Bowdoin Orient

BRUNSWICK, MAINE

BOWDOINORIENT.COM

THE NATIONS OLDEST CONTINUOUSLY PUBLISHED COLLEGE WEEKLY

BCA seeks to gauge student support

with new petition for divestment

VOLUME 146, NUMBER 7

1st CLASS
U.S. MAIL
Postage PAID
Bowdoin College

The

OCTOBER 28, 2016

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BCA

DIVESTMENT EFFORTS
Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA) is collecting signatures for a
petition to Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) to get a student body referendum on divesting the Colleges endowment
from fossil fuels. This is not the first time BCA has petitioned
for divestment.

MAY 2013
BCA created a makeshift climate camp on the Quad to pressure the Board of Trustees to meet to discuss the Colleges
investment in fossil fuels. In an effort to prolong the protest
without any restrictions from the College, BCA gave up its
charter as a student organization and its affiliation to parent
organization Green Bowdoin Alliance.

APRIL 2014
BCA presented President Barry Mills with a petition of 1,000
signatures in support of the College divesting from fossil fuels. One week later, Mills arranged for BCA to meet with the
Board of Trustees the following semester on October 17.

OCTOBER 2014
The Orient reported that the BCA petition overstated student support for divestment. Of the 1,000 signatures, only
825 were valid due to duplicate and triplicate signatures and
crossed-out and illegible names. The collected signatures
were also from two differently phrased petitions, not the singular petition that BCA presented to Mills.

MARCH 3, 2015
Mills announced that he would be BCAs liaison to the Board
of Trustees for further discussions of divestment. BCA demanded that the Board appoint a more long-term liaison by
March 6, as it was Millss last academic year. BCA would escalate its divestment campaign if its demands were not met.

MARCH 23, 2015

ELIZA GRAUMLICH, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

INVESTED IN DIVESTMENT?: Students from Bowdoin Climate Action (BCA) confront former President Barry Mills over divestment in April 2015.
BCA renewed its push for divestment this week.
BY CAMERON DE WET AND JONO GRUBER
ORIENT STAFF

On Tuesday, Bowdoin Climate Action

(BCA) renewed its divestment efforts and
began collecting signatures on a petition
that asks the College to permanently divest its endowment from the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies over the
next five years with the hopes of submitting it to Bowdoin Student Government
(BSG) for a referendum.
If the petition, accessible through
Blink, receives signatures from at least
20 percent of the student body (around
360 students), BCA can submit it to BSG.
Then, after a three week period, the referendum would open to the campus for

voting. If more than one third of the student body votes in the referendum and
two-thirds of the voting population votes
in favor, BSG will submit the referendum
to the Board of Trustees on behalf of the
student body. As of press time, the petition has 70 signatures.
According to BCA member Jonah Watt
18, the group has long focused on divestment as the main method of climate activism on campus.
Divestment has always been our tactic,
with climate justice being our larger goal,
said Watt.
This is not the first time that BCA has
petitioned for divestment. In 2013 and
2014 BCA collected signatures from students, and instead of delivering the peti-

tion to BSG, BCA submitted the signatures

to former President Barry Mills, which resulted in the group presenting a proposal
for divestment to the Board of Trustees.
Due to the relatively informal nature of
the previous petition, there was a discrepancy between the number of signatures
that BCA claimed it had when it was submitted to Mills and the actual number of
valid signatures. Research into the petition
revealed that there were a number of duplicate signatures, lowering the stated count
of 1,000 to Mills to 825 valid signatures.
Last time we petitioned, we petitioned
across semesters and we petitioned students that had graduated, we petitioned

Please see BCA, page 4

BCA announced that 50 students would begin a sit-in for fossil fuel divestment and to protest of Millss appointment as
BCA liaison to the board.

APRIL 1, 2015
Approximately 25 students from BCA began a sit-in in front
of Millss office. Mills was out of town at the start of the sit-in,
which was endorsed by six parents of current students and 38
alumni, including Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Bob
Ives 69, in a letter.

APRIL 3, 2015
Mills talked with the students participating in the sit-in for
over an hour. Mills reiterated the Colleges reasons not to divest and took questions from the students. BCA planned to
continue its demonstration after the discussion.

APRIL 2016
BCA submitted an op-ed to the Orient demanding that the
Board of Trustees put conflicts of interests aside and commit
to divestment. Trustee Stanley Druckenmiller responded that
divestment from fossils fuels would only be symbolic and cited his personal commitment to creating a sustainable future.

LaCasce funds to expand physics opportunities Students design new app to

Donation also allows College to hire another tenure-track professor boost off-campus party scene
BY NICKIE MITCH
ORIENT STAFF

Bowdoin will be expanding cocurricular opportunities in physics

and other natural sciences because
of funds bequeathed to the College
by former Physics Professor Emeritus Elroy Roy LaCasce Jr. 44, who
passed away in September 2015.
While the fund primarily endows a
chairLaCasce Family Professor of
Natural Sciences Stephen G. Naculichit also opens up a pathway for
the College to hire a new tenuretrack professor in any department.
Endowed chairs provide a principal. From this sum, interest pays the
costs associated with the salary and
benefits of the professor that holds
that chair.
[The funding] really expands the
N QUINBY PAINTINGS
An artist fights back after his panels
were removed from Quinby. Page 3.

opportunities and if physics cant

use [it], then [the money] goes to
other natural sciences, said Professor of Physics and Chair of Physics
Department Dale A. Syphers. So its
definitely going to be a boon for our
department and other departments
may see a boon as well.
In addition to endowing a chair,
the donation included specifications
that any excess funds be used at
the discretion of the physics department faculty in consultation with
the Dean for Academic Affairs to
support and enhance the education
of Bowdoin physics majors. Its suggested uses include funding speakers, workshops, opportunities for
exposure to career opportunities,
support for undergraduate summer
research in the form of LaCasce Fellowships, scholarship aid and fundF

INTO THE WILD

Bowdoin students take their leadership skills

outdoors. Page 6.

ing for travel to conferences.

Syphers is excited about the new
funding, which he said will enrich
educational opportunities and student experiences. He said funding
may first be used to replace and supplement equipment in the physics
departments machine shop, which
supports research in several of the
Colleges departments.
Any funds beyond the amount
for student projects and research
and summer research and things
like that will be used to fund scholarships, Syphers said.
He added that LaCasce was particularly interested in providing
funding to enable students currently
on work-study to spend [their] full
time learning physics but said that

Please see PHYSICS, page 5

A

THE MUSIC MAN

Jeb Polstein 17 plays drums in five student

bands. Page 9.

BY STEFF CHAVEZ AND URIEL LOPEZ

ORIENT STAFF

Chaz Phillips 18 and Danny

Miro-Chinea 19 dont want students to be caught in the cold when
theres a good party nearby. The pair
are part of a team of American and
Czech college students along with
former member of the Bowdoin
Class of 2019 Josh Hollis that developed an app, Movez, that seeks
to simplify party-going. After a
beta test as Bowdoin last weekend,
the app will be available on the App
Store in the next few weeks. It has
the potential to increase attendance
at off-campus parties.
The main point of the app is to
make your social nightlife not a hassle
and to meet new people, said Phillips,
chief operating officer of the app.
S

RIVALRY WEEKEND

Field hockey faces Middlebury in the NESCAC

quarterfinals on Saturday. Page 11.

Creating a Movez account requires a .edu e-mail address. Once

logged in, users can see a map of
nearby parties and chat with other
Movez users already at a party using
an in-app messaging software.
Party hosts can list their event on
Movez and invite other Movez users through the app. In order to help
hosts manage a guest list, the app
encourages partygoers to register
for a party.
The app will also provide realtime feedback on the status of any
registered party.
We have something called a lit
score, [where] you can rate the party one to five with a little fire emoji,
so there are certain ways to see if a
party is cool, said Phillips.

Please see MOVEZ, page 5

O

YOU SHOULD VOTE

William Kunitz opines on the consequences of

not participating in the election. Page 14.

the bowdoin orient

news

friday, october 28, 2016

STUDENT SPEAK:

Whats the most memorable Halloween

costume youve had?
Adam Glynn 17

My freshman year at Bowdoin, I

had longer hair and I shaved my
head the day of Halloween and I
went to a party that night and said
I was Adam, with a shaved head.

SOPHIE WASHINGTON

SECURITY REPORT: 10/20 to 10/27

Thursday, October 20

A student reported the theft of a blue mountain bike

from the south side bike rack at Searles Science Building. The student does not know the make and model,
but there is a light blue cable lock wrapped around the
seat post.

Excessively loud music and singing was reported on the

sixth floor of Coles Tower.
Friday, October 21

An officer checked on the well-being of an intoxicated

student in the first floor rest room at Stowe Hall.

A student with a respiratory problem was taken to the

Peter Buck Center for Health and Fitness.

A student using a blow dryer accidentally set off a

bedroom smoke alarm in Chamberlain Hall.

Two students violated College policy by accessing a

second floor roof at Quinby House.

Window glass was smashed at the Thorne loading

dock garage.

A group of non-student adults was reported to be

smoking marijuana on the Quad.

Students at Brunswick Apartments complained

that political stickers were placed on their apartment door without their permission. The students
responsible were cautioned to refrain from the
practice.
Saturday, October 22

A bedroom smoke alarm at Coleman Hall was found to

be a false alarm.

A Bowdoin football player was taken to Mid Coast Hospital for treatment of a broken ankle, sustained during
the Trinity-Bowdoin game.

A student with a severe headache was escorted to the

Mid Coast Primary Care & Walk-In Clinic.

Heavy wind and rain activated an alarm at the Museum

of Art.

There was a report of marijuana being smoked inside a

Brunswick Apartment.

A student reported that his wallet was stolen.The wallet

and all contents were found inside Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, having been lost.

Angela Goldshteyn 20

Sunday, October 23

A group of students in a room at Reed House was discovered smoking marijuana and in possession of drug
paraphernalia.

Brunswick Police Deparment responded to Garrison

Street for a report of excessive noise associated with a
gathering of students. Three students were given court
summonses for disorderly conduct.

A malfunction caused a bedroom smoke detector to activate at West Hall.

A silver Trek bicycle was reported stolen from outside of

Farley Field House.

A silver L.L. Bean bicycle that was stolen from Reed

House was recovered outside of Coles Tower.

Two girls from my high school

dressed up as Rory and Lorelai, and
thats all you need to knowthey
were great. It wasnt me, though.

Daisy Wislar 18
When I was in sixth grade I had the
incredible idea to be a daisy and it was
gonna be great...and it was really so
sad because I worked so hard on this
costume but I just looked like a shitty
Statue of Liberty.

Monday, October 24

A staff member accidentally activated a fire alarm pull

station in Appleton Hall.

A security officer interrupted an apparent catalytic converter theft at the Stowe Inn upper lot at 2:30 a.m. A
students vehicle had been lifted up with a jack. The suspects fled the area.

A student was slightly injured in a fall from a bicycle on

North Campus Drive.

Edward Zhang 17
In elementary school I was dressed as
Harry Potter and nobody recognized
me. I had a scar and I had a wand
which was a chopstick...they just
thought I was some random wizard
with a chopstick as my wand.

Tuesday, October 25

A student reaching for a light switch inadvertently activated a fire alarm pull station at Howell House.
Wednesday, October 26

Loud music was reported at Brunswick Apartment I.

The students were asked to close a window and lower
the volume.

Summers Askew 20

Thursday, October 27

A local man abandoned two cats on campus. The cats were

rounded up and returned to the care of responsible family
members. The man who abandoned the cats was issued a
trespass order barring him from all College property.

A student was found to be in violation of the first-year

parking prohibition. A second student was found to
have registered the students car by providing false information on the vehicle registration form.

I was Little Red Riding Hood

one year and I took my dog with
mea Portuguese Water Dog
and we used colored hairspray and
we sprayed him grey to look like a
COMPILED BY ELIZA GRAUMLICH AND ELEANOR PAASCHE

The case of the stolen Yellow Bikes

BY OLIVIA ATWOOD
ORIENT STAFF

There is a fundamental misunderstanding on Bowdoins campus: people

have suddenly forgotten how the Yellow
Bike Club (YBC) works. In the past few
weeks, many a Yellow Bike has gone missing, causing the students responsible for
each bike to pay a $100 dollar fee for the
bike, plus $30 for the lock.
In a recent security report, Director of
Safety and Security Randy Nichols advised students to Please consider [these
costs] the next time youre thinking of
stealing someones bike.
Bikes are not community property for
anyone to use at will, he added.
Students seem to be confusing the Yellow Bikes with CitiBike, the system used in
New York, or other bike-sharing systems,
when in fact, these sunny yellow twowheelers are not shared property. Each bike
belongs to and is loved by a single student,
who reserved it at the start of the semester.

