouraged nothing but the best from his players. 

“Something he would do before every game is he would give a very similar speech and he would always talk about how lucky we were,” said Cooke. “He would remind us that there were girls around the world who didn’t have the opportunity to play. He would say, ‘We’re playing for all the girls around the world who don’t have the chance to be where you guys are. On their shoulders we stand.’ He would say that before every single game.” 

Cooke said that even after his 2012 diagnosis of colon cancer and ensuing chemotherapy treatments, Smith was dedicated to his team. 

“Basketball is what kept him going,” said Cooke. “Even when he was going through chemo, he had this commitment to us. He would never tell you how hard it was, ever. He would wear gloves at practice so he wouldn’t get germs on his hands. He couldn’t stay away from the gym.

 “When he was away at chemo, he would call us before every game and we would put him on speaker and he would give us the same speech about the girls on whose shoulders we stand but we wanted to say, ‘We’re standing on your shoulders, too.’ He was so humble—he never made it about him,” she added. 

Cooke is now a member of the Bowdoin women’s basketball team. 

Another outlet of Smith’s community work was as the associate director of Seeds of Peace, an international leadership program that focuses on bringing together youth living in conflict zones such as Israel and Palestine. 

In a statement issued on the Seeds of Peace website, Executive Director Leslie Lewin wrote, “Thank you, Wil, for the countless gifts you have given us all and for reminding us to ‘Do whatever you can, with whatever you have, wherever you are.’ In your honor, we will do just that.” 

Smith’s determination was admired by many. 

“I don’t think I ever saw him defeated at a sense of obstacle,” said Lohmann. “He always saw a level of possibility in any number of situations.”

Another facet of Smith’s personality that was hard to ignore was his humor. 

“He was a larger-than-life sort of person and he was a great mentor who really helped a lot of people in different situations, but I think it’s really important to understand or remember his humor,” said Susan Snell, an administrative assistant in the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs who worked directly with Wil during his time as Bowdoin’s director of multicultural student programs. “His sense of humor was such a big part of him.”

Cooke recalls many humorous episodes involving Smith.

“At the end of the school year, we had this dance called Prize Night. It’s the night before graduation and everyone goes—families can go—and every year, he ended up dancing in the middle of a circle with all the kids around, doing some type of throwback move,” said Cooke. 

“It just speaks to him in that the entire community surrounded him, cheering him on.”

Smith’s exuberance was contagious on many levels for those who knew him. 

When asked how he will remember Smith, Gilbride said, “As a great person who loved life, who’s inspirational to so many people in so many ways, who worked hard to make people believe in themselves and succeeded in that. So his legacy is how many people that he had contact with who are better for having known him.”

“He had high expectations for everyone but he was always proud and loved you no matter what,” said Cooke. “It’s just this way he had about him. He believed in you and when he believed in you, you believed in you and that was the special thing about him.”

—Sam Chase, Meg Robbins and Nicole Wetsman contributed to this report.  

At the start of the second week of classes in the Spring 2015 semester, the Bowdoin community received one of the year’s most important announcements—that Bowdoin had found its next president.

After learning that Clayton S. Rose would replace President Barry Mills, many affiliated with the College tempered their excitement with a certain measure of skepticism. While Rose might not be a typical choice, having no experience in the liberal arts and no connection to Bowdoin, most concluded that it is too soon to say what kind of leader Rose will be. Optimism seems to be the collective sentiment.   

Many Bowdoin students and alumni took to social media after the announcement. Some posted congratulatory messages while others voiced disappointment with the choice. One of the recurring objections was the fact that Bowdoin will still have a white, male leader during a time when many peer schools are beginning to appoint female or non-white presidents. 

Several NESCAC schools have elected female presidents in the last five years: Amherst in 2011, Bates in 2012, Connecticut College in 2013, and Trinity and Middlebury in 2014. When Laurie Patton of Middlebury takes office this fall, six out of the 11 NESCAC schools will have female presidents, making male NESCAC presidents a minority. 

Jes Staley ’79, chair of Bowdoin’s search committee, said that the choices of peer schools did not pressure the committee to select a female or a person of color.

