The Lewiston Police Department (LPD) has referred graffiti written in chalk on the campus of Bates College to the Maine attorney general, who is investigating the case as a possible hate crime. The Bates Leftist Coalition (BLC) shared pictures of the graffitied phrases, “Free Palestine,” “Stop Ethnic Cleansing,” “Israel is killing innocent people” and “[expletive] Zionist Israel.”
According to the Associated Press, Gwen Lexow, Bates’ director of Title IX and civil rights compliance, wrote in an email to students that said she heard members of the Bates community “expressing deep concern about the impact of the language contained in the flyers and graffiti, particularly on Jewish members of our campus community.”
Since the investigation was announced on Monday, members of the Bates community have responded to the news of the investigation.
On March 26, President Clayton Rose announced a series of anti-racism workshops, to be delivered by the Racial Equity Institute (REI), that ran earlier this month on April 15 and April 24. The workshops, designed to build a dialogue as well as generate awareness regarding racial discrepancies in American culture, were a success, according to Benje Douglas, associate vice president for Inclusion and Diversity.
A student reported symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and subsequently received a positive result from Health Services’ rapid PCR testing instrument, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the community on Monday. The student is being moved to isolation housing, and through contact tracing, the College determined that no additional students are required to quarantine.
An outside contractor who worked in Kanbar Hall this week tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the community Thursday evening. As a result, outside contractors will not be permitted to enter campus buildings, effective immediately.
A second staff member in Moulton Hall tested positive for COVID-19, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the community on Tuesday.
Ranen clarified in his message that the case was not related to the positive case reported on Monday.
On Tuesday, one employee in Moulton Hall tested positive and one student who received an inconclusive test in Monday’s testing received a positive result on an antigen test, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in two separate emails to the community.
Editor’s Note on Friday, April 2, at 12:02 p.m.: This article has been updated to reflect additional information released to the student body about the College’s vaccination partnership with Mid Coast Hospital.
The College will work with Mid Coast Hospital to provide Pfizer vaccinations to all Bowdoin students after vaccine eligibility is extended to all Maine residents over the age of 16 on April 7, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to students on Thursday afternoon.
A College employee who works in Rhodes Hall tested positive for COVID-19 in Wednesday’s testing, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in a community-wide email Thursday afternoon.
According to Ranen, this case is the second positive reported in Rhodes Hall in seven days.
One student tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the community. Through contact tracing, three additional students were identified as close contacts and have been moved to quarantine housing.
Two students tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. The cases are not believed to be “connected to each other or to any of the cases reported last week,” COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen wrote in an email sent to the Bowdoin community on Tuesday afternoon.
One College employee tested positive for COVID-19 in Wednesday’s testing, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the Bowdoin community on Thursday afternoon. This case marks the fifth on campus in the last week, after three students and one employee tested positive on Friday.
In an email to the campus community, COVID-19 Coordinator Mike Ranen announced that three students and one employee tested positive for COVID-19 this morning. The College has identified eight students who were in close contact with the students who tested positive.
Following an order issued by Maine Governor Janet Mills on March 5, Bowdoin has modified its rules for travel related to official College purposes, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to all students and employees on Wednesday.
In an email to the community sent on Saturday afternoon, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator announced that an employee of the College tested positive for COVID-19 in Friday’s on-campus testing. The employee is isolating at home. One other employee was identified as a close contact through contact tracing and is now quarantined at home.
President Clayton Rose sent an email to the campus community on Thursday afternoon announcing that the College expects to welcome all students back to campus in the fall. Rose also outlined plans for commencement and summer on-campus activity.
On Wednesday the College announced that the new building that will house the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum will be named the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies in honor of trustee emeritus John A Gibbons Jr.
In an email to the community on Monday morning, President Clayton Rose announced the appointments of two new Senior Vice Presidents (SVP) following the recent resignations of SVP and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Whitney Soule and SVP and Chief Investment Officer Paula Volent.
A College employee tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen announced in an email to the community this afternoon. The employee is on campus infrequently and was found to have been in close contact with one other employee, who is now quarantining at home.
