The Bowdoin Orient

Netflix CEO and Founder Reed Hastings ’83 returned to Bowdoin to deliver a speech tonight on his company and how the internet is changing the way the world enjoys TV and movies. He briefly sat down with the Orient to answer a few questions. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

​How long has it been since you’ve been back to Bowdoin?

Twenty years. 

Why has it been so long since you’ve been back on campus?

I live in Santa Cruz, California, so I just don’t get back to the Boston area much. My dad’s in Western Mass so I’ll go up to see him from New York, but then it’s another couple hours from there.  

What’s one thing every Bowdoin student should do before they graduate?

Swim in the ocean.

What’s the biggest challenge facing Bowdoin right now?

I’m not sure. I would want to ask you guys that. 

What about liberal arts colleges in general?

One way Bowdoin is unique and different from when I was here was the role of fraternities. So when I was here there were fraternities, but they were co-ed, so they were different than what most people in the nation understand fraternities to be. But it seems to be a really positive step that’s happened in the social climate, and very unusual because I don’t know of any other colleges or universities that have taken that move. 

What’s your advice for Bowdoin graduates?

Enjoy Maine while you’re here.

What about travelling?

That’s right for some people. It was right for me; I loved it. The day of graduation I got on a plane and went off to southern Africa to Swaziland and started my peace corps service. But that’s not necessarily right for everyone; it was fantastic for me.

Have you seen Professor William Barker at all?

I did! I saw him for lunch. 

What did you talk about?

We talked about the role of calculus, I kept chiding him that in fact statistics and probability are way more important. And that freshman shouldn’t take calculus and we shouldn't take it in high school, we should be taking statistics and probability.

Does a liberal arts education—an education from a place like Bowdoin—prepare people to work in the tech sector? 

I would say a liberal arts education prepares you to be curious about the world, and trying to understand what’s a good life and what’s a good society. And that that’s very powerful and helpful in whatever you do, whether that’s government service, whether that’s teaching, whether that’s in business. And learning some specific set of skills is not that important. And even business changes so much. The businesses that were important when I left Bowdoin in ’83 are completely different than today. So I think liberal arts education is great. 

The Office of Admissions received a total of 6,788 applicants for the class of 2020—two fewer than last year—according to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Scott Meiklejohn. There were 5,918 regular decision applicants, an increase of about one percent from last year.

Of the 614 Early Decision I (EDI) candidates, 207 were admitted—an acceptance rate of 33.7 percent. There were 256 Early Decision II (EDII) applicants; decisions for those applicants will be announced next Monday.

The 6,788 applicants represent 3,362 different high schools, a slight uptick from last year’s 3,271. This statistic has steadily increased over the past few years, a trend Meiklejohn has attributed to Bowdoin’s “increasing geographic reach.”

“My parents have never known what it’s like outside a city basically. Like [for me] coming into Brunswick, Maine with all the trees and different colors… It definitely creates two different worlds,” Chow said.  

Chow, like roughly 10 percent of students in the class of 2019, is a first-generation college student. That percentage has been fairly consistent for the first year class over the past five years.

In many ways, “first-gen” students face typical challenges: managing school and work, sleep and stress, friends and health. Some, however, face obstacles other students will never have to deal with, like the lull on the other end of the line when trying to explain Bowdoin to their parents.

“My family didn't even know Bowdoin existed,” said Diamond Walker ’17, who grew up in the Bronx. “I don't even think they understand what a liberal arts school means.”

Even though he was born and raised relatively close to campus in Portland, Maine, Mohamed Nur ’19 said some aspects of college—like the social scene—are entirely foreign to his family.

“My parents, they know Bowdoin, but in a very superficial kind of way. They know it’s a college, they know after four years I’ll get a degree,” he said.

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Many first-generation students spoke of the difficulty of explaining the details of their lives at the College to their parents.  

Anu Asaolu ’19 said that her Nigerian mother has a hard time seeing college as more than just an academic pursuit.

“Every time I call my mom, she’s just like, ‘Remember, you’re here to learn,’” said Asaolu. “Yeah, college is about learning, but it’s really hard to explain that it’s also about developing yourself and really finding out who you are.”

When Asaolu got a concussion while playing rugby this fall, her mother told her she should join a science club instead. Asaolu is interested in a career in medicine.

