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Bowdoin’s trustees: who they are and what they do 83%
by Reuben Schafir
Orient Staff
Before the members of
the Board of Trustees con-
vened in Beverley, Mass., this
Thursday, they read a 60-page
packet about Gen Z.
Among the materials trust-
Women’s basketball went head-to-head with Tufts. SEE PAGE 10.
College launches comprehensive giving campaign, setting $500 million goal
by Alyce McFadden
Orient Staff
On Thursday evening, the
College launched the public
phase of the largest compre-
hensive fundraising campaign
in Bowdoin’s history. The Col-
lege hopes to raise $500 million
by June 2024 and achieve 85
percent participation from its
alumni network. Most of the
funds raised will be allocated
HOUSEKEEPERS VOICE ONGOING FRUSTRATIONS WITH WORKING CONDITIONS
by Diego Lasarte
Orient Staff
On Wednesday, a group of
students, faculty and house-
keepers, along with local union
organizers, delivered a letter to
members of the administration
critiquing working conditions.
The letter was delivered to the
Office of the President, the
Office of the Treasurer and the
Office of Facilities Operations
and Maintenance.
N A NEW LADD
ResLife will accept applications from first-
years to live in Ladd next year. Page 3.
ees were required to read pri-
or was an article by Jeffrey Se-
lingo, a journalist who covers
higher education, titled “The
New Generation of Students:
How colleges can recruit,
teach, and serve Gen Z.”
“Today’s students are atten-
tive to inclusion across race,
to financial aid, career develop-
ment and curricular innovation.
Since the official start of the
campaign, the College has raised
over $300 million in gifts and
pledges, a sum announced at a
celebration in Boston Thursday
night attended by alumni, facul-
ty, trustees and invited students.
So far, the campaign has been in
its “quiet phase,” during which
the College has solicited dona-
tions only from targeted audi-
The letter demands that the
College provide better condi-
tions for housekeepers, spe-
cifically calling for the College
to hire more workers and pur-
chase more and better equip-
ment. It also contends that the
recent wage increase “does not
go far enough to address the
problems we’re experiencing
recruiting and retaining staff.”
To Housekeeper Tracey
Taylor, there is a difference be-
tween what the administration
A SETTING THE STAGE
Local musicians showcase their talent
at Frontier. Page 7.
Friday, February 7, 2020
ethnicity, sexual orientation,
and gender identity, and they
want colleges to live up to
those ideals as well,” writes
Selingo. “At the same time,
Gen Zers are less receptive to
the principles of free speech,
especially when that speech
offends their values.”
ences within its existing donor
network. Thursday marked the
beginning of the second phase
which will expand the targeted
donor bases.
The campaign is the 18th in
Bowdoin’s history and the first
in Clayton Rose’s tenure as Pres-
ident of the College. The last
campaign from 2004 to 2009
exceeded its $250 million goal.
Thirty-five million dollars
will be dedicated towards the
says and how they act.
“They say they want to be
a team, but they don’t listen to
what we say,” said Taylor.
Housekeeper Sherry Cous-
ins expressed her frustration
with the administration.
“It’s been a long time we’ve
been putting up with work-
ing hard and not really being
appreciated for it,” she said.
“We don’t have enough staff.
When we’re short ... we have to
do double time and then our
F BEHIND THE NAMETAG
Doug Calhoun on beekeeping, students
and positivity. Page 8.
Volume 149, Number 15
The readings were intend-
ed to help the trustees famil-
iarize themselves with the
students who attend the col-
lege they are entrusted with
guiding. These students’ lives
will invariably be affected by
the decisions made at this
weekend’s meeting. But how
ANN BASU, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
creation of a comprehensive aid
program to formalize general
financial assistance for students
after they have matriculated.
The aid is designed to fully sub-
sidize fees required for member-
ship to the Outing Club, Yellow
Bike Club and the Craft Center;
money for food during breaks
if students remain on campus;
funding for high-need families
to visit campus; music lessons
and various fees involved in the
buildings get behind, and then
we get in trouble.”
“President [Clayton] Rose
has received the letter. Since it
came from some of the house-
keepers, the College will be
responding to them directly,”
Director of College and Media
Relations Doug Cook wrote in
an email to the Orient.
The group who delivered the
letter included the president
of the Maine chapter of the
American Federation of Labor
S HISTORY IN THE MAKING
Nordic ski cruises to program’s best ever
finish. Page 13.
bowdoinorient.com
much do students know about
the Board of Trustees?
In a recent Orient survey
sent to current students, 353
of the 372 respondents re-
ported that they do not “feel
connected to the Board of
Please see TRUSTEES, page 4
Angus King addresses
community about
impeachment trial
by Rohini Kurup
and Diego Lasarte
Orient Staff
As a Senate staffer in the
1970s, U.S. Sen. Angus King
(I-ME) witnessed the impeach-
ment proceedings against Presi-
dent Richard Nixon. This week,
over four decades later, King
voted in the impeachment trial
of another president—Donald
Trump. On Sunday afternoon,
King hosted a listening session
at the College to hear from con-
stituents about their views on
the impeachment proceedings.
The event came days before
the Senate voted nearly along
party lines on Wednesday to
acquit Trump of charges that
he abused the powers of his
office and obstructed Congress
in order to support his reelec-
tion. King, an independent who
caucuses with the Democrats,
process of off-campus study for
students on financial aid.
Scott Meiklejohn, senior vice
president for development and
alumni relations, noted that
while the practice of providing
general aid for students has long
existed, the money raised in the
campaign will make it more vis-
ible and accessible to students
who need it.
“Too often, we learn that
students have been weighed
and Congress of Industrial Or-
ganizations, Cynthia Phinney
and Jeff Segars, a local union
member currently employed at
Bath Iron Works (BIW). Segars
expressed his solidarity with
the worker’s demands.
“I heard about this and came
down to support the house-
keepers ... we all need a better
living and good wages. That’s
why I’m here to support them,”
he said.
Seagars worked for the Bow-
O THINK SAVAGE
Co-founder of the Green Party is excited
about the Maine Senate race. Page 15.
1st CLASS
U.S. MAIL
OF SURVEY
RESPONDENTS
HAVE NEVER MET
A MEMBER OF
THE BOARD OF
TRUSTEES
voted to convict Trump of the
charges leveled in both articles
of impeachment. Maine’s other
senator, Susan Collins (R-ME),
voted to acquit on both charges.
Hundreds of attendees
packed into Kresge Auditorium
for the town-hall style event,
with more filtering into an over-
flow room, to hear King talk
about the impeachment pro-
ceedings and to express their
fear and frustration about the
president’s conduct. The crowd
was overwhelmingly support-
ive of King, greeting him with
a standing ovation and prais-
ing his leadership and resolve.
Every member of the audience
who spoke at the event spoke
out against Trump, whom they
accused of violating the Consti-
tution and abusing the power of
the president.
Please see KING, page 4
down by a small expense before
asking, or that they have missed
an opportunity or not joined a
Bowdoin activity because there
is a fee involved,” wrote Miekle-
john in a memo emailed to the
Orient.
In addition to comprehen-
sive aid, $200 million will be
dedicated to supporting the
College’s existing financial aid
Please see CAMPAIGN, page 5
doin groundskeeping crew 20
years ago while on strike from
his job at BIW.
“Three of [us] came down
from BIW, and back then ...
we were making $10 an hour
... and the people had been
here [for decades] were only
making a few dollars more
than us,” Segars said. “It was
disgusting really ... and I don’t
know much about the wages
now, but it doesn’t sound much
better.”
 2 Friday, February 7, 2020
2 PAGE TWO
SECURITY REPORT
1/31 to 2/5
Friday, January 31
• A student was cited for failing to
comply with a security officer’s
request.
• A student was found in possession of
a stolen College-owned ‘No Alcohol
Beyond This Point” sign that was
being used as a decorative room
accent piece.
• A false fire alarm activation during
a registered event at Quinby House
resulted in a building evacuation
and fire department response.
• A student fell on ice and sustained
a back injury near Moore Hall. An
officer escorted the student to Mid
Coast Hospital.
• Two Maine Hall students were cited
for hosting a gathering with alcohol
and a drinking game.
Saturday, February 1
• Burnt mac and cheese at the Watson
Arena concession stand activated a
fire alarm.
• A power outage affected part of the
north section of campus from 7:30
a.m. to 2 p.m.
• The use of a hair curler activated a
smoke alarm at Chamberlain Hall.
• A brief power outage affected parts
of the campus from 4:40 p.m. to 5
p.m.
• An intoxicated minor student vom-
ited in the stands at Watson Arena
during the Bowdoin-Colby men’s
hockey game.
• An anonymous caller reported an
apparent dispute among three stu-
dents. The matter was investigated.
• A campus visitor was cited for enter-
ing SuperSnack and eating a plate of
food without paying.
Monday, February 3 KAYLA SNYDER
• Two unregistered events were dis-
persed at Brunswick Apartment Q.
The hosts were held responsible.
• An officer checked on the wellbeing
of an intoxicated minor student
outside of Brunswick Q.
• A student was taken to the Mid
Coast Walk-In Clinic for treatment
of a skiing-related back injury.
List of top five underground classes revealed
by Lily Randall
Orient Staff
As Add/Drop period officially comes to a
close, the claustrophobia of the semester has be-
gun to set in. Questioning your course choices?
Wondering if Modern Dance really was a good
idea after all? Thinking of hitchhiking into the
wilderness and starting a new life? Don’t wor-
ry, we’ve got you covered. A few lesser-known,
underground courses are offered every semester,
and this year we’re publishing an official list of
our five favorite offerings. Read on to see if any
of these are for you.
1. Bong rips 4 Bernie. Offered from 10 to
11:30 p.m. on Fridays, B4B is held on the steps
of the Walker Art Museum and occasionally in
the Bowdoin Pines when Security starts to get
suspicious. An invite-only class, B4B is a politi-
cal theory course centered around discussion of
the revolution while students are baked out of
their goddamn minds. The Bowdoin Democrats
STUDENT SPEAK:
What song has been ruined because it was your
alarm?
Tuesday, February 4
• A student walking near Quinby House
reported an unusual encounter with an
older woman who seemed to be following
him.
• A student took responsibility for acciden-
tally breaking a large window pane in a
Coles Tower apartment.
Wednesday, February 5
• A student warming a cookie in a micro-
wave set off a smoke alarm at Moore Hall.
• An employee slipped and fell on a patch
of ice near Baxter House. The employee
sustained a broken wrist and a head injury
and was transported to Mid Coast Hospi-
tal.
• A missing laptop at Roux Center for the
Environment was found in the possession
of a student who had taken it by mistake.
• An ill student at Roux Center for the Envi-
ronment was taken to the campus health
center.
have refused to acknowledge the course, and Bow-
doin For Pete members have countered by creating
their own course, “Candy Cigarettes for Pete.”
2. How to present as class-ambiguous when your
parents make over 300K a year. This one goes out to
all the students who filed their FAFSA knowing damn
well it was a waste of time. Taught in an off-campus,
undisclosed location so as not to out those taking the
course, Class Ambiguity 1101 helps students learn
the basics of hiding their privileged background.
Those enrolled in the course are discouraged from
wearing Canada Goose jackets, talking about their
summer homes and putting the name of their private
high school in their Instagram bios.
3. First Year Seminar: how to politely ask your
roommate for the room. Back by popular demand,
Sexile Etiquette has become the most requested
First-Year Seminar in Bowdoin’s history. First taught
in 2009, the course was conceived by Director of
Residential and Housing Operations Lisa Rendall
after she received over 40 housing complaints in one
weekend from frustrated first-years who had been
Gabby Farrell ’21
"Sunday Candy. It was Audrey Jordan’s
fault."
Sam Brill-Weil ’20
"iSpy by KYLE."
Clay Wackerman ’22
"My high school boyfriend Solomon’s
alarm was birds chirping, and it made
me hate birds."
Abbie Kaestle ’23
"Love Never Felt So Good by Michael
Jackson."
Wilder Fray Short ’22
"Radar (default). "
COMPILED BY LILY RANDALL AND DIEGO LASARTE
sexiled after Epicuria. Major assignments include a
reflection and debriefing with your roommates af-
ter First-Year Formal and sleeping on the couch one
night “so you know how it feels.”
4. Senior Seminar: Coming to peace with the
fact you peaked as a sophomore. It’s spring of 2020,
and the existential dread is really starting to set in
for the senior class. This course, which meets daily
in the basement of Baxter, aims to rewire seniors’
self-perception and coping mechanisms. Partici-
pants are limited to going to Joshua’s once a week,
and the course’s final project is literally just applying
for a job. Extra credit includes deleting pictures from
your Instagram profile of your college house days.
5. Caucuses explained: not the cock you were
thinking. After a bout of confusion following the
Iowa caucus, this course was introduced to explain
the convoluted and archaic process of caucusing.
Most of the confusion stemmed from the fact that
many participants believed caucus was spelled “cock
us,” and that voters were selecting the candidate they
most wanted to sleep with.
Friday, February 7, 2020 NEWS 3

NEWS IN BRIEF CET and Middlebury Schools in China

COMPILED BY ALYCE MCFADDEN AND IAN WARD

DEMOCRATIC SENATE HOPEFUL

SARA GIDEON VISITS CAMPUS,
suspend study abroad programs
ANSWERS QUESTIONS by Maia Coleman
Orient Staff
Students and community members packed into the Pickering
Room on February 1 for coffee, cookies and a chance to ask ques- As the number of reported
tions of Democratic Senate candidate and Speaker of the Maine State cases of coronavirus continues to
House Sara Gideon. rise around the globe, CET Aca-
Of all the candidates running in the Democratic primary, Gideon demic Programs (CET), the study
is probably the most connected to Bowdoin: she lives in Freeport abroad program that Bowdoin
and is the aunt of two current Bowdoin students. Gideon’s nephew, partners with to send students
Owen Gideon-Murphy ’21, opened the event and introduced his to East Asia, has suspended its
aunt to the group with an anecdote about sitting down to eat Christ- programs in mainland China for
mas dinner as a family. the remainder of the Spring 2020
“I realized my aunt hadn’t sat down, and she was still up, walking term.
around and making sure that everything was great for everybody else,” The programs that CET closed
Gideon-Murphy said. “To me, she’s always been someone who’s always include its college programs in
looking out for everyone else, someone making sure that everything is Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai.
right for everyone else. She’s inherently selfless.” CET has also chosen to close its
Before taking questions from the audience, Gideon described some high school semester program in
of the key policy tenets of her campaign: fighting climate change, creat- Xizhou for the upcoming term.
ing a public health insurance option and defending women’s access to The Middlebury Schools in Chi-
abortion services. The core of Gideon’s campaign, however, is a prop- na (MiC), which are operated in
osition she hopes will galvanize liberal Mainers throughout the state: conjunction with CET—running
defeating incumbent Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). in Beijing, Hangzhou and Kun-
“All the time, people will say to me, what do you think happened to ming—were also cancelled its
Senator Collins?” Gideon said. “There’s a sense that she has changed, programs. COURTESY OF BENJY RENTON
and that somebody who holds herself as a moderate and an indepen- One Bowdoin student, Emily
CHANGE OF PLANS: Passengers wearing face masks in Beijing South Railway Station wait for their trains.
dent—at the very time that we have needed moderation and indepen- King ’21, had to alter her study
dence most—has failed to stand up and demonstrate that.” abroad plans with MiC Beijing ter in a program at the University with a variety of sources, including ter students. At the time of CET’s
To differentiate herself from Collins, Gideon’s campaign empha- due to the closures. of New Zealand. our staff on the ground, our own announcement, only a group of
sizes youth. Gideon repeatedly brought up her own young children The cancellation of the China “We ended up working with medical and security partners, the 19 students, who had opted to
and emphasized Collins’ 23-year incumbency. Her campaign staff is programs has left students with a university in New Zealand. We CDC and the Overseas Security enroll in a January term in China
remarkably young and Bowdoin-affiliated. Emily Ruby ’19 is a political a choice about how they want to are definitely past their application Advisory Council. In this case, before the start of the semester,
assistant on the campaign and organized the event; four members of spend the upcoming term. CET date, but many, many institutions we also reached out to personal was forced to evacuate.
the Class of 2020 who intern with the campaign greeted attendees at has offered an alternative Chi- actually ended up reaching out to contacts who work for the State “Crises like this remind us all
the door. na-based program entitled Spring Listserv saying, ‘due to the virus, Department in China.” why we do the work we do. We
“We always talk about young people as: ‘this is your future, you’re Multi-City, which will begin in we are extending our application While CET initially chose to work to build bridges and in-
going to inherit this,’ but no. In fact ... this is yours right now,” Gideon April. They have also offered stu- period and would be happy to postpone the programs’ February crease understanding across bor-
said in an interview with the Orient after the event. “And … to know dents the option of joining the welcome a student,’” Wintersteen 12 start date by two weeks, the ders,” Lenhard said. “We know
that [young people] will continue to push me in the directions that I CET Taiwan or CET Vietnam said. “Everything’s very late, but risk posed by the quickly-spread- these bridges will withstand these
need to go is the most inspiring thing that I can become on this cam- programs this spring. Some stu- [Emily] is taking all the steps, she’s ing virus was too high to warrant temporary setbacks. The key is
paign trail.” dents have chosen to defer their receiving confirmation, she’s now running the program. Shortly looking ahead and focusing on
Diego Lasarte contributed to this report. semester away until the summer applying for a visa.” after CET released its decision the future.”
or fall. Additionally, Middlebury King could not be reached for on January 29, the State Depart- Regardless of current pro-
has offered students enrolled in comment. ment raised its travel warning to gram suspensions, Wintersteen
their programs the option to study CET announced its decision its highest level—Level Four: “Do said that sophomores explor-
for the semester at Middlebury or to cancel programs on January 29 Not Travel”—an advisory level ing study abroad options for
to enroll in their intensive summer as a response to travel advisories unprecedented for China. the following academic year
language program. issued by the Centers for Disease Unlike the 2003 outbreak of should still consider China if
King, who had not yet left the Control and Prevention (CDC) Severe Acute Respiratory Syn- they are interested.
U.S. when MiC Beijing was can- and the U.S. State Department drome (SARS) in China, during “My feeling is if China is the
celled, worked with Bowdoin’s Di- warning against travel to China. which certain study abroad pro- place you want to study abroad, at
rector of Off-Campus Study and “A lot of factors go into this sort grams chose to evacuate Amer- least at this point, to list it as your
International Programs Christine of decision,” Executive Director of ican students studying away in top choice and to troubleshoot on
Wintersteen to find a back-up CET Mark Lenhart ’89 wrote in China, the closure of this spring’s the back end,” said Wintersteen.
plan, which hopefully will allow an email to the Orient. “We try to programs did not require the re- “I wouldn’t want to close up
her to enroll for the spring semes- ascertain the real risk by checking patriation of CET’s spring semes- the option.”

