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The second meeting of the Board of Trustees this academic year will be held in Palo Alto, California beginning next Thursday. It is the first time the meeting will be held outside of the Northeast. “We wanted to engage with the culture of the ‘new economy’—not that new anymore—the culture of technology and innovation and entrepreneurship,” said President Clayton Rose.
In an effort to reduce plastic waste, all eight College Houses will begin using reusable cups in place of traditional single-use cups this semester. Last year, the College Houses used over 25,000 plastic cups, according to the College’s Sustainability Office.
EDITORS NOTE: The original version of this story ran with the headline “Bowdoin website to see first major overhaul since 2005.” In our original reporting we missed the fact that the College launched a website overhaul in 2012 but after a little more than one month, reverted back to the old version.
The College has created an online form for students to apply for emergency financial aid, Dean of Students Janet Lohmann announced in an email to the student body last Friday. The fund—which will cover the costs of “emergencies, special programs, test prep, supplies, travel and unanticipated events,” according to the website—is composed of donations from the Bowdoin community.
After years of requests from both students and faculty, the College is hiring two new Arabic language instructors for the upcoming academic year. However, a potential Arabic or Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) studies major or minor seems unlikely in the near future.
Bowdoin has already seen some effects of the influenza epidemic, characterized by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as moderately severe this year. According to Director of Health Services Dr. Jeffrey Maher, the bulk of the cases will present in the coming months.
In an email to the Bowdoin community on Wednesday, Dean for Academic Affairs Elizabeth McCormack and Registrar Martina Duncan ’97 officially shared changes to the daily time block schedule and final exam period that will take effect in the fall 2018 semester.
Citing student concerns about the short timeline for applying to live in Ladd House, the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) extended the deadline for the senior-only College House to next Wednesday. ResLife initially notified the junior class that living in Ladd for the 2018-2019 academic year was an option on January 18.
This week, the student-designed mobile food ordering app PolarEats announced a new collaboration with Jack Magee’s Pub and Grill, which will allow students to place orders for pickup through the app. App developer Sawyer Billings ’18 said that while delivery service from the Pub is not yet available, discussions are taking place.
The College received 9,047 applications for the class of 2022, up from 7,251 from last year. It was an increase of roughly 25 percent and the highest raw number since admissions data became available in 1989.
Ladd House, one of the eight College Houses on campus, will be senior-only housing next year if enough rising seniors apply next week. The decision to convert the House, traditionally occupied by sophomores, into senior housing was proposed by a group of juniors, and occurred amid numerous conversations about how to make College housing more appealing to upperclassmen.
At its first meeting of the semester on Wednesday, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) discussed revising its constitution and improving student counseling resources. BSG hopes to pass a new constitution before spring break, which would require one third of the student body to vote on the constitution and two thirds of those votes to be in favor.
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that Representative Patrick Meehan ’78 P’17 (R-Pa.) used thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to settle a personal sexual misconduct complaint made by a former aide. Last night Meehan announced that he would not be running for reelection.
Twelve students will participate in a trial intergroup dialogue (IGD) curriculum on socioeconomic class beginning this February. Kate Stern and Leana Amaez, associate deans of students for diversity and inclusion and co-directors of the Center for Sexuality, Women & Gender will facilitate discussion with students from various class backgrounds.
At its meeting on December 18, the Brunswick Town Council granted Bowdoin permission to discontinue a section of Pine Street between Bath Road and Bowker Street. The 7-1 vote came after several weeks of conversations, during which some town residents expressed concern about increased traffic on residential streets.
President Clayton Rose announced two important additions to the administration over Winter Break. Michael Cato and Michael Reed, will assume their positions on campus on March 1. Cato is the new senior vice president and chief information officer (CIO) while Reed will serve as the senior vice president for inclusion and diversity.
This semester, Bowdoin has accepted two students into its guest semester program for students studying in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands seeking to continue their education following disruption by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Veronica Gutierrez Camacho and Leonardo Núñez, both third-year students at the University of Puerto Rico, arrived in Brunswick on January 18 braced for a new educational and physical environment.
A group of protesters organized by Bowdoin Climate Action occupied Senator Susan Collins’ Portland office Friday to speak out against her support for the GOP tax bill. Friday’s protest was the latest in a series of demonstrations against Senator Collins’ support of the Senate tax plan.