This misunderstanding seems to

stem from new community members
as Yellow Bike thefts have not been as
rampant in the past three years.
Bridget Hoke 20 is one such misinformed member.
I thought it was like a CitiBike set
up, where you kind of like grab one
and its a loaner and there are stations
where there are the Yellow Bikes,
said Hoke. But I havent exactly seen
these stations and I think Ive seen
like three Yellow Bikes in my time [at
Bowdoin].
After receiving an email sent to first
years about transportation around
campus, Hoke arrived at Bowdoin
prepared to see racks and rack[s] of
Yellow Bikes around campus.
She found it suspicious to not see
these stations, but she didnt really
give it much thought or look into
the issue. The lack of bike stations
hovered in her top 40 priorities of
things to figure out. However, Hoke

never realized that the Yellow

Bikes are not a shared bike system,
which explains the lack of bike stations on campus.
Collin Litts 18, a student without
a bike on campus, believes that this misunderstanding comments on millennials as a whole.
I dont think weve ever had that
problem before. I wonder what it says
about our generation? asked Litts.
Like, what is it coming to? I think it
means that younger people assume that
everything belongs to them.
However, Litts finds that the misunderstood Yellow Bike system brings
up the idea of having a CitiBike station
on campus.
The YBC was founded in 2007 after
Jackie Su 12 returned from a semester
abroad in Copenhagen with the goal of
starting a bike share for Bowdoin. It lasted
a few short years before falling apart. The
system was a mess. Students changed the
common lock combinations so they could

PHOEBE ZIPPER

claim the bike as their own and prevent

others from using it. Bikes laid abandoned
in piles outside of off-campus apartments
where seniors lived. One particular night,
a drunken student destroyed a Yellow
Bike when they couldnt remember the
combination. By 2011, Su and others realized they might need to revert to a longterm bike rental program, which is essentially the system employed by the College

now, in 2016.
Hoke suggested that sending out an
instructional email to alert the students
of how the YBC works could help solve
the problem.
Litts thinks the bottom line is not taking something that isnt yours.
I dont wanna ruin someones day by
stealing their bike, he said.
Or their life, added Hoke.

friday, october 28, 2016

the bowdoin orient

news

NEWS IN BRIEF Artist defends controversial frat-era panels

COMPILED BY EDUARDO JARAMILLO, ELEANOR PAASCHE
AND JESSICA PIPER

STUDENTS FUNDRAISE FOR

HAITI HURRICANE RELIEF
Over the past week, Bowdoin students have helped raise hundreds of dollars for disaster relief in Haiti. Fundraising efforts are continuing for the Caribbean island nation,
which was struck by Hurricane Matthew on October 4.
Weve been really surprised in how much weve been able to raise, said Reyada Atanasio 17, who is one of the students leading the fundraising campaign.
Students raised funds by selling breakfast goods including donuts and coffee outside
of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library last Wednesday. They also sold baked goods after a
talk last Thursday on healthcare in Haiti by Dan Fitzgerald, a professor at Weill Cornell
Medical College in New York City.
Even if [people] werent interested in buying donuts or coffee or anything, they still
donated, and those extra donations really helped our effort, Atanasio said.
The students involved plan on holding another bake sale outside of H-L and are considering the possibility of tabling in Smith Union.
Atanasio became involved with the fundraising efforts after encouragement from Associate Director of the McKeen Center Andrew Lardie.
[Lardie] contacted me because I had previously been in one of [Assistant Professor of Anthropology] Gregory Becketts classes, and Beckett is very involved with Haiti,
Atanasio said.
Beckett helped the students decide to give the donations to an organization called the
Lambi Fund, a grassroots organization in Haiti.
Especially after the earthquake in 2010, a lot of humanitarian organizations and
NGOs went into Haiti to help with the relief effort, said Atanasio. But the disconnection between their efforts, the governments efforts and what the Haitian people actually
needed has kind of resulted in a lack of success.
Sophie Binenfeld 17, who has also been involved in fundraising efforts, also took
Becketts course on contemporary Haiti. She said that international aid was one of the
topics discussed in class.
This was a nice opportunity for us to give money to a reputable organization that we
know is going to do good things for Haitians, she said.
The Latin American Student Organization (LASO) also launched its own fundraising
drive. The group also plans to sell baked goods and launched a GoFundMe page to raise
donations.

SECURITY WARNS ABOUT

POTENTIAL CAR VANDALISM
Security warned students to be on the lookout for potential catalytic converter theft
following an incident Monday morning. A security officer on patrol noticed a jacked-up
van in the Stowe Inn parking lot around 2:30 a.m.
The thieves were actually in progress jacking the vehicle or underneath the vehicle
when the security vehicle came patrolling through the lot, said Director of Safety and
Security Randy Nichols. They saw it coming and they took off, and so by the time the
officer got there they were gone.
Security contacted the vehicles owner, who had it examined by a mechanic. The catalytic converter was still intact.
The incident followed a series of nine catalytic converter thefts this past weekend at
the University of Maine, Orono. However, when Nichols reported the incident to Brunswick Police on Monday, there had not been any recent thefts in Brunswick.
According to Nichols, most of the vehicles targeted in Orono were Honda Accords
produced between 2000 and 2002. The vehicle targeted at Bowdoin was also a Honda.
A catalytic converter is a part of a cars exhaust system that catches pollutants. Converters also contain valuable metals, which make them a target for theft. A well-versed
thief can cut a catalytic converter from a car in less than a minute using a power tool.
Nichols advised students and community members to park in well-lit, well-traveled
areas and to be on alert for anything suspicious, like the sound of power tools at 2:30 in
the morning.
We ask students, faculty, and staff to just be aware of any unusual activity on campus,
he said.
Security will also be watching parking lots more closely.
I think all of us working together, we can do a lot to safeguard the campus, said
Nichols.

BY JAMES CALLAHAN
ORIENT STAFF

The artist who painted two fraternityera cartoon panels that were removed
from the basement of Quinby House
last year is pushing back against what he
believes is a false characterization of his
works. The paintings were removed last
winter because of student criticisms that
they embodied rape culture.
Artist James Lyon 68, who painted
the two panels in 1966 and 1967 during
his time as a member of Psi Upsilon, recently returned to campus to defend his
work against its critics, find out where
his panels were being stored and determine their future home.
Theres no sexual violence going on
in these pictures, he said.
Former Quinby House President
Sophie de Bruijn 18 initiated the effort
to remove the panels from the house
in December 2015, sending an email
signed by nine other residents to Director of Residential Life Meadow Davis,
Assistant Director of Residential Life
Mariana Centeno and Director of Title
IX and Compliance Benje Douglas.
The two murals that hang in our
basement, relics of the houses past as
the Psi Upsilon fraternity house, embody rape culture, that is, a setting in
which rape is pervasive and normalized
due to societal attitudes about gender
and sexuality. Displaying cartoon images of sexual violence perpetuates the
normalized image of rape on college
campuses, they wrote in the email.

COURTESY OF JAMES LYON

NAKED WOMEN: One of the panels which was removed from Quinby House. Read
what Lyon and de Bruijin have to say about its many components at bowdoinorient.com.
Following the letter, house members
voted to remove the panels from the
house on February 23.
The controversy arose from the
panels content; one depicts an idyllic
beachside Quinby House with naked
women, mermaids and leering men,
while the other is a metaphor telling of
a Bowdoin students life over four years
and between fall and spring. Women are
being chased in both panels.
However, Lyon disagrees with the
way the letter represents his works. He
says the paintings represent a fun and
lighthearted representation of what life
was like at Bowdoin during the sexual revolution.
This was done in 1967, and its an
allegory, said Lyon. At that point there

were women who actually wanted to

have a sexual experience and so there
are several levels of puns and none of
them are meant to be threatening.
For de Bruijn, however, these paintings represent something far more pernicious than mere cartoons.
When I look into the wide eyes of
those cartoon women, running away
and covering their naked bodies in horror, I see myself, I see my friends, I see
everyone who has known what it feels
like to be a victim of sexual violence.
Ive seen that image play out in real life
on this campus, de Bruijn wrote in an
email to the Orient.
Lyon, however, maintains that the

Please see MURALS, page 5

BASE program grows by 50 percent

BY ALLISON WEI
ORIENT STAFF

The number of students participating

in Bowdoin Advising Program to Support Academic Excellence (BASE) increased by 50 percent from last year, due
to a change in the structure of the faculty
stipends associated with the program. In
2015-2016, the program had 30 students,
while this years class has 45.
BASE is an intensive advising program for first-year students who may
experience more difficulties adjusting to
the academic and social life at Bowdoin.
According to Professor of Anthropology
and Faculty Liaison for Advising Sara
Dickey, the program targets students who
come from under-resourced high schools
or cultural environments that differ substantially from Bowdoin and New England, as well as first-generation students
and students who have faced certain academic or personal challenges.
[The challenges they might face] are
not because of them, said Interim Dean
of First Year Students Melissa Quinby,
who runs the program with Dickey. We
dont think the students cant do it, but we
know the students may come from backgrounds where theyre not resourced the
way some Bowdoin students were in high
school.
This year, Dickey and Quinby invited
86 students in the class of 2020 to apply
for the program. Of these students, 57 applied and 45 were accepted.
Unlike typical pre-major advisors who
advise four students, BASE advisors only
advise three, which historically has limited the program to 30 students. Last year,
over 20 students who applied to the program were denied; this year, that number
dropped to 12.
In previous years, one goal of the program was to train as many faculty as possible, with the intention that faculty who
were trained as BASE advisors would become better advisors overall. Therefore,
faculty who served as BASE advisors did

so for one year, and each new school year,

there would be ten new BASE advisors.
Faculty members who are BASE advisors
receive a stipend.

because it taught me that it was OK to ask

and receive help, Sledge said. The folks
here at Bowdoin are committed to help
you succeed if you just ask. Its definitely

We dont think the students cant do it, but we know the students
may come from backgrounds where theyre not resourced the way
some Bowdoin students were in high school.

MELISSA QUINBY, INTERIM DEAN OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

Interim Dean for Academic Affairs
Jennifer Scanlon devised a new system to
increase the number of advisors without
significantly affecting the Colleges budget. This year, advisors commit to the
program for two to three non-sequential
years, receive the standard stipend the
first year, half of the stipend the second
year and no payment thereafter.
First years in the program attend group
meetings and respond to weekly journal
prompts. They are also required to meet
with their pre-major advisors, who have
been trained to be BASE advisors, at least
once every two weeks.
While many pre-major advisors meet
with students to discuss a variety of topics, such as courses, studying strategies
and career planning, Dickey said that
BASE advisors also focus on helping students adjust to life at Bowdoin.
Going into college, I was afraid of
coming in and being like, Now what?
How do I orient myself? What do I do?
said Saidou Camara 19, who enrolled in
the program last year. This was a great
way for me to come in and know that
there are people who understand what my
struggles might be coming to college and
going through it with them step by step.
John Sledge 18 participated in the
BASE program during his first year, and
now works as one of two student liaisons.
He plans events, like dinners and study
sessions, for its students in the program.
The liaisons also spread news about upcoming events to BASE students and help
schedule workshops.
I really benefitted from the program

shaped how I perform as a student and

how I now approach my relationships
with folks who are older than me.
According to Dickey, tenure-track professors and long-term lecturers train to
become pre-major advisors in the spring
of their first year at the College. Any faculty member who has been a pre-major
advisor for two years is eligible to become
a BASE advisor. Faculty planning to mentor a BASE student undergo a two-day
training workshop in the summer in order to prepare for the new role.
We talk about the differences in ways
first-generation students navigate college
and the challenges that they face, and we
talk about the challenges low-income students face across the country, especially
students of color, Dickey said. We also
talk about this very intentional form of
advising. Instead of having a hands-off
approach, you really push your advisees
to let you know how theyre doing.
With the increase in advisors and students this year, the program has added a
second student liaison. Diamond Walker
17 and Sledge work together to help firstyear students.
BASE my first year was a very strong
advisory and mentorship program, but
there was not really a lot of interaction
between the students themselves, Sledge
said. We were not a cohort, and that is
something that both me and [Walker]
have brought up. We want to make BASE
a program thats more than just advising.
Its also building a community of folks
that you know, that you can get along
with, that you can meet with regularly.

news

the bowdoin orient

friday, october 28, 2016

Senator Collins speaks on bipartisanship, election

BY JULIAN ANDREWS
ORIENT STAFF

Susan Collins, the senior United

States senator from Maine, spoke
about her values of bipartisanship and cooperation as well as her
thoughts on the presidential election,
issues facing Mainers and Americans
and her own experiences as a public
servant in front of a packed Pickard
theater on Tuesday evening.
President Clayton Rose moderated the event, which took the
form of a town hall discussion.
Rose asked several questions at the
beginning before yielding to audience members.
Reactions to the Collins event
were largely positive, with several
students using the word refreshing, to describe the night. Collins
emphasis on bipartisanship, working
together and listening to opposing
viewpoints resonated with those in
attendance.
I thought it was really refreshing
to hear a [United States senator] reaffirm the importance of bipartisanship and camaraderie among policymakers, said Mohamed Nur 19. I
feel like the current rhetoric in this
presidential election and just the political climate as of right now where
its tended to lead towards more divisive and divided partisanship, but
with her she was able to articulate
the importance of bipartisanship.
[Being a moderate] means to me
that I take more of a pragmatic approach to issues rather than a deeply
ideological one, said Collins. Now
I am proud to be a Republican and
I embrace traditional Republican
values such as individual freedom,
personal responsibility, strong national defense, smaller government,
opportunity, free markets, those
kinds of Republican values I believe
strongly in, but I also recognize that
neither side has the answer to a lot of
the questions, so by listening to both
sides and bringing people together I

hope that I can forge a path forward.

Collins, a Republican, stated in
August that she is not supporting Republican nominee Donald Trump in
the upcoming presidential election.
At her talk, she cited his mocking of
a disabled reporter, his questioning
of the ability of an American judge of
Mexican ancestry in a case involving
Trump University and his criticism of
Muslim Gold Star parents that spoke at
the Democratic National Convention
as reasons for her choice.

the current political climate.

Theres actually a survey that says
Congress has a lower approval rating
than either cockroaches or colonoscopies, she said. I must say that Ive
always found that rather discouraging.
Collins stressed in an interview with
the Orient that despite many peoples
frustrations with politics, it is important to remain politically active.
I will say that you get the government you deserve, she said. If
youre staying on the sidelines and

I also recognize that neither side has the answer

to a lot of the questions, so by listening to both
sides and bringing people together I hope that I
can forge a path forward.
SENATOR SUSAN COLLINS
What all of these had in common
in my view was that Donald Trump
was attacking people who lacked
either the platform to respond, in
most cases, or because of their professional responsibilities, in the case
of the reporter, could not respond to
his outrageous attacks, said Collins.
While Collins does not support
Trump, she said that she also does not
support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and is opting instead to
write in a candidate that she did not
name. She said that Clintons carelessness and denial of responsibility
in handling classified information
on her personal email, as well as the
perceived role of the Clinton Foundation in Clintons politics while she
was Secretary of State make Clinton
a flawed candidate who did not earn
her vote.
On Tuesday, Collins drew applause for her statements on climate
change, which she believes is real
and human-caused, a view that is
not shared by many of her Republican colleagues. She also shared several well-received anecdotes with
the audience, and spoke on the disillusionment of American youth with

youre not willing to get involved or

you dont vote and then you dont
like who gets elected or the policies
that result, then in some ways youre
responsible for it.
Despite some disagreements with
her fellow Republicans, Collins said
that she stands by Republican values
and has never considered leaving the
party. Barring dramatic changes to
the party, she said she plans on remaining a Republican.
However, while the general sentiment was that the Collins event
was successful, several students
raised specific concerns with Collins statements.
I thought [the event] was very
good. You know obviously Im a
little upset that she isnt standing
behind her partys nominee, where
you know, it does seem that she
does support a lot of his principles,
said Jordan Moskowitz 16. I dont
think she supports the Muslim ban
but better trade deals that help a lot
of Americans, border securityI
think those are principles that she
supports. The rhetoric that he uses
is really the tipping point for her.
But everyone is entitled to support

or endorse whoever they want so

theres nothing there you can do
about it.
Isabella McCann 19 said that in
her discussion on climate change,
Collins focused too much on individual responsibility.
I was glad to see that someone
asked her about climate change because for a Republican she actually
has a pretty good record, but her
comments about the way we should
approach climate change as individual citizenslike we should walk
moreI thought were a little out of
touch with what the country needs
and what Maine needs to see from
our leadership, said McCann.
One major bone to pick I had with
her was how she discussed the publics
perception of Congress, said Kinaya
Hassane 19. She kind of tried to assert that Congress isnt as corrupt as
people are saying, and that this wave
of people who are trying to call a lot
of institutions out for their corruption
... shes trying to assert that these ideas
are wrong, and I thought that was kind
of just misleading and not necessarily
true. I think theres a lot of evidence
that a lot of people in Congresstheir
votes are bought.
Rose, who has made it one of
his goals to bring more diverse
speakers to campus, considered
the event a success and said that he
thought students asked great questions and that Collins made some
excellent points.
I think it was great to have Senator Collins points of view on campus, he said. Its one of many sets
of points of view that we want to
have on campus, and thats the whole
ideato get a diverse set of views
here, some of which we agree with,
some of which we disagree with
and we challenge ourselves and we
learnand we get better.
James Jelin, Louis Mendez and
Emily Weyrauch contributed to
this report.

