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The Nation’s Oldest Continuously Published College Weekly Friday, October 26, 2018 Volume 148, Number 7 bowdoinorient.com

‘Take Back the

Night’ to train
focus on survivors
by Kathryn Bosse
Staff Writer
Student leaders, Safe Space
volunteers, faculty from the
Office of Gender Violence
Prevention and Education
and members of the Sexual
Assault Support Services of
Midcoast Maine (SASSMM)
will all come together at 7:30
p.m. tonight to host the an-
nual “Take Back the Night”
event.
Planning this year’s event
has posed significant chal-
lenges in comparison to past
years due to the tense political
and social climate national-
ly—most recently aggravated
by allegations of sexual assault
against Supreme Court Justice
Brett Kavanaugh—as well as
include students who have
opted not to share their per-
sonal experiences but instead
read excerpts of essays or po-
ems written by other Bowdoin
students. Regardless of what
and how students choose to
participate, event planners are
most concerned that they do
so in a way that feels safe and
empowering.
Associate Director of Gen-
der Violence Prevention and
Education Lisa Peterson re-
iterated the importance of
making the event inclusive to
survivors regardless of gender.
“A lot of recent conversa-
MACKEY O’KEEFE, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
tion has been focusing on the
experiences of women-identi- FAMILY FESTIVITIES: Sarisha Kurup ’21 (left) and Eliza Jevon ’21 at Reed House during Fall Fest on Saturday. To welcome guests to campus during Family
fied survivors, which is really Weekend, Reed members decorated their backyard and invited students and their families to gather for crafts, live music, games and snacks.
important, but it’s also really
important to us that we’re

BQSA organizes allyship conversation

heated campus conversations
about violence. Student orga-
nizers including Claire Burns
’21 have been focusing on
thoughtfulness and intention-
ality throughout the planning
process.
“It’s always a hard time [to
be a sexual assault survivor],
but this is a particularly hard
time,” said Burns. “The tone
that we’re going for is to pro-
vide hope and inspiration to
people.”
An ad hoc committee has
been organized to ensure that
the event feels as safe as pos-
sible.
Pre-selected students will
be invited to share their own
personal experiences as survi-
vors of sexual and relationship
violence. Other speakers will
not erasing the experiences
of male survivors or of trans-
gender and gender noncon-
forming survivors,” she said.
“There’s going to be a lot of “Yellow Shirt Day has been events—to support students,” narios, attendees would switch
intentionality about framing by Nina McKay going on since 2005. And when said Eduardo Pazos, director of tables, allowing everyone to
Orient Staff
this as an issue that affects we started out everyone knew religious and spiritual life, who interact with as many other at-
people of all genders and On Tuesday evening, the what it was—now it’s just kind attended the discussion. “This tendees as possible.
identities.” Bowdoin Queer-Straight Alli- of this fixture, it’s tradition” said one was about being a good ally, “We have scenarios that
Following the spoken pro- ance (BQSA) led a program in BQSA Vice President Rowan and I want to learn to be a good are real things that have hap-
gram, attendees will have the Daggett Lounge called “Allyship, Eztel ’19. “This year we were ally.” pened at Bowdoin,” said BQSA
option to partake in the can- A Campus Discussion.” Fall- thinking, OK, what can we do to At the discussion, attendees Communications Officer Ari
dlelit vigil walk. The intend- ing just two days before Yellow bring [knowledge about being sat at round tables. They were Mehrberg ’20. “Most people
ed tone of the walk is one of Shirt Day during OUTtober—a an ally] back into conversation? directed by BQSA officers to can probably think of a time in
meditation, in which students series of programming BQSA What can we do to better facili- discuss with the other people their life that they’ve been with
may reflect quietly. Resources organizes to promote aware- tate learning and the sharing of at their table how they would their team or with a club or just
will be available to students ness of and allyship around the experiences?’” respond to a series of scenarios with their friends, and someone
throughout the entirety of the experiences of members of the The group of people at the involving harmful language, makes a homophobic joke, or
evening. Bowdoin community who iden- discussion included both stu- pronoun sharing and misgen- something like that. Things that
“The route around campus tify as LGBTQIA+— this dis- dents—from a range of class dering. The scenarios were are really real, and then talking
has been planned intention- cussion brought a renewed level years—and staff. typed out into a slideshow and about real things we can do.”
of thoughtfulness to a campus “I think it’s important for me projected onto a screen at the
Please see SURVIVORS, page 4 tradition. to come to events—all kinds of front of the room. Between sce- Please see OUTTOBER, page 5

SAFC funding: breaking BSG TO HOLD TOWN HALL,

down the biggest users
by Nell Fitzgerald, Viv Daniel
and Cole van Miltenburg
Orient Staff
Five groups use more than half
of all Student Activities funding,
That’s one of the takeaways from
the Student Activities Funding
Committee (SAFC) digest, a
monthly releaase outlining the
committee’s allocation of funds
to student groups. The goal of the
digest was to make the SAFC’s
budget more transparent.
“Every student is contributing
to the overall budget,” said Bow-
doin Student Government (BSG)
Treasurer Harry Sherman ’21. “I
thought it was important that stu-
dents get some sort of insight into
how that money is being spent
around campus.”
The SAFC’s budget is pri-
marily sourced from students’
activities fee, which is built into
Bowdoin’s tuition and fees. Each
student contributes $500 per ac-
ademic year, although this fee is
covered for some students who
receive financial aid. The budget
is supplemented by the Office of
Student Activities, but students’
tuition makes up the majority of
its funding.
The student-run SAFC is
comprised of the Chair of the
Treasury, four class treasurers, the
Chair of the Student Organiza-
tions Oversight Committee, two
At-Large representatives that are
appointed by the treasurer and a
faculty advisor. All members par-
ticipate in voting, with the excep-
tion of the BSG treasurer and the
faculty advisor.
“I was a little surprised at how
much autonomy the student run
committee has over this money,”
said Sherman. “It really is all up to
us. There’s guidelines, but it defi-
nitely is shocking.”
However, Sherman empha-
sized that transparency is a prior-
ity of the committee, and that the
new digest is a manifestation of
that prioritization.
“It’s a document that’s a little
more user friendly,” said Sherman.
“I thought people might like to get
a better idea of our decisions as a
whole. I wanted to take a different
approach and get the campus a
little bit more involved.”
The first digest in late Septem-
ber revealed that the SAFC has
Please see SAFC, page 4
SWASTIKA FROM 2017 REPORTED
by Jessica Piper
Orient Staff
Bowdoin Student Government
(BSG) will hold a Town Hall at 4 p.m.
today to discuss campus bias incidents
in light of swastika graffiti found in
the Hubbard Hall stacks last month.
“There will be space for students
to share honest reactions to this bias
incident, and community leaders from
both the administration and student
body will be present to hear and grap-
ple with these concerns,” wrote Nate
DeMoranville ’20, BSG chair of facil-
ities and sustainability, in an email on
Monday afternoon on behalf of the
BSG Executive Committee.
On Tuesday—after the Town Hall
had been announced—Senior Vice
President for Inclusion and Diver-
sity Michael Reed emailed students
and staff with the news that a second
anonymous bias incident, dating back
to the October 2017, was reported
through the Campus and Community
Index.
Per the index, “the student, who
did not report the incident at the
time, recounted the mid-October 2017
discovery of a Nazi swastika made of
clear push pins on a north wall bulle-
tin board outside the Moulton Union
dining hall.”
The swastika was reported to be
the size of a dinner plate. Due to the
time that has passed since the incident
and lack of leads, there will not be any
further investigation by the Office of
Safety and Security.

N RINGING IN CHANGE F AURORA GOES TO WERK A JADEN JAMS S HEADS UP O TO THE POLLS
The Democratic Socialists of America backs Antonio Watson ’12 describes his journey from Jaden Dixon ’21 drops new EP and Men’s soccer team fights back from early losses Lowell Ruck ’21 provides an overview
U.S. Senate candidate Zak Ringelstein. Page 3. Alaska to the Philly drag scene. Page 8 music video. Page 10. to gain fifth seed in NESCAC. Page 11. of Maine’s ballot. Page 14.
2 Friday, October 26, 2018

2
Friday, October 19
PAGE TWO
SECURITY REPORT
10/19 to 10/25
Sunday, October 21
STUDENT SPEAK:
What is your favorite Bowdoin salad condiment?
• A student took responsibility for kicking a hole in a • Brunswick police responded to a noise complaint at
wall while busting a move in Quinby House. an off-campus student residence on Harpswell Road.
• A concerned parent requested a wellness check for Two students were charged with furnishing a place for
a student. minors to consume, and three minors were charged Manuela Velasquez ’21
• Lit candles were reported inside an apartment at with possession of alcohol. The police later cited the
Brunswick Apartments. NOTE: Open flame is prohib-
ited inside residence halls.
property under the town’s disorderly house ordinance.
• An intoxicated student was transported from Hyde
You know, I’m a real big fan of
• An employee collapsed with a seizure in the Thorne
kitchen. Brunswick Rescue transported the employee
Hall to Mid Coast Hospital.
• A Moore Hall student who was feeling ill requested the tiny cubed beets.
to Mid Coast Hospital. a wellness check.
• A student reported an • A student was escorted
unknown vehicle parked to Mid Coast Hospital af-
behind Pine Street Apart-
ments. An officer investi-
ter receiving a laceration
from hitting his head on a
Noah Gans ’22
gated and instructed the
driver to leave campus.
low ceiling in a stairwell.
Exclusively soggy croutons.
Monday, October 22
Saturday, October 20 • An officer checked on
• An unlocked blue Puch the well-being of a stu-
Chaparral bicycle was dent who fainted at Moul-
reported stolen from the ton Union.
area of Brunswick Apart- • A report was filed con-
ment Q. cerning a student who
• There was a complaint has accumulated multiple
of loud music on the 14th parking violations. Ellie Schwartz ’19
floor of Coles Tower.

Basil pesto vinaigrette is the

R

• A student having a reac- Tuesday, October 23

EAPE

tion to prescribed medica- • A student with flu-like

EY R

tion was escorted to Mid symptoms was provided

SYDN

Coast Hospital.
• A student with a knee
an escort to the campus
health center.
most consistent thing in my life.
injury requested to be • An officer checked on
brought to the athlet- the well-being of an el-
ic trainer at Farley Field derly woman visitor at
House. Sills Hall.
• An unlocked purple Trek bicycle was stolen from
the bike rack at Burnett House.
• A student accidentally smashed a wall mirror while
using weight equipment at the Peter Buck Center for
Ben Wong ’20
• Brunswick police cited a minor student for posses-
sion of alcohol at an off-campus student residence on
Health and Fitness.
I don’t put s*** in my salads.
Weymouth Street. Wednesday, October 24
• A student reported the odor of marijuana on the • A student reported that his bicycle tire was slashed
second floor of Chamberlain Hall. with a beer can over the weekend outside of Baxter
• Brunswick police responded to a neighborhood dis- House.
turbance call at an off-campus student residence on
Maine Street. Four disorderly conduct warnings were Thursday , October 25
issued.
• Brunswick police cited two minor students who
• A smoke alarm at Brunswick Apartment G was
caused by excessive shower steam.
Daniel Strodel ’20
were walking on Maine Street with cans of beer.
COMPILED BY THE OFFICE OF SAFETY AND SECURITY
Pumpkin seeds.

Eight annoying things New England

sports fans will say this year COMPILED BY HAVANA CASO-DOSEMBET

by Diego Lasarte Answers for Word-Up!

Orient Staff CREATED BY AUGUST RICE

1. “Let’s get some

Dunks, get blasted, and
watch the Sox.”

2. “You hear how Tom

Brady kisses his kids on PHOEBE ZIPPER
the mouth? I wish he’d
kiss me on the mouth.”
easy!” thousands of five-
3. “Jayson Tatum is year-olds that haven’t
already better than 5. “I’d rather die than be seen the Red Sox win a
Michael Jordan.” from New York.” World Series.”

