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Emily Dobson, Bowdoin women’s basketball assistant coach, stepped down from the team this past week after holding the position for just seven months. During her stint with the team, Dobson helped lead the Polar Bears to a 14-3 record (4-1 NESCAC).
In an email to the campus community on January 18, Jason Pelletier announced that the IT Tech Hub had moved to the enclosed seating area on the second floor of Smith Union. Pelletier is the senior director of client services and technology.
Ladd House will no longer be used as a College House following the end of the spring semester. When asked for comment, the administration said that announcements regarding the future of the college house would be forthcoming.
In an email to the campus community on January 28, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator and Director of Residential and Student Life Mike Ranen announced that the College’s COVID-19 restrictions would once again be lightened. Most of the new guidelines took effect on Monday as masked students returned to the classroom.
Guenter Herbert Rose, former Associate Professor of Psychology and Department Chair of the Psychology Department, passed away on January 12 in Vista, California after a battle with Lewy body dementia. He was 86 years old. “He was a popular teacher at Bowdoin, and a number of his students elected to pursue careers in psychology and neuroscience,” President Clayton Rose wrote in an email to all employees.
On January 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued its long-awaited opinion on the future of the Frank J. Wood Bridge, which straddles the Androscoggin River and connects Brunswick and Topsham. Almost two months after hearing the arguments of a small group of local preservationists who have relentlessly contested the Maine Department of Transportation’s decision to replace the rapidly deteriorating bridge, the court rejected every argument made in favor of preservation except one, upholding a ruling made by the federal district court in the district of Maine last year.
After closing for three months at the beginning of the pandemic, children have returned to the Bowdoin Children’s Center, which is cautiously operating under new policies in response to COVID-19. This semester, however, faculty and staff with children at the Center are finding themselves caught between the more endemic approach to COVID-19 the College has recently adopted and the Center’s continued conservative health measures.
Despite an ahead-of-schedule, non-student worker minimum wage increase to $17 per hour in response to national labor shortage, the College continues to suffer staffing shortages. Dining Services Interim Director Ken Cardone estimates that his department has around twenty to twenty-five open “casual positions,” defined by the College as non-student employees that work fewer than twenty hours per week.
On Wednesday, the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) conducted its first meeting via Zoom. The meeting discussed the goals of various committees for the remainder of the academic year. BSG President Ryan Britt ’22 opened the meeting by echoing the sentiments of many Bowdoin students during the return to a largely remote campus.
In an email to the College community on Thursday, Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Janet Lohmann announced two new staff appointments in the Division of Student Affairs. Katie Toro-Ferrari will serve as Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Director of Student Life, having previously held titles of Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Assistant to the Dean for Student Affairs.
COVID-19 Resource Coordinator and Director of Residential and Student Life Mike Ranen notified all first-year students and students from select upperclassmen housing on campus Tuesday that a recent lack of adherence to indoor masking policies in dorm common spaces had elicited numerous complaints from housekeeping staff and had even caused some housekeepers to request a change to their building assignments.
Since March 2020, the College has fought the COVID-19 pandemic with restrictions intended to keep students as isolated as possible from the virus. Now, with the Omicron variant reaching its peak in Maine, the College has reimagined its approach to COVID-19, in the midst of the Omicron variant’s increased transmissibility.
After COVID-19 forced a lockdown for the residents of Helmreich House during Sophomore Bootcamp, residents have until the middle of next week to move out due to mold found in the House’s basement and first floor.
Last semester, Counseling and Wellness Services saw 435 students with a total of 2,147 appointments scheduled with their counseling staff, a record high for the office. In his first year as director, Dr. Roland Mendiola has been tasked with leading Counseling’s response to the heightened demand.
Bowdoin’s Class of 2026 will not look like its two preceding classes, with applications submitted and reviews underway. The Classes of 2024 and 2025 matriculated during the COVID-19 pandemic and their statistics have, in turn, have gone against the norm.
Classes will begin as scheduled on January 24th, despite an ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant. Classes will be held virtually for the first week before returning to in-person and masked on January 31st.
Moulton and Thorne Halls will now provide containers for proper needle disposal, according to an email sent by Interim Director of Health Services Sandra Hayes on December 1. Hayes wrote that the College has seen an increase in improper disposal of needles and medical sharps on campus in the past month, especially in the dish rooms in the dining halls.
