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Bowdoin College

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VOLUME 146, NUMBER 12

DECEMBER 9, 2016

Faculty affirms
Colleges values
after election
Statement issued to student
body met with mixed opinions
among professors
BY JONO GRUBER
ORIENT STAFF

At Mondays faculty meeting, faculty

members voted 49-31 to release a statement to the student body in the wake of
the presidential election that reaffirm[s]
that we stand together in support of each
other as individuals and as a community. The letter acknowledges the spectrum of political views on campus and
asks students to join with us in creating
an environment on campus in which acts
of hatred and violence of any kind are
resolutely rejected.
The statement was first drafted in
mid-November by a small group of professors. It originally contained language
more explicitly addressing students who
are upset by the elections results, but was
modified after feedback from faculty.
While some faculty felt the statement
was unnecessary or counterproductive,
others defended its importance.

Please see STATEMENT, page 3

ANN BASU, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

KEEPING IT COOL: Defender Tala Glass 20 propels the Bowdoin defense to hold a strong Saint Anselm (8-1-2) attack to a 2-2 tie at home on Saturday. The close game keeps the team unbeaten on the
season so far with a record of 3-0-2, 1-0-1 NESCAC. Katie Leininger 20 and Julie Dachille 18 provided the oense for the Polar Bears, while goalie Sophia Lattanzio 19 blocked 33 shots, including five in overtime. This
weekend, the team will take on the University of New England (4-5-1) as well as No. 6 Norwich (7-1-1) at home.

MacMillan scraps Gender Bender party following criticism

BY FARIA NASRUDDIN, JOE SEIBERT
AND ALLISON WEI
ORIENT STAFF

Following criticism expressed on

social media, as well as an email sent
by concerned students, MacMillan
House decided to change the theme of
its Gender Bender campus-wide party
that had been originally planned for
tonight. The House also held a discussion yesterday about the event.
Members of the House began planning the party before Thanksgiving
vacation with the goal of creating discussion about gender identity outside
of a typical setting.
One of the attractive things about
hosting a campus-wide was that it en-

gages a greater range of people and a

more diverse group of individuals,
said Conor Belfield 19, MacMillan
House president. There was never
a time when we were just like, This
would be funny. There was always
a clearly stated goal to bring greater
conversation to the topic of gender
identity.
According to Belfield, many
House members were initially skeptical of the idea, so they decided to
consult Director of the Resource for
Sexual and Gender Diversity Kate
Stern for advice. Stern referred the
House to Bowdoin Queer-Straight
Alliance (BQSA).
Rose Etzel 19, a member of BQSA
and Gender Matters, a discussion

group and supportive space for trans/

genderqueer/non-binary-identified
students with about seven active
members, said that many students
in BQSA were also not comfortable
with the theme of the campus-wide.
The group ultimately agreed to it on
the condition that the House hosted a
panel prior to the party to discuss the
event. However, not enough people
wanted to speak on the panel, and it
was cancelled. Despite the panels cancellation, the House continued with
the party idea.
A Facebook event for the party
was created on Tuesday, and posters featuring cross-dressed House
members were hung up around campus the following day.

Soon after, a number of students

took to Facebook to express their
frustrations and concerns about the
event. While many recognized MacMillans good intentions, they found
the setting of the eventa campuswide partyto be problematic.
My concerns were that as a party
theme, its not cognisant of the history
of how trans people are perceived and
how gender nonconformity is perceived, said Paul Cheng 17, a member of BQSA and Gender Matters.
Exhibiting those things in the setting
of party, even if I know their goals
were good, to create to a discussion
or create visibility for these things,

Please see PARTY, page 4

Students express disappointment with Kristof, Riley discussion

BY ISABELLE HALL
ORIENT STAFF

Columnists Jason Riley of the Wall

Street Journal and Nicholas Kristof
of the New York Times spoke about
ideological diversity on college campuses and its effect on freedom of
speech before a crowd of students
and community members on Monday evening. Although President
Clayton Rose and the committee of
students and faculty who planned
the event designed it with the intention of opening up vigorous discus-

sion on difficult critical issues and

allowing students to hear different
perspectives, many students felt that
the speakers did not strongly challenge each others viewpoints and
did not sufficiently address issues of
free speech with reference to colleges
like Bowdoin.
Ive heard from other people (including myself) that we wish that the
two speakers were more at odds with
each other or more at odds with the
beliefs that we held as [individuals],
said Laura Griffee 17. I definitely
think that each of the speakers did

THE RESULTS ARE IN

The Orient Approval Ratings Survey measured
student opinions. bowdoinorient.com.

bring up interesting points here and

there, but I think overall I wanted to
re-evaluate my views in some ways,
and I dont know if this discussion
necessarily did that.
The event, entitled Up for Discussion: Political Correctness and Free
Speech on College Campuses, was
organized by a small working group
of students, faculty and staff last fall.
The topic was determined based on
the results of a survey of Bowdoin
students last December. Associate
Professor of History and Environmental Studies Connie Chiang mod-

SNEAKER PEAK

Hugh Mo 17 runs an Instagram style

blog. Page 7.

SLEIGH GIRL

erated the discussion.

Both Kristof and Riley agreed that
colleges often do not expose students to enough ideological diversity,
but somewhat disagreed about who
should be responsible for increasing
this diversity of thought.
I do think that there is a problem
that American universities tend to be
particularly liberal places, and often
dont adequately expose students to
conservative viewpoints, Kristof
said. I believe in embracing diversity

Gina Fickera 18 dances her way through

the Arctic Museum. Page 9.

Please see DISCUSSION, page 5

UNDEFEATED

NO NEW
CASES OF
MUMPS
REPORTED
BY JULIAN ANDREWS
ORIENT STAFF

No additional cases of mumps

have been confirmed at Bowdoin
in the last week. The all-clear
datewhich is when unvaccinated students can come out of
exclusionremains December
11. Mid Coast Health Services
has not confirmed any cases of
mumps in the Brunswick area
outside of those at the College,
according to Director of Health
Services Jeffrey Maher. There are
still cases of mumps at several
other NESCAC schools.
It seems like its sort of smoldering along from campus to
campus, said Maher. Weve
been lucky herethis is a smaller campus, so its been fittingly a
smaller outbreak.
This year, there has been an increase of mumps cases nationwide,
particularly on college campuses.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention has reported 3,832
cases in 45 states and Washington
D.C. There were 1,329 cases in 2015.

Womens basketball goes 7-0 with a

win over Endicott. Page 11.

GENDER MATTERS

An open letter in response to the Gender

Bender party theme. Page 14.

news

the bowdoin orient

friday, december 9, 2016

STUDENT SPEAK:

What question would you add to the

Bowdoin Course Questionnaire (BCQ)?
Oscar Chavarria 17

SOPHIE WASHINGTON

Rate the tone of voice from one to five. One

would probably be monotonous, like I fell
asleep, and five being far too enthusiastic.

SECURITY REPORT: 12/1 to 12/6

Thursday, December 1
A security officer lured a stray dog by offering a tasty treat.
The dog was returned to its owner.
Burnt popcorn caused a smoke alarm to go off at Moore Hall.
Students at Harpswell Apartments reported a stray cat wandering into their apartment. The students offered the kitty a
tasty treat, and then a security officer escorted the feline out of
the apartment and issued a trespass warning.
Friday, December 2
A smoke alarm at Reed House was triggered by burnt food
in the kitchen.
An officer asked a student to remove a live Christmas tree
from an apartment in Coles Tower. Note: Live Christmas trees
are not permitted in residence halls for fire safety reasons.
A student was escorted to Mid Coast Hospital at the request
of Counseling Service.
A bedroom smoke alarm was activated by burnt microwave popcorn.
Two students were warned for possession of alcohol at the
Bowdoin-Colby mens ice hockey game at Watson Arena.
A student was cited for possession of a bottle of hard alcohol
at Watson Arena.
Two students were escorted out of Watson Arena after failing to cooperate with requests of security officers.
Two Colby ice hockey fans, who were inciting and agitating
Bowdoin fans, were ejected from Watson Arena.
A Bowdoin student intentionally shoved a Colby fan as
the Colby fan made an obscene gesture to the crowd while
he was being escorted out of the Bowdoin student section at
Watson Arena by security officers. The Bowdoin student was
ejected from the venue. A report was filed with the Dean of
Student Affairs.
A fire alarm at Maine Hall was activated by burnt microwave popcorn.
Loud music was reported on the 11th floor of Coles Tower.
Students were asked to turn down the volume.
Saturday, December 3
An officer checked on the well-being of an intoxicated student at Brunswick Apartments.
A local woman was issued a trespass warning after she followed a group of students from downtown back to campus
and made harassing and threatening remarks. The woman is
barred from all College property for one year.

An officer and a counselor aided a student who was in

emotional distress.
A group of students in an apartment at Stowe Hall were
cited for smoking marijuana after building residents complained of the odor of marijuana.
A student was found to be have furnished and/or offered
prescription medication to other students.
Sunday, December 4
An officer conducted a wellness check for an intoxicated
student at Hyde Hall.
A student took responsibility for damaging a wall and
smashing a disco ball at a registered event at Quinby House.
Loud music was reported on the 10th floor of Coles Tower.
Students were instructed to turn off the music.
Officers assisted an intoxicated student at Brunswick Apartments.
A campus security traffic barricade was stolen and vandalized. The barricade was recovered at an off-campus location.
A student reported the theft of a red Trek bicycle from the
bike rack at Quinby House. A security officer recovered the
bike and returned it to the student.
Monday, December 5
A student with a severe migraine was escorted to Mid
Coast Hospital.
A smoke alarm in Chamberlain Hall appeared to have been
caused by the use of a humidifier.
Tuesday, December 6
Wall damage was reported in a stairwell at HawthorneLongfellow Library.
A visiting University of Southern Maine (USM) ice hockey
player was transported to Mid Coast Hospital for treatment of
an existing medical condition.
A 90 year-old Topsham man lost control of his vehicle outside Watson Arena and backed out at relatively high speed
into a group of pedestrians and an unoccupied USM hockey
team bus. A 15 year-old girl Georgetown girl who was struck
by the vehicle was transported to Mid Coast Hospital with a
broken ankle and a knee laceration. The driver of the car was
shaken but otherwise uninjured. Brunswick police and emergency medical units assisted security officers at the scene.
Students at Brunswick Apartments N reported marijuana
smoke in the area.

Emma Stevens 18
If the professor gives breaks, if we can walk
around and stretch and how good they are
about extensions. If the jokes they use during
lecture are actually funny.

Frankie Pappalardo 18
Id like to know what the professor thinks
about his or her performance, like a response or a rebuttal. We give all of the
criticism but I think self-criticism could be
really helpful.

Lucia Gagliardone 20
Did I feel engaged? Did I feel like I was
learning things that mattered? For me, the
classes where I felt like it mattered the most
I enjoyed.

Parikshit Sharma 17
You could ask how many aha moments
or how many epiphanies you had during the class. I would say Ive had at least
two aha moments per class per semester.
COMPILED BY OLIVIA ATWOOD, ELIZA GRAUMLICH AND ELEANOR PAASCHE

Nearing shortage, Bowdoin finds new mac and cheese bite vendor
BY OLIVIA ATWOOD
ORIENT STAFF

Last Saturday night was the legendary

annual Junior-Senior Ball. It was sensational because the night boasts one of
Bowdoin College Caterings most delectable tiny treats: the ever-elusive mac and
cheese nuggets nestling in a basket at the
food station. However, fans of the adored
bites faced a rattling turn of events this
week when rumors whipped about campus that the nugget manufacturer had
discontinued the item.
The general consensus was that Bowdoin had bought out the last of the stock
and was slowly doling out the remaining
mini nugs at fancy events. Would the
lack of nuggets destroy campus moral
and put an end to events such as the winter ball and the spring gala? Can Bowdoin be Bowdoin without fried mac and
cheese? Panic spread like wildfire.
Ryan Strange 17, former president of
the Class of 2017 and COO of the class

this year, was appalled that he had not

received this vital information sooner.
I dont think anyone on our class
council knew anything about that.
Theres corruption in the system, he
exclaimed.
Strange was also one of the people
charged with setting up the ball, and
even whilst stringing lights his mind had
but one fixation: The only thing I was
thinking about while setting up was getting those mac and cheese balls while I
twerk on the dance floor. That was the
only thing I wanted.
Westly Garcia 17 had by far the most
politically-minded response to the possible discontinuation of the nuggets.
Im flabbergasted. Mac and cheese
fried together in a little nugget ... its delicious! Its like striking gold, liquid gold!
he exclaimed upon hearing the news.
Id like to know what the company is
and what we could do as an institution to
bring back these mac and cheese nuggets
because I love those little suckers! Gar-

cia continued, suggesting perhaps Bowdoin called the board of directors and get
the donors in line to save the nugs.
We might need to put it up as a referendum, he declared.
However, these students need not
worry.
Ken Cardone, Associate Director/Executive Chef, took a very calm approach
in quelling the rumors in an email to
the Orient.
Its a common occurrenceproduct
availability changes daily, he wrote. The
manufacturer supplying our vendor discontinued the item. It took a few weeks
for our vendor to line up another manufacturer. It is back in stock and plenty of
product is available.
Carlie Rutan 19, BSG Vice President
for Facilities echoed Cardones economic
and relaxed sentiments.
According to Rutan, the legend of
the dwindling nuggets is a recurring
campus myth.
It seems to be that this is a rumor that

recirculates every few years,

and I think its one of those
campus legends that might
never go away.
However, Garcia was not fully
convinced by
the arrival of the
new vendor.
Can we get
a taste test?
We need to
get a taste test.
A committee
needs to come
together and research all of the different makers of this mac
and cheese nugget. Then
we need to come together and have a
campus-wide taste test to see which one
most accurately represents and reflects
the original flavor.
This is a pressing issue for Garcia, who
wondered how he could still do home-

ALEX WESTFALL

work as he learned of this worldly crisis.

