On April 12, the Cumberland County Superior Court ruled that Bowdoin has the right to purchase the property at 28 College Street, the last remaining property on College Street that Bowdoin does not own. The decision comes after a months-long legal battle over a 1996 agreement between the College and the property’s owner that granted Bowdoin the right to buy the home before any other buyer could place an offer, should the home be placed on the market.
Twenty students in the class of 2017 received Fulbright Fellowships and one student received the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which funds a student’s travel and research for one year. Nineteen students have already accepted fellowships, 14 of which are English Teaching Assistantships (ETA) and five of which are Study/Research Awards (SR).
Jordan Richmond ’16 returned to campus on Monday to present the results of a study conducted by the team he works with at the Equality of Opportunity Project. The study, which has been covered in The New York Times, the Orient and many other outlets, analyzes colleges’ roles in intergenerational income and mobility using tax data from students born between 1978-1991.
BowdoinOne Day, the month-long fundraising campaign which concludes April 26, is just one component of the College’s annual fundraising efforts, which bring in about $12 million in donations through the Alumni, Parent, Friend and Polar Bear Athletic funds every year.
With support from 14 academic departments and the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good, many Bowdoin students and faculty will pile into buses tomorrow to attend the March for Science. The protest is part of a nationwide Earth Day event calling on elected officials to base their policies on scientific research and evidence.
NExpress, one of the interschool library-loaning systems Bowdoin uses, will be retired in May. April 30 is the last day that schools can request books from NExpress and all items will be due by the end of May.
Former Vice President Joe Biden will speak at Colby’s commencement ceremony on May 21, the college announced on Monday. Colby will also issue Biden an honorary doctorate.
The event will begin at 10 a.m. and is open to the public.
The Bowdoin Experience program is one day shorter this year and overlaps completely with the College’s Open House for all admitted students. The program aims to bring admitted students from low-income backgrounds or otherwise traditionally underrepresented in higher education to campus.
At its Wednesday meeting, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) discussed a revision to its bylaws that would allow any student to introduce legislation for discussion by BSG. The change would make BSG more accessible to students, according to BSG President Harriet Fisher ’17.
This Monday, the Bowdoin Financial Literacy Club (BFLC) will hold a financial literacy day in order to educate the Bowdoin community about money management. A series of workshops targeting those already in the workforce and students interested in investing will run throughout the afternoon and address a variety of subjects related to personal finance.
A formal groundbreaking ceremony for the Roux Center for the Environment—a new environmental studies building to be located on the corner of College Street and Harpswell Road—will take place on May 12. The project remains on track to open in the fall of 2018.
Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Bob Ives ’69 will retire at the end of the year. A beloved campus figure, Ives taught classes and supported Bowdoin’s student faith groups as well as individual students working on navigating their faith and spiritual life at the College.
Brunswick Landing—the site of the former naval base, located approximately 10 minutes from the College—will become the site of a production facility for amphibious sport aircraft, the Times Record reported on April 4.
Atol Avion, a Finnish company, partnered with an American investor group to form Atol USA, and plans to have its North American headquarters at Brunswick Landing, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Susan Faludi, research associate in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies (GSWS), was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the autobiography category for her memoir, “In the Darkroom,” (Metropolitan Books). The book explored her relationship with her father, a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor who underwent gender reassignment surgery at age 76.
Interim Dean for Academic Affairs Jennifer Scanlon will return to the role of full-time Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies (GSWS) next semester. Scanlon has served as interim dean for academic affairs for the past two years and was associate dean for two years before that, while also teaching part-time.
The Health Center has seen an increased demand for longer-term contraceptives among students concerned about insurance coverage of birth control, according to Director of Health Services Jeffrey Maher. This increase in demand for long-acting reversible birth control coincides with the Health Center’s current emphasis on education about more proactive, effective forms of preventing pregnancy
Under the Affordable Care Act, private health insurance plans have begun reducing or eliminating co-pays and deductibles on contraceptives.
Jes Staley ’79, a member of the Board of Trustees and CEO of Barclays, received a significant cut to his 2016 bonus pay after an internal company investigation revealed that he sought to unmask the identity of a whistleblower who had expressed concern about one of the bank’s executives, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
The College working group on off-campus housing has been gathering opinions from a broad range of students with a goal of formulating a comprehensive off-campus housing policy to present to the administration later this month. Since forming in February, the group has hosted focus groups, general surveys and two public forums.
Despite a high number of faculty eligible for sabbatical next year, the Bowdoin Advising Program to Support Academic Excellence (BASE) program will likely maintain its expanded size for at least two years, according to Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Liaison for Advising Sara Dickey.
On Wednesday evening, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) voted on two proposals and discussed three others.
At-Large Representative Jacob Russell ’17 introduced two proposals. Proposal 141544 suggested amendments to BSG bylaws. The proposal gave greater flexibility to the structure of general assembly meetings, which had often ignored BSG bylaws.