“It’s really hard explaining that [rugby] is what I want to do, that this is what makes me happy,” she said. “‘Get your degree,’ that’s my mom’s entire goaI.”

Christina Moreland ’17 recalled avoiding telling her parents that the transition to college was difficult, as she felt they wouldn’t be able to relate.

“The nuances of how to be a college student were not something I was explaining… I would kind just leave things out and just be like, ‘Yeah, everything is great, I love everything. I’m doing really well,’” she said. “I think some of that comes from not being able to say, ‘Yeah, the first semester of college is hard’ and have them connect with that.”

Many students expressed concern that if they shared the full details of their Bowdoin experiences, their families would worry unnecessarily.

“When I cough, I cough away from the phone. So [my mom] isn’t super worried about me,” Chow said.

Other first-generation students found it easier to stop communicating their Bowdoin experience altogether.

Michelle Kruk ’16 said she rarely calls home.

“A lot of those conversations can be frustrating because it’s a lot of [my parents] dumping whatever is happening at home onto me and then not allowing me to dump what’s going on here to them, and even if I do dump that, they don’t understand it,” she said. “If I have to explain to you a thousand times what I’m majoring in or what I’m minoring in or what classes I’m taking, it just over time gets really repetitive and I don’t want to answer those questions any more.”

There is no such thing as a typical first-generation student. The label is not necessarily indicative of wealth, nor is it representative of race, hometown or socioeconomic status. In other words, the only thing first-generation students are guaranteed to have in common is the definition of the term itself: that neither parent holds a two or four year degree from a college or university.

Kenny Cortum ’16 is a first generation student from Iowa. He has blond hair, pale skin and wears rectangular glasses.

“It’s hard to be a first-generation student and look like I’m part of the one percent,” he explained. “I’ve actually had trouble connecting with other first-generation students here because I don’t look first-generation.”

Despite not looking like many of his first-gen peers, Cortum said his background affected his academic experience.  

“One of my most distinct memories was when my neighbors across the hall would send their parents their essays to have them look over them, which I thought was kind of unfair,” he said. “I had to really look at these differences and find a way to adjust to make Bowdoin work for me the same way they’re making Bowdoin work with their parents. I had to do it without my parents.”

The academic transition to Bowdoin varies widely among first-generation students, as it does among all first years. Students who attended private schools or strong public high schools often felt well-prepared for college, while students who attended less privileged schools often found academics more difficult, especially in their first year.

"I came to college for academics, first and foremost, and I deserve the best out of my experience like anybody else," said Walker, whose public high school in the Bronx offered few advanced classes and was frequently subject to budget cuts. "I know I could do better, but I'm doing a lot with what I have so far. It's hard to be compared to students who've been challenged like this for years and this is my first time confronting stuff like this."

Walker believes her status as a first-generation student makes her time at the College even more valuable.

“My grades are everything right now,” she said. “To be honest, I don't have anything else. I don't have money. I don't have family with connections. All I have is my education.”

Shawn Bayrd ’19, who grew up in Brunswick, explained that he didn’t fully grasp the prestige of a Bowdoin education until after he got his acceptance letter. While he feels like he fits in academically, Bayrd said he still notices instances where he feels like an outsider because of his status as a first-gen student.

“Since my parents didn't go to college, they don't have this academic standpoint on the world… When I talk to people who have parents who went to get their PhDs or are high in their fields, I've noticed that the kids are also very aware of what's going on around them,” he said. “I haven't gotten the home aspect where we talk about what's going on in the world.”

Bayrd attended Brunswick High School and worked alongside his mom at Thorne Hall in his junior year of high school.

“It was awful. I hated Bowdoin kids because if you're not a student you don't get treated as well,” he said. “One of my jobs was to put the coffee pots in the machines and turn it on so it would filter through. And there was this whole crowd around the coffee thing waiting for the coffee and I was just standing there with the pots waiting for them to move and they were like, ‘Are you gonna make more coffee?’ I'm like, ‘Yes, I will if you fucking move.’”

While intellectual support is one privilege of being raised by college-educated parents, financial stability is another, more widely-recognized advantage. According to data collected by the National Information Center for Higher Education Policymaking and Analysis there is a $26,700 median difference in yearly earnings between those with a high school diploma versus a bachelor's degree.

