The Bowdoin Orient

Students packed into a standing-room-only Beam Classroom in the Visual Arts Center on Wednesday to hear a presentation from their peers and professors on the appropriation of Native American culture. 

According to Dean of Multicultural Affairs Leana Amaez, at least one instance of cultural appropriation occurs each year, often by students who dress in “native” costumes for Halloween or a themed party. These instances are not always limited to Native American attire; she noted that earlier in the fall semester students wearing sombreros were brought to her attention.

When these instances of appropriation occur, Amaez often begins a dialogue with students that focuses not on their intentions, but on the impact their actions had on fellow students. “If the problem is ignorance, then the solution is education,” said Amaez, noting that repercussions rarely take the form of punishment.

The event was facilitated by Zohran Mamdani ’14.

Bowdoin Student Government president Sarah Nelson ’14 opened the discussion by recounting an experience last fall where she attended a costume party dressed as a Native American woman.“When I met with the Dean’s office later that week and heard how hurtful my actions had been to some of my peers, I was embarrassed, horrified and surprised,” she said. “That I had owned a costume for six years and was so ignorant to the fact that it was a misappropriation of someone else’s culture—someone else’s identity—terrified me.” 

She went on to explain that she believes awareness education can help other students to think about these issues in a new way.  

“I hope that, in listening to my story about a time when I made a serious error, everyone here will be more willing to talk to their peers, especially their peers of different races and ethnicities, about where the holes in our understandings of each other’s identities lie,” she said. 

First year Dylan Goodwill introduced herself to the crowd and identified herself a member of the Navajo, Lakota and Dakota tribes; she grew up on the Window Rock Navajo Reservation in St. Michaels, Arizona. 

“I’ve grown up with a sense of following my traditional ways—going to ceremonies and living in a hogan, which is the traditional Navajo home,” said Goodwill. “I’ve grown up dancing pow wow since I was two years old.”

She explained that some stereotypically native symbols often used by non-natives in costumes hold deep importance within the Native American community. 

“We grew up knowing that the way we dress, the way our hair was, our moccasins, our turquoise, our feathers were all sacred and that everything had a meaning,” she said.

For instance, for Goodwill, eagle feathers symbolize “protection and harmony,” among other things, and she currently has eagle feathers hanging in her dorm room to remind her of this. She explained that seeing these symbols being used by people who had no connection to them was hurtful. 

“They’re not costumes. We call them regalia,” said Goodwill. “It’s not something that we’re trying to hide from ourselves—it’s something that we are.”

Assistant Professor of Sociology Ingrid Nelson and Assistant Professor of Anthropology Kelly Fayard brought an academic lens to the talk. Professor Nelson explained that the work the teach-in was doing was not about “blame or shame or guilt,” but bringing an awareness of each person’s  privilege, which shapes experiences and grants advantages that often go unseen. She encouraged students to “use the privilege that you have to dismantle systems that perpetuate that privilege.” Fayard, a member of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, detailed the long history of cultural appropriation of Native American images in America. She showed images from the Boston Tea Party, secret societies at Yale and the University of Michigan, professional sports teams logos and fashion that all took symbols from Native American culture. 

These stereotypes, in Fayard’s view, are damaging to Native American groups on many levels. She noted that they consistently grouped all Native cultures together without an appreciation for the varied practices of the more than 500 federally recognized Native American tribes. “[Stereotypes] constantly put natives as part of the past,” she added. “It basically erases the existence of modern Native American peoples.”

She encouraged students to buy from Native American designers if they are interested in Native American patterns or traditional jewelry, instead of mass marketed products that proport themselves to be native.  

After the presentations, students posed questions to the panelists on how to discuss issues of appropriation with peers who may not understand the issue. One topic that was repeated was the use of Native American figures as mascots in professional sports. 

Ben Woo Ching, a sophomore who identifies as American Samoan, noted that these issues can often exist in a gray area.

“The University of Hawaii is the Hawaiian Warriors and that’s okay for them because they’re in Hawaii but it is not okay [when] a white man owns the Atlanta Braves,” he said.

Woo Ching thought the discussion reflected W. E. B. DuBois’ double consciousness, in that “White only perceives as white perceives but the minority perceives from both directions.” 

Amaez hopes that more discussions of race and identity can continue in a student-led platform. Next fall, she will begin a training program for students interested in facilitating discussions about race for peers. Plans for this program will be finalized over the summer. 

There are some rivalries that just can’t be reconciled. Sparta and Troy. Ohio State and Michigan. The Red Sox and the Yankees. I’ve never had much of a stake in any of those. The only rivalry I’ve ever felt passionate about is the one between the Bowdoin libraries, and for me, Hawthorne-Longfellow (H-L) will always come out on top.

