The Bowdoin “Facts and Figures” highlight that there are 44 different countries represented in the student body. In the last few months of the pandemic, the administration has failed to address the complexity of this diverse group resulting in a situation where the international students are impacted disproportionately from the lack of attention the administration has put towards tackling concerns during the online transition and with its recent decision of how the fall semester will work.
The 1974 television drama “Houston, We’ve Got a Problem” misquoted the real-life correspondence between Commander Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 and Mission Control. In response to an oxygen tank explosion, Lovell actually stated “Houston, we’ve ?had?
COVID-19 has altered the college landscape, so I sympathize with current Bowdoin students. Due to Bowdoin’s response to this pandemic, many are concerned about their academic career, livelihood and their personal and family finances. While it is not reasonable to expect Bowdoin to have a perfect solution to an unpredictable catastrophe, I think it is important for the administration to reflect on their response.
Is it defensible that Bowdoin students must pay full tuition for a semester of online learning?
Let us consider President Clayton Rose’s defense of this decision.
In the June 23 town hall for returning students, President Rose reasoned, “As I worked through in my own head how to think about this challenge [pricing tuition], the essence of what we do at Bowdoin is provide our students with an outstanding education delivered by outstanding faculty…And I am certain that our faculty will deliver a great education to all of our students in the fall in this digital method.
It was August 1858 during a doctor-ordered trip to Maine when Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War for Franklin Pierce (Class of 1824) and the future President of the Confederate States of America, was granted an honorary degree by Bowdoin College at its 53rd Commencement.
For the past few days, an unmistakable beeping noise has pierced my house at least once a day, notifying my entire family of curfews set by Los Angeles officials. None of us were surprised—protests were occurring throughout the country in response to the latest brutal murder of a Black man by a police officer.
President Clayton Rose’s decision to reopen campus to a select group of students is short-sighted and harmful to the Bowdoin community. I understand the concerns around the spread of COVID-19, especially on a college campus, but I believe the administration failed to take into account the factors that made this decision more harmful than helpful.
While the world keeps changing every day, and indeed even Bowdoin’s world will change again for the Fall 2020 Semester, it is important to remember that COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon. During these difficult times, we must think of the mental and physical health of students and faculty first.
In the weeks since a police officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, our country has been embroiled in a critical conversation about the racism, police brutality and systemic violence that Black Americans face every day. With Americans taking to the streets in all fifty states to protest police brutality, we, the members of the Orient’s editorial board, stand in solidarity with Black students and activists.
Movie theaters are currently experiencing a grueling face-lift, and it seems the two reasons would be COVID-19 and “Trolls World Tour.” If a Justin Timberlake animated film musical is a catalyst for change within a multi-billion dollar industry, we are truly living in the end times.
Author’s Note: While Bloniasz sits on the Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee, this article does not represent the opinion of the committee.
Bowdoin’s institutional priorities matter in that they clearly state who is important at this school, what constitutes serious scholarship and how funding will be spent.
The dictionary defines “pod” as a “detachable or self-contained unit on an aircraft, spacecraft, vehicle, or vessel, having a particular function.” My pod is my bedroom, its function: isolation. It is said that isolation is the new heroism these days.
About a decade ago, in February 2020, I wrote the first installment of this column. Titled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology,” I argued that society should ready itself for an inevitable replacement of work in its traditional sense with automation sometime in the indefinite future.
To begin writing this editorial, we, senior members of Orient staff, all wrote down our honest reasons for joining the Orient.
Some of us joined because we thought college journalism sounded important and glamorous. Some of us joined because we thought the upperclassmen on the Orient were important and glamorous.
On April 30, President Rose sent out an email to the Bowdoin community addressing the financial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the College. He assured the Bowdoin community that “a top priority is job preservation”—but which jobs, at what pay and for how long?
You’ve lost me, Bowdoin College.
Of all the moneyed institutions that have been rightfully lambasted for accepting federal aid during this crisis, I was shocked to read that my alma mater was among those who have yet to refuse it.
To the Editor:
Today marks the 51st day since the College announced the decision to move online. It goes without saying that the moment in which we now find ourselves is unprecedented.