The Housing Lottery opened on Monday with several changes in housing options for the 2017-2018 academic year. Cleaveland Street Apartments will no longer be offered as student housing; one-bedroom triples in Brunswick Apartments will revert back to doubles and the fifth floors of Osher and West Halls will no longer be available to upperclassmen in order to eliminate quints in the first-year bricks.
Janet Lohmann will return to Bowdoin to become dean of students, a new position in the College’s administration, on July 1 after serving as dean of students at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio for one year.
At its meeting on Monday, the Brunswick Town Council passed an amendment (8-1) to the town’s disorderly property ordinance that intends to crack down on repeat offenders of the ordinance. The amendment extends the “reset period” for disorderly homes from 60 to 270 days.
Renata Formo Ledwick, artist and former assistant director of alumni relations at Bowdoin—known and loved by many students and alums through her involvement with Reunion Weekend and regional alumni event work—passed away on March 18 after a four-year battle with cancer.
Yesterday, the new student appointments to the Judicial Board (J-Board) were released to students, staff and faculty in an email from Associate Dean of Upperclass Students Lesley Levy. The new members were informed of their acceptance on February 22, but due to an administrative oversight, the rest of the College was not informed until this week.
Students who applied to live in College Houses for the 2017-2018 academic year received decisions from the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) on Monday. Those who were offered a spot in a College House were required to respond to their offers by Wednesday afternoon.
After tampons and pads were thrown away and feces was found in a menstrual product receptacle in the men’s bathroom on the first floor of David Saul Smith Union last week, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) altered the placards placed next to the dispensers to clarify their purpose.
Journalist and author Helen Zia discussed her career as an activist and the future she envisions for America at a talk entitled “Building Bridges Across Communities” in Kresge auditorium on Wednesday. The event was sponsored by the Asian Students Association as part of Asian Heritage Month.
The ending of the Offer of the College—“And to cooperate with others for common ends”—serves as the inspiration for Bowdoin’s first-ever TEDx event entitled “Common Ends,” which will take place Sunday at 11 a.m. in Kresge Auditorium.
Former President Barry Mills will become the interim chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass) effective July 1, after current chancellor J. Keith Motley announced his resignation on Wednesday.
Mills was named deputy chancellor and chief operating officer at UMass Boston on March 2, signing a five-year contract.
Dual-authentication for logging onto Bowdoin Information Technology (IT) services such as Workday and Webmail with a Bowdoin username and password is now available to faculty, staff and students using a product called Duo. The effort comes in response to increased phishing and a January cybercriminal attack on faculty Workday data that changed direct deposit information, according to IT Security Officer Eric Berube.
Brunswick Police Department (BPD) has a shortage of patrol officers due to the department’s struggles to fill vacant positions, WLBZ2 reported on March 30. Police Chief Richard Rizzo said BPD has received only a few applications for four vacant positions.
Moody’s Investors Service gave a Aa2 rating—the third-highest rating it assigns—to $45 million of the College’s proposed bonds. The bonds will mature in 2047. Moody’s also affirmed its previously assigned Aa2 rating on approximately $264 million of the College’s existing revenue bonds, according to a release by the agency on March 17.
Bipartisanship took center stage during the Maine Politics discussion last Monday.
Marisa O’Toole ’17, co-leader of the Bowdoin Democrats, and Jack Lucy ’17, co-leader of the Bowdoin Republicans, moderated the discussion between Speaker of the Maine House Sara Gideon (D-Freeport) and State Senator Roger Katz (R-Augusta).
An interactive application to help Bowdoin students navigate the 2017 housing lottery. Explore the map of options, find out which living space is best for you, and discover where you're most likely to get in when you enter the lottery.
Last night, Macauley Lord ’78 and Reverend Jeff McIlwain, volunteer chaplains at Cumberland County Jail in Portland, spoke about their work during this month’s Theology on Tap event at Jack Magee’s Pub and Grill.
Bowdoin Catholic Student Union co-leaders Jack Lucy ’17 and Sam Hoegle ’17; Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Reverend Robert Ives; and Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland Campus Minister Joy Segovia organized the event.
The Office of Admissions accepted 13.4 percent of applicants to the class of 2021, marking the lowest acceptance rate on record. On March 17, 719 high school students received Regular Decision acceptance letters. The College received a total of 7,251 applications, a seven percent increase from last year.
At a panel entitled “Why do College Houses Feel So White? Part Two” hosted by Reed and Ladd Houses on Wednesday night, students discussed how music, drinking, sports and other factors perpetuate racial divisions—in College Houses and at other parties on and off campus.
Rev. Dr. Marvin M. Ellison, former Willard S. Bass Professor of Christian Ethics at the Bangor Theological Seminary and a Presbyterian minister who is openly gay delivered a talk yesterday afternoon discussing the difficulties of interpreting the Bible and how people should approach issues of homosexuality and religion.