4. “You think it’s cold
now? Just try Gillete in
January.”
4. “Celtics beat the
Warriors in four,
6. “Belichick for Pres-
ident in 2020 am I
right?”
7. “I just can’t stand
to think that there are
8. “It’s not really a win
this year unless we win
the World Series, the
Super Bowl, the Stan-
ley Cup and the NBA
finals.”
Friday, October 26, 2018 NEWS 3

NEWS IN BRIEF COMPILED BY HORACE WANG

CANDIDATES FOR CONGRESS,

GOVERNOR TO VISIT FOR DEBATES
On Tuesday, Maine Public will host a series of debates at
Bowdoin for Maine’s U.S. Senate race and 1st Congressional
District race. The debates, which will take place in Studzinski
Recital Hall, are part of the group’s initiative “Your Vote 2018.”
The U.S. Senate debate will start at 3 p.m. Doors will open
at 2:30 p.m. The candidates include incumbent Senator Angus
King (I-Maine), who was first elected to the seat in 2012 and is
currently running for his second term. His challengers are Re-
publican State Senator Eric Brakey, who represents District 20
in the Maine Senate, and Democrat Zak Ringelstein, a teacher
who founded a program to help connect classrooms around
the world and taught in the Portland Public School System
from 2016 to 2017.
After the U.S. Senate debate, doors for the U.S. House Dis-
trict 1 debate will open at 5:30 p.m., and the debate will start
at 6 p.m. The incumbent representative is Democrat Chellie
Pingree, who is currently serving her fourth term. Her chal-
lengers are Republican Mark Holbrook, a clinical psychologist JESSICA PIPER, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
who was also the Republican nominee in 2016, and Indepen- GET OUT THE VOTE: Democratic candidate for Senate Zak Ringelstein, whose sign is pictured on Maine Street, is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.
dent Marty Grohman, who represents Biddeford in the Maine

Democratic Senate candidate remains

House.
Both debates will be hosted by Jennifer Rooks, public af-
fairs host and producer for Maine Public Broadcasting Net-
work. Although all the tickets for the Senate debate have been
claimed, tickets for the House debate are still available on the
debate’s Eventbrite posting, which can be found on Maine
Public’s website. Tickets are free of charge. hopeful despite underdog status
not working with the people. people and not the interests stein, who expected his rela-
by Ethan Winter

Alcohol-related
Orient Contributor
Sitting in a coffee shop off
Route 1 in Yarmouth, Zak
They’re working with their of multi-national billionaires.” tionship with the state party
donor table. A few very elite, Ringelstein’s bid has always to look different during the
wealthy individuals who want been a long shot. Cook Polit- race.
more money.” ical Report, Inside Elections “The party is unfortunately

summonses issued Ringelstein was tweeting at

the Portland Press Herald.
They had just endorsed his
opponent. Narrating his re-
While Ringelstein lives
in Yarmouth with his wife,
Leah, and two young chil-
dren, one of whom was born
and Sabato’s Crystal Ball—all
expert election ratings agen-
cies—have labeled the race
“solid” or “safe” for King from
shooting itself in the foot by
not supporting the values that
people want,” he said. “[They
aren’t] talking about college

to eight students sponse to the room, he said

by Jessica Piper
Orient Staff
Eight students received
court summonses last week-
end after several separate
off-campus incidents that
occurred late Saturday night
and shortly after midnight
on Sunday. Brunswick Police
Department (BPD) issued
summonses to two 21-year-
old students for allowing a
minor to consume liquor and
to six students under the age
of 21 for possession of alco-
hol by a minor or consuming
liquor.
No arrests were made. All
eight students’ court dates are
set for December 18.
According to BPD Com-
mander Mark Waltz, BPD
officers were called to two
off-campus student residenc-
es, one near Maine Street
and Richards Drive and an-
other at Harpswell Road and
Bowker Street, due to noise
complaints. Officers return-
ing from the call to Richards
Drive also encountered two
under-21-year-old students
on Maine Street who were al-
legedly carrying containers of
alcohol.
Additionally, the residence
at Bowker Street was issued
its second disorderly house
notice of the calendar year.
Under Brunswick’s disorder-
ly house notice, passed in
2008 and updated in 2017, a
residence can be considered
disorderly if it is causing
problems for neighbors. If a
property receives three disor-
derly citations in a period of
270 days, the landlord will be
subject to a fine.
Waltz said that, in this case,
the house had received a cita-
tion this spring while it was
home to different residents—
but the ordinance goes by
property, not by who is living
there.
He added that students who
want to stay out of trouble
should focus on being good
neighbors.
“If there’s a moral to the
story, if you’re out in the
neighborhood, you really
want to be quiet after 9 p.m.,”
Waltz said.
the Herald had said he was
too radical.
Ringelstein, 32, is the Dem-
ocratic Party’s nominee for the
U.S. Senate and is in the midst
of a long-shot bid to unseat
Sen. Angus King, an indepen-
dent who caucuses with the
Democrats. Ringelstein, who
comes with an endorsement
from the Democratic Social-
ists of America (DSA), won
an uncontested Democratic
Party primary back in June.
This formal nomination,
however, has yielded little in
the way of substantive support
from the state party. Instead,
“This is the first election in the history
of the Senate where you don’t have to
vote for the lesser of two evils.”
–Zak Ringelstein, Democratic candidate for Senate
he says that, the party has a
“pay-to-play” model for its
candidates.
“They’ve asked me to spend
$100,000 of my own campaign
money—mind you I’m not
taking corporate, PAC, lob-
byist or fossil fuel money—to
get on their literature, to be
named,” he said.
Maine has voted for the
Democratic candidate in ev-
ery presidential election since
1988. Because of the unusual
way the state apportions its
electors, Trump did win one
electoral vote in 2016 even
though Hillary Clinton won
a plurality of the total votes.
Nevertheless, the party con-
trols no statewide offices.
Maine hasn’t had a Demo-
cratic senator in Washington
since George Mitchell ’54 in
1995.
“The state party should
take responsibility for that,”
said Ringelstein. “They are
in the midst of the campaign,
he only moved to Maine two
years ago. Before his Senate
bid, he had never run for or
held elected office.
Born in the Lakes Region
of New Hampshire, he at-
tended Columbia University.
He taught as a public school
teacher before founding an
education company called
UClass with Leah. They have
since sold the company, help-
ing to supply funding for his
Senate race. Recently, both
have continued to work in
education, though Ringelstein
has stepped away from that in
order to campaign.
He is running on a platform
that supports Medicare for
All, governmental guaranteed
employment for all and infra-
structure investment, from
internet for all to keeping
open rural hospitals. These
policies, he says, will benefit
Mainers across the state.
Ringelstein’s relative youth
also marks him as an outlier
in a state with the oldest me-
dian age in the country. King
is 74, and the Democratic
nominee for governor and
current attorney general Janet
Mills is 70.
In spite of what he perceives
as only partial support from
the state party, Ringelstein is
clear about his ultimate hopes
for the party as a whole.
“I’m a lifelong Democrat,”
he said. “I believe that we
need to stick with our party.
I’m fighting to turn the party
into something that actually
supports the interests of the
the start, while Ringelstein
has never polled above 10
percent.
What keeps him going is,
first, a firm conviction in
what he is fighting for and
recognition of the stakes of
the political moment. “We’re
on the brink of authoritarian-
ism,” he said.
Second, Ringelstein hopes
that ranked-choice voting will
help propel him to victory.
Maine now employs
ranked-choice voting or auto-
matic-runoffs for congressio-
nal and senatorial elections.
In these races, voters will vote
for the first choice candidate
and then rank the remaining
candidates. If a candidate se-
cures a simple majority of first
choice votes, the race is over,
and they are declared the win-
ner. If, however, no candidate
clears this threshold, the votes
of the least popular candidate
are redistributed to whichever
candidate voters listed as their
second choice. This process is
repeated until one candidate
secures a majority.
“This is the first election
in the history of the Senate
where you don’t have to vote
for the lesser of two evils,”
Ringelstein said. “You can
vote me one, Angus two.”
The polls haven’t caught up
with ranked-choice voting,
he said. The question now is:
have the voters?
In an email to the Orient,
Chris Lynn, a spokesman for
the Maine State Democratic
Party, wrote that “with ranked
choice voting being used in
this race, we’re confident the
Republican candidate can’t
win.” He did not reply to an
additional request for com-
ment about Ringelstein’s ar-
gument that his campaign and
the state party lack synergy.
This has dismayed Ringel-
debt, legalization of marijua-
na or Medicare for All. No one
is talking about Medicare for
All in Maine except for us.”
Midway through his cam-
paign, Ringelstein joined the
DSA, becoming its only mem-
ber to run for Senate in this
election cycle.
“[Democratic socialism]
means, as FDR says, freedom
from want,” he said. “The be-
lief that in the richest country
on earth we can make sure we
have Medicare for All, a roof
over their head, enough to eat,
a great education.”
Founded in 1982, DSA’s
membership had dwindled to
7,000 before Donald Trump’s
election. Since 2016, its en-
rollment has swelled to over
50,000. As of last year, the
median member age dropped
to 33, down from 68 in 2013.
The group has endorsed
candidates in elections across
the country, most notably Al-
exandria Ocasio-Cortez, who
defeated 10-term incumbent
Rep. Joe Crowley in the fed-
eral primary for New York’s
District 14 in June, and Rashi-
da Tlaib, who won a primary
in Minnesota’s 13th congres-
sional district and will likely
become the first Muslim and
Palestinian-American woman
in Congress.
Ringelstein says his hope
is to reshape the Democratic
Party so that the DSA’s mes-
sages will no longer be in op-
position to those of the Demo-
cratic National Committee. In
response to those who believe
in his ideals but think they
are practically impossible, he
borrowed a tagline from the
establishment Democrat for
whom he campaigned in 2008.
“We need to start injecting
hope into politics,” he said.
Calder McHugh contributed
to this report.
4 NEWS
Conservative environmentalist argues
for multiple benefits of grazing land
by Harrison West
Orient Staff
On Monday night, author
Dan Dagget visited campus
and gave a talk titled “Con-
servative Environmentalism:
Oxymoron or Viable Solu-
tion?” His primary focus was
land use and grazing in the
Western United States. He ar-
gued that federally protected
land is mismanaged, while
grazing land open to the free
market continues to thrive.
The event was sponsored
by the Bowdoin College Re-
publicans and the Eisenhower
Forum.
Grazing isn’t bad, Dagget
argued, but a natural part of
the environment. Ecosystems
in their ordinary states in-
clude humans and livestock.
To demonstrate the dichotomy
between federally protected
areas and grazing land, he
showed side-by-side images
of federal land that was barren
and ravaged by erosion and
grazing areas that were full of
lush grass.
Additionally, Dagget said
that, in his experience, pro-
ductive policy came from dis-
cussions between the environ-
mentalists and ranchers when
the two groups realized that
they had similar goals. Having
participated in such meetings
himself in the past, he hopes to
bring them back.
Dagget, a former liberal
activist who once protested
strip-coal mines in the 1970s,
SAFC
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
already allocated $523,974, or
74.85 percent, of its total budget
for the year. The five most fund-
ed groups—the Entertainment
Board, Bowdoin Student Govern-
ment, the Bowdoin Outing Club,
Rowing and the McKeen Center
for the Common Good—received
55.5 percent of the funding.
These clubs are all allocated
operating budgets, which are de-
termined before the start of the
academic year. The majority of
club funds operate based on need
as it rises, which involves submit-
ting request forms to the SAFC.
“We try to get the most bang
for our buck, in the sense that
every dollar we spend, every stu-
dent, in some way, benefits,” said
Sherman. “There are some clubs
that have definitely earned those
funds. Definitely the impact the
club has on the community will
affect how much money they
get.”
The Entertainment Board has
historically received the highest
amount of funding of any one
organization from the SAFC—
this year, it was allocated approx-
imately $123,00, or 17.6 percent
of the total budget. However, this
marks a $6,000 decrease from
last year.
“We decided that $6,000
wouldn’t manifest in massive
difference in quality of the entire
weekend.” said Sherman. “We
have a lot of clubs that we want
to help out and fund, and that
$6,000 will go a very long way
CONSERVATIVE CONSERVATIONISM: Author Dan Dagget spoke to students on Monday evening about his proposed solutions to environmental prob-
lems, illustrating his points with photos comparing grazing and protected land. Daggett criticized the “big green” industry and fielded questions from students.
also criticized what he referred
to as “big green” and “radical
enviros.” He said that conser-
vationists were motivated by
money and characterized lib-
eral environmentalism as be-
ing focused on “blame” rather
than on finding solutions.
“Big green has deeper pock-
ets than big oil,” he said.
During a question-and-an-
swer session after the event, El-
lie Neifeld ’19 questioned Dag-
in making other stuff happen on
campus.”
According to Entertainment
Board co-chair Jono Harrison
’19, the budget cut will affect the
spring Ivies concerts, but not sig-
nificantly.
“It wasn’t ideal to be cut, but I
think that the way that we func-
tion, we have more than enough
confidence to put on great con-
certs for the student body re-
gardless of the budget cuts,” said
Harrison.
The second-most funded
club is BSG, which has thus far
received 13 percent of the total
SAFC budget. In the past, this
budget has gone towards expens-
es such as the picnic tables outside
Moulton and the newly-added
charging stations in Thorne. BSG
has several committees with dif-
ferent areas of jurisdiction.
“People are elected to be on
BSG. If they’re going to be in pow-
er to make a difference on cam-
pus, then we should equip them
to have the resources to do that,”
said BSG President Mohamed
Nur ’19.
This year, the BSG created its
budget to reflect the new Com-
mittee of Diversity and Inclusion,
chaired by Mamadou Diaw ’20.
The committee is increasing
funds to programming for events
such as No Hate November.
The McKeen Center also re-
ceived an increase in funding to
support Bowdoin Votes.
“Historically, the College has
actually just left it to students to
do all their own ‘get out the vote’
work,” said Andrew Lardie, as-
get’s use of grass as the primary
measurement of the health of
an ecosystem, pointing out
that, due to natural water lim-
itations, some landscapes are
not supposed to be grassy at all.
Ben Wu ’18, a leader of the
Bowdoin College Republicans,
organized the lecture with the
goal of helping students think
about ways to bridge the gulf
between conservatism and
environmentalism. He hopes
General allocation:
19.9%
Other pre-allocated
funds: 19.9%
BIGGEST USERS: Five organizations—E-board, BSG, the Outing Club, the McKeen Center and Rowing—receive 55 percent of the SAFC’s roughly $700,000
budget. Some student groups are allocated funds at the beginning of the year, while others request funds from the SAFC as their needs come up.
sociate director of the McKeen
Center. “The outcomes from that
approach have not been very ro-
bust in terms of participation, so
we’re doing a lot of that work. We
see it as being suitable for SAFC
funding.”
While the rowing team does
not affect as many members of
to organize more environmen-
tal-related talks in the future.
“People can agree or dis-
agree with Dan. Maybe our
next speaker will totally dis-
agree,” said Wu.
Associate Professor of Biol-
ogy Vlad Douhovnikoff said
he felt Dagget was disingenu-
ous in describing the purpose
of his talk and that his manner
of describing the opposing side
contradicted and undermined
SAFC Funding: the breakdown
Rowing: 8.8%
McKeen Center: 6.9%
the student body, it receives 8.8
percent of the total SAFC budget,
or roughly $62,000. According to
Head Coach Doug Welling, the
majority of these funds go to-
wards race entries, student travel
and lodging.
“They’ve been incredibly gen-
erous in listening to our needs and
EZRA SUNSHINE, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
his stated goal of increased
collaboration between practi-
tioners of the land and advo-
cates of conservation, thereby
doing a disservice to land
practitioners while ostensibly
representing them.
“He promised a talk on the
advantages of conservative
environmentalism, but in-
stead gave a talk on the evils
of traditional conservation,”
Douhovnikoff said.
E-board: 17.6%
Outing Club: 9.2%
trying to understand a sport that’s
pretty hard to understand,” said
Welling. “I’d say it’s been pretty
tremendous and as the program
has either grown or race entries
have increased, we’re listening to
that piece of it.”
Welling emphasized the im-
portance of student autonomy
Friday, October 26, 2018
SURVIVORS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
ally to allow participants to
reflect on what it means to be
a sexual assault survivor on
campus,” said Burns.
The walk will conclude
with a reception at 24 College.
“I think that [the reception]
can be a nice place for people
to either debrief how they are
feeling and get support from
folks, or to help them transi-
tion back into the rest of their
evening routine in a more
gentle way,” said Peterson.
Planners hope that Friday’s
event will encourage thought-
ful conversation and critical
thinking when it comes to
individual actions. They also
want the event to instill a
hopefulness in survivors to al-
leviate the frustration and an-
ger that exists in the current
social climate.
Event planners reiterated
that when sexual or relation-
ship violence occurs on cam-
pus it affects everyone, even
in ways that some students
might not immediately con-
sider. Planners emphasized
the sense of alliance that they
hope this year’s event will in-
spire.
“The more people we have,
the bigger the message it
sends to the broader campus
community,” said Burns. “It’s
important for people to know
that their being [at the event]
matters, and it matters to a lot
of people.”
In a time when survivors
are trying to regain their
voice, planners feel it is essen-
tial for the campus communi-
ty to attend, thereby showing
survivors they are heard and
demonstrating unwavering
support to survivors of all
identities.
BSG: 13.0%
HARRY SHERMAN/SAFC
in allocating funds. “[The SAFC]
does put a lot of responsibility
back in the students’ hands,” he
said. “It gives them that chance to
really have a significant role in the
accounting and the budgeting of
the program. It’s pretty cool that
there’s so much student involve-
ment in it.”
Friday, October 26, 2018 NEWS 5