Last month, President Rose announced the creation of three working groups: the Budget Review Group to tackle budgetary changes for the 2020-2021 academic year, the Return to Campus Group to consider the physical logistics of reopening campus and the Continuity in Teaching and Learning Group to develop remote learning models should the College decide to continue with online instruction in the fall.
To the graduating class of 2020, I offer, in this order, congratulations, condolences, consolation and a few words of welcome. Congratulations first of all on your imminent Bowdoin degrees and on the years of diligence and hard work they represent.
During times of economic crisis, which we are already rapidly approaching, matters of risk and debt become ever more relevant producers of anxiety, especially with students facing uncertain job markets and weighing the return on investment of Zoom-attendance next semester.
Facing backlash from lawmakers and the public, wealthy colleges have begun to announce that they will not accept the stimulus money they had received under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Harvard University announced its decision to relinquish funds on Wednesday; Yale, Princeton, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania soon followed suit.
In addition to written statements, which the Orient traditionally publishes, we asked each candidate to tell us what they care about in a video statement.
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
Marcus Williams ’21
Dear fellow classmates,
From speaking to many of you on your first night during Perspectives to sharing Real Talks on Race in the bricks and serving as a representative of the student body, I have immersed myself in our campus community.
On February 5, Samantha Simonetta filed a federal sexual harassment lawsuit alleging that former Allegheny College Head Football Coach B.J. Hammer ignored reports of sexual misconduct and discrimination while Simonetta was a kicker on Allegheny’s football team in 2018.
Once upon a time, company towns dotted the American landscape. From Pullman, Illinois (railroad cars) to Logan, West Virginia (coal mining), these towns proliferated in the latter part of the 19th century as a way to concentrate laborers and tie them to their place of work.
To the Editor,
On April 2, we started a mutual aid fund to support Bowdoin community members affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept was simple: we would fundraise to fulfill individual requests submitted by students, staff and community members who needed immediate, direct financial assistance.
The Offer of the College is a sort of mission statement for Bowdoin. And, though its meaning holds up through the years, it has undergone several revisions since it was written in 1906. This week, we made some changes of our own to reflect the new reality that we face as a College.
Because of the devastation caused by SARS-CoV-19 across people, communities, countries, and the world, scholarship must—and will—change. The only question is whether we resist that change or allow it to transform the ways in which academia interacts with the world, our new reality.
The window in my bedroom looks out onto a cluster of North American sycamore trees in the backyard, trees that in the summer are so thick and plush and layered with leaves that they fill the whole window frame even from a distance with a deeply opaque green.
As nearly 10 million Americans have now lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the country is in the midst of an economic crisis and small businesses are particularly vulnerable.
Restaurants and retail businesses like the ones that dot Maine street of downtown Brunswick will be hit the hardest.
As Bowdoin students, we are fortunate enough to have access to an immense range of databases from which we can draw information for our academic research. I benefit from it daily, curiously searching for new articles and sources related to my studies and my life as a student.
International Women’s Day, a holiday unrecognized by the American government, was in part inspired by a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Lower Manhattan which claimed the lives of 146 women. Because management had locked the doors of the sweatshop in order to crack down on unauthorized breaks, many workers jumped out of the high building to their deaths.
To our readers:
This has never happened before. Even in the great crises of the 20th century—two world wars, student movements in the 60s and the Spanish Influenza pandemic in 1918—Bowdoin’s campus has never been vacated in the way it has been in the last few weeks.
In the past two weeks, the impossible has come to pass. The global economy is crashing, borders are closing and billions of people are self-isolating in their homes. It feels as if the whole world has ground to a halt.
Since the College’s official decision on March 11 to move classes to a remote learning format, the Bowdoin academic landscape has changed. Nearly every facet of our academic experience has shifted and not necessarily for the better—our classrooms, our meeting times and even our course material look markedly different than they did three weeks ago.
Over 78,000 American cases. 1,135 dead in the United States as we write this on March 26, 2020.
Over the past several weeks, each of us has experienced a dramatic change in our routines of daily life.