On Monday, Cynthia McFadden ’78 H’12 brought humor and levity to a discussion titled “Is the Press Still Free?”—a question that she answered with a “resounding yes.”
McFadden, a senior news investigative correspondent at NBC News, first responded to questions from moderators Bowdoin Student Government President Harriet Fisher ’17 and McKeen Fellow Marina Affo ’17.
This weekend, the Brunswick-Trinidad Sister Association is hosting its 14th annual Cuba Week to recognize the connection between Brunswick and Trinidad, Cuba. Events focus on bringing the Cuban culture, food and history to the town of Brunswick.
The Brunswick Town Council voted 8-1 on Monday, March 20, to ban Brunswick retailers from providing single-use plastic bags. The ordinance will go into effect September 1. Most representatives supported the ban to limit the impact of single-use plastic bags on the environment.
For the first time since 2009, Bowdoin will not host the annual U.S. Open for Robocup, a tournament in which student-programmed robots play soccer against one another. Instead, teams will compete at the University of Miami in Florida during the weekend of Saturday, April 29.
The Metro BREEZ bus will extend its service to Brunswick this fall after receiving approval from the Brunswick Town Council for a two-year pilot program on March 8. Bowdoin has pledged to contribute $10,000 to the service for each of the next two years, approximately 20 percent of the program’s cost.
The College has acquired the funding necessary to renovate the Magee-Samuelson Track and Whittier Field facility after receiving a large donation over Spring Break that pushed the first phase of the project to meet its $4.5 million budget.
Despite the generally positive reception of the Free Flow project—which installed dispensers for free pads and tampons in 12 women’s and four men’s bathrooms across campus—the initiative has also elicited negative responses. Housekeeping confirmed that all the tampons and pads in the men’s restroom of the first floor of David Saul Smith Union were thrown away unused several times.
Students in the Bowdoin MOGUL hub—an online new aggregate for women—are working to bring the group’s #ReadMyLips campaign to the College in an effort to continue the actions ignited by the Women’s March in January.
The project consolidates individuals’ concerns on women’s rights and health issues and will culminate on April 5 when the messages will be sent to President Trump at the White House in a floral sculpture designed by “Saturday Night Live” veterans.
Students packed into David Saul Smith Union last weekend for the College’s third annual CBBHacks Hackathon. About 50 students from Bowdoin, Colby, Bates and Williams participated in the Hackathon in some capacity, and several Bowdoin students took home prizes for their creations.
The Brunswick Town Council will vote Monday on a proposal which would extend the Metro BREEZ bus service to Brunswick. The commuter bus service, which launched last summer, currently connects Portland, Falmouth, Yarmouth and Freeport with 10 round trips on weekdays and five on Saturdays.
The Office of Residential Life (ResLife) extended the application deadline for students hoping to live in Howell House to February 28 after the house did not get enough applicants during the initial round of College House applications.
A newly formed nonprofit group has filed a suit against the town of Brunswick for rejecting a citizen’s petition that called for Brunswick to vote on maintaining a waterfront property on Mere Point Road to turn it into a public park, reported the Bangor Daily News.
Though a study abroad program at the University of Cape Town in South Africa is run through the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) and is included on the Office of Off-Campus Study (OCS) program options list, OCS recommended that students study abroad elsewhere for the fall 2017 semester.
Administrators at Middlebury College were forced to cancel a public lecture by Dr. Charles Murray, a political scientist and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, due to overwhelming protest by students before the event began. Students chanted and waved signs expressing that Murray’s beliefs—which they perceived to be white supremacist—did not deserve a platform on Middlebury’s campus.
Indie pop/alternative band Smallpools will perform on Thursday, April 27 as part of this year’s Ivies weekend, and electronic artist Vanic will open for headlining rapper A$AP Ferg on Saturday, April 29. The Entertainment Board (eBoard) released a video announcing the lineup last Friday.
The gender-neutral bathroom on the second floor of David Saul Smith Union has been stocked with free pads and tampons as part of a pilot project created by several female students who received funding for the products from Bowdoin Student Government (BSG)’s Good Ideas Fund.
For the first time, Bowdoin’s Mock Trial A Team advanced past the regional tournament of the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) national championship to earn a spot in the second round. When the team was first notified of its bid on Tuesday, however, there were questions about the team’s ability to obtain funds to travel to the competition.
In the past year, Donna Brazile has served in the leadership of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and appeared on ABC and CNN. On Wednesday, she will be in Morrell Lounge in David Saul Smith Union to deliver a talk entitled “Political Outlook: A Comprehensive Picture of What’s Going on in Washington.”
Brazile, a political commentator for ABC and adjunct professor at Georgetown University, has spent her career supporting Democratic candidates.
Former Bowdoin President Barry Mills was named the deputy chancellor and chief operating officer of University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass), the university announced yesterday. Mills will oversee the university’s academic and research programs and work alongside UMass Boston Chancellor J.