I fell in love with that flavor, he bemoaned, And you know what they say.
You fall in love once, you never fall in
love again.

friday, december 9, 2016

the bowdoin orient

news

NEWS IN BRIEF Car accident after hockey game injures one

COMPILED BY HORACE WANG

ONECARD ACCOUNT GLITCH

TEMPORARILY DISPLAYS SPRING
SEMESTER POLAR POINTS
A technical error on December 1 caused students Polar Points to reflect
the amount of points they have at the beginning of the semester. Students
balances did not actually change. The issue resulted from the setup of spring
meal plans and was fixed by Monday evening. Semester Polar Points are
scheduled to reset on December 20.
Polar Points were not removed from students OneCards and students
were still able to spend their remaining fall Polar Points.
The issue was only in the web application, not the card system itself,
Assistant Director for OneCard Coordinator Chris Bird wrote in an email
to the Orient.
The incident was caused by spring meal plans and Polar Points being
loaded onto student accounts in order to produce spring billing information. A setting on the OneCard website failed to notice that spring plans
were inactive, resulting in the program showing students their spring account balance instead of their fall ones.
Several students emailed Bird over the weekend with screenshots that
demonstrated the problem.
Some students who noticed the error believed that their Polar Points had
been reset, but discovered this was not the case.
I think most people working at places where Polar Points were usable
were aware of the issue. When I went to buy something from the [convenience store], they said that Polar Points werent reset and that the spring
funds werent usable yet, said Amanda Trent 20.
Staff from the OneCard Office and Bowdoin Information Technology
staff fixed the display error.

LETTER
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
I have seen [from the] students
involved that they do not feel safe.
And not only students but staff
members and faculty members are
being affected by this singling out
and targeting of particular groups in
the country, said Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Nadia Celis.
Celis helped pen the original draft
and is a member of the joint student
and faculty campus group Intersections: People, Planet and Power (IP3).
The original letter, the one that
was first circulated among faculty,
had a statement basically in solidarity with those particular members of
the community that were particularly attacked, Celis said.
That original letter was given to
the Committee on Governance and
Faculty Affairs (GFA) which drafted
its own version of the statement and
then sent that statement out to all
faculty for comment. After hearing
comments, the committee revised
the letter and brought it to the faculty meeting for a vote.
Eighty faculty members were
present and voted at the meeting.
According to the Colleges common
data set from last academic year,
Bowdoin has 240 faculty members.
Although there was talk of circulating
the original letter to all faculty members
who could individually choose to sign
the letter or not, the professors who
drafted the original version and the
GFA decided to hold a faculty vote.
As a committee we were concerned about just having to sign their
names and would there be pressure
on one another and we didnt want
to put any of our colleagues in that
kind of position, said Bion R. Cram
Professor of Economics and chair of
the GFA Rachel Connelly.
We decided to go with the route of
having a vote at the faculty meeting and
then if it passed with a majority then
the statement reads as it does, passed
by a majority of the faculty, or the majority of the people present at the faculty meeting and that way it has a sense
that its coming from everybody, or at

least from a big group of people.

As the 49-31 vote suggests, not all
faculty members favored the statement.
Professor of Government Paul Franco
thought the statement was divisive
and not necessary. At Mondays faculty
meeting, he proposed an amendment
to the letter which was passed and diluted some of its language. Franco still
voted against the statement.
My objections were basically that
the statement had a certain political bias built into [that] seemed to
almost assume everyone voted one
way and was disappointed, said
Franco. Another dimension of my
disagreement is I find that these
statements, which are designed to
bring people together, often become
a source of division.
Franco also believed the original
tone of the letter was too therapeutic.
There [was] a lot of sympathy
or sentiments to the effect that we
support and empathize with our studentssentiments I certainty do not
disagree withbut I thought it was
kind of unnecessary to articulate
them, he said. I think thats kind of
goes so much to the core of who we
are that to kind of recite these things
suggests we werent honoring these
[sentiments] in the past.
In some ways that isnt the relationship, he added. Were here to
think about it, reflect about it, dispassionately analyze it, but not necessarily to therapeutically council.
Celis, who could not attend the
meeting due to a personal conflict,
wished she could have been at the
meeting to share the expressions and
stories she has heard from students
and faculty. Despite the changes to
the statement, she is still happy that it
was circulated.
The letter is not sufficient from
my perspective but I think its something that we can give to our students, and its important that we do
it, Celis said. I still think this is a
time for action and that this sort of
non-engagement and being a good
person kind of personal politics is
not going to enough.
Celis and other members of IP3
are considering writing another letter
next semester that more closely resembles this statements original draft.

BY CAMERON DE WET
ORIENT STAFF

An out-of-control vehicle ran into multiple people in the parking lot of Watson
Arena and crashed into the University
of Southern Maine (USM) team bus after the Bowdoin mens hockey game
against USM on Tuesday. No Bowdoin
students, faculty or staff were involved in
the incident.
The incident occurred at 9:06 p.m. directly outside of the entrance to the arena.
The car was operated by a 90 year-old
man from Topsham who had attended
the game. He reversed his vehicle, a Subaru Forrester, at a high speed from a handicap spot in an arc through the crosswalk,
running into several people who were
crossing the parking lot. The vehicle then
crashed into the front of the USM bus,
knocking the front bumper off. The bus
was running, but unoccupied. The vehicle
continued to move after hitting the bus
and came to stop on the sidewalk in front
of the arena.
Brunswick police and an ambulance
responded to the incident and were on the
scene within minutes.
Only one person was hospitalized
as a result of the incidenta 15 yearold girl from Georgetown, Maine.
She was walking in the crosswalk
with her parents when the vehicle ran

into them, running over her leg and

knocking her mother down. The girl
was able to get up and walk away from
the crosswalk but suffered a broken
ankle and an injured knee. She was
transported to Mid Coast Hospital by
an ambulance and returned home that
same night.
Weve been in touch with the girl.
She was released that evening and shes
doing fine, said Director of Safety and
Security Randy Nichols.
A number of other people leaving
the game were knocked down, either
by the vehicle itself or in an effort to
get out of the way, but no one else required hospitalization.
Nichols said that he is thankful that
the injuries were not more serious.
We were very fortunate in many ways
here that there werent more serious injuries and the fact that the bus was parked
where it was may have prevented that
vehicle from going into the lobby area because it was kind of headed that direction,
Nichols said. So the bus actually I think
protected people.
Two Bowdoin security officers were
inside the lobby of the arena when the incident occurred. They heard the commotion and were on the scene within a few
seconds. One of the officers immediately
checked on an elderly woman who had
fallen down while the other went to the

vehicle and then to the 15 year-old girl.

The doors of the vehicle were locked,
but the officer was able to gain access and
turn off the ignition after a few seconds.
The airbags had been deployed, but the
driver was unharmed.
The man was stunned by what had occurred. He clearly didnt know what had
happened. But he was not seriously hurt,
Nichols said.
An ambulance was parked right
behind the USM bus when the incident occurred. The ambulance
crew was inside the arena supplying
medical treatment for a USM hockey
player at the time, treating an illness
that was unrelated to the incident
and had precluded him from playing in the game. One member of this
ambulance crew came out to check
on the injured girl, but another ambulance was called and transported
her to the hospital.
The USM bus was operable after the
accident and was driven back to Portland that night. The Subaru sustained
significant damage to the drivers side
where it collided with the bus. No other
vehicles sustained any damage.
The Brunswick Police Department
is following up on the incident, but no
charges have been filed. It is unclear
what exactly caused the man to lose
control of the vehicle.

Ivies concert to be held indoors for fourth straight year

BY JESSICA PIPER
ORIENT STAFF

The spring 2017 Saturday Ivies concertscheduled for April 29will be

held indoors in William Farley Field
House for the fourth year in a row, according to Bowdoin Entertainment Board
(Eboard) co-chairs Arindam Jurakhan 17
and Brendan Civale 17. Whittier Field,
the outdoor venue where the concert is
typically scheduled, will be hosting the
NESCAC Spring Track and Field Championships during Ivies weekend.
The Track and Field Championships
rotate between NESCAC schools, with
Bowdoin set to host in 2017. The dates
are set because the meet feeds into
NCAA regional and national championships, according to Ashmead White
Director of Athletics Tim Ryan.
Student Activities considered other
locations for the concert or changing the
weekend of Ivies, according to Director
of Student Activities Nate Hintze. However, Hintze said no other outdoor facility allows for the College to adequately
regulate who comes and goes. Moving
the dates of Ivies weekend was also infeasible, as the preceding weekend is the
Admissions Open House for high school
seniors, and the following weekend is too
close to reading period.
Although students like the idea of
an outdoor concert, Eboard members
said that an indoor concert brings several advantages, especially given the advance notice.
It actually makes it a lot easier for us,

and a lot less expensive, Jurakhan said.

Normally you have to plan for both an
indoor and outdoor concert which costs
a lot of money because we have to pay for
a tent that goes along with it as well as the
truck [and] pull down stage. But this year
... we [will] cut those costs immediately.
In past years, the concert has been
tentatively scheduled outdoors, with
the field house as a backup option in
the event of inclement weather. Last
year, the concert was held indoors after neighbors of the College expressed
concern about the lyrics of rapper Waka
Flocka Flame. The concert was also held
indoors the previous two years before
that due to weather conditions.
Planning for an indoor concert also
allows Eboard and Student Activities to
consider performance and lighting effects.
Because usually we give them less than
24 hours to pull sound and lights from
outside to inside, now that we have a full
year we can think about what are the other options that we can do for sound and
lights, Hintze said.
Civale was optimistic about the prospects of another concert in the field house.
Ive always had a great time in Farley,
he said. I understand that maybe people
who had an outdoors Ivies may be reminiscing about the fact that they had them,
but now this whole student body has never had an outdoor Ivies.
Some students did not share
Civales enthusiasm.
I think the shame about the indoor
concert, especially last year because last
year was actually really good weather

but was moved in [is that] its hard

because Ivies is supposed to be a celebration of the spring and of the weather, said Caroline Montag 17.
Danny Mejia 17 expressed his dissatisfaction with the field house as a
concert location.
Its a place that people go to sweat and
work out and compete against one another and its just uncomfortable, he said.
With the announcement, current seniors will never experience an outdoor
Ivies concert.
You hear so many stories when
youre a first-semester freshman about
what Ivies is like, Mejia said. All of my
stories were from people who had gone
to an outdoor concert, and they said
that it being outside was just so much
more about being together.
Civale and Jurakhan said the venue
change will not affect how Eboard
chooses the Ivies artist.
We dont really pick based off venue.
We usually just pick who we think the
best artist is concurrent with the survey
we send out, Jurakhan said.
In the event of inclement weather
during Ivies weekend and the track
and field championships, field events
like pole vault might also need to take
place indoors, but Ryan said Athletics
has a contingency plan.
Weve thought about how we would
make that work in terms of schedulingwise, so we could have our events that
may need to take place indoors completed
in time so that concert would be able to
start on time, he said.

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bowdoinorient.com

news

the bowdoin orient

friday, december 9, 2016

Students provide input for future land use at former naval air station
BY NELL FITZGERALD
ORIENT STAFF

Several groups of Bowdoin students

are investigating uses for land that the
College acquired in 2013 at the former
Naval Air Station Brunswick. Ideas for
how to use the land include running and
skiing trails, expanding the Bowdoin Organic Garden and creating space for art
installations. The Bowdoin Consulting
Club sent out a survey last week to gather
more opinions from the student body.
The College currently owns about 275
total acres and is working to acquire 143
additional acres, according to Government Relations and Land Use Specialist
Catherine Ferdinand. The plot of land is
located between the campus and the former naval air station, south of Pine Street
apartments and parallel to Harpswell
Road. Plans to develop it are still relatively
far away from fruition.
In terms of starting to have our plans
implemented, I think that well start development in 2020, and thats a requirement
with our agreement with the [U.S. Department of Education] at this time. Those
plans are somewhat fluid, Ferdinand said.
Bowdoin acquired the land as part of a
process known as public benefit conveyance, by which the federal government
transfers land to localities or nonprofits
for public benefit use. Because of the public benefit use requirement, the Colleges
ultimate plans with the land are subject to
approval by the Department of Education,
according to Ferdinand.
The Bowdoin Consulting Club asked
to assist with the project last fall.
Knowledge is power, and any information that we get about this property is
going to be helpful down the road. Particularly from the user base, faculty members and students, Ferdinand said.
To assess interest in the land, one team,
headed by Phillip Wang 18, focused on
qualitative data, gathering interviews
from students, professors and coaches
who might be interested in using the land.
Based off of our interviews, it seems
like everyone is interested in the land and

PARTY
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
makes it feel more insulting than anything honestly.
One other criticism of the event was
that the House did not partner with
Gender Matters. Belfield said that in
hindsight, this was one of many major
mistakes the House made.
I am very disappointed in us, as a
House, that we were not able to find
[Gender Matters] and communicate
with them, because we wanted to. If
we had [had] that conversation, we
couldve done something different,
Belfield said. I was trying to be an
ally and I think a lot of other people
were. And we messed up.
Members of Gender Matters and
other concerned students sent an
email to MacMillan House Wednesday night explaining their objections
to the party and demanding that the
theme be changed.
As a result of the backlash, the
House planned a new event, Continue the Discussion: Is the Gender
Bender a Positive Event? to listen to
criticism of the event and create conversation in a public manner. However, there were mixed responses leading up to the event.
Im very happy with the discussion
that has been coming, said Etzel. At
the heart of it, I dont think [the party] should have happened in the first
place, but [MacMillan] made the best
of a sticky situation, and Im very happy with how receptive theyve been. I
think that ultimately its good that this

HANNAH RAFKIN, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND: Bowdoin acquired land at the site of the former Naval Air Station Brunswick in 2013 and is in the process of acquiring additional acres. Several groups of students have been studying
the land and weighing community membersopinions with the hopes of influencing how the College will use the area in the future.
everyone is interested kind of in their own
respective right, he said.
Suggested uses have varied widely.
Wang said an art history professor that
he interviewed is interested in introducing sculpture installations on the land,
while a nordic ski coach saw potential
for future ski trails.
The Consulting Club also sought
to collect quantitative data, in the
form of a survey sent to students last
week. Wendy Dong 18, who led the
team, said they received hundreds of
responses and many suggestions as to
conversation is happening.
Our plan for the most
part is to shut up and listen
to people, since we know
weve hurt people, said
Belfield. We also do recognize this discussion is inherently flawed. In Gender Matters letter to us, they said
many of them will not be
attending since they do not
feel comfortable and do not
want to be tokenized. That
was never our intent. We
have no desire to force people to come and talk about
how theyre feeling. We just
want to give the space to
those who wanted it.
The meeting took place
last night and roughly 30
students attended. MacMillan House started the
event by issuing an apology before opening the
space for discussion. Topics covered included the
role of College Houses as safe spaces
on campus and whether Facebook is
an appropriate medium for this type
of discussion.
Shu-Shu Hsia 19, who was first to
post in the campus-wide Facebook
event, believes that conversation
through social media was a good way
to discuss the issue.
I feel like talking about it online
was a pretty effective way, which
is why I dont feel like [MacMillan
House members] were being genuine
when they say that wanted a discussion to take place, Hsia said. Imme-

how the land should be used.

