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Bowdoin College

The

VOLUME 145, NUMBER 13

JANUARY 29, 2016

Brunswick
creates Race
and Gender
Task Force

Progress
reported
in sexual
assault case

BY MEG ROBBINS

BY NICOLE WETSMAN

Following a tense fall semester with


bias incidents near Bowdoins campus and sexual assault on campus,
the Brunswick Town Council has established a Race and Gender Task
Force/Human Rights Task Force to
explore the race and gender issues
facing the town and approve recommended actions by June 30.
Starting in the summer, several
Bowdoin students and faculty were
subjected to predominantly racial
but also misogynistic slurs yelled
from passing cars. After these initial
reports, President Rose contacted
town officials and circulated an official condemnation on September
8. In the next two months, four additional bias incidentsall of which
were drive-byswere reported.
Approved in December, the task
force was proposed by City Council
Chairwoman Sarah Brayman who
saw it as the logical and necessary
next step for the town.
Stressing how these incidents did
not represent the values of Brunswick, Brayman said in a phone interview with the Orient that she
wants students to feel comfortable
coming downtown.
After being contacted by Rose and
other college officials, Brunswick
officials had conversations with civic organizations like Tedford Shelter,
First Parish Church, Curtis Memorial Library and others to gauge
their knowledge of racial bias in and

Investigations into the break in


and sexual assault at Mayflower
Apartments, the grabbing of a female
student on Potter Street and the numerous reports of suspicious individuals peering into windows are ongoing, according to Director of Safety
and Security Randy Nichols.
Nichols said that Bowdoin Security has been working closely with
the Brunswick Police Department
(BPD) throughout the break. He
said that progress has been made in
the investigation.
Were making significant progress, said Nichols. We have been interviewing a number of students and
those interviews are continuing.
BPD Commander of Support Services Mark Waltz said that they have
put considerable effort into all of the
incidents. Neither Waltz nor Nichols
were able to comment further because the investigations remain ongoing.
Nichols said that the BPD will be
releasing an update on the cases to
the public in the near future.
In early December, a person of interest in the break in and sexual assault at Mayflower Apartments was
arrested in Bath. Stephen McIntire
attended the sexual offender support
group that, until recently, met at the
First Parish Church just off the Colleges campus.
Though Waltz did not say where
the group has moved to, he confirmed that the group is no longer
meeting in Brunswick.

ORIENT STAFF

ORIENT STAFF

Please see TASK FORCE, page 4

HY KHONG, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

FREE SKATE: With temperatures dropping and snow levels rising, Bowdoins quad was transformed over Winter Break into an outdoor skating
rink, open to the public. The rink is located across from David Saul Smith Union and between Maine Hall and the Chapel. Even though the recent
warm temperatures have partially melted the ice, the outdoor rink traditionally lasts until around Spring Break.

M to headline Ivies, BRNS February


concert tickets sell out within four hours
BY JULIAN ANDREWS
ORIENT STAFF

The
Entertainment
Board
(eBoard) announced Tuesday morning on their Facebook page and in
an email to campus that the Danish singer-songwriter M will be
headlining the 151st Ivies weekend.
She will be performing on Saturday,
April 30. The other Ivies acts are yet
to be announced.
M has gained recognition in the
last year through her collaboration
with the DJ and producer Major

Lazer in his song Lean On. Lean


On is currently the most streamed
song of all time on Spotify, with
over 600 million plays. M has also
worked with Iggy Azalea and Avicii,
among others.
We talked a lot this year on
the board about bringing someone up and coming, that was one
of our goals, said Emily Serwer
16, the co-head of eBoard. Because our budget is so limiting I
know its difficult for people to understand the type of artist that we
can bring based on our budget, but

we thought it would be exciting to


bring someone that has been recently coming out with music thats
been doing well, whos been doing
collaborations, that theres been a
lot of buzz around.
The Ivies news came a day after the tickets for the February 5th
BRNS concert were completely
sold out in around four hours. Students lined up around Smith Union
to buy tickets starting at 9 a.m., and
though the line had dissipated with-

Please see IVIES, page 3

207 students admitted Early


Decision I for Class of 2020,
Regular Decision apps steady
BY EMMA PETERS
ORIENT STAFF

The Office of Admissions received a total of 6,788 applicants


for the class of 2020two fewer
than last yearaccording to Dean
of Admissions and Financial Aid
Scott Meiklejohn. There were 5,918
regular decision applicants, an increase of about one percent from
last year.
Of the 614 Early Decision I (EDI)

candidates, 207 were admitted


an acceptance rate of 33.7 percent.
There were 256 Early Decision II
(EDII) applicants; decisions for
those applicants will be announced
on Monday.
The 6,788 applicants represent
3,362 different high schools, a slight
uptick from last years 3,271. This
statistic has steadily increased over
the past few years, a trend Meiklejohn has attributed to Bowdoins
increasing geographic reach.

COMPILED BY JAMES LITTLE

BABY POLAR BEARS: 207 Early Decision I candidates were accepted out of 614 applicants, resulting in an acceptance rate of
33.7 percent. Decisions for the ED II, for which there were 256 applicants, will be announced on Monday.

Talk of the Quad

Read the Bowdoin Orients Talk of the Quad special issue, celebrating last semesters publication of
the Orients 100th Talk of the Quad. Pick up a copy on campus or read online at bowdoinorient.com.

news

the bowdoin orient

friday, january 29, 2016

MIRANDA HALL

Shockingly snowless in Brunswick


BY OLIVIA ATWOOD
ORIENT STAFF

MIRANDA HALL

SECURITY REPORT: 1/3 to 1/28


Sunday, January 3
At 1:30 a.m., three intoxicated males
were observed vandalizing bicycles in
the area of the Coe Quad.

Thursday, January 14
Brunswick Rescue transported a
student having an asthma attack to
Mid Coast Hospital.

Friday, January 8
An elderly spectator was taken to Mid
Coast Hospital after being struck on the
head by a hockey puck at Watson Arena.

Monday, January 18
A person playing around with a
lighter in a Coleman Hall room activated a smoke alarm.

Saturday, January 9
A local man who was struck in the
head by a hockey puck at Watson Arena was treated on-site.

Tuesday, January 19
Burnt food in the kitchen at the
Outdoor Leadership Center activated
a fire alarm.

Sunday, January 10
Heavy wind and rain caused power
outages on portion of campus.

Wednesday, January 20
A student who was using a lighter
to burn a piece of paper set off a smoke

STUDENT SPEAK

alarm in Coleman Hall.


Thursday, January 21
A blown transformer caused a
power outage on Potter Street, including Howell House.
Sunday, January 24
A room smoke alarm in Chamberlain Hall was caused by burnt microwave popcorn.
Thursday, January 28
A steam leak at the Museum of Art
activated a fire alarm. The museum
was evacuated, and the Brunswick
Fire Department and facilities maintenance staff responded.

Snow devastated the East Coast last


weekend, hitting cities as far south as
DC and dumping at least two feet of
snow on Central Park. Shockingly,
Winter Storm Jonas skipped right over
the Great State of Maine, especially
avoiding the little hamlet of Brunswick. Even Boston, hit with a recordbreaking winter in 2015, was spared
from Jonas wintery claws. However,
despite the lack of fresh snow at Bowdoin, many students still faced maddening delays as they attempted to return to campus.
Sandro Cocito 19 was flying
through Baltimore and his flight was
cancelled. He finally got back to Bowdoin, but missed his Monday and
Tuesday classes.
Unlike many of the weary winter
travellers, Cocito was not attempting
to leave a state buried in snow.
As Cocito explained, In New Orleans there was no snow, and in Maine
there was no real snow, so I was flying
from a place with no snow to a place
with no snow and still got stuck.
Cocito, however, was thrilled to have
a couple of extra days of break, unlike
some students.
Kelsey Gallagher 17 had been in
Brunswick for the last two weeks of
break, doing Wilderness First Responder Training.
I felt lucky knowing that I didnt
have to miss any of my first day of
classes, she said, noting that she
would have probably been bereft to
be absent.
Mimi Paz 17 didnt miss class, but
was nonetheless stuck for hours in
Philadelphia on her commute from
Los Angeles.
She was trapped for roughly four
hours, and expressed frustration
about arriving to Maine and not finding the winter wonderland she had
been so excited for.
I was like, what the beep! she said.
I watched it on the news and I was
like, oh, my gosh, its a blizzard! But
it wasnt.

Maggie Seymour 16 foresaw the


impending doom brought forth by the
snowstorm and struck out two days
early for Bowdoin.
I was pretty salty about it. I wanted
to stay at home, said Seymour, forced
from the cozy confines of her Baltimore home on Friday rather than
Sunday. She had to drive through the
night on Friday because she had made
plans at home during the day. All in
all, she describes her entire experience
as a pain. However, she was pleased
with her choice to flee early, because
had she not, she would have been
stuck for the week.
The worst story that fell upon the
Orients ears would be the tale of Kevin Zmozynski 16. Zmozynski hails
from Cleveland, and was supposed to
return to campus on Sunday, flying
from Ohio to Newark to Portland. All
of his flights were cancelled. The determined Zmozynski then proceeded
to spend a total of seven hours on
hold with the airline as he tried to
reschedule his trip back. He was able
to snag a flight back on Tuesday, but
alas, it too was cancelled.
I thought OK, Ill be good to go
since its Tuesday, said the repeatedly
rebuffed Zmozynski, It was ridiculous.
Zmozynski ended up opting to fly
to Chicago in order to get to Portland
since the airlines wanted to route him
through the storms epicenters, New
York or DC.
I ended up going West to go East,
he said.
And yet, despite the snow-fueled
drama and delays transpiring across
many a state, no new snow fell in
Brunswick according to eyewitnesses.
Luke Carberry 18, also already stationed on campus, notes, It was a normal weekend.
He explained, [The storm] hit all
up the east coast and it snows a lot in
Maine, so you would have thought it
would hit us too.
However, Carberry was not
shocked to hear of his fellow students delays.
It was forecasted that they
wouldnt be able to make it to school.

What was the most memorable thing you did over break?

Kylie Best 19

Ivy Elgarten 19

Andrew Cawley 17

I punctured my eardrums
scuba diving.

I bought a black fake


fur coat and it made me
really happy for several days
thereafter.

I took a group bath with


the boys.

Shan Nagar 16

Suzanne Casey 16

I got attacked by a monkey


in India.

I went to the Christmas


markets in Brussels with my
boyfriend right as a terrorist
plot was planned by ISIS.
COMPILED BY HY KHONG

friday, january 29, 2016

the bowdoin orient

news

JULIAN ANDREWS, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

IVIES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
in an hour, the tickets were gone by
the end of the day.
Serwer said the eBoard did not expect the show to sell out so quickly,
though it did need to fill all the seats
in Pickard Theater to break even on
the concert.
It was really incredible, said
Serwer. We were anticipating selling tickets up until the day of the
show, really pushing and advertising, and they sold out within, I believe, four hours.
There has been some frustration
among the student body that the
concert is being held in Pickard and
not all students who wanted tickets
were able to get them.

I was frustrated because I had


class in the morning and didnt
realize they would run out that
fast, said Dana Williams 18, who
did not get a ticket. It would have
been really great if they put it in
the Union.
In the past, musical acts such as
Murs and Racer X have performed
in Smith Union, but Serwer said that
due to the necessity of ticketing,
Pickard and Kresge were the only
possible venues. Pickard Theater
holds 600 people while Kresge Auditorium only seats 300.
The decision to bring BRNS to
campus came after feedback from
students and the College asking for
more exciting programming around
winter weekend.
We came to up with the idea that
if we pooled together all our funds

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

from winter weekend, if we move


our budget around a little from
other items, wed be able to afford
a pretty cool act, as long as we did
ticketing, said Serwer. BRNS
was really up and coming, had a
lot of buzz on iTunes and Spotify,
on music websites, and music press
was talking a lot about him and his
band, so when that name came up,
he was the first choice unanimously
on the board.
There is no truth to the rumor
that the seats will be removed for the
concert. The Pickard seats are currently out due to construction, but
will be returned for the show.
The theater department has requested extra security in anticipation of intoxicated students dirtying
the theater and standing on seats
during the concert.

BWDOINS MUSIC SCENE: Students


lined up Tuesday morning in David Saul
Smith Union for tickets to BRNS concert
February 5th in Pickard Theater (above).
Unexpectedly, the tickets sold out within four
hours, leaving some students who were in
class without tickets. BRNS (below), an
indie pop artist from Michigan, is most
known for his 2015 hits Electric Love and
10,000 Emerald Pools, both from his debut
album Dopamine. Continuing the surge of
music news, on Wednesday, the eBoard
announced M (left) will be headlining
Ivies. M, a Danish electropop artist, has
worked with DJ and producer Major Lazer on
his 2015 hit Lean On and Iggy Azalea
on her 2014 Beg for It.

