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Opinion

James Bowdoin promoted settler-colonialism

Before he became the second governor of Massachusetts, and before his son named a college after him, James Bowdoin II was a financial magnate who started a war so he could steal Wabanaki land. In this reading of his life, Bowdoin was not just complicit in continuing what Penobscot scholar Donald Soctomah refers to as “the world’s largest genocide”—he and his business partners, supported by the British military, provoked a deadly war against Wabanaki people.

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Are students heard? A case for a real Ivies

By now we have all heard about Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Janet Dean Lohmann’s intentions for the upcoming Ivies. In its last issue, the Orient reported the details of meetings that Dean Lohmann held with several different student groups on campus to vet her plan with students and receive any feedback.

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Rise up for RISE

Many campus events have taken a back seat due to pandemic restrictions, including RISE. An annual production sharing the personal narratives and experiences of Bowdoin women, RISE will take place in person for the first time since February 2020 on Saturday.

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So long, and thanks for the all the fish

On Friday, February 25 the best of what Bowdoin can be was on full display. Professors Laura Henry, Page Herrlinger, Reed Johnson and Mira Nikolova guided students, faculty and staff—all packed like sardines into Searles 315—in grappling with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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The way life should be?

LePage, back on stage?

Paul Richard LePage could potentially be Maine’s governor again. Lepage is the man who vetoed Medicaid expansion seven times and who bragged about an evidence binder of racially-targeted crimes that he falsely claimed showed more than 90 percent of the drug dealers arrested in the state were Black or Hispanic.

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Is it really equity, Clayton?

When I first heard about the new MacBook initiative, I was thrilled. As a member of the first group of students to receive and benefit from the school-wide iPad initiative, it was heartwarming to hear that future Polar Bears would have access to the same, and more, technology they needed to succeed in their education.

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Exposed

Trick or treat: how pornography shapes desire

As Cady Heron says in Mean Girls, “in girl world, Halloween is the one time of year a girl can dress like a total slut, and no other girl can say anything about it.” The sexualization of Halloween has become somewhat of an unsaid expectation among celebrants, so much so that Spirit Halloween offers an online costume category called “sexy women’s Halloween costumes.” The category features their “No Rules Referee,” “Say Ahhh Nurse” and “Lieutenant Misbehave” costumes.

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Speaking out on Arthur Brooks

Rich people can claim that money doesn’t bring happiness. Poor and working class folks know that it can and does. Their understanding is backed by extensive social science research that overwhelmingly demonstrates a strong association between life satisfaction and access to material resources, particularly in the lower two thirds of the income distribution.

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Fortier column gets it right

I’m writing for two reasons. The first is to re-introduce myself to the Bowdoin community as a candidate for office, and the second is to commend Emma Fortier for her spot-on column emphasizing the universality of both the opiate and housing crises.

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A World to Come

On the V-word: there will be two wars

Frantz Fanon wrote “Concerning Violence,” the opening chapter to his final book, “Wretched of the Earth,” in 1961 against the backdrop of the Algerian War of Independence. What Fanon invoked against the cacophony of overlapping voices—endless unique hermeneutics of the social and historical phenomenon of decolonization—was the existence and centrality of violence in this specific social process.

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Letter to the editor: a case for campus party innovation

To the Editor: As Shakespeare would say: what’s in a name? That which we call a handcuff party by any other name would still perpetuate unsafe power dynamics. Sitting in my new seat of community-level sexual violence prevention work, I opened The Bowdoin Orient and was chagrined to see that “champagne shackles” has resurfaced.

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The way life should be?

“From away,” here to stay?

It’s not uncommon for those from out-of-state to have their opinions about Maine shut down for the simple reason that they are “from away.” In the eyes of Mainers who are especially territorial, no matter how long your residency here has been, if you’re not born here, you will never know what you’re talking about when you speak on any aspect of Maine.

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Consider attending the mental health meetings

Over my last four years at Bowdoin, I have come to understand two consistently contradictory narratives that exist on our campus surrounding the issues of mental health and wellness. I’m sure everyone on this campus has heard statements such as, “our institution is not doing enough for our mental health or doesn’t care,” or its counterpart, “the institution has plenty of mental health resources and programming,” and we all hold our own ideas and opinions about how we feel about these statements.