Hopefully our results will prove to be
significant and the administrators will
actually take into consideration our data,
I think they definitely will because weve
collected some important data, Dong said.
A group of students from Assistant Professor of Biology Vladimir
Douhovnikoff s Forest Ecology and
Conservation class have also been
studying the land.
Its a really weird and interesting
piece of property. All semester weve
been taking an inventory of the natural

COURTESY OF MACMILLAN HOUSE

diately, when we started to say that

we werent comfortable with the idea,
they were trying to funnel the discussion into private emails. I dont know
why everyone is so against talking online. This is the most powerful communication tool weve ever had.
Moving forward, Etzel said that
Gender Matters and BQSA are looking for ways to continue the conversation beyond this event. One idea they
have is to create a poster series next
semester that combats the conflation
of gender identity, gender expression
and gender performance.

things that are there, said Lenior Kelley 19, one of the students working
on the land for Douhovnikoff s class.
The different kinds of groups of trees,
vernal pools, wetlands, stuff like that.
Weve also been thinking about different buildings and trails that would be
appropriate for the site. Theres so many
different things that we proposed Its
exciting that its real world stuff.
The groups presentation suggested
an extension of the Bowdoin Organic
Garden, a greenhouse, an orchard, a
public park and trails for both nordic

skiing and jogging.

Nobody really has any idea about
whats going on about the property besides us, so I think that they really care
about what we have to say, Kelley said.
While the Colleges plans for the land
are still undecided, student input can help
provide inspiration.
All of the student initiatives have merit
and add to the ideas and information we
have gathered to date as to the opportunities and constraints associated with the
future development of this property, Ferdinand wrote in an email to the Orient.

friday, december 9, 2016

the bowdoin orient

news

Post-election verbal harassment claims not deemed bias incidents

BY SARAH BONANNO
ORIENT STAFF

Since the November election, students have reported four separate

incidents of verbal harassment with
potentially political overtones to the
Office of Safety and Security. None
have been deemed bias incidents by
Security nor has the Brunswick Police Department (BPD) charged any
individuals. Three of the four incidents involved Brunswick community
members and all seem consistent with
other informal reports of harassment
received by the Brunswick Human
Rights Task Force.
According to Director of Safety and
Security Randy Nichols, a bias incident
is fairly obvious when it occurs, such
as when a slur pointed at a particular
person is used. In cases when inappropriate language is involved, Security

examines the context and intent to determine if it is a bias incident. This semester there has been one formal report
of a bias incident when a community
member called a student a racial slur at
Joshuas Tavern on October 30.
Of the four incidents of verbal harassment since election day, Nicholas identified only one as related directly to the
election. On November 12, a female student was jogging on Maine Street when
a group of teenagers in a car proclaimed
their support for President-elect Donald Trump and made a comment that
directly referred to language used by
Trump in an Access Hollywood tape
where he bragged about sexual assault.
Since then, the female student has
met with BPD, as have all those who
reported harassmentwith the exception of those a part of an incident
that exclusively involved Bowdoin
students. This incident was investi-

gated by Security and passed on to

the deans office for further review.
According to Nichols, although none
of these instances have been deemed
chargeable offenses, he still believes it is
important communicate with the police
to help identify a vehicle or individual
in case the same person is involved in
a similar incident again. That way, BPD
can take informal action in the future.
I can assure you if theres another
incident involving our students with
this individual that the matter would be
taken to the next level, Nichols said.
Nichols did not feel the number of
bias incidents was abnormal.
Variations of this happen on a regular basis almost every year, he said. We
have incidents, they happen out in the
world, and whether its a racial epithet
thats thrown out from a vehicle or a misogynistic statement or some other type
of offensive interaction with people of

the community, thats not that unusual.

Brunswick Town Council and
Brunswick Human Rights Task Force
member Jane Millett echoed Nicholss
sentiment in a phone interview with
the Orient, saying that reports of harassment have been steady since the
task forces creation.
Furthermore, there has not been an
increase of reports on BPDs electronic
reporting platform, according to Councilor Sarah Brayman, who leads the task
force. If anything, Brayman has heard
only anecdotal stories of harassment
and encourages people to anonymously
report via the BPDs platform to help the
task force mobilize.
Brayman also questioned a direct
link between local incidents of harassment and the national political climate.
But the task force is aware I
think that we all can see that rhetoric
has gotten ramped up and its been

ramped up for months now throughout the election cycle, she said.
Going forward, the task torce will
hold additional meetings and continue
to share a message through community
organizations about the importance of
being an active bystander to help make
Brunswick a safe and welcoming environment for all. Brayman also said she
will continue to research national networks the town can join to gain more
tools to deal with such incidents.
Millett believes individuals should
learn to be active bystanders.
We felt like people should do
that strongly and not really hesitate, Millett said. You have to evaluate every situation individually, but
whether or not you say something to
a person in authority or whether or
not you intervene immediately is going to be dictated by the individual
and also by the circumstances.

DISCUSSION
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

of races, of ethnicities, of religions and

also of ideologies, and I think that
weve sometimes neglected that issue
of ideological diversity. I fear that the
Trump election may compound that
in the next four years, as each side becomes more polarized.
Riley expressed a similar sentiment.
[The mission of the College
should be] to get kids out of their
comfort zone, allow them to develop
their critical thinking skills, argue
with people, debate people, learn that
saying Im offended shouldnt end
an argument learn how to analyze
an issue from different points of view,
because I dont think youre doing the
kids any favors by letting them exist
in this bubble, said Riley.
Riley added that he feels the
responsibility for lack of ideological diversity falls on faculty
and administrators.
These kids feel intimidated into
silence through the environment,
and I place the emphasis really on
the adults running the campus that
have allowed such a hostile environment for people who hold different
perspectives, Riley said. If you want
to be exposed to different points of
view, have forums like this. Invite
conservatives on campus to speak
and expose kids to different points
of view.
To this point, he argued that colleges need to encourage liberal professors to teach objectively.
There are some conservatives that
say we need to hire more conservative professors to counterbalance
the liberal professors, he said. Im
not sure thats the way to go. Id rather
we hire people to keep their politics
out of the classroom.
Kristof suggested that all individuals have a role to play in seeking out
ideological diversity.
I think work should begin at every
possible end, Kristof said. Whether
we are students or faculty or adults
in the community, [we] can try to
open ourselves to information sources that we deeply disagree with.
Student reactions to the event were
mixed, and many expressed frustration or disappointment. Many hoped
for more disagreement and debate
between the speakers.
I felt as though at some places
of the conversation it was superficial to some extent, said Mohamed
Nur 19. It could have been more
confrontational, it could have taken
more risks, but I think overall it was
good. It was good to hear different

ANN BASU, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

UP FOR DISCUSSION: (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP:) New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof (left), Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley (center) and Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies
Connie Chiang discussfree speech and political correctnessin Pickard Theater, students listen to Riley at the post-discussion event in Thorne Hall, Adam Silberberg 20 asks the speakers a question.
viewpoints and opinions and I think
that helps us as a campus and as a
community make progress.
Other attendees commented on
the lack of specificity in the discussion. Neither speaker nor the moderator addressed free speech at Bowdoin specifically.
I was very frustrated, especially
considering what happened last year
with all those incidences that the
moderator did not bring up the issue
of cultural appropriation, said Hailey Wozniak 20. Both the journalists seemed to just kind of be repeating the same things and speaking
kind of vaguely.
Although Wozniak said the talk
could have been improved, she expressed gratitude toward the speakers.
It was still very incredible to have

them both come, she said.

Rebkah Tesfamariam 18, a member
of the committee that who organized the
event, was satisfied with the outcome.
The goal of a conversation doesnt
have to be everybody changing their
personal views or everybody agreeing, but somehow coming to a mutual understanding that there are
valid different points of views, Tesfamariam said. Also to give people the
space to hear different perspectives
that they may not hear on campus already, and I think both of those goals
were achieved for sure.
They both sort of seemed to punt
on questions about sort of addressing
issues with universities specifically,
which seemed bizarre given that that
was essentially what this was supposed to be about, said Alex Vasile

16. It was just not enough going on

for me. Sort of a shallow almost like
introduction, and youd think with all
the time and effort that went to putting this event together It seems
like we should have come out with a
little bit more.
Chiang asked questions to the columnists for the first 45 minutes of
the event. During the final 30 minutes, the speakers responded to questions from students in the audience.
After the discussion in Pickard Theater, about 200 students discussed
the event in small groups in Thorne,
joined by Kristof and Riley.
Many students responded positively to this post-event discussion.
I think that it was really constructive having this talk after, Griffee
said. I think the other students and

I came to the conclusion that the entire campus needs to be forced to talk
about this I think that people on
campus are just not talking to one
another and we need to hear what
each other has to say, and I think that
thats something that I got and am excited about and want to figure out a
way to make that happen.
Tesfamariam agreed.
I think that a lot of the conversations I had with students afterwards
were really productive, she said. I
sat at a table where a lot of different
points of views were brought up, and
it was a really comfortable conversation I think that we were all very
respectful of each other, and I think
that that was a really good example
of how we should be conducting conversation all the time.

the bowdoin orient

FEATURES
PART FIVE: STUDYING AND BEING STUDIED

THE WOMEN OF 75
The women coming into Bowdoin in
the Class of 1975, the first coeducational
four-year graduating class, were met with
sparse representation in the classroom with
respect to their peers, faculty and studies.
In my Biology 101 class, there were
only two women [out of] 50 or 60 kids,
said Amy Pearlmutter 75 in a phone interview with the Orient.
The first few years, it felt like both
the five or six women faculty members
and the women students were extremely
visiblea sort of fishbowl effect, said
Helen Cafferty, a German professor who
arrived at Bowdoin in 1972.
By the time the first coeducational class
graduated, there were nine female faculty
members at the College.
All of my professors [except one] were
male, said Patricia Pope 75, who transferred to Bowdoin from Smith College.
But at Smith College, all of my professors
were male too. I thought that was ironic.
Though the Twelve College Exchange
brought women into Bowdoins classrooms
in previous years, the male-dominated
faculty reacted in a variety of ways to the
influx of a class that contained 65 women.
A few of the professors were a bit
leary, said Debrah Burk 75 in a phone
interview with the Orient.
I had a professor where all of the examples were always he and him said
Christa Cornell 75.
However, Cornell said that she also had
positive experiences with professors.
Professor [John] Rensenbrink was one
of my favorite professors, in government,
and I think he really opened my eyes in a
lot of ways to how the system was sexist,
she said. He was very, very open to changing the system and how to get rights for all.
Several women of the Class of 1975 interviewed for this series said that the classics department was less welcoming to
women than it was to men.
A March 9, 1972 letter to the editor in
the Orient from football player Jed Lyons 74 expressed his perspective: First
they demand their own field hockey
team, then they insist upon private locker

rooms, equal representation on the Student Council and admission to Classics

12 [...] Where will it end?
The ways that Bowdoin institutionally
prepared for women in the classroom
focused on making few changes until the
administration could see what students
needed, like other aspects of the coeducation process.
An August 1970 Memorandum from
the Ad Hoc Committee on Coeducation
to President Roger Howell wrote the goal
should be no net increase in faculty, and
recommended that some departments
will have to shrink in order that others
(presumably those whose course offerings
are most relevant to women undergraduates) are permitted to expand. It also recommended that the facultys Committee
on Curriculum and Educational Policy
(CEP) closely monitor the curriculum.
In August of 1976, a Special Committee
on Coeducation released a report that there
were no large shifts in specific department
enrollment due to the addition of women.
You know, it was an interesting time in
terms of integrating into the academic side
of it, said Helen MacNeil 75 in a phone
interview with the Orient. We had a lot
of professors who were really bending over
backward to make sure we got whatever
support we needed, and there were some
feminist female professors who were adamant that we all excel far beyond the guys ...
in some cases I thought, like Really? Cant
we just do our best?
Ultimately, the largest change that
would occur to the curriculum directly
related to coeducation was the creation
of a womens studies program, and later,
major. This was also reflected in a national trend of the recognizing of the new
field of womens studies.
The first womens studies program that
received official approval was at San Diego
State University in 1970. The field rapidly
expanded in the 70s and 80s. By 1987, Amherst, Hamilton, Trinity, Wesleyan and
Williamscolleges that, like Bowdoin,
were historically all-male and became
coeducational in the 60s or 70sall had