BWICS attends computer science conference, hopes for consistent funding

BY JESSICA PIPER AND SALIM SALIM
ORIENT STAFF

Last week, 14 members of Bowdoin

Women in Computer Science (BWICS)
attended the Grace Hopper Celebration
of Women in Computing in Houston,
Texasan annual conference exclusively
for female computer scientists. The trip,

largely sponsored by alumni donations, is

a key element of BWICS strategy to show
Bowdoin women that they, too, belong in
computer science.
Before this conference I wasnt planning on applying to any internships
within the computer science field this
summer, said Sam Valdivia 19, a firsttime conference attendee. Now because

COURTESY OF BOWDOIN WOMEN IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

FUTURE GRACE HOPPERS: Members of Bowdoin Women in Computer Science

pose at the Grace Hopper Conference in Houston last week.

of going to this conference, I feel that I can

actually do it.
The conference also doubled as a career
fair. Students submitted their resumes beforehand and interviewed with companies
on site. Three Bowdoin attendees were offered full-time jobs at the fair, while two
others received summer internship offers.
The conference featured notable female
computer scientists from major companies such as Google, Twitter, Amazon and
IBM. Students expressed their awe after
being in the presence of so many accomplished women.
I had no idea that there were going to
be 15,000 women and over 300 companies all in this one building in Houston,
said Maddie Bustamante 17, co-founder
of BWICS. It was very overwhelming,
but also so empowering to be in this space
with all these really intelligent women.
Of 76 current juniors and seniors who
have already declared to be Computer
Science majors at Bowdoin, just 26 students34 percentare women. Bustamante co-founded BWICS during her
sophomore year to support her female
peers in computer science.
[BWICS is] trying to pave a path for
future students, she said. Its going to be
a much easier process.
Associate Professor of Computer Science Laura Toma recalled coming to
Bowdoin to interview in 2003. When she
delivered a computer science lecture, all
the attendees were male.
Toma first attended the Grace Hopper
conference with two Bowdoin students

in 2009. She believes the conference helps

encourage women to stay in computer
science.
A lot of peer institutions have been
sending their students there for many
years. And theres research that shows
[attending] helps enormously with retention, Toma said.
Due to shortages of interest and funding, no Bowdoin women attended the
conference again until last year, when 10
students went. This year, Toma accompanied 14 students. She hopes that Bowdoin
students can continue to attend in the future.
We are not sure what is going to happen next year. We hope we can keep it going because everyone said it was an amazing experience, Toma said.
However, the Student Activities Funding Committee only provides enough
funding for club leaders to attend conferences like Grace Hopper, according to Director of Student Activities Nate Hintze.
This year, BWICS group members attended with the help of alumni donations and
scholarships that they had received from
the conference itself.
Bustamante expressed her hope that
Career Planning or the computer science
department could help future funding, so
the group doesnt have to rely on alumni.
Toma echoed this sentiment.
Success of women depends a lot on
community-building, on social [connections] and this conference manages to do
all of this, Toma said. My dream is that
we can do this every year.

BCA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

across five class years. This time its
only for students who are enrolled
this semester, said Watt.
This new petition gives BCA a
chance to gauge on-campus student
support for divestment.
I think the referendum is a way
for us to re-engage and re-educate
and then get a very clear sense of
where the student body stands and
so that way we can have a greater
sense of how we can leverage that
support and who we need to be
reaching out to and what education
we need to be doing going forward,
Watt said.
BCA has been planning the petition for a referendum since the end
of the summer. Watt cited this years
negative returns on Bowdoins endowmentmentioned by President
Rose in a recent email to the collegeand Senior Vice President for
Investments Paula Volents attribution of these negative returns to falling oil prices as affirmations of the
petitions timeliness.

I dont really expect

an answer from the
Board because weve
never gotten an
answer from them.
Weve met with them,
weve presented
to them, weve
delivered petitions
to them, weve held a
sit-in and weve never
gotten an answer.
JONAH WATT 18
Watt indicated that in addition to
divestment symbolizing the moral
urgency of confronting climate
change, BCA also feels that divestment is a financially responsible
course of action, citing the plummeting value of oil.
BCA hopes that submitting the
petition for a referendum through
BSG will bring awareness of divestment to current first years and sophomores, who may not be as exposed
to the issue as upperclassmen.
According to Watt, BCA hopes
that both the petition and referendum will draw the consideration of
the Board of Trustees, which has
historically been dismissive of the
possibility of divestment.
I dont really expect an answer
from the Board because weve never
gotten an answer from them. Weve
met with them, weve presented to
them, weve delivered petitions to
them, weve held a sit-in and weve
never gotten an answer, said Watt.
I think that the referendum
could be a way to finally elicit a response from the Board, and hopefully a response that listens to the
student body.
Watt also hopes that the Board
to Trustees will be more transparent about how Bowdoin invests its
endowment. As of 2013, 1.4 percent
of the Colleges endowment was invested in fossil fuels. Watt believes
that the number is likely lower now.
Part of what weve been demanding for four years is greater transparency, greater conversation both with
our Board of Trustees and with our
fund managers, said Watt.
There is no clear timeline for the
petition itself at this point, as it can
be left open until 20 percent of the
student body signs it and BCA can
wait to submit it for referendum indefinitely.

friday, october 28, 2016

the bowdoin orient

BSG seeks to expand campus dialogue

on race, cultural appropriation
BY FARIA NASRUDDIN
ORIENT STAFF

Bowdoin Student Government

(BSG) spent much of its Wednesday
meeting in a closed executive session
to discuss cultural appropriation and
bias on campus. Members talked
about the importance of continuing
to address these issues, even in the
absence of controversy, and contemplated how to better include faculty
in the conversation, such as through
expanding programs like the Bowdoin Intergroup Dialogue & Facilitation Training.
We have a lot of first years on BSG
this year, BSG President Harriet Fisher 17 said. We just wanted to create a
space where it is safe and comfortable

We just wanted to create a space where it is safe

and comfortable for people to ask questions and
speak openly and candidly. HARRIET FISHER 17
for people to ask questions and speak
openly and candidly.
With Halloween and No Hate November both approaching, BSG felt
it was important to address bias and
cultural appropriation, as first year students do not have the context of events
such as the tequila, gangster and
Cracksgiving parties that occurred
during the last two academic years. At
each of these parties, some Bowdoin
students dressed in costumes that stereotyped elements of Latinx, Black and
Native American cultures.

BSG discussed how to preemptively address issues of race on campus, specifically

through Intergroup Dialogue, a program
that pairs one white student with one student of color for a seven-week discussion
program facilitated by a staff member.
Currently, not all students who want to
participate are able to due to a shortage of
staff. Fisher said BSG plans to call on the
College to train more faculty members.
She is happy with BSGs progress from
the meeting.
I think the discussion went really
well, Fisher said.

news

MURALS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

panels are replete with harmless allusions to ancient mythology, classical

art and 60s pop culture. Moreover, the
paintings are part of the Colleges history and have hung in Quinby basement
for almost 50 years.
Its astounding to me that these things
survive 50 years in the residence of a fraternity house and then, suddenly, they
became threatening to someone majoring in gender studies, he said. It sounded like no one else had complained.
De Bruijn, however, contests the notion that context can explain away the
problematic portions of the painting.
Regardless of the source material they
are drawing from, pairing images of indisputable sexual violence in the Virgin
forests with images of polar bears wearing sunglasses trivializes the very real
epidemic of sexual violence on college
campuses and in this country, she wrote.
While he was on campus, Lyon met
with current Quinby House President
Lucian Black 19 and suggested two

ideas for getting the panels back into

the House: as part of a larger art exhibit
in the basement that would include
other student art or as part of the chapter room.
Black, however, saw the murals as
recognizably offensive.
It goes beyond my own personal
feelings about the murals and the
paintings themselves, he said. As a
public space on campus, [Quinby]
needs to be a place where all feel welcome, and if some people feel unwelcome by the presence of those murals
that has to be respected.
As for the future, both de Bruijn and
Lyon expressed interest in preserving
the paintings as a part of Bowdoins historical past.
I hope that in the future the paintings can be used in programming about
the history of coeducation at Bowdoin,
de Bruijn wrote.
Likewise, Lyon wants to ensure that
the paintings are preserved digitally. He
has spoken with the Bowdoin Art Museum Assistant to the Registrar Michelle
Henning about displaying the works.

Four symposiums during fall semester showcase faculty research

BY LOUISA MOORE
ORIENT STAFF

This fall has seen an increase in the

number of academic research symposiums hosted at Bowdoin. While past
years have featured one or two symposiums, this semester alone there have
been three, with a fourth scheduled
for next week.
The recent increase in symposiums,
which are sponsored in part by the
Office of the Dean for Academic Affairs, happened by chance. Some
were scheduled for this fall, while
others had been postponed from
last semester.
We just happen to have a very rich
year this year with four symposia in
one semester, said Interim Dean for
Academic Affairs Jennifer Scanlon.
Its really really wonderful, but its not
any great increase.
Scanlon said that the abnormal
number this fall would not affect funding for future research symposiums.

This years symposiums have been

Strange Career of Jim Crow North and
West, Across the Divide: Intermediality and American Art, and Religion
Before Religion.
The upcoming Rendering Haitians
of Dominican Descent Stateless, aims
to educate the Bowdoin community
about the citizenship crisis of Haitian
descendants living in the Dominican Republic through a broad scope
of lectures from historians, anthropologists and poets. Pulitzer Prize-

enlighten the Bowdoin community

on the citizenship crisis regarding the
Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The nations, which share the island
of Hispaniola, have historically had
tense relationship. In 2013, a Dominican court ruling rescinded the citizenship of roughly 200,000 Dominican
residents of Haitian descendant. Dominican residents who lack formal
papers or who appear to be of Haitian descent based on skin color have
faced deportations.

I was pummeled with questions [after my

lecture], which is great for students to see, for us
to engage, for us to answer difficult questions.
TODD BERZON, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF RELIGION
winning writer Junot Diaz will give
the Kenneth V. Santagata Memorial
lecture on November 3 to kick off the
two-day event.
The symposium organizers hope
that the broad scope of lectures will

Were hoping that the theme of the

conference will link to a number of
courses around campus, said Roger
Howell, Jr. Professor of History Allen
Wells, one of the symposiums organizers. Chiefly, its about educating

people that theres a real problem.

More broadly, symposiums generally serve as small conferences for
Bowdoin professors to present their research alongside colleagues from other
academic institutions and their lectures
typically pertain to a specific theme.
This is a much smaller and more
intimate setting [than a national conference]. [Professors] can dive more
deeply into a smaller topic of interest,
and then they get to select a number
of people who will come and talk
about their work, said Scanlon.
Assistant Professor of Religion
Todd Berzon, who helped organize
the October 14 symposium Religion
Before Religion, said that while some
students attend the lectures, he believes that events like these are geared
more toward faculty than students.
They are not overtly directed at
the student body... Students are free
to go and participate, but its usually
a more technical sort of conversation,
Berzon said.

PHYSICS

MOVEZ

the department had only recently

begun discussions with the Office
of Financial Aid about this prospect.
Syphers noted that endowed
chairs typically receive benefits
above those of a typical professor.
Generally there are some little
extra things, he said. You might get
a little research fund or something
associate with it.
LaCasce had partially endowed
the chair in 2002, but included
enough funding in his will to fully
endow it.
In an email to the Orient, Director
of News and Media Relations Doug
Cook declined to provide the exact
amount of LaCasces donation out of
respect [for LaCasces] wish not to
draw attention to himself or his support of Bowdoin.
Because the endowed chair opens
up funds that were previously in use, the
College is now looking to create a new
tenure-track faculty position. All departments are eligible to apply to be granted
this new position through a standardized
application process in the context of the
colleges needs.
Syphers believes the physics department has a good chance at the
position, although the College has
not made any decisions.