After welcoming more than 1,000 students to campus on Friday and Saturday, two students have tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19), wrote COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen in an email to all students and employees early this afternoon.
The Dean’s Office granted permission for 104 students to reside on campus after November 21. These students, with either home lives unsuitable for remote learning or other extenuating circumstances such as an inability to travel home due to safety concerns, will be allowed to remain in residence until December 22.
An employee of the College who works at the Schiller Coastal Studies Center tested positive for COVID-19 late last evening informed COVID-19 Resource Director Mike Ranen in an email to the community this afternoon. The employee is isolating at home, but the College did not disclose whether the employee is showing symptoms.
A first-year student living on campus tested positive for COVID-19 this morning, informed COVID-19 Resource Coordinator Mike Ranen in an email to the community this evening. The student does not have symptoms and is isolating on campus.
A College employee who works in Thorne Hall and a first-year student living on campus tested positive for COVID-19 today, wrote Mike Ranen, COVID-19 resource coordinator, in an email sent to the community at noon. The employee and student are both asymptomatic and are both isolating.
The College has confirmed that 164 returning students, or approximately eight percent of the student body, will take personal leaves of absence for the fall 2020 semester. Another 37 students from the class of 2024 will defer enrollment to the fall of 2021.
Though recipients have not yet been informed, the Office of Residential Life decided last week that students awarded Career Exploration and Development’s (CXD) Funded Internship Grants will not be permitted to live on campus this summer.
Bowdoin OneDay, the College’s largest annual fundraising event for the Alumni Fund, has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This year’s event had been scheduled to take place on April 7.
Scott Meiklejohn, senior vice president for development and alumni relations, explained that the Alumni Fund is working to reschedule the celebration.
The Bowdoin Institutional Review Board (IRB) announced last week that any research requiring in-person interaction with subjects, previously approved or exempted, should stop immediately. The announcement applies to faculty, staff and student research.
The decision was made by the IRB in consultation with the Senior Vice President and Dean for Academic Affairs Elizabeth McCormack due to concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
President Clayton Rose announced preliminary plans to reschedule commencement exercises in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in an email to the Class of 2020 on Thursday morning. Rose stated that, in addition to a virtual gathering on May 23, current seniors will be invited back to the College in May 2021 to walk across the steps of the Walker Art Building.
After two years of housing juniors and seniors, Ladd House will again house only sophomores for the 2020-2021 academic year, said Director of Residential and Housing Operations Lisa Rendall. College House decisions were sent to applicants on Monday.
With one construction project complete, the College is moving forward with its plan to revamp housing for upper class students. Construction began in May on the new Harpswell Apartments, which will house 132 students in three buildings of four-, six- and eight- person apartments, and virtual renderings of the apartments are now available online.
A Bowdoin student was issued a court summons early Saturday morning after failing to pay his bar tab at MyTie Lounge & Bar, a club about half a mile from campus on Maine Street.
Brunswick Police Department (BPD) received a call from MyTie reporting a man who had left without paying around 1 a.m.
Starting in the fall of 2018, eCampus will replace Chegg as the College’s textbook provider. Mary Lou Kennedy, the executive director of dining and campus services, said the change was driven by cheaper prices, a longer return period and a streamlined return process.
Along with 48 other college presidents, President Clayton Rose signed a letter to Congress at the beginning of March, calling for a repeal or amendment of the recently-passed tax code, which imposes a 1.4 percent tax on certain college endowments.
The Orient was named the 2018 College Newspaper of the Year by the New England Society of News Editors (NESNE) and the New England Newspaper and Press Association (NENPA) in an announcement on Wednesday.
In an email to the Orient, Sydney Conway of NENPA, wrote “It is clear that in the past year you have produced great material, and that lots of hard work has been put in by the newspaper’s staff.”
The editors of the Orient will travel to a reception at the Boston Globe on April 19 where all NENPA AND NESNE honors will be presented, joining editors and reporters from news outlets across New England.