This week the Orient sent out a revised version of its biannual approval ratings survey, now called the Bowdoin Orient Student Survey, which asks students about their opinions on campus institutions. The survey was sent to all 1,816 students and yielded 429 responses.
At Monday’s faculty meeting, faculty and staff discussed a plan to alter the schedule of both the academic and extracurricular day by adding 10 minutes between classes. While the detailed schedule has yet to be finalized, this specific change will be implemented for the fall 2018 semester.
Senator George Mitchell ’54, H’83 returned to campus early this week to participate in a dialogue with President Clayton Rose titled “Public Service in Times Like These,” during which he challenged his fellow Democrats to reexamine their governing priorities.
Currently, both the Senate and the House have passed versions of a revised tax code that would hit wealthy private colleges and universities with new taxes and restrictions. While there are significant differences between the Senate and House proposals, both would affect Bowdoin’s ability to, among other things, provide financial aid through a proposed tax on endowment earnings and a decrease in the number of taxpayers eligible to itemize charitable donations, which may disincentivize donating to the College.
On Tuesday evening, activist, organizer and educator DeRay Mckesson ’07 returned to campus as the keynote speaker for No Hate November. He delivered his address to a packed audience in Morrell Lounge in Smith Union. Mckesson, an active leader in the Black Lives Matter movement, has used social media, especially Twitter, to spread awareness about the movement, its nationwide protests and the systems of oppression that they seek to change.
The Bowdoin Public Service Initiative (BPS) announced its first cohort of 10 sophomores and five juniors to take part in a 7-week program in Washington, D.C., and the BPS fellowship program, respectively, last Friday. BPS in Washington allows sophomores to explore public service by traveling to the nation’s capital to meet and network with alumni and other public service representatives.
This week, students were urged to fill out Bowdoin Course Questionnaires (BCQs) to rate their experiences with courses and professors. Students’ responses are used to improve courses, evaluate faculty and supplement the process for making decisions on reappointment, promotion and tenure.
Senator George J. Mitchell ’54 H’83 returned to campus to participate in a dialogue with President Clayton Rose titled “Public Service in Times Like These” in Pickard Theater on Monday. In an exclusive interview with the Orient prior to the event, the senator discussed his deep disappointment with the Republican tax bill passed in the Senate on Saturday.
Bowdoin announced yesterday that it is initiating a Guest Semester Program for spring 2018 designed to accommodate students who currently attend inoperable universities in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Students who cannot attend their schools because of transportation, housing or financial difficulties have until December 18 to apply for the program.
Editor’s note: At their request, the names of some individuals interviewed in this piece have been abbreviated to protect their identity. The walls of the blue box gallery in David Saul Smith Union currently display a memorial to the 326 people killed by acts of anti-trans hatred in the preceding 365 days worldwide.
Two op-eds by Brunswick residents published this month in local newspapers expressed that the College should make a greater financial contribution to the town. In a letter to the editor published on November 14 in the Coastal Journal, Brunswick resident Jean Powers called for the town to request a greater gift-in-kind from the College.
During the 2016 election cycle, Bowdoin employees donated less to political causes as a group than employees of many other NESCAC colleges. When Bowdoin employees did donate, none gave to conservative candidates or groups. According to publicly available records from the Federal Election Commission, Bowdoin employees donated the second lowest aggregate sum of any of the 11 schools in the NESCAC in 2016 with $12,164.
This week, Bowdoin hosted the largest event series in the College’s history in recognition of HIV/AIDS. The schedule surrounding today’s World AIDS Day recognition has so far included a screening of the Oscar nominated documentary “How to Survive a Plague,” as well as a discussion with a cast member and a panel on the local and global view of HIV/AIDS.
As part of Bowdoin’s No Hate November programming, Africa Alliance and the Student Center for Multicultural Life co-sponsored a performance by Nigerian-British comedian Gina Yashere on Thursday night. The show brought a full crowd of students, faculty and community members to Kresge Auditorium.
At a town meeting on the evening of Monday, November 20, Brunswick residents commented on Bowdoin’s proposed plan to discontinue Pine Street in order to build a new athletic facility. If accepted, this plan would mean discontinuing the portion of Pine Street that runs between Bowker Street and Bath Road, adding a perpendicular extension between Pine Street and Bath Road through what is currently a wooded area.