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A World to Come

Reading walkways like emotional webs

Free associative writing brings out something in us that we never really found before, but it takes a lot of nonsensical rambling to actually get anywhere. It does so in the same way that talking nonsense with hometown friends can lead to world shattering epiphanies—ones where you realize where you really are.

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Professor Yarbrough should turn down the Salvatori Prize

The Claremont Institute presents the Henry Salvatori Prize each year to an individual “who has distinguished himself or herself by an understanding of, and actions taken to, preserve and foster the principles upon which the United States was built.” In December 2021, Professor Jean Yarbrough received the prize.

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Why I am running for state congress

I was thirteen the first time I found someone I love unconscious, overdosed on the floor. I have since realized that no one is immune to addiction—anyone can lose their life. Every one of the 100,000 fatal overdoses in the United States last year was someone’s mother, father, sister, brother or child.

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Getting tested: a common courtesy

This week, DataMatch, an online, survey-based matchmaking service created by students at Harvard College has taken the campus by storm. Nearly half of the on-campus population (42.6 percent) has created DataMatch profiles as of Thursday evening, the highest proportion among all 40 participating institutions.

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The way life should be?

A look outside the Bowdoin bubble

As a Bowdoin student from central Maine, I have begun to realize that, in many ways, Maine is like two different states. To the Bowdoin students who are used to the liberal and welcoming politics of Brunswick and the greater Portland area, there is confusion as to how someone like Paul LePage was able to become the leader of such a seemingly open-minded state.

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Carbon fee and dividend: a promising climate solution

As rain continues to fall in New England in January, and as global climate negotiations fail to meet necessary targets, the future of our climate may not look bright. But the good news is that we still have a chance to enact policies that will help the climate, the people and the economy.

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Exposed

Please, stop watching porn

I never received the birds-and-the-bees talk from my parents, but one day in elementary school, I remember mysteriously finding American Girl’s “The Care and Keeping of You” on my bed. The book detailed the oddities and awkwardness of puberty: growing body hair, periods and buying bras.

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How to negotiate a higher salary

Driving a 2002 Honda to work, you stop for gas and search for the remaining pennies you have in your pocket. You never pump to a full tank, allowing only a couple of gallons to get you to work and back home for the rest of the week.

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Editorial

Giving thanks as we move forward

As we begin a new semester with more takeout containers and freezing walks to Farley, we want to take a moment to recognize those that keep this campus alive. The staff members and faculty that keep our campus running are also putting themselves and their families at risk when coming to work.

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A World to Come

Women wearing balaclavas marching through Wall Street

The immigrant experience offers new windows to peer into the living conditions of the most hegemonic empire to ever exist. Sociology majors should recognize this as the concept of the “outsider-within.” I am, however, very hesitant to call myself an outsider in any sense of the word, especially when those who live outside of the so-called West, with a capital “W,” outnumber those within.

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Blueprinting Biden

A Phantom President

On November 19, Joe Biden pushed his expansive, unapologetically progressive domestic agenda through the House on a party line vote. By Christmas, universal pre-K, price controls for prescription drugs and an unprecedented investment in renewable energy are likely to be signed into law, along with new funding for child care, elderly care and affordable housing.

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The pro-choice movement could learn from anti-choicers

Content warning: This article contains references to sexual violence. With the future of Roe v. Wade in doubt, the pro-choice movement could learn from the political strategies of anti-choicers. If the recent Texas and Mississippi abortion cases brought before the Supreme Court can teach us anything, it should be that now is the time to radicalize the pro-choice movement.

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PeaceWorks highlights word choice

To the editor: PeaceWorks members were glad to see the article you posted in early November about the work we’ve been doing since 9/11/01. It’s good to feel connected. The title, though, got our attention: “Local Group Fights for Peace.” Actually, we prefer to say that we “Work For Peace.” Splitting hairs?

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Responding to Orient coverage of the fencing team

I’ve just read the article the Orient published about us last Friday: “No coach, no problem: fencing club is going strong.”I have objections. I’m Joanne. I can be found bossing new fencers around Buck 213, carrying more fencing equipment around Smith Union than my knees and back think I can handle or generally making a nuisance of myself badgering people about fencing.