MAYA CHANDAR-KOUBA, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

GIDDY UP: Democratic Senate hopeful Sara Gideon talks to students in the
Pickering Room. Gideon is trying to unseat incumbent Republican Susan Collins.
After senior-only experiment, Ladd to
SQUIRREL KNOCKS OUT POWER
ON NORTH CAMPUS
accept applicants from all class years
don’t think having a house with failed to attract enough applicants kitchen and living space.”
by Artur Kalandarov all singles is as much of a draw for to fill the house. First-year students who are
Orient Staff
An equipment failure near the Androscoggin hydroelectric seniors as we hoped,” Ranen said. ResLife later made the house planning to apply to live in a
plant caused a power outage that left roughly 2,500 customers After two years as an all-senior Ranen also said that ResLife available to juniors and seniors College House next year will now
in Brunswick and parts of Bowdoin’s north campus in the dark College House, Ladd House will is hoping to allow more sopho- through the housing lottery to fill have the option of selecting Ladd.
last Saturday morning. accept applications from all class mores to live in College Houses. the leftover beds. While rising juniors and seniors
The outage occurred when a heedless squirrel damaged cir- years for the 2020-21 academic “It’s clear that we’re turning Angel Ramirez ’20, who lived may apply to the College House
cuit equipment near Sea Dog Brewing in Topsham, according year, the Office of Residential Life away sophomores from college in Ladd as a sophomore in 2017- system as well, the houses have
to Manager of Corporate Communications for Central Maine (ResLife) announced this week. houses, even with Boody-John- 18, before it became a senior-only traditionally been filled by soph-
Power (CMP) Catharine Hartnett. The change comes after son as a sophomore house … I house, said that he liked living in omore students.
The outage began at around 7:30 a.m. and lasted until power ResLife struggled to fill the house think that’s [also] what fueled the the house as a sophomore and Sydney Cox ’23 said she is
was restored shortly before noon. Buildings on the north loop, with seniors for the 2019-2020 decision,” Ranen said. enjoyed the many events that the considering applying to a College
which includes the David Saul Smith Union, as well as Morrell academic year, according to As- Ladd House has been a se- house has traditionally held, in- House and would be interested in
and Sargent Gyms, briefly lost power again around 4 p.m. as sociate Dean of Student Affairs nior-only College House since cluding Epicuria and the annual living in Ladd.
CMP restored the Brunswick area to its regular power source. and Director of Residential & the 2018-19 academic year, when Bowdoin Art Society art show. “I like the idea of living in a
Because of the timing of the outage, no scheduled campus Student Life Mike Ranen. ResLife created a separate ap- Ramirez is now a member of College House … right now I
events were affected. Ranen attributed the lack of plication to Ladd for seniors in the Inter-House Council, a stu- have a great environment on my
The outage was the first time that the College was forced to student interest in Ladd to the conjunction with the College’s dent advisory group made up of floor, everyone is pretty well con-
use a new generator, installed last summer in the parking lot construction of the new Park announcement of a cap on the former house residents and offi- nected … so I kind of want that
behind Smith Union, to power major buildings on the north Row Apartments, and said that number of students allowed to cers who assist in the application environment again,” Cox said. “I
campus loop, Interim Director of Facilities Operations & Main- ResLife anticipated that the live off campus. process. would personally love to [live in
tenance Jeff Tuttle explained. opening of the new Harpswell In 2018-19, with Park Row still “It was super cool being there Ladd]. It has a really big and open
“It’s real helpful, especially for prolonged outages. If that Apartments next year would under construction, Ladd House as a sophomore … There are a space.”
were to happen—hopefully it doesn’t—then we have a ton of further reduce demand for Ladd filled up, said Ranen. But this lot of events that happen every The deadline to apply to live in
capability to put people in Sargent, put people in Smith, put among seniors. year, with many seniors opting to year that are pretty dope,” said a College House is February 9.
people all over,” said Tuttle. “With the increase in beau- apply for Park Row Apartments Ramirez. “I had a guaranteed sin- Angel Ramirez ’20 is a photog-
Andrew Bastone contributed to this report. tiful, new upperclass housing I through the lottery system, Ladd gle which was nice, [and] a great rapher for the Orient.
4 NEWS Friday, February 7, 2020

WHO ARE THE

Occupations of Board Members

Doctors Other
Finance

TRUSTEES,
Entrepeneurs
2 2 17
High-profile 2
executives
2

AND WHAT Healthcare

3

DO THEY DO?
7
Academia
5
Law

SOURCE: THE BOWDOIN ORIENT SURVEY

TRUSTEES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Trustees,” 308 reported that
they have “never met any of
the trustees” and 310 report-
ed that they felt they could
not “communicate with one
or multiple trustees” if they
wanted to.
The Board of Trustees has
been in the spotlight this
past year. Students and fac-
ulty questioned the standing
of trustee James “Jes” Staley
’79 P’11, a known associate
of Jeffrey Epstein, and asked
the Board to support the
campaign for a living wage.
So who sits on the Board
of Trustees, what do they
Graduation Year of Bowdoin Alumni on Board of Trustees
20
Number of Trustee Members
do and why should students whom have children who are
care? current students at the Col-
uated college after 1998, while
27 graduated before 1985.
lege. “We will continue over
WHO ARE THE TRUSTEES? The members come to time to see more trustees
the Board from a variety of from more recent graduat-
Bowdoin’s Board is com- professions. Seventeen—just ing classes,” Rose said of the
prised of 40 trustees. They are under half—of the trustees Board’s aging composition.
led by the Chair of the Board worked or work in finance. Women hold only 14 of
Robert White ’77 P’15, Vice Seven trustees have a back- the Board’s 40 current seats.
Chair Paula Wardynski ’79 ground in education or ac- The gender imbalance of the
and the President of the Col- ademia. Five trustees come Board can be accounted for by
lege Clayton Rose. from politics or law. Three the unequal gender distribu-
Thirty-six of the 40 trust- come from the healthcare in- tion of Bowdoin alumni more
ees are alumni and, of the dustry. Two are entrepreneurs generally, said board member
others, three have children and work in waste manage- Michele Cyr ’76 P’12. The
who attended or attend Bow- ment and the food industry. first women to graduate from
doin. Rose is the only board Two are doctors, two are the College did so in 1975.
member who is neither a high-profile executives, one “The pool that you’re
Bowdoin alum nor a Bowdoin was an Olympic athlete and drawing from is not 50-50,”
parent. Of the 40, 21 trustees one is a journalist. she said.
are Bowdoin parents, six of Only four trustees grad- Trustees are appointed to
the Board by a majority vote
of the current trustees. The
College relies on community
18
members—including alum-
ni, faculty and former and
current trustees—to recom-
mend qualified candidates.
members and directing the
College’s money for the fore-
seeable future. The trustees
determine “the right pro-
grams for the future of the
College,” as Rose put it.
The trustees’ effect on
the student experience is, in
Rose’s words, “both every-
thing and nothing.” Their
decisions affect both the Col-
lege’s development over a pe-
riod of years and decades and
the experience of students on
a daily basis.
To this end, the Board is
broken down into nine stand-
ing committees: the Executive
Committee; the Academic
Affairs Committee; the Audit,
Risk, and Reputation Com-
mittee; the Beyond Bowdoin
Committee; the Governance
Committee; the Committee
on Inclusion; the Investment
Committee; the Resources
Committee and the Student
Experience Committee.
“Without the Board … we
would not have the financial
aid program that we have to-
day.”
Deciding how to allocate
the College’s finances requires
more than just reading a 60-
page packet before each of
their three annual meetings,
said Diana Spagnuolo ’96, a
trustee since 2018.
“We have plenty of home-
work to do before we step on
the campus,” said Spagnuolo.
“The expectation is that the
meetings are not so much
for us to be debriefed, but for
us to be debriefed through
communications and through
reading and through phone
calls before we arrive for
those meetings, and to be pre-
pared to dig into these issues,
to provide guidance, to pro-
vide oversight, to hear from
students and faculty who
participate in those meetings,
and to give advice … advice

15 The process is “organic,” said

Rose.
Across these functions, the
Board’s primary concern is to
that’s in the best interests of
the College.”
Each trustee serves for a ensure the financial viability In addition to their advi-
term of five years, and cannot and growth of the College. sory role, trustees are also
10 serve more than three consec- Bowdoin’s current finan- expected to donate to the
10 utive terms. cial aid program is among the College, “in accordance with
large-scale accomplishments their capacity to do so,” as
7 WHAT THE BOARD DOES for which the Board is re- stated in the Trustee Roles
sponsible, Rose said. and Responsibilities.
5 4 The Board is tasked with “[The College’s financial The benefit of such dona-
safeguarding the long-term aid program] is everything tions has an enormous impact
1 health of the College, which that we are about today, but on the lives of students and
includes hiring the President [the Board is] not involved the results can be seen across
0 of the College, nominating in delivering financial aid in campus.
1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s and approving new board any specific way,” said Rose. In 1997, hedge fund man-

