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As I muster a deep breath in, sniffles ensue. I look around, thinking insistently about zipping up my coat and trudging back to Coles Tower. But instead of making the first motion towards my tan puffer, I stop myself.
As December begins—and the sun sets at 4:03 p.m.—winter is here. Maine’s harsh winters can be difficult for both new and experienced residents. Compiled below are voices of the Bowdoin Community speaking on some of their favorite parts of the season.
As warm aromas of Thanksgiving cooking rose from the kitchen into my bedroom, I woke up with a feeling of excitement that my family and I were finally having a real, home-cooked Thanksgiving meal. As I ran down the stairs, I looked forward to saying goodbye to our annual, premade Costco Thanksgiving dinners and hello to homemade turkey and mashed potatoes.
In a Bowdoin Orient survey sent to the student body in October, nearly three-quarters of respondents said they had tested positive for Covid-19 at some point during the past two years. While the rates of Covid on campus dwindle and pandemic restrictions wane, there are continued implications of having once tested positive.
My dad used to point a telescope out of our guest bedroom window on clear nights, swiveling it to see the cratered surface of the moon, the miniscule rings of Saturn or the smattering of stars visible in the suburbs.
Every Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., ambient music and calm energy fill the garage at 24 College Street for the Student Reiki Clinic, an initiative pioneered by the Wellness Center and carried out by community volunteers.
On Saturday evening, the South Asian Students Association (SASA) invited students to gather in Moulton Union to celebrate Diwali, or the festival of lights. The night was complete with food, dancing and celebration. At 6 p.m., guests were welcomed with food from Mughal Place and the opportunity to eat in community.
Well folks, we’ve got a lot to cover this time, so I won’t pontificate. Our bachelor this week (he/him, class of ’24) is interested in meeting people who use she/her pronouns. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
One Sunday morning, you wake up, check your phone and gawk at the early hour—who would have thought that you would be up naturally at 8 a.m. on Sunday? The world is your metaphorical oyster, and a quick peek behind the blinds confirms the weather is beautiful.
I grew up in a working-class neighborhood a few minutes away from the Newark Airport. My father, a limousine driver, purchased the house right before the 2008 recession. As the mortgage payments rose and the foreclosure letters hit the mail, my father worked longer hours behind the wheel.
Josh Duffy is a die-hard Down from the Wound fan and lover of calzones with an unshakeable, deeply entrenched urge to connect with others. On a random day eight years ago, Duffy felt this routine desire to befriend his peers when he met Jake Jakubowski.
In my hometown, the first snow usually falls a little before Halloween. Trick-or-treaters routinely trek up shoveled yet still icy driveways as cold snaps force red and yellow leaves from their branches. Last year, it was early December by the time there was snow on the ground at home.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, students hurry across the quad to class, passing by a comparatively less stressful scene—a group of community members practicing Tai Chi. The classes are taught by Bowdoin alumnus Ken Ryan ’71. Ryan started these classes 20 years ago, and since then they have grown every year.
The weather is getting cold again, and you know what that means. It’s officially the season of desperately wishing that special someone were there to take photos of the leaves falling cinematically around you and your one true love: the pumpkin-spice latte.
Many traditions have come and gone at the College. From Ivies and Supers to pub trivia and Dinner with Six Strangers, the common thread is clear: an emphasis on social connection. Many students apply to Bowdoin with hopes of belonging in a small, tight-knit community.
Working one profession is a time consuming and challenging endeavor. For many, voluntarily adding another to the list is out of the question. This is not the case for Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Ashley Shaw, who treats patients as a clinical psychologist in addition to teaching at the College.
Editor’s Note October 30, 2022: In a previous version of this article, the “Real Talk on Class” series was mistakenly called the “Real Talks on Class” series. This has been fixed in the headline and throughout the text.
Nomad Pizza, a business that originated in New Jersey, officially opened its brick and mortar restaurant in the Fort Andross Mill earlier this month. For the past year, Nomad operated as a food truck, serving pizza, homemade pasta and salads in Belfast, Monmouth and Portland, among other cities and towns in Maine.