either a major, interdisciplinary major or

minor in womens studies.
Since 1974, Bowdoin had offered womens studies courses on an ad hoc basis,
according to a Womens Studies Program
Committee report published in 1987.
These were classes offered in other departments that explored themes of gender and
feminist theory.
On campus there was this feeling that
we needed to have some womens studies courses and womens focused courses
in the curriculum even though we didnt
have a program yet, said Cafferty, who
was one of the first professors to teach
an official womens studies class at Bowdoina class on German literature with
a focus on women.
In 1980, the Womens Resource Center (WRC) was proposed by the Bowdoin Womens Association and Womens
Resource Center Committee. Its creation
was tied to a desire for an academic study
of women.
The WRC proposal in the December
22 Orient said: We feel it is essential for all
members of the Bowdoin Community
students, staff and facultyto have access
to the existing and growing body of diverse
and exciting scholarly and creative work by
and about women ... We feel that the proposed Resource Center will be a place for
the Bowdoin community to develop a critical approach and explore meta-traditional
ways of learning, thinking and knowing.
A womens studies program was not
formally created until 1988 despite a demonstrated institutional desire for a program as expressed in the 1981 Report of
President Willard Entemans Commission
on the Status of Women.
This use of the Womens Resource Center as a place of scholarly learning and seminars carried on through the creation of a
womens studies major in 1993.
The 1987 proposal to the CEP by the
Womens Studies Program Committee,
chaired by Cafferty, asked for a formal
womens studies program and a minor in
the department, and urged the WRC to
institute faculty seminars and workshops

friday, december 9, 2016

BY EMILY WEYRAUCH
ORIENT STAFF

to aid faculty in developing womens studies courses and in redesigning their courses
to include a gender component.
Part of the 1990 proposal for a major in
womens studies stated a Womens Studies major will confirm Bowdoins commitment to coeducation.
Over time, the name of the major has
changed. In 2005, the department became
the Department of Gender and Womens
studies, and last year it became Gender
Sexuality and Womens studies, to encompass the former Department of Gay and

Lesbian Studies.
Overall, the academic study of women
and gender has become more centralized
into the department and less focused in the
WRC. In 2009, the womens studies faculty members moved their offices from the
WRC to the Boody-Johnson house.
Cafferty said in the early years of coeducation at Bowdoin, women faculty [were]
peeking out in the wilderness.
Theres a sense of normality now, at
least from my ancient perspective, compared to the beginning, she said.

COURTESY OF GEORGE J. MITCHELL DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS & ARCHIVES

A CLASS ACT: Professor Melinda Riley, one of the first female faculty members at Bowdoin, teaches a
sociology seminar to a group of students in 1974.

Tapped Out: mulled beers two centuries overdue for a wintry comeback
BY JAEYEON YOO
COLUMNIST

Are you freezing, dear Reader? Do you

have the sniffles, have small ice blocks
instead of toes, forget the last time the
temperature was above freezing (actually, I rememberit was early October)
and almost die on a regular basis from
slipping on black ice on a busy street? Do
you also not feel inclined to an ice-cold
pint of beer, as perfect as it usually is?
Here is the tale of how I stayed in
and made mulled beer, because I felt
too cold to drink normal beer. In the
touristy parts of Moscow, you can find
numerous little stalls that offer traditional Christmas drinks or mulled wine;
sweet, hot, festiveits really pretty nice.
But do not despairwine is not the only
hot beverage option; I learned that Peter I (Russia Tsar from way back when)
and his generation used to drink their
beer hot. This fun fact got me started
on a fascinating online search for hot
beer drinks, during which I discovered
the existence of mulled beer. Its a traditional drink not only from 1700s Rus-

sia, but also all over the older European

world. For example, take the famous
English drink called Wassail. Making
it involves pouring hot beer with spices over a bowl with some sugar on the
bottom, letting it sit and infuse, then
topping the whole thing with thin slices
of bread. While beer-soggy bread didnt
appeal to me, I was curious enough
about the idea of mulled beer to make a
version at home.
Heres the basic recipe:
- 1 mugful of beer
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- Lemon and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) to taste
Put everything together in a small
saucepan and heat it up, but make sure
not to boil the mixture for too long,
unless you want non-alcoholic mulled
beer. Channel your inner Martha Stewartpour the heated beverage into a
crystal chalice, garnish with cinnamon
sticks, candied orange peels, floating
rose candles, etc., as desired. Post a
picture of your dreamy mulled beer on
social media venue of choice, labeled
#foodporn and #whoneedsmulledwine.

I used a cheap Russian beer with an

alcohol percentage of 13 percent (in case
I accidentally over-boiled), which tasted
remarkably similar to one of those 40s that
you can buy at 7/11. I added lots of lemon,
honey and cinnamon, then stirred. The
mixture turned out to be gorgeousthe
white foam from the heated-up beer was
sprinkled with specks of cinnamon, resembling whipped cream, and the beer turned
a slightly darker golden. Very appealing, especially when poured into a clear glass. The
smell was also lovely, with the beer creating
an unusually toasty, grainy undertone to
the traditional holiday scents.
The beer I started out with was not
wonderful, and the spices did not quite
cover up its unappetizing taste. If I do
this again, which I surprisingly might, I
would do it with a very malty beer, like
Baltika #9. I was prepared for this to
be completely disgusting; however, the
aftertaste was unexpectedly nice, with
the lemon and beer balancing out the
sweetness of honey and making it very
drinkable. My biggest complaint was
that the mouthfeel was very flat, with all
the carbonation gone out of the beer

leaving the drink more like tepid soda.

But even so, and with the less-than-stellar beer I used, I preferred this mulled
beer to the mulled wines that Ive had,
which so far have been sickly, stickily
sweet. I do think that every beer cant be
made into mulled beer; for example, an
already distinct-tasting IPA or a light,
clean-tasting lager both seem like a disastrous combo with spices and honey.
But with a beer that is already not very
carbonated and tastes malty, fruity or
creamyperhaps mulled beer could
make a comeback in 2017 from its long
hiatus since the 1800s.
So, in conclusion, I would recommend this to others. It might not be your
cup of mulled beverage, but I think its
worth a try. At any rate, its a good way
to procrastinate on your schoolwork
and acts as a nice-smelling, warm thing
to clutch in your hands after a cold day
(or while dealing with estranged family
members). Whether accompanied by
beer or not, I hope you fly through finals
and have a wonderful winter break; Ill
see you on the other side, on the same
continent (hopefully).

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Tonights Soundtrack: Parsley, Sage,
Rosemary, and Thyme by Simon & Garfunkelnot the right spices, but it doesnt
matter because their voices are so cozy.
Tonights Toast: A Poem on the Underground Wall of a beer bar summed it up
pretty wellIn Heaven there is no beer;
thats why we drink ours here. Im not
sure about the non-existence of heavenly
beer, since Ive never been there, but I do
believe in drinking in the moment. Here
is to beer in 2017.
Conclusions on mulled beer:
Appearance:
Smell:
Flavor:
*
Mouthfeel:

Overall:
* To be fair, I feel that the flavor could be
improved if I experimented with a
dierent beer and more spices.

friday, december 9, 2016

the bowdoin orient

features

Passion for fashion:

Hugh Mo 17 runs
Instagram style blog
BY JULIA ROHDE
ORIENT STAFF

Born and raised in Queens, New

York, Hugh Mo 17, grew up in a
world filled with urban streetwear
and constantly evolving trends. In
June 2016, he developed a blog, @_
mostyle_, where he has since built
a base of 11.2 thousand followers,
establishing himself as a prominent
fashion influencer within the massive and wide-reaching network
of Instagram.
Initially, Mos posts focused on
the aspects of fashion that he had
encountered online, at home in New
York City and abroad in Australia.
After returning from his time abroad,
Mo found himself re-entering the
online world of fashion through sites
such as Graileda one-stop-shop for
mens fashion, and Facebookwhich
served as a huge resource for Mo.
While his blog includes many
different aspects of fashion, he has
a particular love for and interest
in sneakers.
Mos favorite parts of directing
and developing his blog include
the connections and friends he has
made, as well as the chance to make
inroads into the industry in which
he hopes to one day be an influential member.
I started a Facebook group to engage with the community of fashion
influencers, making friends with people as far as Singapore and Australia,
said Mo. I just wanted to start something on my ownmeeting companies, talking to people in the fashion
world, getting closer to the industry
that I can see myself working in.
Specific brands that Mo highlights

in his blog are St. Laurent and Fear of

Godwhich he describes as the most
visible brand among celebrities. Hoping to spice up his blog, he wants to
include female fashion trends and advice for men on a budget.
Were trying to incorporate womens fashion into my blog, said Mo.
Personally, I think its getting a little
sterile with just me in it. More collaboration content will make my page
more interesting.
I love fashion and the idea of the
business side of fashion. Trends are
always moving, always changing,
said Mo.
Mos original and unique style had
caught the attention of friends and
other Bowdoin community members
before his Instagram received thousands of followers. It was these people
who suggested that he share his passion and creativity with the rest of
the world.
Mo started the process of taking his
style to the web with WordPress but
later transitioned to Instagram.
Once he returned to Bowdoin for
his senior year, Mo found a photographer, Darius Riley 19, who could help
him gain more influence in the Instagram world of fashion influencers.
I wouldnt be where I am right now
without my photographer, said Mo.
Riley met Mo through a mutual
friend and he offered up his photography services to help with Mos
new blog.
I had no true prior experience,
just watching videos and playing
with the camera, said Riley.
One of the elements that sets Mos
blog apart are the distinctly Maine
backgrounds. On Thursday afternoons, Riley and Mo venture around

COURTESY OF DARIUS RILEY

SNEAKER FEATURE: Hugh Mo 17 established a fashion blog on Instagram in June 2016, shortly after returning from abroad in Australia. After fellow students and other members of the Bowdoin community noticed his interest in fashion, he was inspired to make his interests known in a more public atmosphere. Mo has
since acquired over 11 thousand followers and plans to expand his blog to include womens fashion and more cost-eective styles for his followers who are on a budget.
campus or into Brunswick, searching
for spots that work with the photoshoot that theyre planning for that
day. On these photoshoot outings,
Riley brings his camera and Mo
comes prepared with a bag of outfits
that he has scrupulously planned out
for his upcoming blog posts.
I always ask him, What do you
want to focus on with this outfit?
said Riley. I feel like I have a lot of

creativity. The only constraint is the

focus for the next post.
Rileys favorite aspects of photographing for Mo center around his
goal as a photographer: to capture
what he sees with his naked eye. Using the app Lightroom, Riley edits
his photos to bring about what he
defines as the truth in the photo, an
element that the camera is not always
able to capture.

I love editing. Showing Hugh the

before and after pictures, even seeing
them myself is justwoah, its always
so amazing...making [him] stand out,
even when the picture may seem simple, said Riley.
Follow @_mostyle_ on Instagram to discover and explore Mos
style blog.
Darius Riley 19 is a photographer
for the Bowdoin Orient.

Looking at nature as an antidote for the cold winter season

PENELOPE LUSK

EXPLORING MAINE

This week was the first snowfall

in Brunswick, always the most welcomed. December has a way of wiping everything clean, as if the very
environment is preparing for the New
Years proverbial clean slate. This New
Year feels shaky; our next semester
and my final semester at Bowdoin will
begin as our country begins a new
chapter, a slate that feels dirty before
its even arrived.
The Maine winter changes our ability to interact with our environment
and marks an enormous (if oft-despised) part of what makes this place
what it is. The cold and the snow are
some of the most common topics any
non-Mainer will raise with a Bowdoin student, and weve all probably
spent about a cumulative week of our
Bowdoin experience bemoaning the
weatherbecause it was 25 degrees
last night, and I wear a coat when its
65.
On Monday as the snow fell like a
slow exhalation, I went to the Commons to take a walk. Not yet icy but
already sparkling, the paths are familiar and new again. Stopping with
my friend by the pond, he threw
dead branches against the slushy ice

to watch it splatter with satisfying

cracks.
The pine branches are dressed in
layers of crystal, the bare twigs of
deciduous trees white-capped like
tiny waves. Shake them hard and
the snow will explode into flurries
before trembling down to settle on
the ground.
My Maine winters come in contrast to 18 years of Brooklyn winters,
with their rare moments of stillness
amongst the grey slush and the immediate sweat upon stepping from
the cold streets into the heated subway cars. New York winters are ice
skating in the parks and scurrying
to coffee shops; they are as cozy and
crowded as the city can be. Theyre
also grimy.
My Maine winters have been
wearing sweaters and two coats and
at least two hand-knit scarves to
hustle across campus and burst into
a building to finally feel the blood
rushing back into my face. They have
been running out onto the frozen ice
at Simpsons Point with the same giddy feelings that bubble while swimming there in the summer. They
have been waking in the dark of 5:30
a.m. to drive to Popham and watch
the sun stretch up and out over the
untouched swathes of snow reaching
the foam on the beach.
Winter is also the exploration of

inward places, the mornings spent

watching snow through the window
and just staying inside, the nights
doing homework huddled under
blankets because your off-campus
house has horsehair insulation
(which doesnt seem to do much insulating at all). Winter is both the
he
squirrels conserving energy in their
drays and the dogs ploughing wildly
through the snow on the quad.
Finding the ways to connect and
commune with this place in its literal darkest times has brought a
stability and cyclicality to my time
at Bowdoin. Also, after visiting
Texas in July and realizing that
oppressive heat makes it just
as impossible to be outside
for longer than five minutes as the cold does, Im
trying to see even the
temperature as an
equal part of the
whole season.
No
matter the season, and even
no matter the
turmoil of that
particular season,
I think nature can
be an antidoteeven
if that antidote is best
taken from inside a cozy
house. The ingrained sym-

bolism of seasons is not lost on my

cosmological sentimentality as fall
becomes winter, which looks forward to spring.
This winter will be
marked by uncer-

tainty and fear and radical changes.