Our parents told us many clichéd things growing up. Many of these things—if you happen to be American—are intended to convince us that work, more than just being a necessary evil of existing society, is actually valuable and fulfilling.
This week, the Bowdoin Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (BSAAC) rolled out a week’s worth of programming dedicated to Mental Health Awareness Week. The offerings are a veneer of help. In terms of awareness, there isn’t much, but, oh yes!
On Thursday, Dean of Student Affairs Janet Lohmann sent an email to campus updating students on the College’s ongoing efforts to monitor the spread of COVID-19, commonly known as coronavirus. In her email, Lohmann pointed students towards a new FAQ page on the College’s website with information about the virus, preventative measures and travel-related advisories.
As two of the creators of the 2020 show, we see “RISE” as a political statement. It works to bring attention to gender-based violence, intersectional discrimination and various forms of gender disrespect. It unapologetically creates a space for women to stand together against marginalizing systems.
As you read this, Julian Assange is facing a court case that could change the practice of journalism, full stop. He’s charged with “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S.
In 2018, whistleblower Christopher Wylie released a cache of documents to The Guardian detailing the dirty work of data-mining and political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica and its role, alongside Facebook, in manipulating the 2016 elections. It revealed Analytica’s alleged unauthorized possession of personal data from 87 million Facebook user accounts which were used to deploy targeted political advertising for the Trump campaign.
Last week, the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) amended its election procedures, a decision covered by the Orient in the article “BSG Votes to Amend Election Procedures.” While we support this action, we write to clarify the Judicial Board’s relationship to BSG and its role in the student disciplinary process.
To the Editor:
Among 38 elite institutions, Bowdoin College is ranked third in the number of students who seek counseling and mental health services. This statistic is not inherently negative—in fact, it demonstrates how, in some ways, Bowdoin is doing something right.
Last Friday, a friend and I went to see the annual showing of “RISE: Untold Stories of Bowdoin Women.” Throughout the show, we heard stories from various women, with topics ranging from friendship and romantic relationships to trauma and abuse.
This week, Harvard professor Anthony Jack visited campus to lecture about the systemic difficulties of being a first-generation or low-income student, especially of students whose educational backgrounds do not align with norms at elite institutions like Bowdoin, because of an extremely inequitable educational system.
In 1998, members of Congress from all political persuasions and sections of the country came together to protect one of America’s most endangered animals. Realizing that time was running out, Sonny Bono, Selena, George Gershwin and a host of other celebrities (or rather their estates) rallied around the cause.
With New Hampshire and Iowa behind us, it may seem like the primary season is in the rearview. The media often becomes fixated on the candidates who win these primaries, creating the impression that the race has already passed its most important threshold.
Article III of the U.S. Constitution reads, “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.” Conveniently, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) defines “trial” as, “a structured process where the facts of a case are presented to a jury, and they decide if the defendant is guilty or not guilty of the charge offered.
Driving around Brunswick and surrounding communities in Maine, you may have noticed some signs in people’s yards: “Yes on 1: Reject Big Pharma.” At a first glance, this seems to be a perfectly reasonable view to hold.
Most college public relations departments don’t undermine college journalism by actively censoring publications or by restricting access to information or people. They undermine college journalism by raising minor but constant complaints about our choice of words, our interpretations of facts or our presentation of information.
Our first year, President Clayton Rose taught a First-Year Seminar titled “The Moral Leader.” A young Ben Ray wrote in his course notes that “an accumulation of moral challenges solved with moral choices (either based on principles or consequences) paints a picture of the capabilities of a leader.” Clayton taught that moral leaders have a moral code which guides their decisions.
To the Editor,
Who will be the rising star on the political horizon this coming year?
I am every day more and more convinced that Lisa Savage ’77 is the one. Thank you for featuring her op-ed in last week’s Orient.
To the Editor,
In your January 31 editorial board opinion, Classical Mythology is called out for seeming “tangentially related to current issues of social differences.” Classical literature, and Myth especially, have always reflected a deep concern with the issues of social difference, not to mention the roles of power and inequity.