OUTTOBER
BSG meeting addresses
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
BQSA officers explained
particularly with respect to think about your role as an ally,
whether they knew there to be a I thought it reached out to peo-
queer person in the room, or an- ple at all access points … I hope
other queer person in the room it’s replicated and taken to other

Title IX, No Hate November
by Lucie Nolden
Orient Staff
Title IX Coordinator Ben-
je Douglas came to Bowdoin
Student Government’s (BSG)
General Assembly meeting on
Wednesday night to talk about
the culture surrounding sex-
ual harassment and assault on
campus and answer questions
about the resources available to
survivors.
Ten sex offenses were offi-
cially reported in 2017, accord-
ing to the federally mandated
Annual Security Report, but
some have expressed concern
over the discrepancy between
the true number of incidents
and the number of official com-
plaints and reports. Douglas
emphasized that the objective
of his office is, first and fore-
most, to support survivors in
the manner most appropriate to
their individual circumstances
and wishes.
“How do we create a com-
munity where people feel
comfortable here as students?”
he asked. “I’m less interested
in turning every report into a
complaint than in making sure
every student is safe.”
BSG plans to sponsor a com-
munity forum focused on sexu-
al assault on campus during the
spring semester to support mak-
ing Bowdoin a safe environment
for all students.
“A community forum can be
a start where we can normal-
ize this conversation and talk
openly and hold each other
accountable,” said BSG Presi-
dent Mohamed Nur ’19. “BSG
can be a part of that process of
eradicating sexual assault on
campus.”
A wide array of BSG-spon-
sored events are on the docket
in the coming weeks, includ-
ing today’s campus-wide Town
Hall, which aims to address
the recent bias events. After
reports were made public about
a swastika found graffitied on
the sixth floor of the Hubbard
Hall Stacks, concern over the
seeming increase of these inci-
dents has been mounting. The
Executive Committee designed
the event with a dual goal of
facilitating community healing
and addressing accountability.
Beginning next week is the
annual No Hate November
event series, organized by the
Committee on Diversity and
Inclusion. Mamadou Diaw ’20,
chair of the committee, ex-
plained that the goal of No Hate
November is to bring issues of
inclusion to the forefront of
campus dialogue.
“As a campus community,
it is an excellent opportuni-
ty to come together and have
—
thoughtful discourse around
these challenges that we should
not veer away from,” he said.
“We should fully engage in
these issues.”
A calendar of events for the
month’s activities will be post-
ed in David Saul Smith Union
next week. Highlights include
keynote speaker Dr. Amer
Ahmed, who will lecture on
Islamophobia and how it inter-
sects multiple social identities,
thus creating a necessity for
coalition building in the face of
discrimination. This year, the
Committee for Diversity and
Inclusion hopes to build upon
the momentum of last year’s
successes and reach new levels
of student engagement.
“Bowdoin is a busy for ev-
eryone, but I really do hope
people can find the time to
at least explore a few of the
events,” said Diaw.
Cultural appropriation in
the context of Halloween was
also a topic of discussion at
Wednesday night’s meeting,
following a conversation on the
issue a week prior. This week
marked the final stage of a cam-
paign to raise awareness of the
harms of appropriating another
student’s culture for a Hallow-
een costume. College House
officers have sent emails with
guidelines for appropriate cos-
tume choices to their affiliates,
and BSG sent a campus-wide
email and hung posters around
campus.
“A lot of people struggle with
the visual, like what exactly
cultural appropriation is,” said
Developmental Representative
to Facilities and Sustainability
Rose Warren ’21, explaining
the relevance of the poster cam-
paign. “Tying it to the student
body emphasizes its effects on
people on campus.”
that the ideas for the scenarios
came out of a discussion they
had amongst themselves at a
planning meeting, during which
they all shared past experiences
around discrimination.
“Someone would bring up a
scenario, and we would all just
kind of sit there and be like ‘I
don’t know what I would do in
that situation,’” said BQSA Pres-
ident Pauline Uneitis ’20. “We
may all be affected by this kind
of discrimination, but also some-
times we just don’t know how to
help when someone else is.”
“Queer people can still learn
to be allies and support each
other,” Mehrberg agreed. “I
think just because someone
identifies as not straight or not
cis doesn’t mean, first of all, that
their experience is going to be
the same as every other queer
person, and, second of all, that
they automatically know how to
be a perfect ally, because I don’t.”
These ideas were reflected in
the slideshow at the discussion,
which included reminders that
different people were approach-
ing the event with different
experiences, even if there were
similarities in how they would
describe certain aspects of their
identities. Participants were en-
couraged both to share their pri-
or knowledge and experiences
and to reflect on and ask ques-
tions about what they might not
know. Groups were challenged
to discuss how their responses
to a given scenario might vary
based on the environment in
which an incident occurred,
if they themselves identified as
queer.
Given that Yellow Shirt Day
has historically involved collab-
oration between BQSA and ath-
letics—the Athletic Department
purchases shirts for student ath-
letes, who do not have to pay the
$5 fee that many other students
have to pay if they want to wear
a shirt—BQSA officers initially
planned for the discussion to be
an event only for athletes and
BQSA members. After further
reflection, though, they decided
to open the invitation to every-
one.
“Everyone has access to the
shirts, and everyone can learn
more about what it means to
be an ally,” Unietis said. “So we
just opened it up to the whole
campus.”
Between scenarios, the slide-
show interspersed definitions
of terms that participants could
incorporate into their discus-
sions, including “queer,” “gender
expression” and “misgendering.”
Questions were posed relative
to each scenario, some of which
sought to interrogate miscon-
ceptions attendees may have
been exposed to, such as the
idea of the existence of “obvi-
ous” pronouns.
“I was so impressed with how
well thought-out [the event]
was,” said Kate Stern, associate
dean of students for diversity
and inclusion and director of
the Center for Sexuality, Wom-
en and Gender. “Whether you’re
someone who thinks about this
a lot or someone who doesn’t
groups.”
After the event, participants
reported having felt that they
had learned more about being
an ally from attending.
“It’s often superficially ex-
plained and/or assumed what is
appropriate or helpful for people
to do as being an ally of a certain
group. I really respect the idea
that BQSA had that they want
to reinvigorate this question of
Yellow Shirt Day and what it
means,” said Anna Martens ’20.
“[The discussion] motivated me
to be more brave in situations
with my peers and stand up for
the things that I knew were right
but I didn’t really know how
much or how I should do that.”
Some also raised concern that
the event hadn’t been attended
by more students. Around 15
were present.
“While it’s good to do things
like Yellow Shirt Day once a
year, there are other things you
should be doing every day when
something happens, and so I
think it was good to have a con-
versation about that,” said Jor-
dan Khoriaty ’21. “I wish more
people had shown up.”
However, Etzel said the
event’s ability to impact cam-
pus was not dependent on how
many students attended.
“Even if not that many peo-
ple show up, it’s still something
that people see—there are
posters all over campus,” they
said. “No matter how many
people show up to the events,
it’s still awesome to see these
things happening.”

New Bowdoin website set for
official launch on Halloween
by Calder McHugh
Orient Staff
For the first time since 2005,
Bowdoin’s primary website,
bowdoin.edu, is getting a sleek
new redesign. The work is more
than just a facelift. Three years
in the making, the overhaul will
completely change both how
users interact with the site and
how content creators can do
their jobs.
The launch, which is sched-
uled for Tuesday, will reveal
changes to almost every facet
of the website. Each academic
department’s page on the site
will be both personalized and
standardized. For example, the
visual arts page will include art-
work, whereas the philosophy
page will have published works,
but the physical placement of
tabs like “Major Requirements”
and “Course Offerings” will be
the same on both pages.
Students will be sent a link to
a draft version of the new site at
some point, which will include
a feedback form. The Office of
Communications, which has
largely been responsible for
oversight of the project along
with private firm White Whale
Web Services, hopes that this
will afford students the chance
to play around with the new
functionality and detect any re-
maining bugs before the official
launch.
A new tab, made specifically
for current Bowdoin students,
will hopefully provide easier
access to frequently used re-
sources and drive more traffic.
However, the website is very
much outward-facing. Accord-
ing to Scott Hood, senior vice
president for communications
and public affairs, it is primari-
ly used by prospective students
and families as well as alumni of
the College.
Thus, in addition to doing its
due diligence in speaking with
academic department chairs
and current students about their
needs and wants, the website
building team considered how
students from a diverse set of
backgrounds could easily utilize
the site. Janie Porche, content
director and former creative di-
rector at White Whale, said that
the old site has facts without
much perspective, which led at
times to a kind of implicit elit-
ism, because the design assumed
an understanding of both the
traditional college application
process and the way academics
and social life at colleges like
Bowdoin are structured. The
redesign provides clearer, more
detailed explanations in more
casual language that is meant to
engage its audience.
Re-Elect
Ralph L.
Tucker
The search functionality was
also overhauled. The generation to the
Maine House of
of students currently in college
and applying to college use the
search bars on websites dramati-
cally more than any other group,
which prefers to access infor-
Representatives
mation through tabs. Thus, the House District 50,
team thought a lot about ways
to streamline the process. A Part of Brunswick
particularly pertinent example: (Including Bowdoin Campus)
if “newspaper” is typed into the
new website’s search bar, “The
Bowdoin Orient” will come up
in a drop-down menu and can Democratic Party.
be accessed without having to
go to a “Search Results” page. Retired Judge.
The Communications Office
and website team took many Chair of Committee on Environment.
of their cues from admissions
officers in considering how
empathy plays into the college Endorsed by:
application process and how it Sierra Club
should thus be included in the
new website. If the designers Maine Conservation Voters
achieve their goals, the site will Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund PAC
be streamlined and user friendly
and will highlight the unique
Equality Maine
character and warmth of Bow- Maine Education Association (teachers)
doin.
In return, Bowdoin’s ad-
Maine Credit Union League
missions officers will likely be Maine State Employees Association
forced to retire one of their Maine AFL-CIO
more popular jokes in informa-
tion sessions—namely, that our
website looks like it was built in ralphtucker@gwi.net
1997. Paid by Tucker for House, Nancy Tucker, Treasurer
Nina McKay contributed to
this report.
6 Friday, October 26, 2018

F FEATURES
It’s Assyria. With an A.
Postcards
by Sasa
Jovanovic
It was by a stroke of fate and
a seating algorithm that on an
EasyJet flight I met Nino.
Romi and I were on our
return flight from London.
While traveling in pairs is nor-
mally not an issue, on a plane
with three-seat aisles, the third
seat is left to chance. By the
time it had been filled, I was
half-asleep on Romi’s shoul-
der, and she was studying for a
Romi pointed to her Swedish
language book, “use ‘ett?’”
“Yep. Whenever you see a
word structure like this,” Nino
scribbled some marginalia on
Romi’s page, “it uses ett.”
“Huh, archeology. Why did
you choose to study that?”
I thought back to my own
archeological aspirations. I
was eight and had gotten a
dinosaur book for my birth-
day. I was thoroughly con-
vinced that if I dug a hole
deep enough in our backyard,
I would find a T-Rex fossil.
My archeological aspirations
and community transforma- The Assyrian
tion. She learned to use poetry people are di-
as a new means of storytelling. asporic people,
She taught workshops, wrote forcibly scat-
stories and performed them. tered across the
That was the first part of her Middle East at
answer. the downfall of
Second—she is Assyrian. their empire. Their
“Not Syrian. With an ‘A,’ As- culture has survived
syrian.” Her parents may have to this day because
Syrian and Turkish passports, of storytelling—sto-
but that doesn’t make them ries told in their lan-
any less Assyrian. guage, stories about
Assyria does not exist on a their homeland, stories
M
modern map. In fact, it hasn’t passed to their children. De- LLA
A FU
had formal borders for almost spite their small numbers, or ANN
2,000 years. Today, there are rather because of their small LILY