I want it to also be marked with the
reaffirmation of the determined
beauty of the natural world, and as
much good, old-fashioned playing
in the snow as my toes can take.

HINGTO
SOPHIE WAS

features

the bowdoin orient

friday, december 9, 2016

TALK OF THE QUAD

MY ARMOR OF TEARS

ALEX WESTFALL

THE BROKEN CONTAINER

Last year, I was in Paris during the
terrorist attacks, and I dont know
how to tell that story. Similarly, I
dont know how to tell the story
about Trumps recent election. But
there seems to be a strange and shivering thread between the two events.
Both violent, painful, chaotic. Yet
Paris was somewhat contained.
This election is notthe common
mantra being, We just dont know
whats going to happen.
We tell stories to make meaning of traumato contain pain so
we can better examine it and give it
value. But sometimes we are in such
distress that the container cracks.
We can no longer write or speak in
the same way, we can no longer contain the pain or carry it comfortably.
Paris: the cherry glow of sirens,
the bitter cold, windows slamming
shut, a vacant Eiffel Tower. Alternatively: my friend who calmly held
my hand, the family member who
made a quiche, a caf filled with
people drinking champagne the
next day.
Either it becomes a story of
horror and fear, which youve already heard, or a story of healing
and bravery, which feels mawkish
and insincere.
I think we dislike narratives
which exist in gray, uncertain space.
We want them to have logic, to land
on one side of a binarytragedy or
comedy, conflict resolved or broken
open, a character whose biggest desire is fulfilled or wrenched from

them completely. Climax, falling action, resolution.

But trauma, especially
when it first occurs, isnt a
neat and tidy narrative. Sometimes there is no narrative at all.
The New Yorker recently featured a piece in which 16 writers weighed in on the election.
As my friend Marie Scarles observed, There are so many different versions of why Trump
won, and so many ways for us
to imagine the future. Should
we pay more attention to poor
whites? To Muslims? To women? To LGBTQ? To racists? To
immigrants? All seem urgent,
but none can be held as the
be-all-end-all.
We are searching for a
straightforward answer, an
immediate ending so this
can be over and done with.
After the election,
hunched over my carrel in H-L and unable to
write, I got a text message
from my father: Trauma
turns us into animals,
which means storytelling turns off. We
revert to fight, flight
or shock. But sometimes, maybe our
storytelling tendencies shutting down is
a good thing. Maybe
it allows us to survive. Narratives
caxn be healing, but they can also
be dangerous.
By attending to many different
perspectives, perhaps a new story
will eventually arise, something
both nuanced and messy, something

When my little sister Taye was

two, I would try to hold her and she
would respond with small teeth in
my flesh. When she was five, she was
ordered to the principals office almost every week. When she was 14,
she would puff up her chest and demand, Say that to my face. I idolized her ability to stand up against
mini white supremacists that pulled
their eyes back and stuck out their
teeth. But even the greatest fighters
are not invincible. As I watched her
mature, her skin became so thick
from such micro-aggressions that
she drew pictures on her arm with
a knife to make sure she could still
bleed. We both squeezed our eyes
shut at night and prayed to wake up
white.
The sky dripped rain the day my
little sister died, I remember vividly.
It was the end of my first year at
Bowdoin. She hung herself next to
a short dress from T.J.Maxx and a
forgotten kimono.
Feeling endless sorrow, I now
fight for Taye. So many people argue that people of color are thinskinned, but I argue the depth of
people of colors emotions has built

armor. Thick skin is not in spite of

emotions, but because of emotions.
I watched as peers with emotions
as deep as wells courageously made
themselves vulnerable by picking
up microphones, speaking at Bowdoin Student Government (BSG)
meetings, sitting on panels, holding up Can we talk? signs after
the tequila partymaking noble
attempts to harmonize a microcosm
of humanity.
I wrapped myself in armor out
of my grief for my sister. However,
I learned quickly that having thick
skin means people want to see you
bleed. By the end of my sophomore
year I took on a public fight with
the former president of BSG to instate a multicultural representative
and by the end of my junior year my
voicemy freedom of speechwas
marked unbecoming of a Bowdoin
student and I was abruptly silenced.
At the end of that year, I told a faculty member that I felt like someone
had violently cut holes through my
body and I didnt know how to stop
the bleeding. I was ashamed because
I thought the holes were a manifestation of thin skin.
When I saw the reactions rising on Asian Student Associations

Facebook albums: #ThisIs2016,

I was thrilled that different microaggressions towards Asians were
being validated. When I held up
my sign, I guess youre pretty for
an Asian, I looked into a dark lens
that would soon be viewed by over
7 million people. Anonymous eyes
scrutinized my face before typing
out, they lied; youre not pretty;
youre lucky someone even thinks
youre attractive; and most Asians
are pretty, just not you. I heard
Tayes voice, Say that to my face.
But I surprised myself: I cried.
Im beginning to believe that the
tears on my cheeks are not a sign
of weakness. My emotions give me
the strength to step into situations
that those who have thin skin may
never dare to take on. The courage
thats necessary to take a stand and
the inevitable repercussive stabs
hurt like hell. And even though
the greatest fighters are not invincible, they leave legacies. My sisters
legacy gifted me the emotions that
have helped me construct an armor
of thick skin. So make me bleed the
Niagara Falls. My tears only make
me stronger.
Kiyoko H. Nakamura-Koyama is a
member of the Class of 2017.

ALL
ALEX WESTF

which contains many strands. Perhaps it will be a story of hope but a

particular kind of hope, which Rebecca Solnit describes as an ax you
break down doors with in an emergency [it] should shove you out
the door.
For now, we are living in uncer-

tainty. The story is that there is no

storyat least no singular one
which means there is no singular
conflict, no one resolution. I wish
I had a coherent story to tell about
Paris, but I dont. For me, the container is still broken open, as it is
now for America post-election.

This means we must listen to each

other, and listen carefully.
Raisa Tolchinsky is a member of
the Class of 2017.

friday, december 9, 2016

the bowdoin orient

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Live from Brunswick: Bowdoin Night Live! satirizes Gladwell, ResLife

BY ELEANOR PAASCHE
ORIENT STAFF

With topics ranging from Noam

Chomsky to Malcolm Gladwell,
Bowdoin Sketch Comedy presented a
series of sketches satirizing the Bowdoin experience this week at Bowdoin Night Live! Held in Kresge Auditorium, the clubs final show of the
semester provided a unique outlet for
comical social commentary on the
College and its institutional policies.
Tom Capone 17, the leader of
Bowdoin Sketch Comedy, described
the creative process of the show as
one deeply connected to Bowdoin
students experience on campus.
We spend the entire semester paying attention to what is going on on
campus, reading the Orient, trying
to be as involved in as many different
parts of the community as possible
and finding things that either should
be made fun of or lend themselves to
comedy, said Capone.
The group is selected through a
long audition process aimed at finding a diverse group of students with
both comedy writing and acting talent. Only about three or four of the 40
students who auditioned last spring
and this fall made the cut. Each of the
ten club members wrote two or three
sketches, but only the best eight were
produced and performed.
The idea of writing, acting and
producing sketch comedy at Bowdoin arose from the senior thesis of
Simon Brooks 14. Since then, Bowdoin Sketch Comedy has become
a chartered student organization
with scheduled performances each
semester.
One of the highlights of this winters Bowdoin Night Live! was a video

DARIUS RILEY, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

BOWDOIN STRETCH COMEDY: Andrew Cawley 17, Callye Bolster 19, Sophie Sadovniko 19 and Liam Finnerty 17 perform a sketch on Thursday evening in Kresge Auditorium. The sketch is one of eight
that made up Bowdoin Sketch Comedys winter performance. This scene plays o of perceived inconsistencies in the Oce of Residential Lifes alcohol policies toward the College House system.
satirizing Malcolm Gladwells podcast that criticized Bowdoin Dining
Services. The sketch, called The
Return of Malcolm Gladwell, was a
play on Gladwells generalization of
Bowdoin students representing the
one percent.
Im kind of hoping that Malcolm
Gladwell actually sees it, he said. If
he were to get angry at it or respond
to it that would be the best reception
that we could get.

Callye Bolster 19, a member of

Bowdoin Sketch Comedy, wrote a
sketch based on her own frustrations with the interplay between
the Office of Residential Life and
College Houses regarding parties
and alcohol. Bolster, a member of
Reed House, said she wanted to address the stress involved in hosting
campus-wide parties.
There are just all of these mixed
messages about what were supposed

to be doing, she said. Having the

police come to nearly all of our parties that were supposed to throw but
then constantly getting in trouble
I thought Id write a skit just making
fun of how confusing the process is.
Capone and the rest of the club
believe that while Bowdoins improv
groupsOffice Hours and Improvabilitiesprovide a great source
of light humor on campus, sketch
comedy is riskier in its content,

which can edge on making students

feel uncomfortable.
Its more difficult to digest something that cuts close to the truth, but
thats the form that Im the most interested in and the group has worked
the most to produce, Capone said.
[We] touch very briefly on subjects
that are not explicitly stated within
the skits but implied and hopefully
point out the absurdities of things
that happen on campus.

Arctic Museum sled takes center stage in Fickeras 18 dance installation

BY FARIA NASRUDDIN
ORIENT STAFF

Gina Fickera 18 was surprised that,

as a junior, she had never been to the
Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum.

Though historic, the museum is often

under-utilized by students, so Fickera
took it upon herself to showcase its treasures in a site-specific dance piece she
choreographed as part of her independent study.

Using the Inuit sled that Peary and

MacMillan used in their expedition
to the Arctic as the centerpiece of her
independent study, Fickera aimed to
encourage a more diverse audience to
frequent the space.

LIAM FINNERTY, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

ARCTIC EXPLORATION: Gina Fickera 18 performs her site-specific independent study in dance alongside an Inuit sled at the Peary-MacMillan Arctic
Museum.

Fickera decided to focus on the sled

because of the ability to translate the
language people use to describe the
sleds movement into dance. In the video of her performance, the dancers are
seen sliding across the floor and falling
to mimic the sliding and curved nature
of the sled.
Advised by Professor and Chair of
the Department of Theater and Dance
Sarah Bay-Cheng, Fickera explored how
site-specific dances can reject the confines of the traditional concert stage.
The location itself becomes an integral part of the experience of artistically
telling a story, said Fickera.
After narrowing down from a list of
10 spaces by recording herself at each
spot, Fickera decided to stage her dance
in Hubbard Hall.
[I did] whatever the space told me to
do and [noted] how my body naturally
responded to that space.
Hubbard was ultimately the most appealing to Fickera because of its aesthetic, Inuit artifacts and history and culture
in relation to Bowdoin.
Working in a site-specific setting allowed for a deeper exploration of new
choreographic possibilities and takes
into consideration all interdisciplinary actions of a location that make it
uniquely itself, said Fickera.
The goal of her study was to explore
postmodern movement artists through
improvisation and the choreography
was mainly improvisation-based. Danc-

ers Melissa Miura 19 and Joy Huang 19

accompanied Fickera.
According to Fickera, museums
have collaborated with performers
since the 1960s.
These performances blurred the line
between theater, dance and art gallery
installations, she said.
The main difference between traditional and contemporary stages is the
use of space. Because the traditional
stage contains a fourth wall and a concealed audience, Fickera said that working in the Arctic Museum was a disorienting but exciting experience.
I knew I was growing as a dancer,
she said.
We generated some movement on
our own and from there we strung the
pieces together, said Fickera.
Early one Sunday morning, two
hours before the museum opened, they
teamed up with Andres Aguaiza 17 to
film the sequence.
The video will be featured on the
museums website and may be submitted into several film festivals. It will
also be performed with the sled on
stage in the Dance Departments Concert next spring. According to Fickera,
her independent study was an opportunity to give back to Bowdoin and to
the museum.
Now that Ive had this experience,
I believe that museums and dancers
mutually benefit from each other,
said Fickera.

10

a&e

friday, december 9, 2016

the bowdoin orient

New dance group offers inclusive space, bridges various styles

BY ELIZABETH FOSLERJONES
ORIENT STAFF

SO YOU THINK YOU

CAN DANCE: (ABOVE:)
Arah Kang 19 in a conceptual
dance video she made
with ReFRESH to the song
Breezeblocks by alt-J. (RIGHT:)
ReFRESH member Melissa
Miura 19 stands alongside
Kang in the video. Kang and
Joy Huang 19 decided to start
the group in an eort to foster
a relaxed atmosphere to learn
dance on campus.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF REFRESH

Noticing the need for a more community-oriented and diverse dance

group on campus, Arah Kang 19 and Joy
Huang 19 decided to create ReFRESH,
a group dedicated to exploring movement through various styles of dance.
Kang and Huang came up with the idea
over the summer and ReFRESH began
offering classes at the beginning of the
semester.
We wanted [it] to be a very inclusive
dance community, said Kang.
Last year, both Huang and Kang were
part of dance groups on campus. Huang
continues to perform with Vague, a jazz
dance performance group. Kang was a
member of Intersection, an Afro-Latin
dance group. ReFRESH joins eight other
dance groups on campus. They noted
that the other dance groups on campus
are audition and performance-based and
wanted to create a group where anyone
could come, regardless of experience.
There is a lot of talent from students
on campus who arent necessarily in the
dance groups and we reach out to them,
said Huang.
ReFRESH offers dance classes once
a week for an hour. At the beginning of
the lesson, the instructora Bowdoin
studentcreates a 30-second combination. The rest of the class is spent working
on the combination and free-styling. So
far, they have offered classes in contemporary, hip-hop and bachata dance, all
taught by different students at Bowdoin.
We thought it would be cool for us
to start something where you could have
peers teaching peers and different styles,
said Huang.