Get Prepared for BRNS and M:


How to Pronounce
The pronunciation of the Danish letter flummoxes
even the most confident language students. It is almost
impossible to explain in print how to say it, but a combination of uh and ooh almost does the trick. Your tongue
must be at the front of your mouth and touching your
bottom teeth. Honestly, find a YouTube video or ask a
Dane, because you probably arent saying it right.
Good luck.

news

the bowdoin orient

Bowdoins Winter Break outlasts peer


schools, still no prospect of a J-Term
BY LUCY RYAN

ORIENT STAFF

While Bowdoin students were


home this winter break, students at
many other NESCAC schools were
back at school. This year, Bowdoins
five-week Winter Break was longer
than seven of the other 10 NESCAC
schools. Some of these schools go on
winter break for three to four weeks,
while others, such as Amherst (which
has an option Interterm), Williams
and Middlebury, have a short winter
term called January Term, J-Term,
Jan Plan or Winter Term.
Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster used to be the chair of Bowdoins
Calendar Committee, which builds
the school year around holidays so
that every semester has exactly 68
class or teaching days. Last year and
this year Bowdoin had only 66 and 67
teaching days respectively, which Foster said was due to the timing of holidays as well as 2016s leap year.
I think theres this misconception
that Bowdoin has this really long winter break and Bowdoin has this twoweek spring break and thats unusual,
and that were not in school very often, said Foster. Actually what youll
notice when you look at the class days
is that we are at the very high end.
For the spring semester, only Amherst and Hamilton will surpass Bowdoins number of teaching days, both
with 70. Bates only has 60, though
that does not factor in a 25-day Short
Term running from late-April to lateMay that Bates students are allowed
to participate in a maximum of three

times during their college career. Foster said that Bowdoin has no plans to
implement such a program.
[A Jan Plan has] never been something thats gotten a lot of consideration, said Foster. Part of the reason
being that most times when Jan Plans
exist on our peer school campuses, the
courses are taught by visiting faculty
members, they may or may not be for
credit, its usually a single course that
someone takes.
According to Foster, the general attitude toward Jan Plan courses is that
they are soft courses, because the
three-to-four week time constraint
prevents them from having the same
academic rigor as semester-long ones.
I could quote some of my colleagues at other places saying, Oh, the
Jan Plan, you mean where someone
can come back and take a soft class,
ski, and drink, and then drink some
more? Foster said.
In January of 2013 and 2014, the
College partnered with the Fullbridge
Program, which took place in the final
two weeks of winter break and offered
students the opportunity to take business classes, but the program was discontinued last year.
According to Foster, the late-January return is unrelated to the cost of
maintaining the school in the winter,
though the College does close Coles
Tower and several other residences
and academic buildings on campus to
minimize its carbon footprint.
Foster said a big factor in extending Bowdoins winter break into
January was the desire to hold commencement in late May, over Memo-

rial Day weekend.


A week before Commencement
happens, suddenly things bloom, the
lilacs come out, the grass on the quad
starts to get a little bit green and we
have a beautiful commencement on
the museum steps, Foster said.
Foster also recognized that Winter
Break is an important research period
for faculty. Many take the five weeks
to travel internationally.
Not all Bowdoin students stay away
from campus the entire break. This
year, 350 students returned to campus
early for a variety of reasons. Eighty
percent of them returned to train for
their winter varsity sport, while the remaining 20 percent returned to work
on honors and research projects or for
Wilderness First Responder (WFR)
training for the Bowdoin Outing Club.
I really like having three weeks to
relax at home, and then coming back
for track. If I didnt have track it would
be too long, said Anthony Bellavia
16. Varsity Track and Field returned
two weeks early, while most other
winter sports returned three to four
weeks early.
For other students, especially those
living outside the Northeast, five
weeks was just enough time to settle
in at home.
Jeff Josephs 19 is originally from
Haiti, but now lives in Florida.
I think people should have the
option of coming back early if they
want, he said. But for me personally I thought it was perfect because
I wanted to be home. I didnt see my
family for four months, so I wanted to
be with them and see my friends.

TASK
FORCE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
BOWDOINS ONLINE CAMPUS AND
COMMUNITY INDEX
In 2010, an online Campus and Community Index was
created as a means by which students could report and
the school could record and keep track of incidents of bias.
The index was set up after Dean of Multicultural Affairs
Leana Amaez had many students come to her to report
such incidents shortly after her arrival that same year.
Not only is the ability to report to the index limited to
members of the Bowdoin community, but also a Bowdoin
ID and password are required to access the page. There are
currently 28 incidents on the index, with the most recent
occurring on December 7, 2015.

around Brunswick. Following this


meeting in November they moved to
formalize the efforts of [the] town
with a task force.
Since then, the Brunswick Police
Department has updated their website to include a reporting mechanism for bias incidents. This consists
of an online form in which victims
are asked to identify the type of bias
and give details about the incident;
victims can choose whether or not
to identify themselves and provide
contact information to police.
We want Brunswick to be a very
welcoming community, said Police
Chief Richard Rizzo in a phone interview with the Orient.
Rizzo encouraged anyone subject
to these attacks to please fill out the
online form.
An event that you dont want to
bother us with could be part of a pattern
that the community needs to address,
wrote Rizzo on the Police website.
Since the form went live, there
have been no reports submitted,
Rizzo said at the task forces first
meeting yesterday.
At the task forces meeting, Brayman, Kathy Wilson and Jane Millett
(town councilors appointed to the

friday, january 29, 2016

Commencement

School

Winter Break

Spring Break

Amherst

5 weeks, 3 week option


winter term

1 week in March

Bates

1 week in April
5 weeks, winter
semester, one week off in
February

Bowdoin

5 weeks

2 weeks in March

May 28

Colby

2 weeks, 4-week
J-Term, 5 days off

1 week in March

May 22

Connecticut 5 weeks

2 weeks in March

May 22

Hamilton

2 weeks in March

May 22

Middlebury 3 weeks, 3 week


winter term, 1 week
off in February

1 week in March

May 21

Trinity

5 weeks

1 week in March

May 22

Tufts

A little over 4 weeks

1 week in March

May 22

Wesleyan

4.5 weeks

2 weeks in March

May 19

Williams

2 weeks, 3.5 winter term, 2 weeks in March


6 days off

June 5

4 weeks

May 22
May 27

COMPILED BY LUCY RYAN

A LONG, LONG WINTER (BREAK): Bowdoins five-week Winter Break is among the
longest in the NESCAC. While some NESCACs have a short winter term called J-Term, Bowdoin has continually opted not to have a J Term. Part of the reason being that most times
when Jan Plans exist on our peer school campuses, the courses are taught by visiting faculty
members, they may or may not be for credit, its usually a single course that someone takes,
Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster said.
task force) discussed the role of the
group, who should be representatives
on it and how large it should be.
Regarding goals of the task force,
Brayman said at the meeting: I think
theres education, theres also calling
out really bad behavior and theres
also supporting people who are [victims] of this behavior. To me, its also
about who are we as a community and
where are we going as a community.
A representative of the Brunswick
School Department, the Brunswick
Downtown Association, Associate
Dean of Students for Diversity and
Inclusion Leana Amaez and potentially a Bowdoin student representative (such as the BSG Multicultural
representative) were all broached as
resources the task force would like
to work with in the future.
Three residents of Brunswick who
attended the meeting urged the councilors to remember that the task force
must prioritize supporting the human
rights of Brunswicks citizens as much as
it will address the recent bias incidents
experienced by students of the College.
Amaez expressed hope that the
town of Brunswick and the College
could move forward together.
I would like for us to work together to think about how we educate and
how the town can send a message to
people that this is not what the town
wants to be and not what the town is

as a whole, said Amaez.


While noting that it may not be
Brunswick residents committing these
acts, Amaez emphasized that it is incumbent upon the Brunswick community to
not be silent when these incidents occur.
Simple things like asking Hey, are
you OK? Do you want me to walk you
home? can make a world of difference,
Amaez noted.
Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster
spoke approvingly of the formation
of the task force, further noting that,
in his experience, there is a sense
that this is not isolated to Bowdoin.
Notably, last week the Bangor
Daily News reported that a biracial seven-year-old student at Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary was
called the n-word on two separate
occasions this past fall.
[But] thats not the community
we think about when we think about
Brunswick, Maine, said Foster. As
someone whos lived here for 20
years... [I] dont identify Brunswick
as being a place thats not welcoming
and affirming. And, yet, some members of the community have had experiences that werent welcoming, so
I think theres some commitment on
the part of the community to say no,
this is not who we are.
James Callahan contributed to this
report.

friday, january 29, 2016

FEATURES

the bowdoin orient

Professor Palopoli finds lessons on evolution from face mites


BY JESSICA PIPER
ORIENT STAFF

If proximity is any indicator, mans


best friend is a creature that literally lives in our faces. Two species
of facial mites live their whole lives
without leaving the friendly confines
of our skin pores. They hatch from
eggs, crawl on eight legs, reproduce
and eventually die. But while these
mites are with us every day, relatively
little was known about their evolutionary originsuntil Associate Professor of Biology Michael Palopoli
co-authored a paper that shed light
on their short but fascinating lives.
They look kind of like a cigar,
with tiny little legs at one end, Palopoli said. They are actually tiny, microscopic. They crawl down into the
pores and live there.
Last November, Palopoli and eight
co-authors, including several Bowdoin
alumni who worked with him during
their time at the College, published a
paper outlining how face mites and
the humans who host them have likely
evolved together. The study attracted
media attention, commanding articles
in publications such as The Atlantic
and Science Daily.
Despite the popular recognition of
his work, Palopoli said the increased
attention doesnt affect his research.
It doesnt change for me what is scientifically interesting, he said. I think
Ive published other results that are arguably scientifically more interesting
than [these]. Its just because it happens
to be human-related that suddenly you
see all this interest.
Such interest, in part, likely stems
from the fact that many people are
alarmed by the idea of mites crawling
on their faces. While billions of bacteria are known to live on human skin

and in the body, facial mites are arachnids, members of the animal kingdom.
Their closest biological relatives are
spiders and ticks.
There are males and females, so
theyre obviously having sex and reproducing in or on our skin, Palopoli said.
Still, he was quick to point out that
mites dont typically pose a health risk
to their human hosts.
They are generally described as being commensal, which basically means
they make a living on our skin but
dont do us any harm, he said.
Palopoli began investigating mites
because the species was a good laboratory example for his students. Given
their relative abundance, he was surprised to discover how little research
had been done about them.
When Palopoli and his team first began their research, sampling the mites
did not come easily.
It took some trial and error, said
Palopoli.
They ended up using a sterilized
bobby pin to lift skin off of volunteers faces, and combing through the
samples for mites.
Once they found the mites, Palopoli
and his fellow researchers isolated and
analyzed their DNA. The DNA sequences revealed that, although every
human subject had mites, these mites
could be divided into four distinct
genotypes. The distribution of these
different mites was not random, but
based on the continental ancestry of
each human subject.
The people of recent European
ancestry we sampled, which was a
large sample...have a genetically distinct mite population from people
who have ancestry from Asia, and
both of them have a genetically distinct mite population from people
who have ancestry from Asia, and

PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL PALOPOLI

FACE TIME: A microscopic image of a species of face mite. Face mites crawl into the pores, reproduce and live there. The mites are considered
commensal organisms and therefore pose no threat to their human space.
with ancestry from Africa, he said.
Palopolis research, conducted at
Bowdoin, was supplemented by researchers at North Carolina State
University.
We went ahead and sent them the
information that we had so far and they
added some individuals to our data set.
So we published together, he said.
Regardless of public reaction,

Palopoli hopes to continue researching why different people exhibit


different mite populations. One hypothesis argues that people acquire
mites from their parents early in life,
while another suggests that genetic
differences could make some peoples faces better habitats for mites of
a particular genotype.
Palopoli believes he could test

these competing hypotheses by comparing the facial mite genotypes of


people who were adopted to those of
their parents.
While his research may continue to
focus on the evolutionary differences
in mites, their presence is still something that all people have in common.
Every reader will have mites living
in their skin, said Palopoli.

You dont look like you have autism Recognizing Bowdoin as


part of the real world

BEN YORK

AN AUTISTICS GUIDE TO AUTISM

You dont look like you have autism.


