Go to content, skip over navigation

Sections

More Pages

Go to content, skip over visible header bar
Home News Features Arts & Entertainment Sports OpinionAbout Contact Advertise

Note about Unsupported Devices:

You seem to be browsing on a screen size, browser, or device that this website cannot support. Some things might look and act a little weird.

Features

Talk of the Quad

Florida Bureau of Tourism

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.

Read more

Student Activities

Bowdoin Quiz Bowl combines knowledge with community

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.

Read more

This month in Bowdoin history

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.

Read more

Comedy

Purity Pact: the last bastion of sketch humor at Bowdoin

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.

Read more

COVID-19

Documenting Bowdoin’s Covid-19 test transport

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.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

A paean for home

“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.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

The south is not your scapegoat

“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.

Read more

Beyond the Blackboard

The ever-curious Theo Greene

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.

Read more

Brunswick

Flip Breakfast & Brunch Bar fills niche on Maine Street

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.

Read more

Professor

Prolific Professor of Government Potholm ’62 retires

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.

Read more

Student Life

Students document Bowdoin life online

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.

Read more

Mail

Stamp of approval: uncovering the team behind Bowdoin’s mail center

Bowdoin students have all received that email sent from Bowdoin DBMail: “You have a(n) item(s) ready for pick up at the Bowdoin Mail Center.” From here, schedule permitting, students make their way over to Smith Union, wait in a meandering line, recite their ID number, flash their OneCard, smile at the mailroom worker as they grab their package et voilà: a parcel of the student’s own.

Read more

Beyond the Blackboard

Allen Springer: A Life at Bowdoin

Characterized by his amiable strolls across campus and his preference for 12-point single-spaced Times New Roman font, Professor Allen Springer has become a staple of the Government and Legal Studies department at Bowdoin. Boasting a spectacular record of 45 years teaching at the College, he has maintained a steadfast reputation as an articulate teacher in each and every class he looks over.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

N(ostalgia) 64

One day this past spring, I decided to dust off my old Nintendo DS and pop in “Professor Layton and the Curious Village,” the first installment in a six-game series about Hershel Layton, a gentlemanly archaeology professor in London, and his young apprentice, Luke, who solve puzzles and mysteries together.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

Let me aux

Being offered the “aux” is one of those unnecessarily frightening experiences. Sure, it’s an opportunity to share your personal music taste with the world—but that’s not always a boon. You might simultaneously agree with the notions that music being “good” or “bad” is purely subjective, but also that our music taste is a display of identity—so why is one’s personal music taste vulnerable to criticism?

Read more

Faculty

Janmohamed: empathy through writing

For Visiting Assistant Professor of English Zahir Janmohamed, good literature serves as a vessel for ambiguity. Janmohamed aims for his students to explore the texture, contradictions and uncertainties of their lives through text. “I’m not really interested in certainties, and I’m also not interested in cleverness,” Janmohamed said.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

Finding some clarity

First and foremost, allow me to preface this article with a word of caution: this is a personal dialogue. In the process of writing, I concluded that this submission was going to be nothing more than a way for me to organize my thoughts—a process for me to take what was crammed into my mind and place it onto paper.

Read more

Brunswick

Let’s try love: Brunswick group fights for peace

Each Friday since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a group of Brunswick residents gather on the town green on Pleasant and Maine Streets, armed with signs calling for world peace. Initially conceived of as a protest to urge the United States government not to retaliate in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the group has continued to convene every Friday at 5:00 p.m.