The structure of Peer Health at the College looks different this year than in years past. The change comes as the volunteer student group attempts to shift from its historic independence from the College and internal approach to programming to a more intentional partnership with Residential Life in order to cultivate a unified front to support students.
Well, the annual trial of Marriage Pact has come and gone, leaving broken hearts and more than one extremely awkward interaction in its wake. Or perhaps I’m just cynical and some of you are freshly off the market, successfully wooed by the lure of a software-determined soulmate.
I spent most of my fall break circumnavigating Kent Island’s tidepools—slipping over mounds of seaweed, hopscotching boulders, singing to periwinkles, bushwhacking a mile in rubber boots and lifting tiny green crabs out of the water. Until I was closed in by the Atlantic in every direction, my experience with the ocean was limited to yearly beach outings and a few whale watching trips in Canada with my family, and I was fascinated by it.
On most weeknights, Thorne dining hall is shrouded in darkness, but on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, a light flickers on, illuminating rows of American-favorite foods. While the mouth-watering views draw students in, they are first met by an ever-changing glow of hair, glitter and a bright smile.
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Danielle Dube has worked at the College for the past 15 years. Almost two decades ago, she started in the Bertozzi Lab, led by Carolyn Bertozzi at the University of California-Berkeley.
Root, Rind & Petal is a local health and wellness boutique on Pleasant Street. Its unassuming exterior, chalkboard sign, covered porch and charming white paint doesn’t reveal much to the passerby. Inside, however, owner Jenny Fitzpatrick has created a truly unique space.
Upon entering the barn behind 52 Harpswell, warmth radiates from a small gas stove on the ground, complemented by the nostalgic scent of Thanksgiving cranberry sauce. This scent is the fragrance of elderberry permeating the crisp fall air.
I never realized how comfortable I had become in the “Bowdoin bubble” until I ventured outside of it for the first time since coming to campus. Stepping off the train at Boston’s North Station during Fall Break felt like a jolt to my system in a way that I had never experienced before.
I didn’t start talking until I was three years old. One of my first conversations was with four walls in my grandmother’s home in Morocco. My mom tells me that I would “faire la bise’’ each wall, enthusiastically (and in Moroccan fashion) talking a mile a minute: “How are you!” “Oh, it’s so great to see you.” “How are the kids?” I nodded along to imaginary responses, carving out equal pockets of ‘eye contact’ to ensure each wall got its share of my attention.
When Kaitlin Weiss ’25 saw the leaked Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision last May, she was frustrated that there was seemingly nowhere for her to direct her passion for reproductive rights on campus. In response to the leak, she, along with Luisa Wolcott-Breen ’25 and Cambron Wade ’24, revived the Bowdoin Reproductive Justice Coalition (BRJC).
For over twenty years, Finestkind Vinyl Haven has offered the Brunswick community a more immersive way to listen to music. Located off Maine Street, the store sells ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, classic rock, straight-ahead jazz, funk soul, world music and psych vinyl.
On Thursday, October 6, Jacob Wheeler gave a talk at Kresge Auditorium regarding his biography, “Angel of the Dump,” which tells the story of Bowdoin alumna, Hanley Denning ’92. Denning founded the non-profit Safe Passage, the mission of which is to break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala through education, nutrition, healthcare and social services.
Over his thirteen years with Bowdoin Dining, Service Supervisor Cliff Ridley has connected with countless student dining employees, earning him the friendly nickname “Thorne Papa.” “That’s just how close I get to the kids working with them,” he said.
Aniqa Chowdhury ’26 has just begun her journey at Bowdoin and is already working to create a stronger community for herself and others. Her creative journey began after teaching herself henna at age eleven. Now, she is sharing her art with the campus community.
The Chapel’s bell tower sounded a little different this past Monday. For a brief moment, the rings sounded like the heavenly chimes of wedding bells, setting the tone for this year’s Marriage Pact participants. This past Monday, September 26, was the second annual Marriage Pact—a data-based survey that serves to create connections between students at Bowdoin.
The subtle scratch of a pencil. The delicate swipe of a hand, brushing away the eraser marks left behind. Charcoal coats the sides of her palms. There is a rumbling sound of hundreds of students moving in the background.