You dont sound like you have
autism.
I wouldnt know you had autism
if you didnt tell me.
People have told me things like this
many times over the years. As someone well adjusted to his autism, my
behavior does not often match the
autistic stereotype. Others often comment on this fact. While I know that
people mean well, their words carry
implications that can be hurtful.
When someone says that I dont
look like I have autism, I like to
think that they are implying that I
seem unperturbed by the difficulties
faced by other autistic individuals.
I do not noticeably rock in my seat,
I do not reflexively vocalize at high
volume and I do not flap my arms or
find great difficulty in communicating with my peers. In other words,
I appear normal to themwhatever that word may mean. It is true
that I have learned to adapt to being
autistic over the years: learning coping strategies that help me navigate
social situations and other situa-

DOUBLETHINK
CARLY BERLIN AND TESSA WESTFALL

DIANA FURUKAWA

tions that I might otherwise find


overwhelming, but saying something like you dont seem autistic
ignores a very real fact about meI
am autistic.
In my daily life, I maintain a
constant stream of consciousness,
tasked with keeping me adapted to

the world around me. In order to


maintain an air of ease in social situations, I practice conversations and
what if scenarios in my head
sometimes a dozen at a timejust in
case those situations might arise. I go

Please see AUTISM, page 6

After a break of globetrotting or


deep existential musings or endless hours of catching up on Scandal with mom and the cat, were all
back in the arctic tundra of a January Bowdoin. With a week under
our belts, a soft 90 percent of all
our conversations have included either inquiries about how our breaks
were or lamentations on how annoying inquiries about our breaks are.
Were also finding ourselves describing our transitions from The Real
World back to Bowdoin. And no,
were not talking about the two-decade running cultural phenomenon
that was MTVs Real World.
The phrase The Real World gets
tossed around a lot at Bowdoin. Recently, weve heard it used as an excuse for unsavory behavior on our
campus and other college campuses.
But more broadly at Bowdoin, the
phrase is used to differentiate the
place where we spend the majority
of our time from reality. Anytime

we leave Bowdoin, we enter this real


world. Anytime we pause to consider the utility of which classes we take
and which major we choose, were
factoring in The Real World. Anytime we think about life after Bowdoin, we name it The Real World.
We talk about our time here as if its
a magical fairyland summer camp
where time just doesnt seem to hold
the same weight as it does elsewhere.
Of course, life at Bowdoin feels
different from life anywhere else.
Its highly concentrated. Were enveloped by a frenzy of campus wides
and heated discussions on the top
floor of Adams and Moulton brunch
playlists and lab reports and blizzards and sunrise smoothies and the
most stimulating, thoughtful, fun
people weve ever encountered. Each
day feels like three days. What about
this is not real?
Sure, were privileged here. Were
nurtured. Sheltered, even. But that
doesnt mean we should discount
our time at Bowdoin as something
separate from real life. When we
split ourselves this way, were always
internally at odds. Reconciling dis-

Please see REAL WORLD, page 6

features

the bowdoin orient

REAL
WORLD
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
tance, and who we are in different
places, is part of growing up. But
calling anywhere besides here The
Real World makes this task harder.
Because how can we possibly become cohesive, functional people
out of the disjointed sections of our
lives while not giving Bowdoin the
gravity of The Real World?
The Real World has many iterations. The two of us link it with

friday, january 29, 2016


feelings arent that important. So
we slump. As sophomores, slump
is in the air. The more thats put
on our platesmajor declaration,
study abroad applications, housing
choices, increasingly intricate social
scenesthe harder we slump. Its
tempting to slip into some combination of dealing with these things
and complaining about dealing with
these things or just blowing it all off
and hiding under the blankets. We
are forced to grapple with decisions
from The Real World while living
in a space that we deem not real.

Sure, were privileged here. Were nurtured. Sheltered, even. But that
doesnt mean we should discount our time at Bowdoin as something
separate from real life.

DIANA FURUKAWA

the stability and structure in our


lives before Bowdoin. But it can also
mean the harsh reality that lies
outside the bubble. It can mean personal space. It can mean the world
that expects us to work hard and
make money and be successful.
Even though we think of The Real
World in different ways, it is always
in opposition to Bowdoin.
In doing this, were framing Bowdoin and our daily lives here as unreal. Its not a big jump to go from
here to what Im learning wont
matter outside of this context, this
time is just a placeholder and my

Wines of future past: Scuppernong


fails to bridge generational divide
BOTTOM OF
THE BARREL
WILL DANFORTH AND MARTIN KRZYWY
Like the Magi of Matthew 2:1-12,
your esteemed critics have returned
to Bowdoin bearing gifts from their
distant homelands. From the maritime reaches of Silicon Valley, Will
Danforth brings forth two tokens
of the future. The first, the VinOair, is a plastic spigot that instantaneously aerates the wine through
vacuum-tube technology. The second, the Cork Pops Auto-Corker,
guarantees forceful wine stopper
ejection via compressed air.
The introduction of such technological marvels raises serious ethical quandaries about the veracity of
our expert appraisals going forward.

Like Icarus, now we too soar at the


boundaries of human potential.
Have we transgressed against the
laws of God, man and our editors
through artificial aeration? At the
dawn of this new year, does our use
of these devices portend a millenarian shift for our column?
Perhaps these questions are best
left to the philosophers; we have
wine to drink.
From the rolling hills of the
Southern Piedmont, Martin brings
a relic of our nations winemaking
past: Duplin Winerys Scuppernong.
Derived from the muscadine, one
of the only grapes native to North
America and the alleged favorite of
Founding Father Thomas Jefferson,
the Scuppernong makes our tasting
feel like yet another chapter in the
perennial struggle between tradition
and modernity.
Despite the historical import of
the Scuppernong to Martins home of
North Carolina, his public school education failed to enlighten him about his

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Will: This is the worst church wine I
have ever had.
Martin: This is like the e-cigarette of
wine decanters.
Tonights Soundtrack: Dont Know
Why- Norah Jones

DIANA FURUKAWA

Nose: 2/5
Body: 3/5
Mouthfeel: 1/5
Legs: 1/5
Taste: 1/5

states viticultural heritage. He hoped


that North Carolinas best could hold
its own against wines tried in previous
installments with provenance in Wills
home state of California.
Fortunately or unfortunately,
Scuppernong reinforces widely held
stereotypes about the pace of life
in the South. The wine imparted a
flavor reminiscent of sweet-sticky
molasses as it slid slowly down
our throats. Quoth James Jelin 16,
This is incredibly sugary. Please
dont make me drink the rest of this
[glass]. Indeed, each quaff left our
mouths coated with a cloying residue that made us feel as though we
were rapidly developing dental cavities. It was as if a six-year-old child
had imagineered his understanding
of wine into existence.
Nonetheless, our journalistic integrity dictated that we, as well as
James Jelin, finish the Scuppernong.
Given the historical success of this
variety, the wines viscous and saccharine nature left us confused as
to how anyone could finish more
than a minute sampling. As we sacrificed ourselves on the altar of our
column, we sought elucidation as to
the wines enigmatic appeal from the
bottles label. Though the seagull and
lighthouse graphics may have been
composed of Microsoft clip art, we
found them oddly comforting. With
outstretched wings, the bird ruptured the frame of its rectangular
sticker, offering us the promise that,
like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, we
too could ascend to a higher plane of
existence if we just kept flying.
Enlightened by our journey, we
finally concluded that the Scuppernong was nothing more than an inexpensive and disappointing alternative
to port or sherry. We can only hope
to avoid a renaissance of this anachronistic offering in our lifetimes.

So we lose motivation. We stop being present. We forget to relish this


place.
Bowdoin is reality. Its real because we experience it every day.
Thats the point, in and of itself. By
existing here, we make it The Real
World. And thats scary as shit,
right? Were staring big decisions in
the face all the time, and we want to
write our uncertainty off as unreal,
as just passing through. But maybe
we ought to sink into that instability. Being in-between is terrifying,
but its exciting, and it is The Real
World.

AUTISM
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
to the dining halls as they open, so
as not to be overwhelmed by the roar
of a crowd I am certain to find at 9
a.m. or 6 p.m. The degree to which I
make contact with others, the places
I frequent and the people I spend my
time with, even the music I listen to
and the foods that I eat, are dictated
by the fact that I am autistic. Most
of the time, this is not an issue: not
because it has never been an issue,
but because I have adapted to being a
certain way in a society designed for
people who are different from me.
When people tell me that they would
not know I was autistic if I had not
told them, what Id like to think they
are commenting on is my success at
adjusting to society.
What they are actually often trying to say is you dont seem to have
anything wrong with you. I resent
that. There is not anything wrong
with being autistic. Being autistic
can be difficult, yes, but that does
not equate to being defective. While
I understand that people are trying
to be kind when they separate me
from my autismand I appreciate
the attempttheir implication is a
little hurtful. I wish others would, as
I have said often (and in jest) when
presenting on the topic: watch your
language.

friday, january 29, 2016

the bowdoin orient

features

TALK OF THE QUAD


DISCRIMINATION WILL
ALWAYS BE THERE, BUT
RACE AND ETHNICITY STILL
MATTER
My ethnicity has defined me as a person over the years. I hate phrases like
Never let your race dictate who you
are. From my experience, both with and
against my will, my race and ethnicity
have defined me as a person both to myself and people around me.
Since I moved to the U.S. in 2007, I
have heard much talk on race and ethnicity in this nation. I moved around a lot
while growing up, and I believe race and
ethnicity play a much bigger role, both
positive and negative, in the U.S. than they
do in most other places.
This is especially important in terms
of both recent events and trends that
have been continuing for centuries:
discrimination based on race and ethnicity. The situation must be rectified.
Yet, I just wanted to say that ending
racial and ethnic discrimination wont
put a stop to all discrimination.
I hear a lot of misguided talk on this
campus about how once racism stops,
our society is going to turn into some
utopia. But, thats simply not the case.
We will still discriminate based on more
subtle differences.
When I was in elementary school in
South Korea, my family got into pretty
serious financial trouble. We moved to a
rougher neighborhood, but I was still
attending the same nationally-run, hypercompetitive school in the middle of Gang-

STRAIGHT TO THE ROOTS


Id estimate that roughly 40 percent of
my college friends know that Im Jewish.
Well, half-Jewish, I guess. Ive always wondered how obvious it is from the outside.
My religious background doesnt come up
in conversation that often, and besides, I
have fond memories of Christmas mornings I reference during the holiday season.
My mom never figured out a way to explain to my older sister and me why Santa
wouldnt come down our chimney.
My mother grew up as the archetypical uniform-wearing Catholic schoolgirl,
converted into a righty by a nun whod
continually slap her left wrist with a ruler
because life is made for right-handed
people. She attended church twice a week
for nearly 30 years.
When she fell in love with a Jewish
man, her faith became a deal-breaker, so
she left it at the (mezuzah-ed) door and
converted to Judaism in order to marry
my father.
And although biologically speaking,
that makes me as much Irish Catholic
as I am Jewish, there are times when the
former seems like nothing more than a
muted recessive gene.
****
When I was a little girl, I earned a reputation in my family as being a little too
independent. I Can Do It Myself, Id say
when someone tried to pack my lunch
box or tie my shoes. My nickname soon
became the acronym for my personal
mantra: ICDIM.

nam District, made famous by Psy.


I immediately recognized the change in
peoples reactions when I told them of our
new home. It was subtle, but it was there.
Yet, as soon as I told them about my parents jobs, me playing ice hockey, etc., the
reactions changed for the better.
Korea is a homogenous country. Everyone looks the same, said an English
friend when she visited
me in Seoul last summer.
Despite the lack of racial
and ethnic diversity in my
homeland, Id say discrimination is actually bigger
there than here.
Koreans
discriminate
openly. Im not saying discrimination is good. What I
am saying is discrimination
will always be there, with or
without racial and ethnic diversity. Koreans will ask immediately where you live and
what university you attend
and if its not one of the top three, most
wouldnt take you seriously. Bowdoin isnt
well-known in Korea, so most just assume
I go to some bottom-tier community
college in the U.S. That attitude usually
doesnt change until they hear me speaking perfect English with negligible accent.
Last summer, while in Korea, I dated
a girl whose life had been pretty similar
to mine. She grew up in a conservative
family, lived abroad, attended an English
university and her parents were lawyers.
When I first met them, I wasnt dressed
particularly well and I took the subway,

not a taxi, to the restaurant. At first, her


parents did not approve of me at all, just
assuming I was from an average family: a
social class below their own
Their disapproval was blatantsuch
as interrupting my words and not paying
attention. I got talking about my summer internship, family, Bowdoin and future plans; their attitudes changed com-