Swedish language quiz she had
the next morning.
“Sasa, what do you think,
does ‘lekplats’ use ‘en’ or
‘ett?’”
“Hmm?”
“En,” our third-seat com-
panion quipped.
Her name was Nino—short
for Ninhursag. A small golden
cross hung around her neck,
a gold ring adorned her ol-
ive-skinned nose, smart glass-
es framed her eyes and curls
of brown likewise framed her
face. Romi was glad to have
found a study partner who
was awake.
I asked what brought her to
London.
“An archeology conference
at Cambridge.” She pushed
her purse underneath her
seat. “I just finished my stud-
ies at Oxford last spring.”
“Sorry—so would this,”
ended the same day my dad
discovered the hole—I was
grounded for a month.
Nino took a second to re-
spond.
She loves stories. She sees
storytelling as the purest form
of human connection, an an-
cient tradition that dates back
to the very beginning. The
craft of molding a story to
include yourself, she thinks,
is an art in itself. Between
high school and undergrad-
uate studies, she studied the
art of storytelling for a year,
learning how to perform, dic-
tate and entertain. Then, she
traveled the world in pursuit
of new tales to tell. When she
found herself in Los Angeles,
she joined the Street Poets,
a non-profit, poetry-based,
peacemaking organization
dedicated to the creative pro-
cess as a force for individual
only two million people that
identify as Assyrian around
the world.
And yet, I knew of Assyria
… “Oh! There was a HONY
[Humans of New York] on an
Assyrian girl a couple of years
ago!” I interrupted.
The girl that was featured
spoke of the Assyrian culture
as a “we” culture.
“We lean on our culture.
We lean on our church. We
lean on our language, which
nobody else speaks. Every-
thing is about the group …
Your relatives will remind you
that you should be proud to be
Assyrian. You’ll be reminded
that our people were slaugh-
tered,” the HONY feature
reads.
“Yes!” Her face lit up. “That
was incredible! My Assyrian
friends and I were talking
about it for months!”
numbers, the Assyrians form
close-knit communities in
their adoptive countries.
Nino was raised in such a
community.
Nino explained how this
upbringing was both a com-
fort and a burden. She learned
to understand that the conti-
nuity of her culture depended
on the resilience of the next
generation. But as she grew
older and entered the Swedish
schooling system, she realized
that she differed greatly from
the ethnic Swede. She didn’t
have blonde hair or blue eyes.
She had olive skin and brown
curls.
“It wasn’t until last year,
really, that I was able to see
myself as Swedish,” she said.
The time she spent feeling
lost in her twenties pushed
her to travel.
“The last part of the Assyr-
ian girl’s
quote was what
really resonated with me.
The girl had been traveling
the world alone for several
months before HONY inter-
viewed her. When you grow
up in a community like I did,
to leave is an act of betrayal.
And yet, stories say that As-
syrians have been nomads for
the last 2,000 years—on the
move from country to coun-
try, waiting for a time to re-
turn home. We are a diaspora.
I am a diaspora,” she said. “Ar-
cheology is a way to reconcile
with these stories, quite liter-
ally unearthing a narrative.”
Romi had stopped studying. I
was silent.
Romi was
born in Israel,
and I was born
in Serbia. As im-
migrants ourselves,
both of us knew this feeling.
“Funnily enough, I have re-
turned home.”
The flight attendant’s voice
was announcing our descent
into Stockholm.
We landed, and Nino had to
leave in a hurry, because her fa-
ther was waiting for her outside
Customs to drive her home. We
exchanged phone numbers, and
she insisted that we drop her a
line should we end up visiting
her little hometown.
I hope to stay in touch with
Nino. But even if we don’t
meet again in person, I look
forward to seeing where her
diasporic dust will settle.

Sir mix-a-lot: sampling the lite beer experience

Having a Normal One
by Simon Cann,
Jack Fullerton
and Ethan Winter
It has been a tough couple
weeks for beer. Nevertheless, we’re
back providing our readers with
the content they crave about the
worst beers on the market. We
were chided after our last review
by the proud staff of the Orient
that this is a “beer column,” and so
we actually need to “write about
beer.” To make up for this grave
omission, we are bringing to you a
surplus of beer this week—volume
and variety, not word count—
pushed together in ways that
neither the father, the son nor the
Brothers Bissell ever intended.
Simon has convinced himself
that wine blends are hot right now.
Our cursory Google search has
shown us that wine blends started
because of winemakers’ decision
to plant many different species of
grape. This was done to ensure
that despite frequent environmen-
tal hardship—the United Nations
says we’re hosed, by the way—they
would have enough viticultural di-
versity to produce a reliable stock
of beverage. Similarly, our first
foray into blending was an exper-
iment of dubious ingenuity during
the historic blackout of the fall of
2017, when our local brew-pubs
had closed. Just as our ancestors
searched their storm-ravaged
vineyards for surviving grapes, we
wandered around a post-inebriat-
ed wasteland collecting half-con-
sumed cans until we had enough
swill to make a complete beverage.
Reliability in a jam? Check. But
mixing together a stout, a cider
and the remnants of a poorly
shotgunned Claw left a little to be
desired in terms of taste. Trying
times, indeed.
A Bud, Busch, “Natty” and
Coors were gathered from across
campus. One beer, which requested
to remain anonymous, came from
an Orient event—Bowdoin’s fourth
estate, at times, does cut loose. This
journey was, in itself, an odyssey of
Greco-mythological proportions to
be recounted whenever we decide
to pivot to podcasting. We poured
them all together in a pot, mixed
until consistent, then each ladled
ourselves a pint.
Early notes: Beer blending, even
when intentionally done, is bad.
Most hybridization seeks to distill
the best parts of each item, creat-
ing a whole that is greater than the
sum of its parts—see: “Money-
ball” (2011). We thought we’d get
a goldendoodle, an animal that’s
hypoallergenic like a poodle and
has the temperment of a golden
retriever. Instead we got dumped
with a snooty, sheddy, incontinent
disaster of a dog.
The Bud lent an overwhelm-
ing breadiness. We heard their
brewing process involves tossing
a multi-grain loaf into a blender.
The Natty added a flavor profile
of fetid water. This trademark
taste can only be explained by
a company deciding to sink its
money into launching a can into
space rather than developing a
well-rounded beverage. (That
being said, Anheuser Busch has a
100 percent success rate of rock-
et launches—admittedly, higher
than our friends at the National
Aeronautics and Space Adminis-
tration).
The Coors selling point is that
it is “As cold as the Rockies,” but
they fail to mention that it actual-
ly tastes like rocks. We think this
probably has something to do
with their “cold lagered” brewing
process, whatever that means. The
Busch introduced notes of sweet
crude oil and regret—not unlike
the notes that America’s sordid
dealings in the Middle East have
added to our otherwise pristine
political track record. Do not
see: “Vietnam War” (1965), et al.
Along those lines, we believe there
is an apt comparison to be made
between our brave experiment
and America’s two catastrophic
invasions of the Persian Gulf:
solid in theory, but botched in the
field. And, upon a second consid-
eration, maybe the theory wasn’t
all there to begin with. In the end,
both blending and nation-build-
ing might be misguided.
That being said, this brew
is a potent potable—our quant
assured us that mixing four 5%
beers means this
sauce clocked
in at a hefty
20% ABV
(Ethan is a
math minor).
Our blend was
a combination of
several individual-
ly offensive flavors
that were then man-
gled together to form
something far worse. It
reminded us of a recently
published and similar-
ly distasteful op-ed. In a
moral and decent country
no one would imbibe this
beverage again—but for
whatever reason, half the
nation loves it. Now we’re
all doomed to drink this
deplorable concoction till
we die.
In conclusion, this ex-
ercise has revealed to us the
false nature of freedom under
capitalism. All we have is choice
in the consumer sphere, except
that choice is between four lite
beers which are basically the same.
And terrible. Nonetheless, the beer SARA CAPLAN
proved effective in pacifying us—a
true opiate of the masses. We
weren’t about to cast off the yoke of
oppression in our inebriated state.
The revolution will have to wait.
Sheesh.
Friday, October 26, 2018 FEATURES 7

Talk of the Quad

HUMANITY IN UNKNOWN
NEIGHBORHOODS
Enduring the contempt of
strangers can be emotionally
draining. And contempt is,
unsurprisingly, the primary
impulse of those whose doors
are knocked on when they’re
eating dinner with their fam-
ily, or when their newborn
child has just fallen asleep, or
they’re just about to dash off to
the airport to catch a plane or
when they’re already running
late and a bright-faced, sweaty,
idealistic kid shows up at their
door telling them about the
plight of sea turtles or the mid-
term elections. Few are out-
right rude, although many will
be direct about their lack of in-
terest in a conversation about
Ballot Question 1. Some folk
will refer to the sign propped
on their doorstep, a sign you
hadn’t noticed, that says, “NO
SOLICITORS,” or, more con-
cerningly, “due to the price in-
crease on ammo, do not expect
a warning shot.” In Bowdoin-
ham, after a concise refusal
to talk about the upcoming
elections, a middle-aged man
headed to his garage to casual-
ly grab his crossbow. He did so
without menace—he was sim-
ply headed out to hunt—but I
had no intention of further an-
gering a man with a crossbow.
And yet, almost every time
I return from an unknown
neighborhood to the warm
and safe halls of my residence
hall or my parents’ home in
the suburbs, I’m left with a
warm feeling in my chest, a
reaffirmed sense of love for
the human race. Because for
every friendly threat of vio-
lence, there’s a kid who loves
nothing more than to hear
about sea turtles and will beg
her mother to donate $50, and
then her mother gives you an
ice-cold lemon seltzer and
asks if you would like to come
inside, because it’s 95 degrees
outside and the air condition-
er is blasting in her home.
In Medfield, Mass., a wom-
an in a pink sweatsuit tells you
that, you know, people don’t
really like it when canvassers
come to their door and you
almost start crying because
you haven’t earned more than
five dollars that day, and one
of those dollars is in quar-
ters, and you’ve already been
told by two people that global
warming is a hoax.
But the next day, you knock
on a door in Essex, out by the
coast, and a couple rushes to
open it and welcome you in-
side their home and before
you can get more than a few
lines into the script you’ve
memorized, they’re telling
you a story about their friend
who raised their children on a
ship sailing around the world.
Their names are Kelly and
Steve, and after joining the
monthly donation program,
they hand
and you a
$20 bill. ll. “Buyy
yourselff a beer
with it,”” Kelly
whispers.s.
Then there
are the con-
ns
versations
nge
that change
you. Likee
the man,
barely old-
er than you,
who opens
the dooror just as
you are rolling up a
pamphletet to stick un-
der the handle of his fami-
story home. His straw-
ly’s one-story
ond scruff hasn’t been
berry blond
shaved inn a couple of days, and
nificantly shorter than
he’s significantly
you, and d his size makes you lines are blur-
nfident, like you can
feel confident, ry, and when he
his guy into donating
charm this agrees to donate 20
ucks. You smile with
a few bucks. bucks you are filled
yes and lean forward
your eyes with both pride and
ttle bit as you launch
just a little shame. Despite his per-
ur rap about polysty-
into your sonal struggles, despite being
llution. And then he
rene pollution. rushed to his shift as a cashier
surprisess you. He tells you that at the grocery store, despite his
NATALIE RUDIN
he reallyy wants to help, but limp, he wants to donate mon- tempt to
that he isn’t doing super well ey to protect marine wildlife, find com-
at the moment. His dad has acting with a selflessness that mon ground.
ncer and it has been a
brain cancer both shocks and inspires you You are depen-
ear. All of your train-
rough year. to become a better person. dent upon the
ing—and there’s been plen- Canvassing is practice in generosity of strang- sachusetts. Sometimes the
ty—has equipped you with the vulnerability. You must forge ers, stepping into the cave of bear bites you, but sometimes
instinct to reject rejection, to a connection with a person a sleeping bear, prodding it the bear reminds you of the
retarget, to fight tooth and nail who is likely to hate you for awake and asking it whether life-altering power of human
for a donation. It feels slimy, showing up on your doorstep. it would like to donate a $100 kindness.
to squeeze money from this You must listen to people with annually to support the pro- Lucie Nolden is a member
young man, but the ethical whom you disagree and at- posed Styrofoam ban in Mas- of the Class of 2022.