“Because my parents didn’t go to college, finances are always an issue,” said Zac Watson ’16. “So I actually moved in by myself. My parents weren’t here to help me move in. And that was kind of—it was very different. Everyone’s parents help them move in on the first day. And it was just me here. I had to go to the mail center, get all my boxes, move in, get to the Field House.”

Watson said he still feels different because of his financial status at times.  

“It was the social aspect that I really noticed,” he said. “Friends want to go to Quebec for Fall Break or something, and it’s like, ‘I can’t do that. I support myself.’”

“People said ‘Oh yeah, we went to Europe for a trip or we went to somewhere like Hawaii,’’’ recalled Chow. “A lot of [first-generation students] can’t afford trips like that... Having us talk about our summers is like ‘I worked this summer.’”

Most first-generation students expressed that, while their first-generation status impacted their social life, it also didn’t preclude them from forming friendships with non-first-generation students.

“Despite seeing that there are a lot of differences, I can still be friends with all these other people with a lot of privilege,” said Chow. “I can still connect with them in ways and have a lot of fun with them.”

For many students, the first-gen label often takes a backseat to other, more salient aspects of their identity.

"It's been very hard for me to explain my first-gen experience because until last semester, actually, I haven't really had one," Walker explained. "My experience has always been curtained by being black. If anyone asked me what it was like [to be first-gen], I'd talk about what it was like to be black here."

“You don’t wear your first-generation identity on your sleeve, nobody can really tell. And so there’s many other transitional issues that students here face that are more physical, that I think are prioritized for students,” said Kruk. “Like I’m more concerned about being a woman of color than being first-gen, because that’s what impacts me first.”

For other students, national identity plays a role. Camille Farradas ’19 attended a competitive private high school in Miami where many students were of Cuban descent, like her. She said she sees her identity as a first-generation student as inextricably tied to her Cuban background, because college wasn’t an option for her parents in communist Cuba.  

“Part of being Cuban in particular is that I couldn’t grow up where I was supposed to grow up,” she said. “Part of [going to college] is rebuilding our family from nothing.”

Given the diverse individual experiences of first-generation students, it can be difficult to provide resources to support the entire group. At the same time, first-generation students typically experience more difficulties than non-first-generation students. Nationally, the graduation rate for these students from private institutions is 70 percent, while only 57 percent who attend public institutions graduate. Data on the graduation rate of Bowdoin’s first-generation students was unavailable. 

Bowdoin provides some programming attempts to support first-generation students by bringing them together at the first-generation multicultural retreat, which takes place every fall.

“It [is] really an opportunity to bring first-generation students and students of color off campus after they’ve been at Bowdoin for about a month and kind of get them a safe space off campus to talk about any issues they might have,” said Director for Multicultural Life Benjamin Harris.

He added that the retreat was also a good way to connect first years with upperclassmen role models.

“The first-generation multicultural retreat…was an amazing bonding opportunity,” said Simone Rumph ’19. “Whether it be first-gen, or having struggles with economy, or being multiracial, coming from different backgrounds. It’s just a bond that is there.”

At the same time, the retreat conflates the labels of first-generation and multicultural. And while some first-generation students find support through affinity groups like the African American Society (Af-Am) or the Latin American Student Organization (LASO), connecting with first-gen peers can be more difficult for students who are first-generation college students but are not a racial or ethnic minority.

Cortum recalls feeling isolated when he went on the retreat as a first year.

“There was only one other who was as pale as I was and I felt like we were kind of alienated at first,” he said.

Bowdoin also hosts a couple of dinners a semester aimed specifically at first-generation students. Learning to utilize these resources can be an adjustment too.

"As a first-gen, I think it’s very easy to say—for most of us—that throughout our lives we’ve been doing things on our own," Chow said. “So coming to college, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that it’s okay to reach out for help. It’s okay to use resources around you.”

Though Chow’s parents are thousands of miles away, he managed to find support from connecting with upper class role models.

“People seem like they’re doing alright, but they’re also going through a lot. [For] me realizing, ‘Hey, you know, someone’s been through this,’” he said. “It’s okay to feel that way.”