“We put together a list of candidates with Isaacson, Miller that was very diverse—that looked at some extraordinarily talented women, some extraordinarily talented candidates of color—so when we started to interview the candidates, it was a very diverse slate,” Staley said. “It would be great to make history, but we had to find the best person to run Bowdoin College—and that was Clayton [Rose].”

Associate Professor of Africana Studies and English Tess Chakkalakal, a member of the search committee, agreed with Staley.

“We kept the pool diverse throughout the process and after that point you can’t really be looking at race or gender as an actual qualification for the job. At least I don’t,” she said.

“Some people are frustrated that he is a straight, white male, but I think a lot of people also recognize that he has had a very successful career and has done very well for himself academically,” said Colin Swords ’15. “The qualifications that indicate that he’ll be an excellent fundraiser for our school and that he’ll be able to do good things for our financial aid—those count more to me than a symbolic gesture.”

Others questioned why Rose, who has never attended or taught at a small liberal arts institution, was chosen for the job. The last president without exposure to a small liberal arts environment was William DeWitt Hyde, the College’s seventh president who was in office from 1885-1917. 

The A. Myrick Freeman Professor of Social Sciences and the Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Departments Susan Bell said that though Rose had not necessarily been part of a liberal arts community, he seems committed to Bowdoin’s spirit of intellectual pursuit. 

“What I find impressive is that he chose to get a Ph.D.,” said Bell. “It suggests that somebody cares deeply enough about education and the liberal ideals of education that he put himself into a position of student as an older person. It suggests that he really values something that we value in the academy, and that’s life-long learning. I don’t know if he would talk about it in this way, but as an outsider observing him, it tells me that not only does he care about life-long education and a self-cultivating approach to life but that he did the disciplined work you need to do in order to finish a Ph.D.” 

Rose left his career as a businessman working at J.P. Morgan to return to the University of Pennsylvania to get his doctorate in sociology. He wrote his dissertation, “Race at the top: Organizational response to institutional pressures and the racial composition of the corporate elite,” on the ways in which African Americans are included on corporate boards of directors.  

“I’m really excited that he has a background in sociology because I think this [background] will be really beneficial as he addresses particular issues that Bowdoin students are passionate about and interested in,” said Priscila Lafore ’14. 

Rose’s experience working at J.P. Morgan and teaching management practice has some in the community saying that he’s an especially qualified choice. 

“My understanding of the president’s job is that it primarily deals with management and finances, and it seems like this guy knows a lot about both of those subjects,” said James Jelin ’16.

—Cameron de Wet and Joe Sherlock contributed to this report.

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On Monday morning the Board of Trustees unanimously elected Clayton S. Rose the 15th president of the College, effective July 1. President-elect Rose, who is currently a professor of management practice at the Harvard Business School (HBS), accepted the position shortly after the vote.

Prior to his time at HBS, Rose worked in the financial services industry for 20 years, serving as vice chairman and chief operating officer at J.P. Morgan in 2001, when he decided to return to academia. He enrolled in a doctoral program in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, where he studied race in America and graduated with distinction in 2007. Rose’s other academic credentials include a B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. He is originally from San Rafael, Calif.

The College held a brief ceremony at 3 p.m. on Monday in David Saul Smith Union to introduce Rose to the Bowdoin community. President Barry Mills, Chair of the Presidential Search Committee and member of the Board of Trustees Jes Staley ’79, Rose and his wife Julianne were in attendance. Several hundred students, faculty, staff and Brunswick residents filled Morrell Lounge and lined the ramps of Smith Union to hear Rose speak.Staley, representing the search committee, said that the body had tirelessly pursued the right candidate.

“We came from different backgrounds and ages,” said Staley. “The search committee clearly reflected the diversity of Bowdoin. The search committee worked incredibly hard. We pored over hundreds of résumés and discussed dozens of potential candidates.”

Staley said that the search committee is confident that Rose is the individual best-suited to guide Bowdoin into the future.