Huang and Kang have used this semester to gauge interest in the group and
develop their method. The turnout of the
classes has been steady so far although
they are hoping for more participants
next semester.
The biggest challenge is just getting
enough people to come to make it a good
community, said Huang.
Sarena Sabine 19 has been attending
ReFRESH classes since they started. Part
of her high school dance team, Sabine ultimately decided not to pursue dance at
Bowdoin during her first year. She found
that she missed the community aspect
of dance and the range of genres, so she
began to look into new dance groups on
campus. ReFRESH provided just what
she was looking for.
Every week, theres a new piece, a new
song and a new style of dance, said Sabine. Different people bring in their talents, and collectively we have been able
to try out a bunch of things.
Huang and Kang have also created
multimedia concept videos with the
group. In one video, they projected
various colorful images onto themselves and danced to Breezeblocks by
alt-J. In the future, they are hoping to
explore the intersection between various types of artistic mediums by creating more videos.
Huang and Kang ultimately want
to create a safe space where people feel
comfortable to go, learn a new dance
style and hang out with other people who
are passionate about dance.
Dance is such a great source of joy
and a stress reliever, especially in an environment like this class, said Sabine.
Its been a great addition to the Bowdoin
dance community.

friday, december 9, 2016

SPORTS

the bowdoin orient

11

HIGHLIGHT
REEL
Battling back. After losing

both matches of the Colby (5-1,

4-0 NESCAC) series last weekend, the mens ice hockey team
came back with a 3-0 shutout win
against Southern Maine (5-7).
The Polar Bears last games of
2016 will be this weekend against
fellow NESCAC competitors
Tufts (5-1-1, 3-0-1 NESCAC)
and Connecticut College (1-5,
1-3 NESCAC) as they look to improve their 1-3 in-league record.
The team is currently second in
the conference in scoring offense
with 4.12 goals per game.

TESSA EPSTEIN, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

UNSTOPPABLE UBEARS: Sydney Hancock 17 dribbles up the court to help power the Polar Bear attack, which has been much more balanced the season as 11 players scoredfive in the double digitsin
the teams win over Southern Maine last week. The team has averaged a 36.3-point margin of victory over the course of its seven-game win streak and looks to maintain this success against Bates on Saturday.

Womens basketball extends win streak to seven

BY YASMIN HAYRE
ORIENT STAFF

Womens basketball is still undefeated after a decisive 68-41 victory

over Endicott last night. With a 7-0
record, the team is currently ranked
No. 14 by D3hoops.com, No. 11 by the
Womens Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) poll and No. 4 in the
NCAA Northeast regional ranking.
The team continued its dominance last week with a 60-38 win
over Colby (4-3) last Saturday and
a 103-33 annihilation of the University of Maine-Farmington (UMF)
(1-6) on Tuesday.
Colby always gives us a tough
game, so Saturday was great in that
we got the win, said captain Rachel
Norton 17. But we also saw areas
we need to focus in on. We had a
nice start, but ultimately were trying
to build on it every day. We can be
more consistent and tougher in our
rebounding game, and every day we
are trying to improve our defensive
rotations and pressures.
The teams dominating performance
over UMF was also a record-breaking
onethe Polar Bears 58 points in
the first half is a Bowdoin record for

points in a half and the teams total of

103 now ranks second in points for in
a single game.
Last years offense largely focused
on Shannon Brady 16, who led the
team with 16.8 points per game
which was 7.8 points ahead of the
next highest scorerbut this season
has featured much more parity. Kate
Kerrigan 18 leads the team with 10.6
points per game, followed closely by

one another. In addition, the teams

depth has been a key factor in its
early success.
We have a very deep bench which
allows fresh legs to get in often without
seeing any drop in our play, she said.
Despite losing the programs leading rebounder in Brady, this years
team has dominated the glass on both
sides of the ball, grabbing 41 offensive
rebounds over its last two games. Still,

Our biggest opposition is ourselves. We go

into every game focusing on how we can
get better.
HEAD COACH ADRIENNE SHIBLES
Lauren Petit 18 with 8.0 points per
game and captain Marle Curle 17
with 7.0 points per game.
Team chemistry is a huge factor in
the success we have had, Head Coach
Adrienne Shibles said. The team is a
close-knit groupvery selfless and we
are all on the same page with regard
to values and what we feel like is important.
Norton said that the Polar Bears
have great team chemistry on and off
the court and have fun playing with

Shibles sees room for improvement.

[Rebounding] is something we
have to improve on to achieve our potential as a team, she said.
After their victory over Endicott,
the Polar Bears now face one of their
toughest opponents with a home
game against Bates. Despite its lack of
experience, the team is confident that
if it sticks to its game plan it will not
be phased.
They have all the pieces but they
lack the depth that we have, said

Shibles. Were two very different

teams. I think it will be whoever plays
to the strengths more will end up victorious in the game.
After the Bates game, the teams
next competition will be in California over winter break where it will
play against Claremont McKenna and
Pomona-Pitzer.
Were playing two strong teams
out there, which will only help us going forward. Were an incredibly close
team, so we cant wait to make the trip
together, Norton said.
Bowdoin hopes to continue its winstreak and improve its performance,
and Norton said that there are obvious
end goals, like a NESCAC Championship. The team has no doubt it can
reach these goals. Still, complacency
remains a worry, and the team will
continue to make a deliberate push
to stay focused on the present and on
what it can control.
We have gotten into a mode where
we dont like opposition. Our biggest
opposition is ourselves. We go into every game focusing on how can we get
better, Shibles said.
The Polar Bears look to continue
their dominant performance at Morrell Gymnasium on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Womens ice hockey works to preserve unbeaten record

BY ANNA FAUVER
ORIENT STAFF

After tying with Saint Anselm (81-2) on Saturday and defeating University of Southern Maine (3-6) on
Tuesday to stay unbeaten with a record of 3-0-2, the womens ice hockey
team is preparing to play the University of New England and Norwich
which is ranked 6th by the D3hockey.
com pollthis weekend.
Head Coach Marissa ONeil believes the challenge Norwich presents will push the team to come out
and play well despite pressure from
upcoming final exams.

I think Norwich is a team that

brings out your best hockey, ONeil
said. Since the start of their program, theyve been a top team in the
country and so I think that sort of
trumps everything else. I think our
kids will get up to play them.
Captain Kimmy Ganong 17 believes that the teams previous performances are evidence that Bowdoin has a chance of doing well
against Norwich.
I think [that] our past few games
this year, like beating Holy Cross and
tying with Saint As, [have shown
that] were a good team and we know
we can hold our own against these

really good out of conference teams,

Ganong said. So I think just we need
to keep that in mind and go into the
game knowing that its going to be a
battle and its going to be hard.
Captain Madeline Hall 17 agreed
with Ganong that the team does have
the potential to do well in Saturdays
game if the team focuses on playing
its own game.
I think that if we just focus on not
focusing on who were playing, but
rather focus on us as a team, I think
well definitely give them a run for
their money, Hall said. We definitely can win. I dont think its necessarily a matter of whether we can win or

not, but whether or not we can kind

of put the pieces together and show
up and actually play the game we
know we can play.
In order to win, Hall believes that
the team needs to play a full game
and keep up its intensity, no matter
the score. In both of its ties, the team
was up 2-0 before losing its lead.
Thats definitely an important
piecenot changing our mentality or
how were playing at all based on the
score, she said. Always play like its
0-0 and definitely playing the whole
60 minutes. [We have to be] focusing

Please see W ICE HOCKEY, page 15

Hot and cold. The mens basketball team currently has a record of
4-3 after a 76-67 win against Colby
and a 74-60 loss to Bates this past
week. While both opponents are
NESCAC teams, both games were
non-conference matches since
official league matches do not start
for any basketball team until January. The Polar Bears have had some
strong individual performances
with Jack Simonds 19 and Hugh
ONeil 19 leading the league in
points per game and rebounds per
game, respectively. Blake Gordon
18 also leads the league in threepoint percentage after going 7/7 so
far this season.

Joining the dynasty. This

week captain Kimmy Ganong 17

and midfielder Juliana Fiore 18
were named Third Team AllAmericans by the National Field
Hockey Coaches Association. Both
players also received All-NESCAC
and All-Region honors for their
outstanding performances this
season. This class of honorees
marks the 23rd consecutive year
that the Bowdoin field hockey
team has had at least one player
recognized as NCAA Division III
All-American. Over the course
of Head Coach Nicky Pearsons
21 years at the College, 30 of her
players have received All-American honors, in addition to many
Academic All-Americans.

Breaking the bubble. On

January 12, womens ice hockey
will face Connecticut College as
part of Frozen Fenway, a series
of outdoor hockey games and
skating events at Bostons Fenway
Park. Tickets for the game can
be purchased online at redsox.
com/frozenfenway. Additionally,
womens basketball and swimming
and diving will break out from inconference and regional matchups
over break. Womens basketball
will travel out to California to
face Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
and Pomona-Pitzer and swimming and diving will compete at
the Coral Springs Invitational in
Florida.

COMPILED BY ANJULEE BHALLA

12

sports

the bowdoin orient

friday, december 9, 2016

EZRA SUNSHINE, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

BEST OFF THE BLOCKS: (LEFT:) Womens and mens swimming and diving placed third and second respectively in the Maine State Meet last weekend. (RIGHT:) Gabriel Siwady 19 will represent Honduras at the FINA World Swimming Championships this weekend.

Swimming and diving performs well going into winter break training
BY BRENDAN PULSIFER
ORIENT STAFF

Having competed in two meets so far,

the womens and mens swimming and
diving teams have gotten off to solid starts
this season. In addition to performing
well as a group, Bowdoin has had a number of notable accomplishments on an individual level.
This weekend, Gabriel Siwady 19 will
be representing Honduras at the International Swimming Federation (FINA)
World Swimming Championships in
Windsor, Canada. The Polar Bears also
swept NESCAC Performers of the Week
last week as Sterling Dixon 19 and Karl
Sarier 19 earned honors for their strong
performances in the teams season opener
against MIT and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Siwady made the Honduras National
Team after placing first in events at a national level. Although he has competed for
Honduras multiple times beforeinclud-

ing at the Junior World Championships in

2013this will be the first meet where he
will represent his country at a senior level.
The World Swimming Championships draw the top talent from more than
172 countries around the world, which
is the most exciting aspect of the meet
for Siwady.
Just the experience of getting to swim
with the best in the world and being there
and having a good raceI know that
whatever happens, its something that I
wont forget, said Siwady.
Last weekend, the Polar Bears competed against Colby, Bates and the University
of Maine-Orono (UMO) at the two-day
Maine State Meet, hosted by Bowdoin. At
the mens meet, Bowdoin finished second
overall with 814 points, behind Bates winning total of 1030 points. In a close race
on the womens side, Bowdoin took third
place overall with 792.5 points, where
Bates once again clinched first place with
976.5 points, followed by UMO followed
with 873 points.

Mens captains Tim Long 17 and Michael Given 17 were very impressed with
the teams performance at the Maine State
Meet.
It was really cool to see that our teammates were setting meet records, especially this early in the season, said Given. In
regards to [Sariers] races, its a little scary
to know that hes only getting better.
In addition to echoing Givens praise
of the athletic performances, Long spoke
highly of the teams camaraderie.
We did an especially good job off the
water cheering for each other, he said.
There were always people behind the
lanes, motivating each other, pushing each
other on.
Womens captains Erin Houlihan 17
and Isabel Schwartz 17 were enthused
with the results of the meet but are more
excited about the teams prospects after
winter break. Since the team has only
been in season since November 1, they
have had little time to make significant
progress, especially with increased aca-

demic pressure at the end of the semester.

Over winter break, however, swimmers
and divers use the hiatus from classes to
practice, usually completing two pool sessions each day for over three weeks.
We definitely have a more flexible schedule approaching finals because
most of our training happens over winter
break, said Houlihan. Over break, our
coach expects us to be focused 100 percent on swimming.
Head Coach Brad Burnham agreed
with Houlihan, saying the teams current
goal is maintaining fitness levels until they
are able to focus on training over break.
These are the most intense academic
weeks of the year, so we just try to keep
them moving, he said. Winter break for
us is a chance to eat and sleep and get in
really good shape, but also to learn how
to swim fast, make the right choices and
prepare for competition.
The teams winter break schedule consists of roughly two weeks of training
on the Bowdoin campus and one week

of training in Coral Springs, Florida. In

Florida, the team will also compete in the
Coral Springs Invitationala small meet
against three other schoolsto get swimmers ready for competition in the spring.
Swimmers and divers face some of the
toughest training on the Florida trip, but it
also serves as a great opportunity for them
to unwind and bond during downtime.
That week that were in Florida the
practices are really intense, and its not
uncommon to fail a set, said Schwartz.
But you get to go outside in the sun, and
youre able to bond with your team by
playing football on the beach and staying
in a hotel room instead of just grabbing a
meal and swimming in the pool.
After Florida, the team aims to beat
Bates at the January 13 meet in Lewiston.
Bates is always the team we compare ourselves to because they train very
similarly to us and have some of the same
philosophies, said Long. Meets against
them are always intense, close, and emotional, and we plan to come out on top.