Born in China, Chow moved to inner-city Los Angeles when he was five. He lived with his family in Chinatown, speaking Cantonese with his parents and working at his godfather's Korean restaurant. Every weekday morning, he would leave his neighborhood to attend Bravo Medical Magnet, a predominately Hispanic magnet high school in East LA where 82 percent the students were socioeconomically disadvantaged.

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Bayrd’s after school job in high school was working at Thorne Dining Hall, alongside his mother. Though he attended Brunswick High School, he didn’t strongly consider attending Bowdoin until he received his acceptance letter. "I'm a first-generation student, so my mom and my dad didn't know colleges," he said. "I was not aware that Bowdoin was a good school. Like I knew it was a kind of good school, and then I got my acceptance letter and started researching it and I was like… ‘14.9% acceptance rate? I didn't even know that.’”

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When describing something as "chi chi" at Bowdoin, Camille Farradas '19 is often met with puzzled looks. "It just means cute, like small or quaint. Like, you're chi chi," she explained. Born and raised in a mostly Cuban community in Miami, Farradas explained that “it was a bit of a shock coming here.” Despite this, Farradas said her transition to Bowdoin has been relatively easy. Education is important in her family; her parents were forced to flee Cuba in the 1960s and never got the opportunity to go to college. In order to pay for her and her sisters’ education, Farradas’ father, created and licensed a patent for a piece of trucking machinery. “Going to college is about validating what they’ve done,” she said.

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Walker tried to challenge herself in high school, taking all five of the AP classes that her high school, the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, offered. Due to budget cuts, after school programs and academic support were rarely available to Walker and her high school classmates. But Walker persisted in her education, traveling across the city every Saturday to learn math, writing and critical reading skills with a program called Sponsors for Education Opportunities. "That program changed my life and is the reason I am at Bowdoin today," Walker said.

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Moreland grew up in rural Vermont, but didn’t hear about Bowdoin until a college fair during the summer before her senior year of high school. She was attracted to Bowdoin for its small class sizes and sense of community. “I think a good amount of my friends probably don’t know I’m first-gen, not because I’m not telling them, but just because it hasn’t come up in any particular way,” she said. An English and sociology major with an education minor, Moreland is also a leader in Residential Life at Bowdoin and said she hopes to work in either teaching or higher education access after college.

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Raised by her single mother, Rumph fell in love with Bowdoin after visiting for the Explore program during the fall of her senior year in high school. She credits the Questbridge program—which gave her a full scholarship—with making Bowdoin a possibility for her. “As a little kid even, my mom told me ‘you have to work hard in school, because we can’t afford college and I want you to go because I never was able to.’’ she said. ”So I’m absolutely 100 percent proud to be a first generation student.”

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Though Nur’s family is just 45 minutes away in Portland, he said there’s still a lot about Bowdoin—and college in general—they don’t understand. “The whole social aspect of collegiate life I don’t think they really understand,” he said.

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Kruk said that her transition to Bowdoin was initially easy, because she was so excited to be here. It was only after Winter Break of her first year that she started to feel the disconnect between her life at home and the life she had built for herself at school. She explained that she wishes her parents could experience Bowdoin the way many others do. “These moments, like having your family come with you to a football game, are experiences I will never have,” she said. Her family plans to visit for the first time in May of this year, to watch her graduate.

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Watson attended the Academic Magnet High School, one of the top public high schools in the nation. While he said he felt academically prepared for Bowdoin, Watson noticed economic differences between himself and other Bowdoin students, but didn’t necessarily attribute this to being a first-generation college student. “I didn’t even really know what first-gen was until I started taking like a sociology class here,” he said. Watson credited his first-year floor, which was chem-free and housed several first-generation students, with making his transition easier. “I’m actually still really tight, and really close friends with them, today. And I think they face some similar hardships,” he said.

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For Asaolu, starting high school was more than just navigating a new school. A recent immigrant from Nigeria, Asaolu transitioned to American high school while acclimating to a new country, building a new life in Minnesota with her family for the promise of an American public education. Like many of her peers, Asaolu has struggled to balance academics and extracurricular interests—for her, rugby. "I already knew what life without education could be like and I didn’t want that," she said. "I really didn’t have to like dig deep to find [motivation] because I knew without education there are not so many options."