However, those positive stereotypes


really helped me, a nave, 14-year-old kid
in a foreign land, and therefore I let them
slide. There was no reason for me to resist
when people viewed me positively by default. Those stereotypes were much better
than others that could have applied to me,
such as those about foreigners and kids
whose parents both work.
Over time, growing up and
living in a foreign country, I
became more and more connected with my ethnicity. I am
proud to be Korean. Yeah, we
might be rude, and we probably fixed matches in the 2002
World Cup, but we have also
developed at an incredible
pace over the last several decades. We also managed to
hold on to a tiny piece of land
on a crucial peninsula for over
five millennia.
I hear a lot of people saying,
MIRANDA HALL
I dont see your race or Dont
pletely. Dont dismiss this incident as an let your race define you. To me, those
anomaly. The idiomatic silver spoon is statements are just as ignorant as those
discussed all the time in Korea in terms made by actual racists and bigots. Race
of relationship and marriage prospects, and ethnicity are literally the first thing I
coining derivatives like dirt, wooden, see in a person.
gold and platinum spoons.
Of course, we ought not to judge others
When I first moved to Southern Cali- by their race or ethnicity, but thats a radifornia, I really came to terms with my cally different idea from ignoring race and
identity. There are many positive stereo- ethnicity. If you have suffered because of
types about Asians and Koreans, and peo- your race or ethnicity, like many in the US
ple viewed me through those stereotypes. have, I understand your point and I supI probably would have different opinions port you in your pursuit of justice.
if the negative stereotypes of my people
However, never make the mistake of
outweighed the positive ones.
assuming every person of color has had

the same experience as that of a certain


people, or you. My race and ethnicity have put me in uncomfortable, even
dangerous situations in the past, but they
have also transformed me into the person I am today. Korean, is the first word
I say every time I am asked the milliondollar question, What are you? Race
and ethnicity, along with identity, should
be celebrated, not neglected. We should
be talking more about them.
I realize my experience has been uncommon, and I wanted to share. I want
racism and ethnic discrimination gone
like a lot of you do. But I have also realized that discrimination is always there. In
the presence of ethnic and racial diversity
in America, it is sometimes convenient to
assume that all discrimination stems from
the different shades of our skin. Dont
make such a mistakeother differences
among us are caused by much more silent
factors, and discrimination stems from
those other differences too.
So be careful when you tell me that
racism and ethnic discrimination are the
last shackles holding us back from Wonderland. In my life, the biggest discriminatory actions Ive faced have not been
inspired by my race or my ethnicity, but
other subtleties, including where I live,
what my parents do, what school I attend, what I study and what kind of cars
my parents drive. To me, discrimination
based on those subtleties has been far
more ugly than the one based on the color
of my skin.
Josh Kim is a member of the Class of
2016.

It was during the ICDIM era that I began doing my own hair. I picked a hairstyle I liked and stuck with it for seven
years. One single braid, straight down the
back of my head.
In the beginning, it was cute. But as the
years passed, it grew increasingly less so. I
wound my hair so tightly that the top layer
began to break off where the braid began.
A frizz halo, as my volleyball coach
called it, started to form. You can probably
estimate in what year a photo was taken
based on the circumference of the halo.
Despite how unattractive that look became, I felt almost incapacitated to change
it. Part of me wonders if this was a residual
fear of one of the more scarring moments
of my youth: the day I unwove the cornrows I had gotten while on a vacation
to the Caribbean. I cried when I looked
in the mirror. My hair had expanded so
much it had become more like the mane
of a lion than the locks of my hair that, for
most of my life, had been pin straight.
That moment commenced a sort of
Pavlonian conditioning in my mind: if I
undo the braid, my hair becomes unbearably puffy. Each day I voluntarily bound
my hair so that no oneespecially not I
could see what it really looked like.
****
I learned the slang word Jewfro
in high school when I became friends
with another girl who shared in my hair
troubles. Her definition matched what
remains on Urban Dictionary today: the
Jewish form of an Afro, or a curly mop of
hair with lots of volume.
I never really felt connected to Jewish
culture, so I guess thats why I never considered the term to be anything offensive.

At our temple, I was an outcast. I attended


Hebrew school only on the days my pediatrician swore I didnt have strep throat.
The experience felt wholly inauthentic.
Every Sunday and Monday, when my
mom drove me to temple, I wondered
why we were not instead travelling to the
church down our street. I harbored a lot
of resentment toward my father, a man
of science who openly argued about the
irrationality of believing in God, yet demanded that his kids be raised Jewish.
Since Catholicism had played such a
strong role in my mothers life, I always
thought that my sister and I should have
been raised Irish Catholic or at least been
formally exposed to both faiths. But what
I really wanted, in typical ICDIM fashion,
was to choose for myself what to believe instead of having the decision made for me.
****
Hair straightening was the only Jewish (and I put that in quotes because
I know that it is not culturally unique)
ritual I understood innately. It is almost
customary for a Jewish girl to flat iron or
chemically treat her hair until she convinces herself that its smooth and shiny.
It was my older sister who taught me this.
When she got a keratin treatment during my freshman year of high school, I
saw what I believed to be an ideal solution
to the braid that was exacerbating my hair
damage. Only a couple of months passed
before I, too, was sitting in the hair salon
for hours, getting chemicals pasted onto
my hair with a slimy paintbrush.
As different hair straightening treatments hit the market, we tested them all.
Keratin grew out too quickly. Chemical
relaxer wasnt strong enough. Brazilian

also come to represent the strongest tie I


feel to a Jewish tradition, which, as flawed
as this may be, is a ritual of suppression.
I mistook hair straightening as a solution to the braid I wore in my childhood,
when really it was a metamorphosed
continuation. Both allowed me to displace my frustration over my inability to
be Catholic onto the most visible aspect
of my Jewishness: the Jewfro. I thought
that confining my hair in a braid or trying to change its physical structure would
take care of the larger crisis I couldnt
tangibly wrestle.
Without my Jewfro, people dont
ask me if Im Jewish, and I dont have
to sound foolish when I struggle to put
a label on my spirituality. I dont trigger
frustration and confusion about being
raised as part of a faith that neither of
my parents wholeheartedly believe in
as I stare in the mirror while just trying
to brush my teeth. And when my Jewish hair starts to grow in again and the
labels in limbo, I start to think: being
unattached to both Judaism and Catholicism has let me invent a spirituality of my
own, one that feels more authentic to my
beliefs than that of either of my parents.
Lacking the rigidity of one religion hasnt
prevented me from believing in God.
But now, when my friends ask me what
my natural hair looks like and if theyll
ever see it, even I wonder if Ill ever stop
hiding my roots. Besides, it only takes a
few hours in the sun and a blistering red
burn to remind me just how
Irish I am too.
Meg Robbins is a member
of the Class of 2017.

Blowouts contained carcinogenic chemicals. After a couple years of experimentation, I settled with the keratin, but my
sister went for the next-level stuff: thermal
reconditioning. In exchange for a hefty investment of time and money, the process
makes hair stick straight, for six months.
Its permanence staved me off, but I
watched with a glimmer of jealousy when
day after day, my sister rolled out of bed
and ran a comb through her hair without
it inflating.
Eventually, I caved.
****
It is not uncommon for me to notice
people staring at my roots sometimes.
When my friends ask, How come your
hair is curly at the top, but the rest of it is
straight? I have no problem explaining to
them that its because its chemically treated and growing out, although Im aware
of how alien that may sound.
Recently, I was sitting in my friends
living room when he told me he thinks I
should stop getting my hair treated. Why
dont you just let it be natural? he asked.
Since I was a tween, Ive been putting
on my scalp the same chemicals that
morticians use to embalm dead people.
I wish that I could look at my friend and
tell him that, you know what, I think I
am going to stop. But its not as easy as it
sounds like it should be.
Upon immigrating to the United
States, my great-grandfather changed our
surname from Rabinowitzmeaning
son of the rabbito the less-Jewishsounding Robbins to avoid persecution.
Almost a century later, my hair treatments have become my modern-day tactic of hiding my Jewish identity. They have

friday, january 29, 2016

the bowdoin orient

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

The Old Masters in abstract: exhibit examines questions of beauty


BY SURYA MILNER
ORIENT STAFF

Inspired by the Old Master paintings


of the 1500s, modern artist, Elise Ansel,
found a vision for Distant Mirrors.
The collection of abstract paintings and
drawings is exhibited at the Bowdoin
College Museum of Art. In collaboration with Hanetha Vete-Congolo, associate professor of romance languages
and literatures, the exhibit is the final
installment in the Studies in Beauty
Initiative, a humanities cluster aimed to
address questions of beauty and ethics.
Ansel, a resident of Portland, Maine,
joined Vete-Congolo on Thursday to
discuss the feminist and humanistic
themes of her exhibit, which will run
through April 17.
Im trying to take these paintings
that were initially created from a male
point of view and filter them through
this idea of a more feminine perspective, Ansel said. Theres a subtext that
the initial work bears issues having to do
with racism, sexism and classism. The
contemporary artist trying to rework it
is trying to address those issues. In my
case, I might be reacting against sexism,
but at the same time acknowledging the
beauty of the original painting.
Ansels work is a recreation of Denis
Calvaerts Annunciation, a late Renaissance rendering of the biblical angel,
Gabriel, telling the Virgin Mary she
would carry Jesus. Drawing from this
image, Ansel questions gender roles,
privilege and the politics of race in her
abstract recreationswhile still recognizing the merit in the original piece.
What [Ansel] brings to the fore is
our relation with these former centuries
in the way they passed on to us these
values that govern us today, Vete-Congolo said. Its this dialogue between
things that initially appear to be dichotomic, or even opposed, but in the end
find common ground and come up with
something completely new.

ABBY MOTYKA, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

DISTANT MIRRORS: Over winter break, a new exhibit by artist Elise Ansel opened at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. As a part of the
humanities Studies in Beauty Initiative, the collection explores questions of beauty and ethics through abstract interpretations of Old Master paintings.
Initially inspired by James Joyces
novel Ulyssesa modern interpretation of Homers OdysseyAnsel
reworks Calvaerts piece to depict what
she calls the female experience.
I feel that sometimes for women to succeed, they have to act like
men, Ansel said. Thats a route that
women can choose and that can give
them some degree of the success
thats been available for men. But
if you choose not to go that path, if
you choose to really celebrate those
things about yourself that are distinctly female and distinctly feminine, not least of which is the ability
to bear children, its a very poignant

thing to celebrate how wonderful it


isthis whole range of experience
you can have.
In choosing to reimagine a work that,
by way of its incorporation of biblical
themes, also makes a comment on the
role of women in 16th century European society, Distant Mirrors does
exactly what its name would imply. It
provides a parallel to the original work
that is still independent in its message.
This painting that Im working from
really is about spiritual experience. Im
interested in what the female experience is in that and celebrating itand
in a way thats not just accommodating
the male point of view of it, Ansel said.

For me, its a more dynamic explosion


than a quietly submissive acceptance.
What you feel, what you think, what you
say and what you writethats more
important than how somebody else pictures you. And I think thats what my
work is about, while at the same time
celebrating some of these pictures because theyre amazing.
Its at the intersection of what Ansel describes as the inwardly felt and
outwardly constructed female experience that Distant Mirrors incorporates the notion of beauty, a facet
integral to not only the Studies in
Beauty Initiative but also, Vete-Congolo said, the female identity.

Were dealing with ethics and were


dealing with beauty. Beauty is so critical in our everyday life, Vete-Congolo
said. We do everything on the basis of
beauty, whether we determine an action or thought beautiful. Whatever it
is, youre going to be guided by your
outlook on beauty and that outlook on
beauty gets you automatically to questions of ethics.
For Ansel, much of her work is in the
questioning of these idealsof beauty
and womanhood, among otherswhile
simultaneously constructing a female
narrative that is altogether her own.
We cant uncritically accept these
definitions of beauty and ethics. They
need to be thought about. They need
to deconstructed, Ansel said. Is it
ethical to put forth an image of beauty
that...discounts 90 percent of what
[women] are about? Is there a way to
find a definition of beauty that is celebratory of the whole person and also
of many cultures?
Joachim Homann, curator of the exhibit, notes that although the collection
is modern in style and theme, it still bears
reverence to traditional and classical
works. He said that he hopes this aspect
will draw students to the show.
Its not enough to just continue traditions of the past and take pride in the long
legacy of the Museum, which has been
collecting art for 200 years, Homann said.
Throughout the decades, perspectives
and priorities have always changed and
we need to identify what our collection
means to contemporary audiences, how
it relates to the experience of our students
and what questions we have to ask.
Everybody finds their own way, but
the point is that you want everyone to
have the option to do it the way thats
specific to whoever they are...thats the
heart of this whole thing: ascribing new
meanings and new ways of defining people and defining experience in a way that,
hopefully, is more inclusive.