KING during his presidency and po-

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
“My faith is shaken in the
system I’m teaching to my stu-
dents—the system of checks
and balances,” said John Dev-
er, a high school social studies
teacher from Bath. “I think this
is a real crisis.”
King publicly opposed im-
peachment during Special
Counsel Robert Mueller’s in-
vestigation of alleged Russian
interference in the 2016 elec-
tion and possible ties between
the Trump campaign and Rus-
sia. However, after the Ukraine
controversy arose, he changed
his mind.
King said he considers the
current situation as qualitative-
ly different than the allegations
contained in the Mueller in-
vestigation because the issue at
hand concerns Trump’s actions
tentially sets a precedent for
future presidents.
King stated that he was par-
ticularly troubled by the second
article of impeachment—alleged
obstruction of a Congressional
investigation—fearing Trump’s
acquittal will have a lasting im-
pact on the balance of power.
“The Congress has been
committing slow-motion sui-
cide for fifty years,” King said,
referring to Congress’s delega-
tion of powers of war, trade and
spending to the president. “I
fear this is another step in the
direction of moving toward a
presidency that is so strong.”
To explain the gravity of
the Senate’s vote, King quoted
Abraham Lincoln, who told
Congress in December 1862,
at the height of the Civil War:
“Fellow-citizens, we cannot es-
cape history … The fiery trial
through which we pass, will
light us down, in honor or dis-
honor, to the latest generation.”
Speaking about the vote in the
impeachment trial, King said,
“We’re all going to have to live
with this vote. This is probably
the most important vote any of
us will take.”
King called on the audience
to rise above party politics, citing
a fundamental goodness present
in Americans and the necessity
of bipartisan cooperation.
“Part of what we have to
do—all of us—is listen. Because
a lot of the anger is from people
who felt put down and not tak-
en seriously. We cannot go on
divided the way we are,” King
said. “Somebody said after the
last election, ‘what do we need
in the country?’ The phrase that
came to my mind is ‘eloquent
listening.’”
Morgan Edwards ’22, the only
student to speak at the event,
read a tweet from Kersti Kalju-
laid, the President of Estonia,
criticizing Trump’s opposition to
calling witnesses at the trial, and
asked King what effect Trump’s
behavior would have on Ameri-
ca’s international standing.
In his response, King cited his
previous experience as a lawyer.
“I’ve never seen a trial that
starts with closing arguments,”
King said.
Speaking specifically about
calling former National Securi-
ty Advisor John Bolton as a wit-
ness, King added, “How could
anyone not vote for this?”
The sole representative of
the student body at the event,
Edwards said he was not sur-
prised by the lack of student
engagement with King. He
thinks students are apathetic
because “the conclusion is fore-
gone—[Trump’s] acquittal is
imminent.”
“I have found myself being
increasingly apathetic because
I feel hopeless. There is obvious
evidence of guilt ... I mean if this
isn’t impeachable then what is?”
Edwards said. “And if our leaders
aren’t going to represent us in a
way that takes action to say, ‘yes,
he is guilty,’ I think that breeds
apathy, especially among young
people.”
King echoed this sentiment in
an interview with the Orient fol-
lowing the event, expressing con-
cern with the ethos of the Trump
presidency.
“I think a lot of young people
feel distance [from the trial], ask-
ing ‘does it involve me?’ I think
there is a disenchantment with
government, and therefore [they
are asking the question] ‘why
bother to watch?’” he said.
Toward the end of King’s pub-
lic remarks, President Lincoln
came up once more.
Nora Bishop from Bowdo-
inham called for an end to the
divisiveness of the moment and
asked King what could be done
to unify the nation. She began to
quote from Lincoln’s first Inaugu-
ral Address: “I am loath to close.
We are not enemies, but friends.
We must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained ...”
She paused, attempting to re-
member the rest of the quote. But
King was there to help. “It must
not break our bonds of affection,”
he said.
They finished the quote to-
gether: “The mystic chords of
memory, stretching from every
battlefield and patriot grave to ev-
ery living heart and hearthstone
all over this broad land, will yet
swell the chorus of the Union,
when again touched, as surely
they will be, by the better angels
of our nature.”
Friday, February 7, 2020
ager Stanley F. Druckenmiller
’75, a trustee emeritus and a
current member of the In-
vestment Committee with a
net worth of $4.7 billion, do-
nated $35.6 million to build
Stanley F. Druckenmiller
Hall in honor of his grandfa-
ther. Minutes from a 1995-96
meeting of the Board indicate
that the construction bid for
the new building went to
a construction company
owned by another trustee,
John Fish ’82 P’10. Fish
is the CEO of Suffolk
Construction Company,
the 112th largest private
company in America, ac-
cording to Forbes.
Philip Schiller P’17,
Apple’s senior vice presi-
dent, has also made signif-
icant financial contributions
to the College. In September
2017, Schiller and his wife do-
nated $10 million to renovate
the Schiller Coastal Studies
Center. A year and a half later,
in May 2019, he was elected
to the Board.
The Roux Center for the
Environment, the Schwartz
Outdoor Leadership Center
and Studzinski Recital Hall
were all named after trustees
(now emeriti) who provided
the donations to build them.
WHAT THEY BRING TO
THE BOARD
Trustees say they serve out
of a deep sense of apprecia-
tion and connection to the
College.
“Beyond my fiduciary re-
sponsibility, I’m motivated
and driven because of my
love of the College and my
respect for the role the insti-
tution played in my life,” said
Spagnuolo.
Many trustees draw on
their professional experienc-
es to guide their work on the
Board, especially those who
work in the financial sector,
given that the Board’s prima-
ry responsibility is fiduciary.
“I spend my professional
life thinking about how in-
stitutions like Bowdoin and
others can invest in order to
earn the types of returns that
they need to earn to support
their spending,” said John
Thorndike ’02, a trustee since
2011 who currently works in
asset management at GMO,
an investment firm based in
Boston.
Trustees who work in other
CAMPAIGN
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
policy.
“[Around] half of the cam-
paign is dedicated to financial
aid, and to access, which speaks
deeply to who we are as an in-
stitution, what we believe in
and the notion that if you’re a
student [admitted] here, we’re
going to make sure that you
can come, regardless of your
family’s financial situation,”
Rose said. “You will have the
opportunity to experience the
essential elements of abundant
education.”
Thirty-seven million dollars
have been earmarked for Career
Exploration and Development
to support and expand existing
infrastructure like the funded
internship program and the
Bowdoin Public Service Initia-
tive.
industries say they also bring dational to their work on the
valuable professional skills to Board.
the Board. “I have so many interac-
Cyr is a senior asso-
ciate dean for
academic
5.2%
94.8%
Do you feel
connected
to the Board
of Trustees?
affairs in the
Division of Biology and
Medicine at Brown University
and has served on the Uni-
versity’s Title IX panel. Both
Cyr and Spagnuolo, a lawyer
who has worked extensively
on issues of gender equality
and sexual misconduct, said
they draw on their profes-
sional experiences to better
understand any challenges
around Title IX that the Col-
lege might face.
“Those really heavy is-
sues that clients are
dealing with every
day at work gives
me, I think, a
perspective
that helps
me when
I’m sit-
ting in a
trustee
meet-
ing or
I’m
prepar-
ing for
a meet-
ing,” said
Spagnuo-
lo.
HOW
TRUSTEES EN-
GAGE WITH THE
COMMUNITY
Trustees say that their in-
teractions with community During
members, including faculty, dergrad years, Thorndike
staff and students, are foun- himself served as a student
“Students come from very
different backgrounds and their
understanding of and ability to
access networks and the tools
that are available [are different].
So how do we make sure that
everyone has an equal oppor-
tunity to explore careers?” said
Rose.
Specifically, the College will
provide a sum of $5,000 to be
allocated to each student on fi-
nancial aid to fund one summer
internship.
To meet its ambitious $500
million goal, the College hopes
for participation from alumni of
all ages and demographics.
“Campaigns are … really
important opportunities to help
everyone feel connected to the
ideas of the College,” Meikle-
john said. “What we don’t want
to have happen is to reach the
end of the campaign … having
achieved a dollar success, but to
tions with faculty and
students and
I think
that those in-
teractions are constantly
informing the questions I ask
or the comments I may make
in the context of committee
work or other board work,”
said Cyr.
“There’s always a student,
if not more than one, at the
table,” Thorndike said of his
work on trustee commit-
tees. “And when that student
speaks, we listen.”
% 17.4
82.6
Have you met
any of the
trustees?
his un-
have 20,000 people standing on
the sidelines, clapping politely
for the few people who gave a
million dollars.”
From a public relations
standpoint, this participation
rate is critically important to
the College. Bowdoin currently
ranks fourth nationally in alum-
ni engagement, a superlative
that administrators prize.
“It’s one of the things that
U.S. News [and World Reports]
looks at it because for them it’s a
measure of what people think of
the education,” said Scott Hood,
senior vice president for com-
munications and public affairs.
“So that participation number
really matters to the College.
And, you know, we’d like to be
number one, and we’re not very
far off.”
The campaign emphasizes
non-financial participation
as well as traditional mone-
NEWS
representative on the search
committee that nominated
Rose’s predecessor, President
Barry Mills ’72.
Spagnuolo recalled hear-
ing that it was because of a
student’s comment on the im-
portance of pre-orientation
trips that the trustees decided
to incorporate the price of
the trips into tuition, making
them mandatory for all.
“I really try to take ad-
vantage of my time on
campus so that not all of
my information is coming
through the senior lead-
ership,” said Spagnuolo.
“[I try] to hear directly
from not just those stu-
dents who are the formal
liaison, but someone who
may be sitting out in front of
a building, and maybe not
expect to have me walk
up and raise a point of
conversation, so that
I can better educate
myself about what’s
happening on cam-
pus.”
Before joining
the Board, a num-
ber of the current
trustees served in
other positions at
the College. Spag-
nuolo worked on the
Alumni Council. Ron
Brady ’89 P’19 has ad-
vised current students on
careers in the nonprofit sec-
tor. Thorndike worked as a fi-
nancial analyst in Bowdoin’s
investment office.
%
Nevertheless,
the vast majori-
ty of students
polled by the
Orient felt
distanced
from the
trustees.
“I
think
usually
when
you
think
of the
Board
of Trust-
ees, that
inspires the
image of a fair
amount of mon-
ey and wealth and
power,” said Frances
Zorensky ’20. “A lot of
students maybe don’t share
an identity or feel that they
can connect with them very
easily.”
tary donations. It encourages
young alumni to get involved
by attending Bowdoin-hosted
events, volunteering to inter-
view prospective students and
organizing networking oppor-
tunities.
ROSE-ING FUNDS: President Clayton Rose kicks off the campaign’s public phase in Boston on Thursday night.
Faculty, too, have ex-
pressed a feeling of distance
from the Board.
“Our relationship with the
trustees is … very minimal,”
said Ann Kibbie, associate
professor of English and pres-
ident of the recently-found-
ed Bowdoin chapter of the
American Association of Uni-
versity Professors. “We have
very little contact with the
trustees and we have virtually
no unstructured contact.”
Kibbie characterized the
relationship between the fac-
ulty and the trustees as almost
non-existent, save for the six
faculty who
28.5%
Do you feel
as though the
trustees’ decisions
affect your life?
sit on the
Committee on Governance
and Faculty Affairs and thus
attend certain meetings with
trustees. Rose said at a Bow-
doin Student Government
(BSG) assembly on January 29
that approximately 10 faculty
will be present at this week-
end’s Board meeting.
Professor of Physics Made-
leine Msall noted a decrease in
recent years in the number of
interactions between trustees
and the faculty.
“Senior colleagues have
said to me that, in the past, the
trustees had more unstruc-
tured time in their meeting
schedule to wander campus,”
wrote Msall in an email. “They
report that alumni trustees
used this time to meet in-
formally with faculty. This
provided a chance to collect
first-hand information about
departmental issues and facul-
ty concerns.”
“I think this campaign is not
just about raising the money,
though we have really ambitious
goals there,” said Sydney Asbury
’03, one of the six chairs of the
campaign and a member of the
College’s Board of Trustees. “It’s
5
Yes
No
Kibbie also described a
change in the nature of inter-
actions between trustees and
faculty.
“[Meeting informally]
provided a chance to collect
first-hand information about
departmental issues, faculty
concerns,” she said. “Current
trustee meeting structure is
heavily scheduled so
71.5%
that faculty interac-
tions with trustees, even when
faculty are part of trustee
committee meetings, is quite
limited.”
Kibbie said she wished
trustees would more actively
seek out perspectives from the
faculty.
“I do think that the faculty
would have valuable informa-
tion and insights to contrib-
ute to any sort of long-term
planning,” she said.
Trustees say they derive
motivation to chart Bowdo-
in’s future from the Offer of
the College and the princi-
ples of the common good,
and also from the school’s
profound effect on their own
lives.
“[The College] profoundly
changed my life,” said Brady.
“And when … I was a junior
or a senior, I said, ‘whenever
Bowdoin asks, whatever it is,
I will always say yes.’”
really about bringing the com-
munity together around shared
values of what we believe and
asking people to give their time,
not just their treasure.”
Maia Coleman contributed to
this report.
COURTESY OF FRED FIELD
6 NEWS
Professors kick off Black History Month Pilot intragroup
by Jane Godiner
Orient Staff
A conversation between
Associate Professor of English
Guy Mark Foster and Assistant
Professor of Government Chryl
Laird kicked off this year’s Black
History Month and Beyond pro-
gramming Wednesday evening,
covering topics ranging from pol-
itics to the Oscars.
Amani Hite ’20, who is presi-
dent of the Black Student Union
(BSU), moderated the conversa-
tion titled “Black Contributions
to Culture, Politics, and Ameri-
can Life.”
Both Laird and Foster em-
phasized the crucial contribu-
tions of Black bodies and minds
to aspects of modern American
life, including cuisine, enter-
tainment and language. Foster
underscored the importance of
Black people in the creation of
some of the most salient cultural
and political infrastructure in
America.
“Michelle Obama, at one
point, acknowledged … when
she and her family entered the
White House, it didn’t escape
her that she was entering into a
building that was constructed
by Black people,” Foster said.
“And I think when Black people
mention those types of contribu-
tions, they’re all then met with
pushback.”
Laird added that, far too often,
Black contributions to American
culture are only recognized and
appreciated when they appear in
white culture.
“There’s so much stuff that
goes on within the Black com-
munity. And then you see it pop
up in the mainstream and people
act like that thing is brand new,
and you’re like, ‘but people have
been doing that for a long time,’”
said Laird.
Laird sees the entertainment
industry, specifically film, as an
especially good avenue for cele-
brating Blackness. She cited film
director Matthew A. Cherry’s
short film “Hair Love,” which
depicts the relationship between
a Black father and his daughter
through hair care, as one of the
prime examples of how film can
serve as a vehicle for showcasing
Students relaunch chapter of mental health club
by Keyna Mecias Quinonez
Orient Staff
This spring, Olivia Groell
’22 and Ridhika Tripathee
’22 are re-starting a Bowdoin
chapter of Active Minds, a na-
tional nonprofit organization
that aims to increase mental
health awareness on college
campuses.
“The goal of our club is to
spread awareness of mental
health and to destigmatize
talking about it. To just have
more people more comfort-
able with talking about their
feelings, their emotions and
talking to their friends about
it,” Tripathee said.
In 2011, a chapter of Active
Minds was started at Bowdo-
in, but the group has since
ceased activity. Since other
campuses such as Bates and
Colby have active chapters,
Groell and Tripathee felt
dialogue on race to
start this Monday
GOING FORWARD: Amani Hite ’20 (right) moderates the “Black Contributions to Culture, Politics, and American Life”
conversation between Associate Professor of English Guy Mark Foster (center) and Assistant Professor of Government Chryl Laird.
Black culture.
“Hair care for many Black
women is a very loving, caring
experience. And [Cherry] want-
ed to demonstrate that through
this film,” said Laird. “He fund-
raised through a GoFundMe
or a Kickstarter … and it’s now
nominated for an Oscar. Like,
that’s wild.”
Foster disagreed with Laird’s
statement, questioning whether
or not white institutions should
be considered the benchmark
for Black achievement.
“I would like for us collec-
tively, people of color and white,
progressive thinkers to … actu-
ally stand up and turn our backs
to the Oscars,” Foster said. “If
we did that, perhaps things
might change.”
The conversation also ex-
tended to the role that Black vot-
ers play in the current political
climate. During the exchange
Laird alluded to the content in
her latest book, “Steadfast Dem-
ocrats: How Social Forces Shape
Black Political Behavior.”
“Black Democratic loyalty
… is not a sheep behavior,”
Laird said. “The fact that [Black
people] may be aligned in our
partisan values has a lot to do
with our race, the communities
that we’re in, the socializing that
we’re doing and the social ties
it was time to re-activate a
chapter at Bowdoin.
“[I] was looking into if
Bowdoin had a mental health
club” she said. “[I realized]
that we kind of had organiza-
tions in the past but we don’t
seem to currently have one.”
For Tripathee and Groell,
who have both struggled with
mental health issues, there are
personal stakes in establish-
ing the club.
“I was super excited about
going to college, but then
I was away from my family
and my support system and
everything,” Tripathee said.
“It was really rough and the
thing with counseling is they
are there, but you really have
to … be there for yourself.”
Groell also had some issues
surrounding mental health in
her first year.
“[I wanted to create] a help-
ful organization for students to
that we have.”
Foster reminded the group
that, despite having their cul-
ture constantly usurped and
appropriated by white Ameri-
ca, Black Americans have been
characteristically resilient.
“There’s a kind of ‘always
keep going forward,’ ‘always
I would like for us collectively, people of
color and white progressive thinkers to
... actually stand up and turn our backs
to the Oscars. If we did that, perhaps
things might change.
–Guy Mark Foster, associate professor of English
moving forward’ [mentality]
for Black people as a collective,”
Foster said. “I like that kind of
ability of our culture to contin-
ually revise and reinvent new
things.”
Hite was happy with the dis-
cussion but wished it could have
been longer.
“The talk was so short, and
I wanted more time,” Hite said.
“But even with a ten-hour talk,
it wouldn’t be enough time to
talk about the Black experi-
ence.”
BSU, along with Africa Alli-
ance and the Student Organiza-
tion for Caribbean Awareness,
discuss and talk about mental
health in an open way and just
bring awareness to it on the
Bowdoin campus,” she said.
The leaders noted that, at
Bowdoin, it is not uncommon
for academic stress to harm
students’ mental health. Their
goal is to change the way
mental health is perceived
and spoken about on campus.
“With Bowdoin culture
I feel like everyone kind of
brags about how much they
have to do and how little
sleep they get, so, in that way,
people feel like they need to
be stressed out,” Tripathee
said. “They need to always
be pushing themselves and
they think it’s okay to feel
depressed because they think
that’s just part of the culture.”
Along with having club
meetings directed toward
increasing awareness, the
club plans to partner with
DIEGO VELASQUEZ, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
sat on the Black History Month
Committee which has been
responsible for planning and
executing this February’s pro-
gramming.
“We try to make sure that
all of the programming is very
well-versed and very diverse,”
Hite said. “The talks are always
catered to what is happening in
the world right now.”
Hite encourages the Bowdo-
in community not to confine
the celebration of Black history
to one month. She stressed that
only genuine and sustained
student participation will lead
to meaningful engagement.
“After the end of February,
the Black experience does not
stop,” said Hite. “Learn, grow,
educate yourself and come to
these talks as well, but know
that these talks are just setting
the foundation for what could
be a more fruitful conversa-
tion.”
Counseling and Wellness Ser-
vices and Peer Health to host
events.
“[I hope to have] a coffee
house kind of deal with Boo-
dy Johnson House, since they
already do that kind of [pro-
gramming],” said Tripathee.
“We were going to do poetry
or just have people talk about
it and share their art and then
just have a comfortable space
while talking about it.”
In the long term, the lead-
ers hope to host larger events.
“I was thinking of having
[an event] once a year or a
de-stress week or a healthy
mental health awareness week
or something where there are
different events every day or
every week,” Tripathee said.
When Groell and Tripathee
complete club training, they
plan to begin hosting biweek-
ly meetings on Thursday eve-
nings.
by Lucie Nolden
Orient Staff
Last fall, 16 students of
varying backgrounds and ra-
cial identities met at 30 Col-
lege for seven Monday nights
to engage in a dialogue about
race and racism. Beginning
this Monday, a group of only
white-identifying students will
congregate for the College’s
pilot Intragroup Dialogue on
race, specifically designed for
white students.
According to Kate Stern, as-
sociate dean of students for in-
clusion & diversity and direc-
tor of the Center for Sexuality,
Women and Gender, this new
model, adopted from a similar
program at the University of
Michigan, offers white students
committed to learning about
and tackling racism the chance
to talk about issues surround-
ing racism.
“It’s similar to … groups of
men getting together to talk
about healthy masculinity and
gender specifically in a way to
combat sexism and misogyny,”
said Eduardo Pazos, director
of religious and spiritual life.
Stern and Pazos, who led the
Intergroup Dialogue on Race
in the fall together, see the
intragroup dialogue as one of
several useful tools on cam-
pus for students interested in
exploring and dismantling
racism.
The intragroup dialogue
structure is a little different
from the intergroup dialogues,
which are usually led by one
facilitator who is white and an-
other who is a person of color.
This group will be moderated
by Ryan Telingator ’21 and Em-
ily Oleisky ’20, two white-iden-
tifying students who have
participated in an intergroup
dialogue on race and who have
led Real Talks on Race, a series
of guided discussions on race
for first-year students. The
group will meet for the next
four weeks for facilitated dis-
cussions, sometimes with as-
signed readings or short video
clips to stimulate conversation.
“We know that Bowdoin
students are very busy with
their coursework, so we don’t
want it to feel like another
class or for that to be a barri-
er,” Stern said. Through the
pilot program, facilitators will
be able to fine-tune the top-
ics of discussion, learn which
focus areas students have the
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most interest in addressing and
choose materials resonate most
with participants.
In addition, student partic-
ipants are encouraged to get
meals and coffee dates with
each other, continuing the dia-
logue outside of the four sched-
uled sessions. Stern hopes that
students participating in and
graduating from the program
will find ways to integrate their
newfound knowledge and skills
into their daily lives, initiating
conversations about race with
friends and teammates.
“I hope that there is learn-
ing, self-reflection and some
clear intentional steps of what
people can do—both inside our
community and outside—to
tackle racism,” Stern said.
Stern explained that there
is currently a “solid group”
of participants, but she noted
that a few spaces are still open
and invites students who are
interested to reach out. Stern
explained that offering both
programs will allow students to
choose a level of engagement
that feels right. She hopes some
students will choose to partic-
ipate in intergroup dialogue
after engaging in intragroup
dialogue.
“Both go hand in hand quite
well together,” she said. “It can
be really powerful and people
have the opportunity to do
both.”
The intragroup dialogue is
one of several organized dia-
logues occurring this semes-
ter—similar programs center-
ing around religion and class
will be taking place in addition
to a pilot dialogue on politi-
cal differences. For Stern and
Pazos, helping students learn
how to talk to each other about
issues that can feel difficult to
bring up is an invaluable skill
both at Bowdoin and in the
world at large.
“In a time in our country
when we talk a lot about being
polarized and being in each
person’s corner, [it’s important]
for us to have an ongoing set of
four or five different dialogues
that are happening every single
week,” said Pazos. “[We went]
through almost the whole
first year class [in Real Talks
on Race] in the bricks, [and]
people [were] engaging with
each other and talking to each
other and sometimes disagree-
ing with each other—and that’s
okay, too! But people [were]
actually talking to each other.”
Friday, February 7, 2020
A ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
FUN AT FRONTIER: Singer-songwriter Robby Simpson was one of three artists featured at Frontier’s Songwriters on Stage on Tuesday. The event, hosted by Maine Songwriters Association takes place on a monthy basis.
Frontier’s Songwriters on Stage showcases local musicians
by Elizabeth Flanagan
Orient Staff
On Tuesday night, local musi-
cians and music lovers gathered
at Frontier to hear a medley of
songs and vocals in the cozy the-
atre tucked into the old mill at the
end of Maine Street.
Michael Gilroy opened Fron-
tier in Fort Andross in 2006, with
a mission to “connect the world
through food, arts and culture.”
The business strives to do this
through its restaurant, coffee bar,
event spaces and theater, used for
a variety of community gather-
ings.
One of these events is Song-
writers on Stage, an event host-
ed by the Maine Songwriters
Association (MSA) in Frontier’s
theatre the first Tuesday of every
month.
Frontier Programming Direc-
M.A.K.U. Soundsystem on new horizons of Latin music
by Sebastian de Lasa
Orient Staff
Editor’s Note: This interview has
been edited for length and clarity.
Bowdoin Orient: Where did
the name M.A.K.U. Soundsys-
tem come from?
Camilo Rodriguez: M.A.K.U.
comes from the Nukak-Maku
[which] is an indigenous
group. And this group was
displaced by the war in Co-
lombia, and they came out on
the front page of the New York
Times back in 2010 or 2009.
Andrés Jiménez: Yeah,
2009 or 2008.
CR: We just use that name
because of that.
Bowdoin Orient: So you
guys all hail from Colombia
but the group formed in New
York. Do you think that your
music is necessarily influenced
by mostly Colombian artists
or other stuff that you are ex-
posed to living in New York?
tor Sean Morin explained the re-
lationship between Frontier and
MSA in an email.
“Different than most events
at Frontier, our long-term part-
nership with MSA allowed us the
trust to let them own and curate
that series independently of our
input,” he wrote. “They handpick
the talent and run their own
sound in our theater space.”
MSA is a nonprofit that was
established by songwriters in the
greater Portland area about 20
years ago.
“[Its purpose] is to support
and provide opportunities to
Maine songwriters. So we try to
offer workshops, performance
opportunities, and support net-
works,” explained Ben Hunsberg-
er, a board member and a host of
Tuesday’s event.
With Morin’s Maine-centric
concept for Frontier—from the
Juan Ospina: Primarily and
first and foremost, to me, it’s a
New York experience. We are
Colombian and that’s where
we come from; what we do in
music and the scene that we’re
a part of in New York involves
things that deal with tradi-
tional music from Colombia,
so that’s in us. But also we are
part of a world. New York, as
you said, they call it “the melt-
ing pot,” so it’s diverse within
itself. There’s a lot of sound
from different places of the
world, you know, a large spec-
trum of Caribbean music, a
large spectrum of African mu-
sic ... and then there’s music
from New York itself, like sal-
sa, hip hop and all that stuff. I
think all of that mixing is in-
evitable and it permeates and
breeds and we breed it back,
but also, I think the good part
of it—what we enjoy—is that it
comes through this M.A.K.U.
filter, in which it leaves a print
farms that supply the restaurant
to the vendors whose products
are sold at the coffee bar—MSA
fits right in.
“[Morin] just is such a great
supporter of what we do,”
Hunsberger continued. “He al-
ways likes to get in music in this
theater. And with Maine song-
writers—it being a local Maine
thing—it’s right up their alley.”
Each month, a member of
the MSA Board of Directors is
responsible for hosting the event,
hand-picking a set of musicians
and sometimes taking the stage
as well.
On stage with Hunsberger,
Tuesday’s host, were his choic-
es of Maine musicians, Robby
Simpson and Emilia Dahlin.
Their performance was preceded
by opener Sarah Dawn, who per-
formed three original songs for
the audience. Next Hunsberger,
that is unique and our print of
the diaspora in New York.
Bowdoin Orient: As musi-
cians, how do you feel like the
United States is changing in
terms of interest and percep-
tion of Latin music?
JO: I think could it be that
we’re surrounded by this world
that feels it’s tired of the usual
things; we all grew up in Co-
lombia, we would listen to the
radio and they’d play all the stuff
that came from here, like Bon
Jovi. So having listened to all of
that and coming here, there are
a great amount of people in this
country who still wanna listen
to “oldies but goodies.” And I
like all that! But at the same
time, I don’t know if it’s because
of the radio, but all of a sudden
it seems that people are looking
to listen to other people’s stuff.
The eclectic sound has become
more accepted in America, it
doesn’t just sound like rock all
the time. Maybe, but that’s what
Simpson and Dahlin took the
stage together and cycled through
playing individual pieces.
“Generally most of the people
who will perform here will be
playing an acoustic guitar and
singing,” said Hunsberger. “But
actually stylistically, Robbie and
Amelia and I all have very differ-
ent kinds of leanings.”
Hunsberger was seated be-
hind a keyboard to accompany
himself during his songs, Dahlin
brought her guitar to execute her
jazzy sound and dynamic vocals,
and Simpson brought a coun-
try-western flavor to the evening
with a guitar, harmonica and
cowboy boots.
The audience size for the
MSA’s shows varies greatly from
month to month.
“We can have a night where
there’s 10 people in the audi-
ence and a night when there’s 50
it feels like.
AJ: Yeah it’s also the migra-
tion. Things take shape. Every-
thing is migrations, especially
in a place like New York City.
You know, people from, say,
Ecuador—you’ll find more
musicians from Ecuador do-
ing things and changing things
around. I think for Colombian
people, we are probably a result
of a lot of people that have come
before us to pave the way. If you
look at history you’ll see the
Puerto Ricans have had a big,
big, role in opening up doors
for the Spanish-speaking people
that came after them, in New
York. And you have like the
boom of salsa, because of the
Dominican community, too.
We’re all some result of migra-
tion. So in that sense like society
and music will always be linked
together, you know, in that way.
Bowdoin Orient: Obvious-
ly, Latino people in the United
States have been playing a mas-
people in the audience. And you
never know until it’s seven o’clock
which one it’s gonna be,” said
Hunsberger.
Despite this uncertainty, Mo-
rin commented on the impact
the Songwriters on Stage event
has had on the community.
“Over the years, we’ve seen
the Midcoast music communi-
ty develop into a tightly woven
family as they continue to gather
and grow on Frontier’s stage,” he
said. “Sharing that love with the
community at large is a big part
of Frontier’s success.”
Hunsberger is also eager to
foster a stronger relationship be-
tween Songwriters on Stage at the
Frontier and musically-inclined
Bowdoin students. They rarely
have the opportunity to feature
young artists on stage.
“I’m sure there are [some]
Bowdoin students who are up to
sive role for the entire history
of the U.S., but culturally, Lati-
no people have been shunned.
And now I think that with a
growing Latino population—a
vastly growing one—it seems
like parts of Latino cultures are
starting to be more and more
integrated into “American cul-
ture.” That begs the question,
do you guys see any signs of
appropriation? I feel like I hear
more and more of just vaguely
Latin sounding music made by
a bunch of white dudes.
JO: There are people like J.
Balvin and Rosalía who actual-
ly made a charge into the main-
stream, right? Beyond whether
we like it or not, I don’t think
none of them could have had a
chance before, I don’t think the
mainstream industry would
have taken a risk to have some-
body saying three, four, five
words in Spanish, they’d be
like ‘Hell no! That’s gonna ruin
my labor, you know, Ameri-
7
GRAHAM BENDICKSON, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
the challenge,” said Hunsberger
on strategizing ways to involve
the Bowdoin community. “It
would be a nice way for the col-
lege to have a reason to come
down and be involved here. And
it’d be a nice way for the commu-
nity to see the other side of some
of the students here too. I think
it’d be a cool show.”
Hunsberger hopes that the
uniqueness of the event will
prove attractive to both Bowdoin
and the Brunswick community.
“I think that’s one of the
things it does nicely,” Hunsberger
said. “It exposes the local com-
munity to others who are in the
greater Maine community, who
do some pretty cool stuff that
they wouldn’t really get to hear
otherwise.”
Songwriters on Stage will take
place every Tuesday at Frontier at
7 p.m. until June.
ca is not ready for that.’ But
apparently they realized that,
you know, people are seeking
something different.
Bowdoin Orient: Latino
culture really is such a massive
part of American culture.
JO: The blend is undeni-
able, yeah. But tonight could
be a testament to that. People
were saying that we’re playing
at a college that has bankers
that come out of here. There’s
that need for a new kind of
wave. We’re into different
things in life, it’s not necessar-
ily just all monetizing.
Bowdoin Orient: People
want to dance.
JO: People want to dance!
So that’s what we shall see to-
night, to watch the sons and
daughters of—and these are
the words of your co-college
students—the neo-liberal kids
are here. Let’s see if they also
are into the feeling of things,
you know.
8 Friday, February 7, 2019