Employees who have been on the College’s payroll since or before September 1 will receive an additional cash payment in their December paychecks. President Clayton Rose announced the news in an email to staff on Monday.
In an email to the campus community Wednesday, President Clayton Rose announced that the College will require all eligible students, staff and faculty to receive COVID-19 booster shots in order to return to campus for the spring semester.
Despite email and text notifications about the possibility of receiving a $250 to $1,000 grant made possible by the American Rescue Plan (ARP), only 53 percent of eligible students requested funding. The institutional funding that allowed the College to offer these grants came as a part of multiple packages received from the federal government, which have decreased the financial toll the pandemic has taken on the College.
On December 15, Kyra Green will be stepping down as the interim director of the Center for Multicultural Life (CML) to take on a new role as the Assistant Director of Equity and Inclusion for the Graduate Arts and Sciences at Georgetown University.
On December 6, the faculty had its final meeting of the semester where, among other matters, they discussed how to empathetically hold students to high standards. The meeting was facilitated by Associate Professor of English Emma Maggie Solberg, a member of the Governance and Faculty Affairs Committee.
On Wednesday evening, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) held its final meeting of the semester where members reflected on their accomplishments and discussed goals for the spring. BSG is going to continue its work confronting mental health in the coming months in an attempt to address the need for student resources on campus.
As fall semester classes come to a close, the development of the Omicron COVID-19 variant and accompanying potential of international border closure is complicating international students’ travel plans of going home for winter break. Depending on their home countries’ ever-shifting COVID-19 restrictions and regulations, students have been forced to make difficult travel decisions for winter break.
In an email to faculty, Senior Vice President and Dean for Academic Affairs Jennifer Scanlon announced that COVID-19 Resource Coordinator and Director of Residential and Student Life Mike Ranen will be transitioning into the newly-established role of associate dean for academic administration sometime in the spring semester.
Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) held its first meeting since Thanksgiving break on Wednesday night. Topics covered included the successful extended Thanksgiving recess, or “Polar Pause,” as well as two surveys recently sent to the student body.
Donations to the Alumni Fund are essential to the financial health of the College, making up six percent of Bowdoin’s operating budget annually. The generosity of Bowdoin alumni has played an integral role in allowing the College to expand its financial aid policies to their current state, launch new construction projects and support countless internal operations.
Paralympic cyclist Clara Brown visited campus last night to talk about her experience as a disabled athlete, kicking off a week of programming from the Student Accessibility Office in honor of Disabled Persons Day. At the start of the talk, Brown showed a short film titled “Ability,” by filmmakers Anna Wilder Burns and Jordyn Romero.
Despite detecting 11 new active cases of COVID-19 following Thanksgiving break, the College remains in status level Green. Although COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen had previously reported that the College hoped to loosen mask restrictions on Wednesday, given the current number of cases, the indoor mask restriction will remain in place until at least today, until further notice.
At 11:26 p.m. on November 13, smoke in Coles Tower triggered a fire alarm, leading to an evacuation of the building and a call to the Brunswick Fire Department (BFD). “I was walking toward Thorne … with some friends, and we could smell smoke and we thought it was a campfire, but it was raining [outside] so we were confused,” Hayden Weatherall ’22 said.
On Tuesday evening, the Center for Multicultural Life and the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) partnered to bring Portland City Councillor and community organizer Victoria Pelletier to Bowdoin. The event featured a conversation and Q&A with Pelletier led by Interim Director of the Center for Multicultural Life Kyra Green.
On Tuesday, November 23, the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) banned all commercial vehicles from crossing the Frank J. Wood Bridge. This follows an October 25 MDOT announcement banning school buses and fire trucks from crossing the bridge and lowering its weight limit to 10 tons from 25.
Finnegan Woodruff ’21 was a Renaissance man: a spirited fiddle player, a scrupulous tailor and an ambitious whitewater kayaker. Finn passed away on November 16, a month from his 23rd birthday, doing what he loved—paddling on the White Salmon River in White Salmon, Wash.