Phillips thinks the app would be best

used at Bowdoin to help students navigate
off-campus parties.
A lot of times you [want another party]
after a [College House] party is done or
maybe youre just not having a good time
or its not popping at all, Phillips said.
Hollis said he first came up with the idea
for Movez from an unsatisfactory night out
with friends in Boston last year.
We were invited to [a party] and even
though we were invited we couldnt get in
because essentially what happened is there
was an occupancy limit, he said. [Movez]
just stemmed from a vision of a platform
that could help students know what was an
occupancy limit at a given event on their
college campus, he said.
App users create profiles and can follow their friends to find parties.
However, Movez is designed so that
events appear on a map visible to all Movez
users in the area, which may allow uninvited guests to appear at a party.
Maddie Bustamante 17, who lives off
campus, does not think the app is a good
idea for off-campus houses.
I wouldnt want to publicize a party at
my house, she said. I think it would work
better for on campus houses, for College
House parties and stuff.
She added that the app could be a problem
for the Office of Safety and Security if people

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

PHOTO COURTESY OF MOVEZ.CO

Nonetheless, Berzon said that symposiums can be a good experience

for students. His Judaism in the Age
of Empires class attended a lecture
during the religion symposium and
students learned not only about topics in religion, but also about formal
academic scholarship.
I was pummeled with questions
[after my lecture], which is great for
students to see, for us to engage, for
us to answer difficult questions, for us
to say things like I dont know, thats a
really good question, I hadnt thought
about that, said Berzon.
Symposiums have generally been
well-received by the Bowdoin community, and the College will continue
to host them in the futurealthough
probably not four in one semester.
These symposia are one measure
of the deep intellectual engagement of
our faculty. Its something that we do
particularly well, said Scanlon. Its
just one of the many nice components
of work for our faculty.

were to start listing events on the app without

formally registering them with the Office of
Residential Life.
Phillips pointed to party registration as
the apps primary way to promote safety, as
hosts can look at the profiles of registered
guests and see who exactly they are.
Say you see someone who you dont remember inviting or dont remember showing up on the list, you can be, like, hey, did
you sign up? I dont remember inviting you
or seeing that you were registered on my
app, Phillips said.
He added that users could indicate
if a party is sketchy in a partys comment section.
Although the app will initially be limited to
college students, the Movez creators eventually hope to expand the user base to include
all youth 18 to 26, according to Phillips.
Movez also advertises a feature called
gender ratio, which lists the gender makeup of a given party based on the registered
guests, which might give partygoers a better idea of the partys vibe.
Miro-Chinea said the group hopes to
cultivate particularly large Movez networks
in major cities with colleges, such as Boston, New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles.
They also hope to co-sponsor events with
companies, organizations and clubs. Movez
also wants to integrate other services, such
as Uber and Venmo, into the app.
Following last weekends beta test as
Bowdoin, the apps creators will hold another test this weekend in Boston.

the bowdoin orient

FEATURES

friday, october 28, 2016

BOC student leaders find their own adventures

BY LUCIA RYAN

ORIENT STAFF

Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC)

members are taking their passion
for the outdoors outside of the BOC
to explore Maine and beyond and to
develop their leadership skills.
Jennings Leavell 17 is currently
taking time off from Bowdoin to
work as a full-time staff member
with Kieve-Wavus Education, a
camp in Nobleboro, Maine that runs
experiential learning programs that
aim to bring students outside of the
classroom through summer and
school year programs,
I needed a break, a time to step
back from Bowdoin, from the culture and the community to learn
more about myselfto think, generally, to breathe, do something else,
said Leavell, who first took a semester off in the second half of his first
year and decided to do it again as
a senior.
A BOC leader and Wisconsinnative, Leavell has always had an
avid appreciation of the outdoors.
His raft guide training through the
BOC launched him into a summer
of leading raft trips commercially
for New England Outdoor Center,
which eventually connected him to
the job with Kieve-Wavus.
I had visions initially of getting
out of Maine, said Leavell. I realized that Maine is not just Bowdoin.
Bowdoin can become very central
in a Bowdoin-ites conception of
Maine. I just saw a lot of people who
also loved Maine for reasons that are
totally unrelated to Bowdoin. Then
this opportunity to come to Kieve
was presented to me.

PHOTO COURTESY OF UMA BLANCHARD

SUPERIOR WOMEN: This past summer, Uma Blanchard 17 (pictured) and her friend Sophie Goeks circumnavigated Lake Superior with sea kayaks in 86 days. They are believed to be the youngest all-female
team to have ever done so.
censesBlanchard for sea kayakingthrough their respective guide
companies. All three participated in
BOC Leadership Training and are
now trip leaders.
Blanchard, who has been sea kayaking for seven years and was a commercial
guide for one summer, trained through
the Midwest-based wilderness leadership
program Camp Manitowish.

I really love leading and not [professionally]

guiding. With guiding you really have to deal
with clients who just want the perfect outdoor
experience, and you can never give that to
them. Its also a very sexist industry, so I had a
terrible experience guiding in terms of sexism.

UMA BLANCHARD 17
At Kieve-Wavus, Leavell would
find different places outside to play
games that teach the kids how to
communicate. [The activities] push
their buttons and make it hard, and
then we step back and debrief it,
said Leavell, who is interested in
pursuing a career in education.
Leavell is not the first BOC leader
to further his or her outdoor learning after training with the BOC.
Bowdoin currently has two other
students who have worked as commercial raft guides and one as a
commercial sea kayak guide.
Niklas Bergill 18, Jack Mitchell 17 and Uma Blanchard 17 all
trained to be raft guides with the
Outing Club, later getting their li-

I really love leading and not

[professionally] guiding. With guiding you really have to deal with clients who just want the perfect outdoor experience, and you can never
give that to them, said Blanchard.
Its also a very sexist industry, so I
had a terrible experience guiding in
terms of sexism.
Citing the experience as her first
real confrontation with sexism,
Blanchard pointed to the raft guide
outfitters as culprits of sexual harassment as well as other forms of sexism.
If youre leading a session with
a male guide, everyone is going to
automatically look to the male guide
as the source of authority, even if
you may have more certification,

more years of experience, et cetera,

said Blanchard.
Bergill, after practicing rafting in
the Kennebec River with the BOC
his sophomore year, decided to
guide professionally at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Bryson City,
NC this past summer.
Mitchell sought out a guiding position with Northeast Whitewater, a
Maine-based company, after meeting one of its guides through the
BOCs Wilderness First Responder
(WFR) training run out of the BOC
over winter break.
I had fallen in love with white
water my freshman year through
kayaking and learning how to
kayak with the Outing Club. Then
sophomore year I was thinking
about trying to find a job where I
could be outside all summer and
live out of a tent. So I was thinking about working as a raft guide,
said Mitchell.
After enduring a rigorous ten-day
training this May to lead raft trips,
moose tours and swift water rescue
courses, Mitchell guided with the
company throughout the summer
down the Kennebec River and West
Branch of the Penobscot.
The customers are great and
these rivers are so beautiful and so
wild, especially the West Branch of
the Penobscottit is a full, incredible Maine experience. You have Katahdin in the background and well
see a moose and everyday well see
three bald eagles and its just gorgeous, said Mitchell.

Through music, students work

to increase inclusivity at parties
BY JAMES JELIN
ORIENT STAFF

As the College works to expand

racial and ethnic diversity, recent
efforts by the Latin American Student
Organization (LASO) and the African
American Society (AfAm) have drawn
attention to one commonly overlooked
aspect of racial inclusivity on campus
the selection of music in the College
House party scene.
LASO First Year Representative
Ray Tarango 20 emphasized the way
that music contributes to the segregation of the party scene.
I know that a lot of people dont
go to parties...because they feel like

the music that theyre

used to isnt whats being played,
he said. I think it plays a huge role.
Two weeks ago, LASO teamed up
with Baxter House to throw a party featuring a mix of English- and
Spanish-language music like bachata and reggaeton, a rare presence at
College Houses.
Baxter and LASO members observed that their collaboration
attracted far more students of
color, particularly Latin American students, than most College
House parties.
Socially were pretty segregated

Please see MUSIC, page 8

Self-aware self-care: rethinking

artificiality to save the planet
BY EMMA MOESSWILDE
COLUMNIST

Our bodies take a lot of stress

lack of sleep, lack of water, excess
caffeine, countless hours curled up
in front of a laptop. Before I came to
Bowdoin, I had never even heard the
term self-care. Now, its one of my
favorite phrases. As weve probably
all heard, its important for us to take
care of our bodies. That means different things to different people, and
to me it means spending my Saturday
evening melting shea butter and coconut oil together and then mixing
them aggressively with a fork.
Several years ago, I made the
somewhat random decision to completely overhaul my entire collection
of cosmetics and personal care products and replace them with things
that I would feel comfortable eating

as well as putting on my skin. Somewhere, I had read about the skin being the bodys largest organ, and after
several hours spent Googling wash
face with sugar, I was convinced
that every makeup product I could
buy, I could also make for myself
for much less money and with fewer
negative consequences for myself or
the planet.
Fast forward to me unpacking a
large bottle of apple cider vinegar
and a small jar of baking soda next
to my first year roommates moisturizers and perfumes and awkwardly
explaining to visitors why our room
smelled like salad to visitors. I hadnt
bought moisturizer in a year and I
was mixing my own dry shampoo
in a spice shaker; making my own
personal care products had become

Please see SELF-CARE, page 8

friday, october 28, 2016

the bowdoin orient

features

Evaluating the
underrepresentation
of autism in the media
BEN YORK
AN AUTISTICS GUIDE
TO AUTISM
When I was young, I didnt know
a lot of people like me. This is not
to say that I knew no one who I had
anything in common with, but that
I knew very few people who thought
and acted in the same way I did.
There were some children among
my peers I could relate to, like the
kid I met at my local library who
paced when he was excited in the
same way I did. We once had a very
engaging conversation while circumambulating around his kitchen
table, always opposite one another,
as our mothers watched in bemusement. Or the child I met at swim
lessons who liked getting his face
wet just as much as I did (which is
to say, not at all).
These moments of connection,
while nice, were few and far between. When faced with this lack of
connection, I turned to mediaTV
shows, movies and booksto try to
find characters I could relate to
characters who were like me. I did
find some, like Data and Mr. Spock

from Star Trek (two of my childhood heroes), but they were the exceptions rather than the rule when
it came to characters to whom I felt
I could relate. As a result, I often
felt that I needed to be more like the
characters I did see so much more
often. That their behaviors and ways
of being had to become my own
that in a way there was something
wrong with the way I was. If there
wasnt, why didnt I know or see
more people like me?
As Ive grown, Ive discovered two
reasons for this seeming scarcity of
relatable figures in my life. Both
stem from issues of representation
in our society.
The first reason stems from how
society views autism. For those of
you who may not know, I am autistic. While as an adult I am very
proud of that identity, as a child I
was not. I was taught, through the
actions and reactions of others, that
autism was not something to be
talked about in public places. That
it was something to be kept secret,
hidden, only revealed to those who
needed to know. As I grew, I realized that others had received the
same message that I had. Those who

PHOEBE ZIPPER
were most like mewho shared the
same autistic experience that I had
and still dodidnt feel they could
talk about it. Many autistic people
have been left feeling isolated because of this taboo surrounding autism, a true struggle for those of us
with less than stellar social skills to
begin with.
The second reason involves the

media. Issues of representation have

come to stark attention in recent
years, and the autistic are among
the large number of groups who
are often underrepresented. Only
very recently have I found shows
or movies with characters who are
openly, explicitly autistic. However,
those who are often the subjects of
some medical drama, the plot re-

volving around trying to treat some

perceived wrong that apparently
plagues the child. While there has
been slight improvement in media representation since my childhood, I hope to live to see autistic
people, along with so many underrepresented groups, come to flourish in a world in which they are
well represented.

YOUnity incorporates local flavors in Maines House Wine

BOTTOM OF
THE BARREL
WILL SCHWELLER AND JUSTIN RAMOS
Have you ever noticed that Bowdoin College is in Maine?
The valleys of Bordeaux. The dusty
shores of Portugal. Napa. Great wine
often conjures up Mediterranean
climates, small plated meals, big
price tags. Cheap wine often aspires
to Mediterranean climates and small
plated meals through fancy looking
labels and overly complex names.
Buyers may grab a bottle thinking
they will escape to a small village
in the foothills of Vesuvius only to
find themselves still very much in
the foothills of suburban New Jersey.
Well, folks, guess what? We may
have found a reasonably priced
bottle that aspires not for the Old
World, but for our dear old Pine
Tree State.
Our selection this week, YOUnity
Winerys House Wine, is unabashedly Maine in its branding. In fact,
there are nine references to the
state of Maine on the label alone.
The bottles description speaks of
wicked-good pasta and wickedgood times with family and friends.

BROOKE GODDARD

YOUnitys branding is unpretentious, fun and whimsical. Not to get

ahead of ourselves, but the wine is
awesome. The bottle is even more
awesome. No irony heremerely
appreciation for a charming, New
England graphic.
Upon uncorking, the wine pours
pinkish-red. Think back to the
mushed blueberries on your face
during the summer of your fifth
year. That color. The nose is distinctly sweet. The legs longer than a
NASCAR race.
The initial taste was semi-dry and
distinctly sweet. Our mouths were
initially confused; blueberry wine
serves as a distinct tasting experience from more traditional grapes.
You often hear of berry notes in
wine, but this is a berry symphony.
Owner Clem Blakney emphasizes,
This IS NOT a blend with grape
but 100% Blueberry from our supplier in Stockton Springs. Blueberries are really truly the prime fruit.
Its impossible to name something
that isnt improved by the addition
of blueberries. Pancakes, salsa, motor oil.
This is an adult complex wine for
non-wine drinkers and wine drinkers alike. It is complex without being
biting. Its sweet without being Pixie

Stix. Its certainly a more delightful conversation than any talk anyone has ever had with our mutual
friend Allen. This wine makes you
feel good, and we sincerely think it
is more than just the hefty 13.5 percent ABV.