F FEATURES
Brunswick restaurant opens with twist on the classics
by Halina Bennet
Orient Staff
With its elegant interior, lo-
cally-sourced ingredients and
a pared-down menu, Maine
St. Steak and Oyster strives to
create a casual ambience with
high-end versions of classic
dishes. The restaurant, which
opened last Thursday, saw a
busy first weekend and looks
forward to an exciting future
on Brunswick’s Maine Street.
Restaurant owners Kim
Lully and her husband Sunny
Chung, along with their part-
ners Sarah Gabrielson and
Tony Pastor, previously operat-
ed a small Korean restaurant in
Portland and are eager to bring
something fresh to the local
food scene.
“Everything else that has
been here a long time is great.
Obviously, that’s why they’re
still here, but it’s nice to see
something new,” Lully said.
“[We’re bringing to] Brunswick
a little of that ‘Portland feel.’
You know, it’s funny, we used to
say we wanted to give Portland
the ‘Boston feel,’ and now Port-
land has its own moniker.”
What, exactly is that ‘Port-
land feel’?
Lully believes that now more
than ever people are seeking
out more focused dining expe-
riences.
“I think the [restaurants]
that have been here for a long
time needed to do what they
needed to do 20 years ago. Now
it’s about focus, honing in and
giving people something that
they want … something that’s
focused. Just picking one or
two products and really just
putting the best foot forward
on those,” Lully said.
The menu features modern
takes on dishes from burgers
and beef carpaccio to freshly
shucked oysters. Head Chef
Tony Pastor refreshes the fa-
miliar flavors of the classic
American Steakhouse with
homemade sauces, seasonal
vegetables and diverse cooking
methods.
The restaurant makes an
effort to use only simple, local
ingredients to create its concise
menu. It sources its oysters
from Mere Point Oyster Com-
pany, its produce from Laugh-
ing Stock Farm in Freeport and
its steak from Caldwell Farm—
only an hour away—in Turner,
Maine.
In addition to the menu’s
modern reinventions of clas-
sics, the restaurant keeps its
offerings narrowed with a
“non-threatening” wine list.
Without fancy cocktails and
dishes, Lully promises a “lo-
cal, comfortable, casual, great
quality” dining experience.
The 38-seat dining space offers
a new dining option for fami- ANGEL RAMIREZ, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
ly dinners, date nights or any NEW FOOD ON THE BLOCK: Maine St. Steak and Oyster opened last week, bringing a twist on classic American steakhouse flavors to Brunswick’s restaurant scene.
night out.
The restaurant strives to Maine Street. of city bistro feel where you will become a space that re- everything that comes out of
carve out an accepting and “We’re hoping that every- get great food, but you can flects her team’s enthusiasm for the kitchen is sent with love and
accessible space. Families can body’s going to come and have come dressed in blue jeans their new creative and culinary care because we really, really at
come and enjoy their evenings, fun. I mean, it’s good food, but and a t-shirt if you want to. It venture. the end of the day, like what we
couples can celebrate their an- not fancy,” Lully said. “I think fits whatever you need. We just “All four of us really, real- do for a living,” Lully said.
niversaries and no one should when you walk in … the big want to feed people and make ly love what we do. From the Maine St. Steak and Oyster
feel unwelcome when they high ceilings, the natural wood them happy.” wines, to sourcing the local is open for dinner Tuesday to
walk through the front door on floors, it has more of that kind Lully hopes the restaurant produce, to the steaks oysters, Saturday.

Buzzing with positivity:

Thorne greeter Doug Calhoun
by Lily Randall
Orient Staff
Bowdoin is a campus of many
tattoos, but perhaps the College’s
most famous ink is Doug Cal-
houn’s honey bee, located on his
left wrist. The tattoo, which Cal-
houn got at age 74, is an homage
to his beehive and can be spotted
as Calhoun swipes students into
Thorne Dining Hall. When Cal-
houn started beekeeping in 1999,
though, he was more concerned
with his garden than with the
bees themselves.
“I lived in Yarmouth, and I had
a lot of gardens that weren’t doing
very well, particularly squash and
cucumbers. Someone said, ‘well,
you need to get bees,’ so I took an
adult education course on bee-
keeping [and] started beekeep-
ing,” Calhoun said.
Though he’s come to love his
bees, beekeeping hasn’t been all
fun and games for Calhoun.
“It’s a challenge. We call it bee-
keeping, but to me it’s more like
bee farming because we have all
the same problems that a farmer
does. We have a problem with too
much rain [or] not enough rain.
We have a problem with disease.
We have a problem with pests.
And we can’t keep [the bees] if
they decide they want to leave.”
Calhoun has worked at the
College since 2016. What initially
began as a casual bartending gig
for intermittent college events
quickly turned into a deeper in-
volvement once he began meet-
ing students. In addition to his
job at Thorne, Calhoun also helps
out at track meets and works as
a waiter for special events at the
College. To Calhoun, though, his
job is much more than checking
cards at the dining hall.
“The students are wonderful.
They’re friendly. They’re polite.
You know, a lot of people think
that students today aren’t [polite],
but I haven’t met anyone that
hasn’t been polite,” Calhoun said.
“It has really made me feel young
again.”
Calhoun, who grew up in
Clinton, N.Y., has held jobs in a
range of areas, but his main inter-
est is in computers.
“I had a degree in secondary
education, biology and physical
education. And then along came
Vietnam, and I went into the Air
Force,” Calhoun said. “When I
came to Maine, there was only
one job opening in my field, and
it was in a place called Lubec
… I looked at it and I said, ‘No,
thank you,’ and I went back into
computers, and I’ve sort of been
in computers the rest of my life
… I was an operator, a program-
mer, a systems analyst and I got
into Macintosh Apple. I [also]
work[ed] with schools. I had my
own business selling school ad-
ministration software.”
With his programming and
computing life now behind him,
Calhoun takes immense joy in in-
teracting with Bowdoin students.
Attending athletic events, talking
to basketball players and keeping
up with those who are abroad are
just a few of the ways Calhoun
likes to stay involved with the
campus community.
Known for his engaging con-
versations with students, Cal-
houn is also admired for his hon-
eybee tattoo, which he reported
was painless.
“Getting stung by a bee is more
painful than [getting] the tattoo.
In fact, the tattoo artist … said,
‘Oh, this will be like a bee sting’
and I said ‘go for it’ and it wasn’t
even bad at all, it was easy, it was
wonderful,” Calhoun said.
Besides his tattoo, Calhoun is
also popular for his painted nails.
Polished in coordination with
seasons and major holidays, his
nails sported snowflake designs
this winter to celebrate the cold.
“I can’t remember how that
started. I started having them
decorated around Christmas
one time, and the students like
them. Someone said ‘do your
grandchildren do that?’ And I
said ‘I have 1500 grandchildren.’ I
mean, that’s the way I feel about
students, because I’m old enough
to be your grandfather,” Calhoun
said.
“Now it’s time for Valentines,
St. Patrick’s Day, [or] Easter [de-
signs]. Last year at graduation, it
was fun. I did them black, white,
black, white, but then I had 2019
[written across]. It’s just a way to
connect with the students. I want
to connect, I want you to feel that
I’m not just swiping your card.”
At the end of the day, Calhoun
hopes he can be a force for good
on campus.
“Well, you know, let’s face it, we
can’t always be happy all the time,
COURTESY OF DOUG CALHOUN
right,” Calhoun said. “But maybe
some days I can give a smile to POWER OF POSITIVITY: Doug Calhoun, longtime Bowdoin employee, explores
his beekeeping hobby and attempts to bring a positive influence to students’ lives.
somebody who isn’t happy.”
Friday, February 7, 2019
STILL ON A QUEST FOR
CONNECTION TO PLACE
Have you ever experienced a
really, really bad jet lag?
Not the type where you crave
dinner at 4 p.m. or feel the need
to pop a melatonin before bed.
This is something much more
daunting and debilitating, an
out-of-body experience where
all is at once foreign yet famil-
iar. Where you are drowning in
a sea of menial and mechanical
tasks as if being thrust into a
storm without a compass.
One of the hardest moments
came a few days ago on the eve
of Chinese New Year.
At 4 a.m. EST on January
24, I Facetimed my family as
they were preparing dinner in
celebration of the holiday. I as-
sured them that I got back and
that everything was okay. Later
that morning I sat in bed and
watched the count of confirmed
coronavirus cases go up in real
time on social media—dys-
topia juxtaposed with wishes
and blessings for the new year
everywhere else—while hiding
out in my dorm room in rural
North America. I was never
able to go back to sleep after
that.
These past two weeks back
at Bowdoin have been as such,
a draining, groggy, disorienting
experience of being trapped in
a period of perpetual jet lag. My
heart is constantly being pulled
in three directions—to China,
to America and to Italy. It feels
as if I have left a little bit of
my soul in all these places and
could never be complete again.
The adrenaline rush and
RECKONING WITH
BOWDOIN’S ELITISM
As a sports fan, I am not
someone who is offended eas-
ily. I believe in boo-ing a bad
ref and have no problem with
a rowdy crowd. I was at Fen-
way Park for Alex Rodriguez’s
final game in Boston, and I
made it on to the big screen
holding a giant asterisk, in an
attempt to remind Rodriguez
of his impending legacy as a
cheater.
However, on Saturday, I
found myself disappointed in
the annual chants of “safety
school” at the Bowdoin-Col-
by hockey game. I wasn’t
exactly surprised by the
elitism on display,
but it made
KYR
AT
AN
thrill of being back and seeing
friends quickly wore off; in-
stead, I often find myself awk-
ward and alone—all the things
that made me doubt if I ever
belonged at Bowdoin in the first
place coming back to haunt me
again.
Science tells us that jet lag
occurs when our circadian
rhythm is out of sync—our
brain cells are literally too con-
fused to operate, depriving us of
our sleep, our appetite and our
morale as functioning human
beings. I have always confront-
ed jet lag with willpower and
caffeine. Yet this time around,
adjusting back to Bowdoin after
abroad proves to be a crucible
unlike ever before.
As I wake up once again in a
cold sweat on a Saturday morn-
ing, I wonder: what if the prob-
lem is not purely biological?
To avoid sounding privileged
and self-pitying, I confess that I
am incredibly fortunate to have
been able to go abroad and have
a memorable experience. What
I am trying to piece together,
rather, is the not-so-simple
aftermath of such an experi-
ence—this prolonged period of
re-entry, the intangible feeling
of detachment and melancholy
that I have tried time after time
to articulate.
Since being back, friends,
professors and Ben from Dog
Bar Jim alike have asked me
about abroad. “You’re back!
How was abroad?” became the
default mode of greeting. Al-
ways, I’m tongue-tied trying to
address it as the past. To refer
to the past would imply that the
chapter is truly over with, done
me reflect on what, exactly, it
means to attend an institution
like Bowdoin.
The public high school
I attended in Cambridge,
Mass. was a great place to
go to school. Our school was
well-funded, diverse and had
a tight-knit community. But,
one could argue, the best part
was our basketball team. It
was dominant—so dominant
that during my junior and
senior years, not only did we
win the State D1 Champion-
ships back-to-back, we were
unde-
FEATURES
Talk of the Quad
and
dusted,
while per-
haps I am
not yet ready to
let go.
And after all, how does one
even begin talking about Italy?
How do I convey, with words
and mere sentences, the sounds
and colors, the heartaches and
revelations, the bastardi whom
we loved to hate, those mid-
night escapades along medieval
alleyways, countless sunsets,
hugs, kisses, poems, cigarettes
and millions of ciaos and buona
nottes?
Once again I turn to litera-
ture and linguistics. Perhaps it
is due to the limit of our own
linguaggio that we cannot ex-
plicate feelings that are at once
so concrete yet so nebulous.
Jhumpa Lahiri details this im-
possibility of addressing a past
that extends into the present,
feated for the entire span.
In the hunt for those two
championships, we left our
league and played in the
state tournaments against
a number of teams from
wealthier and less diverse
suburbs. I don’t mean to
brag, but on those runs
there were not very many
close games. As we would
run up the score, blocking
shots that would fly into the
bleachers, something ugly
would consistently happen:
the opposing student sec-
this “imperfect” tense that aris-
es out of an inability to be sepa-
rate from our histories, a sense
of longing, of incompleteness
and of loss, lurking behind as
the silent backdrop of our lives.
“Mi identifico con l’imper-
fetto, perché un senso d’imper-
fezione ha segnato la mia vita.
Sto provando da sempre a mi-
gliorarmi, a correggermi, per-
ché mi sono sempre sentita una
persona difettosa .... L’ansia che
provavo, e talvolta provo anco-
ra, proviene da un senso di ina-
deguatezza, di essere una delu-
sione,” Lahiri writes. I translate
this to say, I identify with the
imperfect, because a sense of
imperfection has marked my
life. I am always trying to im-
tions would change their
chants to attack non-athletic
aspects of our school.
“S-A-T Scooores.” Or “We
go to college.” In reference
to our comparatively lower
average SAT scores and the
percentage of our students
that attend four-year colleges
after graduation. We were
also playing against a lot
of teams that were entirely
white, from schools that were
majority white, with a team
that was overwhelmingly
black. It didn’t take long for
prove myself, to perfect myself,
because I’ve always felt like a
flawed person .… The anxiety
I felt, and sometimes still feel,
comes from a sense of inade-
quacy, of being a disappoint-
ment.
In my case, therefore, I guess
this imperfection has manifest-
ed itself in these long, arduous
episodes of jet lag.
Maybe my “clock” is still
waiting to be adjusted, as I
have discovered for myself and
suspect for some others. We
are all so quickly thrown into
the hustle and bustle of junior
spring and feel at once sheltered
and stifled by the ‘Bowdoin
Bubble’ that we have not given
ourselves the time to reflect and
these chants to become ra-
cially-motivated. But the un-
derlying thesis of the chants
always seemed to be: “We
don’t care if you beat us at
basketball, we’re going to be
your bosses one day.”
These were the memories
that flooded back to me on Sat-
urday at Watson Arena, but it
was different now. I was on the
other side. Now, at Bowdoin,
I am attending a school that
largely embraces elitism and
the idea of trying to be better
than others, not only at sports,
but at life. Instead of measuring
field goal percentage or batting
average, we have decided to
measure success through sta-
tistics like our acceptance rate
and a graduate’s average start-
ing salary.
Of course, Colby is not
particularly similar
to my high school,
and poking fun
at them is more
innocent because,
as a college in the
NESCAC, they
enjoy many of the
same privileges
as Bowdoin. But I
still think that our
chants prove my
point—we go to a
college that is de-
luded by the idea
that we are better
than others be-
cause of arbitrary
circumstances.
Very few
things outside of
a rink (or a field
9
N
A TA
KYR
debrief what happened.
Maybe we are still searching
for that point of balance, the
place that will allow us to navi-
gate the confines of our worlds
both old and new.
If there is any consolation,
though, judging from the past
six years of my life spent flying
to and from two corners of the
world, it is the fact that I know
this jet lag will eventually pass.
It might take days, weeks or
even months to feel normal
and settled back into Bowdoin
again—but it will pass.
Until then, my friends and
post-abroad wanderers, ci
vuole tempo.
Sabrina Lin is a member of
the Class of 2021.
or a court) are actually a mer-
itocracy, and it shows a pro-
found lack of self-confidence
to reference and brag about
acceptance rates or college
rankings. We are here because
we were exceptionally lucky:
lucky that we were born in the
right place, lucky that we had a
great teacher who stayed after
school to help us or a parent
who would read to us at night
and lucky that a Bowdoin ad-
missions officer happened to
like our personal essays. If we
need to put down the worth
of other schools, not simply
the skills of their athletes, to
feel good about ourselves—if
we need to embrace elitism
just to satisfy our insecuri-
ties—then we don’t deserve to
win a hockey game. There are
a million ways to live a good
life and the vast majority have
nothing to do with where you
attend college.
I don’t want to tell anyone
what to do. And, at future
games, I will continue to
remind the Colby Mules of
their sterility even (especial-
ly) if they continue to run up
the score on our Polar Bears.
But I think it’s important to
critically reflect on how we,
as students entering a deeply
flawed and unequal world,
measure our self-worth. Is it
measured by feeling superior
to others? If you need that to
feel good about yourself, then
you should rethink your ver-
sion of success.
Diego Lasarte is a member
of the Class of 2022.
10 Friday, February 7, 2020

FS SPORTS
HIGHLIGHT
REEL
CONTROL THE T, WIN BY 3:
In the lone high note in the
women’s squash team’s 8-1
loss to Franklin & Marshall
last Sunday, Clio Bersani
’22 swept her match 3-0 as
number 2 in the ladder and
was awarded NESCAC
Performer of the Week
honors for her efforts.
The win brings Bersani’s
individual season score line
to 9-5 and gave the team
something to cheer about
before the Polar Bears travel
to Wesleyan for NESCAC
Championships this
weekend.