I can only vaguely recall the first time I stepped inside. It was a cool day in June and a dark-haired sophomore in jeans and flip flops rattled off a series of facts I did not care about. (Over one million volumes! Named for members of the Class of 1825! $60 in free printing each semester! Inter-Library Loans!)

It wasn’t—by a long shot—the most impressive of the libraries I’d seen on a college tour. It isn’t considered the most impressive of our campus buildings. 

Patricia McGraw Anderson agrees. In her book, “The Architecture of Bowdoin College,” she writes, “The new library is neither a monumental building nor a competitive one.” Monumental and competitive are adjectives that accurately describe Hubbard Hall—Bowdoin’s library until H-L was completed in 1965.

Named for two of Bowdoin’s most prominent alumni, H-L was built over a period of two years and was designed by Steinman, Cain and White, the later incarnation of the same architecture firm that built Cleaveland Hall, Moulton Union and Gibson Hall. In 1982, the building was expanded to include, among other things, the underground passageway that connects H-L to the Hubbard stacks.

It is undoubtedly where I’ve spent the most time on campus over my four years. My dad warned me at the beginning of my college search that this would be the case, but I waved him off. The casual keg-side conversations I yearned for would not be found in a library.

I wish I could tell you that most of this time was spent completing assignments for my courses, but alas, I did not do all of the readings for my classes. (Except, of course, for the ones I’m taking this semester. Hi Professors!) Sure, I liked my courses and have great memories of them, but the time in H-L I treasure most wasn’t spent reading the Federalist Papers.

Instead, I explored old interests and cultivated new ones. Books came to Bowdoin from places like Presque Isle, Maine and Williamstown, Mass. and I devoured them over long breakfasts in Moulton. Those that had sat on shelves collecting dust came alive after I took them out of the library for the first time. I watched the raised seal on page 55 of every book the College owns morph as the years went on.

On the fourth and fifth floors of the stacks, I read the monologues of Spaulding Gray, the dramas of Eugene O’Neill and the short stories of Ann Beattie. I uncovered the history of ballet and the life of one of its greatest stars, Anna Pavlova, who would have rather died an early death than never be able to dance again.

When I should have been outlining papers, I snuck down to the basement to read old issues of Life  and Time dating from the World Wars to the Kennedy assassinations. They taught me that “infographic” is just a new word for something their editors had mastered almost a century ago. As the years go on, type faces change and advertisements’ taglines dwindle from six paragraphs to six words.

I attempted deconstructions of the best newspaper and magazine writing with the vain hope that something would stick in my own writing. I fell in love with profiles of people famous and obscure, from John Wayne to Zell Kravinzky, the latter who donated a kidney and $45 million to those less fortunate than him.

I spent more time than anyone I know in the Special Collections reading room where you’re not allowed to have a pen. After a four-day search, I discovered that the marble statue in the landing of Hubbard is Ophelia, sculpted by Pasquale Romanelli and donated by Henry J. Furber of the Class of 1889.

When I was sure Bowdoin had made a mistake by granting me admission, the only thing that could turn my day around was looking out onto the Quad from couches by the third floor windows early on a Saturday morning and watching dogs play fetch and kids climb on the lions outside the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Libraries are time capsules that remain open for everyone and that’s especially true of H-L. Even its name harkens us back. And yes, the past wasn’t always an excellent one—the building was built at a time where its doors would have been closed to me.

Having time in the middle of the day to randomly wander into the stacks and spend an hour reading is one of the things I will miss most about Bowdoin. It’s the kind of thing that reinvigorates me in a way I’d never anticipated.

In the October 8, 1965 issue of the Orient, an anonymous student wrote a  letter to the editor, lambasting the new library as a “good place to take your date, rather than a good place to study.”

The author hoped that change would come soon. He wrote, “In sixty years, the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library will be outgrown and Bowdoin can look forward to another, marvelously improved, designed-with-the-student-in-mind library.”

The next ten years could bring a new library to campus, but I could not imagine one that could have served me better.

Coles Tower is getting a long overdue makeover. This summer, the College will spend $2.8 million to renovate the building, which turns 50 this year. Four floors will be renovated each year for the next four years. The completed project will cost approximately $5 million, according to Katy Longley, the senior vice president for finance and administration and the college treasurer. The College will partner with Harriman, an engineering firm in Auburn and Massachusetts-based Consigli Construction Company, which has an office in Portland. Consigli worked with the College in 2007on the Art Museum and in 2004 on the Chapel.

After a busy first week of classes, student fans rejoined their Brunswick counterparts at Sidney J. Watson Arena to watch the men’s hockey team go 2-1 last week, losing to top-ranked Williams College at home on Saturday.