The 2022 midterm elections are only 39 days away. As political campaigns are preparing for their final push, so is Bowdoin Votes, the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good’s nonpartisan group that serves to increase campus political engagement.
When you think of a forest, maybe you think of an ecosystem. A hierarchy, a function, a mechanism of inputs and outputs driven by competition. Maybe a million tiny elements working asynchronously, maybe a huge, labyrinthine conglomeration of life bound by rain and sunlight and soft dirt.
Your favorite matchmaker is back! And as if that wasn’t good enough, I’ve brought someone special with me. Our first bachelor (class of ’25) uses he/him pronouns and is interested in people of any and all pronouns.
The Ben Bernier Memorial Foundation will host the first Ben Bernier Memorial Run, Walk and Toss at Pineland Farms next Saturday, October 9, in honor of Ben Bernier, who passed away in 2019, shocking the Brunswick community.
MAIZ, a popular Colombian street food restaurant in Portland, recently opened a location on Pleasant Street in Brunswick. The space is the owners’ third culinary venture, the first of which was a food truck called La Fritanga which serves a similar set of dishes to both of their restaurants.
Looking out my bedroom window, I see a bright light blinking across the dark sky. The sound of an engine rumbles low in the distance. “Starlight, star bright,” I whisper to myself. Growing up next to Boston Logan International Airport, there was too much light pollution to see more than the moon and clouds in the night sky.
The other day, I was in Thorne, and I saw two of my friends talking. One of them said something, and the other laughed. My immediate reaction was that they were obviously making fun of me, even though I sat three tables away, and they had just arrived.
June, July, August. They run together in my head: traversing mountaintops, skipping towards a yawning sunset, the electric shock to my system stepping into the snowmelt creek. Dry air and heavy head against my pillow. For eleven weeks, I worked at a summer camp in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Colorado.
There’s a new business on Maine Street for those looking for a sweet treat this fall. Located in the Tontine Mall, The Frappe Shoppe has been open for four weeks and owner Jamie Alexander has enjoyed every second.
As Rupert Holmes so masterfully proves in his hit piña colada-focused song, “Escape,” the dating advertisement can be remarkably successful. If you want to help the College reach its 40 percent Bowdoin marriage success rate (or whatever number they’re claiming in info sessions these days) and be able to tell your kids that you met their mother when you responded to her profile in the Orient, then keep reading.
Associate Dean of Admissions Justin Fahey will be leaving the tour guide program this week, wrapping up five years of work at the College. Approximately two years of his time were spent heading the program, a role that Assistant Dean of Admissions Julia O’Rourke ’19 will enthusiastically take on.
For many students, their first year of college is a formative experience. Bereníce Flores ’24, Issie Gale ’25 and Jenna Barac ’25 have the unique position of being first-year students for a second time, as part of Bowdoin’s first community college student transfer cohort.
“F1 visum, I-20 formulier, paspoort, twee grote tassen en mezelf” is what I thought when I stepped onto the plane in Brussels. Why did I leave? That’s a question I ask myself quite often. I know other people have less of a choice than I do.
As Allie Ostrander says in her 2021 YouTube video “ugh,” being a runner and losing running to an injury or other health issue is a loss that requires grieving. She dramatically (and hilariously) acts out the five stages of grief and explains that it’s possible to experience multiple stages simultaneously or many times.
“Grampa and Gramma called the outdoors ‘a garden of natural healing,’” reads the Grampa’s Garden Website. From the moment you open the door to Grampa’s Garden Sensory Adventure Spa on Maine Street, it’s clear this place is unique.
When Matt and Edwin Cahill first met, they were working on a theatrical production on Fire Island. Several years later and after marrying in Maine, the couple purchased the historic Beckett Castle on Cape Elizabeth with one goal: creating a production company of their own.
Editor’s note 09/15/2022 at 9:22 p.m. EDT: A previous version of this article’s headline read, “Alumni explores NESCAC history in new novel.” The headline has been updated with the singular “Alumnus” and to indicate that Covell’s work is a history book, not a novel.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow writes that here at Bowdoin, “the sea so near [is] yet unseen.” This line is from a poem Longfellow wrote for his 50th class reunion in 1875. 147 years later, his words still hold water and a little bit of wisdom.