“The search committee was convinced that Clayton has thought deeply about the values of a liberal arts education and the challenges that lie ahead. He has the intellectual strength and quiet confidence to engage with our faculty as we consider the issues facing modern education—from technology to accessibility,” he said.

Rose’s candidacy came from Isaacson, Miller, the search firm Bowdoin hired to help find its new president, but Rose and Staley in fact worked together and became close friends at J.P. Morgan.

“I have learned much by listening to and watching Jes Staley, my long time business partner and great friend,” Rose wrote in the acknowledgments section of his dissertation. “He and I have been discussing issues of race and opportunity in the business world for many years, and he stands above any other executive that I know in his willingness to honestly address difficult social issues; he is a role model for other business leaders.”

A 2012 article in FT Magazine, the weekend insert in the Financial Times, tells the story of Staley giving Rose a Frodsham pocket watch—said to be one of John Pierpoint Morgan’s favorite gifts to give—when Rose left J.P. Morgan in 2001. According to the article, Rose returned the favor on the occasion of Staley’s 50th birthday in 2006.

“It sits on my desk at home and it’s been with me the whole time,” Rose said about the watch in an interview with the magazine. “I have a little stand for it and I look at it every night and every day. It’s a link to a firm and an ethos and a culture that was very much a part of me.”

Staley disclosed his relationship with Rose to the search committee, whose members said that it had no bearing on their selection.

“Apart from the fact that it was disclosed, it was not a big part of our deliberations nor did Jes do anything to make one suspicious of what was going on,” said Professor of Government Paul Franco, who sat on the search committee.

Seniors Oriana Farnham and Dusty Biron and Associate Professor of Africana Studies and English Tess Chakkalakal, all members of the committee, agreed with Franco’s assessment.

Rose began his first address to the Bowdoin community by acknowledging Mills’ accomplishments during his 14-year tenure. Resounding applause followed his words of recognition, demonstrating the esteem in which the Bowdoin community holds Mills.

Earlier in the afternoon during an interview with Orient, Rose explained the decision he made in 2001 to leave the world of finance and return to academia.

“In the business sphere you kind of think of things as a mile wide and an inch deep, and I wanted to flip that and see if I had the intellectual chops to be able to go a mile deep and an inch wide,” said Rose. “The issue that I wanted to go a mile deep into was the issue of race in America, so sociology was the natural academic platform to pursue that interest. I had never taken a sociology class in my life until I showed up at [UPenn] to begin the program—it’s quite a remarkable and powerful discipline actually as I discovered.”

William Bielby, currently a professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was a professor of Rose’s at UPenn and is the collaborator of his dissertation. Bielby said that given Rose’s career as an executive and his research focus in sociology, he will be able to make progress on racial issues that goes beyond symbolism.

“He has some interesting insights, a good handle on those kinds of things about making sure that when you are being supportive of diversity efforts or giving directives in the area of diversity, that there is indeed appropriate accountability and oversight so that there really is meaningful change,” said Bielby.

Rose also spoke to the pressures faced by today’s liberal arts colleges. He acknowledged that the public is becoming increasingly conscious of the value of higher education in terms of dollars and cents, but said that there is still a need for the liberal arts.

“It is essential to helping us grow, to shaping us, to creating fulfilling lives, meaningful lives for each of us, and then there’s the value it brings to society more broadly, an engaged and informed citizenry,” Rose said.

He added that a liberal arts education does not disadvantage students as they enter the job market.

“I actually see no tension, no tradeoff between a very high quality liberal arts education that’s dedicated to the notion of the individual and society,” Rose said. “The skills and tools that you develop in liberal arts education—critical thinking and the ability to communicate and understand the world—are incredibly important to whatever vocation someone is going to have. Those are deeply meaningful and powerful skills.”

Chakkalakal said that an ability to articulate the value of the liberal arts was something she was looking for in each of the candidates, and that Rose clearly had it.

“I think what [Rose] is going to bring here is a way of thinking about the value of the liberal arts in a kind of figurative way and also a material, financial way—that there is a payoff to a liberal arts education,” she said.