ADDITIONAL NOTES
Tonights Soundtrack: John
Cougar Mellencamps Greatest
Hits
Justin: I feel like this wine is
giving me a hug
Will: While drinking this wine,
I really wish I were back home,
scouring my old mans closet for
some ratty Brooks Bros. polos.
Nose:
Legs:
Mouthfeel:
Taste:
Overall:

features

the bowdoin orient

friday, october 28, 2016

Big Brothers Big Sisters

creates lasting friendships
BY HARRY JUNG
ORIENT STAFF

For over 12 years, Big Brothers Big

Sisters of Bath/Brunswick and the McKeen Center for the Common Good have
partnered to run Bears and Cubs, a
one-on-one peer mentor program for
local children that works to create lasting friendships through Bowdoin activities such as swimming at the LeRoy
Greason Pool and trick-or-treating at
the college houses.
Twenty-five kids from ages six to 15
are partnered with Bowdoin students,
known as cubs and bears, respectively.
Our job is just to be a friend. You
bring good attitude ... you are not a babysitter, you are just there to listen and be
a guiding figure, said Jack Weiss 17.
The program, led by Weiss and Julie
Randolph 17, meets every other Sunday for two hours. The McKeen Center
also runs other school and non-school
based mentoring programs such as Falcon Friends and Bear Buddies.
The goal of this program is to build
a relationship with the child and get
involved in the community and give
back, said Randolph. Its important
for the kids to have a bigger mentor to
look upward to.
Lindsey Reed, the program manager, said that Big Brothers Big Sisters
has had a strong partnership with the
McKeen Center.
This program was originally created to provide children who were on
waitlist for the community programs to
get involved with our agency and have

an experience of having a positive role

model, she said.
Recently, the program had to turn away
kids because there were not enough volunteer mentors. In response, the group is
recruiting volunteers by introducing activities that appeal to both college students
and the younger mentees.
We are trying to come up with new
games to make the local kids have more
fun but also to make students more excited to sign up, Weiss said.
This year, the group plans to participate in new events such as bowling and
an ice cream party.
Because the program takes place on
campus, students make use of spaces like
Smith Union and the College Houses.
We are so grateful for our connection with the college, Reed said. I
think its a good experience for our littles to come on campus and get exposed
to the culture and the experience of the
students thereits very unique.
The experience means as much to
the mentors as it does to the mentees
according to Weiss. Some students
have been paired with the same mentee for four years and have developed
true friendships.
I think lot of bears will say that this
program makes you remember what it
was like to just run around in a gym in
a game that has no rules, Weiss said.
We have a ball; [the kids run] around
and somehow it morphs into a game
and you realize you are having as much
fun because this is what you did as a
kid. Its really a stress relief for me as it
is to them.

HARRY JUNG, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

BROTHER BEAR Bowdoin students participate in a mentoring program called bears and cubs with local children. They meet weekly
and participate in fun activities for all ages such as trips to the pool and trick-or-treating at the college houses during Halloween.

MUSIC

SELF-CARE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
a
hard-toexplain
fun
fact that Id
brought with
me to college.
Self-care
looks different
to everyone, but
for many peopleincluding
myselfit means
taking a little time
to look after our bodies to keep them in good
working (and smelling)
order. And, like anything, this
isnt as straightforward as it looks. A
look into a typical Bowdoin students
personal care routine (even negligible ones) reveals deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, body wash, shaving
cream and any number of moisturizers, perfumes and types of makeup.
These products are all necessary for
us to take care of ourselves, but their
impacts arent just skin deep.
A closer look at your favorite shampoo, toothpaste or deodorant likely reveals that its wrapped in plastic, some
part of which may end up in a landfill
instead of being recycled. Another
look may show a list of very long compound words you might not even have
seen in Orgo I, some of which may
be linked to human health problems
such as nerve damage. Many of these
products do not have guarantees of
ethical production, meaning that they
may damage the health of producers,
factory workers and the environment.
Taking care of ourselves just got a lot
more complicated.
There are a lot of ways in which
academic and social commitments
take precedent over my own health at
Bowdoin: eating cereal for dinner or

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

PHOEBE ZIPPER
skipping a day (okay, a month) at the
gym are two examples. But in my effort to keep myself healthy, Ive found
that Netflix breaks arent the only way
in which I can make time to take care
of myself. Focusing on what I put
on my body is a way to be conscious
about taking care of it, and to understand more about the environmental
and social impacts of the contents of
my shower caddy. This means that I
mix my own deodorant out of potato
starch, baking soda, coconut oil and
shea butter. It also means that I spent
a lot of time smelling very bad while
I perfected this recipe and that instead
of swinging by Hannaford or hitting up
Amazon when I need more of something, I have to head into the kitchen.
This isnt for everyoneas we know,
there are an infinite number of ways
to practice self-care and be conscious
about the impacts of our actions on
the planet and ourselves. Making your
own deodorant may seem like a drastic
step to take in the face of some plastic
shampoo bottles and studies on endocrine disruption, but it doesnt have to
be dramatic, and it can be fun: I think

of these habits as an extension of

both my academic interests and my personal values.
If youre feeling inspired, here are
a few tips: The next time you need to
stock up on personal care products,
read some labels. Look for whole ingredients that are easy to pronounce
and dont have 15 syllables. Try to
buy something packaged in recycled
and recyclable materialspaper is
bestor without any packaging at
all. Shampoo in bar form is just as effective as liquid shampoo, is wrapped
in paper and is made of ingredients
you can trust. (The first ingredient
in my shampoo bar, for instance, is
beer.) Find things like this at Hannaford, Morning Glory or online. If
youd prefer the DIY route, try washing your face with baking soda instead of store-bought face wash, or
get creative and make a scrub out of
sugar and coconut or olive oil. Our
bodies can all use more love; a little
extra time and energy can make selfcare a way to be conscious of the impact our choices have on the planet
and on our own bodies.

on campus, said AfAm board member Rebkah Tesfamariam 18.

Baxter House member Julia Amstutz 19 agreed. Your typical Baxter
partygoer doesnt also go to LASO or
doesnt also go to AfAm.
Last year, AfAm and Ladd House
threw two parties together: a sports
jersey themed party and a concert
and party featuring Tut, a rapper
from Tennessee. Both heavily featured hip-hop and rap and were
highly attended by students of color.
These parties are held out of a desire to move beyond panels and talks
that address race on campus. They are
among the first attempts to change the
College House parties that the College
works to make central to Bowdoin
first-years weekend nights.
Tesfamariam discussed the importance of creating a more integrated social scene.
If youre not used to being
around people of color or people of
different backgrounds than you in
social spaces, she said, youre more
likely to not understand issues like
cultural appropriation.
Tesfamariam placed less emphasis
on the importance of music. Still,
she said that it was a factor.
I stopped going to college house
parties because I thought there was
nothing there for me, and I can hear
the music that I actually listen to at
AfAm parties, she said.
Amstutz said that College House
parties play a bigger role than people realize in first years lives.
A lot of that socialization and
bonding with your floor or meeting
people happens at parties, she said.
Tesfamariam, who has been a
first-year proctor for the last two
years, agreed.
There is an expectation that

youre going to goIt feels so central to campus. Especially [to] first

years, she said.
Amstutz said that Baxter has had
difficulty appealing to a broad range
of students on campus.
You could see [Baxter] as more
homogeneous than heterogeneous,
which is part of the reason why our
house is meshing so well initially,
Amstutz said. But its also why we
may run into some issues with who
we appeal to with our events.

Your typical Baxter partygoer

doesnt also go to LASO or
doesnt also go to AfAm.

JULIA AMSTUTZ 19
Baxter residents have put effort
into changing this stereotype and
making Baxter a more inclusive
space, but have faced challenges.
We tried really hard to break it,
and it hasnt quite worked out yet,
Amstutz said.
Tesfamariam spoke more optimistically. She said that the dynamics
of College Houses this year seem far
more inclusive than previous years and
that Baxters efforts to destigmatize the
house gives me hope, for sure.
A lot more students of color
showed up to this party than any
other party Ive gone to, Tarango
said. And I think that should be
taken into account more.
You dont have to do a whole party related to Latin American music,
but just include it in whatever playlist youre making to at least have
some sort of variety for everyone to
feel like, Hey, I can go to this party.
I can have fun. Because I think thats
really missing at the party scene here
at Bowdoin, he added.
AfAm and Ladd will be hosting
another party together on Friday
November 18.

friday, october 28, 2016

the bowdoin orient

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet Polstein 17, Bowdoins most dynamic drummer

BY ELIZABETH FOSLERJONES
ORIENT STAFF

If you go to a lot of concerts at Bowdoin, you may have noticed the tall,
red-haired drummer who is a staple
in many campus bands: Jeb Polstein
17. Polstein plays in the student bands
Gotta Focus, Accept the Mystery, Duck
Blind and Gibson 10all of the upperclassman student bands on campus.
Polsteins love of percussion began when he received a tiny drum
set when he was four years old. From
there, he tried out cello in the school
orchestra for a year before settling on
drums in fourth grade. He was hooked
on drums, and in seventh grade, he
formed a band called Primate House
with four of his friends at his home in
New York.
Since then, hes continued to play
drums with a level of power, technique
and creativity that has gained him
recognition and has led to him becoming the most requested drummer
at Bowdoin. This weekend, MacMillan Houses annual Halloween party
was moved to Friday night so that
Polstein could play with both Gibson
10 and Gotta Focus in their back-toback performances.
Its cool that people think Im good
at drums and that they recognize that,
said Polstein. It can sometimes be
stressful thoughjust balancing things
and knowing that I cant devote as much
time and energy to each group [as]
would be ideal. I dont really say no.
Polsteins thought process varies depending on the context in which hes
working and the style of music he is
playing.
When Im hearing a song for the first
time, Im obviously thinking a lot about
what would sound cool. Sometimes my
mind just wanders and I think about
whats for lunch, said Polstein. Ill think
about playing well, which sometimes

VALERIE CHANG, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

JUST BEAT IT: Jeb Polstein 17 plays the drums in a student practice room in David Saul Smith Union, a place he practices in often with the five student bands he plays with. Polstein is the most
sought-after drummer for student bands. He currently plays in Gibson 10, the recent opener for Louis the Child, as well as Gotta Focus, Accept the Mystery and Duck Blind.
works, but sometimes that messes you
upespecially when you are recording,
because of the pressure. Youre thinking
I have to play this note well. Sometimes
you dont think at all and thats the best
part, especially with jazz.
As far as style goes, Polsteins versatile skills allow him to play a wide range
of genres in different types of bands,
from jazz to rock to metal to indie.
I feel like my style blends all those

genres, said Polstein. Im just trying

to play things that people wouldnt necessarily think to play.
The types of student bands Polstein
performs with is a further testament to
his diversity of style. While Accept the
Mystery has more of a hard rock and
metal sound, Gibson 10 has a stronger
jazz and rock sound.
One thing that really helps when you
are working with [Polstein] is that is he

picks up things so fast, said Matt Leventhal 17, Bowdoin Music Collectives
leader and Polsteins band mate in Accept the Mystery. Hell often also throw
out elements that I never would have
thought sounded so good. He adds a lot
of power and energy to songs.
At Bowdoin, Polstein has been performing with Gotta Focus the longestthree years. Although indie and
pop-rockwhich the band plays the

mostare not his favorite genres of

music, he puts as much time and energy into Gotta Focus as any other, and
his band mates value his dedication.
I very much appreciate his feedback
and everyone respects his opinion because hes, not even arguably, the best
musician in the band, said Leo Levine
17, Polsteins band mate in Gotta Focus. Hes the most amazing drummer
Ive ever worked with. Hes so, so good.

Local filmmaker engages campus in The World of Wallace Stevens

BY ROHINI KURUP
ORIENT STAFF

More than 30 years after auditing

a class at Bowdoin on poet Wallace
Stevens, writer and filmmaker Alison
Johnson returned to campus Wednesday evening to screen her documentary film on the modernist poet.
The film explores Stevens life,
touching upon his childhood, undergraduate experience at Harvard,
marriage, family life and career in
both insurance and poetry. Weaving
Stevens poetry together with a biographical account of his life, the film
showcases the ways in which Stevens
life experiences informed his poetry.
The idea behind the film originated in the 1980s, when Johnson
audited a seminar at Bowdoin. She
said she was drawn to Stevens work
and letters but failed to find a wellwritten biography about him, so she
decided to write her own.

She conducted large amounts

of research, using Stevens letters
housed in the Huntington Library in
California as a main resource. Her
biography, titled Wallace Stevens:
A Dual Life as Poet and Insurance
Executive was published in 2012.
The idea for the film, however, did
not arise until much later in 2014,
after the Wallace Stevens house in
Hartford, CT suddenly went on the
market. Johnson considered how it
could be dedicated as a museum to
commemorate the poet. She gathered fellow Stevens enthusiasts with
hopes to either buy the house or
have the new owners open it up to
the public as a museum. When the
plans to buy the house fell through,
Johnson decided to take a different approach.
I got to thinking, she said. If
we could film the interior of the
house, that would be very interesting, and we could then film the Wal-

lace Stevens collection of paintings

and memorabilia and put together
a documentary about Wallace Stevens. Having written the biography,
I had all the information to start.
Johnson and her crew got permission to film in the house just days
before it closed.
The documentary was grown out
of a failure when the house museum
plan fell, but I very quickly realized
this is far better because by making
a documentary, people all over the
world can see Stevens house, Johnson said.
One of Johnsons goals is to create content for the average person to
understand and enjoy.
My feeling is that it used to be
in the 1950s and 1960s, people were
still writing biographies that an intelligent member of the general public that was interested in that literary
feature could read and enjoy, Johnson said. Nowadays, everything has

become so specialized that biographies are being written by PhDs

for PhDs, and they are very hard to
understand I write biographies
for the average reader. They are still
something that people can enjoy
even if they dont have a degree in
English, Johnson said.

ical background on Stevens as most

research is done solely on his work
rather than his personal life.
Johnson hopes that by screening
the film, Bowdoin students are able
to better understand and appreciate Stevens poetry, which she said
is sometimes off-putting to readers

The documentary was grown out of a failure

when the house museum plan fell, but I very
quickly realized this is far better because by
making a documentary, people all over the world
can see Stevens house.
FILMMAKER ALISON JOHNSON
Associate Professor of English
Elizabeth Muther invited Johnson to
screen her film at Bowdoin because
of Johnsons record of meticulous
and diligent research. She explained
that Bowdoin students would be
able to gain an interesting biograph-

get your news the

millenial way.

because of its level of difficulty.

[Stevens] really wanted people
to get pleasure from his poems, she
said. I think he would be upset to
think too many people had been
turned off by reading the ones that
are too difficult.

instagram.com/bowdoinorient
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10

a&e

friday, october 28, 2016

the bowdoin orient

Renaissance scholar
Sarah Ross 97 on
building new lives
with old books
BY BRENDAN PULSIFER
ORIENT STAFF

back a very very long time.

Ross was invited to speak by Bowdoins
Medieval and Early Modern Studies Colloquium, an interdisciplinary organization which brings scholars to campus.
Aaron Kitch, chair of the English department and co-director of the Colloquium,
found Ross to be an obvious fit for this
symposium.