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Though Cortum completed a one-year exchange program in Poland before coming to the College, he said he still found the transition to Bowdoin difficult, in part because of the cultural differences between New England and the Midwest. While he ultimately overcame these differences, Cortum said he now finds a gap between himself and his Bowdoin experiences and his family back home. “I feel like being a first generation student has kind of sundered me with my family. Because my family is not composed of academics. But more composed of simple farmer-like people,” he said.

Indie-rock band Guster will perform at the Inaugural Concert for President Clayton Rose on Friday, October 16 in Morrell Gym. This will be their fourth concert at Bowdoin in the last fifteen years, including a performance as the Ivies headliner in 2013. 

“I think we’ll be playing Bowdoin until we’re 60 years old, because we have a relative who works at the office of student activities… I’m just kidding,” Guster drummer Brian Rosenworcel said in a phone interview with the Orient. As far as he knows, none of the members of Guster have any familial ties to Bowdoin administrators. 

While the band is no stranger to a Bowdoin audience—Rosenworcel estimates they’ve played here a total of six times—their upcoming concert will be a different experience entirely. 

“It might be unprecedented for Bowdoin, but we’ve played some really awkward events in our day, so we’re good at it,” said Rosenworcel of the Inaugural Concert. “It will only be awkward if we make it awkward, which we’ll probably choose to do.” 

He recalled a dedication ceremony the band performed at Carnegie Mellon University.

“Someone spent several million dollars to dedicate this building or whatever and all Ryan [Miller, the lead singer] could do was rail against the one percenters,” he said.

In an unusual schedule for the band, the inauguration concert will be Guster’s only college show for the rest of the year. 

“We’ve played a lot of colleges,” Rosenworcel explained. “We may be up there with having played the most colleges of any band, except like, the Roots.” 

He added that Guster’s origins as a college band likely contribute to their lasting popularity on campuses around the country. Rosenworcel, Miller and guitarist Adam Gardner met at Tufts, where they formed Guster in 1991.

Not long after, the band began performing at other small colleges throughout New England. 

“We [first] came to Bowdoin while we were Tufts dudes—that means we drove there in my little Chevy Nova and I carried my equipment in my lap as I was driving,” recalled Rosenworcel. “But we always had fun at Jack Magee’s Pub.”

Since then, the band has achieved success on a national scale. They’ve had several top 40 singles over the years including “Careful,” “Amsterdam” and “Fa-Fa.” Their music has been featured in “Wedding Crashers,” “Disturbia,” and “The O.C.”

Guster’s most recent album, “Evermotion,” was released this past January. The Boston Globe called it “an airy, winsome release that puts less focus on guitars, dabbling instead in horns and electronic and new wave sounds, to terrific, moody effect.” 

“It feels like we broke through a wall with this one, and I’m excited to see what’s on the other side of it,” said Rosenworcel.

Guster’s career has spanned across three decades, and Rosenworcel explained that they’ve stayed relevant by continuing to produce new material rather than rely on old hits.  

“We’re really passionate about putting together an album that is closer and closer to being a classic,” he said. “I think that has just helped us be less of a nostalgia act and more of a band that is creating on a high level.”

Rosenworcel had some advice for college bands looking to emulate Guster’s success. 

“Get a van and then soup it up, because we put a futon and a Nintendo in ours, and it was awesome,” he said. “There was nowhere else we wanted to be. We would just hang out there, playing Mario Kart in the back of our van, driving from gig to gig. It didn’t matter if there were any people at the gig because we had a van with a futon and Mario Kart in it.” 

“We can’t wait to welcome the new president,” Rosenworcel added. “I didn’t realize that’s what we were doing but now I know.” 

Winter storm Juno left the Bowdoin campus relatively unscathed despite pummeling students with 50 mph winds and around two feet of snow. 

“I don’t remember [a blizzard] of this intensity in the recent past,” said Director of Facilities Operations and Maintenance Ted Stam. 

In addition to the tremendous snowfall, there were also some minor electrical issues on campus. Most notably, an open window in Moulton Union’s Main Lounge caused a steam pipe to burst, setting off the fire alarms in Moulton Dining Hall during lunch.

“On a normal day, it wouldn’t really do anything,” said Stam. “When you have 50-mile-per-hour, nine-degree wind, it can come in through that crack and drop the temperature enough on the heater to freeze it.”

At the scene, Brunswick Fire Department Captain Chris Fairbanks noted that the damage was not extensive. 