WOMEN SUPPORTING
WOMEN:
On Sunday, February
2, Bowdoin celebrated
National Girls & Women
in Sports Day. The athletic
department hosted over
300 local students, from
kindergarteners to high
schoolers, to enjoy a day
of sports and games led by
Bowdoin student-athletes
before coming together at
the end of the day to meet
each other and share snacks
in Farley Field House.
SCHOOLING THE MULES IN
THE POOL:
The men’s and women’s
swim and dive seasons
finished their regular season
schedule on Saturday with
a combined meet hosted
by Colby. The women’s
team claimed victory over
the Mules by a score of
177.5-112.5, earning first-
place finishes in a number
of events. The men’s team
only claimed one first-place
finish in the 200 individual
medley and lost to Colby
195-93. It was a good day
for the divers, however, with
both Henry Isaacson ’22 and
Thea Kelsey ’20 qualifying
for NCAA Regionals in the
1-meter category. Kelsey
also earned a spot in the
3-meter discipline.
HUSSON FIRST?:
Despite keeping the game
tied until the final minute,
the men’s basketball team
suffered an 84-76 loss
to Husson University in
Bangor on Tuesday evening.
Bowdoin spread the scoring
out on offense, with three
players contributing at least
10 points, but the team was
outscored 18-2 in the paint,
hurting the Polar Bears
down the stretch. The loss
brings Bowdoin’s overall
record to 7-13. The team will
need to turn things around
fast if it is to secure the final
NESCAC playoff spot. The
battle for that eighth seed
starts tonight with a game
against Amherst in Morrell
Gym at 7 p.m.
COMPILED BY DYLAN SLOAN
Women’s basketball
drops first regular-
season game since 2018
by Dylan Sloan
Orient Staff
Last Friday, the women’s
basketball team hit the first
road bump in an otherwise
spectacular season that has
become the norm for the Polar
Bears in recent years. In front
of a crowd of 1,400 in Morrell
Gym, the venue’s max capacity,
the Jumbos pulled away in the
fourth quarter for a 97-88 win
after both teams traded the
lead for most of the game. At
the final buzzer, Tufts hand-
ed the Polar Bears their first
loss this season and the team’s
first regular-season loss in 47
games, dropping Bowdoin to
second place in the NESCAC.
Especially in the past few
seasons, the Tufts-Bowdoin
rivalry has, for the most part,
defined the top of the NESCAC
table: the two teams have met
in the NESCAC playoffs six of
the past seven years.
“It’s been a long standing
rivalry—it goes way back,” said
Head Coach Adrienne Shibles.
“There [have] been some
doozies—we beat them in 2018
to go to the Final Four, and I
think some of the players on
their current team still carry a
lot of feelings about that game.
We crushed them on their
court last year, then they beat
us in the game that really mat-
tered, which was the NESCAC
championship. I think all of
our players have remembranc-
es of moments in this great,
storied rivalry.”
And in this most recent edi-
tion, the setting could not have
been more electric. In front
of the sellout crowd the two
teams delivered a barnburner:
an offensive showdown where
both teams averaged 59 percent
shooting and put up an astro-
nomical 185 combined points.
Ultimately, it was Tufts’ offen-
sive output that was Bowdoin’s
downfall.
“To score 80-plus points
against a Tufts team that always
prides themselves on their de-
fense ... I’m really happy with
that,” said Shibles. “But we
should never give up that many
points against any team, ever.
We’ve really been preaching
that all year.”
Defense has been perhaps
the team’s greatest strength
this year. Last year, in which
Bowdoin finished second in
the NESCAC and reached the
NCAA championship game,
the Polar Bears allowed 56.5
points per conference game.
This year, although offensive
production has diminished
slightly, Bowdoin is only allow-
ing 50.9 points per conference
game.
“I especially believe defense
wins championships, and when
you have a team of young play-
ers who has to learn an offen-
sive system, there’s some grow-
ing pains,” said Shibles. “But
the players really latched onto
it, and that’s really our biggest
disappointment about our loss
to Tufts—nobody should put
up that many points against
Bowdoin. [But] we’re really
proud of the fact that we’ve
been limiting our opponents to
fewer points with such a young
team.”
“[That game] caused us to
look in the mirror ... and re-
alize that we do want to be
the best defensive team in the
NESCAC, and we did not show
ANN BASU, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
JUST A BUMP IN THE ROAD: Maddie Hasson ’20 (ABOVE) drives past a Tufts opponent in last Friday’s narrow loss to
the Jumbos. Anika Helmke ’22 (BELOW RIGHT) and Dorian Cohen ’22 (BELOW LEFT) cheer on their teammates.
we know about the [opponent]
and a game plan based on that,
“[By] getting back to the little things on defense
but we’re really focusing on
and improving communication ... we can show making adjustments based on
what we know we can do on the defensive end.” how things could go any way
on any given night.”
-Maddie Hasson ’2o, captain “My job is more to keep us
focused on the gameplan—
that last Friday,” added captain a big game Friday and a big focused on every moment,”
Maddie Hasson ’20, who led game on Saturday. Having a big added Shibles. “Making adjust-
the team with 29 points against game [the next day] was all the ments in the flow of the game ...
the Jumbos. “[By] getting back motivation we needed.” was a challenge against Tufts.”
to the little things on defense This coming weekend, the Amherst will be the next
and improving communication Polar Bears have another crit- big test of everything the team
... we can show what we know ical matchup. Amherst, also has been working on since be-
we can do on the defensive a perennial NESCAC foe and ing clipped by the Jumbos last
end.” the final team in the the tri- weekend. Tonight’s matchup
It didn’t take long for the umvirate who has dominated will be crucial in determining
Polar Bears to get back in gear. the conference in the past few the top seeding for the upcom-
Just 20 hours later, they handily years, will play host to Bowdo- ing NESCAC playoffs, with the
took care of Bates with an 80- in in what is sure to be another Mammoths currently tied for
59 win on Senior Day, holding epic contest in Massachusetts fourth with Trinity, but within
the Bobcats to just just 36.9 tonight at 7 p.m.. shooting range of Bowdoin for
percent from the field. For Bowdoin, a key sticking one of the top two seeds.
“Right after the [Tufts] point this weekend will be flex- “We just met with our cap-
game, we were all obviously ibility—being able to call au- tains and said, ‘prepare every-
disappointed ... but we thought, dibles and adjust to midgame one for this weekend,’” said
‘Let’s take this 30 minutes to be changes in the strategy the Shibles. “I’m sure they’re going
upset about it and reflect on it team has been planning all to pack their gym, and it’ll be a
and be sad about it, but when week. really challenging atmosphere
we leave the locker room, let’s “One thing we’ve talked to play in.”
think about tomorrow,’” said about a lot … is making adjust- [We’re just focused on] com-
Hasson. “We’ve gotten used to ments in the flow of the game,” ing out every night and doing
that with the way the schedule said Hasson. “Obviously, we what we do and not letting that
goes—every weekend, we have go into every game with what waver,” said Hasson.
Friday, February 7, 2020
Men’s hockey on the hunt for playoff bid after Colby loss
by Seamus Frey
Orient Staff
Just one week removed from
the excitement and disappoint-
ment of the Bowdoin-Colby
game last weekend, the 4-1 loss
seems like a distant memory for
the Bowdoin men’s hockey team.
It is driven to finish off the season
on a high note and secure a home
first-round playoff game for the
first time in four years.
Even though the team was up-
set by Colby, Head Coach Jamie
Dumont feels as though his play-
ers were, and still are, prepared to
play at the highest level of intensity.
“It’s fine and dandy to have
all that atmosphere, but you still
gotta go out make plays,” said Du-
mont in a phone interview with
the Orient. “You still have to play
your position, [you] still have to
stay disciplined and we prepare
our guys big time for that … and
our guys are ready.”
Unable to control the game
or capitalize on scoring chances,
the Polar Bears struggled to put
points on the board.
“Throughout the year, we
played really, really good two-
way hockey, and it was just one
of those nights where we just
couldn’t get anything going in
both directions,” said Dumont.
But as the Polar Bears enter
the final push for the playoffs, se-
nior captain Ronny Lestan made
it clear that the team will not get
down on themselves.
“At the end of the day, it’s two
points in the standings, so it’s just
like losing to or beating any other
team in the NESCAC,” said Les-
tan. “We’ve learned from our mis-
takes in that game, and we’ve got
six conference games left where it’s
really time to buckle down and get
going.”
After finishing 6-16-2 last
year—the team’s worst finish since
1963—the Polar Bears are hoping
to get a few more wins this year to
earn a home playoff game, which
would complete their comeback
from last winter’s dismal campaign.
In order to reach this goal,
the team knew it would need to
switch things up and bring in
Dual identity: Julius Long ’20 and the black athlete experience
by Paula Petit-Molina
Orient Contributor
Throughout the recruiting
process, athletes are advised
to test their commitment to
a school with a crude hypo-
thetical: if you broke your leg,
would you stay here? Or worse,
what would happen if one day,
you hated your sport? What
would happen if something
inherent to your identity was
suddenly stripped from you?
Most Bowdoin athletes never
have to confront any of these
questions. Others meet it face-
to-face starting on day one.
Like most Division III ath-
letes, Julius Long ’20 played
multiple sports as a kid. But
with the pressure to specialize
and pursue one sport at the
collegiate level, soccer won out
over basketball and football.
“I don’t think I was ever
really in love with the game of
football, as much as I wanted
to be,” Long said. “I idealized
some strong first years to be com-
petitive this year.
“The best piece about this first-
year class is their attitude,” said
Dumont. “They’re all very coach-
able and team players, and they
[have] bought into being part of
our [locker] room. They’ve been
really supportive of our upper-
classmen and the players that are
already here.”
“They’re definitely not playing
like first years,” added Lestan.
“They’re playing like they’re com-
fortable and they’ve had experi-
ence. You really love to see that
[first-year] class coming in and
playing like they’ve been here for
a couple years.”
Despite being the newest
group, most of the members of
the Class of 2023 are actually old-
er than the sophomore players.
“It’s a lot of people coming
from junior [professional hock-
ey] programs,” said first year
Ethan Kimball, who is 21. “It was
a smooth adjustment into playing
with bigger, older guys.”
Statistically, the first years
have put large numbers on the
board, contributing more than 30
percent of the team’s 149 points.
Kimball has led the charge, cur-
rently tied for the third-highest
points total on the team with 11.
“Coming into the season, I
wanted to be an impact player on
this team right away,” said Kim-
ball. “My goal for myself is to get
15 points in my first season, and
I’m at 11 so far. I’m pretty close,
but [I’ve] still got a couple more
points to get before the season
ends to reach that 15 point mark.”
Although the infusion of a new
first-year class has added a wealth
of experience, both Dumont and
Kimball cited the leadership of
the upperclassmen as key to the
development of players up and
down the roster this year.
“More than anything else, we
have an outstanding senior class
that has been great on and off the
ice with mentoring, leading work-
outs and leading team-building
events,” said Dumont.
“Everyone on the team has
been accepting and open to new
ideas,” said Kimball. “Everyone is
football, in part, because I saw
it as a sport for people who
look like me and were from
where I’m from, and those ex-
amples weren’t exactly there for
soccer. I also wasn’t growing as
fast as everyone else,” he said,
“which is a little bit of a prob-
lem if you want to play either
of those sports.”
While there were fewer ex-
amples of black boys ‘making
it’ in soccer, there was clear
growth in the game in South-
west Atlanta, where Long is
from. In elementary school,
Long played for an all-black
soccer club, with coaches that
dreamt of young black boys
playing in college. Even when
the club disbanded, Coach E,
with whom Long remains in
contact, was there to help him
see that dream through.
But there would be ups and
downs on the road to college
soccer. “Getting to Bowdoin,
not playing as much as I had
hoped, dealing with injuries—I
SPORTS
contributing to the conversation
with the goal in mind of trying to
make everyone else better.”
New practice plans and in-
dividual opportunities for one-
on-one coaching throughout the
day have also contributed to the
improvements made this season.
“We’ve done a lot of extra work
on and off the ice, and it’s paid
dividends for our guys from our
fitness level to our hockey sense,”
said Dumont. “We do skill devel-
opment work every morning for
players that are non-conflicting
with class who want to work extra
on their game.”
Dumont has also scheduled
extra time for players to review
video or talk with coaches outside
of practice.
With only six games remain-
ing this season, the Polar Bears
plan to stick to what they know
in order to get as many of the 12
remaining points up for grabs in
NESCAC play as possible.
“We want to continue to play a
balanced hockey game and make
sure we’re responsible defensively,”
said Dumont. “With the defensive
LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF THE (POLAR) BEARS: The men’s hockey team lines up for the national anthem in front of a packed crowd at Watson
Arena on Saturday night. Coming off a historically bad season last winter, the Polar Bears are within spitting distance of a NESCAC playoff berth this year.
began to feel mentally and
physically defeated. But when
it was hardest to love soccer,
at Bowdoin I think more than
anywhere else, I began to un-
derstand that the bonds that I
had with my teammates were
the reason I loved soccer so
much—they’re the reason I
kept playing,” Long said.
Unlike Coach E’s soccer
club, the soccer family that
Long has established at Bow-
doin is predominately white
—like each one of Bowdoin’s
varsity teams. The racial com-
position of the team does not
separate Long from his soccer
family, but it does highlight
a tension between members
who identify with both athletic
teams as well as with a minority
identity on Bowdoin’s campus.
“In my time here, there
hasn’t ever been a black mem-
ber of my team who has also
been an active member of Black
Student Union,” said Long.
“When you’re introduced to a
piece and the discipline piece, the
rest will take care of itself.”
The Polar Bears head off to
Hamilton and Amherst this
weekend in important back-to-
back divisional games, but when
they return home they look for-
from the Bowdoin fan base.
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: Tommy Dunleavy ’20 scans the offensive zone looking for a pass in Saturday’s 4-1
loss to Colby. The team will look to bounce back tonight at Hamilton at 7 p.m. in search of a NESCAC playoff spot.
team in your first semester of
college, branching out of that
social environment is difficult.
I know for some of my black
teammates, it feels like if you’re
not a part of the family that is
BSU beginning in the fall, how
are you going to pretend to be a
part of it in the spring? There’s
a feeling of insecurity about
whether or not your experi-
ence as a black, student-athlete
at Bowdoin is ‘black enough,’”
he said.
Long’s question of whether
his Bowdoin athletic expe-
rience is perceived as “black
enough” highlights a tension
at Bowdoin that is common
among athletes of color:
strongly identifying with a
particular racial group while
also identifying with a group in
which a majority of the mem-
bers are of a different race. As
he explains, identifying with an
athletic team at Bowdoin as a
black student made Long’s affil-
iation to a black student group
“We really appreciate the sup-
port. We’ve had great crowds,
even with downtimes in our sea-
son, and it’s something that does
not go unnoticed,” said Dumont.
“We really appreciate people
coming out to watch our team
play. I think that’s out of respect,
feel precarious.
It is this same tension that
brought Long to Athletes of
Color—a group forged by the
integration of two key aspects
of his identity.
“The needs of athletes of col-
or vary from the needs of other
students of color at this school.
At the same time, though, the
purpose of Athletes of Color
and these affinity groups are
very similar—it’s all about cre-
ating a family at Bowdoin, one
that serves your needs,” he
said.
Long’s experience at
Bowdoin is a product of
his upbringing as
a black man in
conjunction
with his expe-
rience as an
athlete. It has,
too, allowed
him to find the
family at Bow-
doin with which
he has formed
11
and we want to play a good, fun
game for [everyone] to watch.”
The team returns home for
its final two home games of the
season on February 14 and 15
against Trinity and Wesleyan,
respectively.
DIEGO VELASQUEZ, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
DIEGO VELASQUEZ, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
deep bonds. More importantly,
it has become the family that
Long has leaned on facing the
end of his soccer career as he
once knew it. The question an
athlete faces is not about the
person that is left after they
hang up their cleats, for the
day or for the rest of their lives.
They are an athlete forever. On
the surface of their skin lives a
memory of the grass stains that
can never be washed out.
KA
YL
AS
NY
DE
R
12
Club alpine offers racing opportunities for elite skiers
by Dylan Sloan
Orient Staff
Bowdoin alpine skiing post-
ed strong results at the Sunday
River Grand Slalom event last
weekend, with two Polar Bears
placing first in their respective
divisions. Cooper Dart ’21 took
home gold on the men’s side
and Elizabeth Scott ’23 topped
the podium in her first season
of collegiate racing.
As the club’s regular season
comes to a close, the women’s
team sits in first place in its
division and will likely claim
a spot in the next few weeks
in the team’s regional compe-
tition. The men’s team sits just
outside of regionals qualifying
contention, but Dart is a front-
runner to claim an individual
bid to the regional competi-
tion.
The club alpine team wel-
comes skiers with a range of
racing backgrounds. While
many who choose to compete
are casual skiers looking to get
into racing for the first time,
there is a sizeable contingent of
elite skiers, Dart and Scott in-
cluded, who have been racing
since well before college.
“I started ski racing when I
was, like, seven or eight years
old, and did that … intensely
all the way through senior year
of high school,” said Dart.
In the world of competitive
ski racing, athletes are forced
to hyperspecialize and commit
enormous amounts of time and
money to the sport, even at or
before the high school level.
With recent success, women’s squash enters new era of growth
by Holly Harris
Orient Staff
“It was definitely humbling,”
said Catherine Adams ’22, re-
flecting on her first time stepping
foot on a squash court last fall.
Now a sophomore, Adams was
one of six women who walked
onto the women’s varsity squash
team her first year.
Growing up playing tennis,
Adams had experience with
racquet sports, but it wasn’t until
her first Bowdoin practice last
fall that she had encountered
squash. Despite her struggle
to initially adapt to a “squash
swing” and the rules of the game,
Adams immediately felt sup-
ported by her new teammates,
who were devoted to teaching
her the sport and helping her
improve her technique.
“When I played a girl at Trin-
ity early last season, I [only]
scored one point against her, but
by the end of the season I was
able to win a couple matches
at Nationals. It was so exciting
to feel how much I had grown,
which is really all thanks to my
teammates,” said Adams.
Since last year, the women’s
squash program has evolved sig-
nificantly under the new leader-
ship of Head Coach Theo Wood-
ward and with the addition of this
year’s first year recruiting class.
“It’s definitely more intense
and a much greater time commit-
ment than last year,” said Adams.
“But at the same time, it’s much
more organized and I feel like
Between attending a ski acad-
emy, where tuition can rival
many colleges, paying for pric-
ey equipment and race fees and
traveling around the country,
the expenses can come to hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars.
Beyond the financial bur-
den, ski racing demands an
enormous amount of time. Pro
hopefuls only have one or two
months off from the sport in
the summer, and nearly all ath-
letes pursuing pro dreams take
a post-graduate year after high
school to hone their skills.
“Senior year, I was missing
40 days of school to train and
race and do all of this stuff,”
said Dart. “It was very intense
and very different than what
Bowdoin has.”
After years of giving their
life to the sport, some athletes
elect not to pursue the colle-
giate or Division I pathway for
a variety of reasons including
feeling burnt out, realizing they
won’t quite make the cut at elite
programs or simply electing to
focus on academics. However,
losing their competitive edge
can be disappointing for those
who have given so much to the
sport.
“By the time you get into
college, it’s really discouraging
for a lot of young ski racers,”
said Ava Jackson ’20. “They
haven’t made it to where their
ambitions wanted them to, and
so I think the thing that’s really
nice about club ski racing and
this level of competition is that
… everybody kind of gets back
to their roots and remembers
we’re doing more meaningful
work.”
This year’s first-year class is
composed of both strong recruits
and determined walk-ons. The
first year recruits, all of whom
have had years of experience
playing the game, have served as
role models for the walk-ons. The
six new team members from the
Class of 2023 have bonded not
only amongst themselves, but
with the entire squad.
“I think they have adapted to
college play really well. Each of
them brings such a strong and
different energy to the team,”
said Adams.
Sophie Barber ’23, one of the
first years on the team, is excited
to be a part of creating a lasting
legacy for the program.
Like Adams, Barber was at-
tracted to the team’s positive
and uplifting culture, which has
exceeded her expectations.
Despite being sidelined with
a concussion prior to this sea-
son, Barber recalled how team
members went out of their way
to throw her a surprise birthday
party to lift her spirits.
“My teammates were con-
stantly checking in on me and
bringing me snacks. It was awe-
some to feel that support before
I even stepped on the court,” said
Barber.
While the team ended its last
season with a record of 0-14,
Barber and the other recruited
members of the class were not
concerned with the Polar Bears’
record—rather, they were moti-
SPORTS Friday, February 7, 2020
COURTESY OF ANNINA BREEN
THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM: Jesse Dunn ’20 prepares for a run in the start house at last weekend’s giant slalom race at Sunday River. The alpine ski
team posted some impressive results in the race, with Cooper Dart ’21 and Elizabeth Scott ’23 both finishing in first place in their respective divisions.
why it was fun to ski race in the who have kind of spent their Lost Valley, a local mountain and [everyone] wants to ski
first place.” whole life racing and then some about 25 miles from campus, well, but I think for our team
In many ways, the hall- other people who really haven’t and competes in 10 regu- the first goal is to have fun.”
mark of the Bowdoin ski team spent that much time skiing in lar-season races for a chance at The team’s common thread
is how it manages to cater the first place,” said Dart. “Ne- a regionals or nationals spot in is making sure everyone is en-
to all of these different types gotiating that isn’t difficult, but the early spring. joying themselves.
of athletes—from those who it’s more of a question of, ‘how “There are some really, real- “Bowdoin really tries to be
have barely ever skied before can we create spaces where ev- ly great skiers in [our division], the team where you can re-
to former high school racers eryone is feeling challenged?’” and there’s definitely compe- ally [race] however you do,”
who might once have had pro- That starts with the team’s tition if you’re looking for it, said Dart. “[We just] have fun
fessional aspirations and still race and practice schedule. but everyone is pretty relaxed,” ... being out there [skiing] is
crave that level of competition. Bowdoin practices twice a said Jackson. “Everyone wants the best thing that’s ever hap-
“Obviously, we have people week throughout the winter at to do well at the end of the day, pened.”
vated.
“Having the basis of support
and positivity has provided the
team with the perfect framework
to achieve success,” said Barber,
thrilled with the team’s drasti-
cally improved 7-7 record this
season so far.
While still focused on this
season’s successes, Woodward
is also working to recruit strong
players for next year and beyond.
“It takes three or four years
to normally build a program,”
said Woodward. Still only in his
first season, he is committed to
guiding the team as it continues
to grow and improve.
The team will compete in
the NESCAC Tournament this
weekend at Wesleyan, where
Woodward hopes to beat Ham-
ilton in a rematch of the team’s
first big win of the season, a
5-4 triumph. Woodward also
looks forward to having matches
against other strong teams such
as Wesleyan and Tufts, pushing
them further than in previous
matches.
The team is currently ranked
21st nationally and will like-
ly maintain its high ranking
through the NESCAC champi-
onships. These standings project SOPHIA WEI, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
the team jumping up two divi- BOXED IN: Caroline Glaser ’23 battles her Franklin & Marshall opponent last Sunday. Playing as first on the ladder, Glaser
sions since its last season and lost 3-0 en route to an 8-1 team defeat. Bowdoin will return to action at the NESCAC Championships this weekend.
sets the squad up for competitive
play at Nationals, hosted at Yale new for everyone,” said Adams. well for next year and beyond— gone the right way. Now the aim
University’s Payne Whitney From last year’s winless cam- but before looking too far into is winning that cup, which would
Gym on Friday, February 21. paign to this year’s hope for a the future, there are still some be brilliant,” said Woodward.
“Since we are playing teams likely NESCAC playoff run in loose ends to tie up this winter. The Polar Bears will face off
that we’ve never played before at the coming weeks, this season’s “We’ve done as well as possi- against Hamilton tonight at 7:15
Nationals, it will be completely remarkable improvement bodes ble this season. Everything has p.m. in Middletown, Conn..
Friday, February 7, 2020 SPORTS 13