Remembering Chapocoense: the tragic loss of the Brazilian underdogs

ERIC ZELINA
THE RELEGATION ZONE
Last Tuesday, the Brazilian club Chapecoense was on the way to Medellin, Colombia to cap off a remarkable season with
the first leg of a two-leg tie against Colombian giants Atltico Nacional in the Copa
Sudamericana final, the South American
equivalent of the Europa League. The moment was supposed to be the culmination
of a wild ride that saw the tiny provincial
squad fighting their way up the from
fourth division of Brazilian soccer in 2009
to battlingand beatingsome of the
continents best sides in this seasons Copa.
Instead, the fairytale ended in tragedy
when the plane carrying the team crashed
into the mountains near Medellin.
Of the 77 passengers on the charter
flight from Bolivia to Medellin, 71 were
killed in the wreckage, including coaches,
technical staff, journalists and 19 of the
teams players. It appears that the plane ran
out of fuel over Colombia, with the pilot
radioing in a fuel emergency moments

before crashing, corroborated by the absence of an explosion post impact.

Newspapers and investigators have
raised serious questions about the airline
Lamias fueling protocol in the wake of the
crash. The distance between their Bolivian
origin and Medellin was slightly outside
the planes range, and as such, the plane
also lacked the 30 minutes of additional
fuel aviation experts say is a necessary
precaution. Further, the pilot reportedly
waved off a refueling stop in Cobija. Lamias reputation as a cut-rate charter operator raises further questions about the
procedures and is particularly disturbing
because the Argentinian National Team
flew on the same doomed plane just two
weeks before.
Hailing from Chapec, a small provincial city of 210,000 in the south of
Brazil, the Chapecoense had only been
a professional side since the mid-1970s.
Even before the Copa success, Chape had
earned comparisons to Leicester City, the
Premier League club who rose from similar lower league obscurity to capture last
seasons title.

The club rose through the ranks in Brazil on the back of investments in training
facilities and infrastructure and sound
management that is rare in Brazilian soccer. This season, Chape was on track to
finish a club record ninth in the league
before the tragedy. Like Leicester, they
found success on the back of journeymen
like top scorer Bruno Rangel and captain
Clber Santana, most famous for brief
stints at Atltico Madrid and Mallorca in
Spain. The story of lovable underdogs clad
in green and white punching above their
weight and slaying giants like Argentinas
San Lorenzo earned them the admiration
of fans continent-wide.
On Monday, the South American
Football Confederation, CONMEBOL,
declared Chapecoense the winner of the
Copa Sudamericana, after Atltico Nacional asked them to award Chape the title to
honor the victims of the crash. Other outpourings of support have come from Brazils top clubs, who offered to loan players
to the club for next season in order to help
get them back on their feet.
As tragic and gutting as such an inci-

dent may be, the crash will not spell the

end of Chapecoense. Albeit to a lesser
scale, Manchester United lost eight players to the Munich air disaster in 1958
and eventually rose to even
greater heights. Part of
what precipitated
Chapes meteoric rise from
fourth division obscurity
to competing for
a major continental
championship was their grit
and determination, along
with sound management. If
history is any indicator, the
club and its future squad will
pull on those same traits to ensure that it and the memory of
those lost do not go gentle into
that Brazilian night (to paraphrase
a better writer than myself).
Arsenals Brazilian defender Gabriel Paulista played under Chapecoense manager Caio Jnior and was obviously stricken by the crash. On the verge

of tears, he said, If you think you want to

do something, just get out there and do it,
because we dont know what tomorrow
brings. I dont mean to end on too sentimental a note, but his words seem especially sage in the wake of tragedy. Go out
and do something youve been putting
off today.

ALEX W

ESTFALL

friday, december 9, 2016

the bowdoin orient

sports

13

Curling keeps eyes on Nationals qualification as season progresses

BY SALIM SALIM
ORIENT STAFF

Bowdoins curling team is enjoying a strong season, with a mix of

veteran leaders and first years. The
team attended a tournament, or
bonspiel, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY this past
weekend.
In a round-robin style tournament, the Polar Bears won the first
three rounds, setting a new best record in club history and advancing
them to the semi-finals of the championship bracket.
The curling team has found success despite the graduation of two
skilled senior members last year, due
to a high level of interest from the
first-year class. The first years energy and dedication to the game has
impressed the older members.
With the compensation that
weve gotten from the freshman class
and the energy weve gotten from
just everyone in general weve
been able to make up for [the loss
of the former seniors], said Max
Sterman 17, who has been playing
for the curling team throughout his
time at the College.
For the most part, the curling
team is self-guided, with organization provided by the upperclassmen.
Its official coach, Douglas Coffin,
helps run the Belfast Curling Club in
Belfast, Maine. He provides the team
with advice on both on-ice strategy
and organizational set up. However,
the team attends tournaments without Coffin. Despite this challenge,
the players uphold their rank as second in the region.
Everyone is very excited to play

in some ways we get in the minds of

other teams because were so excited
to play and were very happy on the
ice that they sometimes wonder why
theyre not as happy, Sterman said.
Bowdoins curling team has been
around for seven years. Curling is an
emerging sport at the collegiate level, and with the high interest from
the first year class, the Bowdoin
curling team hopes to have skillful
members who can potentially move
up through the ranks and lead the
team in the future.
Our team is pretty young, which
is nice because then we can build on
that and really become really a top
tier competitive team, said Kylie
Best 19, the only team member who
had previous curling experience before coming to Bowdoin.
Current members expressed that
last years seniors not only helped
the team on the ice, but also provided an understanding of how to
better manage the team.
With the influx of new first years
who needed training, the upperclassmen felt challenged when it
came to arranging positions in the
team and accommodating the first
year members.
Theres a little bit of pressure
of whos going to be in charge just
because we have so many valued
and experienced curlers and only
so many spots, said captain Cole
Hamel 18.
As of now, the teams ultimate goal
is to play hard through the remaining three tournaments in order to
qualify for the National bonspiel.
Teams ranked in the top 16 nationally get to attend the tournament, which will be held in Utica,

W ICE HOCKEY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

on each period at a time, but not wasting the first 20 minutes to get our legs going. Making sure that when minute
one starts in the first period, were actually going all out
right there.
Though ONeil is not disappointed by the teams performance thus far, she said it will continue to work on
playing in different situations throughout the season.
Were not looking to peak in the early season so were
building our story right now and its good to learn this
lesson early, ONeil said. If we can learn it when were
tying, were happy with that. We learn from your losses
and you want to learn from your losses, but were okay
with not having any right now.
Looking forward, the team will play at Fenway Park on
January 12 against Connecticut College as a part of Frozen Fenway, a series of outdoor hockey games and skating
events at the park.
The spectacle of it people have thought aboutits a
once in a lifetime experience, ONeil said. I know a lot
of people at school are excited about it and I think its a
really cool event that I hope will bring out a lot of Bowdoin alums and a lot of family and friends in the New
England area. Its pretty special.
With the amazing opportunity comes added pressure,
and Hall believes the team needs to stay focused on the
fact that it is a NESCAC game and not get too carried
away by the experience.
Given that it is a conference game against Conn, that
definitely has an impact on our seating and standing
within the NESCAC, its an important game she said.
Its going to be really important to focus ourselves and
not get too hyped so that it distracts us from actually
playing well.

FIND US ON THE WEB.

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New York this spring. Bowdoins

team, which is currently ranked
eighth in the country, qualified for
Nationals last year.
Our record at Nationals last year
was not as great as we would have
liked it to be. But at the same time
that was our first time going to Nationals, all of us. So we gave ourselves a little bit of leeway there,
said Best.
After winter break, the team will
attend a tournament in Belfast,
Maine, on their home ice. More experienced team members hope to
step back a bit in the home tournament to let the first-years get some
performance time to practice. The
second tournament will be held
at Yale.
Hamilton is the only other NESCAC school with a curling team, making them Bowdoins greatest rival.
Despite the challenges faced by
the team in training and accommodating the freshmen, members feel
the team has a lot of potential for
growth. For them, having fun and
enjoying the game is just as important as winning and competing for
the top brackets and the national
championships.
I think were succeeding with
that challenge because weve been
hearing stories of kids on the
team. Their roommates would talk
about how our teammates [are]
obsessed with curling. To us, that
means we have succeeded so far in
probably the biggest challenge this
season so I think I would like that to
continue, Sterman said.
We know were all there to have
fun and thats the point of curling,
Best said.

LEAH KRATOCHVIL, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

CLEAN SWEEP: Rodger Heidgerken 20, Noah Keates 20, Matthew Swiatek 20 and the curling
team look forward to their last three tournaments, orbonspiels,as they practice in Watson Arena. The team
hopes to maintain its momentum and qualify for Nationals for a second consecutive year in March.

14

the bowdoin orient

OPINION

A system of the same

Earlier this week, MacMillan House advertised a party planned for tonight called
Gender Bender. The posters read: dress as a woman, dress as a man, dress in between,
dress best as you can. Upon creating a Facebook event for the party, MacMillan quickly
received criticism: students on campus addressed how the events posters implied a gender binary and how the event brought a sensitive conversation into the insensitive environment of a campus-wide party.
One of the major criticisms was the lack of partnership with Gender Matters, a new
discussion group and supportive space for trans/genderqueer/non-binary students to
come together to share common experiences and seek support from one another. No
member of MacMillan House openly voiced knowledge of this student group.
Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, prior to advertising the party, members of
MacMillan discussed the event and met with the Bowdoin Queer Straight Alliance
(BQSA). Following that meeting, MacMillan planned to host a panel to explore issues of
gender before throwing the party. This programming, however, fell through. Although
the Houses intent was not malicious, without this fundamental part of the programming
the planned campus-wide was still hurtful and offensive for some. The House should
have canceled the party as soon as the plans for the panel failed to come to fruition.
In recent years, students have criticized the College Houses for being predominantly
white spaces. In addition to racial homogeneity, however, College Houses consistently
attract clusters of applicants who are members of similar campus groups and who socialize with similar people.
The Office of Residential Lifes website describes members of College Houses as
thoughtful leaders in the broader campus community. In order to be leaders of the
greater campus community, however, there must be representation of the student body
as a whole in the College Houses. While Bowdoin makes efforts to diversify the overall
campus, the College still needs to work to diversify existing spaces, such as the College
Houses. This begins with diversifying the makeup of the College House system.
The fact that relevant student communities were overlooked in the planning of the
party highlights the lack of social diversity within College Houses. It is important to recognize that for the panel and party to have been properly executed, the makeup of MacMillanand all College Houses, for that mattermust be representative of all identities
that make up the student body.
College Houses seek to be the living rooms of Bowdoins campusbut if the College House system is not diverse, how can the Houses be truly welcoming spaces? The
current social stratification on campus is exemplified by the homogeneity in College
Houses. As we move forward in conversations like these, it is important to be mindful of
who the conversations include.
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.

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friday, december 9, 2016

An open letter to MacMillan

House and allies of Bowdoin
The following letter regarding the
Gender Bender party was written by several members of Gender Matters, with
additional input from other students.
The letter was emailed to members of
Mac House on Wednesday, a couple
hours before they announced their decision to change the theme of the party.
We, as the authors of the letter, have chosen to publish in order to bring our side
of this discussion to the general public, as
we feel understanding our reasoning and
intentions will help guide dialogue moving forward. We look forward to being
able to have productive and meaningful conversations with the members of
Mac and other students more broadly in
the future.
To the people of Mac House,
This is a letter written collaboratively
by members of Gender Matters and
other concerned students. We would like
to be very clear and up front here: we
are telling you that you must change the
theme of the party. This is not a debate.
This is us, as trans/nonbinary/genderqueer identified students telling you that
this party theme makes us profoundly
uncomfortable, and invalidates our very
identities. To borrow a quote from your
statement on Facebook, We recognize
that true allyship means listening to and
acting upon the concerns of queer students on campus. So now its time to
listen and act.
Much of our discomfort revolves
around the manner in which this party
was planned. We understand that your
party planners met with BQSA [Bowdoin Queer Straight Alliance] about a
month ago to discuss how this party
might impact and be perceived by the
trans community. Some members of

BQSA have expressed that they voiced

many concerns at this meeting, and were
promised that the party would proceed
after a more involved public discussion
which never came to fruition, until you
as a house hastily organized a discussion
for tomorrow and asked for concerned
students attendance. I know many of
us will not be attending this discussion
for a number of reasons; the last minute organization means that many of us
already had plans at that time, and furthermore, attending such a discussion
as a trans person is, plainly put, blatant
tokenization. None of us wish to speak
on behalf of the whole community, but
even speaking to our own concerns in
a public forum is a stressful and deeply
personal experience.
Of course, the crux of this situation
lies in why such a party would be detrimental to the trans community in the
first place. None of us are professional
educators, and there already exist numerous resources which would help
to explain why this is an inappropriate
party theme (or at least, an inappropriate straight party theme), but to sum it
up in a few words: parties are environments where people don costumes and
personas for the purpose of levity and
comedy. By appropriating trans identities as a party theme, you are very clearly
making a statement that these identities
are costumes and not the actual lived
experiences of members of our community. Gender is a social construct, yes,
but mere recognition of this fact does not
give license to turn it into a punchline.
If this party really were, as your Facebook statement postulated, an attempt
to create discussion and disrupt gender
norms, we should have been involved in

The Orient is looking for columnists

for the Spring. Share your thoughts
with campus and beyond.
Email orientopinion@bowdoin.edu

the planning, and we can guarantee that

we would not have chosen a party as the
stage for this discussion.
Indeed, parties like the one you are
planning to host do not disrupt the gender norm, but are in fact integral in enforcing it. By restricting the visibility of
non-normative gender expression to a
party, you are making a statement that
this expression is essentially unusual.
Party themes are, by nature, supposed to
be extraordinary.
We understand that members of your
house have their own opinions and have
been considering many of these same
points, but you must understand that regardless of intention, this party has made
us uncomfortable and that by continuing
through with this theme you are directly
invalidating us and our experiences as
trans and queer identified students. The
way youve presented the party conflates
gender identity and expression with
dressing up in a costume, which perpetuates alienation, tokenization and erasure
of trans identities.
However, having said all this, we appreciate (based on the many emails and
Facebook posts exchanged on Wednesday) that you do care about these issues.
We would be happy to work with you
some time next semester to organize an
event which would achieve the goals you
claim to be striving for with this party,
but we would like to be much more heavily involved in its production. Public discussion surrounding this issue is important and necessary, but a party is far from
the correct venue for this discussion.
Sincerely,
Paul Cheng 17, Rose Etzel 19, Ari
Mehrberg 20, and Jamie Weisbach 16
(Members of Gender Matters)

friday, december 9, 2016

the bowdoin orient

opinion

15

Writing by the water: making time for passions

SAVANNAH HORTON

BACKGROUND NOISE

One of the most difficult parts about

job interviews thus far has been explaining what I did this summer. What did
you do this summer? is a typical interview question. If youre an underclassman
who has never visited Career Planning,
I advise you to do something this summer so you can talk about it later. Ive
been asked about summer employment
many times, not only by HR representatives, but by family, friends and enemies.
Did you have an internship this summer? Usually, they are holding a beverage
and we are at some sort of functionmixer, birthday, barbeque.
Sort of, I say. No.
Huh? they ask. What did you do this
summer?
I twist my hair around a finger and remember this is a nervous habit. Then, I
explain how I spent nine weeks on a Canadian island with a small group of biologists. I quickly mention the lack of showers, Wi-Fi and toilets. I tell them I was
writing a collection of short stories.
About what? they ask. About birds?