was so good, I had no idea,” on the color of my skin. just that I had avoided a direct of my ring. It was in Connecti- mother in her sleep with hys-
FAR FROM HOME BUT
followed by “My girlfriend/ Well, not here, not tonight. response to the question, but cut that I realized my love for terical tears. When it strikes,
CLOSE TO THE KNOWN
brother/cousin/neighbour “Connecticut—I’m from Con- rather I am apparently condi- art history, found a passion homesickness is a force of
Flashing lights, flocks of went to China this many necticut,” I replied. tioned to lie about who I am. for writing and met some of nature—unpredictable, illogi-
ill-tempered travelers, the years ago,” topped by the ever The neon lights of the air- Resorting to lying was alarm- my closest friends. I consider cal, uncontainable. I miss the
symphony of yelling inter- so pleasant “Do you think port seemed farther and far- ingly easy and comfortable. those three years to be intel- homecooking of my grand-
mixed with cars honking—I you want to stay in the US ther away, slowly fading into There was some level of lectually formative—I’ve read mother. I am overwhelmed
was instantly shrouded in the after graduation?” Time after small and fuzzy splashes of truth to that story: Connecti- more Joan Didion than I’ll with guilt of not spending time
familiar temperament of the time, I have unwillingly giv- color, illegible against the dark cut has a special place in my ever her Chinese counterpart. with my little brother. Despite
city as I stepped outside the en strangers my story of how cityscape. My mind was at a heart. Three years of board- Yet despite all of those things, I all its faults, I selfishly yearn
arrival hall. Within a matter I ended up in this country loss while Aurel went on about ing school, daily trips to the do not belong there. for the ease and comfort of
of minutes, thanks to being a at age 16. The discomfort of the city’s finest rooftop bars on local pizzeria, hours spent in Now replaying the scenario being in China, surrounded by
seasoned veteran of John. F. sharing a personal experi- 7th Avenue. front of artworks at my favor- in my head, I am less so trou- people who look, talk and feel
Kennedy airport, I managed to ence is further complicated It wasn’t ite museums and the name bled by a case of moral integri- like me.
find my Uber. I climbed into by an irratio- “Farmington” inscribed ty, but instead realize that per- In Aurel’s Uber, it seemed
the back seat and was ready to nal refusal into the inside haps I’ve lost grip on “what” I that I had not simply traveled
collapse in exhaustion. to confirm truly am. from Portland to New York.
My driver, a young man in what was My closest friends have all Instead I was caught some-
his late twenties named Aurel, already heard me complain about life where in between the place
started exchanging small talk assumed of in China to varying extent. My that I was traveling from—a
with me. You see, there are me, based Western education means that I small, prestigious, predom-
generally two types of Uber am constantly disheartened by inantly white New England
drivers—the one that initiates the censorship, the pollution, institution emblematic of my
as little interaction as human- the legal system, the sexism, the Connecticut past—and the
ly possible and the other who homophobia … and I’ve grown destination I was running
puts in the effort to survey increasingly detached from my to—my best friend from home
your whole family history; Au- life back home. Half-jokingly, with whom I can drink bub-
rel seemed to be in the latter I have tried to convince my ble tea, eat Sichuan food and
category. parents, who speak only a rant about visa struggles. I
He found out that I was fly- few words of English, to drop felt stuck at the edges of two
ing in from Portland, Maine; their lives and move with worlds.
I learned that he doubled as me. The car slowly pulled over;
a delivery driver. We shared Yet inevitably, there Aurel unloaded my suitcase,
a couple light-hearted jokes are times I feel like an shook my hand and wished me
about how terrible the traffic imposter of American a pleasant stay in New York.
was (an hour and 15 minutes culture. I worry about I dialed my friend’s number
worth of terrible, to be exact). finding acceptance. The as I watched him drive away.
It was smooth sailing until more time I spend here, He will never come close to
the inevitable happened. the more I am torn over knowing what went down in
“So, where are you my inability to truly my mind within the span of an
from?” he asked, his dark “fit in.” Despite hav- airport ride.
eyes assessing me from ing a small circle of So I leaped into the streets
the rear-view mirror. genuinely amazing of the city, sheltered by my
A lot went through friends, I can’t help anonymity in the big melting
my head in the split be- growing self-con- pot that is Manhattan, parting
tween seconds. I have scious of the dif- ways with my troubles for as
been in this situation ferences in our up- long as I could—that is, until
SHONA ORTIZ
too many times to not bringings, origins and my next ride.
know what to expect: the fundamental experiences. Sabrina Lin is a member of
standard “Oh, your accent Other times, I wake my the Class of 2021.
8 FEATURES
Antonio and Aurora: two expressions, one identity
by Mitchel Jurasek
Orient Staff
Not all students imagine
confetti-shooting cannons as
they arrive on a plane for their
first year at college. For Anto-
nio Watson ’12, those cannons
also contained sunshine and
glitter. Watson lives his life
with the goal to explore his
authentic identity. The Alas-
ka-raised Bowdoin alumnus
has flourished in the American
drag scene since he first caught
the sparkle his senior year at
the College. Since then he has
grown with the art form, as it
makes its way into a changing
mainstream society that is
moving away from heteronor-
mativity and cisgenderism.
“Drag is wiggling—or
shimmying—its way in to the
country and the world and
being introduced to this visual
transformation,” said Watson
in a phone interview with the
Orient. “It’s encouraging peo-
ple to question what it means
to play with what you can be
while still staying true to your
inner self.”
This change in culture is
exactly what Watson has been
working towards his entire life.
Inclusion has always been inte-
gral to his worldview. From the
cold depths of Alaska to the
(still chilly) pines of Bowdoin
and beyond, Watson focuses
on authentically establishing
himself in society and helping
others to do the same.
Moving out of Alaska and to
an elite New England college
proved to be a culture shock
for Watson.
“People don’t think of Alaska
as racially diverse but it really
is. My high school was much
DREAMING OF DRAG: After being introduced to the art form at Bowdoin, Alaska-raised alumnus Antonio Watson ’12 now performs regularly as Aurora Whorealis in Philadelphia. To him, identity exploration is essential to happiness.
more diverse than Bowdoin,”
he said. “Being a first-genera-
tion student of color and hav-
ing worked so hard to get into
the schools I did, I wanted to
go some place fancy. There was
something really appealing
about those wealthy, ultra-con-
nected institutions. My high
school, community and parents
were phenomenal, but I want-
ed to explore this thing I had
worked hard to have the capa-
bility to be a part of.”
The racial homogeneity of
Bowdoin proved to be the first
hurdle in Watson’s experience
at the College.
“I’m half black, a quarter Iñu-
piat Eskimo and a quarter white.
For my first year my racial iden-
tity was really important to me.
I really wanted to hold onto it in
such a white space like Bowdo-
in,” Watson said.
However, after coming out as
gay to his family, Watson found
his sexual orientation came to
the forefront pf his identity.
“I came out to most of my
family first-year summer and
then was outed to my dad the
beginning of my sophomore
year so I went through quite the
transitional phase. I had been
out on campus this entire time
but it still was a big deal,” he
said. “And after that it then felt
like the identity that I wanted to
explore was my gay identity.”
And explore it he did.
“I got off that plane in Maine
with confetti cannons blasting
out with glitter and sunshine
and I decided to be me in what-
ever way I was comfortable,” he
said. “I then went to work cre-
ating spaces for people to also
explore identity with me.”
Along with chairing the
Entertainment Board, working
on Peer Health, programming
for Quinby House and help-
ing African American Society,
Watson was heavily involved
with the Bowdoin Queer-
Straight Alliance (BQSA).
Watson believes creating com-
munities for queer students is
important to their happiness.
Recognizing that a small cam-
pus makes for a small queer
population, he partnered with
other colleges to build queer
connections.
In his senior year, while
president of the BQSA, Wat-
son petitioned for and helped
Bowdoin host the third annual
New England Small College
Queer Summit.
“The theme for that sum-
mit was sex and sexuality. So
we had a gay porn star as our
keynote speaker,” Watson said.
“That’s still one of my favorite
things to say, that I got the
College to fund a gay porn star
to speak on campus.”
Along with college-led
programming, Watson also
helped create less formal
queer-friendly spaces under
the College’s radar.
“We had a ton of secret un-
derground queer parties off
campus. We really tried a cou-
ple times a year to get those
parties on campus,” he said.
“I wanted students to be able
to see themselves on campus
and feel safe to be themselves
on campus. The hardest part of
Bowdoin can be feeling alone,
but if you find the right people
at Bowdoin you can find space
for yourselves.”
Watson was introduced to
drag during his senior year,
when he and other students or-
ganized a drag show in the Jack
Magee’s Pub and Grill. With a
Friday, October 26, 2018
tutorial on makeup from a pro- Alumni Council. Although Aurora Whorea-
fessional drag queen, Watson While Watson has started a lis’s Instagram states that she
and friends pioneered the art career in higher education in is an Alaskan drag queen liv-
on Bowdoin’s campus. It was admissions at Drexel Univer- ing in Philadelphia, this small
at that event that he fell in love sity, he still performs regularly liberal arts college in Maine
with the transformative aspect in drag—though not quite as played an unmistakable role in
of makeup. often as he used to. shaping the path of her story.
After Bowdoin, Watson
returned to his roots, moving
back to Alaska. There, he prac-
ticed the art form for months
before moving to Philadelphia
and pursuing it further. For
Watson, the expression of his
identity that takes shape when
on stage as Aurora Whorealis
is just an extension of his au-
thentic self.
“Some people draw a bold
distinction from what we call
their ‘muggle selves’ and their
drag selves. Some people put
on a huge character. To me, I
don’t want to come off as an in-
authentic me. There isn’t a line
between Antonio and Aurora,”
he said. “I’m in six pounds of
makeup and a wig but I’m the
same person I am when I get
out of the shower.”
To Watson, that’s the beauty
of drag. Its power comes not
from creating a new iden-
tity but exploring the ways
in which we can express our
identity. To him, identities ar-
en’t rigid. They are a complex
and multifaceted asset that
each individual has and can
play with.
“I think one of my favor-
ite things about drag is that
it’s not that serious; it’s about
having a good time and show-
casing yourself in new and
fun ways—even if that means
wearing a full face of glitter
and heels,” he said.
Today, Watson still con-
tributes to the Bowdoin com-
munity through work on the
COURTESY OF ANTONIO WATSON AND JENN WITEK PHOTOGRAPHY
Friday, October 26, 2018 FEATURES 9

POLAR EYES

SPOOKY BOWDOIN
Ever wonder what lurks in the basement of Massachusetts Hall
when you go down to have your mid-class pee? Or contemplate the
bodies that used to hang from the hooks you can still spot in Adams?
The statue of Joshua Chamberlain sure looks creepy when you’re
walking to Frosty’s at 4 a.m. If the leaves are rustling and pumpkins
a’glowing, it might just be that spooky time of the year. So beware
of Hawthorne’s ghost when you mention Longfellow is your favorite
alumnus and don’t get locked in the Stacks mid-econ review. BOO!
Photos by Mindy Leder and Ezra Sunshine
10 Friday, October 26, 2018

A ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Portrait of an Artist: Dixon ’21 reflects on life in rap
elementary and middle school,
by Lily Tedford and that’s where I found my love
Staff Writer of everything artistic in my life.
Jaden Dixon ’21 is an artist In sixth grade, I started playing
and producer from Davenport, classical piano, and then over
FL. He recently released his first the years, I started picking up
EP, “Moving Forward,” as well guitar and a little bit of drums. I
as his first music video for the started using my voice as an in-
track, “Wait Up.” Jaden’s music is strument my senior year of high
featured on all major streaming school. I went from singing in
platforms. the shower to auditioning for a
The following interview has musical, and next thing I knew,
been edited for length and clarity. I was [playing] Troy Bolton
from High School Musical for
The Bowdoin Orient: How my senior spring musical. That
would you describe your music? was extremely inspiring for me,
Jaden Dixon ’21: It’s very di- because I loved being on stage,
verse and spontaneous, because and I finally gained some sort
that’s how life is, and I do my of confidence.
best to make my music as accu-
rate as I can in terms of what’s Q: What is your creative
going on in my life at a certain process like?
time. A: Usually for me, the cre-
ative process starts with a beat,
Q: Who are some of your and I think, “How does this
favorite artists? beat make me feel? How can I
A: Growing up, the first rap create a chorus?” To me, a cho-
artist that I really liked was Lil rus is like a thesis, and once you
Wayne, then it became Drake make the chorus, you can write
when Drake and Lil Wayne col- verses based on what the thesis MACKEY O’KEEFE, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
laborated. More recently, I’m a is talking about. And anything BOASTING BEATS: Artist and producer Jaden Dixon ’21 creates music inspired by his Bowdoin experience. He hopes to inspire positive change through his art.
fan of XXXTentacion. He also becomes an intro, bridge or tag,
made extremely diverse music, I’ll just add that later, when I’m the lyrics, you can hear I shout-
an impact. So why not bridge are talented artists on this releasing more music soon.
and it was very inspiring to me feeling out the song. For the EP ed out the floor that I lived on in
together my passion for music campus that I’m excited to see,
to see how real and how trans- I just made, I probably came my first year. Bowdoin means a and my passion for making the hear more from and potentially Q: Is there anything you
parent he was. He did plenty of up with 10 beats and then got lot to me, so I’m glad that could
world a better place? And that’s work with. I think the future is want to add?
terrible things in his life that he started with the writing process be reflected in that song. what [the track “Equal”] is to bright. A: I just want to say, to
can’t take back, but I also be- and everything. me. It’s less about government anyone, that if there’s some-
lieve in the good that he creat- Q: And how does you inter- in particular and more about Q: So, what’s next for you? thing that you love, if there’s
ed. I’m also inspired by Chance Q: How has Bowdoin influ- est in Government and Legal wanting to make a positive im- Do you have any upcoming something that you are not
the Rapper, Kanye West, Big enced your music? Studies influence your music? pact on the world. projects? only good at, but you seriously
Sean, Frank Ocean, Tyler, the A: Well, “IDK” was the first A: I chose a Government A: I am currently consid- enjoy, then I encourage you to
Creator and A$AP Rocky. song I ever created and pub- major, because I want to change Q: What do you think of the ering a couple of things. I am chase it relentlessly, be serious
lished, and that whole song was the world, but I also believe music scene at Bowdoin? absolutely performing [on cam- about it, and be serious with
Q: What is your musical crafted at Bowdoin, and it’s all I don’t need to have an offi- A: I think Bowdoin is low- pus] soon. I’ve already worked yourself about it. Just remem-
background? about Bowdoin. I had just ar- cial governmental position or key saturated with very musical on plenty of beats since I’ve ber that your world is what you
A: I went to [an art-focused] rived here, and if you listen to anything of that sort to make people, and I love that. There been on campus, and I will be make it.