In a time when enrollment in the humanities is sharply declining, Renaissance

scholar Sarah Ross 97, associate professor of history at Boston College, visited
Bowdoin yesterday evening to stress the
importance of the liberal arts tradition.
Her presentation, titled BuildWere in a moment of time
ing New Lives with Old Books
in Renaissance Italy, primarily
where anti-intellectualism is
dealt with her research on the
rampant.
value of the humanist teachings, not only in our time, but
SARAH
ROSS 97
throughout the ages.
If you Google Crisis in the
Humanities, there are tons of hits about
Aside from the amazing history and
useless majors: dont major in English, philosophy in her lecture, [the audience]
dont major in History, said Ross in a will get to see how someone has grown
phone interview with the Orient. Were from their liberal arts degree and has used
in a moment of time where anti-intel- it to become an accomplished scholar,
lectualism is rampant, perhaps because Kitch said.
scholars arent selling what they do very
Though Ross felt a penchant for hiswell. Everyone is focused on teaching tory and English even in high school,
students just the practical skills for the job she found her passion for classics and
market, and in the process, space for emo- Renaissance studies here at Bowdoin,
tional, spiritual and artistic exploration is where she graduated summa cum laude
sacrificed.
in 1997. She went on to Northwestern
In her defense of the liberal arts, Ross University and received both an M.A.
told the stories of two distinct protagonists and a Ph.D in history. In her graduwhom she encountered in her research on ate work, she specifically explored how
the Italian Renaissance. The first, Laura women fit into humanism and the libCetera (1469-1499), received an education eral arts during the Renaissance, a topic
from her father, who taught her a wide which she still enjoys researching. Now
range of subjects, from moral philosophy as the director of the history core at
to mathematics to astrology. Using her Boston College, she teaches hundreds of
breadth of knowledge as an adult, Cetera students each year in both undergradubecame a strong public speaker and advo- ate and graduate courses while continucate for feminist causes such as womens ing to research Renaissance history.
education and marital rights. The second,
After almost twenty years, however,
Francesco Longo (1506-1576), worked as Ross was overjoyed to set foot on Bowa physician and used his extensive library doins campus again, saying that she
of humanist teachings to find meaning in was giddy with delight to return to a
the war-torn, diseased world around him. community that meant a tremendous
I thought her presentation was amaz- amount to her.
ing, said Christabel Fosu-Asare 18, who
Its surreal for me to be back, she
attended the lecture on Thursday. She said. I just hope Bowdoin students
focused a lot on the idea of liberal arts dont take this place for granted. I
how the humanists were doing it back in encourage them every day to pause.
the Renaissance and how we Bowdoin To look around. To understand that
students are doing it today to change the they are so lucky to be at such a speworld. I loved how Dr. Ross used letters cial place that values the liberal arts
written by Laura Cetera and connected and gives them an environment to
them to the idea of feminism, which goes learn boldly.

friday, october 28, 2016

SPORTS

the bowdoin orient

11

HIGHLIGHT
REEL
Setting up for playoffs. The Bowdoin
Volleyball team (12-9, 5-4 NESCAC)
traveled to Missouri over the weekend to
compete at the Washington University
in St. Louis tournament. They faced four
dominant teams, including Texas-Dallas
(24-1) and Wisconsin-Eau Claire (22-8),
which are nationally ranked No. 4 and
No. 28, respectively. Though the Polar
Bears didnt get a win this weekend, they
held their own and had many strong individual performances that will set them
up well for their final NESCAC match
against Connecticut College tonight in
Morrell Gymnasium.

ABBY MOTYCKA, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

UP FOR GRABS: Kara Finnerty 20 dribbles the ball up the field during the field hockey teams game against Tufts this past Wednesday. The 1-0 loss dropped Bowdoin to the fifth seed in the
NESCAC tournament, which begins this weekend. Despite its middle-of-the-pack seed, Bowdoin is only one game behind three other teams and two games behind league-leader Tufts.

Field hockey seeded fifth in tight NESCAC pool

BY ANJULEE BHALLA
ORIENT STAFF

On Saturday, defending NESCAC

champion Bowdoin (11-4, 6-4 NESCAC) will take on defending national champion Middlebury (12-3, 7-3
NESCAC) in the quarterfinals of the
NESCAC field hockey playoffs.
Familiar foes, last season the Polar Bears and Panthers met three
times: in the regular season, in the
NESCAC Championship and in the

NCAA Division III Championship.

Though Bowdoin emerged victorious from the first two matchups,
Middlebury won the last game, taking the national title and putting an
end to Bowdoins perfect season.
When the teams faced off in the
regular season this year, Middlebury
came away with a close 3-2 win, although Bowdoin held a 7-4 edge
in penalty corners and outshot the
Panthers 13-7.
I definitely think theres revenge

this Saturday and were almost in the

better spot because of it, said captain Kimmy Ganong 17. As of now
[Middlebury has] beaten us already
this season and they have the national championship from last year
so we have a lot more to play for.
Theyre probably just sitting there
thinking theyre safe and that theyll
beat us but I think that we as a team
are peaking right now ... We know
that we definitely can beat [Middlebury] and come from behind.

Bowdoin enters the tournament

as the fifth seedthe first time they
wont host their quarterfinal matchup since 2009while Middlebury
sits at No. 4. The two teams seeds
come as a bit of a surprise since they
have faced off in the championship
match of the tournament for the last
five years and are currently both
ranked in the top five nationally.
The fact that this notable matchup

Please see HOCKEY, page 12

Mens soccer looks to earn

third straight NESCAC title
BY DAVID BROWER
ORIENT STAFF

LIAM FINNERTY, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

HITTING THEIR STRIDE: Juliette Dankens 18 passes the ball out to the win as the
womens rugby team swept opponents over the last two games by a combined score of 184-0.

Womens rugby dominates

in two-game shutout streak
BY ANNA FAUVER
ORIENT STAFF

Even with its new, more difficult

schedule, the womens rugby team
(4-1) has earned several commanding victories this season. Coming off
of a hard-fought loss to the University of New England (4-2), the team
rebounded by beating Castleton (0-

8) 85-0 and Sacred Heart (2-4) 99-0

over the last two weekends.
Against Castleton, Paige Pfannenstiel 17 scored seven tries to set a
Bowdoin record for number of tries
scored in a single match by an individual player.
[Pfannenstiel] has stood out all

Please see RUGBY, page 12

The mens soccer team defeated Tufts

(9-4-2, 6-2-2 NESCAC) 2-1 on Tuesday,
earning Bowdoin the No. 7 seed heading
into the NESCAC championshipsand
a quarterfinal rematch against the Jumbos on Saturday. The Polar Bears final
NESCAC record is 4-3-3 and their overall record is 8-3-4.
The victory over Tufts, seeded No. 2
going into the playoffs, is a promising
sign for the Polar Bears as they look to
defend their NESCAC title. This past
game, the Jumbos outshot the Polar
Bears 20-5 and had more corner kicks,
with five opportunities to Bowdoins two.
Still, Bowdoin held strong, as Ely Spencer 20 scored twice and goaltender Noah
Safian 17 made an impressive 10 saves.
[Tufts is] a really good team, but our
guys played really well, said Head Coach
Scott Wiercinski. I think we showed really good defensive discipline and dedication. It really was a team effort to slow
their offense down, and even though
they had a lot of shots, I thought they
were often shooting through traffic.
While the players have proven theyre
capable of defeating the dominant Tufts
squad, the rematch will be a close-fought

battle as the Jumbos have arguably the

best defense in the league with an average of only .57 goals against and six
shutouts this season. However, captain
Cedric Charlier 17 believes the team is
in a great position for a successful playoff
run.
We can go into this [game] knowing
that we are a lower seed playing a higher
seed, so we have less to lose, he said. We
can just play, have fun and hopefully get
the job done. We are all pretty confident
that we can do it.
Bowdoin is in a similar position going into playoffs this year as in previous
years, having entered the tournament in
both 2014 and 2015 as the No. 6 seed.
While the lower seeding doesnt usually
bode well for a team, it hasnt stopped
Bowdoin from claiming the NESCAC
title for two consecutive years.
I dont think people will be excited
to play us because they know that we are
traditionally a playoff team, said Charlier. Still, we dont really think about the
past or who we are playing. We just focus
on ourselves and what we have to do to
be successful.
The team has had a number of close
matches this season, with eight games go-

Please see SOCCER, page 12

Back in the books. A dominant force in

the Bowdoin Volleyball offense, Quincy
Leech 17 had a season-high 51 assists in
the teams match against Illinois Wesleyan
as she became just the second Bowdoin
player ever to surpass 3,000 career assists.
Leech is ranked fourth all-time for assists
in a single season with 1,024 after her
impressive campaign last season and is
now second in all-time career assists with
3,054, behind Margo Linton 08 with
3,215. Leech will have the opportunity
to further solidify herself in the record
books in the teams last two regular season games this weekend.
Leader on the links. Caroline Farber 20
was named Second Team All-NESCAC
after a strong seventh-place finish at the
2016 Womens Golf NESCAC Championship. In her first year on the team, she
has already established herself as an integral part of the program after winning
the Maine State Championship and leading the team in every competition this
year. With this honor, Farber became the
first golfer in the history of the Bowdoin
womens program to earn a postseason
All-NESCAC award.
Tuft loss. The womens soccer team will
enter NESCAC Playoffs this weekend as
the No. 6 seed after falling to Tufts (7-5-3,
5-4-1 NESCAC) 1-0 on Tuesday. Theyll
face off against No. 3 seed Middlebury
(12-3, 7-3 NESCAC) on Saturday in their
quarterfinal matchup. When Bowdoin
played Middlebury in the regular season,
the Polar Bears came away with a 1-0 win,
featuring a goal by Anna Mellman 17
and a strong goalkeeping performance
from Rachel Stout 18.
Pooler Bears. The mens water polo
team closed out their season this
weekend with a fifth place finish at the
Collegiate Water Polo Association North
Atlantic Division Championship. With
a regular season record of 3-5, the team
entered the tournament as the fifth seed
and finished the weekend 2-2, coming
away with wins against University of
Maine (0-11) and St. Michaels (3-8) and
dropping games to Colby (6-5) and ultimate tournament champion Tufts (11-0).
Bantams bounce bears. Undefeated
Trinity dealt football their fifth loss of the
season on Saturday in a crushing 38-7
defeat. While the Bantams ended the first
half up 31-0, Bowdoin came back strong,
opening the second half with a 77-yard
drive for a touchdown off of the opening
kickoff. The score came from quarterback
Tim Drakeley 17 to wide receiver Ejaaz
Jiu 19 for Jius first collegiate touchdown
reception and Bowdoins only score of the
day. The loss puts the team at their first
0-5 start in 10 yearstheir worst opening
since the team went 0-6 in 2006.

Compiled by Anjulee Bhalla

12

sports

RUGBY
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
season, captain Samantha Hoegle
17 said. Shes a very good team
player; shes also a very good individual player, and shes done a great
job balancing those two. So she herself has scored a lot of tries, but she
has also created opportunities for a
lot of other people, which has been
really nice.
According to Hoegle, Georgia
Bolduc 17 and Juliette Dankens 18
have also stood out this season, especially as theyve had to change positions due to team injuries. Bolduc
moved from nine to fullback and
Dankens from wing to nine. The shift
required both players to adapt quickly as the positions are quite different;
fullback is the the last line of defense
and nine distributes the ball out of
the ruck. However, the veterans rose
to the challenge and found strengths
in their new roles.
Fullback really lets [Bolducs]
speed shine on offense and its really helpful for our team on defense,
Hoegle said. [Dankens] is doing a
really good job passing from nine,
which has been nice, and we also have
a ton of wings on our team right now,
so its been good because then theres
more space to play more of them.
Although individual performances
are important, according to captain
Cristina Lima 17, a key factor in the
teams success is the way that returning and new players interact and play
off each other.
The returning players are doing
a good job of incorporating newer,
more developing players, Lima said.
Likewise, developing players are really stepping up and doing what they
need to do to make the team better,
so Ive really been impressed with everyone across the board.
In order to keep improving, Head
Coach MaryBeth Mathews believes

HOCKEY
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

will be taking place in just the quarterfinals of the tournament speaks

to an exceptional level of competition in the league this year.
Theres more parity in the league
this year than Ive ever witnessed before, said Head Coach Nicky Pearson. Weve always felt that every
single NESCAC team that we play
is going to be a really challenging
game and we certainly feel it this
year and that you certainly cant underestimate any team. On any given
day if we dont show up and play our
very best, theres a chance youre going to lose that game. It keeps you on
your toes for sure.
The tournament is set to be highly
competitive on a national level as
well. Of the eight teams competing, seven are ranked in the top 20
in the nation, with No. 8 seed Bates
close behind.
Bowdoin hopes their extensive
postseason experience will give
their players a distinct advantage
when facing the intensity of this
years tournament.
To have been in the championship game for the last five years
speaks volumes for the players on
the team, said Pearson. We have a
number of players on our team that
really know what it takes to be successful in the NESCAC tournament
and they will draw on their experience from the last few years and be
really ready for how competitive
those games are going to be.
Coming off an undefeated regular
season and a NESCAC title, Bowdoin has faced some hard-fought
losses this season, falling to Hamil-

the bowdoin orient

friday, october 28, 2016

Developing players are really stepping

up and doing what they need to do to
make the team better, so Ive really been
impressed with everyone across the board.
CRISTINA LIMA 17