No, I say. About other things.

Usually, they nod and I wonder if I
should have left the toilet part out. People
dont like to talk about toiletsouthouses
especially. Rarely do I elaborate on my
writingmy failures, my triumphs. Instead, I change the subject or chew or pretend to be late to something else.
I have trouble telling people I like to
write. Ive always equated the public expression of an interest with the embarrassment of potentially sucking at that interest. So for a while, when anyone asked
what I wanted to dotomorrow, next
week, in ten yearsI would say I didnt
know. After nine weeks of writing stories,
though, I couldnt keep up the feigned
apathy. I wanted to write and I had written. Id spent six days a week working nine
to fivesort ofwithout any other obligation. Occasionally, I counted tree swallows or baked bread. Once, I helped lift
whale bones across the beach. But I would
always return, dutifully, to my laptopmy
lifeline, my unrelenting tyrant.
I didnt know if I was going to produce
anything decent, or even half-decent. I
have a hard-drive full of clumsy stories
dating back to elementary school, hundreds and hundreds of storiesincluding
correctly formatted screenplays (feature
length) that are blatantly all about me.

Still, Id never spent an extended period of

time focusing on one thing. On the island,
writers block was a recurring fearalong
with herring gulls and spiders. I changed
opinions on sentences and paragraphs
daily. Word by word, I picked apart my
stories, splitting them into crumbs. I
would write and rewrite and erase and
regret, and I would send it all to my boyfriend, in hopes of constructive criticism
and/or lavish praise.
The only thing I could bank on was
time. I couldnt screw up time, mostly because I didnt have a Time-Turner nor access to television. At Bowdoin, I was (am)
a calculated time-waster, but on the island
I could be prudent and productive. Improvement meant practice, over and over
and over. I was more than lucky to have
timeso much timeto write. I didnt
want to waste my first big chance.
Of course, Ive said things like this my
whole life, inspiring myself via popular
Goodreads quotesTo live is the rarest
thing in the world! but never internalizing nor following through. On the island,
I wrote without distraction, story after
storyat least for a while, until my boyfriend mailed me a flash drive of Season
3 of The Office and Zootopia in Spanish (which I watched, twice, even though
I dont speak Spanish). All good things

must come to an
end, I suppose.
I wont pretend I returned
transformed. I
threw up eight
times on a lobster boat. I showered with a plastic bucket next
to a muskrats
home. Naturally,
I have a greater
ap p r e c i at i o n
for 21st century
amenities
and
clean socks. But Im
grateful I allowed myself
to pursue something I love.
Fiction writing rarely seems like a
practical endeavor, but practical endeavors are rarely fulfilling. I almost spent my
summer as an email-marketing intern for
an insurance company. Maybe, I would
have networked. Probably, I would have
plucked my eyes out. Im not surprised at
the role fiction writing has continued to
play in my life, but Im pleased Ive allowed
myself to embrace it.
Soon, we have vacation; later, graduation (for some, summer break). I have four
months left at Bowdoinwhich seems at

once too few and too many. Four months

to cram in everything I havent done and
everything I should have done and everything I want to do. The big island voice is
back, screaming, Dont waste it! There is
so much to be anxious about. Sometimes,
its nice to have something all your own.
The small thing you love can be a very big
thingtake time for it, make space for
yourself. Its easy to push off quixotic ambitions, but I urge you to welcome them.

versely, when a proponent of free speech

decries protests of a speaker as hostile
to free speech rather than challenging
those protests on substantive grounds,
he undermines the principle underlying
freedom of expression, that unfettered
debate is the most reliable path to important truths.
The two principles, far from being opposed, are mutually supportive: proponents of inclusivity rely intimately on the
freedom of expression for minority views
to be heard; good-faith proponents of
free speech defend that right for the very
purpose of uplifting marginalized populations. As the American Civil Liberties
Union writes on its website, the defense
of freedom of speech is most necessary
when the message is one most people
find repulsive. Constitutional rights must
apply to even the most unpopular groups
if theyre going to be preserved for everyone. The protection of every citizens
fundamental civil rights: this is true social justice work.
An ongoing lawsuit at the University
of Kentucky illustrates how true social
justice work and free-speech in practice
go hand in hand. In August, the uni-

versity, citing privacy concerns, filed a

lawsuit against the student newspaper
over documents obtained by the paper
regarding an alleged sexual assault by a
former professor. The paper is challenging the suit. Here, as is true in the abstract, the protection of free expression
and the protection of marginalized populationsin this case, victims of sexual
assaultare working in concert.
Now, there were certainly other issues with the debate at Bowdoin. Kristof,
while leaning to the left, remains a vocal critic of the intellectual hegemony
of academia. So while Kristof and Riley
disagree on a great many things, campus
politics appears not to be one. Additionally, neither disputant appeared to have
taken the time to familiarize themselves
with the specifics of the debate at Bowdoin, which has centered around the
tequila and gangster parties. Lastly, Professor Chiangs method of questioning
seemed to manifest the very tendency towards tentativeness in racial discussions
that both disputants openly criticized.
So by all means, keep the discussion
flowing. But next time, lets make sure it
has somewhere to go.

BROOKE GODDARD

Kristof and Riley debate proves underwhelming

IAN WARD

ON SECOND THOUGHT
Well, you cant fault them for trying.
And we must commend President
Clayton Rose and the council of faculty,
staff and students for organizing Monday
nights event, Up For Discussion, which
brought Nicholas Kristof and Jason Riley to campus to discuss free speech and
political correctness in higher education.
Between this event and talks this fall by
Dr. Noam Chomsky and Dinesh Dsouza,
Bowdoin has clearly taken a step in the
right direction towards ensuring that a
wide range of political views get airtime
on campus. This development, coupled
with the absence of teeth-gnashing in
response to any one speaker, warrants
praise in itself.
Nevertheless, Mondays discussion
fell flat. And I was not alone in leaving
Pickard Theater feeling, at best, underwhelmed. The discussion, moderated
by Associate Professor of History and
Environmental Studies Connie Y. Chiang, had the potential to turn fiery, yet it
was anything but. On point after point,
Kristof and Riley, rather than squaring off, simply agreed with one another.
Hardly Lincoln-Douglas.
From trigger warnings to ideological
diversity, Kristof and Riley, though at
times disagreeing on the specifics, generally arrived at a consensus: inclusion

must come second to academic seriousness; college campuses desperately need

greater ideological diversity; discomfort is not sufficient grounds for silencing speech.
So what went wrong? Kristof and
Riley certainly disagree on something.
Kristof, just this year, published a sevenpart series in The New York Times called
When Whites Just Dont Get It, chronicling white Americans racial naivete
and its damaging effects on the AfricanAmerican population. As for Riley, in his
most recent work, Please Stop Helping
Us, he blamed liberal economic policies for holding back the black population while simultaneously chastising that
population for its lack of moral integrity,
and claiming things like, Black culture
today not only condones delinquency
and thuggery but celebrates it.
For all their disagreements, how did
Kristof and Riley remain so harmonious? To begin, the terms of the debate
were poorly articulated. Political correctness, thus termed, has very few fervent
supporters because the term itself has
become derisive. Those who defend the
practices and attitudes called politically
correct defend them not as politically
correct but rather as inclusive. Asking a
proponent of safe spaces to defend political correctness is like asking a defender
of income redistribution to defend statesponsored theft. When thus framed,
both disputants were able to skirt the issue. If asked to defend inclusion, neither

would have gotten off so easy.

Secondly, by framing the debate between an avowed liberal and an outspoken conservative as between political
correctness and free speech, the event
coordinators insinuated that the cause of
political correctness would be defended
by the liberal, while that of free speech by
the conservative. This division in itself is
misleading; those charged with so-called
political correctness tend to fall on the
left, but political correctness is not necessarily an inherently liberal issue. And
while some of the more vocal defenders
of free speech fall on the right, freedom
of speech is a truly bipartisan issue.
Yet more detrimentally, the whole debate relied on a flawed premise. To frame
a debate as between political correctness
and free speech assumes a degree of antagonism between the two. This could
not be further from the truth. Certainly
there are high-profile cases where the
two come into conflict on college campuses. But arguably these instances are
misapplications of both ideals. When a
college chooses to disinvite a speaker or
to implement Orwellian speech codes on
the basis of inclusion, it is in fact electing
to exclude persons or viewpoints. Some
may claim that these measures are part
of social justice work, but they in fact undermine the very end that social justice
aims to promote: the protection of fundamental civil rights for all. The derisive
tone behind the term, is fueled in part by
an awareness of this contradiction. Con-

Bowdoin Orient
The

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16

the bowdoin orient

friday, december 9, 2016

DECEMBER
FRIDAY 9

WORKSHOP

Prep for Finals

The Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) will host a workshop
to help students prepare for final exams. Member organizations of the CLT and a student panel will give advice on starting
papers, learning from notes, reducing stress and more.
Room 107, Kanbar Hall. 1:30 p.m.
EVENT

Desserts in December

The Student Center for Multicultural Life

will partner with the Center for Religious
and Spiritual Life and other organizations to host this seasonal
event celebrating winter holidays. There will be treats, games
and music.
Schwartz Outdoor Leadership Center. 4 p.m.
EXHIBIT

Visual Arts Fall 2016 Open House

ANN BASU, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

Student work from visual art classes from the fall semester
will be displayed throughout the building. Refreshments will
be served.
Edwards Arts Center. 5 p.m.

ON A HIGH NOTE: Hannah Jorgensen '20 performs "Hello" by Adele in the Bowdoin Chamber Choir concert last Saturday. Professor of Music Robert Greenlee directed the concert, which primarily featured music from the time of King Henry VIII with a few songs from contemporary artists. The group's concerts on Saturday and Sunday were their last performances
of the semester.

SUNDAY 11

PERFORMANCE

Concert Performance: Bowdoin Orchestra

George Lopez will direct the Bowdoin Orchestra
Concert Performance.
Kanbar Auditorium, Studzinski Recital Hall. 7:30 p.m.

PERFORMANCE

LECTURE

BOKA Final Concert

PERFORMANCE

Improvabilities Holiday Show

Improvabilities, one of Bowdoins improv groups, will perform in

its last show of the semester.
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. 7:30 p.m.

The coed a cappella group BOKA will perform its final concert of
the semester.
Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union. 8 p.m.

MONDAY 12

PERFORMANCE

A Cappella Winter Concert

Bowdoins six a cappella groups will

perform in a holiday-themed concert.
Pickard Theater, Memorial Hall. 9 p.m.

Mid-Day Music

An ensemble of student musicians will perform during lunch.

Room 101, Gibson Hall. Noon.

TUESDAY 13
PERFORMANCE

Ursus Versus, one of Bowdoins co-ed a cappella groups, will

perform in its final concert of the semester.
The Chapel. 8 p.m.

The Bowdoin College Department of Music will host a

performance with a variety of student musicians.
Kanbar Auditorium, Studzinski Recital Hall. 4 p.m.

16

EVENT

Bowdoin Marine
Science Semester
Student Presentations

17

Winter Music Sampler

18

Steff Chavez '17, curator of the exhibition, Peter Cohen,

collector, and Frank Goodyear, co-director of the Bowdoin
College Museum of Art will discuss the Museum exhibit that
features a collection of photographs that challenge the meaning
of a portrait.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art. 4 p.m.
EVENT

19

There will be a nighttime study break from finals with food.

Daggett Lounge, Thorne Hall. 9 p.m.

THURSDAY 15
PERFORMANCE

Music at the Museum with George Lopez

PERFORMANCE

Ursus Versus Final Concert

Gallery Conversation: "Snapshots of

Twentieth-Century Life"

Study Break

PERFORMANCE

SATURDAY 10

WEDNESDAY 14

George Lopez, Beckwith artist-in-residence, will perform pieces

that connect with works on display in the Museum of Art. There
will be a second performance at 7 p.m.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art. 5 p.m.

20

VACATION

Winter Break

21

VACATION

Winter Break

22

VACATION

Winter Break