When round one of course registration for the spring semester ended, many students were ousted from over-selected classes and have since been scrambling to find new courses that fit their schedules. While many courses saw a significant disparity between the number of available seats and the number of requests, several in particular received nearly twice as many requests as were seats available.
At a hearing this coming Monday, the Brunswick Town Council will discuss a proposal introduced by the College to relocate the section of Pine Street that runs adjacent to Whittier Field and the Pine Grove Cemetery.
After enjoying a Thanksgiving feast in the dining hall, students gathered last night in the living room of Macmillan House to engage in conversation about socioeconomic class, an event which is part of another fall tradition at Bowdoin: No Hate November, which is a month of events dedicated to fostering conversations surrounding identity.
Spurred by student and faculty efforts to bring more diverse perspectives to campus, guest speaker Henry Olsen shared a decidedly conservative viewpoint this Tuesday in a talk titled “The Once and Future New Deal Republican: Saving Reagan From Reaganism.” As a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., Olsen focused much of his talk on arguments he advances in his new book, “The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism.” He argues that President Reagan’s core principle was human dignity, not human liberty, and that Reaganism is similar to both Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and President Donald Trump’s economic policies.
The Office of Admissions received 743 applications by the end of its early decision I period on Wednesday, signifying an approximately 25 percent increase from last year’s 604 applications. This year’s ED I applicants represent more than 550 high schools, marking an increase from the 470 schools represented in last year’s applicant pool.
Last week, the Career Planning Center (CPC) and Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) announced a new initiative called “Just the Facts,” an attempt by both groups to better inform students of the career resources and opportunities available to them on campus, while also demystifying and debunking common misconceptions about the role of the CPC and its priorities.
Bowdoin is one of about 70 private colleges and universities that would be affected by the implementation of a tax included in the House Republicans’ tax proposal. The tax overhaul approved by House Republicans on Monday proposes a 1.4 percent excise tax on the net investment income of college endowments.
The College announced its new off-campus housing policy on Wednesday, which includes restricting eligibility for off-campus living to juniors and seniors and capping the total number of students who can live off campus to 185 in the 2018-2019 academic year, down from this year’s cap of 200.
Bowdoin has joined 49 other colleges and universities in submitting a legal document of support for a case challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order terminating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The brief was filed on November 1 in the northern California U.S.
Last week, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) kicked off its annual No Hate November programming, a month dedicated to eliminating bias and increasing discussion around identity on campus. The event series has been held for five years, but this year the focus has changed to promote student voices on campus.
Bowdoin Healthy Relationships (BHeRe), a new student group this year, has assumed the programming responsibilities the Alliance for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP), which the Office of Gender Violence Prevention and Education reformatted last spring to become a coalition for other student groups that work to prevent sexual assault on campus.
The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding with a large addition of new artwork, a birthday party and events that will continue throughout the year. The Museum received 50 pieces of Canadian Inuit art from Judith and Robert Toll to commemorate its fiftieth birthday.
The College announced on Friday that the endowment generated an investment return of 12.4 percent for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2017. The endowment had a market value of $1.46 billion on June 30, up from $1.34 billion at the close of FY 2016.
The first round of course registration for the spring semester opens Monday, November 6. The Orient analyzed course offerings and enrollments over the three semesters since spring 2016 to find the departments in which classes were consistently filled, as well as those in which classes rarely fill.
Q1: Should the Maine Gambling Control Board allow to operation of slot machines or a casino in York County, Maine? If passed, Question 1 would allow for the creation of a gaming and entertainment venue in York County, the most southwestern county in Maine, which includes the towns of Saco, Kennebunk and Old Orchard Beach, among others.
Tuesday is Election Day, and some Bowdoin students who come from out of state have chosen to register to vote in Maine. Those who vote in Brunswick next week will see local municipal elections as well as four state ballot measure referendums on the ballot.
Bowdoin’s Department of German will be honored on November 18 as a Center of Excellence by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG). Birgit Tautz, George Taylor Files professor of modern languages, was notified of the department’s designation last month, after submitting an application on behalf of the department to AATG for this honor earlier this year, which included visits by faculty from other institutions to review the department.
Accommodating potentially 1,500 students, faculty and staff in a space meant to seat 630 could be a recipe for disaster. However, thanks to much foresight and organization, Bowdoin Dining Service was able to provide refuge and electricity in Thorne Hall during this week’s power outage.