The College Houses were what drew me to Bowdoin. Growing up in Brunswick—and later supported by a tour I took—the College Houses were, in my eyes, Bowdoin’s social life. As a first-year, I have experienced nightlife, a cappella, jazz, capture-the-flag and poetry through the College Houses, all of which have lived up to my expectations of what these houses provide.
The Maine Mobile Health Program (MMHP) is Maine’s only farm worker health organization whose mission is to preserve and improve the health of the state’s seasonal and year-round agriculture and aquaculture workers and their families. Community health workers struggle to navigate the country’s complex health system amidst various cultural barriers.
After weeks of exploring the natural beauty around Bowdoin’s campus, each location has both astounded me and reminded me of the endless opportunities we have to explore the beauty of Maine. As my last column of the year, Woodward Point Preserve is no exception.
The Committee on Governance and Faculty Affairs is composed of faculty members responsible for advising the President and Dean on faculty-related issues. The GFA is tasked with overseeing faculty governance with duties ranging from promoting faculty professional development to overseeing department budgets and leading departmental reviews.
On June 6, 2022, Oliver Goodrich will take over as director of the Rachel Lord Center for Religious and Spiritual Life. Goodrich is currently the Associate Dean of Students for Spirituality and Meaning-Making at Cornell University.
Following President Rose’s announced resignation, the College is in the market for a new President. Chair of the Bowdoin Board of Trustees Robert White ’77 P’15 appointed two trustees, Sydney Asbury ’03 and Bertrand Garcia-Moreno ’81 P’17, to co-chair a presidential search committee with the hope of finding a new President that aligns with Bowdoin’s institutional goals.
After 22 years at Bowdoin, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Arielle Saiber is departing from the College for a new adventure. Saiber will join John Hopkins University as Professor of Modern Languages and Literature following the end of the academic year.
The night before my economics midterm, I was dumped inside the Smith Union gender-neutral bathroom on the right, sobbing in the last stall. My hands were trembling as I typed out “Is it really over?” I couldn’t really believe it.
In 2004, Yankees player Derek Jeter was in a historic slump. What 2004 was to Derek Jeter, March of 2022 was to us. We were in a tea slump—bored of our usual teas, unwilling to branch out, we were uninspired.
Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Natural Sciences Rachel Beane has had an impressive 24 years here at the College. Beane, a recipient of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers Neil Miner Teaching Award, studies the microscopic textures in minerals to interpret magma processes.
This past weekend marked the first Ivies weekend at the College following two years of pandemic-related restrictions. Students came together for two Bowdoin-sponsored events as part of the weekend: Harpswell Quad Day on Friday and a Main Quad celebration on Saturday.
Although primarily staffed by local healthcare volunteers or Bowdoin staff members, the Covid-19 testing center in Farley Field House has recently welcomed student volunteers for both PCR and antigen testing. The volunteering program provides students with the opportunity to obtain hands-on training in the medical field while meeting members of the Bowdoin community that they normally wouldn’t have.
I was first introduced to seaside mudflats through Sal’s clamming adventures in Robert McClosky’s “One Morning in Maine.” Growing up far from Maine, this children’s book gave me a glimpse into life in Maine and highlighted nature’s cultural importance in the state.
In her eighth year at the College, Associate Professor of Psychology Hannah Reese has grown into the community on campus and beyond. Reese earned her bachelor’s in psychology from Wellesley College and subsequently both her master’s and doctorate in clinical psychology from Harvard University.
For most students, consciously eating local food may mean having lunch at whichever dining hall is closest, and choosing a seafood option might start and end at the annual Lobster Bake. In an effort to increase consumption of local fish on campus, Dining Services has collaborated with two students to bring new fish options to the dining halls—and they hope to get students hooked.
A hodgepodge of wallpaper details, nooks, crannies and even a time capsule, Bowdoin’s David Saul Smith Union is more than just your average student center. Before the building was constructed, the campus had no comparable student center.