At the third faculty meeting of the year on Wednesday, the faculty addressed strategies for supporting students, staff and each other. The meeting was facilitated by Associate Professor of English Emma Maggie Solberg, a member of the Governance and Faculty Affairs (GFA) Committee.
On Thursday evening, the Native American Student Association (NASA) and the Office of Gender Violence Prevention and Education (OGVPE) welcomed Native American lawyer and professor Sarah Deer to speak about historical violence against Indigenous people, specifically emphasizing violence prevention for Native women.
Last Friday, Director of Security Randy Nichols announced the rollout of a new app called Bowdoin SAFE in an email sent to the campus community. “Bowdoin SAFE has personal safety features of all sorts, and makes it easier to contact Safety and Security or 9-1-1 in an emergency,” Nichols wrote.
Last Monday, the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge announced that Bowdoin tied for the highest undergraduate voting rate in a nationwide democratic engagement challenge. 85.4 percent of students voted in the 2021 election—a 9.5 percentage point increase from the last recorded data from 2016.
Last week, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) recognized Bowdoin in the organization’s annual Sustainable Campus Index. The College received a gold Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) rating. As established by the Sustainable Campus index, STARS is a robust and widely-used system by higher education institutions.
On Monday evening, author and photographer Teju Cole visited the College to deliver the Kenneth V. Santagata Memorial Lecture, titled “A View of A View.” Cole walked the audience through his work, ranging from his tenure as a photography critic for the New York Times to his most recent book, “Black Paper: Writing in A Dark Time.” His main interest lies in exploring the relationship between words and photographs, a topic he currently teaches at Harvard University.
In honor of National First-Generation College Day, the Center for Multicultural Life hosted a celebration for first-generation (first-gen) students and a panel for students to share their experiences with the rest of the community on November 8.
On Monday, the Social Justice Leadership Institute held a workshop titled Class, Classism and Privilege. The workshop was the second of eight sessions designed to address various topics related to identity and social justice. The event began with two informative videos that provided context on classism in the U.S.
On January 1, 2022, the College will switch health insurance providers for College employees from Anthem to Cigna. The College has been with Anthem since 2003. Working in collaboration with outside consultants, the administration sent out a request for a proposal (RFP) this past Spring 2021, comparing plans to see which would be best for the College.
In an email to the student body on Thursday, President Clayton Rose announced that classes will be canceled the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving break, extending the break to a full week. Thanksgiving break will now start on Friday, November 19, and classes will resume on Monday, November 29.
The Bowdoin Department of Mathematics welcomed Cathy O’Neil to campus for the annual Cecil and Marion Holmes Lecture on Monday. An accomplished author and Ph.D. graduate, O’Neil had an extensive career in finance and academia before founding O’Neil Risk Consulting & Algorithmic Auditing (ORCAA), an algorithmic auditing company.
Last Friday, campus was home to its first Fall Fest, an afternoon-long event composed of live music from student bands, food trucks, a bouncy obstacle course and baby animals in a makeshift barn. Despite the festival’s ambitious scope, the College began to plan the event only a few weeks ago, according to Senior Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Janet Lohmann.
From his work with Hillel to the Hawthorne-Longfellow library to frisbee and the Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC), Theo Danzig ’22 touched countless lives in his more than three years as a Bowdoin student. Theo’s unparalleled intellect, sarcastic sense of humor and devotion to his loved ones are fondly remembered by his friends, professors and teammates alike.
James “Jes” Staley ’79 P’11, the former CEO of Barclays, stepped down from the Bowdoin Board of Trustees on Monday, according to a statement from Director of Communications Scott Hood. The statement followed an announcement earlier in the day that Staley would resign from his position as Chief Executive of Barclays.
On Wednesday, mental health took center stage when the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) convened to discuss two proposals. The assembly first considered a proposal endorsing the creation of a Mental Health board jointly administered by the Administration and BSG.
Masks will no longer be required in student residence halls, administrative or academic buildings, athletic facilities and Smith Union, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the campus community today. Additionally, dining halls will reopen for faculty and staff, effective immediately.
Following a September safety inspection, the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) announced last week that the single-vehicle weight limit for the Frank J. Wood Bridge traversing the Androscoggin between Brunswick and Topsham had to be lowered from 25 tons to 10.
