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Features

Talk of the Quad

Bursting my Bowdoin bubble

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.

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Talk of the Quad

Why are we catapulting in classrooms?

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.

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Brunswick

BRJC makes a comeback as a response to Dobbs decision

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).

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Events

Author Jacob Wheeler gives talk on Bowdoin alumna Hanley Denning, the “Angel of the Dump”

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.

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Nurturing community through henna

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.

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Good Old Raisins and Peanuts (GORP)

Tree teachings

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.

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Talk of the Quad

First star I see tonight

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.

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Talk of the Quad

Existing while anxious

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.

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Who wants me?

Who wants me?: A new take on the blind date

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.

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Talk of the Quad

139 students

“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.

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Talk of the Quad

Running the long Covid marathon

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.

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Talk of the Quad

A begrudging ode to my Chamberlain double

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.

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Maine Mobile Health Program assists migrant farmers in Maine

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.

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Faculty

The Committee on Governance and Faculty Affairs reflects

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.

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Asbury ’03 and Garcia-Moreno ’81 to spearhead Presidential search

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.

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Talk of the Quad

Tea-OQ

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.

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Student testing center volunteers gain hands-on medical experience

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.

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Be Reel: students encourage local fish in dining halls

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.

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Arthur Brooks

‘It’s very hard to debate anything these days’: reopening the conversation over political diversity and free speech at Bowdoin

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.

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Peer Health

First-annual Sex Fest sees success

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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