In early March, Arthur Brooks, a professor at Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, spent three days on campus as the College’s Joseph McKeen Visiting Fellow for the second time. His visit brought an ongoing national debate surrounding freedom of speech on college campuses back to Bowdoin’s classrooms.
Five years ago, Steven Campbell and Marissa Stahl-Hodgkins met while working at the bakery of the Whole Foods Market in Portland. Today, they have a place of their own: The Butchers & Bakers, a specialty market on Maine Street.
Did you come? Sex Fest attendees sure did (and for those who won the raffle prizes, perhaps even more than once). On Saturday in Smith Union, Peer Health hosted its first-annual Sex Fest, which featured ‘pin the clit on the vulva’ eductional resources, a scavenger hunt, rapid HIV testing and booths from student clubs and community partners.
A visit to the Cathance River Nature Preserve in Topsham will allow you to consider the past, the future and how to stay grounded in the present. Only a 10-minute drive from campus, the preserve features miles of riverside trails winding through growing forests.
“It was awful—it was crude. But it worked,” Dana Bourgeois ’75 said with a humble chuckle while speaking of the first guitar he built. Today, however, Bourgeois, 69, is a luthier with nearly fifty years of experience.
As an Associate Professor of History and Chair of the Russian Department at Bowdoin, Professor Page Herrlinger has been a vibrant member of the Bowdoin community since 1998. She earned a bachelor’s from Yale University and her master’s and doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.
We are the children of loving, emotionally abusive parents who could not break the cycle of abuse. We are the children of immigrant families who constantly question the meaning of love and what the dictionary definition of emotional abuse is.
When I tell people at Bowdoin that I’m from Tampa, Fla., the three most common responses are: “Do you like football?” “My grandparents live in Sarasota” and “Oh wow … how do you like that?” The first always has something to do with Tom Brady, the second with Florida’s large population of the elderly (even though Sarasota is very cool), but the third could go many ways.
On most social media platforms, it’s easy to curate an image—regardless of whether or not it represents one’s real life. On BeReal, however, this is not the case. The app, created in 2020 by French entrepreneur Alex Bareyatt, recently gained traction in the U.S.
From the shores of Puerto Rico to the crowded subway platforms of New York City, the McKeen Center for the Common Good sent students across the United States to volunteer and learn about social issues throughout the country over spring break.
The humble pub trivia game may be a lighthearted, spontaneous event for most Bowdoin students, but the game is a regular—and very serious—part of the week for the Bowdoin Quiz Bowl team. “I think [Quiz Bowl] is a vehicle to test your knowledge and advance your intellect, not to be the smartest people around,” Avery Ellis ’23, one of the team’s leaders, said.
The Bowdoin Pines is a quaint trail on the edge of campus that provides access to nature only minutes from dorms, classrooms or whichever Brunswick spaces you most frequently occupy. With no need for driving or a long hike, this trail offers accessible tranquility amongst a tree that has become a symbol for Maine, and in many ways, Bowdoin itself—the pine.
Civil Rights Movement comes to Bowdoin, students participate across nation From March 7 to March 21, 1965, thousands of nonviolent civil rights demonstrators marched from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. Led from Atlanta by Martin Luther King Jr.
On the weekend of February 10, the Board of Trustees officially promoted nine faculty members from assistant to associate professors, which grants them tenure at the College. The shift goes into effect on July 1, 2022.
Today I wrote an entire page of notes with the date “February 9, 2020” at the top of my notebook. With 20-or-so minutes left in my class, I realized that it was, in fact, the year 2022 and not 2020.
I don’t know who needs to hear this. Maybe just myself. So to whomever I’m writing for, I hope this finds you well. I hope what I say brings you comfort or insight. At the very least, I hope you know you are not alone.
For Mason Daugherty ’25 and Phillip Spyrou ’25, rummaging for a OneCard while in line for Thorne is a distant memory. Instead of grabbing their wallet, phone or lanyard, these students have everything they need right in the palm of their hand—literally.