Franco said he thought Rose possessed the managerial and financial skills that are essential to the job, but also that Rose understood academia from the inside and would be up to the challenge of grappling with Bowdoin’s curriculum.

“There hasn’t been a great deal done in terms of curriculum reform for many years, ever since the distribution requirements that are currently in place were put in place,” Franco said. “So we’re due for some sort of revisitation of what we teach and how we teach.”

In addition to the skills suggested by his résumé, Rose had another important, if less concrete, qualification.

“He has a Bowdoin-ness to him,” said Farnham.

—Cameron de Wet and Ron Cervantes contributed to this report.

Editors note: An earlier version of this article was published on Monday January 26 and has since been updated to reflect what ran in the January 30 print edition of the Orient.

Richard Morgan ’59, one of the College’s longest-serving and most beloved professors, died last night at the age of 77. Morgan, part of the faculty for 45 years, was married to Gary M. Pendy Sr. Professor of Social Sciences Jean Yarbrough.

Morgan not only occupied a distinguished position among the faculty, but he also inhabited the office at the pinnacle of Hubbard Hall’s gothic tower, a testament to his stature at the College and a cherished spot for students who attended his weekly office hours.

A man revered in the fields of constitutional and international law, Morgan started teaching at Bowdoin in 1969, 10 years after graduating from Bowdoin and subsequent to receiving an M.A. and Ph.D. in the Department of Public Law and Government at Columbia University and serving as a fellow in law and government at Harvard Law School.

“I would have had a lot of fun as a lawyer, but I wouldn’t have been able to spend my time on precisely those legal problems that interest me most,” Morgan said in a 2005 interview with the Orient. “In academic life, you trade income for freedom to concentrate on the things that really interest you.”

Morgan has written a number of books, among them “The Supreme Court and Religion,” “Domestic Intelligence: Monitoring Dissent in America” and “The Law and Politics of Civil Rights and Liberties.”

In addition to his significant academic credentials, Morgan was a first lieutenant in the Army Reserves from 1963-1964. He was also a registered Maine Guide who loved fishing on the Kennebec River near Jackman, Maine.

Morgan, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Constitutional Law, was teaching his Constitutional Law I course until October 16. Free speech cases were Morgan’s favorites to teach.

“Free speech problems tend to give us pure issues of democratic theory. If you think seriously about liberty, there is a fundamental contradiction at the base of the idea,” he told the Orient in 2005.

On a campus made up of predominantly liberal students, Morgan was often referred to as “the conservative professor.” When the Orient asked Morgan about this reputation in 2005, he responded in a typical cheeky manner.

“Yeah, I’m a right wing ideologue,” he said.

In addition to his wife, Morgan is survived by two stepsons, James Yarbrough Stern (Hilary) and John Francis Sutherlin Stern (Elisa), by three grandchildren, Henry, William, and Alexandra, and by his first wife, Eva Morgan of Brunswick.

The College is planning a service in the Bowdoin Chapel on Thursday, November 20th, at 11:00 a.m.

The Orient will run a full obituary of Professor Richard Morgan in its November 21 issue.

In late August, the Brunswick Town Council passed an ordinance approving a two-hour parking limit and restricted overnight parking on Park Row from Gustafson House to College Street. The new regulations, which affect approximately 20 parking spaces, are the newest restrictions in a string of added rules designed to limit long-term parking on and adjacent to campus.

According to Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols, the recent town ordinance reflected Bowdoin’s concern that there was not enough vehicle turnover on the section of Park Row.

“That critical stretch of Park Row, which has such convenient access to so many college facilities, was locked up—pretty much day and night—mostly by student vehicles. People could camp out there for extended periods of time,” he said.

According to Captain Mark Waltz of the Brunswick Police Department, the College approached the town with the idea of instituting the two-hour limit and the overnight parking restriction. 

The College has not only made clear that it is dedicated to promoting a walking campus where people are encouraged to travel on foot, but also to providing more convenient parking spaces for campus visitors. This reasoning was instrumental in Bowdoin’s decision to convert certain student parking lots into visitor, faculty and staff lots. 