Read more

Budget Bowdoin Dining

Simple soups to comfort the soul

Did you know that in the 12th century, doctors prescribed those with illnesses broth made from bone marrow and chicken fat? Truly, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same! Soup is one of the least time intensive and most low effort big-batch meals that humanity could come up with.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

Some thoughts on home and place

There I found myself, in an unfamiliar land, surrounded by familiar faces. After an eventful day of getting lost on the subway, missing breakfast and facing near (phone battery) death, it’s easy to see why I found a certain respite in fresh New York City bagels and conversation with high school friends.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

We’re not in northern Maine anymore

I grew up in Orono, Maine. To anybody who’s actually from Maine and has knowledge of the local geography, Orono is in central Maine. That’s the truth. However, I still tell fellow Bowdoin students that I’m from “northern Maine” because people from the West Coast typically think that anywhere north of Augusta is just an outcropping of moose and deer-filled wilderness.

Read more

BSG

New publication strives to give voices to marginalized

For Senior Class President Carlos Campos ’22, providing students with a platform to share their stories in a safe, inclusive, creative space is a priority. His new project, “People of the Global Majority,” a student-run publication supported by Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) and its president Ryan Britt ’22, aims to give a voice to historically marginalized students on campus.

Read more

The Love Doctors

Getting cuffed or getting back out there: how to handle a changing hookup relationship

Editor’s Note, Thursday, August 25, at 7:15 a.m.: Another student from the Class of 2022 contributed to this column, but their name was removed from the by-line for extenuating circumstances. If concerned, please email orient@bowdoin.edu.  So you’ve been getting down and dirty with one of your fellow polar bears for a few weeks, but your relationship is now going one of two ways: 1.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

Don’t apologize, do better

I’ve never been good with apologies. As ashamed as I am to admit it, I used to view apologies as the very end of the long journey that is personal growth. In my mind, becoming a better person would always play out just like in the movies—a sappy apology and a sweet conclusion as the credits roll.

Read more

The Love Doctors

How to marry or avoid your algorithmic soulmate

Editor’s Note, Thursday, August 25, at 7:15 a.m.: Another student from the Class of 2022 contributed to this column, but their name was removed from the by-line for extenuating circumstances. If concerned, please email orient@bowdoin.edu. The moment we’ve all been YikYakking about has finally arrived (no, it’s not the true story about what happened with Randy Nichols the other night).

Read more

Talk of the Quad

Through the trees

Content warning: This article contains descriptions of child sexual abuse One day, my sister and I were playing in the woods. I followed after her every step of the way. I was looking for fairies, she was hunting for bugs.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

Yes, it’s me

Despite living in Chamberlain Hall for three months last fall, I had never been on campus before this year. Sure, the caricature of the person that I desperately tried to be was there, flat-ironing her poor hair to death.

Read more

Brunswick

Mentor groups remain hopeful despite pandemic challenges

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has limited Bowdoin students’ ability to form and foster connections in the Town of Brunswick, Saul Cuevas-Landeros ’23 is still determined to create opportunities for students to engage with the community. This year, Cuevas-Landeros is co-leading Bowdoin Central Mentoring, a Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good program dedicated to mentoring students in the Brunswick area.

Read more

Books

Bowdoin alumni bridge age gap through writing

When Anneka Williams ’21 started her first year at Bowdoin, she never expected to write a book during her time at the College, let alone co-publish one with someone nearly 60 years her senior. However, Williams, who is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Climate Change at the University of Copenhagen, did just this.

Read more

The Love Doctors

A non-runner’s take on long distance

Editor’s Note, Thursday, August 25, at 7:15 a.m.: Another student from the Class of 2022 contributed to this column, but their name was removed from the by-line for extenuating circumstances. If concerned, please email orient@bowdoin.edu.  Many of us were at home for longer than expected over the past year or so.

Read more

Administration

Behind the mask: The face of Bowdoin’s COVID-19 response

Mike Ranen usually starts his morning by checking the College’s COVID-19 test results around 6 a.m.. The results of those tests will dictate the course of his day. On a good day, Ranen can balance his job as the Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Director of Residential and Student Life, as well as his role as the College’s COVID-19 Resource Coordinator.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

The love I know

While I was studying back home in Thailand, my morning routine was taking a driving lesson taught by my grandpa. I would drive through the streets of suburban Bangkok, surrounded by electrical poles holding up black cables that tangle more viciously than your previous romantic situation.