On Tuesday evening, the Bears welcomed the University of Southern Maine to Watson Arena. In their previous match up—the final game of the fall semester—the teams had tied 3-3. The USM game is one of six non-conference games for the team this season. The game came after a tough weekend of games, and left the team with only a single practice to prepare for the contest.

“We call those games the ‘Tuesday Trap’ games, especially coming off a big weekend when people are tired and beat up,” said Jay Livermore ’14. “It’s tough to turn it around.”

 “The Object Show”, the Museum of Art’s latest exhibit which features pieces from various deparments of the College, opened last night. The exhibit spans from before the College’s founding to more recent times, with pieces like James Bowdoin’s wardrobe and a stuffed lobster. It will be on display in the Museum’s Osher and Halford Galleries through next June.

The show was installed over a period of three weeks. Last week, the galleries were filled with nothing but empty cases, and the last of Prendergast paintings had just been sent back to their museums of origin. Yesterday morning, most pieces had been mounted and placed in their cases, but there was still last minute tinkering to be done. Many of the labels had not arrived, and some wall text still had to be put up.

Co-director of the Museum of Art Frank Goodyear explained that this was not an uncommon circumstance.

Looking around campus, it’s easy to see the members of the Bowdoin community we’re most proud of. Some—Howard, Chamberlain, Stowe—are so deeply tied to the history of our nation that it would be foolish not to acknowledge the role Bowdoin played in their lives. Others—Mitchell, Druckenmiller, Osher—are the titans of the present. They’re philanthropists who demonstrate the benefits of a Bowdoin education in our society. Today, however, I present to you another Bowdoin alum worthy of our praise: Sumner Waldron Jackson.

I spent this summer on campus, trying to take in every bit of it before I graduate in the spring. I came to appreciate sitting outside of Gibson Hall on the bench in front of Bowdoin’s memorial to alumni who lost their lives fighting for our nation. That’s where Jackson’s name first jumped out at me. A member of the Class of 1909, he would’ve been in his late fifties by the end of the Second World War, and yet he’s listed as among those who died.

Most students don’t know this, but Special Collections keeps a file for every alumnus of the College. So I took down Jackson’s name and class year on the back of my hand and climbed the steps to the third floor of the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library.

This weekend when the Board of Trustees met to discuss the business of the College, for the first time a woman sat at the head of the table.

Deborah Barker ’80 was officially named Chair of the Board of Trustees to May. A member of the Class of 1980, she went on to receive an MBA from Harvard, and worked for many years as an investment banker. She currently spends her time outside the Board working with educational nonprofits.

Barker humbly acknowledges that it is a noteworthy accomplishment to be the first woman to chair the Board.

After 16 years at the College, Margaret Hazlet, senior associate dean of student affairs, will leave Bowdoin next year to take up a position as Dean of the College at Franklin and Marshall College (F&M), a liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster sent an email to the campus announcing Hazlett’s impending departure on Monday afternoon. 

Hazlett said when she first arrived at the College she did not intend to stay for so long.“I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll be here two or three years and I’ll move on’,” she said.

Foster explained that Hazlett was hired through an unusual chain of events. A mutual friend had reached out to Foster, hoping he would be able to advise Hazlett, who was then in the midst of applying for a position at Georgetown University. Foster, upon seeing her qualifications brought her to the attention of then-Dean of Student Affairs Craig Bradley. Hazlett started at the College as the assistant dean of student affairs.

A series of cuts to MaineCare—Maine’s Medicaid program—will go into effect today , affecting the healthcare coverage of nearly 20,000 people statewide. Governor Paul LePage proposed the cuts late last year. 

Early this year the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) approved cuts for “the optional group of parents and caretakers” previously covered. It also approved reducing the MaineCare eligibity threshold of poor Mainers from 150 percent of the federal poverty level to 133 percent. In addition, the new cuts reduce benefits for elderly Mainers who are otherwise able to recieve coverage through Medicare.

“These cuts are not easy decisions because they do involve real people,” LePage wrote in a press release last year.

President Mills said the College would not agree to divest the endowment of fossil fuels in the immediate future on Tuesday, just one day before Middlebury College announced plans to investigate the feasibility of divesting its own endowment. “At this point, we’re not prepared to commit to divest from fossil fuels, but I would never say never,” said President Mills on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after meeting with a group of students, led by Matthew Goodrich ’15, who petitioned for divestment. “We expressed to him that this is an issue that the student body cares very deeply about and that we really want to move forward with this,” Goodrich said.