In 2016, a committee consisting of representatives from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the College Media Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Student Press Law Center issued a statement titled “Threats to the Independence of Student Media.” The statement acknowledges what all readers of student newspapers are profoundly aware of: “candid journalism that discusses students’ dissatisfaction with the perceived shortcomings of their institutions can be uncomfortable for campus authorities.”
“Nevertheless,” it asserts, “this journalism fulfills a healthful civic function.”
In the spirit of affirming and fostering the important civic function that a free student press must play on our own campus, the Bowdoin chapter of the AAUP would like to take this opportunity to call attention to some of the principles, and some of the concerns, articulated in this statement:
1.
As a first year at Bowdoin, I was beyond excited to cast my first-ever vote in the 2018 midterm election. I’ve always held great respect for voting, largely because of my dad, who was born in Canada and became an American citizen when I was 11.
Dear young people: my generation owes your generation an apology.
We have failed to make urgently needed changes to an economic system that ravages the planet we all depend upon for life. Many of us have been actively involved with, or at least silently complicit in damaging the ecosystem.
In 1776, an auspicious year on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Adam Smith published “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” a hefty treatise that outlined the basic principles of what we would now call “free trade” and “capitalism.” His articulation of why certain nations thrive while others falter in a globalized economy dealt a fatal blow to mercantilism, setting the stage for the proliferation of laissez-faire politics in the 19th century.
On Monday, the faculty introduced a motion to revise the “Exploring Social Differences” (ESD) distribution requirement. The proposal aims to strengthen the requirement and rename it “Difference, Power, Inequity.”
On a campus where bias incidents seem to recur every four years, preparing students across all academic disciplines to discuss and analyze social differences is essential.
A few weeks after the start of the new year, Johns Hopkins University (JHU) announced it would be ceasing the long-held history of legacy admissions at the institution. President of the Baltimore school, Ron Daniels, boldly announced that reserving legacy slots had been “impairing [its] ability to educate qualified and promising students from all backgrounds and to help launch them up the social ladder.” JHU’s decision comes during a time when Americans are becoming increasingly cynical about democratic institutions being stacked against them.
In September, I wrote a few hundred words summarizing widely reported and easily accessible information about how some of this college’s wealth is generated. I am not an investigative journalist: what I wrote contained no revelations.
Bernie Sanders is building momentum going into the Iowa caucuses on February 3. Recent polls put Sanders in first place in Iowa, New Hampshire and even nationally—leaving pundits wondering, can Sanders be stopped? The answer may be no.
Students connected flights, caught trains and hitched rides to arrive back on campus last week for the start of the spring semester. Despite the College’s relative proximity to various transportation hubs, returning to campus can often be costly and complex.
[Trigger warning: Eating disorders.]
Some of you may have seen the display that went up on Moulton’s bulletin board the day of Bowdoin’s famed Thanksgiving Dinner. If you did not see it, good. It was thankfully only up for a day and a half.
It took only a matter of hours after taking the PSAT in high school before Arthur the aardvark, clutching a disposable camera in his fist, appeared on Twitter. The caption: “When Juan Ribero refuses to teach you how to use your Kodak #psat.” I don’t at all remember what this meant or what section of the test it was referring to.
As a cinema studies minor and someone who is highly interested in a career in the film industry, I do not think that it is discussed enough just how inspiring director Ava DuVernay is. In conjunction with DuVernay’s rise, the dearth of female filmmakers is another topic that I think often goes under the radar.
It is time for the state of Maine to be a leader.
Individual towns throughout the state of Maine—Portland, South Portland, Bar Harbor and, most recently, Brunswick—are already setting an example. Each has recently passed a resolution declaring a climate emergency, putting them in the company of cities such as San Francisco and New York City.
Raise your hand if Paul Franco’s dog has ever eaten your breakfast.
I knew it! I knew I was not alone!
One of the great pleasures of a walk across the Bowdoin quad is a chance meeting with that lovable scamp.
Just another day: I pick up my phone and open Skype, scroll through my contacts until I reach the “m” section. I select “Mom” and dial the long +86 number for the 28th time since the last time I had spoken to her: April 1, 2018.