With fake cigarettes in-hand, New York accents engaged and full-body vagina costumes donned, seniors Gita Kant and Lola Motley took the stage last fall in a sketch about sexual health before an overflowing Kresge Auditorium. After almost two years of Covid-19 restrictions, Purity Pact’s end-of-semester show marked a milestone in the return of campus comedy.
Assistant Professor of Economics Jessica LaVoice joined the College community in 2020, and her impact is already felt across campus. LaVoice first became interested in urban economics when she noticed how segregated and distinct her hometown of Springfield, Mass.
Since the College reopened to students in late August 2020, students, faculty and staff have undergone rigorous testing for Covid-19 twice or even three times each week. While walks to the testing center—once Morrell Gymnasium and now Farley Field House—are ingrained in the collective conscience of the College community, what happens to Covid samples after they are collected remains a mystery to most.
Chef Ali Waks Adams likens Willie and Chet’s, her pop-up restaurant, to the spontaneous, ephemeral excitement of having a crush. “A good dinner can take away some of the outside bad stuff,” Waks Adams said. “It’s temporary, it’s a panacea—but it’s a beautiful one.
With Valentine’s Day in the rearview mirror, students have been reflecting on the most recent romantic phenomenon to sweep campus: Datamatch. The online matchmaking service, run by Harvard University students, arrived on campus for the first time last week.
If you embark on just a 10-minute drive from campus, you may stumble upon the ecological and historical gem that is Skolfield Shores Preserve. After around five minutes of walking on the preserve, you will be met with a view of the ocean.
Instead of spending their weekends at Urban Outfitters or Salvation Army, four students on campus have turned to knitting needles, sewing machines and “floofers.” These students—a small but passionate cohort—have turned to sewing for various reasons but remain united by their love of the craft.
“We all hate home,” declared Phlip Larkin in his poem “Poetry of Departures.” Written in his inimitable and characteristically lugubrious style, it was this idea that rang in my mind as I spent some weeks over winter break pondering what home is and how cruel, challenging, but ultimately vindicating it can prove to be.
“What are y’all sorry about?” Following my first semester as a Polar Bear, I nearly bawled after seeing a cowboy hat at the Memphis International Airport. That flamboyant hat, paired with muddy cowboy boots and a raspy Southern drawl was enough to make me break out into song.
Known for his iconic takeover of the Bowdoin Class of 2025 Instagram page this past summer and for assigning readings on masturbation that were featured on students’ Snapchat stories on his first day at Bowdoin teaching “Sociology of Sexuality,” Assistant Professor of Sociology Theodore Greene has cemented his reputation as a unique professor on campus.
Tucked away alongside a consignment shop, hotel and Vietnamese restaurant, Flip, Maine Street’s new brunch spot, is open for business. “What does Brunswick need? What does Brunswick want? It was breakfast!” owner Mike Jerome said. “There was no place to sit down and get a Bloody Mary and breakfast without having to go across the bridge to Topsham.” The brunch bar opened on Christmas Eve of last year, taking the spot of Benchwarmers, a long-standing sports bar and pub.
At many institutions, and at Bowdoin in particular, professors’ personal lives are far more intertwined than we might expect, and their partners are closer still—sometimes even in the classroom next door. Within Bowdoin’s faculty and staff there are many couples, with some occupying neighboring offices and others situated on opposite ends of campus.
“This story, in a funny way, begins in Paris,” remembered Robert H. Edwards, President of the College from 1990 to 2001. Now 86 years of age, Edwards sat upright at his spotless dining room table in his farmhouse near Wiscasset, Maine.
After a fifty-one-year tenure at Bowdoin, DeAlva Stanwood Alexander Professor of Government Christian Potholm ’62 retired from the College at the end of last semester. A prolific scholar in the field of warfare, as well as both African and Maine politics, Potholm’s teaching career at Bowdoin started in 1970, just as the College first admitted women, and concluded during a tumultuous era for the college caused by a global pandemic.
For many prospective students going through the college application process, traveling to Brunswick can often be difficult, impractical and expensive—especially with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite Bowdoin’s virtual tours and online information sessions, it can be difficult to replicate the College’s atmosphere through the confines of Zoom.