On Wednesday, October 27, Peer Health hosted an Imposter Syndrome panel and workshop to encourage discussion among students and provide insight into how to find help regarding the issue. An isolating feeling—but not an isolated event—“imposter syndrome” describes the feeling of not belonging in a group of peers, whether socially or academically.
On Tuesday, Gabby Lubin ’14, founder and CEO of spark, gave a talk about her experience in forming a start-up company. spark, established in March 2020, offers exercise and mindfulness programs to educators both virtually and in-person.
The Maine Referendum Election will be held next Tuesday, November 2. There are three statewide questions on the ballot, as well as local elections for Town Council and School Board. Bowdoin Votes will be running shuttles to the polls—located at Brunswick Junior High School—every 15 minutes from 7 a.m.
Last Saturday, during Family Weekend, members of the Bowdoin Labor Alliance (BLA) and other student activists hosted a teach-in on the Main Quad to educate students and their families about the College’s Board of Trustees. Student activists centered their grievances around James “Jes” Staley ’79 P’11—who has come under fire for his relationship with the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein as well as his actions as CEO of Barclays—and circulated an online petition calling for Staley’s removal from the Board.
Ultra-marathoner Mirna Valerio gave a talk last night titled “A Beautiful Work in Progress” about her journey as a Black, plus-sized endurance runner. It was her final appearance in an action-packed day of programming. From a morning talk about DEI work, to meals with students followed by a guided trail run, Valerio generously spent the large part of Thursday with the Bowdoin community.
Masks will no longer be required in student residence halls, administrative or academic buildings, athletic facilities and Smith Union, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the campus community today. Additionally, dining halls will reopen for faculty and staff, effective immediately.
On October 14, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), chaired by President Clayton Rose, announced its long-term plan to increase racial, ethnic and gender diversity in science. The institute committed to investing $2 billion over the next decade in pursuit of ten goals, all of which are designed to significantly promote equity and inclusion in academic, research and professional environments.
The College saw a small number of new COVID-19 cases as students and staff returned to campus after fall break. Two students and one staff member tested positive for the virus on October 14, followed by two more positive cases among staff members on October 17 and 18.
After eight years as the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good’s Associate Director for Service and Leadership, Andrew Lardie has departed the College to take on a role at the Brunswick School District. Since coming to Bowdoin in 2013, Lardie has worked on numerous programs at the McKeen Center, from Alternative Break Trips to his passion project, Bowdoin Votes.
On Thursday, Senior Lecturer in Classics Michael Nerdahl hosted a talk with writer Nina MacLaughlin at Searles Hall. In the auditorium, MacLaughlin discussed the topic of “Sex, Violence and Change” in Greek mythology. At the center of the talk was MacLaughlin’s acclaimed 2019 book Wake, Siren, which reimagines and reinterprets Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
On Wednesday evening, the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) held its weekly meeting in Daggett Lounge. President Clayton Rose attended the meeting this week and discussed a wide array of topics ranging from the Board of Trustees to the current labor shortage at the College and beyond.
“[Liberalism’s] weak spot has always been the kind of human being it promoted: one that is preoccupied with comfortable self-preservation, driven by calculation of self-interest, rather than by imagination and lofty goals,” Barry N. Wish Professor of Government Paul Franco said early in the inaugural lecture for his new, endowed position.
This Sunday, the College will host the delayed Class of 2024 Convening Brunch at 10:30 a.m. The event will feature a class photo taken on the steps of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, as well as remarks from President Clayton Rose, Associate Professor of English Emma Maggie Solberg and Bowdoin Student Government President Ryan Britt ’22.
This weekend, the College will host the first in-person Family Weekend since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, albeit with modified policies to mitigate potential spread of the virus. Visiting family members must provide proof of vaccination upon their arrival to campus, and, where possible, events have been moved outside.
To help with the increase in programming and demand this semester, the Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC) recently hired Eric Giuang ’18 as an assistant director. The position had been vacant since the summer of 2020, and the BOC began its official search for a new assistant director at the beginning of this fall semester.
Six signs advocating for the removal of James “Jes” Staley ’79 P’11, CEO of Barclays, from the College’s Board of Trustees were taken down yesterday morning from the strip of grass between Maine Street and Park Row outside Hawthorne-Longfellow Library and Gibson Hall.