The teams are so hard once we get to

post-season that we cant really play
against them. We just dont have enough
experience at that level to do that, but
now were getting that experience.
PAIGE PFANNENSTIEL 17
that the team needs to make sure it
is supportive of all players and their
mistakes, especially considering the
youth of the team.
Everyone has something to bring
to benefit the team. Everyone is valued to begin with and everyone acknowledges that theyre learning a
brand new sport or maybe theyve
played one or two years and theyre
still new to rugby, Mathews said.
But I think the biggest element that
contributes to their learning is the
encouragement to make mistakes.
Mathews also believes that the
team has to have the confidence to
make decisions while playing, even if
they are not the right ones.
Theyre new to the sport, so
theyre not always going to make the
right decisions, but we encourage
them to make a decision, Mathews
said. Whatever you decide to do, go
ahead and do it full force and then
learn from it if it happens to not be
the right one. They will get better if
they allow themselves to take that
risk instead of playing safe and maybe not doing anything.
Even though the team has scored
a high number of points, the change
of schedule this season has still resulted in more challenging competiton and Williams in the same weekend earlier in October and Tufts
on Wednesday. While their record
doesnt support it, the Polar Bears
controlled all three of those games,
outshooting each opponent by double digits as well as earning more
penalty corners.
Although we arent winning on
the scoreboard, were definitely outplaying our opponents in all the
games that we lost, said Ganong.
Were not handing any team the win,
were fighting until the very end.
The Tufts loss was particularly disappointing as the Polar Bears had four
times the number of shots as the Jumbos, had a 20-3 edge in penalty corners and had two goals called back.
Just a frustrating game all
around, said Ganong. But obviously
just adding to our desire to keep the
season going and beat [Middlebury]
on Saturday.
One of the most surprising aspects of the league this season is

tion, and the team is optimistic about

the growth and development that
will continue to come from facing
new opponents.
This season has been challenging. Weve still been scoring a lot,
but in the past couple years, weve
really dominated our normal, inseason division, Pfannenstiel said.
But the teams are so hard once we
get to post-season that we cant really play against them. We just dont
have enough experience at that level
to do that, but now were getting that
experience.
Up next, the Polar Bears will face
off against University of Maine-Orono on Saturday at 12 p.m. The team
expects the game to be a welcome
challenge in their pursuit for tougher competition.
Traditionally, UMaine is a very
physical team, so Im expecting that
well need to step it up, Lima said.
The past couple games we had the
ball the majority of the time and I
think UMaine will be a much more
even match. Im expecting to have
to tackle a lot more and ruck a lot
more, but it will be a good learning
experience, for a lot of new players
especially. But I dont think anyone is
afraid; were ready to go.
the rise of Hamilton (11-4, 7-3 NESCAC), who enter the tournament
seeded thirdthe highest seed in
program historyand are looking
for their first playoff victory to continue their six-game win streak. In
2012, the Continentals went 0-14,
yet have steadily improved each season, earning NESCAC bids for the
last two years. Pearson attributes
Hamiltons strong performance this
season to talent and determination.
[Hamilton has] some exceptional
players, their goalkeeper is playing
very well and even though they lost
a couple of games at the beginning
of the season, they beat Middlebury
early in the season and I think that
probably was the turnaround game
for them, said Pearson. After they
won that game I think they really believed that they could beat anybody.
In what is sure to be an exciting
postseason, the Polar Bears will face
the Panthers at 1 p.m. at Middlebury
on Saturday.

KATIE FOLEY, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

STICKING IT TO EM: Mettler Growney 17 battles for possession against Tufts this
past Wednesday. A rematch of last seasons NESCAC championship and National Championship
Game, Bowdoin will face fourth seeded Middlebury on the road this Saturday at 1 p.m.

KATIE FOLEY, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

GUNNING FOR THE THREE-PEAT: Captain Matt Dias-Costa 17 dribbles up the pitch
as he leads No. 7 Bowdoin into the NESCAC tourney in hopes of securing the teams third conference title.

SOCCER
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
ing into single or double overtime. With
such close competition, the games often
come down to capitalizing on the few opportunities that present themselves.
At this point in the season, if we play
well and get a couple of good bounces,
anything is possible, said Wiercinski. I
think the guys have really focused on improving the things they can control, and
that shows on the field.
This season the team has shown the
most strength on the defensive side of the

ball. The Polar Bears have an average of

.73 goals against, third lowest in the NESCAC, and have allowed only one team,
Middlebury, to score more than one goal
all season long. Charlier credits much of
the teams success to that defensive focus.
It has always been our defensive
identity that has carried us through and
I think that will be what does it again,
he said.
The Polar Bears opportunity for a
second straight victory against Tufts will
come at 12 p.m. on Saturday at Tufts as
they begin their campaign for a third
consecutive NESCAC title.

friday, october 28, 2016

OPINION

Categorizing liberal arts

In an email to all students and employees on October 12, 2016, President

Clayton Rose spoke on the direction of the College regarding its purpose,
culture, opportunity, and innovation. Rose questioned: How might we
enhance the quantitative literacy of our students, in much the same way
our curriculum is currently designed to enhance their writing skills? Critically, this is not a STEM issue, but rather is something germane to our entire curriculum.
In this email, Rose raises an important point about defining liberal arts
and areas of study at Bowdoin in the context of our evolving world. When
considering all of the departments at Bowdoin, the categorization of the
humanities, such as English or religion, as liberal arts is more intuitive for
many than categorizing those that fall under the sciences, such as biology
or computer science, as liberal arts.
The value of a Bowdoin education lies in its liberal arts curriculum that
explicitly values critical thinking, curiosity and cross-discipline dialogue.
Interdisciplinary conversation is only made stronger by the recognition
that all types of departmentshumanities, science or othershave an
equal value in the conversation on liberal arts.
Not everyone, however, shares this point of view. Often, certain departments are criticized for the supposed pre-professional nature of their area
of study. Perhaps this point of view is best summed up in an op-ed by an
alumnus in the Orient from January 2015, after Rose was named former
President Barry Mills successor.
Thank goodness, for instance, we preserve a liberal arts curriculum,
despite the fact that the two most popular majors are government and legal studies and economics, whose courses feed directly into careers in law,
business and finance. Thank goodness we sustain a classics department,
despite our petitions to open up more computer science courses to ensure
opportunity for careers in the lucrative high-tech industry.
This interpretation of certain departments Bowdoin misses the goal of
liberal arts and the distinction that schools like Bowdoin can draw between
the way we teach classes in computer science or economics compared to
other educational institutions.
There is a difference between economics and business, physics and engineering and computer science and software development. Bowdoins conscious decision to not include programs in these fields is evidence of a
commitment to framing a Bowdoin education in any discipline as one that
teaches students to be creative and think critically.
Despite this, certain departments are still treated like they do not fit the
definition of a liberal arts discipline as well as others. We should affirm our
commitment to liberal arts education by highlighting the contribution of
these departments in campus-wide culture.
The contributions that each department individually make are key to
maintaining strong, productive conversation and research on campus. Recognizing the unique perspective and approach each department employs
celebrates the liberal arts education as a whole.
This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orients editorial board,
which is comprised of Marina Affo, Julian Andrews, Steff Chavez, Grace Handler,
Meg Robbins and Joe Seibert.

the bowdoin orient

13

Finding confidence in SWUG life

THE FEMINIST
MANIFESTO
HAYLEY NICHOLAS AND EMMA ROBERTS
We were talking recently about the
party scene at Bowdoin, and as we reflected on our first year here, we soon realized
that neither of us had actually been to a
party here for quite a while. For a month
and a half to be exact. When this dawned
on us, we were a little surprised. We were
amazed that Friday night after Friday
night of opting to either watch Stranger
Things in our cozy, warm beds or to
catch up on homework at Supers had
added up to 42 party-free days. But to
be frank, we werent too beat up about it.
So, are we SWUGs? Is this what it feels
like? When we swapped stories about
our most recent Friday night adventures,
we began to think so. Hayley, after a few
glasses of wine and dancing to one too
many Ke$ha songs with a friend, crashed
duty night in a first-year brick and
promptly fell asleep on their common
room couch. Emma, after returning from
a delicious dinner in Portland, watched
half an episode of Mr. Robot before she
decided she was too tired to continue
and curled up for a nice 10 hours of sleep.
SWUG stands for Senior Washed-Up
Girl, but what exactly does that mean?
Urban Dictionary has an example of a
day in the SWUG life: I texted two sophomore guys and got rejected by both, but
I dont even care because I have a bottle
of wine and my $150 vibrator. Although
aspects of this definition resonated with
us, we didnt feel like it captured the
whole SWUG phenomenon. We had a
lot of questions: Why are SWUGs typically seen as jaded, callous women who
cant find men? Does this term imply that
boys could never be washed-up, or that
they always have been? Is being a SWUG
bad, or is it a feminist reclamation of a
formerly sexist insult? What does it imply about us as First Year Non-Washed-

Up Girls? We pondered over these questions as we sat eating pumpkin pancakes

and drinking tea in Thorne, dressed
in our favorite sweatpants and Birkenstocks. We found ourselves constantly
returning to what being a SWUG meant
to us. Since our first year at Bowdoin,
we have both changed tremendously.
Hayley began her first year drinking
most weekends and hopping between
College House parties, trying to live the
Bowdoin experience. She often felt
stressed during the week and didnt feel
totally passionate about her classes or
the clubs she joined. Now, she doesnt
drink as muchnot because she doesnt
like her Montepulciano wine, dont get
her wrongbut because shes dedicated
herself to being more health-conscious.
Shes learned to spend time on the things
that make her happy, like exploring
the Maine outdoors and throwing clay
pots at the Craft Center. Shes come to
embrace different aspects of her identity: her Jewish faith, her blackness and
her womanhood. She sees herself as a
SWUG because she has started to care
less about what others think of her.
Its taken her a long time to get to this
point, but she feels comfortable. And
guess what? She absolutely loves it.
Emma came to Bowdoin determined
to force an outgoing,
extroverted
personality against almost all
her natural impulses.
She didnt like College
House parties, but
went to them anyway, loved her classes,
but complained about
them anyway, seeking some
vague concept of cool. Now, Emma
has come to realize that embracing
the introverted, awkward, schoolloving person that she actually is
not only makes her cool, but more
importantly, happy. Emma feels
like a SWUG when she spends time

with people she really likes instead of

feeling uncomfortable at a loud party
or when she goes out to dinner by herself because she wants some alone time
and good food. She still doubts herself sometimes and worries too much
about what others think, but generally, she feels confident in who she is.
For us, being SWUGs means being
comfortable in our own skin. It means
speaking our minds, even if we might be
called nasty women. It means acknowledging and accepting that we will sometimes feel lonely or scared or disempowered, and that thats okay. As seniors, we
finally feel at ease on campus. But were
about to embark on a new and unknown
phase of our lives that will have its own
set of new and unknown challenges. This
is terrifying. Yet we feel more equipped
to handle whatever comes nexta feeling that we didnt necessarily have four
years ago. So for all the SWUGs out
there, whether being a SWUG means
partying with your friends or appreciating your religion, going to counseling
or ditching your bra, or a host of other
things, we hope youve come to know
yourself a little better. We certainly have.

ALEX WESTFALL

In defense of voting for a third party presidential candidate

RYAN WARD

HOLDING FAST

As Election Day approaches, the

prospect of actually filling out my absentee ballot and mailing it to the city clerk
becomes more and more dreadful. After
this year-and-a-half-long nightmare of
an election, the point is fast approaching
for me to stop griping about the state of
the election and choose the person who
I believe is most fit to serve as President
of the United States for the next four
years. The problem is that I believe the
only two plausible candidates are both
thoroughly unfit for the job.
I will spare you my litany of complaints against each candidate and
quickly sum up the reasons I will not
be voting for either one. Donald Trump
is an immoral man who has neither the
temperament nor the mental capacity to serve as Commander-in-Chief.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has
quite a track record of making big decisions in a variety of situations, but her
foreign policy experience indicates that
the consequences of her judgments are
quite often disastrous. But at the same
time, I dont think either candidate is

so terrible that I feel compelled to cast

a vote for their opponent. So at the end
of the day, I am left with the options of
either voting for a third-party candidate
or writing in one of the many people I
think is more qualified than the two
major-party candidates.
But in our two-party political system, such a decision is bound to be open
to questioning. One objection many
political commentators raise is that no
matter how unsavory the options may
be, it is necessary to vote for the lesser
of two evils. Trump and Clinton supporters both employ this argument and
each side wants us to understand that
the other candidate is obviously the
greater evil. This argument gives great
moral significance to the act of voting,
for if one abstains from voting for the
lesser evil, then he or she is culpable for
the consequences should the greater evil
be elected.
But this argument against voting
third-party is rather short on substantive moral reasoning. It employs a
consequentialist definition of morality, which basically means the moral
worth of a decision is determined only
by looking forward to the consequences of the action. For example, if a vote
for Trump will result in an increase of

economic inequality, his voters can be

held morally responsible for this consequence of their vote. The problem with
applying such reasoning to an election
is that we cannot be certain about the
actual consequences of voting for either
candidate. I have a feeling that a Trump
presidency would be more disastrous
than a Clinton presidency, but this is
no more than a feeling, for it could
very well turn out to be the other way
around. Whatever may happen after
Election Day, there is no way to read
backwards from an imagined future
state to supply us with a moral imperative on how to vote in the present.
Another objection I have encountered is the more practical argument
that by voting third-party I will throw
away my vote and shirk my democratic duty to choose between the given
options. In one sense this objection
is more convincing, for there is
certainly no chance that whoever I vote for will be the next
president. But this fact does not
justify the conclusion that such
a vote is wasted. It may very
well be the case that I do not
want my vote to count for
either candidate and that
I would like my objections

to be registered in this way. A vote for

a candidate with long odds does not indicate naivet, but is rather a conscious
decision to abstain from voting for one
of two unacceptable candidates. Doing
so does not entail a rejection of our nations democratic principles, but only
involves a considered judgment regarding the fitness of these particular candidates to serve as our nations president.
So to those of you who, like me, are
not satisfied with the given options, I
offer you this advice. These two objections, the one moral and the other practical, are not good reasons for you to
betray your conscience
and vote for a

candidate who you find morally or politically unacceptable. Refusing the options given to you is not a retreat from
the hard realities of politics to the moral
high ground, but is a morally defensible
action that is perfectly consistent with
your duties as an American citizen. If
you are also repulsed by the thought of
voting for Clinton or Trump, I urge you
to vote for whoever best fits your idea
of a good president, even if that person
is your favorite professor or family dog.
You may not be voting for the next president, but that doesnt make your participation in the election any less valuable.