The College announced in February that it would make significant changes to parking on campus, including prohibiting students from using 63 spaces in the College House parking lots along Maine Street during weekdays business hours.

In 2012, the College converted the parking lot on Coffin Street—formerly available for student use—into a lot solely for faculty, staff and visitors.

For students with cars on campus, the Town of Brunswick ordinance and the College’s new parking rules have dramatically reduced where and for how long students can park in central campus locations. Some students expressed concerns that their mobility will be hampered because of the changes. 

The only remaining student lots are peripheral to the main campus, with the majority of the student population now parking at Farley Field House and Watson Arena.  

“At this time of the year, I am perfectly fine biking, but I live on Pleasant Street,” said Denis Maguire ’15. “In the winter, I would like a place to park that is convenient to class. As it stands now, the eight-minute walk from Farley to the Quad almost negates the drive I had to take to get on campus.”

The cost of Bowdoin parking decals is another concern that has been raised by some students who have cars on campus. The charge of $20 per semester seems high to those who believe that the reduction in student spaces has eroded the value of the decals.

“If there are fewer places we can park, the price should go way down,” said Amanda Kinneston ’15.

Many students living in College Houses on Maine Street have voiced disappointment that they cannot park in their house lots.

“I’m really frustrated by the no-student parking rule at Helmreich House,” said Beth Findley ’16, a resident of the House. “I don’t even think faculty would feel comfortable parking here, and that is displayed by the fact that our lot is empty all day.”

Kinneston questioned whether making more lots available to faculty and staff is truly necessary.

“It’s not like we’re hiring more faculty and staff,” said Kinneston. “If anything, we’re accepting more students, and they will eventually need more parking in the future.”

Kinneston lives in Brunswick Apartments, which has a large student parking lot. However, she reported that the lot is now frequently at capacity because of the new regulations. Nichols acknowledges that the campus parking changes have mainly affected students, but defended the new limitations.

“Unfortunately, students are probably the most inconvenienced,” he said. “If you live in Quinby House, it’s nice to be able to park right outside of your bedroom window. I understand that. But it’s simply not practical for the smooth operation of the College.”

Bowdoin is set to launch a pilot program for a fieldwork-based Marine Science semester, held at the College’s Coastal Studies Center on Orr’s Island, in Fall 2014. Spearheaded by Assistant Professor of Biology and Director of the Marine Lab Dave Carlon, this project aims to provide a small cohort of students with an immersive scientific experience. Carlon also seeks to better utilize Bowdoin’s lab facility in Harpswell.

The Coastal Studies Center, just a 25 minute drive from campus, is a 118-acre site that houses a research pier and dock, a 1,700 square foot wet lab, a terrestrial lab, and a farmhouse. Students participating in the Marine Science Semester Program would live on campus and commute back and forth everyday.

For Carlon, the concept of an immersive fieldwork-driven semester is familiar—he is a graduate of Boston University’s Marine Program, which culminates in a semester-long residency at the university’s facility in Woods Hole, Mass.

“For me, it’s personal of course—it was a very formative experience because it really gave me my first taste for how science actually works and how it’s a process of discovery and not just a bunch of stuff that’s already been done,” said Carlon.

The courses that will be offered in Bowdon’s pilot program are Dimensions of Marine Biodiversity, Benthic Ecology, Biological Oceanography, and Molecular Evolution and Ecology of Marine Organisms. The class on biodiversity will be taught by Carlon and the Molecular Evolution class will be taught by next year’s Doherty Postdoctoral Fellow.  The two other courses may be taught by new hires.

Students  who participate are expected to have a strong base in biology and earth sciences.  Though a small portion of Bowdoin students have been to the Coastal Studies Center, many are not aware it exists. The Marine Science Semester hopes to change that. 

“This is a great combination of an extraordinary facility and location and a group of faculty members saying, ‘How do we maximize that opportunity for our students?’” said Dean of Academic Affairs Cristle Collins Judd.

Another reason this program may appeal to students is its travel component.  During the first module, Carlon’s course on biodiversity, students will travel to Baja California to study the rich variety of marine life in tropical waters.