Despite heavy snowfall that averaged two to four inches an hour, the College’s chose not to cancel all classes. They did, however, close down all non-essential services and facilities including Jack Magee’s Pub and Grill, Polar Express, the Café and the Peter Buck Center for Health and Fitness.

Stam estimated that there were 15 grounds employees on snow removal duty Tuesday, in addition to privately contracted snow removal teams.

“We look at each storm and we designate who are essential employees and who needs to come in so that we can serve the campus while allowing others to stay home and be safe,” he said.While classes were not cancelled in an official capacity, many professors did choose to cancel on their own. Dean for Academic Affairs Cristle Collins Judd was unable to provide an estimate of how many classes were cancelled. 

Associate Professor of Computer Science Laura Toma cancelled class for the first time in her 10 years of teaching. The fact that the storm hit in the morning rather than midday made her commute from Portland impossible. 

“I think we’ll go a bit faster for the next few weeks and maybe make up for [lost class time] the last week of classes,” she said.

Tram added that there is still fallout to deal with now that the storm has passed.

“We have very large piles of snow that we need to haul and get off the campus before the next storm comes,” he said. 

While a large number of students enjoyed the day, others were forced to walk to class during the peak of the blizzard.

“It was a great day since all my classes were canceled and Netflix was there to keep me company,” said Gina Fickera ’18.

Those who had to go to class felt differently.

“I wish more classes had been cancelled. I feel like the weather was just too cold,” said Lauren O’Shea ’18. 

Many students questioned the College’s decision not to cancel class.

“I think it’s unfair to students who live far away,” said Maeve Morse ’18. “It also puts too much pressure on the professors because a lot of them end up feeling obligated to have class.” 

As Brunswick anticipates an additional three to five inches of snow tonight, Facilities Management continues its preparations.  

Hours after receiving his Bowdoin diploma in the spring of 1983, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings boarded a flight to Swaziland, where he would spend the next two and a half years.

Born and raised in Boston, Hastings’ decision to attend Bowdoin was nothing out of the ordinary. After he was accepted, Hastings decided to defer for a year to continue working his summer job, selling vacuum cleaners door to door. 

“I loved it, strange as that might sound,” said Hastings. “You get to meet a lot of different people.”

After three years as assistant director of Residential Life (ResLife) and seven years as a member of the Bowdoin community, Chris Rossi ’10 will leave his position to attend the Harvard Graduate School of Education next fall.

“This is my one experience as far as what a school is like,” said Rossi. “Grad school gives me an opportunity to explore different systems, to explore different directions.”

While a student at the College, Rossi majored in government. He also worked with ResLife as vice president of Baxter House, head proctor of West Hall, and head RA of Harpswell Apartments. While his experiences affected his approach working at Bowdoin professionally, Rossi tried to be open minded about his position.

Given the choice between a story entitled “25 Celebrities You Might Not Know are Bisexual” and a fifteen page piece of well-reported investigative journalism, most internet users would probably read the former. 

Jay Caspian Kang ’02 made precisely this point in his lecture at Ladd House last night. He then posed the question: does modern journalism challenge readers enough?

Kang noted that websites such as Gawker have a hard time “justifying” funding lengthier, more investigative pieces simply because longer articles don’t lead to bigger profits.

The Fearless Project, a photography exhibit celebrating athletes who have come out about their homosexuality, will culminate today in a reception featuring four of the five Bowdoin athletes profiled in the exhibit. 

“It’s important for all of us to be respectful of anyone that we may interact with,” said Tim Ryan, interim athletic director. “This is a way to draw attention to a segment of society that may not have received that treatment in the past, especially within the athletic community.”

The Fearless Project first came to Bowdoin three years ago, but members of the Department of Athletics and the Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity thought its 2013 return would be even more effective as the exhibit now features five Bowdoin alums: Colin Ogilvie ‘12, Ben Chadwick ‘11, Shana Natelson ‘10, Lindsey Warren-Shriner ‘10 and Elsbeth Paige-Jeffers ‘10. 

With election day approaching, the Mainers United for Marriage campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in the state of Maine is working hard to rally the support of the Bowdoin community. If accepted, the ballot measure, could make Maine the first state to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. A similar ballot measure was defeated in 2009, mustering only 47 percent of the vote.