Nordic team continues

record-breaking season
by Dylan Sloan
Orient Staff
In what is shaping up to be a
record-shattering season for the
Bowdoin nordic ski team, the
Polar Bears raced to a third-place
overall finish at the Colby Carni-
val last Saturday. Coming off of a
best-ever second-place finish for
the men’s team two weeks ago,
this third place aggregate result is
the highest ever overall team fin-
ish for any Bowdoin ski team in
its history—and the team expects
that there is more to come.
“We’re always trying to get bet-
ter—whether or not it happens is
hard to predict, but we still don’t
feel like we’ve hit our ceiling yet,”
wrote Head Coach Nathan Also-
brook in an email to the Orient.
“Our younger skiers are learning
and improving every week, and
our seniors are super motivated
to go out with a bang, so I hope
and think we’ll see a few more
home runs before it’s over.”
Although the ski team trains
nearly all year round, all of that
work culminates in a season
that is barely two months long,
yielding immense pressure for
the athletes to perform in the few
chances they have. However, thus
far, the Polar Bears have risen to
the task, with four skiers already
effectively locking up NCAA
championship spots with two
carnivals left before the NCAA
regionals and more racers close
in pursuit of the last few slots.
Christian Gostout ’20 had
a stellar weekend, leading the
men’s team with a seventh-place
overall finish, his personal best.
Elliot Ketchel ’21 finished ninth,
just five seconds behind. On the
women’s side, Gabby Vanden-
dries ’21 and Lily Johnston ’20
both broke into the top 20 as well.
“I was racing a little tired, and
our skis didn’t feel fantastic … I
just didn’t expect it to go super
well,” said Gostout. “I think I just
made a good pacing plan, and I’m
really familiar with that course
because we ski it whenever we
don’t have snow. So all that played
together really well.”
With two regular-season
races left to go, maintaining this
momentum is the challenge for
Bowdoin. Typically, the team
starts slower before picking up
the pace towards the end of the
season and hitting its stride just
as NCAA Championships are on
the horizon.
“Usually, the first weekend isn’t
good, but I think because we did
so well the first weekend we have
momentum,” said Gostout. “We
don’t have to play that waiting
game of ‘oh, wait for it, it’ll come.’
We can just go straight into it.”
Despite this current form, the
team believes it still has more po-
tential.
“We’re super stoked about
[these results] because it’s the
middle of the season, and we
always get better and we always
crush the Middlebury carnival, so
we’re super stoked for that,” said
Gostout. “I mean, I’m worried
[about peaking early], but I don’t
think I should be. [Alsobrook’s]
training has always worked really
well for me in the past.”
Even with NCAA Champion-
ships on the horizon, the Polar
Bears are keen to keep this mo-
mentum going throughout the
entirety of the season.
“We’re hoping to have our cake
and eat it too,” wrote Alsobrook.
“NCAAs is definitely the top pri-
ority for our skiers who have put
themselves in a strong position to
qualify, and we’re adjusting the
training accordingly. But we’re
not willing to totally sell out these
February races by piling on the
training load—just a little bump
to help [team members] be at
their best in March, but not so
much that they won’t have a shot
at more strong regular season
finishes.”
“The training with the whole
team all fall has been so fun, and
our team chemistry is out of this
world right now,” said Gostout.
As the Polar Bears close in
on the postseason, hopefully this
energy will continue to fuel this
record-setting form. Bowdoin re- COURTESY OF DANIEL STRODEL
turns to action today at the Bates ONE WAY TICKET TO SPLASHVILLE: Triana Willmert ’22 stoms up a hill during last weekend’s Colby Carnival. Willmert
Carnival in Lewiston. came in 50th, her best finish this season. Overall, the men’s and women’s teams placed third, the nordic program’s best ever finish.

NESCAC Standings Compiled by Dylan Sloan

Source: NESCAC and Bowdoin Athletics
MEN’S ICE HOCKEY WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY

 
NESCAC OVERALL NESCAC OVERALL
W L T W L T W L T W L T
Willliams 10 2 0 13 4 1 Middlebury 8 1 1 13 2 13
Trinity 7 4 1 12 5 1 Colby 6 2 2 11 4 3
Hamilton 6 4 2 7 7 4 Amherst 6 3 3 11 4 4
Middlebury 5 4 3 7 8 3 Conn. Coll. 6 4 2 13 5 2
Bowdoin 5 6 1 9 8 1 Williams 6 4 2 9 6 4
Wesleyan 5 6 1 9 8 1 Hamilton 5 5 0 11 7 0
Amherst 4 6 2 6 9 3 Bowdoin 4 5 1 7 7 3
Conn. Coll. 4 6 2 8 8 2 Trinity 0 8 2 5 9 4
Tufts 4 7 1 6 11 1 Wesleyan 0 9 1 6 11 1
Colby 3 8 1 7 9 2

UPCOMING GAMES UPCOMING GAMES

Fri 2/7 @ Hamilton, 7 P.M. Fri 2/7 vs. Amherst, 7 P.M.
Sat 2/8 @ Amherst, 3 P.M. Sat 2/8 vs. Amherst, 3 P.M.

MEN’S BASKETBALL WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

 
NESCAC OVERALL NESCAC OVERALL
W L W L W L W L
Tufts 6 0 16 4 Tufts 6 0 20 0
Colby 6 1 18 1 Bowdoin 6 1 20 1
Amherst 4 2 14 6 Williams 5 2 16 5
Trinity 4 2 14 6 Amherst 4 2 17 3
Middlebury 4 3 18 3 Trinity 4 2 15 5
Williams 3 4 10 11 Hamilton 3 3 13 7
Bates 2 4 10 9 Conn. Coll. 2 4 7 12
Hamilton 2 4 14 6 Colby 2 5 7 12
Wesleyan 2 4 13 7 Bates 1 5 10 10
Bowdoin 2 5 7 13 Wesleyan 1 5 11 9
Conn. Coll. 0 6 4 16 Middlebury 1 6 12 9

COURTESY OF DANIEL STRODEL UPCOMING GAMES UPCOMING GAMES

SKIING AWAY WITH IT: Meredith Stetter ’23 (ABOVE LEFT) and Lily Johnston ’21 (ABOVE RIGHT) storm across Fri 2/7 vs. Amherst, 7 P.M. Fri 2/7 @ Amherst, 7 P.M.
a flat en route to finishing the 10k individual start race. Fiona Ahearne ’20 (BELOW) cracks a smile on the way to her
39th-place finish. The Bowdoin women’s team recorded an impressive eight top-30 finishes on the weekend. Sat 2/8 vs. Hamilton, 3 P.M. Sat 2/8 @ Hamilton, 3 P.M.
14 Friday, February 7, 2020

O OPINION
How to heal a papercut
Most college public relations departments don’t undermine college journalism
Clayton Rose’s BSG performance
by actively censoring publications or by restricting access to information or peo-
ple. They undermine college journalism by raising minor but constant complaints
about our choice of words, our interpretations of facts or our presentation of in-
formation. Their strategy is death by a thousand papercuts: to slowly but gradually
only raises more questions
raise doubts about our credibility so that eventually we, too, come to doubt even with issues of “the environment, race and The concerns surrounding Arthur
our own credibility, to make us write with their stock objections always in the back by Diego Grossmann immigration.” A look at the bank’s record, Brooks’ arbitrary appointment as Joseph
of our minds. The frightening thing is that this strategy begins to work. and Benjamin Ray however, tells a different story and pres- McKeen Visiting Fellow also compel us
Op-Ed Contributors
But, thanks to shows of support like Associate Professor of English Ann Kib- ents an institution at odds with the stated to question the College’s commitment to
bie’s op-ed in this week’s Orient, it never fully succeeds. On behalf of the Bowdoin Our first year, President Clayton Rose values and purported concerns of Presi- “moral leadership.” From 2009 to 2019
chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), Kibbie sub- taught a First-Year Seminar titled “The dent Rose and the College at large. Arthur Brooks led the American Enter-
mitted a statement reaffirming the value of what we set out to do every week—to Moral Leader.” A young Ben Ray wrote Between 2016 and 2018, Bank of prise Institute (AEI), arguably the most
report on news and issues that matter to the Bowdoin community and to empower in his course notes that “an accumulation America was one of the largest financiers influential think tank in U.S. politics.
students to make their voices heard. of moral challenges solved with moral of global fossil fuel production, having AEI is funded by the Koch Brothers,
Do we get things wrong? Of course. Do we make mistakes? Yes. But as Kibbie choices (either based on principles or made available $106 billion to fossil fuel ExxonMobil, Comcast and Phillip Morris
notes in her piece, college journalism fulfills its highest potential when colleges and consequences) paints a picture of the ca- operations. Included in this nauseating among others and, in turn, works to pro-
universities support its efforts rather than highlight its imperfections. pabilities of a leader.” Clayton taught that figure is $20 billion for top fracking com- mote free-market policies like lower taxes
Support from professors is an integral part of this effort. Their encouragement moral leaders have a moral code which panies, $3.6 billion for ultra-deep water on the rich and weaker health, labor and
counteracts the constant nagging from PR departments and administrators; they guides their decisions. Yet Clayton’s own oil and gas (remember Deepwater Hori- environmental protections for the public.
assure us that we aren’t, in fact, crazy and that we are, somehow, on the right track. actions reflect a moral code in disarray–– zon?) and $323 million for Arctic oil and AEI propagates ideologues like Brooks to
For this, we extend our sincerest thanks to the faculty members who have sup- one that fluctuates based on the audience gas projects. Building a fancy new Arctic pursue ‘inquiries’ with foregone conclu-
ported our newspaper. Through your contributions—your op-eds, your letters to in the room. Clayton’s performance at museum and showcasing stuffed polar sions that conveniently neglect to hold
the editor, your willingness to help us in our reporting—you have made our job last week’s BSG meeting demonstrates bears won’t save the Arctic from corporate the corporations and interests that bank-
possible. Through your personal expressions of support—in classes and in office an incoherent value system. He was un- greed—especially when that greed has a roll AEI to account. Of course they fund
hours—you have even made our jobs rewarding. willing to accept responsibility for his seat at the head of the table at colleges like climate change denial and oppose higher
Thank you. and the College’s public actions. At the Bowdoin. wages, net neutrality and Wall Street regu-
meeting, Clayton even publicly asked Ben As a member of its board and owner lation; it’s what they’re paid to do.
This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, if he regretted being in the seminar. The of over 15,000 shares in Bank of America Brooks simply says what his audience
which is comprised of Emily Cohen, Maia Coleman, Roither Gonzales, Julia Jen- short answer is no; in order to stand up to stock worth more than $840K, Clayton wants to hear for a fee, distracting us from
nings, Sabrina Lin, Alyce McFadden and Ian Ward. systems of power, it’s necessary to watch is directly implicated in the profits of the the human consequences of the policies
them struggle to articulate their own past and current partnerships with com- he and AEI have worked to advance.
contradictory frameworks. This ongoing panies and projects that will lock in new Last fall, his performance on campus
struggle was on display last Wednesday carbon emissions for decades to come. only affirmed his moral and intellectual
and demands a response. Clayton openly acknowledges that a por- bankruptcy; his premier tactic of engage-
Clayton outright dismissed the claim tion of his income results from the bank’s ment with our academic community
ESTABLISHED 1871 that some faculty and staff hesitate to ongoing financing of the detention of was to muddy the waters, dodge hard
express criticism of the College in public, migrant families and disastrous schemes questions and obscure a counterfactual
bowdoinorient.com orient@bowdoin.edu 6200 College Station Brunswick, ME 04011
stating “all you have to do is show up at by the financial elite to facilitate the en- ideology with rhetoric of love and com-
The Bowdoin Orient is a student-run weekly publication dedicated to providing news and information a faculty meeting. There’s no one on the gines of the rapidly-accelerating climate passion. His appointment also extends
relevant to the Bowdoin community. Editorially independent of the College and its administrators, faculty that has an issue talking to me. catastrophe. Clayton’s lip service to issues the influence of AEI on campus, drawing
the Orient pursues such content freely and thoroughly, following professional journalistic standards in That’s true outside of faculty as well.” This like immigration and the environment is, credulous students to value AEI as a vir-
writing and reporting. The Orient is committed to serving as an open forum for thoughtful and diverse is a nonsense argument that fails to take at best, complacent ignorance––at worst, tuous institution. One look at the Career
discussion and debate on issues of interest to the College community. power into account. Throughout the past willful complicity in the face of humani- Exploration and Development website,
two years, multiple workers and faculty ty’s largest failures. with numerous “Bowdoin-preferred” job
Editor in Chief Editor in Chief members have exposed repeatedly that Clayton isn’t the only one with these listings for AEI, only confirms this agen-
Emily Cohen Alyce McFadden there is a culture of fear and intimidation contradictions. Nearly 50% of the Bowdo- da. Of course, this all reflects an ongoing
at Bowdoin. Clayton cannot dismiss their in Board of Trustees is made up of white trend by institutions of higher education
Digital Director Managing Editor News Editor claims outright, and this dismissal is even men in finance. After learning about their to attract conservative donors, disguised
Steven Xu Maia Coleman Andrew Bastone logically incoherent: how can he say that “really good work,” is this who we trust to as the pursuit of “intellectual fearlessness.”
Anna Fauver Aura Carlson people not talking to him is evidence that govern our school? The case of Jes Staley, Even according to Clayton’s corporate
Photo Editor Roither Gonzales people are not afraid to talk to him? and Clayton’s subsequent response, only logic, students deserve honest answers
Ann Basu Rohini Kurup Features Editor
This response is also unsurprising. further erode our trust. Staley was fined regarding Brooks’ compensation. We’re
Ian Ward Emma Sorkin
From faculty meetings where Clayton $841,580 in 2018 for illegal financial and stakeholders at this institution; financial
Layout Editor Sports Editor speaks to captive audiences—meetings corporate malpractice, and he cultivated a decisions should include our input, reflect
Emma Bezilla Executive Editor Dylan Sloan meant to stifle worker organizing ef- personal and lucrative business relation- our values and be in our best interest. Yet
Jaret Skonieczny Eliana Miller
A&E Editor forts—the College’s leadership has often ship with sex criminal and disgraced fi- Clayton only evades pressing questions:
Ian Stewart Reuben Schafir
Cole van Miltenburg responded to criticism with indifference, nancier, Jeffrey Epstein. Even after Epstein How much is Brooks getting paid? How
Data Desk Editor outright antagonism or simple denial. pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution can he defend Bank of America? Why is Jes
Associate Editor Opinion Editor Any member of the Bowdoin communi- from a minor, Staley and J.P. Morgan con- Staley still on the board? We’re simply ask-
Gwen Davidson
Drew Macdonald Conrad Li Diego Lasarte ty––a tenure track professor, a concerned tinued to work with him for years. Staley ing the most pressing questions, yet others
George Grimbilas (asst.) Sabrina Lin housekeeper, a critical student––who feels also chaired the Presidential Search Com- remain. How is the legacy admissions
Lucie Nolden Page 2 Editor
Nimra Siddiqui (asst.) Lily Randall afraid to speak up should not be brushed mittee that ultimately hired President system not tied to wealth? By what metric
aside. Rather, the College should express Rose. This might help explain why Clay- does Clayton present Bowdoin’s low wages
Head Illustrator Copy Editor Calendar Editor concern about these issues and seek to ton seems so unwilling to express deep as indicative of a “leadership position in the
Sara Caplan Sebastian de Lasa Jane Godiner generate a productive and inclusive con- concerns about a Bowdoin trustee having state of Maine” when high schools down
Devin McKinney versation in response. a personal relationship with Epstein, or at the road are already paying custodial staff
Social Media Manager Danielle Quezada Senior News Reporter
Clayton can claim to value free speech least detail the findings of the Governance starting wages of $21 an hour?
Ayub Tahlil Emily Staten Horace Wang
all he wants, but these claims are not be- Committee’s “very thorough review” of President Rose’s consistent failure to
The material contained herein is the property of The Bowdoin Orient and appears at the sole discretion of the ing reinforced by concrete action. These Staley and Epstein’s relationship to the take the concerns of students, faculty
editors. The editors reserve the right to edit all material. Other than in regard to the above editorial, the opinions contradictions call into question his true Bowdoin community. Clayton’s stand- and workers into account reflects an ad-
expressed in the Orient do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors. priorities and motivations, as does his offishness at concerns regarding Staley’s ministration that is increasingly out of
commitment and financial obligation to illegal actions and troubling relationships touch—whose attention we struggle to
the Bank of America Corporation. leaves us with little confidence that our secure, whose interests we struggle to un-
Last Wednesday, in response to crit- school’s administration truly “cares deep- derstand and whose actions they struggle
QUESTION OF THE WEEK icism of Bank of America’s ongoing ly about the character of the trustees.” to justify. We must keep asking these hard
financing of migrant detention centers Clayton: show our community the care, questions so long as these contradictions
on the southern border, Clayton spoke concern and explanations we deserve. persist. If he doesn’t answer us, after all, a
ARE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE IN MAINE? as a board member of the bank––not as
President of the College. As such, he de-
We deserve leadership with integrity,
but Clayton’s actions and Staley’s presence
larger question remains: who does Clay-
ton answer to?
fended Bank of America as doing “really on the Board do not align with our Col- Diego Grossmann and Benjamin Ray
Answer at bowdoinorient.com/poll. good work” when it comes to engaging lege’s mission and stated values. are members of the Class of 2020.