PHOE

PER
BE ZIP

14

opinion

the bowdoin orient

friday, october 28, 2016

Creating safe spaces fosters

academic engagement for all
CARLOS HOLGUIN

RAMBLINGS OF A
MOUNTAIN MAN

The University of Chicago recently sent a letter to its freshman class

abolishing safe spaces and trigger
warnings in favor of academic inquiry and advancement. This letter
might have been well-intentioned,
but it misses the mark by forgetting
about marginalized groups such as
minorities, sexual assault survivors
and the LGBTQ community. If a
college does not allow for spaces for
these and other groups when needed, then academic institutions may
run the risk of further marginalizing
these groups while also diluting the
college experience for the rest of the
student body.
The need for safe spaces has
evolved as the college landscape has
developed over the last half century.
In this time, colleges increasingly
accepted larger numbers of minorities and women. More recently, as a
result of the gay rights movement,
the stigma around being LGBTQ has
slowly been lifted and nowadays
in many parts of the countryit
appears safer to announce ones
sexuality. Across Americas college
campuses, communities have been

created, and have served numerous

purposes. These include: a place
where the students feel free of criticisms, where they dont have to explain and/or defend their identity
to others, where they dont have to
fear being ostracized and where they
can safely decompress and exchange
their experiences. These safe spaces
are similar to release valves as they
allow the students to sound off if
they need to. Thus safe spaces dont
inhibit academic curiosity, but rather enhance it by allowing students
to recharge before they rejoin the
larger student population.
There are stories that are best left
on the shelf and dont need to be
aired out for all to see. These stories
can revolve around traumatic events
related to a familys acceptance of
sexual identity, family violence, the
struggles of impoverished communities, sexual assaults and harassment.
These stories often are painful for
the storyteller and often their scars
run deepI would know. To not give
the students with these stories space
to meet others with similar stories
may increase their vulnerability and
marginalization. As an example, one
in four women and one in six men
will experience sexual assault in
college. Communities of sexual assault survivors absolutely deserve a

safe space to
meet. Without it, they
may strugglealone
to find ways
to
move
forward with
their lives.
It is also important to remember the goal of a college, which is to help
foster an environment
where intellectualism does
not only exist but also
flourishes. To properly create
this environment, a one size
fits all policy may run counter
to spurring a rich, healthy environment in that different groups of students have different needs. As an example, colleges dont have different
athletes using the same locker room,
for feasibility and logistical reasons.
This strain of logic can be applied
to the many different minority and
LGBTQ groups on college campuses.
By giving these groups a space on
campuses to meet, they are granted
the same opportunity to gather. This
is similar to the way various science and literature clubs are set up,
with the exception that these groups
are not shaped up by interests but

RD
DDA

O
KE G

BROO
rather by
shared experience.
If these experiences arent allowed
a space to thrive, then the story of
the college campus runs the risk of
becoming stunted.
College is a place where students
with diverse experiences and backgrounds come together and knit a
quilt from thousands of different
colors of thread. Yet the University
of Chicago has decided to remove

some threads and tatter the quilt. In doing so, they are
limiting the college experience for
both the general student body and
the students who arent allowed safe
spaces. They say, College is supposed to be the best four years of
your life, but not if the college administrators decisions make you
feel like you dont belong.

From 1968 to 2016: the repercussions of abstaining from voting

BY WILLIAM KUNITZ

OPED CONTRIBUTOR

In 1968, a year after I graduated

from college, I made the decision
not to vote for any presidential
candidate. It was an awful year: I
had worked for Eugene McCarthy
the Bernie Sanders of his time. In
March, Lyndon Johnson bowed out
of the race for president. In April,
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassi-

bert H. Humphrey, without having

entered a single primary, was nominated for president by the old pols in
smoke-filled rooms.
It was a travesty, it was unjust and
by God I was not going to vote for
himor anyone.
The result? Richard M. Nixon
won by a little over 500,000 votes
from a total of over seventy-three
million cast for Nixon, Humphrey
and George Wallace.

And who shares blame for damage done decades

after that 1968 election? I do, along with the
millions of others like me who were gonna show
em by refusing to vote.
nated; in June, Robert F. Kennedy.
Chicago, the site of the Democratic
Party convention, saw massive protests that turned into a police riot
and Johnsons vice-president, Hu-

Why does this matter so many

years later? Before he was run out of
office, Nixon was able to name four
of the most conservative and politically motivated justices to wear the

robes of the Supreme Court, among

them a former Goldwater operative
named William H. Rehnquist who
stayed on the court for 33 years
right into your lifetime. As a law
clerk, Rehnquist once wrote a memorandum against court-ordered
school desegregation and in the
same memo said, Plessy v. Ferguson
was right and should be reaffirmed.
Plessy v. Ferguson sanctioned segregation with the doctrine of separate
but equal. This is the kind of guy
Rehnquist was before he was named
to the court.
Fast forward to 2000, 28 years
after Nixon put Rehnquist on the
court. Guess who wrote the opinion in Bush v. Gore that handed that
election to George W. Bush? Yeah.
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
But wait, theres more! At the same
time Nixon appointed Rehnquist,
he nominated a corporate lawyer,

And yes, I am a liberal, but the stakes are

just as high, be you liberal or conservative.
Decisions have consequences. Mine did.
Yours does.

Lewis F. Powell Jr., to the court.

Two months prior to his nomination, Powell wrote a confidential
memoa manifesto, reallyentitled Attack on the Free Enterprise
System, targeting college campuses
in particular, along with the media
and intellectuals for the attack and
describing in chilling detail exactly
what could be done in response to
counter each group. This memo
laid the groundwork for Citizens
United and the concept of Corporate Personhood that has helped to
make this election one of the tawdriest ever.
And who shares blame for damage

done decades after that 1968 election? I do, along with the millions of
others like me who were gonna show
em by refusing to vote.
One Supreme Court seat is currently vacant; at least one more is
likely to become vacant within the
next four years. Justices remain
in the Supreme Court for a very
long time.
And yes, I am a liberal, but the
stakes are just as high, be you liberal
or conservative. Decisions have consequences. Mine did. Yours does.
William Kunitz is a data systems
manager at the College.

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friday, october 28, 2016

the bowdoin orient

opinion

SOPHIE

15

N
INGTO
WASH

Bowdoin community must take action against climate change

I saw what climate change could do to my home, and it opened my eyes to
what had already been occurring around the world.

BY EMILY RUBY

OPED CONTRIBUTOR

The presidential election is two weeks

away. In every election cycle, the last
month of the campaign is notorious
for curveballs: what the pundits call the
October surprise. This October has
been unusually full of them: Trumps
much sought- after tax returns, the
Wikileaks revelations on the Clinton
campaign and the famous Access Hollywood tape of Billy Bush and Donald
Trump. But four years ago the October
surprise came in a different form: in the
last week and a half of the campaign,
Hurricane Sandy hit New York City.
Hurricane Sandy brought the reality
of the climate crisis close to home for me,
literally. My high school was flooded with
five feet of water, shutting down school
for an entire week. The subways were
flooded, friends homes were destroyed
and whole neighborhoods were leveled.
Most dramatically, the 14th street power
station blew out, and I had the surreal ex-

perience of walking through a completely

dark lower Manhattan. And though midtown residents got their power back, the
effects of Hurricane Sandy in the Rockaways and Queens are still being felt today.
Prior to Sandy I was all set to recycle
away the climate crisis. But when Sandy
hit, I saw what climate change could do to
my home, and it opened my eyes to what
had already been occurring around the
world in communities vulnerable to rising seas and stronger storms. Today this
reality has inspired me to take action in
the climate justice movementa movement that recognizes that those who are
the most affected by climate change are
those who have contributed the least
to it and fights for them to have autonomy and ownership over their futures.
In a recent Orient article, Vice President of Investments Paula Volent attributed the poor performance of our
endowment to falling fossil fuel prices

and slow economic growth. And in an

email to the Bowdoin community, President Rose wrote that this new reality will
require a shift from business as usual.
Todays business as usual is an America
with nearly $1.3 trillion in student loan
debt, where the majority of economic
growth has gone to the wealthiest Americans and where falling fossil fuel prices
foreshadow a looming carbon bubble.
Todays business as usual is knowingly
leading us to the edge of a climate crisis.
At the center of the climate justice
movement are values of community, people and the environment; a commitment
to diversity and a belief in the power of student moral leadership. Bowdoins values
a commitment to place, to the common
good and to moral leadershipanchor
us as students and alumni and mirror the
core values of the climate justice movement. Climate justice is the common good.
Business as usual is in direct opposition

Bowdoin Orient
The

ESTABLISHED 1871

The Bowdoin Orient is a student-run weekly publication dedicated to providing news and
information relevant to the Bowdoin community. Editorially independent of the College and
its administrators, the Orient pursues such content freely and thoroughly, following professional journalistic standards in writing and reporting. The Orient is committed to serving
as an open forum for thoughtful and diverse discussion and debate on issues of interest to the
College community.

Julian Andrews
Editor in Chief
bowdoinorient.com

orient@bowdoin.edu

Meg Robbins
Editor in Chief
6200 College Station

Brunswick, ME 04011

to climate justice and it is in direct opposition with the core values of the College.
We have a choice to make between continuing to invest in an industry that threatens the future of our people and planet on
the one hand, or fighting for communities
already impacted by climate change and
our own future on the other. The College has acknowledged that business as
usual will not cut it anymore, but they are
dragging their feet. It is time for us, as students, to step up and push the college to
align its words and values with its actions.
When I came to Bowdoin I was caught
in the mindset that, as a young person, my
only impact could be in my household.
Bowdoin Climate Action and the fossil
fuel divestment movement helped me to
realize my power as a student and voting
citizen to take action and fight for institutional change. Personal changes alone
will not keep fossil fuels in the ground;
personal changes will not prevent low-

Rachael Allen
Managing Editor
Managing Editor Cameron de Wet
Sarah Drumm
Managing Editor
Jono Gruber
Managing Editor
Managing Editor Emily Weyrauch
Eli Lustbader
Associate Editor
Nickie Mitch
Associate Editor
Louisa Moore
Associate Editor
Joe Seibert
Associate Editor
Allison Wei
Associate Editor
Grace Handler
Web Editor
Alex Mayer
Creative Director

James Little
Layout Editor
Jessica Piper
News Editor
Anjulee Bhalla
Sports Editor
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Surya Milner
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Photo Editor
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Photo Editor
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Copy Editor

income communities and communities of

color from being exploited and destroyed
by an extractive, profit orientated industry.
Institutional changes are needed to
dismantle the economic and political
support that the fossil fuel industry enjoys; institutional changes are needed to
prevent climate disasters like Hurricane
Sandy from hitting New York, New Orleans and Haiti. As an engaged and active
student I can fight to enact that change
here. As an elite academic institution,
Bowdoin can and should use its moral and
intellectual capital to enact this change.
The choice is clear. Climate change is
happening now, and bold and just action
is needed both in this political cycle and
in our academic institutions to address
this reality. It is time for Bowdoin to act
upon its core values and reject the economic, political and social influence of
the fossil fuel industry. We cannot afford
to continue to invest in business as usual.
Emily Ruby is a member of the Class
of 2019.

Copy Editor
Sarah Bonanno
Copy Editor
Calder McHugh
Copy Editor
Liza Tarbell
Sr. News Reporter James Callahan
Sr. News Reporter
Ste Chavez
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Business Manager Maggie Coster
Business Manager
Vivien Lee

The material contained herein is the property of The Bowdoin Orient and appears at the sole discretion of the editors. The editors reserve the right to edit all material. Other than in regard to the above editorial, the opinions expressed in the Orient do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.

16

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER

friday, october 28, 2016

the bowdoin orient

FRIDAY 28
EVENT

Haunted Howell

Howell House will be holding a haunted house in which

guests can walk through the house finding frights along
the way. Hot chocolate, cider and cookies will be served at
the finish.
Howell House. 8 p.m.

SATURDAY 29
WORKSHOP

Bowdoin Fiction Writing Month Kicko

This will be the first of a weekly series of creative writing
workshops that will run through November. This first meeting will be an opportunity to brainstorm ideas.
Howell House. 3 p.m.

DARIUS RILEY, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

FEELING SPICY: The Longfellows sing a cappella at the "Bowdoins Hottest" event in Jack Magee's Pub and Grill on Thursday night. The event
was a comedic talent show featuring multiple groups where students each ate a habanero pepper immediately before performing.

PERFORMANCE

VentiCordi

The Maine-based group will perform with oboist Kathleen

Kookie McNerney and violinist Dean Stein, as well as
other guest musicians.
Kanbar Auditorium, Studzinski Recital Hall. 7:30 p.m.

TUESDAY 1

SUNDAY 30

Dr. Aminata Dramane-Traore, Malian social scientist,

essayist and activist, will speak about the conception of
Africa as the new El Dorado and the accuracy of this image.
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. 7 p.m.

FILM SCREENING

Damnationland

Frontier will host the seventh-annual event

showcasing thriller and horror films produced by Maine
filmmakers during Halloween season.
Frontier. 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

EVENT

Longfellows Haunted House

There will be a spooky tour of the Longfellow House based

upon his poem, "Haunted Houses" for those 21 and older.
The tour will evoke Longfellows family members that died
in the house.
Wadsworth-Longfellow House, Portland. 6 p.m.

EVENT

Francophone Film
Festival Begins

LECTURE

ORIENT

"Women in Politics"

PICK OF THE WEEK

Professor of Government Janet Martin will discuss women in

politics and the significance of the 2016 presidential election.
Burnett House. 7 p.m.

THURSDAY 3

LECTURE

MONDAY 31

LECTURE

"Africa in a Globalized World in Crisis:

Risks, Opportunities and an AfricanMade Development"

WEDNESDAY 2

"The Making of the President, 2016:

Predicting a Race Unlike Any Other"

LECTURE

LECTURE

Acclaimed author Junot Daz will deliver a lecture as the final

event of Latinx Heritage Month. Daz is
ORIENT
PICK OF THE WEEK
the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning
novel "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao."
Morrell Lounge, David Saul Smith Union. 7 p.m.

Michael Kowal, fellow in digital and computational

studies, will discuss the unique challenges in predicting
the outcomes of the 2016 presidential race for forecasters
and citizens.
Beam Classroom, Visual Arts Center. 7 p.m.

"America: Unchained. What's So Great

About America?"

Conservative writer and political commentator Dinesh

D'Souza will deliver a lecture on
ORIENT
PICK OF THE WEEK
American exceptionalism.
Main Lounge, Moulton Union. 7:30 p.m.

Kenneth V. Santagata Memorial Lecture

presents Junot Daz

EVENT

Inter'Karaoke

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and

the Department of German will host an evening of karaoke.
30 College Street, 8 p.m.

10

EVENT

Bowdoin
"Brewers"
Breakfast