Read more

Talk of the Quad

When we were friends

I have a good friend who’s no longer a good friend. We’re no longer on speaking terms, and I don’t know how much longer this will be the case. Even though we only met last September, they became one of my closest friends, and I became one of theirs.

Read more

Notes from the Garden

Summer Harvest: gathering

A chipmunk is stuck in the greenhouse; I must’ve surprised it when I wandered through yesterday. I left the door open so they could find their way out, and upon opening the door, I saw one of the garden’s human neighbors taking a pleasant stroll through the rows.

Read more

Anti-Racism

New institute to tackle social justice education

The Office of Inclusion and Diversity is spearheading a new program this semester designed to educate student leaders in promoting social justice and equity. The eight-session Social Justice Leadership Institute incorporates elements of past student workshops and campus-wide dialogue initiatives.

Read more

Maine

BPS Fellowships offer hands-on approach to the Common Good

For Justis Dixon ’23, the summer wasn’t spent going to the beach or relaxing in his home, rather, it was instead spent in an office in Topsham contributing to the Common Good. Over the summer, Dixon and a handful of other Bowdoin students participated in the Bowdoin Public Service (BPS) Maine Government Summer Fellowships which aim to give Bowdoin students hands-on government experience by pairing them with local governments in Maine.

Read more

A look back on the College’s testing program

Last March, during its 218th academic year, the College sent the student body home for the first time in institutional history. In the midst of every major world event from 1794 to present day, Bowdoin felt that it had the ability to maintain the safety of its students, faculty, staff and surrounding community.

Read more

Beneath the emotionless waiting room

Content warning: This article contains descriptions of substance use disorder and violence. I remember staring at the ceiling of some waiting room of some hospital that I can’t remember the name of. I had spent the previous night riding with my uncle down from Cleveland, Ohio to Johnson City, Tennessee.

Read more

Pinky D’s: Behind the iconic Friday night poutine truck

The Pinky D’s food truck, a mishmash of black and white checkers complemented by pink racing stripes, is nearly as colorful as the meal served out of it: poutine. The dish, a staple in Canada, is made of thick-cut fries topped with piping hot gravy and cheese curds, making it the perfect late night snack for hungry Bowdoin students.

Read more

Professor Takematsu researches the science of sunlight

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Kana Takematsu follows the sunlight and wants Bowdoin students to do the same. “I’ve always been interested in light,” Takematsu said. Back in her grad school days at the California Institute of Technology, a guest lecturer in geology took Takematsu’s inorganic chemistry seminar on a field trip to a natural science museum.

Read more

International Students

International students reflect on a tumultuous and frustrating year

Following a programming series for ‘international students week,’ the International Student Alliance (ISA) organized a celebration reflecting on a bittersweet year, which took place at 30 College on Thursday afternoon. While the celebration was an uplifting and recreational event, many international students also voiced frustrations and concerns in response to the uncertainties that lie ahead.

Read more

Under pressure: the unseen burden of expectations

I think often of my walk back home from my bus stop after school when I was younger. I was often shaking in fear, with my eyes stinging with tears at the thought of what I might come home to—either an empty, quiet trailer to finish my homework, or an angry, drunken mother who would take her frustrations out on me and disrupt the rest of the evening.

Read more

Mr. Tuna: Brunswick’s new mobile sushi staple

Drawing in hungry Bowdoin students with fresh and mouthwatering sushi rolls, the Mr. Tuna food truck has quickly become a staple of the Bowdoin foodie’s diet. The truck offers an array of sushi roll options of every style and flavor, satisfying customers no matter their personal taste.

Read more

Brunswick

Restoring the Lemont Block

The Lemont Block, a four-story historic brick building on the corner of Maine Street and Pleasant Street that has been an iconic part of the Brunswick skyline for over 150 years, is about to have a new chapter added to its storied history.

Read more