To the Editor,
We appreciate Professor of Chemistry Richard Broene’s recent Letter to the Editor drawing attention to the results from the October Energy Challenge and felt it would be beneficial to explain where and how the Sustainability Office arrived at the numbers posted in the Installment.
As a New Yorker, I must apologize for the barrage of our former mayors (Bloomberg, DeBlasio, Giuliani) that have found themselves far too close to the presidency. It is simply New York narcissism at its worst.
Take off your parking brakes! Thirty days from now, new parking restrictions will take effect on a number of Brunswick streets, including Columbia Avenue, Belmont Street, Longfellow Avenue, Noble Street, Pine Street and Union Street.
The restrictions, passed by the Brunswick Town Council at its November 18 meeting, are not unprecedented—the Council placed similar restrictions, specifically aimed at Bowdoin students, on Park Row in 2014, and the College revoked student parking privileges to the lots at the Maine Street College Houses the same year.
I’d like to comment on last week’s Orient article about taxes on college endowments. Wealthy non-profit colleges should not oppose efforts to collect taxes on their enormous endowment funds. Colleges like to brag that they encourage critical thinking.
I wake up to my host sister yelling outside.
“MAAAA EL PERRO!!”
Ah. She’s yelling at the dog.
Most Sundays start like this, a slow stirring into bursts of ruckus, until the whole family settles around our chair-packed kitchen table.
My sister is a relatively ‘woke’ 17-year-old, attending a progressive private high school in the Hudson Valley. She does extracurriculars like a capella, is the captain of her field hockey team and heads a club called “mixed,” which is a space for interracial kids to vent.
I recently greeted my granddaughter Karis, a student at Bowdoin (Class of 2023), in the lobby of Pickard Theater at Bowdoin. A plaque on the wall at Pickard lists the names of Bowdoin men who fought in the Civil War, including my great-grandfather (her triple-great grandfather) George Beamon Kenniston (Class of 1862).
It is never difficult to show my students just how relevant the Greeks and Romans are to their own lives. But my job as a Classics professor has become, unfortunately, even easier with the current state of our world.
To the Editor,
I recently was shown the latest issue of the Installment, which is published by the campus Sustainability Office. The following was provided as resulting from the energy challenge between dorms. They were able to save 6,452,949.1 pounds of CO2e resulting in reductions up to 27.1 percent.
Last night, actor Patrick Dempsey, H’13 sat down with Marcus Williams ’21, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) chair of diversity and inclusion, for a conversation serving as the keynote address for No Hate November. Though the topic at hand was a dialogue on dyslexia, many of the audience’s questions focused not on the implications of living with the disability, but rather on clarifying what it actually is.
The appointment of Arthur Brooks was undemocratic. We woke up to an email one day, and that was it. No consultation, no presentation of candidates, nothing. When we praise democracy so much at this school—helping students to vote, promoting voting and encouraging students to voice their demands—this appointment felt completely opposite to the values we propose.
To the Editor,
Last week you published an editorial titled “What are you afraid of?” I agreed with almost all of the sentiments you expressed in this editorial. However, it contained a problematic series of assumptions about Dr.
On October 21, Bowdoin students, employees and the broader community awoke to a surprising announcement that Bowdoin would be increasing wages for benefits-eligible hourly workers. Indeed, this was great news and a fantastic step towards achieving a better workplace for all Bowdoin employees, but President Clayton Rose’s refusal to acknowledge the powerful worker and student activism is both troubling and, sadly, expected.
This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Bowdoin’s Africana Studies program, the John Brown Russwurm Center and the Black Student Union (BSU, formerly the African American Society). A celebration is in order.
Throughout the next few days, students, faculty, staff, alumni and visitors will have the opportunity to participate in programming that provides a multi-faceted and community-wide recognition of this milestone.
Back in 2016, like many others on Bowdoin’s campus, I voted for Hillary Clinton. I still remember standing there in the middle of Smith Union back in 2016 with a mass of others, anxiously awaiting the results of the election.
To the Editor,
I would like to thank everyone for all your support for a living wage. I feel it was a little weird for President Rose to announce our wage increase right before “the fall social” and “parent weekend.” Now with my increase, my pay in July, as I understand it, will be a little more than $2.00 more than someone starting new.