Currently, those in charge of the program are attempting to compile a list of students who are academically eligible to participate. While the wet lab on Orr’s Island can accommodate up to 20 people, the target number of participants is between 12-20. 

Tuition will not be different for the Marine Science Semester.   

Drew Villeneuve, a sophomore who is double majoring in biology and French, said he intends to sign up for the program; he cited the Coastal Studies Center as a reason why he came to the College.

“I really enjoy marine biology. It’s what I’m trying to focus on and I’m very excited we’re going to have this option because we don’t really have anything that’s focused on marine biology,” said Villeneuve. 

Mary Pat McMahon, the associate dean of student affairs and the director of Residential Life (ResLife), will be leaving the College over Spring Break to become the dean of student affairs at Tufts University. Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster announced her departure in a schoolwide email sent on February 12.

McMahon’s imminent departure—which was received by many shocked members of the Bowdoin community—comes in her twelfth year at Bowdoin. Arriving at the College in 2002 as assistant dean of student affairs, McMahon became the dean of first-year students in 2006 and then took up the directorship of ResLife in the fall of 2008. 

“She is such a day-to-day presence, not just someone locked in her office with a ton of administration things to do and no time to talk to an RA in Brunswick or a proctor,” said Salem Harry ’14, who is head Resident Advisor (RA) in Coles Tower and who has been on the ResLife staff for three years.

President Barry Mills announced in a schoolwide email on January 6 that Rick Ganong ’86 will be the new senior vice president for development and alumni relations, effective immediately. 

Ganong, who has a long history with the College, has previously held partner positions at the Windhorse Group and Tudor Investment Corporation—both financial institutions.

Mills calls Ganong a close friend and said that he asked him to make the career change because of his confidence in Ganong’s ambition and ability.

Yesterday marked the application deadline to study abroad. All sophomores who desire to leave Brunswick and venture into the “real” world next year have made the formal commitment to do so. 

This also means that those people—a reported 50 percent of the Class of 2015—have already declared their majors and minors.

The planning this entails has made my fellow classmates and I conceptualize the rest of our Bowdoin careers on a detailed level. When I come back, will I have enough Government credits for a major? Should I major in Biology and try to minor in English? Musings like this have been commonplace among my peers over the past few weeks.

On February 8, the Board of Trustees voted to advance four Bowdoin faculty members to the rank of tenured professor, effective July 1. The four appointees are Sarah Conly of the philosophy department, Mark Foster of the English department, Doris Santoro of the education department and Jill Smith of the German department. 

Forty-eight percent of Bowdoin’s faculty is tenured. These individuals have been promoted from “assistant professor”—the title that comes precedes tenure—to “associate professor,” or have attained full professorships.  

Every member of the philosophy, German and education departments is tenured now that Professors Conly, Smith and Santoro have received the promotion.  

There were few empty seats in Kresge Auditorium last night during the 216th production of Theater of War. A simple table with four seats and four microphones appeared on stage. The actors entered, and after brief introductions, began dramatic readings of scenes from Sophocles’ plays “Ajax” and “Philoctetes.” Labeled a “social impact project,” “Theater of War” selects scenes by Sophocles that deal with a range of emotions including loyalty, abandonment, mental affliction, honor and disgrace. The theme of mental instability and the struggle for empathy while in the throes of injury as demonstrated by Philoctetes transcend their time period and serve as narratives that relate seamlessly to experiences had by the military community and the civilians effected by war.

Kelly Kerner will be leaving Bates College and joining Bowdoin as senior vice president for development and alumni relations. He will replace Bill Torrey, who worked at the College for more than 20 years and is currently serving as vice president for university advancement at Bentley University.

The College prides itself on having ample employment opportunities for all students who want a job , employing 70 percent of the student body over the course of a school year. But despite the jobs available on campus, a small number of students choose to take their talents to the surrounding area and work at businesses around Brunswick.

There is really only one team at Bowdoin whose soundtrack could feature "We Are the Champions": the field hockey team. Not only is the squad Bowdoin's only team to have won a national championship, but it has done so three times in the past four years.