Following a storm early Monday morning that left nearly 500,000 homes and businesses in Maine without electricity, Bowdoin was plunged into the state’s worst ever power outage that, for some, lasted over two days. Students, faculty and staff flocked to Thorne Dining Hall for hot food, heat, electricity and Wi-Fi, while Security and Facilities worked to assess and repair the aftermath.
In addition to waking up without power Monday morning, Bowdoin’s campus awoke to the loss of some of its oldest residents—three trees on the Main Quad. Two oaks and one maple fell as a result of the storm that blew across campus early Monday morning.
Even in the chaos of the storm, many students didn’t feel much of a reprieve from their typical day-to-day academic pressures. Tables in Thorne throughout the day could be seen covered in laptops and notebooks as students tried to keep up with their coursework. A photographic look at how Bowdoin reacted to the worst power outage Maine has seen in decades.
A storm Sunday night and Monday morning caused extensive power outages, affecting campus and a record number of people in Maine. All classes scheduled before 10 a.m. were canceled by Elizabeth F. McCormack, dean of academic affairs, and many more later in the day have been canceled at professor discretion.
“Take Back the Night” took place on the steps of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art Museum Tuesday evening, bringing together community members to discuss and reflect on sexual assault on Bowdoin’s campus and in the nation through a candlelit walk from the Museum to 30 College Street.
As white nationalism has gained prominence across the United States, former Bowdoin student Evan McLaren holds a leading role at one of the movement’s most prominent organizations, the National Policy Institute (NPI). McLaren, who attended Bowdoin for three semesters between 2003 and 2006, became Executive Director of NPI in July.
In September, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria struck Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and other Caribbean islands, as well as southern U.S. states, such as Texas and Florida. In the same month, Mexico was hit with three earthquakes, including the strongest one the country has experienced in over a century.
On Tuesday, hundreds of students, faculty and staff donned yellow shirts that read “Respect. All genders. All sexualities,” for Bowdoin Queer-Straight Alliance’s (BQSA) seventh Yellow Shirt Day. A part of programming for OUTtober, the event is hosted annually near National Coming Out Day in order to show solidarity for the LGBTQ+ community at the College.
Last Friday, “Our Bodies, Our Bowdoin,” sponsored by Peer Health and the Women of Color Coalition, brought together women of color to discuss beauty standards on campus through reflecting on their own experiences. “I just wanted to create a space where women of color could gather because I [not only] feel it is really important to build solidarity and community, but [also] I wanted to be able to have a space [to celebrate] women bodies,” said Elly Veloria ’20, a member of Peer Health and the Women of Color Coalition who helped to plan the event.
Today, at the second annual President’s Research Symposium, over 100 students will present research across the fields of STEM, the humanities and social sciences. Last year’s symposium was the first to include research beyond STEM fields, and about 40 percent of this year’s research projects are non-STEM, according to Professor of Chemistry Michael Danahy, the coordinator for the event.
Created by an unidentified group of Bowdoin students, the Bowdoin-Class Confess Facebook page has sparked online discussion in the past few weeks around issues such as class, race, gender, sexuality and mental health. With over 1,000 friends and numerous followers including students, alumni and staff members, the page allows students to anonymously post “confessions” and respond to posts.
As Allen Delong, associate dean of student affairs, wraps up the final days of his 12-year Bowdoin career, he reflects with pride as well as nostalgia on the many strides the College has made. During his tenure Delong played a critical role in launching student spaces on campus that promote diversity and inclusivity.
Students and environmental professionals gathered in Quinby House on Monday night for an intimate panel discussion on Bowdoin’s use of renewable energy sources. During the discussion, hosted by the Bowdoin Organic Garden, panelists also considered the past, present and future of the College’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2020.
As part of OUTtober, Bowdoin Queer Straight Alliance (BQSA) sent 13 students to Bates College’s first Maine Youth Summit and Queer/ Trans Conference last Saturday. Open to both college students and community members such as LGBTQIA+ youth, parents and college faculty and staff, the conference allowed Bowdoin students to immerse themselves in a large, diverse group of queer and trans people.
Today, a group of approximately 30 Bowdoin seniors will trade their backpacks for briefcases as they travel to Boston to interview with prospective employers. Eastern College Career Day (ECCD) brings together students from includes six schools—Amherst, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Skidmore, St.
Over fall break, 13 students and three advisors attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) in Orlando, Florida as an educational and advantageous career opportunity. The conference, held from October 4-6, is attended by 18,000 women who are either involved in or interested in the field of computer science.