Snapshots of intimate encounters in ‘Heart of the City’

by Esther Wang
Staff Writer
The hustle and bustle of New
York City comes alive on stage
to the familiar sound of a sub-
way announcement. Complete
with towering skyscrapers,
dreamers and cynics, hurrying
high-heels along congested
sidewalk, the city was reimag-
ined on stage at Pickard The-
REMINISCING NEW YORK: An unconventional production for Masque and Gown, this play tracks the personal journeys of a group of New Yorkers.
ater last weekend in Masque
and Gown’s fall production,
“Heart of the City,” written by
Eric Lane.
The play attempts to recre-
ate the intimate experiences of
New Yorkers—an incongruous
couple, a gay Spanish immi-
grant, a mother suffering from
cancer, a couple struggling to
have children, an advertising
agent who dreams of becoming
an artist—whose lives intersect
in unexpected ways.
“Cities are full of strangers,
and the only way we can make
cities work is by embracing
opportunities for connection.
This play is very intimate even
though it takes place inside this
big city,” said director Grace
Kellar-Long ’21.
Previously, Masque and
Gown—Bowdoin’s oldest stu-
dent-run theater troupe—has
showcased “A Midsummer
Night’s Dream,” “American Id-
iot” and “The Laramie Project.”
What makes “Heart of the City”
so unique is that it is less well
known, giving directors an op-
portunity to expand and follow
their own visions.
“Nobody had any precon-
ceived notions of what was
going on or what shape it was
COURTESY OF NATHAN ASHANY
going to take,” said Holden
Turner ’21, assistant director of
the play.
However, putting on an un-
conventional play brings certain
risks: people just aren’t as drawn
to unfamiliar productions.
Adhering to a limited pool of
well-known works, though,
discourages students from ex-
perimenting with their creative
vision and instead leads to a
scramble to find “the hits.”
“I would really encourage
Masque and Gown to make sure
that the directors come up with
the vision that they want and try
new things. If everything [has]
too much of a group mentality,
then it’ll end up being an organ-
isation that’s not willing to take
risks. Theater [is] all about tak-
ing risks,” said Turner.
During this production,
the crew tried to mentor the
students new to theater—an
experienced sound or costume
designer would work with
someone less experienced, to
help them acquire the skills for
future productions.
Bowdoin’s position as a lib-
eral arts institution provides
the ideal environment for ex-
ploring innovative and expres-
sive plays that are able to tackle
and capture issues beyond the-
ater and beyond this campus.
“With everything that’s go-
ing on in this country right
now, it would be really nice to
get more dialogues [for] dif-
ferent peoples of color,” said
Wayne Harding ’21, who played
the character Michael. “There’s
a way of acting where you can
reach out to people on an emo-
tional level to connect with one
another.”
Unlike in previous years, the
fall play was showcased in Pick-
ard Theater rather than Wish
Theater. The expansion from a
small, black box theater to the
main stage threw many unan-
ticipated challenges at the crew.
“The black box is a great place
for classical student theatre and
passion projects with small
technical capabilities. But for
this play we were given a huge
space so we had to expand to fill
that technically,” said Turner.
Kellar-Long hopes audiences
walked away from this produc-
tion with an appreciation for
the serendipitous encounters in
their own daily lives.
“I think this play shows a
lot of happenstance encoun-
ters that turn into something
a lot bigger, and I hope that
people are looking for op-
portunities that make [them]
happen in their own lives as
well,” she said.
Friday, October 26, 2018
S SPORTS
USE YOUR HEAD: Captain Jake Stenquist ’19 jumps in the air for a header. The team is the fifth seed in the NESCAC tournament and will face off against Amherst on Saturday.
Men’s soccer earns fifth seed in NESCAC
by Dylan Sloan
Orient Staff
After a rocky start to the sea-
son, the men’s soccer team (9-3-2,
5-2-2 NESCAC) has hit its stride
and is currently entering the
postseason with the momentum
of a 7-1-2 record in its last 10
matches. The team is in excellent
form as it looks to the postseason,
but the path it took to get to this
point has been far from linear.
The team started the season
2-3, with a 0-2 NESCAC record
after tough losses to Amherst
and Wesleyan. Head Coach Scott
Wiercinski admitted that for
some, the season’s early results
came as a disappointment.
“A lot of us had high expecta-
tions for our team,” Wiercinski
Former athletes explore new interests after sports
by Surya Milner
Orient Staff
It was midsummer and Frank-
lin Taylor ’19 was at a crossroads.
Back home in Oak Park, an urban
suburb of Chicago, Ill., he stared
at the blinking cursor on his com-
puter screen. It hovered over his
email inbox, pointing to the ques-
tion that had been needling him
all summer long: would he don
jersey number 86 in the fall?
Taylor is one of several student
athletes at Bowdoin for whom the
ultimate answer was no. He had
been hit by a series of stomach
problems earlier in the year—gas-
trointestinal complications that
came after several arm and knee
injuries in the earlier stages of his
career on the men’s football team.
“I definitely felt lost after I
stopped playing,” said Taylor. “Like
I was losing a part of who I was,
because that’s what I did at school
... I was like, why am I not with the
team? Why am I not on the field?”
At a college where as of 2016, 43
percent of the student body played
a varsity sport, athletic culture is
a palpable presence—if not most
pointedly on the far right side of
Thorne Dining Hall, it’s also felt on
Pine Street with the construction
said. “When you lose a few games
you stack your results against
those expectations instead of
stacking your performance
against your potential. Confi-
dence … is always a fickle thing,
and losing a few games early can
challenge a [team’s] sense of pur-
pose.”
Despite the adversity the team
faced in the beginning of the
season, the team has come a long
way from its early season frustra-
tions.
Captain Jake Stenquist ’19 de-
scribed a series of turning points
throughout the season which
helped shock the team out of its
early slump. After a tough loss to
Wesleyan, the team gathered to
watch the game tape.
“It was a turning point … to
of the new athletics facilities.
Athletes leave their sports for
several reasons. Sometimes, they
get injured; others become wary of
team culture or coaching style. But
no matter the impetus for leav-
ing, choosing to quit a sport—for
many a lifelong passion that far
precedes college—is a singular
decision that can either broaden
one’s intellectual and social life at
Bowdoin or leave students feeling
stuck in a vacuum, scrambling for
purpose.
“I had associated all my
friends with the football team,”
said Taylor. “It felt lonely for a
while, because you’re not associ-
ated with the team—now you’re
on your own.”
Taylor said he felt the absence
most poignantly at mealtime,
when teams often eat together
following practice. It’s a tradition
that defines most varsity sports,
in and out of season, most days of
the week: get out of class at 4:15,
head to practice, shower, make it
to the dining hall before it closes.
Though team meals aren’t man-
datory, meals are a communal
activity that nonetheless function
as one of the greatest determinants
of social life at the College.
For Brooke Vahos ’21, a former
run the film and see personal
battle after personal battle where
[Wesleyan] was winning and they
were working harder than us,”
Stenquist said.
This realization prompted a
change in attitude that helped
the teamchanges its fortunes. In
the next game against Middle-
bury, the team did not execute
impressive plays or break pro-
gram records, but it worked hard
throughout the game.
Stenquist admitted that part
of him expected the team’s slow
start to the season, alluding to
their challenging early-season
schedule and the time it took for
the squad, which includes 11 first
years, to acclimate to each other
and to their style of play.
Asked to characterize the
A NEW IDENTITY: Former athletes discuss their reasons for not continuing to compete on a varsity sports team and
the struggles they’ve faced moving through the Bowdoin community without the protection of a sports team.
member of the women’s volleyball
team, grabbing meals with friends
outside of volleyball during the
off-season precipitated her first in-
kling that maybe the team wasn’t
for her anymore.
“I felt like coming to Bowdoin
was the main thing, and volleyball
was just going to be this great extra
part of it that I was still committed
team in one word, Stenquist and
Wiercinski both responded with
“resilient.”
“Resilience has bought us
enough time to work out some
of the wrinkles in our relation-
ships, routine and performance,”
Wiercinski said. “Now we feel like
we’re clicking on a lot of different
cylinders … we’re a really com-
prehensive team.”
Regardless of the path the
season has taken up to now,
Wiercinski never lost faith in his
team.
“We always knew we had the
talent, the personality, the char-
acter and the players to [turn our
season around], and are thankful
that it did come to fruition.”
The team’s recent success has
helped foster a self-perpetuating
to but wasn’t going to be my whole
life here or a defining part of my
identity. And then it became that,”
she said.
With team practices four
days a week, speed drills and
weight lifts approximately twice
a week in the mornings, travel
for away games on the week-
ends and team mixers every
JACK BURNETT, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
environment of improvement.
“Our guys are growing in con-
fidence and growing in under-
standing with themselves, with the
way we want to play and with each
other,” said Wiercinski. “It’s been
a positive feedback system that
[they] have been doing well in.”
This feedback loop has yielded
a remarkable turnaround. The
team finished the regular season
9-4-2 (5-3-2 NESCAC), averag-
ing 1.87 goals per game and con-
ceding on average 0.9 goals per
game. The team’s season boasted
an upset victory over Connecticut
College (12-1-2, 7-1-2 NESCAC)
and ties against Hamilton (8-6-1,
4-5-1 NESCAC) and Williams (8-
5-2, 4-4-2 NESCAC).
Please see SOCCER, page 12
EZRA SUNSHINE, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
now and then, Vahos felt like
being a team member often
meant not doing much else
extracurricularly. Since quit-
ting, she’s become active with
the Maine Democrats, Maine
People’s Alliance and America
Reads and Counts.
Please see COMMUNITY, page 12
11
HIGHLIGHT
REEL
ONE FOR THE MONEY:
In a 1-0 win against Tufts
(9-4-2, 5-3-2 NESCAC),
the women’s soccer team
(7-6-2, 3-6-1 NESCAC)
earned a spot in the
NESCAC quarterfinals.
Bowdoin held a 14-6
shot advantage with Julia
Adelmann ’22 scoring the
winning goal. The Polar
Bears will be the seventh
seed in the tournament,
facing off against
Middlebury (13-1-1, 8-1-1
NESCAC) tomorrow.
DID YOU SEE ME ON
TV?: The women’s field
hockey team (11-4, 6-4
NESCAC) ended its
regular season tied for
fourth place with Trinity
and Hamilton in the
NESCAC rankings. On
Sunday, the Northeast
Sports Network will
provide live coverage on
the Polar Bears’ match-
up against third-seeded
Williams (11-4, 7-3
NESCAC). When the
teams met earlier in the
season, penalty shots
decided the game in
Williams’ favor, but the
Polar Bears are hoping for
a different outcome.
COMEE SAIL AWAY WITHW
ME: The sailing team
placed second in the
Showcase Finals at St.
Mary’s College last
weekend, defeating
teams from across the
country. Matt Kaplan ’19,
Louisa Lindgren ’19 and
Matt Safford ’20 sailed
A-division while Christian
Filter ’20, Julia Adams
’21, Alden Grimes ’21 and
Lindgren competed in
B-division. In addition,
the team also competed
in the Oberg Regatta
at MIT, finishing sixth
overall.
TER THAN EVER:
BETTER EVER The
women’s basketball team
is entering its preseason
ranked second in the
nation, according to a poll
released by D3hoops.com.
Amherst, the reigning
national champion, is
ranked first. Bowdoin
lost to Amherst in the
final round of the NCAA
tournament, ending a 29-3
season. The Polar Bears
will see game action for
the first time this year on
November 16 as Bowdoin
hosts the Coastal Classic
Tip-Off Tournament.
COMPILED BY KATHRYN MCGINNIS
12
Volleyball team faces top NESCAC rival
by Itza Bonilla Hernandez
Orient Staff
The women’s volleyball
team (22-1, 8-0 NESCAC)
takes on its biggest NESCAC
competitor, Wesleyan Univer-
sity (15-3, 8-0 NESCAC) to-
night at 8 p.m. The two teams
are both undefeated in the
NESCAC. They are battling
for first place in the league and
the rights to host the champi-
onships next week. The Cardi-
nals are the defending cham-
pions and knocked the third
seeded Polar Bears out of the
tournament last year.
“[There is] added emotion-
tional pressure [because] the
game is the decider of the cham-
pionship weekend. Hosting is
always fun, and is something
that we have been working to-
wards.” said Head Coach Erin
Cady. “But we’re going to try
to look past that … and take it
like every other game that we
have been in this year and play
it point by point.”
The Polar Bears are coming
off a perfect 3-0 record at the
Hall of Fame Invitational this
past weekend in Massachusetts
that launched them into the
top 25 DIII teams in the nation,
according to the last American
Volleyball Coaches’ Association
Equipment manager chases pro-baseball scout dream
by Kathryn McGinnis
Orient Staff
Few people have a life story
more interesting or unexpected
than Bowdoin Equipment Man-
ager Chap Nelson’s—or “Chappy”
as he’s commonly known. From
dreams of playing major league
baseball in Florida, to becoming
Colby’s assistant baseball coach
while still a college student him-
self to his current freelance work
as a professional scout for the Los
Angeles Dodgers, there is only
one thing as big as Chappy’s per-
sonality: his network of friends.
Chappy began his college ca-
reer at the University of Tampa, a
top college for MLB recruits. Just
last year, four players from Tam-
pa were drafted by MLB teams. In
addition, Florida’s warm weather
is a draw for major league teams
as it allows them to play outside
year round.
Standing at about 5-feet-6-
inches, Chappy is smaller than
most professional athletes.
Although he had a strong left
handed throwing arm and quick
reflexes in the infield, his height
prevented him from pursuing
a career in Florida. Yet it hasn’t
COMMUNITY
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
“I wanted to be involved in
something that felt purposeful,”
she added.
Such purpose can manifest
in a multitude of ways; Taylor,
for example, has taken to the
arts as a staff photographer for
student-run fashion publication
Avant-Garb magazine; Vahos
also writes satire for the Bowdoin
Harpoon.
Timothy Bulens ’19, a former
midfielder on the men’s lacrosse
poll. They are currently ranked
24th nationally and second in
the NCAA DIII Regional Rank-
ings, while the Cardinals are
currently sixth in the regional
rankings.
Cady acknowledged that the
game against Wesleyan will be the
team’s hardest yet, but she believes
that the depth and variety in the
team’s lineups are two strengths
that will bring the Polar Bears suc-
cess as they close the 2018 regular
season.
“What’s really awesome
about our team this year is
[that] we have a lot of people
contributing, whether it be
relying on some people on
the bench to come in for a
key place. I think that’s been
a strength of ours and what’s
really caused some great team
chemistry,” said Cady. “Every-
one can go in and contribute
in their own way.”
To get ready for its game
against Wesleyan, the team
has been dissecting its perfor-
mance this past weekend and
watching a lot of film of prac-
tices and past games.
“I’m spending the beginning
of the week taking time to cor-
rect anything we need to that we
saw from the weekend before,”
said Cady. “And then the second
half of the week really diving
prevented him from enjoying the
game under the Florida sun.
“I go down to the West Palm
area about twice a year,” he said.
“That’s where I hang out because
there are five baseball teams
right in that area. I can see two
games a day.”
Originally from Waterville,
Chappy was familiar with Colby’s
athletic program at a young age.
When he considered transferring
to a new college at the start of
his sophomore year, it drew him
back to Maine. One of his child-
hood friends was the daughter of
Colby’s athletic director. Friendly
with the head coach of the base-
ball team, Chappy asked to be the
team manager.
“I think I felt then that base-
ball wasn’t in my future in terms
of playing,” he said. “Coaching
was a good way to stay with it. I
worked under a really good coach
not only as a student manager but
as an assistant baseball coach for
him. I learned a lot from him, just
the way he dealt with people and
ran practices.”
After graduating from Colby
with a degree in Administra-
tive Science, Chappy attended
The Ohio State University for a
team, now fills his time with his
duties as the head Residential As-
sistant of Harpswell Apartments
and a teaching assistant for the
German department. While it was
anxiety and mental health issues
that led him to leave the team, he
still feels fondly towards his for-
mer teammates, who he describes
as incredibly supportive and “most
quality people.”
For Bulens, who is in his first
semester off the team, the tran-
sition has been a time for both
personal reflection and social
transition.
SPORTS
1,2,3 ACE: Kate Kiser ’21 prepares to serve the ball in a past game. Both Kiser and Caroline Flaharty ’20 have been
selected as past NESCAC Players of the Week this season. The team will face off against Wesleyan tonight.
into planning for what we’re
going to see against Wesleyan.”
The game is clearly a high
stakes matchup, especially as
the team has not had the priv-
ilege of hosting the champi-
onships since 2015, when the
Polar Bears took the NESCAC
title in a 3-2 win over Williams.
However, when asked about
the strategies she uses to lessen
stress surrounding her players,
masters degree in Sports Man-
agement. He knew he eventually
wanted to manage a professional
sports team, but he could not let
the opportunity to be Colby’s
Equipment Manager pass him by.
Thirty-one years later, he left Col-
by and headed to Bowdoin.
It seems obvious to point out,
but it’s not common for equip-
ment managers at small NES-
CAC schools to rise to prominent
positions on a professional sports
team. Yet the unusual path Chap-
py has wandered down has un-
wittingly deposited him on track
to becoming a professional scout
for the Dodgers.
“We had a pitcher at Colby
[who] started off as an infielder,”
said Chappy. “Once he got out of
school, he talked for awhile with
the Red Sox and now he’s the
Director of Pro-Personnel for the
Dodgers.”
Its through this connection
that Chappy hopes to win a
permanent scouting position in
pro-baseball. In his summers off,
he travels across the country to
follow professional teams for a
week at a time.
“[A few years ago,] The Red
Sox had this hot prospect. I saw
“I really dreaded playing
games. I didn’t really like going
to practice, but it was such a huge
part of who I was,” said Bulens.
“And it took until my junior year
where I had kind of come to the
point where I was like ... I don’t
need to play lacrosse to approve
of myself as a person. I thought,
why am I doing this then?”
Bulens was lucky in that he
had a group of friends outside
of the team, friends who he felt
he could count on in case things
went south with the lacrosse
team socially. But, he adds as
Cady said that being present in
the moment is key.
“I think the big thing is
staying in the moment and
being present with what we’re
working on at that moment,”
said Cady. “So whether it be
we’re working in practice a
certain strategy, but we’re in
the game. Just knowing that
there’s a lot of volleyball to
play and to have each point be
him hit 22 times and out of that
he struck out 12,” said Chappy.
“He was a good guy, a Cuban
they’d signed for big, big money.
I knew he was going to be good,
but they rushed him. They got
him up to Boston [where] he
struck out like 12 times in a row
so, you know, they sat him on the
bench for the rest of the year.”
That hot prospect is the cur-
rent second baseman for the Chi-
cago White Sox, Yoan Moncada.
Chappy scouted him in 2016 after
Moncada had signed a $31.5 mil-
lion dollar deal with the Boston
Red Sox and was named the sev-
enth best major league prospect.
This year, though, he led the MLB
in strikeouts, so there could be
some merit to Chappy’s claim. It’s
important for scouts to be able
to not just identify talent, but to
know when a player is ready to
move to the next level.
Without spending over 30
years working within the Colby
and Bowdoin athletic depart-
ments, Chappy may have never
made the connections he needed
to enter the professional baseball
world. As his story shows, there is
never a time when it’s impossible MAJOR LEAGUE DREAM: Chap “Chappy” Nelson spends his sum-
to follow one’s dreams.
gesture of thanks, they didn’t.
“I think there’s a lot of people
who play sports in general who
maybe won’t even let themselves
entertain the idea of not playing,”
he said. “Because they know that
maybe deep down they don’t
want to play, but they think
there’s no other option because
all of their social eggs are in the
same basket.”
Anne Parrish ’19 was a walk-on
to the women’s soccer team when
she came to Bowdoin in the fall
of 2015. Since leaving the team,
Parrish has become more involved
EMILY FULLER, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
its own little mini game.”
After tonight’s game against
Wesleyan, the team will finish
its weekend and the regular
season with a match against
Connecticut College at 2 p.m.
on Saturday.
“Volleyball is a game of
momentum and with the
right crowd behind you, [it]
can really make a difference,”
said Cady.
EZRA SUNSHINE, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT
mers freelancing as a professional scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
in water polo and comedy groups,
Purity Pact and Improvabilities—
activities that were previously
sidelined.
“Soccer I’ve always had, I’ll
always be able to play,” she said.
“But I’ll never be able to like,
stand up in Kresge or step on
a stage probably [at] any other
point in my life.”
Despite newfound passions,
former athletes like Parrish,
Taylor, Bulens and Vahos still
find themselves reminiscing on
glimmering moments of glory
from time to time. They recall
Friday, October 26, 2018
SOCCER
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
“We’re playing our best soc-
cer at the end of the season,”
Wiercinski said. “In that way,
we’ve aligned well with what’s
important—it doesn’t matter
how good you are in September
if you’re not good at the end of
October.”
Stenquist was clear in his
postseason ambitions: “I think
everyone’s got the same idea—
NESCAC championship.”
The road toward that goal starts
this weekend. Saturday, the team
will travel to Amherst for the NES-
CAC quarterfinal. As Stenquist
pointed out, Bowdoin has never
beaten Amherst in the past four
years, but there’s no time like the
present. The team will be looking
to avenge last season’s semifinal
exit from the tournament at the
hands of Middlebury.
Wiercinski also has very clear
goals for the team this postsea-
son, but these goals don’t revolve
around securing specified results
or winning specific trophies.
“My expectation is that we’re
going to play really well against a
really good team … and we know
that we’ll be capable of winning.
We expect to be competitive with
everybody,” said Wiercinski.
Wiercinski’s postseason ethos
is consistent with what he has
preached all season: confidence
in the ability of his team and an
unshakeable belief that on game
day, they can beat anyone.
days spent on the field, court and
locker room, endless hours spent
with well-loved teammates and
coaches, their most epic plays.
But for now, their lives indeed
feel different, and divorcing sport
from self can prove difficult.
“I feel like when I’m a senior,
people are just going to be like,
‘Wait, you played volleyball?’” Va-
hos laughs.
It’s a reminder: of the strength
it takes to change, and that the
chasm between athlete and
non-athlete can be quite a wide
one to cross.
Friday, October 26, 2018
Money can’t fix everything,
not even Bowdoin football
More Than
A Game
by Ian Ward
On the door to Coach J.B.
Wells’ office is a poster em-
blazoned with the likeness of
quarterback phenom Peyton
Manning and the following
quotation: “I wouldn’t have
a single touchdown without
someone to catch it, and
someone to block for it, and
someone to create the play,
and someone to call it, and
someone to celebrate it with.”
Still mired in a 23-game
losing streak, the longest in
the program’s history, the
Polar Bears have learned the
The College’s spending on
football is producing neither
results on the field nor significant
demographic gains off it. Why
not? That’s the $712,934 question.
truth of Manning’s wisdom
in a literal way. In a recent
62-27 smackdown against
Hamilton and a dishearten-
ing 48-6 loss against Trinity,
more than the Polar Bears’
record has taken a beating.
Against Hamilton, three of
the team’s star offensive play-
ers—lineman A.J. Mansolillo
’19, wide receiver Greg Olson
’21 and tight end Bo Millett
’21—all suffered potentially
season-ending shoulder inju-
ries. Against Trinity, the team
lost another offensive staple,
wide receiver Aidan Israelski
’22, to a season-ending col-
larbone fracture. With star
running back Nate Richam
’20 still sidelined by a lin-
gering toe injury, the Po-
lar Bears are running low
on game-ready players.
I could go into the ef-
fects that these injuries
have had on the Polar
Bears’ play calling
(which are many) or
talk about the young
players who can step
up to fill the gaps
(which they will
do, and capably).
But in the end, the
story is the same:
the Polar Bears
are once again
coming to the
end of a season
trying their
best to win,
but trying
even harder
SARA CAPLAN
not to lose.
Professional and collegiate
athletics are one of America’s
largest and most lucrative
entertainment industries be-
cause of their human appeal:
the personalities that they
showcase, the human dramas
they display. But behind the
human interest is the reality
that sports are industries,
complete with all the face-
less statistics and humdrum
mechanisms that allow in-
dustries to function.
These impersonal statis-
tics, though, raise some diffi-
cult questions for the people
who create them.
Football is an expensive
activity. According to the
2017 Equity in Athletics Data
analysis set, provided by the
U.S. Department of Educa-
tion, the 2016 football season
cost the College $712,934,
the most of any program. For
some scope, Bowdoin spends
$1,793,153 on all of its other
men’s sports teams, mean-
ing that football is about 40
SPORTS
percent as expensive
as the other men’s
teams combined.
Granted,
with a roster
of about 76
men, football
is also the
largest men’s
team at the
college.
And when
it comes to
“game-day
spending,”
(the money
spent actually
conducting
the games),
as opposed to
“total spend-
ing,” (the cost of
running the pro-
gram) football, while
still the most expen-
sive sport at $141,239
in 2016, is actually fairly
economical in terms of
its cost-per-player spend-
ing—$1,909—especially
compared to some cash-
cow teams like men’s ten-
nis, which spent a whopping
$11,081 per player in 2016.
But in terms of absolute
spending, Bowdoin spent the
most of any NESCAC school
on its football team in 2016,
aside from perennial-foot-
ball-powerhouse Trinity, who
spent about $805,000 that
year. Bates, Bowdoin’s tra-
ditional bottom-of-the-bar-
rel-buddy, spent a little over
half of what Bowdoin spent,
$497,755, and still finished
ahead of the Polar Bears in
the standings.
Since 2007, spending on
football has increased by 56
percent, from $457,902 to the
2016 total. Shockingly, that
increase is actually lower
than the increase in to-
tal athletics spending
during that peri-
od, which has
ballooned a
AN
APL
AC
SAR
mind-bog-
gling 101
percent from
$5,004,828 to
$10,042,975 in
2016.
Astute perus-
ers of the Equi-
ty in Athletics
Disclosure Act
(EADA) will point
out that while foot-
ball costs the most funds provided by the
of any sport, it also generates institution.
the most “revenue” of any Bowdoin’s “revenue,” then, is
sport, raking in $724,020 in the money the College provides
2016. And these astute ob- the program to cover its costs
servers would be correct, ex- plus any donations or gifts that
cept that the term “revenue” the team received. If you do the
is somewhat of a misnomer. math, the only outside revenue
A digression into the tech- (i.e. money not provided by
nical aspects of the report the College) generated by the
explain why. football program in 2017 came
In the EADA’s calculations, from approximately $11,000 in
total revenue includes actual gifts and donations.
revenue from ticket sales (of Spending is understand-
which Bowdoin has none), ably higher for a program
advertising contracts that employs seven full-time
(again, nonexistent), coaches and must fill 27 addi-
gifts and donations tional recruiting spots annu-
(we’ll get to that) and, ally, compared to the average
finally, operating of two. Even in the absence
of wins, the spending might
be justified if the team’s re-
cruiting power contributed
to the overall diversity of
the campus.
But does it?
Depending on
how you look
at it, the team is
either geograph-
ically diverse
or not at all. At
first glance, the
2018 team has an
impressive reach, with
players from 23 different
states (and Taipei), including
13
Minnesota, Georgia,
Illinois, Virginia,
Florida, Michigan,
North Carolina,
Tennessee, Louisi-
ana, Idaho, Missou-
ri, Ohio, California
and even Hawaii.
Relative to some
other men’s sports
teams, 23 states
looks pretty good:
last season, hockey
drew from 11 states,
baseball from 12 and
lacrosse from 17.
But relative to the
demographics of the
College at large, things
don’t look so good. Forty
players from this season’s
76-man roster hail from New
England, comprising about 53
percent of the team. By con-
trast, in the fall of 2017 (the
most recent data available),
the College at large was only
38 percent New Englanders.
The Midwest is likewise over-
represented, with 13 percent of
the football team, but only 7.5
percent of the college, coming
from the heartland. The South
is about proportionately repre-
sented (11 percent on the team
compared to 8 percent at the
College), while the Southwest,
West and international stu-
dents are all underrepresented.
These numbers do not
speak for themselves. First,
there are other important
demographic contributions—
racial diversity, number of
financial aid recipients and
first-generation students, to
name just a few—which, be-
cause the College does not
make this data available for
athletic teams, are either dif-
ficult or impossible to assess
on a team-by-team basis.
But secondly, it’s not
self-evident that sports teams
ought to be expected to be
demographically representa-
tive of the College at large. Of
course one could argue that
athletic teams, especially those
that wield outsized recruit-
ing power like football does,
should be at least as geograph-
ically diverse as the campus,
if not more so. On the other
hand, one could argue that, at
the end of the day, recruiting
is about creating a team with
the greatest likelihood of win-
ning games with the person-
nel available, demography be
damned.
This is a tricky normative
debate, and it’s not immediately
clear that either argument has
the upper hand. What is clear
is that, as it stands, the College’s
spending on football is produc-
ing neither results on the field
nor significant demographic
gains off it. Why not? That’s
the $712,934 question.
14 Friday, October 26, 2018