Last issue’s response: HAVE AN OPINION?

Q: DID YOU LIKE YOUR FIRST-YEAR SEMINAR? Submit an Op-Ed or a Letter to the Editor to
YES: 81% NO: 19% orientopinion@bowdoin.edu by 7 p.m. on the Tuesday of the
Based on answers from 125 responses.
week of publication. Include your full name and phone number.
Friday, February 7, 2020 OPINION 15

A statement from the AAUP regarding student journalism

by Ann Kibbie
Op-Ed Contributor
In 2016, a committee consist-
ing of representatives from the
American Association of Uni-
versity Professors (AAUP), the
College Media Association, the
National Coalition Against Cen-
sorship and the Student Press Law
Center issued a statement titled
“Threats to the Independence of
Student Media.” The statement
acknowledges what all readers
of student newspapers are pro-
foundly aware of: “candid jour-
nalism that discusses students’
dissatisfaction with the perceived
shortcomings of their institutions
can be uncomfortable for campus
authorities.”
“Nevertheless,” it asserts, “this
journalism fulfills a healthful civic
function.”
In the spirit of affirming and
fostering the important civic
function that a free student press
must play on our own campus,
the Bowdoin chapter of the
AAUP would like to take this
opportunity to call attention to
some of the principles, and some
of the concerns, articulated in this
statement:
1. “Administrative efforts to
subordinate campus journalism
to public relations are inconsistent
with the mission of higher educa-
tion to provide a space for intel-
lectual exploration and debate.”
2. “The growing tendency of
college and university administra-
tions and their governing boards
to conduct business ‘behind closed
doors’ and thwart access to critical
information and documents has
extremely troubling implications
for college … governance and the
academic freedom of the faculty
as well as for the integrity of stu-
dent media. Even where student
journalists are not directly barred
from publishing unflattering
information, image-conscious
institutions may often achieve the
same result by choking off access
to information.”
3. “Many institutions increas-
ingly filter access to information
and to campus decision-makers
through public-relations offices.
While these offices can serve a
valuable role in facilitating re-
quests for records and interviews,
they obstruct the work of student
journalists and do a disservice
to the public when they impede
the fulfillment of those requests.
Policies requiring faculty and staff
to clear media interactions with
a campus public-relations office
create an intimidating atmo-
sphere that is inimical to the free
exchange of ideas.”
4. “No postsecondary institu-
tion should require its faculty or
staff to clear interactions with the
student media through an institu-
tional public-relations office, nor
should campus public-relations
offices obstruct student journal-
ists from gaining direct access
to those in positions of official
authority. The community is enti-
tled to hear directly from campus
officials about how they perform
their jobs and wield their author-
ity—through face-to-face interac-
tion with journalists, not simply
prepared statements.”
Finally, in words that must be
especially relevant to the Bowdoin
community, given its embrace of a
model of civic engagement that we
proudly call “the common good,”
this statement issues the following
call to a “cultural readjustment”:
5. “Ultimately, ensuring a
campus environment conducive
to substantive journalistic cover-
age requires a significant cultural
readjustment that begins with
those at the topmost levels of
higher education. It is fashion-
able for colleges and universities
to embrace ‘civic engagement’ as
part of their educational mission,
but effective citizen engagement
in campus affairs depends on
well-supported news coverage
with meaningful and timely ac-
cess to information. Few colleges
and universities are ‘walking
the walk’ of civic engagement in
their governance of journalism,
and too many are abandoning
higher education’s traditional
commitment to free and inde-
pendent journalistic voices.”
The writers of the document
we have quoted from are address-
ing what they see as increasingly
widespread impediments to the
work of student journalists. And
we note that these impediments
can extend to attempts to prevent
faculty and staff from speaking
freely to our own student journal-
ists. Perhaps no college or institu-
tion is immune to these kinds of
threats to the ideal of journalistic
freedom. Here at Bowdoin, we
call on all of those who are in-
terested in the life of our College
(members of the community on
campus and beyond) to commit
themselves to the kind of cultural
readjustment described above.
We must hold ourselves responsi-
ble for “walking the walk.”
The stakes for walking the walk
are significant. First, protecting
and promoting the freedom of
student newspapers is an exten-
sion of our stated institutional
principles of teaching the liberal
arts and upholding the “common
good.” Second, student journal-
ism at Bowdoin has long been the
pathway for our students to find
meaningful work after graduat-
ing as reporters, writers, teachers,
public officials or in numerous
private-sector careers. Finally, by
not upholding the principles of
press freedom, Bowdoin again
risks attracting unwanted scrutiny
from the national media about
the gap between its purported
ideals and administrative actions.
As a recent article in The Atlantic
Monthly observed, in an era of
“fake news” and partisan spin,
student newspapers are more
necessary than ever. Yet even
well-meaning administrators,
eager to preserve institutional
comity, are imperiling one insti-
tution that has time and again
proven vital to the free exchange
of ideas and opinions at American
colleges and universities.
As the Bowdoin Orient proud-
ly proclaims on its masthead, it is
the oldest continuously published
college weekly in the nation. Our
campus AAUP chapter asks the
Bowdoin community to do every-
thing it can to support this singu-
lar part of student journalism in
America.
Ann Kibbie is an associate pro-
fessor of English and the President
of the Bowdoin chapter of the
American Association of University
Professors.

Bowdoin students should LETTER TO THE EDITOR

register to vote in Maine Classical Myths are as relevant as ever

by Maddie Hikida
Op-Ed Contributor
As a first year at Bowdoin, I
was beyond excited to cast my
first-ever vote in the 2018 mid-
term election. I’ve always held
great respect for voting, largely
because of my dad, who was
born in Canada and became an
American citizen when I was
11. Becoming a citizen is a long
and difficult process, but he
believed it was worth the effort
to be able to participate in the
democratic process.
When I turned 18 and became
eligible to vote, I chose to register
here in Maine because Bowdoin
would be my home for the next
four years. I believe it is both
important for democratic rep-
resentation, and in my interest
as a citizen, to vote where it will
affect me the most. Of course, I
still feel a strong connection to
my home state of New York, and
I have no way of knowing what
the coming years will bring. But
for now, I live in Brunswick.
For Bowdoin students, vot-
ing in Brunswick is an opportu-
nity to make an impact both in
national politics and in our day-
to-day experience as residents
of Maine. We live in Brunswick
for nine months out of the year,
abiding by state laws, driving on
the state and town roads, paying
state sales tax and complaining
about the town’s snow plowing.
Every single day, we are affect-
ed by the decisions of elected
officials in Maine. It is both our
right and our responsibility to
have a say in these decisions—
from whether Maine should
declare a climate emergency,
to whether Brunswick should
move the farmers’ market far-
ther from campus.
In 2020, the stakes are much
higher than deciding the lo-
cation of the farmers’ market.
Maine could help flip the Senate
from Republican control be-
cause Senator Susan Collins is
up for reelection this year and
has been polling precariously
since she cast the deciding vote
to elevate Brett Kavanaugh to
the Supreme Court. Our votes as
newly-registered Mainers could
be the difference between a Re-
publican- and Democratic-con-
trolled Senate, which could lead
to sweeping change nationwide,
or at the very least a strengthen-
ing of checks and balances.
As young people, we often feel
like our votes don’t matter. Like
the fate of our country is decided
by a handful of Baby Boomers
in Michigan and Florida every
election. That doesn’t have to be
the case.
Thirty-seven percent of eligi-
ble voters are under the age of
35. If we turn out at the same
rate as retirees, this election
could be decided by the millions
of young people who will live
and lead the future of this coun-
try. Because of Maine’s older
voting population, high youth
voter turnout holds more po-
tential power here than almost
anywhere else in the country.
The way to start wielding that
collective power is by voting
where we live.
RR
IS
A
LY
H In your January 31 editorial board opinion,
L
HO
Knowing the statistics and the
stakes, I decided to get to work
Savage puts Greens in good position
registering my peers here on
campus to vote in Maine. Since
November, I have been working
as a Bowdoin campus fellow
with NextGen America, the
largest youth voter mobilization
organization in the country. As a
member of its Maine team, I am
working to help Bowdoin reach
its highest-ever level of student
voter turnout for the 2020 gen-
eral election. To achieve this, I
believe that we students should
register to vote here in Maine,
both because this is where we
live and because it is where our
votes can do the most good.
My dad became an American
citizen so that he could vote to
protect and improve my future.
Now, I’m registering my peers to
vote so that we can take control
of our own futures. If you are in-
terested in getting involved with
NextGen or if you want to regis-
ter to vote in Maine, please email
me at mhikida@bowdoin.edu, or
come chat in person if you see me
around campus. I’ll be the one
riding a purple, light-up bike!
Maddie Hikida is a member of
the Class of 2022.
To the Editor,
Classical Mythology is called out for seeming
“tangentially related to current issues of social
differences.” Classical literature, and Myth es-
pecially, have always reflected a deep concern
with the issues of social difference, not to men-
tion the roles of power and inequity. Indeed, I
take the ESD requirement very seriously, and
I have continually modified the content of this
course over the years to reflect the importance
of this requirement to the class. In fact, as I vis-
it and re-visit my material each year, the ways
Myth compels a rethinking of modern issues
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor,
Who will be the rising star on the political hori- crucial issues. Student debt is one of them. Health-
zon this coming year?
I am every day more and more convinced that
Lisa Savage ’77 is the one. Thank you for featur-
ing her op-ed in last week’s Orient. Lisa and her
rousing team of volunteers are now gathering sig-
natures for her to be on the ballot in the general
election this fall for United States Senator.
Never has the outlook been so auspicious for
a statewide Maine Green Independent Party can-
didate. I have assisted all of them since 1994. And
each time we were hampered, in fact stifled, by
the unfair rules of the game imposed by the two
major parties.
The rules have now been changed for elec-
tions to federal office. Ranked-choice voting
is now the law. The voter does not have to
withhold their vote for a candidate they want
for fear that in doing so they will assure the
victory of the candidate they fear or despise.
The voter is free to choose whom they want.
Spoiler-ism is not a factor in this race. Nor
does your signature on Lisa’s petition to be on
the ballot obligate you to vote for her in No-
vember. It just means that Lisa’s name is added
to the Democratic, Republican and Indepen-
dent candidates for the November election, ment and Legal Studies, 1962 - 1995
enhancing your choice.
I can’t wait for Lisa to get on the ballot so that Co-Founder, Maine Green Independent Party
become more and more obvious, and I pres-
ent these investigations before my Bowdoin
students. Thus, claims that “the ancient world
is not our world,” and that “we should move
to modern examples” ironically fail to see how
the perspective of Classical Myth helps us
come to grips with our own biases and gives us
multiple viewpoints from which to re-exam-
ine issues that we are rightly concerned about.
Myths may be ancient, but their relevance is as
modern as ever.
Sincerely,
Michael Nerdahl
Senior Lecturer, Bowdoin Classics Department
people have a chance to weigh fairly and clearly
the stands that the different candidates take on
care for all is another. Dealing effectively with
climate change is arguably the most important of
all, the answer to which, via a Green New Deal, is
closely tied to revamping our economy for peace-
time jobs for all and a fair distribution of the fruits
of our labors.
You will find, as the debate starts in a big way,
that Lisa Savage has by far the most compelling,
comprehensive, credible and caring case to be
made to meet bravely and resolutely the incredible
threats to our lives and livelihoods.
Think Savage! This is a vitally important year.
Helping her to get ballot status to even the playing
field will enliven the debate this spring, summer
and fall so that all the crucial issues are fully aired.
And Lisa may well emerge the winner. Signature
collectors will be in Thorne Hall on Friday, Febru-
ary 7 and Friday, February 14; the times are 11:30
a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m.
Sincerely,
John Rensenbrink
Topsham, Maine
Professor Emeritus Department of Govern-
Co-Founder, United States Green Party
16
FRIDAY 7
EVENT
Audubon’s “Birds of America” Page Turning
Special Collections and Archives and English and
Environmental Studies major Sylvia Bosco ’21 will host the
monthly page-turning of John James Audubon’s double-
elephant folio, “Birds of America.”
Special Collections and Archives, Hawthorne-Longfellow
Library. 12:30 p.m.
LECTURE
“Southern before Soul Food:
Domestic Citizenship and the Black
Land Grant System — 1914-1945”
Jessica Kenyatta Walker, postdoctoral fellow in the
department of American Culture at The University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, will explore the intersection of Black
cultural products, such as soul food and Black femininity.
Beam Classroom, Visual Arts Center. 2 p.m.
EVENT
Student Gallery Talk :“African/American:
Two Centuries of Portraits”
Members of the Black Student Union and Multicultural Coalition
will discuss artwork from the ongoing Bowdoin College
Museum of Art exhibition.
Museum of Art. 3 p.m.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
A Night with Comedian Ty Barnett
The Student Center for Multicultural Life will host critically
acclaimed comedian Ty Barnett for an evening performance.
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. 7 p.m.
SATURDAY 8
PERFORMANCE
One-Act Festival
Masque and Gown will hold their annual one-act festival, in
which student actors will perform student-written plays.
Wish Theater, Memorial Hall. 7 p.m.
SUNDAY 9
EVENT
Oscar Screening Party
The Bowdoin Film Society will host a screening of the
92nd Academy Awards. They will provide snacks, ballots
to cast predictions and prizes for students who predict
the most winners.
Smith Auditorium, Sills Hall. 8 p.m.
14 15 PERFORMANCE
Chamber Players
Concert
Friday, February 7, 2020
FEBRUARY
KAYLA SNYDER, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: In celebration of James Joyce’s birthday on February 2, Harrison King McCann Professor of English Marilyn Reizbaum invited
students and members of the Bowdoin community read aloud from “Ulysses.”
MONDAY 10 WEDNESDAY 12
BLACK HISTORY MONTH LECTURE
Ripples of the Transatlantic Slave Trade “Poetry, Race and History in Claudia
Daniel Minter, artist and co-founder of the Portland Freedom Rankine’s ‘Citizen’”
Trail, a walking tour of abolitionist movements in Portland, will Assistant Professor of English Samia Rahimtoola will
present and discuss his internationally-renowned artwork. discuss Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen,” a poetic meditation on
Shannon Room, Hubbard Hall. 4:30 p.m. literature and its role in modern American race relations.
Refreshments will be served.
Lancaster Lounge, Moulton Union. 4 p.m.
EVENT
TUESDAY 11
Brock Clarke Book Launch
A. Leroy Greason Professor of English Brock Clarke will
present his latest novel “Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe?” A
discussion and question and answer session will follow.
EVENT
Voter Registration Drive Faculty Room, Massachusetts Hall. 5 p.m.
Bowdoin Votes will register students to vote, help students
request absentee ballots and provide the Bowdoin
community with more information on the upcoming election.
Morrell Lounge, David Saul Smith Union. 10 a.m.
LECTURE
The View from Washington
Kevin Sullivan will discuss his experience at the Washington
Post, reporting from more than 75 countries on six continents
and publishing countless literary and journalistic pieces.
THURSDAY 13
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. 4:30 p.m. EVENT
Chryl Laird Book Launch
EVENT Assistant Professor of Government and Legal Studies Chryl
Spread the Love: Valentines Making Laird will present her new book, “Steadfast Democrats: How
The Craft Center will provide paper for making valentines Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior.” Refreshments
and paper flower bouquets. will be served.
Morrell Lounge, David Saul Smith Union. 6 p.m. Nixon Lounge, Hawthorne-Longfellow Library. 4:30 p.m.
16 17 18 20 EVENT 21 EVENT
Dimensions of
Pub Trvia Night Freedom