Estudié en Valparaíso, Chile, el año pasado. Ahora, a la luz de un poderoso movimiento contra 30 años de abuso económico, imploro a nuestra comunidad para conocer las historias de nuestras compañeros/as chilenos/as. La versión que vemos en las prensas se centra en la delincuencia y la destrucción, reforzando la criminalización del movimiento referida por el presidente Sebastián Piñera para justificar su autorización de violencia policial y militar sobre la comunidad.
To the Editor:
I strongly support the editorial in the October 18 issue of the Orient, “All that is great about Bowdoin,” calling for the resignation of Jes Staley ’79 from Bowdoin’s Board of Trustees. Staley worked closely with Epstein, even after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor and sex trafficking.
Zoomer: Generation Z + Boomer.
My grandfather Friday is a small, bald Nigerian man with a character of immense proportions. He’s been living in my family’s home for the past few months, entertaining guests and visiting the public library.
Friday, October 18 was a major wakeup call for me. Disasters happen around the world—around the clock—but as the massive evasion of metro fares in Chilean capital, Santiago, turned into violent state repression, I was brought back to where I spent almost half of 2019—living, studying and dancing in Valparaíso, Chile.
I studied abroad in Valparaíso, Chile last year. Now, in the wake of a powerful, unified movement against 30 years of economic abuses, I implore our community to listen to the stories of our Chilean peers.
Bowdoin, like all elite academic institutions, tasks itself with the contradictory responsibilities of fostering “critical” thought while pumping out successive generations of the ruling-class elite it is beholden to. At the Sarah and James Bowdoin Day ceremony this past Friday, the hypocrisy that results from such a contradictory mission was laid out in full display.
The U.S. women’s national soccer team (USWNT) has four FIFA World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals. The U.S. men’s national soccer team (USMNT) has zero FIFA World Cup titles and zero Olympic gold medals.
Two days, one night—that’s about how long prospective students on an overnight visit spend getting a taste of Bowdoin’s campus. It’s also about how long the College’s first Joseph McKeen Visiting Fellow, Arthur C. Brooks, will be spending at Bowdoin after he arrives on Thursday.
I introduced the motion on the faculty floor requesting that President Clayton Rose provide an account of the process he used to invite Arthur Brooks as the inaugural Joseph McKeen Visiting Fellow. President Rose had not consulted any member of the faculty before doing so, and had thus committed a simple, procedural infraction.
While studying abroad in Chile the past few months, my understanding of the United States and its past in Latin America has been challenged and nuanced by my peers, friends, host family and the social reality that surrounds me.
To the Editor:
We applaud the College’s administration for the decision to substantially raise wages of staff in a progressive manner. We also applaud the workers who bravely spoke out about concerning conditions here, and pushed the College to do our best to honor our commitment to the Common Good.
This summer I had the opportunity to hear both Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren speak to a room of grassroots activists from across the country. Warren delivered her usual stump-speech—rousing and effective. She detailed her phenomenal plans and exuded competence.
If all goes to plan, by July 1, 2022, Bowdoin’s minimum starting wage for hourly employees will increase to $17.00 an hour, and existing employees will receive raises to compensate for the effects of wage compression.
To the Editor,
As a recent subscriber to the Orient, I was really pleased to see your editorial in big support of the Bowdoin staff and the Bowdoin Labor Alliance! Clear and properly outspoken! Well done.
To the Editor,
Opinions about how we should run our economy and society should be welcomed and discussion from multiple viewpoints is important. In that regard, we might be interested to engage with Arthur Brooks. While we may disagree with another viewpoint, it can help to listen and debate.
What should we think of Bowdoin over-emphasizing the need for reaching a common ground between different political sides? What should we think of Arthur Brooks—who works at a right-wing think tank—coming to campus in an attempt to mediate a discussion on love and solidarity and its importance in bridging the social and political gap?
Yesterday, the College’s Board of Trustees commenced the first of its three meetings that will take place this year. Among the Board’s 40 members is James “Jes” Staley ’79 P ’11 whose ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein have landed him in the pages of newspapers nationwide.