Romantic comedy characters fall in love with complex narratives

DIANA FURUKAWA

TREVOR MURRAY

NETFLIX AND STRESS

Many genres carry connotations of


varying positivity, but none seem more
exclusively stereotyped as romantic comedy. The genres appeal is one of pure ca-

tharsis. We love to laugh, and we love to


love. Mixing both together is a bubbly
concoction of our favorite kinds of happy.
But despite this, many romantic comedy narratives fall short of compelling.
Sure, its unfair to measure work solely on
the depth of its narrative, but it does seem
that a vast majority of films and television
shows in this category use their genre as a
crutch that supports their empty charac-

ters. However, when a romantic comedy


series is executed using real characters and
grounded stories, the resulting product is
a treat for the heart and mind both.
Lets take a look at FXXs fresh series
Youre the Worst. The premise is far
from original. Music publicist and giant mess Gretchen (Aya Cash) careens
into the life of novelist and misanthropist
Jimmy (Chris Geere). Theyre both awful
people who dont do relationships, and
then, naturally, fall hard for each other
after their first night together. While this
basis sounds tired, the superficiality of the
show ends there. In two seasons, showrunner Stephen Falk has churned out one
of the tightest shows on television.
What separates Youre the Worst
from the pack of its predictably pedantic
genre-mates is an ensemble of rich and
engaging characters. The romantic leads
both find lovable foils in Edgar, Jimmys
freeloading roommate, and Lindsey, a
pampered housewife and Gretchens best
friend. Unfortunately, these brief descriptions do little justice to the strong character work put forth by the shows writing.
Every member of the ensemble has their
own brand of ridiculous humor that is reinforced by its consistency, and that consistency carries over into the quality of the
acting. Youre the Worst demonstrates
that when characters are written well
and dont act against their personalities, a

Both of these series show us that even in the most exhausted of


genres, depth of character can push narratives past their potential
into powerful pieces. In the case of romantic comedy, strong writing and dismissing clichs allow for a real exploration of some of the
things that make us human.
shows plot clicks into place and fires on
all pistons.
While Falk has managed to create a
bold take on an old story, Aziz Ansari
doubles down on the romantic comedy narrative in his Netflix hit Master
of None. This show came out swinging;
the 10-episode premier season hits on
almost every mark of adulthood. Ansari
stars as Dev, an aspiring actor and frustrated adult. The entire tone of the show
is refreshing; its cast varies from episode
to episode. Dev is the only string tying
the ten pieces together. This allows for a
broad ensemble comprised of funny and
consistent characters, similar to Youre
the Worst. The central arc of the show
follows Devs search for a relationship and
the trials and tribulations of maintaining
one. This plot is, again, incredibly common as a motor for comedic television,
but for Ansari, it becomes the deep well of
emotional material on which his show is
centered. The bottom line for this show is

that every character matters, whether its


Devs main romantic interest or the taco
guy with three lines. Each interaction is
meaningful and clever, and the depth to
which Ansari dives into the truths about
love and cohabitation makes for the most
insightful television of this year.
Both of these series show us that
even in the most exhausted of genres,
depth of character can push narratives past their potential into powerful
pieces. In the case of romantic comedy, strong writing and dismissing
clichs allow for a real exploration of
some of the things that make us human. Its TV that we can connect to,
and second to all that insanity Walter
White pulled, its the most engaging. If
you want more shows that pull this off,
check out Jane the Virgin, Scrubs
and Parks and Recreation. (And if
you havent seen those last two, then
thats probably the only thing you
should be doing this weekend.)

friday, january 29, 2016

the bowdoin orient

a&e

SNAPSHOT OF THE ARTS: SPRING 2016


FEBRUARY 1113

FEBRUARY 14

The Vagina Monologues


Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center.
7:30 p.m.

ValJam
The Chapel. 7 p.m.

Each year, V-Day sponsors a production of the


Vagina Monologues to benefit Sexual Support
Services of Midcoast Maine. Written by Eve Ensler,
the show aims to raise awarness about sexual
violence against women.

The joint concert between one of


Bowdoins male a cappela groups, the
Longfellows, and Bowdoins female
group, Miscellania, will celebrate
Valentines day.

JENNY IBSEN, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

FEBRUARY 15

FEBRUARY 1820

Activism and Social Justice Art Show


LaMarche Gallery, Smith Union. 7 p.m.

Masque and Gown: Leading Ladies


Wish Theater, Memorial Hall. 7 p.m.

In celebration of Black History Month, the AfricanAmerican Society will showcase student art and
poetry addressing the theme of social activism.

One of Bowdoins theater groups will showcase its


female talent.
TESSA EPSTEIN, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

STARTING FEBRUARY 26

MARCH 30

APRIL 1

Francophone Film Festival


Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. 7 p.m.

Student Open House


Bowdoin College Museum of Art. 5:30 p.m.

Upright Citizens Brigade


Pickard Auditorium, Memorial Hall. 8 p.m.

Throughout the course of the semester, the French


department will screen films to bring both Francophone language and culture to campus.

The art museum will open its doors to students to


admire Bowdoins collection, in paticular the work
of R. Luke Debois.

The Chicago-based long-form improv group will


return to campus for a highly anticipated performance.

APRIL 16

APRIL 21

Bowdoin Orchestra
Kanbar Auditorium, Studzinski Recital
Hall. 7:30 p.m.

Music in the Museum with George Lopez


Bowdoin College Museum of Art. 6:30 p.m.

Led by conductor George Lopez, the Bowdoin


Orchestra will showcase their semesters work.

Artist-in-Residence George Lopez will play the piano to set


the scene for visitors to enjoy the art museums collection.

JENNY IBSEN, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

MAY 57
Spring Dance Concert
Pickard Theater, Memorial Hall. 8 p.m.
The spring semester dance classes will showcase what they have
learned throughout the semester.

WYLIE MAO, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

MAY 13
Student A Cappella Concert
Pickard Theater, Memorial Hall. 8 p.m.
Bowdoins five a cappella groups will perform to celebrate the end of the
semester.
JENNY IBSEN, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

10

a&e

friday, january 29, 2016

the bowdoin orient

Arctic biodiversity
through an amateur lens
BY AMANDA NEWMAN
ORIENT STAFF

Through the Lens: Arctic Biodiversity is a photographic exhibition


that will be on display at the PearyMacMillan Arctic Museum during
the spring semester.
The exhibition, which has been
shown from Iceland to Canada, features Arctic-related photos that were
highly regarded in a competition sponsored by the Conservation of Arctic
Fauna and Flora Secretariat (CAFF).
CAFF is devoted to the conservation of Arctic biodiversity, ensuring that residents and governments
of Arctic countries have up-to-date
and accurate information about
Arctic plants and animals.
CAFF also promotes practices
which ensure the sustainability of
the Arctics resources. In 2014, they
released a report on Arctic biodiversity and held the photography competition to mark the launch of the
report.
According to Genevieve LeMoine, curator and registrar of the
Arctic Museum, this competition
is the first artistic outreach that
CAFF has initiated, as their mandate is typically directed at educating through scientific means and
is usually focused on the scientific
and policy-making community. The
competition included 18-and-under
and 14-and-under categories in addition to thematic groupings. The
winning photos from these categories are also shown in the exhibit,
one of them being a photo taken by
a seven-year-old.
LeMoine is happy that the Arctic
Museum is showing photos taken by
less experienced photographers. Its
nice to have amateur photography
being shown and perhaps inspiring
people to get out there and do their
own photographing, she said.

The foyer where the photos are


currently being shown typically displays works from the Arctic Museums collection and thus are usually
historic.
One of the things that Im excited
to do is to be exhibiting contemporary photography, said LeMoine.
Many of the photos are aimed at
showing the effects of society on
biodiversity. One of LeMoines favorite photos in the exhibit shows
a researcher in Siberia who was
trapped inside his hut by hundreds
of walruses.
Its not necessarily beautiful to
look at, but the story is great, she said.
The exhibit on Bowdoins campus
is not the only event in which CAFF
is connecting its mission to Maine.
This coming fall, the Arctic Council will have a meeting in Portland,
Maine. According to LeMoine, this is
the first time this meeting will be held
outside of the Arctic. She explained
that this event is related to Senator
Angus Kings work to promote Maine
as a gateway to the Arctic.
To lead up to this initiative, the Arctic Museum will be holding talks and
other events with growing excitement
to connect Maine with the Arctic.
LeMoine added, It totally fits in
with our mission both in terms of
the science and national history of
the Arctic but also art in the Arctic
as well so its a nice addition to what
we normally do.

HY KHONG, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

ICELAND TO
CANADA: The newest
exhibit at the Peary-MacMillan
Arctic Museum features the
winning photographs from
Conservation of Arctic Fauna and
Flora Secretariat, an organization
dedicated to conserving arctic
biodiversity. The Arctic Museum
will host student night tonight
at 7 p.m.

Visit Through the Lens:


Arctic Biodiversityat
the Peary-MacMillan
Arctic Museum, on
display until June 12.

HY KHONG, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

Stuck in boiling water: the uncertainty of an diagnosed illness


ALLY GLASSKATZ

REALITY ALLY

DIANA FURUKAWA

Im sick. Over break, I took NyQuil in New Orleans, Advil in Atlanta and laxatives at my cousins
wedding in LA. In Oregon, I lay half
conscious on my aunts day bed, surrounded by tissues and peppermint
tea. The whole time, my legs ached;
theyd crack each time I stepped.
When I walked, it sounded like
drumming. I felt like one of those
snap bracelets youd had as a kid;
one minute my legs would be curled
up on the couch, the next theyd
snap and lock out, sending ripples of
pain down through my feet and up
to my groin.
I went to a pediatrician, then a
rheumatologist, then a woman specializing in infectious disease. I
got blood drawn three times. I also
spent a lot of time pooping into a
green plastic bag and scooping the
stuff into eight tiny vials.
All my tests came back negative.
We can see youre sick, the doctors said. But your blood work
looks great. You definitely dont have
cancer. Its like arthritis, but isnt.
Awesome, I said. Thats great.

In the first instance, a frog is placed in boiling water and immediately


jumps out. Its hot! In the second, the frog is placed in a pot of cool
water, which is slowly brought to a boil. The transition is so gradual
the frog never notices and cooks. Its the same with being sick.
Theres this famous parable with
frogs and boiling water. In the first
instance, a frog is placed in boiling
water and immediately jumps out.
Its hot! In the second, the frog is
placed in a pot of cool water, which
is slowly brought to a boil. The transition is so gradual the frog never
notices and cooks.
Its the same with being sick.
These days, its normal for me to
walk down the stairs to the sound of
my body banging out the rhythms of
a mariachi band. But this shouldnt
feel normal. I dont want to wake
up a year from now and think its
commonplace to spend hours on
the couch, starting my day with one
Aleve, two Tylenol, and half a dozen
supplements and vitamins. I dont
want to believe that the pain, the
whining, the binge watching seasons
of The Bachelor, then The Bachelorette, then the genius that is Bachelor
in Paradise is normal.
I dont want to think this might
never go away.

For me, the worst part of being


sick is the uncertainty. When am I
going to feel better? Whats happening to my body? Am I getting better
or worse?
Ive been sick so long I cant
trust my bodys cues. Ive forgotten
what it feels like to be healthy. Ive
repressed it, I had to. Because if I
compared my legs now to the ones
I had two months agomy Bachelor
on the treadmill versus Bachelor in
bed legs Id jump out of the boiling
water screaming.
It took me two months to realize I
was sick. Its taken another to figure
out whats wrong, and itll take one
more to hopefully cure it.
So this month, each time I pop my
Aleve and Advil and antibiotics, Im
going to close my eyes and remember going on a long run, climbing
with my mom, shopping at Target
without getting tired and sitting
down.
And Im going to tell myself thats
whats normal. Not this.

friday, january 29, 2016

SPORTS

the bowdoin orient

11

RUNNING
THROUGH THE
COMPETITION:
Addison Carvajal 16
(left) leaps over the
bar in the high jump.
Joseph Staudt 19
(right) sets the pace
in the 1,000 meter
race. Staudt set a
school record in the
60 meter hurdles
with a time of 8.47
seconds in Bowdoins
second weekend of
competition. Katherine Krupp 16 also set
a school record and a
first place finish in the
triple jump (11.60m)
in the teams first
meet of the season.
Bowdoin has earned
four top-five finishes
in its first two meets
this season.
COURTESY OF JERRY LEVESSEUR

Track teams jump out to early season success


BY COOPER HEMPHILL
ORIENT STAFF

The mens and womens track and field


teams have sprinted out to an excellent
start to the 2016 season with four topfive finishes in the first two meets of the
year.
The men started the winter season
with a win in the Bowdoin Invitational
I and a second place finish in the following weeks Bowdoin Invitational II. The
women placed fourth out of five teams
and fourth out of ten teams in the same
two meets.
The team had a later start to competition this season than usual, as the first
meet of the year was not until January
16, 10 weeks after the start of training
and more than a month later than the
start of the winter season the previous
year. However, this extended preseason
training provided the teams with much

needed time to prepare for the first meet.