O OPINION
Budget Breakdown
This year, in an email to the campus community, Bowdoin Student Gov-
ernment (BSG) Chair of the Treasury Harry Sherman ’21 released the first
The flatlander’s guide to
issue of the SAFC Digest, a monthly publication outlining major budgetary
decisions of the Student Activities Funding Committee (SAFC). The top
five clubs were the Entertainment Board, BSG, the Outing Club, Rowing
and the McKeen Center. The Orient was in the seventh position. We believe
that clubs that derive their funds from student tuition and fees should be
the election This year, Question 1, a citizen initiative,
transparent in how they spend their money. In the interest of this transpar- Pine Tree Perspective asks voters whether they want to es-
ency, we have decided to publish the breakdown of our budget. tablish a new government-funded
by Lowell Ruck
This year, the Orient was allocated $22,350.00 by the SAFC, roughly 3.1 homecare program in Maine.
percent of the total student activities budget. Questions 2 through 5, all bond
• $17,100 of that is for printing costs. During the year, we print 24 issues On November 6, Maine voters will issues, ask voters whether
at roughly $650/issue, along with three less-widely-distributed special is- head to the polls to elect a governor, they want to put money
sues (Orientation issue, Occident, and one special theme issue) per year, two congressional representatives, one towards water quality
at roughly $500/issue. senator and a host of municipal and improvement, public
• A further $2,050 is for operating costs, which includes office supplies state-level candidates, as well as to decide infrastructure improve-
and weekly snacks to fuel our long production nights. the fate of several referenda. Since some ments, infrastructure
• We received $150 for technology. This year, this is going towards phone of you may be voting in Maine for the improvement in the Uni-
call recording software and speech-to-text transcription software, which first time this year or otherwise haven’t versity of Maine system
makes it easier for us to gather quotes from long interviews or events. voted in a Maine gubernatorial election, and upgraded facilities
• $1,350 goes towards professional development. This includes holding I’d like to use this space to go over the in Maine’s community Mills (D),
staff trainings, attending college journalism conferences and paying sub- most important aspects of the upcoming college system. These all businessman
mission fees for journalism contests. elections, specifically the ballot measures sound good on paper, but ER Shawn Moody (R), Maine
AP
Y RE
• We spend $100 on a subscription to the Chronicle of Higher Education. as well as the gubernatorial and congres- vote carefully—the state NE State Treasurer Terry Hayes ’80
• We use the remaining $1,600 to bring in guest lecturers and compen- sional races. This is an important year government has struggled SYD (I) and businessman Alan Caron (I),
sate a professional journalist who critiques each issue, giving us valuable for politics in our state, and all Bowdoin to implement past ballot all seeking to replace blowhard Repub-
feedback since we don’t have a faculty advisor. students, as residents of Maine, should be measures such as Medicaid lican incumbent Paul LePage. Having
In addition, we sell ads in the paper every week, earning money beyond informed about the candidates and issues expansion and accepting too many survived the elections of 2010 and 2014,
our SAFC-allocated budget. The income from these ads is used to award on the ballot, even if they aren’t voting of these proposals can dramatically in- I can assure you that this one is much
the hardest working members of our staff prizes at the end of the semester, here. Consider this your crash course on crease the state’s debt. tamer. The differences between the two
compensating them for their significant effort and time sacrifices. Among Maine’s elections—I hope that all of you frontrunners, Mills and Moody, fall
college newspapers, financial concerns often play a part in who partici- will read this and no matter your political Senate and Congressional Races: mostly along party lines, while Hayes’
pates. These prizes help keep the Orient socioeconomically diverse. persuasion, do some research of your own In the battle for the U.S. Congress, in- positions align more with the Demo-
That’s our budget. We applaud Sherman’s dedication to open access of and get out and vote on Election Day. cumbents Chellie Pingree (D) and Bruce crats and Caron’s have elements of both
information. As a group that regularly calls for campus transparency, it was Poliquin (R) will defend their seats, while parties. Mills has the most detailed and
time to do our part. We hope other clubs will follow our lead, so students Ranked-Choice Voting: Senator Angus King (I) will also seek comprehensive platform of all four,
can better understand where their money gets spent and how they benefit Adopted by popular referendum in re-election. I’m just going to go ahead which includes everything from imple-
from it. Maine in November 2016 and reinforced and say it: Pingree and King are going to menting Medicaid expansion in Maine,
If you’re a club leader and want to share your budget, send us an email: by another referendum this past June, win their races. The first is a Democratic to addressing climate change and pro-
orient@bowdoin.edu. ranked-choice voting allows voters to candidate in the heavily Democratic first moting renewable energy, to allowing
rank as many candidates as they choose district, and the other is a mustachioed Maine’s Wabanaki tribes a greater say in
This editorial represents the majority view of the Bowdoin Orient’s editorial board, in one particular race by order of prefer- former Maine governor who loves Joshua state government. Moody hopes to rein-
which is composed of Nell Fitzgerald, Dakota Griffin, George Grimbilas, Calder ence. Weaker candidates are then elim- Chamberlain. What’s not to like? Bruce force Second Amendment rights, slash
McHugh, Devin McKinney and Jessica Piper. inated and their votes redistributed to Poliquin, on the other hand, should be taxpayer-funded abortions, curb illegal
the remaining candidates until only two nervous. His Democratic challenger, Jar- immigration and reform what he calls
remain. This is a much more democrat- ed Golden, is a young Marine Corps vet- Maine’s “failed” referendum system.
ic method than the first-past-the-post eran and Bates graduate who has worked Hayes has a vision similar to Mills but
elections previously employed in Maine, for Senator Susan Collins and has served with a stronger emphasis on bipartisan
especially in a state where multiple can- in the Maine House of Representatives cooperation, and Caron focuses mostly
didates and viable independents are since 2014. Golden has a bold vision on bolstering Maine’s economy and re-
ESTABLISHED 1871 common. Unfortunately, due to a clause for building Maine’s economy, fighting ducing inefficiencies in government. All
in Maine’s constitution, the governor and climate change and moving towards of the candidates more or less agree on
other candidates for state office current- universal health care. Given Poliquin’s creating economic growth, prioritizing
bowdoinorient.com orient@bowdoin.edu 6200 College Station Brunswick, ME 04011 ly cannot be elected by ranked-choice weaselly nature, from his dodging of infrastructure improvements, fighting
voting. Nevertheless, voters will have the reporters to constantly siding with cor- the opioid epidemic and protecting the
chance to choose both a U.S. representa- porations, I wouldn’t be surprised if the environment, and they all have similar-
The Bowdoin Orient is a student-run weekly publication dedicated to providing news and information tive and a U.S. senator using this system in second district has had enough of him. I, ly modest backgrounds. Of these four,
relevant to the Bowdoin community. Editorially independent of the College and its administrators, November. I used ranked-choice voting for one, am kicking myself for changing I believe Mills would be the best fit for
the Orient pursues such content freely and thoroughly, following professional journalistic standards in in June’s Democratic gubernatorial pri- my registration from my hometown in Maine, especially in light of her de-
writing and reporting. The Orient is committed to serving as an open forum for thoughtful and diverse mary and found it pretty straightforward, the second district to Brunswick, because tailed plan to deal with climate change.
discussion and debate on issues of interest to the College community. despite claims to the contrary. I encourage I can’t vote for Golden here. You can’t vote Should she (or Hayes, for that matter)
you to try it out, but you can always just for him either, of course, but we can cross win, she would also be the first female
vote for one person instead if that’s what our fingers. It will be a close race, with governor in our state’s history. Only two
Calder McHugh Jessica Piper you prefer. polls showing the two candidates even or polls have been conducted so far, and
Editor in Chief Editor in Chief Poliquin with a slight edge. they show either a virtual tie between
The Referenda: the frontrunners or Mills with a slight
Digital Director Managing Editor News Editor Maine elections typically feature sev- The Governor’s Race: edge over Moody. This will be a nail-bit-
James Little Anjulee Bhalla Nina McKay eral referenda, also known as ballot mea- This is it. The main event of the elec- er for sure, but whoever emerges victo-
Nell Fitzgerald sures, which include citizen initiatives tion. Four candidates are on the ballot, rious will certainly be a welcome change
Photo Editor Dakota Griffin
Features Editor (introduced by petition) and bond issues. including Maine Attorney General Janet from LePage.
Ezra Sunshine Alyce McFadden
Mindy Leder (asst.) Mitchel Jurasek
Associate Editor
Layout Editor Maia Coleman Sports Editor
Emma Bezilla Amanda Newman
Ian Stewart Lucia Ryan Kathryn McGinnis QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Jaret Skonieczny (asst.) Copy Editor
Data Desk Editor
Sam Adler
Sydney Benjamin
A&E Editor
Sabrina Lin
DID YOU PLAY A SPORT IN HIGH SCHOOL?
Drew Macdonald Conrad Li
Gideon Moore
George Grimbilas (asst.)
Devin McKinney Opinion Editor
Answer at bowdoinorient.com/poll.
Nimra Siddiqui (asst.) Multimedia Editor Kate Lusignan
Surya Milner
Business Manager
Avery Wolfe Coordinating Editor
Calendar Editor
Cole van Miltenburg
Last week’s response:
Molly Kennedy Gwen Davidson
Digital Strategist Head Illustrator Page 2 Editor
Q: HAVE YOU GONE ON A HAUNTED BOWDOIN TOUR?
Sophie Washington Phoebe Zipper Diego Lasarte
17% YES
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 83% NO Based on answers from 46 voters
expressed in the Orient do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.
Friday, October 26, 2018 OPINION 15