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There is always a light

Throughout my time at Bowdoin, there have been many moments when I faced immense challenges, stress and grief that have felt incredibly overwhelming. I know I am not alone in these thoughts and feelings. We have all gone through a lot in our time as students at Bowdoin and continue to struggle and hurt for many reasons, and in many ways, within this institution.

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Editorial

To the Bowdoin community,

To the Bowdoin and Brunswick community, The passing of our friend, classmate and community member has rocked our lives in unfathomable ways. We are trying to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, our friends, our acquaintances and our colleagues.

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Students are scared of freedom

Some time ago, a liberal arts education grew laborious: the labor of academic work, the labor of extracurriculars, the labor of planning one’s future. As students of Ancient Greek know, the word ‘school’ comes from a Greek word antithetical to labor: schol?, meaning “leisure.” We lose a great deal of wisdom by ignoring this etymology.

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Blueprinting Biden

Biting the bullet on structural change

This week isn’t going well for the Biden administration. The President’s approval rating is in freefall. West Virginia Senator and Democrat Joe Manchin won’t budge on his $1.75 trillion cap for infrastructure spending, and (unlikely) rumors are floating that he’s prepared to switch parties if the budget deal goes south.

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A yes on one is bad for Maine: why I’m voting no

Voting yes to reject the CMP corridor is not the environmentally friendly solution that you’ve been sold. In 2018, Massachusetts passed a law to expand clean energy for the state. To achieve this, the state made an agreement with HydroQuebec to supply hydropower: this required crossing state boundaries, so an independent arrangement was made with Central Maine Power (CMP).

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AOC’s performative activism misses the mark

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) viral Met Gala dress sucked. Every year, uninvited celebrities spend $35,000 to attend the Met Gala, an event inspired by fashion and decadence. This year’s theme was titled “American Independence,” and routinely, Hollywood stars, fashion designers and models pulled out all the stops.

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An ode to Dudley Coe

After just over a century, Dudley Coe is on its way out. Perhaps it seems odd to elegize an administrative building many students can’t even identify, but Dudley Coe has played an important role in the history of the College.

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Editorial

On editorial independence

The Bates Student published an article on October 13 concerning unionization efforts among the college’s staff. Later that day, Mary Pols, Bates’ media relations specialist, requested that the story be taken down due to “misleading statements and reporting inaccuracies.” The Student subsequently took down the article and republished it with significant alterations, including several additional comments from Bates administrators that reflected the college’s position in a more positive light.

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Cut YikYak some slack

I can’t imagine that anyone reading this doesn’t know about the app YikYak. Even though its popularity is waning, the app remains controversial on campus. I personally love the impact of the app at Bowdoin, so I wanted to outline why.

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Blueprinting Biden

American Family Plan first

Progressives are trapped between nostalgia for the past and a deep disgust with it. The left’s legislative heroes—Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley—appropriate the language and rhetoric of a bygone era of American politics for their progressive agenda.

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Editorial

Keep the tables and chairs on the quad

Bowdoin groundskeeping has assisted in creative uses of Bowdoin spaces by placing tables and chairs throughout campus, especially on Main Quad. The hallowed ground at the College, Main Quad’s well-manicured lawns and picturesque buildings create a beautiful landscape that is arguably unrivaled on Bowdoin’s campus.

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Ending unemployment benefits was premature

Despite the rationale behind terminating extended unemployment benefits, there is little evidence to prove that it will lower unemployment. In response to the COVID-induced economic recession, the federal government increased unemployment benefits. Under the Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits program, Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) offered a $600-a-week federal bonus to the unemployed on top of existing state-level benefits.

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Reflections from an old Polar Bear

Why would a 78-year old Bowdoin Polar Bear have the audacity to agree to write an opinion piece for the Orient, one of the nation’s finest college newspapers? Well, my family legacy gives me some Bowdoin credit: my great-grandfather; grandfather; son and granddaughters all call Bowdoin their alma mater.

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Editorial

On Academic Readjustment

Week three of the semester is when things start to get busy. First papers are due, you have a standing date at a professor’s office hours, and you’re starting to question why you took microeconomics in the first place.