I think it helped a lot for team dynamics and also to get in the base training that you cant during the normal season, said Meghan Bellerose 17.
Without having to prepare for weekly
meets, the athletes can focus on long
term goals and on improving in their
individual events.
The mens teams first victory was
spurred by several outstanding individual performances. In the sprinting
events, John Kennealy 18 won the 600
meter run (1:24.05), Conor Donahue
18 won the 800 meter race (2:00.82),
and Nate Kent 18 took first place in the
60 meter hurdles (8.72). In the long distance events, Nicholas Walker 16 also
had a first place finish in the 5000 meters
with a time of 15:23.28.
In addition, the team of Myles
Caldwell 19, Connor Rockett 19,
Christian Heath 18 and Matt Jacobson

17 took first in the 4x800 with a time of


8:20.82.
The Polar Bears also excelled in the
field with victories in the long jump by
Stephan DeCarlo 18 (6.73m) and in
the triple jump by Brian Greenberg 18
(14.10m). Rounding out the victory,
Joseph Staudt 19 earned an impressive
4,062 points to win the heptathlon in his
first collegiate meet.
In womens track, Bellerose 17
took first in the 800 meters with
a time of 2:21.43, and Sarah Kelley 18 won the one mile run with
a time of 5:08.97 during the first
weekend of competition.
In the field events, Katherine Krupp
16 earned a school record and a first
place finish in the triple jump (11.60m),
and Pamela Zabala 17 won the shot put,
throwing for 11.73m. Addison Carvajal
16 swept the field, winning the pentathlon with a score of 3,328 points.

The team has improved and expanded its arsenal of players in the
past few years, moving from a distance-oriented team to a more wellrounded group capable of putting up
big team scores in meets.
The scene from an indoor track meet
is nothing short of chaos, with hundreds
of players moving about the cramped
field house competing, warming up,
stretching and watching, all while trying to stay out of everyone elses way.
Through this madness the players are
forced into close quarters which fosters
an atmosphere for a cohesive and dedicated group. Both teams share facilities
and coaches, which makes the program
feel like one united group. This team
bonding proved effective as the team
prepared to host its second meet of the
season on January 23rd.
In the second weekend of competition, the mens team placed second in a

tough field of teams that included many


powerhouse programs, losing only to
MIT, who finished 27th out of the 74
teams that made the DIII Championships last year. The team took first in
two events with Jacob Ellis 16 winning the 800 with a time of 1:57.50 and
DeCarlo topping the competition in the
long jump with a height of 6.88m, his
personal best.
Staudt 19 continued his impressive
rookie season by breaking the school record in the 60m hurdles with a time of
8.47 seconds.
On the womens side, Bellerose produced a strong showing again in the 800
with a second place finish (2:22.45), and
the duo of Kelley and Demi Feder 17
took second and third in the 1000, with
times of 2:59.17 and 3:02.17 respectively.
Both teams will be competing at
home tomorrow at 1:00 P.M. in their final home meet of the season.

Mens hockey heating up before crucial stretch


BY JONO GRUBER
ORIENT STAFF

JENNY IBSEN, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

FIGHTING FOR THE PLAYOFFS: Forward Camil Blanchet 18 battles for the puck with a
University of Southern Maine (USM) defender in Bowdoins 4-1 win over the Siberian Huskies
on Tuesday night in Watson Arena. The win was the Polar Bears fourth in a row.

Thanks to game-winning goals


in back-to-back games from Cody
Todesco 19 last weekend, the mens
hockey team (8-7-3 overall, 4-5-3
NESCAC) now stands at sixth in the
NESCAC. After another win against
the University of Southern Maine
on Tuesday, the team is on a fourgame win streak heading into a final
stretch of six conference games to
end the season.
Some of the teams recent success can be attributed to a formation
change Head Coach Terry Meagher
implemented the weekend before
the win-streak began. Typically
filling the ice with three forwards
and two defensemen, Meagher has
brought a forward back to defense.
The three-back lineup has freed
up the Polar Bear wings and allows
for more fluid play between the for-

wards and defensemen.


While Meagher has implemented
the nontraditional formation in
previous years, he brought out this
years version to confuse the opposition, somewhat compensating for
the teams lack of experience.
It has turned into a pretty traditional league as far as playing structure is concerned, so that makes
it easier for teams to defend when
youre doing the same thing. [After that], it comes down purely to
those that can make hockey plays,
said Meagher.
If you look at us, a young team,
and where we are on the learning
curve, that process was going slower
than I anticipated, added Meagher.
[The new formation] makes it challenging for our opposition and gets
them out of their comfort zone.
This could be, by age and by class,
the youngest team Ive had here in
an era where its an older league [be-

cause most hockey players take gap


years], Meagher emphasized.
Aside from simply giving the opponent something new to defend,
the three-back formation has helped
jump start the Polar Bears offense
by allowing for more movement between positions, thus loosening the
team up.
You have more responsibilities, but you have more freedom [as
well], said Todesco. More guys can
jump up in the play. Defense can
play offense. It doesnt really matter.
Prior to last weekends games, the
Polar Bears had gone four contests
without a win. However, once comfortable with the new formation, the
team kicked off its win streak by
avenging losses to the University of
New England (UNE) and Williams,
as well as an early season tie to Middlebury. Todescos game-winning

Please see HOCKEY, page 12

12

sports

the bowdoin orient

friday, january 29, 2016

Swimming and diving looks


to gain late season edge
BY MADDIE JODKA
ORIENT STAFF

ABBY MOTYCKA, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

RISING TO THE OCCASION: Christine Anderson 17 practices a dive during one of the swim
teams many training sessions. The teams spent most of winter break at Bowdoin and trained
rigorously nearly every day so as to be in top shape for NESCACsthe most important meet
of the year at the end of the season.

HOCKEY
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

goals clinched the latter two.


Getting that win against UNE was
big for our confidence, said Matt
Sullivan 17. We lost 8-3 to them
earlier in the year, and we knew that
wasnt the type of team that we were.
We knew we had a lot of better players in our room, and we expected a
lot more out of ourselves.
Three days after the UNE win,
the Polar Bears welcomed Williams, who currently sits at second place in the NESCAC. Goalie
Peter Cronin 18 earned his third
clean sheet of the season in a 1-0
upset win. The next day against
Middlebury, Cronin put up another gem, allowing just one goal
in the 2-1 win.
Cronin played in 11 games last
season, but with the departure of
goalkeeper Max Fenkell 15, he has
begun to come into his own as starting goalkeeper. Recently, he has
played especially well, allowing no

more than one goal in the teams last


three contests.
I think he is the backbone of the
team. Hes given our team a lot of
confidence lately, said Todesco.
With just six conference games
left before the end of the regular season and the Polar Bears
currently sitting at sixth in the
NESCAC, the team will need to
finish strong to solidify a spot in
the postseason.
In the final season of Meaghers
33-year tenure, the Polar Bears
will need to continue to get great
playboth on and off the ice
from senior captain Matt Rubinoff
to reach their goals. His performance will be a key factor in not
only locking down a playoff spot
but possibly rising to the fourth
seed in the NESCAC and earning
a home playoff game.
Were getting timely saves. Were
getting strong, good, game leadership from [Rubinoff ], whos basically said, Im the leader. Im the
captain. Get on my back. Thats inspiring to a team, said Meagher. All
we need are more timely goals.

After wins against Trinity and


Wesleyan last Saturday, both the
mens and the womens swimming
and diving teams have only one
more regular season meet left, a
match-up with rival Colby on Saturday, before postseason meets begin in February.
After Saturdays meet, Bridget
Killian 16 was named the Small
College Athletic Conference Performer of the Week for winning
first place in each of her freestyle
events and setting personal bests
for the season.
Both the mens and womens
teams have been motivated this
year by the exciting end to last
years season, when Caroline Watt
18, Mariah Rawding 16 and
members of the womens 200- and
400-freestyle relays made it all the
way to the DIII Championships. After such a successful last season, the
teams aim to reach the same level
of competition and fitness by this
years championship.
Senior captains Olivia Pfeifer
16 and Lela Garner 16 both noted that the teams intensity has
heightened this year, and practices
have become much more difficult.
Previously, they said, Head Coach
Brad Burnham eased the team into
the season in the beginning, while
practices would gradually become
more demanding; this year was different, with difficult and exhausting practices from day one.
We work a lot harder, we practice a lot harder and we all motivate each other a lot, said Pfeifer.
Weve had a lot of really tough
practices and a lot of really tough
meets and people have really kept
positive. I think that is probably the
highlight for me so far.
Both the men and women captains are impressed by the first
years, who all come from different
swimming backgrounds and levels, and have already broken school
records. On the mens team, first

year Karl Sarier 19 broke a team


record for IM in the first meet. Beyond this, Lagasse notes that there
have been impressive performances across the board and that they
gained many valuable distance and
IM swimmers this season.
Perhaps the most notable meet
of the season was against Bates on
January 15. The Bobcats have skyrocketed in competitiveness over
time. Last year their women placed
second in the NESCAC, and their
men placed fifth. Given Bates success, the Polar Bears were happy
with their result. In the end, the
men came incredibly close to beating them, but lost by a point in the
last race of the event.
Working together, watching the
men almost win against Bates, lose
by a point said Pfeifer, those
kind of things motivate everyone to
keep working hard even if there are
point differentials.
The meet revelaed both what the
Polar Bears needed to improve on
as well as the teams competitive
spirit, which will be needed to compete with higher-ranked teams in
future meets. Both teams consist of
27 members, with 25 swimmers and
two divers on each. Over Winter
Break the teams spent seven days
training in Florida before coming back to Bowdoin to continue
practicing before the end of winter
break.
Its the best training environment Ive ever been a part of, captain Lyle Anderson 16 said.
For both the men and the
women, improvement is the goal.
Senior captain John Lagasse 16
explains that rather than having
specific place or time goals, it is all
about improving individually and
as a team.
I would say our team goal is
just to continue to improve, said
Lagasse. Whether it is in the pool
timewise or out of the pool, just
to have the best dynamic we can
We are definitely achieving that
thus far.
Burnham preaches this outlook

to the members of the team.


We tend to look for just how
much better we can get, said Burnham. It is a matter of improving
every day, getting a little better and
trying to put together the best races
they can.
The meets in the beginning of
the season are not as significant as
those at the end, aside from showing swimmers and divers what they
need to improve.
Swimming is a sport that really
peaks toward the end of the season, said Burnham.
However, Garner notes that in
the past few meets people have been
improving in speed which makes
them more excited for NESCACs.
While both teams have suffered
setbacks from injuries and illnesses such as mono, both captains attest that they appear to be coming
back stronger than ever for the
end of the season.
On January 30, both teams will
compete against Colby in one last
effort before the NESCAC Championship. Garner notes that the
Colby pool is much more shallow
than Bowdoins, but that this will
be a perfect opportunity to get
one more race practice in. After
this last race, the teams will start
the taper, which includes practices
with less yardage, more sprints and
lighter workouts so that the swimmers and divers are rested and
ready to race.
One goal that the men have for
NESCACs, besides improvement
across the board, is to beat Bates,
which they achieved two years ago
but fell short of last year. The women are looking forward to having
their very talented divers, Christine
Andersen 17 and Rebecca Stern
19, compete this year, as last year
both divers were injured. Pfeifer
notes that at this point, preparation
for NESCACs becomes a mental
game after having done everything
possible to improve throughout the
season. The pressure is on, as Garner said, Only our last meets at
NESCACs matter.

JENNY IBSEN, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

STRONG AT THE BACK: Forward Chris Wallace 19 (left) gathers the puck in goal and skates up the ice. Goalkeeper Peter Cronin 18 (right) has
emerged as a key player in Bowdoins pursuit of the NESCAC title in Terry Meaghers final season as Bowdoins Head Coach.

friday, january 29, 2016

the bowdoin orient

sports

13

Injuries, departures plague mens and womens squash


BY ANJULEE BHALLA
ORIENT STAFF

With less than four weeks until


the National Championships, the
mens and womens squash teams
are preparing for the final stretch of
their season. Both teams have been
battling diminished lineups in the
past few matches. The mens team
is currently ranked 21st nationally
with a record of 4-9, and the womens team is ranked 17th with a record of 7-6.
Last weekend, both teams competed again Brown and lost their
fifth shutout of the season. According to Tomas Fortson, who is the
head coach for both teams, the tough
losses show that the biggest challenge facing both teams is bringing
a healthy and complete nine-person
roster into each match.
Were meeting our challenges
well. We have some significant
ones, especially in terms of numbers, expected number of players
originally and the ones who were
actually playing with right now,
Fortson said.
The mens team is dealing with
injuries and illnesses, and the womens team has to deal with players
who were supposed to be on the
team but quit. So the same end result, which is not being able to have
the expected complete roster, comes
from different reasons, Fortson
added.
Injuries and illnesses reduced the
mens roster of 13 down to eight
against Brown, forced the Polar
Bears to forfeit their ninth match.
In addition to losing key players, the
absences in the roster force healthy
players to move up the teams ladder
and compete against higher ranked
opponents.
Obviously [the injuries] make
it harder because youre not play-

ing your strongest players where


they should be, said mens captain
Christian Dorff 17. It just means
that everyones going to have to play
a bit harder and play a tougher opponent.
In the face of formidable competition and thin lineups, Fortson notes
that his teams have been growing in
overcoming the obstacles they face
and individuals have been improving as well.
Improving your skills is the big
focus of our program beyond competing and trying to win as many
matches and represent Bowdoin
well, said Fortson. In the end,
[squash is] a sport that allows players to improve their skills significantly, and thats the main focus for
us. So whether we have 10 players or
15 players, each individual player is
in a position to continue to develop
[his or her] skills, so we keep the
focus on that, and weve been doing
well with it fortunately.
This focus on continuous improvement is a cornerstone of Fortsons program. According to some of
the players, this focus sets the Polar
Bears apart from many other collegiate teams.
A lot of players at the other
schools will start out as really strong
players and remain really strong
players but maybe not improve as
much, said womens captain Torey
Lee 15. At Bowdoin, we take a lot
of people who havent played much
before as well and people whove
not specialized in squash and played
a bunch of different sports in high
school, and then the expectation is
that youll really improve and grow
in your four years at Bowdoin.
Despite many setbacks, both
teams have used the seasons obstacles as motivation, leading to strong
showings in January against Wesleyan and Hamilton.