In an email to the Bowdoin community on Thursday, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Director of Residential and Student Life Mike Ranen announced that one student tested positive from over 2,000 PCR tests administered Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Program for Nonviolence and Conflict Resolution (PNVCR) held its first event, a community circle on anonymous speech and social media, on October 1. The event was an opportunity for faculty, staff and students to discuss the role of anonymous online speech in the Bowdoin community.
Last Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Labor and former Mayor of Boston Marty Walsh visited campus for a roundtable conversation with Governor Janet Mills, College President Clayton Rose and a panel of regional business leaders at Moulton Union.
A full student population back on campus has generated a marked increase in enthusiasm for campus events. From Sexuality Women and Gender (SWAG) programming to wellness offerings, students have jumped at opportunities to partake in campus life.
In a campus-wide email on Wednesday, Dean of Students Kristina Odejimi announced that Dr. Jeffrey Maher will be stepping down as Director of Health Services to focus on his family and career as a doctor. For the past thirteen years Dr.
In an email to the campus community on Thursday, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced that the College would be moving back to Yellow status that evening following an uptick in cases after Homecoming weekend. This change came on the heels of an email sent Tuesday in which Ranen announced that the College would transition back to Yellow beginning Monday, October 11 after fall break.
This week, the College released its annual endowment report for the 2020-21 fiscal year that ended on June 30, reporting a return of 57.4 percent. The endowment is currently worth $2.72 billion, its highest-ever valuation. “Historically, the average return to an endowment is in the low teens…to high single digits over the long term,” President of the College Clayton Rose said.
Dining Services announced this week its plan to raise the starting wage of student employees to $14.25 per hour in response to the nationwide labor shortage that has led to a staffing deficiency across many of the College’s departments.
On Monday and Tuesday, Health Services will hold an influenza vaccine clinic. Students will be given the shot after their usual PCR COVID-19 test at Farley Field House. Since all students are required to get the shot this year, Health Services has ordered more vaccines than they do during a typical year.
The Sexuality, Women and Gender Center (SWAG) this week announced the debut of a new program called Affirming @ Bowdoin: All Genders All Sexualities, which will replace SWAG’s former OUTPeers and OUTAllies program. The workshop will be led by Associate Dean of Students for Inclusion and Diversity and Director of SWAG Kate Stern.
On September 24 and 25, the Office of Development and Alumni Relations hosted a series of alumnae-organized virtual events to kick off a yearlong celebration entitled “Leaders in All Walks of Life: 50 Years of Women at Bowdoin.” The festivities began on Friday with a session entitled “Using Our Voices: The Bowdoin Experience of Women of Color.” A series of subsequent events, including keynotes and panel discussions, continued through Saturday.
Cancelled for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the long-awaited field excursion to Bowdoin’s field station on Kent Island in New Brunswick, Canada, finally took place last weekend. Since the recent readmission of American citizens across the Canadian border on August 9, 2021, 16 Bowdoin students taking Ecology and Biology of Marine Organisms this semester were able to cross the border and participate in the Kent Island trip, led by Ian Kyle, assistant director of the Bowdoin College Scientific Station on Kent Island, and Patricia Jones, assistant professor of Biology and director of the Bowdoin College Scientific Station on Kent Island.
Following a year of virtual programming and intense on-campus restrictions, the class of 2024 was limited in their opportunities to get to know each other, the school and the surrounding area. Now, the College and the BOC are aiming to help the sophomore class make up for lost time.
On Wednesday evening, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) held its inaugural meeting of the semester, where it outlined its goals for the coming year. Members of the assembly expressed their desire to launch efforts in addressing the mental health of Bowdoin students and providing support for students of traditionally under-represented backgrounds.
Although sophomore and junior class elections typically occur in the spring, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) made the decision to hold elections for all four classes this fall. With results finalized as of Sunday, all four classes will be under new leadership this year.
Lisa Rävar ’07 is leaving her role as director of gender violence prevention and education (OGVPE), Associate Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity Benje Douglas announced in an email to the campus community this Tuesday. Rävar’s role has shifted in her six years with the Office.