Last Monday, Arthur C. Brooks and Frank Bruni participated in a discussion on campus titled “Talking Face-to-Face When You Don’t See Eye-to-Eye,” the latest installment in the College’s efforts to foster open discussion across the political spectrum.
When Bowdoin first opened its doors on September 3, 1802, it had two employees: President Joseph McKeen and one professor, John Abbot. Together, they taught eight students. Since then, the College has grown to staff over 945 employees with 1,806 students.
This month is the College’s first annual OUTtober, a month of programming by Bowdoin Queer Straight Alliance (BQSA) celebrating various sexuality and gender identities. In the past, BQSA has organized events during the week of National Coming Out Day on October 11 and has hosted a month of programming in February, known as “Februqueery.” OUTtober will replace “Februqueery” as BQSA’s month-long series of events, although BQSA will continue to recognize Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31.
ACADEMIC HONOR CODE & SOCIAL CODE The 2016-2017 Annual Report from the Judicial Board (J-Board) revealed 16 Academic Honor Code violations and one Social Code violation. This year, the largest case of collaboration involved three students, a significant decrease from the 2015-2016 year report when 11 cases were brought before the J-Board from a single course in the Department of Computer Science.
Through an interactive program facilitated by the Office of Gender Violence Prevention and Education, Bowdoin first years and sophomores have the opportunity to participate in a leadership training institute focused on the prevention of and education about sexual violence, dating violence and stalking on campus.
Allen Delong, associate dean of student affairs, will depart from Bowdoin on November 10 to serve in the newly created position of senior associate dean at Bates College. Drawing from his experience developing student spaces at Bowdoin that better reflect the College’s changing demography, Delong will head the Purposeful Work program and Career Development Center at Bates, an office designed to help students prepare for lives of work and social contribution that align with the liberal arts values.
Last Friday was the first meeting of the Accessibility Task Force—a group of administrators, faculty members and students intended to look holistically at accessibility on campus. The task force coordinates the College’s efforts to be accessible and accommodating to all people in all capacities as well as to be in legal compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The move to reconvene the committee comes after a group of students circulated a petition last spring calling on the College to increase support and commitment to students with disabilities.
For the first time in over a decade, major changes have been made to the structure of Bowdoin Student Government (BSG). Nineteen liaison positions were created to work with various administrative departments and offices including Safety and Security, Dining Service and Religious and Spiritual Life in addition.
This past weekend, around 50 high school seniors arrived on campus for EXPLORE Bowdoin. A three-day immersive program, EXPLORE, run through the Office of Admissions, offers an opportunity for prospective students to visit the College, meet students and faculty and experience academic and social life.
New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer shared these intricacies and perils of writing her latest book, “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right” at a discussion in Pickard Theater Saturday afternoon. Prompted with questions by Bill Nemitz, a columnist for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, Mayer spoke about the pervasive power of the Koch brothers’ money in regards to her own privacy and American politics.
Pursuing Our Purpose (P.O.P.) is a new student group formed by Rebeca Perez ’20 and Eskedar Girmash ’20 to foster diversity and provide a supportive community for underrepresented students interested in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
Last Thursday at around 10:30 p.m., a student reported finding a fully loaded, 9mm, 15 round gun clip under a chair on the third floor of David Saul Smith Union to the Office of Safety and Security.
In an email on Monday to the campus community, President Clayton Rose announced a $5 million donation from Reed Hastings ’83, co-founder and CEO of Netflix, towards a new program that will support low-income students, first-generation students and students traditionally underrepresented on college campuses.
In an email to the Orient Sunday night, Vice President for Bowdoin Student Government Affairs, Ben Painter ’19 announced the results of the class council elections for the first year class. Three hundred and eighteen first years participated in the vote—approximately 63 percent of the class.
The Bowdoin Orient Editors-in-Chief, Sarah Drumm ’18 and Harry DiPrinzio ’18, spoke with Bowdoin Student Government President Irfan Alam ’18 and Vice President for Student Government Affairs Ben Painter ’19 about plans for the upcoming year, off-campus housing, the Committee for Diversity and Inclusion and more.
For most students, it doesn’t. For some, they save money. Students receiving financial aid see no change to their packages if they opt to live off campus, regardless of the cost of the off-campus house. “We do financial aid the same way because irrespective of where you live, you’re going to pay,” said Michael Bartini, the director of student aid.