COURTESY OF HOIL KIM

LAST MAN STANDING: Mens Squash Captain Christian Dorff 17 (left) prepares to strike the ball in a match against Williams on January 10.
Both the mens and womens squash teams have faced dwindling rosters in recent weeks. The mens side has primarily fallen victim to a stretch
of injury and illness, which caused them to forfeit a match against Brown last week. Many on the womens team have quit, causing similar frustrations. Still, the teams will have a chance to grow in the final weeks of the season, as they will be playing against opponents of similar ranking.
For us, the season is kind of just
beginning because were now playing a lot of teams that ranking-wise
are similar to us, said mens captain
Alex Reisley 16.
Both teams will face Connecticut
College tonight at 7 p.m. in the Lubin Squash Center before heading
to Colby on Saturday. With Colby
ranked 20th nationally for both
the men and women, this weekend
should be filled with competitive
play and the opportunity for either
team to move up in the rankings
before Nationals, where they ex-

pect to play more similarly competitive teams.


The way postseason is done in
squash is youre grouped with the
teams right around your ranking,
so its a very exciting way to finish
for all the teams when they go to
Nationals, said Fortson. You know
youre going to be playing all of your
matches with like rivals versus going
up against some top seed team that
you have no chance of ever beating.
So competitively, we want to be our
best. We want to peak at Nationals.
In the final weeks of the season,

Fortsons goals are clear with both


squads working towards putting forward their strongest performances
at Nationals in a few weeks.
Right now with the mens team,
our goal is to try to be healthier so
that we can have a full roster and for
the womens team, to stay healthy
with the barely enough numbers
that we have and have everyone continue to grow, said Fortson. Both
teams are in a position to, if they
continue to get a little better and
compete well, have some significant
results at Nationals.

HITTING THEIR
STRIDE: Lauren
Petit 18 breezes by a
defender during Bowdoins 94-49 blowout
of Husson on Tuesday.
The team has won 13
of 16 games and currently ranks third in the
NESCAC with a conference record of 3-2 and
an overall record of
14-5. The team faces
a key stretch of five
consecutive conference
games to close out the
regular season starting
this Saturday at Colby
at 3 PM. Scoring 17
ppg (second in the
NESCAC) and pulling
down 6.6 rebounds
per game (14th in
the NESCAC), forward
Shannon Brady 16
has played a key role in
the teams success this
season.

RIGHT WHERE HE
LEFT OFF: Lucas
Hausman 16 beats
a defender off the
dribble and drives to
the basket. Hausman
leads the NESCAC in
scoring for the second
year in a row (24.8
ppg) by almost six
more points than the
second highest scorer.
in the conference. He
ranks tenth in all of
Division III in points
per game. However,
the team currently sits
at ninth in the NESCAC
with a record of 8-7
and a conference
record of 1-4. Five of
the teams remaining
seven regular season
games are conference
games, and Bowdoin
will need to put up
strong performances
over this critical stretch
in order to have any
chance of making a
playoff run.

LIAM FINNERTY, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

GARRET ENGLISH, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

14

the bowdoin orient

OPINION

Connection to place

his past fall, there were several incidents of racial and gender bias directed toward Bowdoin students and a professor close to campus. They
ranged from drive-by verbal assaults to an episode of racial prejudice
in a local restaurant. President Rose asked Brunswick town officials to begin
a conversation about these issues. The town formed a Human Rights Task
Force, with the goal of addressing bias incidents that affect not only Bowdoin students, but the entire Brunswick community. The formation of this
task force was not an obligation, but a choice made by the town of Brunswick
to accommodate Bowdoin students and make them feel more comfortable in
the town they call home.
Yesterday, at the first meeting of the task force, town officers discussed a
commitment to foster a welcoming community that Bowdoin students and
Brunswick residents can share. Some attendees of the meeting expressed concerns that the Colleges interests are being prioritized over those of the residents, because the town council has reached out more formally to the College
than to the general population of Brunswick in forming the task force. As the
task force looks to improve human rights in Brunswick, it is just as important to hear from Brunswick residents as it is to include the College in these
conversations. These residents point out an important realityBowdoin risks
exerting outsized influence over town governance and the issues it prioritizes.
While we may not realize this privilege, it can be difficult for local residents
to ignore.
The Bowdoin community is inextricably tied with that of Brunswick and
while students may only see the direct relationship when the actions of Brunswick residents affect them, our presence is felt by the people who live here
every day.
We cant change the institutional power Bowdoin exerts in Brunswick, but
we can do little things to keep our day-to-day presence in the community
a generally positive one. Bowdoin students have longstanding relationships
with Brunswick through volunteer programs and organized community outreach, but this shouldnt be anyones only connection to the town they live in.
Brunswick has committed to making itself a comfortable place for Bowdoin
students and we should do the same for Brunswick residents. Small acts like
minding our language on Maine Street and keeping the noise down when we
walk to off-campus residences show respect for the community that we share.
If Bowdoins presence in Brunswick is undeniable, our individual presences
should, at the very least, be inoffensive.
We are grateful that the town of Brunswick takes Bowdoins concerns seriously and is willing to work with us on preventing these incidents, though it
is unfair for us to expect Brunswick to prioritize us over the town as a whole.

Traveling the world and dreaming big:


a manifesto for the Bowdoin student

This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orients editorial
board, which is comprised of Julian Andrews, John Branch, Jono Gruber,
Matthew Gutschenritter, Emma Peters, Meg Robbins, Nicole Wetsman, and
Emily Weyrauch.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR


Id like to pass on some praise for a wonderful group of young women at
Bowdoin.
A few weeks ago, my wife gave birth to our second child. She has gone
through some severe postpartum depression. Knowing she liked a cappella, I reached out to Bowdoin College Miscellania and asked if they
would be willing to stop in and sing some Christmas Carols to brighten
her spirits and provide some entertainment for our two-year old daughter.
The group obliged with no expectation of financial gain, publicity or other
benefit. I had no prior connection to the group or Bowdoin College (in
fact, they came despite both of us being Colby grads).
The small gesture renewed a bit of my faith in the kindness of people
amidst a time in the world where turmoil and negativity seems to overwhelm our thoughts.
I just thought you would like to know.
Best wishes,
Andrew Jenkins, Colby College 06

HATE THE ORIENT?


Were looking for columnists who can bring fresh
voices to the Opinion pages. If that sounds like you,
reach out to us with a proposal.
Email us at orientopinion@bowdoin.edu

friday, january 29, 2016

MIRANDA HALL

BY EMMA CHOW
OPED CONTRIBUTOR

This is a manifesto for every Bowdoin student. An articulation of the


powerful lessons learned during
my recent 179 days of solo travel.
It is a challenge to each one of you
to not just tune into your true authentic voice, but to actually listen
to it. It is a call to action to make a
choiceto choose happiness. I could
write about my travels for days,
but this piece isnt about me. This
is about you. This is my attempt to
capture the essence of the inspiring
people I was so fortunate to cross
paths with along my journey. These
people helped instill in me a thirst
for adventure, a belief in myself, a
broadened worldview, a why not?
attitude and a heightened faith in humanity. They helped me take my first
steps on a long path towards mastering the art of living and experience
sustained pure happiness. I returned
to North America a different person,
and I want to share the invaluable
wisdom people so generously imparted upon me with all of you.
On June 20, 2015, I set off for
Stockholm with a borrowed backpack, two confirmed World Wide
Opportunities on Organic Farms
(WWOOF) hosts and a last-minute
internship with a UK-based startup.
My plans were barely plans. I learned
to leave my hyper-organized self behind and reluctantly adopted a new
mindset, one built on a deep trust
that everything will work out. And
as I learned on countless occasions,
it always does.
Lesson #1: Everything happens for
a reason. My trip gradually evolved

into a full-blown lap around the


world, which was something my first
year self never would have done. I
visited 13 countries, WWOOFed
with five hosts (Sweden, Belgium,
France, Italy), ventured in the world
of CouchSurfing, got scuba certified,
completed a life-changing Vipassana meditation course in Cambodia,
visited family and an old Bowdoin
roommate and did two remote internships and one HelpX stint.
Lesson #2: Dont resist challenges,
embrace them. I set off with a budget of $5,000. I ended up doing it all
for a total of $4,700. I set a low budget for the sake of my own finances,
but also to prove all the people who
think travel is an unattainable fantasy wrong. Having a crazy low budget
challenged me to become ultra-savvy. There was no room for mistakes.
Hotels and expensive cabs werent
an option. Pay-to-volunteer programs werent an option. Sleeping on
strangers couches, letting the lowest
priced ticket dictate my route and
volunteering in exchange for room
and board were my options. Every
day was a new adventure. My budget
was not a hindrance, but rather the
reason why I ended up having all of
these incredibly impactful and enlightening experiences.
Lesson #3: Fear nothing but fear
itself. Solo travel is the most empowering, nerve-wracking, adrenalinepumping, strength-building experience anyone can commit to. You
have to be a little nave and at least
a tiny bit crazy to do it. Those fortunate enough to explore the world
alone, with one pair of jeans and a
backpack, discover just how liberating it is and how freeing it is to be in a

place where nobody knows you.


Lesson #4: Commit yourself to
leading a life that inspires you. I
met too many people in their late
20s-40s who wished they had traveled while they were younger. They
wished it hadnt taken them up to
ten years to finally leave their misery-inducing jobs. They had regrets.
So, I am writing this on behalf of
my fellow travelers and amazing
WWOOF and CouchSurfing hosts
who left their jobs, started their own
businesses, moved to self-sustaining
farming lifestyles or learned to work
remotely. I pass their message on to
all of you to make choices that bring
you fulfillment. Follow passions.
Meet people. Be open. Do the things
that scare you. Push yourself to the
edge of your comfort zone because
that is where life begins. Continuously check in with your authentic
voice and follow it; if you are not
happy, create the energy and agency
to change it. Its not a risk when you
have nothing to lose.
Lesson #5: Live BIG! I challenge
you to live each day with purpose and
compassion. If you lead a life with
wholesome intention, happiness will
effortlessly follow. You are educated
and smart. Just think about the great
positive power Bowdoin students can
manifest in the world if we all learn
to master the art of living. Imagine.
This is just the beginning of what my
adventure taught me. I want you to
know that a big, gigantic, wonderful
world exists beyond Bowdoin. It is
begging you to explore it. I hope you
answer its call.
Emma Chow is a member of the class
of 2015.