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The raise in minimum wage came after years of struggle

On August 26, 2021, Bowdoin College announced they would raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour for hourly workers ten months earlier than the expected date. According to Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Matt Orlando, the accelerated raise in minimum wage reflected changing labor conditions in Maine.

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To Bowdoin trustees: remove Jes Staley

In the fall of 2019, behind closed doors, Bowdoin’s Board of Trustees reviewed Trustee Jes Staley’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and unanimously decided that there was “nothing in Jes Staley’s actions or behavior that warranted the Board taking any action.” I am calling on Bowdoin’s Board of Trustees to reconsider this decision.

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Could Bowdoin have done better

I think every sophomore has had this conversation with a junior or senior about a million times: “So, if you had to give it a number, what percentage of the real ‘Bowdoin experience’ are we at right now?” When faced with this question myself, I threw out 70 percent as a ballpark estimate.

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Do not neglect labor

Over the past three years, I have witnessed a change in discussion about labor, unionization, workplace ethics and the like. While unions might have been a hard topic to approach a couple of years ago, it is becoming more common to hear them brought up in conversation, though people are not always in favor of them.

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I wish I was told

As the Class of 2022 begins our last year at Bowdoin, many of us find ourselves thinking back to how much has changed since first year. I’m no exception, despite feeling like an exception much of my time at Bowdoin.

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Sophomore Disorientation

I am sure that I am not the only one who felt that returning to college after more than a year away from school was daunting. As I packed my things and prepared to drive to Brunswick once again, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the memories of isolation and confinement from last fall.

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Our bodies and tech: a journey through pain and healing

By the end of my first year of college, I suffered from chronic pain in my wrists, neck and back—pain that curtailed my activities as an athlete, musician and student. For some of you, this may sound familiar: a late night cram-session hunched over a laptop coupled with an hour of scrolling on social media and texting friends can do a number on your body.

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Renaming and power sharing

I originally posted sentiments expressed in this op-ed several weeks ago as an anonymous comment to Emily Ha’s op-ed “Rename the Orient.” At the time, the semester was at a particularly strenuous point for me, exacerbated by the emotions around the March 16 Atlanta shootings and the ongoing anti-Asian violence around the country.

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Saffy Says

To freedom

After four long years, I can say that I am glad that I came to Bowdoin. I was able to learn about something I never would have been able to learn anywhere else: the way white people live.

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Editorial

Reflect and rebuild

When we began our time at Bowdoin, none of us could have imagined it would end like this. This is not the Bowdoin we signed up for—we never thought we would finish the semester in little Zoom boxes, eating take-out from the dining hall or living at home again.

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Mental Health

It’s time for Bowdoin to be proactive about campus mental health

This past summer, right around the pandemic’s six-month mark, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released their annual young adult mental health report. Of the 5,470 participants, a record-high 40.9 percent reported struggling with depression or anxiety, a statistic evidently not jarring enough to push Bowdoin to hire an appropriate number of counselors and psychiatrists.

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Afia Tells All

Liberal. Activist. Girl boss. The complicated nuances of popular labels that often go unpacked

Our society has an obsession with labels. Because of this, I believe that there are certain labels that are misused, or that carry certain meanings, associations and implications that cause more harm than good. As of late, especially on social media, I have found irksome the overuse of the following terms: liberal, a word so broad that it now has a wide range of less-than-positive associations; girl boss, a term that became popular despite its negative implications and activist, which is commonly misused.

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More from Mina

Creativity does not replace capital

Colleges often make the misinformed assumption that all students understand what resources are available to them and how to use them. Office hours, writing centers, “Q” (quantitative-reasoning) tutors and even libraries are a few of the many “resources” that are commonly advertised to students, but how can they be useful if all students don’t know what they are or how to use them?

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Thoughts in passing

Is this our identity?

It sucks believing you’re the smartest Black person in the room. And it sucks even more having people believe that because you’re the smartest Black person in the room, you must be an exception to the norm, a deviation from your race, a “white” Black person.

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Afia Tells All

No rest for the weary: emotional exhaustion as a Black woman, from last summer to the present

I did not come to campus last semester eager-eyed and bushy-tailed. Instead, I came anxious and afraid. Of course, starting college in a literal pandemic did cause some anxieties to arise. I knew that academics would be more difficult online, and I expected that socialization would be more awkward, as I am already a pretty introverted person.