The Brunswick Town Council formally approved the second phase of Bowdoin’s plans to renovate Whittier Field, the Forecaster reported yesterday. The project includes building a new road to connect Pine Street and Bath Road. The decision this Tuesday followed a vote in December to allow the College to discontinue Pine Street in order to build new athletic facilities alongside Whittier Field.
Students have until Sunday to vote on a string of amendments to the Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) constitution. For the constitution to pass, at least one-third of the student body must vote in the election, and at least two-thirds of those students must vote in favor of the changes.
Police investigated threats of violence at two Topsham schools last Friday. Woodside Elementary School was evacuated after a bomb threat while Mt. Ararat High School was placed on heightened security due to student statements about violence, the Portland Press Herald reported.
Journalist and undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas will be speaking on campus next Thursday in the Kenneth V. Santagata Memorial Lecture. His talk, titled “Define America: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” will take place in Kresge Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.
Half of Bowdoin students who applied for Fulbright awards for the 2017-2018 academic received them, the best ratio among any of the nation’s top undergraduate Fulbright Student producers, according to the Fulbright Program. Forty Bowdoin students applied for Fulbrights last year, and 20 received them, the most from Bowdoin since data became available a decade ago.
Civil rights activist and educator DeRay Mckesson ’07 announced on Wednesday that he has signed his first book deal with Viking Books. His book, “On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope” will be released on September 4.
Correction: In our desire to break this story, an earlier version of this article jumped to the conclusion that Boody-Johnson House was to become student housing next year. In an email to the Orient, Dean of Students Tim Foster said the administration was only exploring the possibility of the house being converted into student housing, timeframe unknown, and confirmed that if this transition were to happen, it would not be next year.
As falling temperatures, rain and snow hit midcoast Maine this week—knocking out parts of campus power on Wednesday—Facilities staff got to work extra early to clear ice from the College’s streets and paths.
Over the course of Wednesday afternoon and evening, Brunswick received about seven inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service.
Bowdoin students, and anyone with an iPhone or Android device, will soon be able to use a lobster emoji thanks to lobbying efforts from Senator Angus King H’07 (I-Maine).
The Unicode Consortium, a Silicon Valley-based group of individuals and corporations that is responsible for designing emojis, unveiled the lobster along with 156 other new emojis on Wednesday.
The Amtrak Downeaster, which currently runs from Boston to Brunswick, could go as far north as Rockland this summer if the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) approves a pilot program in March. NNERPA wants to ensure that Maine communities will be active Amtrak partners before it finalizes the service, the Maine Free Press reported last week.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
A greater percentage of students in the Class of 2021 are receiving financial aid than in any class before, reflecting in part a change in the Office of Admissions’ high school recruitment and application fee policies.
After a lengthy legal battle, Bowdoin purchased the property at 28 College Street yesterday, the last remaining property on College Street that Bowdoin did not own. The College has not revealed any plans for the property, the selling price of which remains confidential.
In the wake of multiple plagiarism cases last year, the Computer Science Department revamped its collaboration policies this year, implementing a standardized, department-wide system. The system ranks assignments at four different ‘levels’ where each level corresponds to an allowed amount of collaboration with other students.
During this year’s Ivies Weekend, two first-year students were transported to Mid Coast Hospital for overconsumption of alcohol—one on Thursday night and one on Saturday night. Two minor injuries and two instances of theft occurred, but only one Security-related record was broken: the number of photos taken with Director of Safety and Security Randy Nichols and other officers on duty.
In commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Bowdoin on May 6, 1964, the College will unveil a plaque in Main Lounge of Moulton Union this summer.
King was invited to Bowdoin in 1964 by the Bowdoin Political Forum, a student group.
A fire at a Hannaford warehouse in South Portland left a number of the supermarket chain’s Maine locations—including the store in Brunswick—short on refrigerated products this past weekend.
The Portland Press Herald reported on April 27 that the fire started in a truck’s refrigerator pump and then spread to the warehouse.
As a continuation of the Free Flow initiative, baskets of menstrual products will soon be replaced with mounted dispensers in six men’s bathrooms on campus. Administrators and student leaders hope that the dispensers will help to stop ongoing incidents involving the products being damaged or thrown away.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