In a press release last week, nonprofit informational technology (IT) association EDUCAUSE named Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Michael Cato its 2021 Diversity, Education, and Inclusion (DEI) Award recipient. EDUCAUSE praised Cato for his exceptional leadership skills and outstanding contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at Bowdoin and beyond.
In an email to the community on Tuesday, President Clayton Rose announced that Senior Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity Michael Reed will be retiring on September 30. Reed joined the College in 2018 as the inaugural Senior Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity.
In an email to the campus community on September 17, President Clayton Rose announced a range of changes to upcoming activities and events and a continuation of the indoor mask mandate in light of the recent outbreak of COVID-19 cases on campus and continued concerns related to the Delta variant.
Despite initial expectations that self-reporting and antigen testing would provide an effective surveillance system for this semester, the College has shifted to becoming more reliant on PCR testing as it was last year, when students were PCR tested two to three times each week.
The highest number of students in the history of the College are currently living on campus, with 1,814 residing in College housing. This record is a result of more students taking time off in the 2020-2021 academic year and juniors choosing to forego study abroad this semester due to COVID-19 impacting programs around the globe.
In an email to the community yesterday, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced that the College would be moving back to Green status this morning. As was the case with the transition to Yellow status three weeks ago, there will be some alterations to the guidelines posted before the start of the semester.
For 89 years, the Frank J. Wood Bridge has traversed the Androscoggin River at the northern end of Maine Street in the Town of Brunswick. For the past five years, the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) has pushed for a plan to tear it down.
Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of downtown on 15 Cushing Street, the Brunswick location of OTTO Pizza opened its doors September 7. OTTO already has 17 locations in total, seven of which are in the greater Portland area, where the pizzeria was established in 2009 by New England entrepreneurs Anthony Allen and Mike Keon.
Jhon Narváez has made it his life’s work to re-center the history of his native Cartagena, Colombia around the Black population that defined its centuries-long history as Spanish America’s largest slave port. Through working in the film industry, as well as through activism and grassroots organizing, Narváez has worked tirelessly to subvert historical narratives.
On Monday evening at 11:30 p.m., Stephen McIntire, 61, was arrested on campus for violation of privacy after being caught attempting to look inside dorm windows, his tenth recorded violation of privacy incident on campus since 2015.
At the first faculty meeting of the school year, which was held Monday over Zoom, President Clayton Rose announced four new endowed faculty positions intended to honor notable Black graduates of the College. These positions aim to bring new faculty to the College to study race, racism and racial justice at an interdisciplinary level.
In response to the improved COVID-19 infection rate on campus, the College will relax some of its Yellow status restrictions related to dining and residence halls effective today, Friday, September 17. Associate Dean of Student Affairs, Director of Residential and Student Life and COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced the change in an email to the Bowdoin community Wednesday afternoon, crediting the original restrictions for the low levels of transmission over the past ten days.
In a September 9 email, Senior Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Janet Lohmann introduced NAVICA, a mobile app to help the College’s effort in managing COVID-19 outbreaks on campus. After moving to Yellow status and extending the mask mandate in the past two weeks, this marks another step in the College’s effort to curb infection rates.
This July, the Geoffrey Canada Scholars (GCS) Summer Institute returned for its fourth year, offering 18 first year students the opportunity to acclimate to campus life and college-level coursework during the five weeks before the start of Orientation trips.
In light of the recent COVID-19 outbreak on campus, some students have been experiencing breakout-room déjà vu as a handful of professors have been faced with the decision to either navigate hybrid learning or temporarily make the switch to remote learning for their classes.
The campus-wide shift to status Yellow last Thursday included the dining halls’ abrupt transition to exclusively takeaway meals. However, Bowdoin Dining Services and the Bowdoin Sustainability Office were prepared for the change and have built upon their work from last year to improve food packaging options and further develop a means for efficient and sustainable waste disposal on campus.
In light of the recent number of positive COVID-19 cases on campus, the College has increased the number of mandatory PCR tests from once a month to twice a week. COVID-19 Coordinator Mike Ranen announced the change in an email to the community on September 3.
Due to the College’s transition to Yellow Status, the Class of 2024 Convening Brunch, President’s Welcome and Class Photo—which were planned for Sunday, September 5—have been postponed until further notice. These three events traditionally take place when a new class arrives on campus each fall.