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Editorial

Looking beyond the bubble

This semester, particularly for those of us living in Brunswick, it has been easier than ever to confine our perspectives to campus. COVID-19 has altered life at Bowdoin in ways that have made it seemingly impossible to talk about anything else—new updates have been released daily all semester, and every announcement of an expedited vaccine timeline or relaxed restriction spawns passionate conversations.

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Saffy Says

The dangers of hypervisibility

There has been a distinct increase in visibility for Black people right now. Whether it be campaigns by major corporations, the emphasis on “buying Black” or the onslaught of Black death on the internet, there is no denying the fact that Black people are being placed in the spotlight for various reasons.

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Context speaks: why I stand firm on renaming the Orient

Last week, Bowdoin alum Kevin Ma posted a response to my op-ed, “Rename the Orient.” Ma makes some excellent points about the need for people to truly hear Asian stories and voices. I wish to elaborate further on these points, as well as address his and others’ arguments against my piece.

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Editorial

Your vote matters

In an especially unusual year in the College’s history, Bowdoin students have had a lot to say. Our representatives to the administration, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG), can fill a crucial role in communicating the needs of students in this unprecedented situation and leading us on the road to, hopefully, a more normal college experience.

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More from Mina

Let Black women exist

To be a Black woman in America is to suffer from the intersectionalities that make up your identity. Amongst many things, it is to be medically disposable, aesthetically fetishized and subdued in order to make others comfortable.

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BSG

BSG Candidacy Statements

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES Ryan Britt ’22 Hello everyone! Throughout my time at Bowdoin, I have had the privilege of serving as the BSG Chair of Student Affairs and as Class President. As a first-generation/low-income student in student government, I focused mainly on supporting our Counseling Center and creating programming for first-generation/low-income students.

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Thoughts in passing

Is it just a dream?

Thinking back, I feel like I’ve never truly evaluated the effects that racial trauma—derived from instances of racial bias, abuse and discrimination—have had on my life. Strange, I know. Sure, in passing I’ve been able to monitor my mental health, assessing how much I need to remove myself from heavy social media use to not become overwhelmed with constant racial violence.

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Editorial

A risk we don’t condone

This has been a semester of calculated risks. In devising rules and guidelines for the campus community, administrators were tasked with creating a system allowing for a fulfilling Bowdoin experience for every student while still minimizing the potential for a COVID-19 outbreak on campus.

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Forget renaming the Orient, just take us seriously

Since the publishing of the article “Rename the orient,” I have been closely following the comments, discourse and Letters to the Editor regarding Emily Ha’s opinion piece, both on the Orient website and on Facebook. As a Chinese-American with a degree in Asian Studies who is also finishing a masters in Chinese Language and Culture, I take enough personal interest to engage with members of the Bowdoin community on this topic.

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Black Lives Matter

The myth of the absent father

On Sunday, 10 miles from the courthouse where former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd, Kim Potter, another police officer, shot and killed Daunte Wright. As he was being pulled over, Wright called his mom to tell her he was getting pulled over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rear view window.

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The PRO Act

The PRO Act represents an important step for every worker, both domestic and overseas. Given the importance of the United States on the global scale of politics, passing more pro-organized labor legislation could contribute to a further shift towards unions in the rest of the world.

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More from Mina

Let’s be real: it’s bigger than temporary solidarity

Social media has made it so that a number of people can now see the many injustices committed against our people on camera, including the many assaults, cases of harassment and murder. However, in recent events, as many Black people continue to fight for their lives, a lot of those who like to portray themselves as allies use the Black Lives Matter movement as a mere trend.

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Thank you

In the last week, Bowdoin has provided the student body with access to vaccines through Mid Coast Hospital and, in response to recent cases, upped the testing protocol to three tests per week for all students.

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Thoughts in passing

Is it a secret?

How does one measure collegiate eliteness, and how is said eliteness communicated to the pool of applicants for our nation’s top colleges? I suppose this question of measurement could be answered by statistical evidence—placing student selectivity, academic rigor and financial endowment as determinants of prestige.

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