“There is no way to maintain the frontiers of freedom without cost and commitment and risk. There is no swift and easy path to peace in our generation,” said President John F. Kennedy in his Veteran’s Day address at the Arlington National Cemetery in 1961. His words echoed through Smith Union on Sunday when representatives of the College Republicans recited the speech to commemorate the national holiday, before asking for a moment of silence to honor the sacrifices of American servicemen and women. 

“It’s an often overlooked day of remembrance, but what we wanted to do was just remind people ‘hey it is Veteran’s Day and take a minute to think about all the sacrifices people have made for you,’” said Sam Sabasteanski ’13, co-president of the Republicans.

This reading was not the only way that Bowdoin honored Bowdoin servicemen and women on campus.

Professor of Government Christian Potholm has collected photos of alumni in the armed services for a number of years, and put them up outside his office this summer.

“I don’t know any place else on campus where we recognize [alumni] that are serving the country,” said Potholm. He hopes it serves as a reminder “that somebody is out there [fighting] on our behalf.”

Sabasteanski was impressed with Potholm’s effort.

“You can look at, say, the flag pole monument and see the names of Bowdoin people who served before, but it doesn’t hit you quite like having pictures of people, ” he said.

Captain David Donahue ’07 is currently serving as an instructor at The Basic School in Quantico, Va.  He recently returned from a three-year tour of duty, during which he spent seven months in Afghanistan before moving on to another deployment in Southeast Asia.

Though he completed Officer Candidate School at Bowdoin, Donahue chose to decline a commission at graduation. However, after working as a civilian in Boston, he decided to return to the Marine Corps.

“Sitting behind a desk all day, I was not having that same sense of fulfillment,” Donahue said. “I wanted to go back to the Marines. I thought that was where I fit in.”

Luke Flinn ’10 is currently training to become a helicopter pilot for the Marine Corps in Milton, Fla. In an email to the Orient, Flinn said he decided to join the Marines because of “the professionalism of its members, its storied history, and its distinct esprit de corps.” Flinn said he knows six other Bowdoin alumni who are also Marines.

Neither Donahue nor Flinn knew of the display in Hubbard Hall.

“It’s pretty cool that [Potholm] would do something like that,” said Donahue.

Another Bowdoin Marine, Captain Katie Petronio ’07, gained national attention this year for asserting her belief that female Marines should not be allowed to serve in the infantry.

In March, she wrote an article for the Marine Corps Gazette titled “Get Over It! We’re Not All Created Equal."

“I can say from firsthand experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, and not just emotion, that we haven’t even begun to analyze and comprehend the gender-specific medical issues and overall physical toll that continuous combat operations will have on females,” Petronio argues in the article.

Petronio later appeared on CNN to defend her position.

Erika Leach ’02, a captain in the Air Force, moved from active duty to the Reserves in March of this year.  As a Reserve Airman, she advises students who are applying to the Air Force Academy and ROTC programs.

“I wanted to have a little more flexibility. With the Reserves, you have a lot more control of where you are,” she said of her decision to join.

Leach began her service in 2003 and chose the Air Force based on the advice of her parents, who both served in the Navy after finishing college. In 2010, she was deployed to Qatar for six months, where she worked closely with a colonel in charge of information technology for the region.

Potholm said that he has noticed a pattern of student athletes serving in the armed forces. Donahue played football and lacrosse all four years at Bowdoin, and was captain of the lacrosse team his senior year.

Though not a varsity athlete herself, Leach noticed similarities between the culture of a team sport and that of the Air Force.

“Athletics and leadership can go pretty hand in hand, whether you’re an actual captain or just on the field. That parlays well into the military from what I’ve seen,” she said.

Leach said that compared to others in the Air Force, her liberal arts background is unusual, but believes that it was beneficial. She found that Bowdoin fosters the same philosophy of“giving back to the community” that the military promotes.

Potholm acknowledges that his is not a complete list, and encourages those who know of other alumni in the military to contact him so he can update it.

While being a Marine is not easy, Donahue still describes his service as the most rewarding work he could imagine.

“There are miserable experiences,” he said. “But the highs we experience together, the sense of accomplishment, that shared feeling between peers and subordinates is incredible.”

Eight seniors have accepted full-time job offers so far this year, according to the Career Planning Center (CPC) that they have found positions for after graduation. Each of these students will be joining companies at which they had previously interned. For the rest of the nearly 500 members of the senior class, the job hunt continues.

When President Obama recalled meeting inspiring Americans in his address at the Democratic National Convention last Thursday, Samantha Garvey '16 had no idea she would be mentioned.

Garvey met Obama last January when she was named a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search, one of the country’s most prestigious science competitions for high school students, for her research on the defense mechanisms of mussels.