The College has begun to implement more broadly tools associated with Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in the Office of Student Affairs. These tools will supplement, and in some cases replace, Bowdoin’s official disciplinary process with the goal of adding an educational element to a traditionally penal system.
As Maine and the country experiences an epidemic that is driving down national life expectancy, some at Bowdoin are responding. Drug overdoses in the U.S. have increased by 533 percent over the last 14 years—from 2,089 overdoses in 2002 to 13,219 in 2016—according to data released in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
On Monday, the Brunswick Town Council voted 8-1 in favor of adopting “A Resolution to Acknowledge Maine’s Indigenous Cultures.” In the Town of Brunswick, the second Monday of October will be recognized as both Columbus Day and, as of result of the vote, Indigenous People’s Day.
The Town of Brunswick recently concluded a three-and-a-half year project to renovate the town’s zoning ordinance to reflect changes in local policy over the past 22 years. The ordinance focused on reducing the number of total districts, catching up with Maine laws regarding signage and shorelands and rectifying the issues brought about by the 21-year-old ordinance’s failure to account for technological advances.
On Monday, Randy Nichols, director of safety security, sent out a campus alert warning people of Terry Elwell’s return to Brunswick. Elwell has a long history of convictions in Brunswick and has been involved with multiple incidents at Bowdoin.
Chief Investment Officer Paula Volent earned a salary of $2,244,678 in the 2015 calendar year, an increase of $934,754 since 2014, when she made $1,309,924, according to Bowdoin’s Form 990, the public tax filing which reports compensation of the College’s highest paid employees.
Bowdoin’s community came together at Portland City Hall last Friday to protest President Trump’s rescindment of Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, an Obama administration executive order which extended rights such as higher education and tax obligation to undocumented youth.
A working group for improving housing policies recommended limiting the students who can live off campus to 25 percent of the senior class, Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster announced in a school-wide email Thursday. Formed last winter, the working group was created following the dramatic increase in the percentage of students living off-campus in the last year.
The Bowdoin Public Service Initiative (BPS), a new program housed in the McKeen Center for the Common Good, aims to encourage students to pursue careers in public policy through education, networking and funded internships. Inspired by conversations between President Clayton Rose and Thomas Pickering ’53, H’84, the initiative comes at a time of widespread distrust of the goals and values of governmental institutions.
In a report released on August 29, the Ad Hoc Committee on Inclusion recommended that Bowdoin hire a Senior Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity (SVP-ID) as part of the College’s ongoing efforts to foster inclusion and diversity on campus.
This summer, Bowdoin made progress on its efforts toward reaccreditation by producing a 113-page self-study evaluating the College’s performance and setting projections for improvement within the next 10 years. The report was submitted to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), a reaccreditation body, for approval.
Trivia, salsa dancing and informational lectures all exemplify the myriad of ways in which the Bowdoin community, specifically the Latin American Student Organization (LASO), plans to celebrate during Latinx Heritage Month. LASO’s Kickoff Celebration Cookout, which will take place on Friday, September 15, signifies the beginning of a month of festivities meant to honor the rich history of Latinx Americans and build awareness of issues that affect the Latinx American community.
The College has joined the American Talent Initiative (ATI), a group of 68 elite colleges and institutions that have agreed to work together and share resources, in an effort to create opportunities for low and moderate-income students.
Early Tuesday morning, August 28, a member of the housekeeping staff discovered that whiteboards in the student study space on the third floor of the Visual Arts Center (VAC) had been defaced with numerous graphic and inappropriate images, including two drawing of male genitalia, a swastika, the letters “FUKKK,” the names of two individuals and homophobic language.
President Clayton Rose reaffirmed the College’s support for undocumented students in light of President Donald Trump’s decision to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. In response to the decision, a large group of students will travel from the College to attend a rally in Portland on Friday.
On Wednesday, the College announced plans to construct a new dry laboratory and convening center, complete with housing and dining services, at the newly renamed Schiller Coastal Studies Center (SCSC). This marks the College’s second major investment in the study of the environment in recent years, with the Roux Center for the Environment expected to open in September 2018.
On August 24, the Metro BREEZ bus began regular commuter service between Brunswick and Portland. With $3 one-way tickets and a stop on Bath Road next to Pickard Theater, Bowdoin faculty and staff are already taking advantage of the new extended service.