friday, january 29, 2016

the bowdoin orient

opinion

15

They said/they said: how words represent systemic violence


JESSE ORTIZ

SIGNIFYING NOTHING
I dont remember the exact year. Elementary school, definitely. Lets say it
was fourth grade. We were learning about
grammar and pronouns and how to signify people.
So, if youre talking about one person,
you use either he or she, said the teacher
leading the lesson. To my smartass fourthgrade mind, this teacher was clearly
wrong, and her mistake brings me out of
my daydreams.
What about they? You forgot they?
I repeat from the back of the class. In my
pre-Strunk & White naivet, I often used
they as a singular pronoun. My friends
and family also used they to refer to a
third person with unknown or indeterminate gender. Naturally, I wanted to
prove my fourth grade teacher wrong. I
dont recall the response to my protest.
I remember repeating, What about
they? What about they? to my teachers authoritative rejection.
According to a Washington Post
blog by Jeff Guo published earlier this
month, The singular they has been
declared Word of the Year. Guo cites

the 200 linguists at the American


Dialect Societys annual meeting who
voted on 2015s most important word
and applauds these experts for accepting a common speech pattern.
Good, great, wonderful. Alternative
ways of speaking are becoming part of
mainstream culture. This is especially
important for agender, genderqueer and
gender nonconforming people.
Guo quotes linguist Ben Zimmer, a
columnist for the Wall Street Journal,
who says that choosing they as word
of the year is bringing it to the fore in a
more conscious way, and also playing into
emerging ideas about gender identity.
This is an important step towards public
recognition and acceptance of people who
dont fit the gender binary.
But consider the other words these
linguists had considered. Guo says
that the Society chose they over
thanks, Obama, ammosexual and
on fleek. At a glance, ammosexual
may appear to be an oppressed sexual
identity that deserves as much acceptance as a gender-neutral pronoun.
Actually, ammosexual is a term for
someone who feels affection for firearms, according to Urban Dictionary. The first page of Google image
results include a pink camouflage fist

with the words Stop Ammophobia


and a t-shirt with the words It wasnt
a choice. I was born this way printed around a picture of three bullets
crudely drawn to resemble a penis.
The article youre reading isnt about
gun rights, so Ill let the absurdity of
ammosexuality speak for itself. Being
memes, Thanks, Obama and on fleek
are equally ridiculous, phrases taken from
others and turned into jokes. (Thanks,
Obama was co-opted by liberals who
make fun of knee-jerk generalizations by
conservatives, and on fleek was appropriated from Black culture.)
In the article, Guo mentions one potential Word of the Year that frustrated
me more than any other. Citing a tweet
by Gretchen McCulloch, there was a
Big controversies at #woty15: do you
spell it yass, yaas, yaass, yaasss, yaaaaasss,
yasssssss...? Regardless of how you write
it, this is an onomatopoeic expletive, not
a word that shapes a fundamental part
of ones identity. Dozens of trans people
were murdered last year. According to the
Williams Institute at UCLA, in the U.S.,
40 percent of homeless youth identify as
LGBT (compared with 10 percent nationally). Nobody is suffering, or dying, over
the spelling of yaaaassss.
I dont mean to single out an individual

WaPo blogger. Rather, Guos article indicates how mainstream media measures
success through assimilation, ceding
power to the institutions that inhibit true
progress. As someone who prefers they
pronouns for myself, Ive experienced how
language can radically configure physical
and social space. Fitness apps, family parties and pharmacy shampoo aisles reveal
their sharp borders when you dont feel
comfortable within a single gender.
Gendered violence and oppression
doesnt end because the American
Dialect Society accepts and condones

MIRANDA HALL

my word choice. People continue


to suffer because bureaucratic authority limits and polices individual
freedom. Institutional recognition
is important for many people with
marginalized identities. But what if
an identity rejects people who signify others and classify them into a
hierarchy? Expert linguists can gloss
over substantive issues with the same
power of a fourth grade teachers silent dismissal. And I will continue,
forever the contrarian, asking, What
about they?

Conversation surrounding Flints water crisis is dangerously stunted


ADIRA POLITE

ON THE EDGE

It was almost too easy to choose this


weeks column subject. This column
focuses on an issue that has weighed
heavily on my mind since it first appeared on my radar. Furthermore,
since returning to campus, multiple
people have asked if I planned to cover this topic. Upon texting my mother
for topic suggestions, she replied with
one word. Flint.
Flint. As many know, this Michigan city is in a state of crisis a preventable, unnerving crisis. The seed
was planted in 2011, when Flint was
declared to be in a financial state of
emergency, prompting the state to
assume budgetary control. Michigan
Governor Rick Snyder then appointed an emergency financial manager
who was tasked with cutting Flints
budget. A proposal was made to
switch Flints water source from the
relatively costly Lake Huron to the
cheaper, riskier Flint River.
Preliminary studies revealed
that Flint Rivers water could only
be considered safe if it underwent
treatment with an anti-corrosion
agent. This agent would prevent the
river water from eroding the pipes
a mishap that could result in discol-

ored, possibly noxious water. After


learning that this treatment would
cost the state a mere one hundred
dollars per day, the results of the
study were ignored.
In
2014, Flints
water supply
was switched.
In May of that
year, Flints residents began to
complain about
the quality of
their new water.
It was brown.
It was rancid. It
made them sick.
The complaints
were ignored.
In January of
2015, Detroits
Water and Sewage Department
offered to reconnect Flint to its
original water
supply. Despite
the complaints
from Flint residents, the emergency financial manager rejected the Departments offer.
In February, the Environmental Protection Agency detected high levels of
lead in the water, caused by the absence

of the anti-corrosion agent. In September,


one pediatrician began to publicly discuss multiple findings of lead poisoning
the effects of which are often irreversible. Though the
water supply was
finally switched
back to Lake Huron in October of
that yearover
five months after the residents
complaints began
the damage was
done. To this day,
the water pipes are
corroded and the
supply remains
toxic.
As of now, all
of Flints approxiDIANA FURUKAWA
mately 100,000
residents are considered at risk for
heavy metal poisoning. Additionally, as of January
13 of this year,
there have been
87 reported cases
of Legionnaires
disease, 10 of which resulted in death.
Last week, over a year and a half since his
citizens first reported this problem, the
Governor of Michigan finally offered a
weak promise: Im sorry, and I will fix it.

Bowdoin Orient

Pause. Now, lets backtrack and discuss demographics. Flint is roughly


fifty-six percent Black. About forty-two
percent of its population live below the
poverty line. Most of you probably think
that you know where Im going with this.
You dont.
The lack of response and, thus, prolonged suffering of Flints residents, in
conjunction with the citys demographics, have led many to label this crisis an
example of blatant racism. Many are
questioning whether this would have
ever occurred in a town whose residents
are predominately white. Do I think that
the residents of Greenwich, Connecticut
would ever be made to drink brown water and ignored for a year and a half? Of
course not. But it is not as simple as it
may seem.
When I initially read about the crisis, I
immediately thought wow, racism and
ignorantly left it at that. Luckily, Professor Brian Purnell recently pushed me to
delve a bit deeper. On Thursday, he asked
our class to question the American notion that race is causative. In essence, this
is the idea behind the assumption that a
White man who killed a Black man did
so out of hate for black people.
In a society often divided by race, it is
both easy and understandable to think
this way. Personally, the continuous killing of unarmed Black citizens makes it
nearly impossible for me to avoid subconsciously assuming that white-on-black vi-

olence begins and ends with race and race


alone. However, this knee-jerk reaction
can cause one to ignore the bigger and
often, more insidiousquestion.
It is easy to say that the residents
of Flint were ignored because many
of them are Black. It takes more time
and effort to evaluate the situations
context and arrive at a more complex answer. Does the Flint water
crisis have to do with race? Absolutely. But skin color alone is not the
only answer. Race in America is and
always has been irrevocably tied to
class and power. Concerning Flint,
that is the problem.
A majority of the residents of
Flint are Black. Many are impoverished. Most are disempowered. Im
certainly no expert but I would surmise that their voices went unheard
because of a centuries-old systema
system that should be dissected and
critiqued. This cannot happen when
one fails to recognize the simplicity
of their thinking.
In order for our generation to exact
lasting change, we must first understand
issues to their fullest extent. It is imperative that we include context in our discussions. When discussing race-related
issues, do not stop at race alone. Search
for connections between race and other
institutions. Venture to understand the
reasons behind those connections. Dare
to delve deeper.

The

ESTABLISHED 1871

The Bowdoin Orient is a student-run weekly publication dedicated to providing


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

bowdoinorient.com

orient@bowdoin.edu

Matthew Gutschenritter
Editor in Chief

6200 College Station

Brunswick, ME 04011

Nicole Wetsman
Editor in Chief

Managing Editor Julian Andrews


John Branch
Managing Editor
Jono Gruber
Managing Editor
Emma Peters
Managing Editor
Meg Robbins
Managing Editor
Managing Editor Emily Weyrauch
Sam Chase
Senior Editor
Olivia Atwood
Associate Editor
Associate Editor Cameron DeWet
Katie Miklus
Associate Editor
Joe Seibert
Associate Editor

Associate Editor
Senior Photo Editor
Photo Editor
Business Manager
Layout Editor
Layout Assistant
Senior Reporter
Senior Reporter
News Editor
Sports Editor
Features Editor

Elana Vlodaver
Hy Khong
Jenny Ibsen
Maggie Coster
Alex Mayer
James Little
Steff Chavez
Joe Sherlock
Rachael Allen
Eli Lustbader
Sarah Drumm

Sarah Bonanno
A&E Editor
Nicholas Mitch
Opinion Editor
Harry DiPrinzio
Web Editor
Grace Handler
Web Editor
Julia ORourke
Calendar Editor
Page Two Editor Calder McHugh
Social Media Editor Gaby Papper
Allison Wei
Copy Editor
Louisa Moore
Copy Editor
Diana Furukawa
Illustrator
Miranda Hall
Illustrator

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

16

friday, january 29, 2016

the bowdoin orient

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

BLACK HISTORY
MONTH
February 9

"African Immigrants and Refugees


in the United States"
Professor Olufemi Vaughn
Quinby House. 8 p.m.
February 10
JENNY IBSEN, THE BOWDOIN

IT'S SNOW PROBLEM: The East Coast was hit by a snow storm the week before classes resumed, causing many to be delayed in returning to
Bowdoin. The college has begun the semester smoothly, however, with Brunswick otherwise unaffected by the storm.

FRIDAY 29

WEDNESDAY 3

EVENT

LECTURE

There will be a cappella performances at the Arctic Museum.


Tours will be offered and snacks will be provided.
2nd Floor Lobby, Hubbard Hall. 7 p.m.

Greta Huff of Wiscassets Morris Farm will discuss food


insecurity and how it affects Maine residents. This event is
a continuation of the Local Food, Local Hunger discussion
that took place in March 2015.
Hutchinson Room, Thorne Hall. 6:30 p.m.

"Local Food, Local Hunger"

Student Night at the Arctic Museum

EVENT

Shacksbury Cider Tasting

David Dolginow, co-founder of Shacksbury Cider, will be


discussing his business, craftsmanship and sustainability
practices. Students who are 21 and older must bring identification for the cider tasting.
ORIENT
PICK OF THE WEEK
Reed House. 7 p.m.

EVENT

Spring Activities Fair

Students will have the opportunity to learn about over 100


clubs and organizations at this semester's activities fair.
Morrell Lounge, David Saul Smith Union. 7 p.m.

"Activism: College Campus to


the National Stage"
Ashley Yates, Black Lives Matter Activist
Beam Classroom. 7 p.m.
February 11-14

Black Solidarity Conference, Yale University


February 15

Activism & Social Justice Art Show


Lamarche Gallery. 7 p.m.
February 16

"Why Do African-American Women


Matter in America?"
Professor Judith Casselberry
Ladd House. 8 p.m.
February 17

Soul Food Dinner


Thorne Dining Hall. 5 p.m.

TUESDAY 2
EVENT

LECTURE

"Drawings for Projection"

Gallery Conversation with Oscar Mokeme

Oscar Mokeme, founder and executive director of the Museum of African Culture in Portland, Maine, will be discussing
his favorite pieces in the current art museum show, Earth
Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa.
Museum of Art. 12 p.m.

Suppressing the African American Vote,


Then and Now

The first of a "Why African-American _____ Matters in


America" lecture series sponsored by the African-American
Society and the Africana Studies Department is titled Suppressing the African-American Vote, Then and Now." This talk
will be given by Professor of History Patrick Rael. Refreshments will be served.
MacMillan House. 8 p.m.

PERFORMANCE

BRNS

There will be a screening of ten animated short films by


William Kentridge. The films trace the transition of South
Africa from apartheid to democracy. A discussion will follow.
Smith Auditorium, Sills Hall. 7 p.m.
LECTURE

An Evening with Mya Taylor

LECTURE

THURSDAY 4

Mya Taylor, star of the popular 2015 independent film "Tangerine," will discuss issues that she has faced throughout her
life as a trans woman of color. The movie will be screened
following the lecture.
ORIENT
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts
PICK OF THE WEEK
Center. 7:30 p.m.

February 19

Black History Month Concert


Featuring Kiya Lacey & YG Tut
Ladd House. 9 p.m.
February 25

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration


"Fighting For Freedom in an Hour of Chaos" with speaker Dr.
Marc Lamont Hill
Kresge Auditorium. 7 p.m.
February 26

Introduction to African Spirituality & Philosophy


Nana Kwabena Brown
Searles 315 1 p.m.
February 27

EVENT

Annual Ebony Ball

Trivia Night

The theme of trivia night will be Black History.


Jack Magees Pub. David Saul Smith Union. 10 p.m.

Main Floor, Moulton Union. 10 p.m.

10

PERFORMANCE

Amernet String
Quartet

11

PERFORMANCE

Vagina
Monologues

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