Constructing revolution from redemption:

the #MeToo movement in retrospect
Beyond Belief
by Emma Newbery
On October 10, New York-
er columnist Jia Tolentino
extracted one of the #MeToo
movement’s many tenuous
threads in her piece, “One Year
of #MeToo: What Women’s
Speech Is Still Not Allowed to
Do.” Tolentino reflects on the
one-year anniversary of #Me-
Too, but with the confirma-
tion of Brett Kavanaugh still
raw and national discourse
no less barbarous or reliant
on an attack/defense binary
(to reference a certain op-ed
published in the Orient a few
weeks ago) she is hesitant to
rejoice, as are many of us.
Tolentino’s article dovetails
with a debate that has been
developing over the past few
weeks in my class, “Theo-
ries About Religion.” While
reading theorists like Victor
Turner and Catherine Bell on
the power and social function
of ritual, we have been con-
tending with what one of my
classmates described as the
“fetishization of the limin-
al.” That is, the romanticiza-
tion of a marginalized social
position as a sort of attractive
alternative to real, societal
power. Think: the romantici-
zation of the nobility and spir-
ituality First Nations peoples
while they are afforded mini-
mal representation in the U.S.
government. The two forms of
power, in short, are not legiti-
mately parallel.
An examination of Turner
further highlights both the
disenfranchisement and de-
moralization many are feeling
in the wake of the Kavanaugh
confirmation and the hope
and empowerment that #Me-
Too can offer in response.
Moreover, an analysis of
Turner sharpens Tolentino’s
critique of the valorization of
anti-structural empowerment
as a viable alternative to insti-
tutional power for women.
This “fetishization of the
liminal” has two major goals.
First, it aims to placate those
who truly occupy the margins
of society with a concept of
anti-structural power that
carries no real social currency.
Second, as Tolentino’s article
illuminates, it aims to package
the experience of the perse-
cuted into a narrative through
which those who truly possess
power can escape the conse-
quences of their actions. The
sheep are skinned so that the
wolf may present himself to
them in their own clothing.
Tolentino uses the exam-
ple of “men like Kavanaugh”
who embrace the role of the
persecuted outcast and, thus
emboldened, use this position
to further marginalize their
accusers, who truly occupy
these liminal spaces in society.
While Dr. Ford was encour-
aged to be polite, restrained,
deferential, Kavanaugh’s up-
settingly erratic testimony
uplifted “demoralized Repub-
licans,” as New York Times
contributors Peter Baker and
Nicholas Fandos write. The
valorization of the “martyr,”
Tolentino argues, has serious
consequences—the rhetoric of
victimhood is made available
as a means of redemption for
the very people who oppress
marginalized groups.
Turner’s work on limin-
ality and communitas gains
valuable significance in light
of Tolentino’s argument. In
“The Ritual Process,” Turner
outlines the dichotomy be-
tween “structure,” in this case
the prevailing social order and
hierarchical system, and “an-
ti-structure,” where rituals of
transition or social elevation
occur in the carefully regu-
lated “liminal.” Within the
realm of the liminal, commu-
nitas, a kind of solidarity of
marginalization, is cultivated.
This solidarity then facilitates
the transition back into
structure, with the par-
ticipants “revitalized
by their experience of
communitas.”
One of Turner’s con-
clusions, derived in
part from this notion
of communitas, is to
equate “secular” or so-
cial “weakness” with
a “sacred power” pos-
sessed in ritual prac-
tice. Herein
lies the “fe-
tishization of
the liminal”
that Tolen-
tino’s article
clearly iden-
tifies as a
jeopardy to
true social
change—ex-
tra-societal,
“sacred pow-
er” that cannot
carry any real weight
once participants “re-
turn to structure.” For To-
lentino, the sacrality of female
solidarity in the secular realm
becomes a “poisonous high
of feeling wrongfully endan-
gered” that empowers wom-
en’s oppressors. Redemption
for #MeToo seems to offer an
out for those the movement is
trying to hold accountable.
Catherine Bell, whose in-
famous “Ritual Theory, Rit-
ual Practice” I’m told elicits
a collective groan from most
scholars of religion, advances
a term that further contextu-
alizes Turner’s framework and
speaks to Tolentino’s frustra-
tion and cynicism: “redemp-
tive hegemony.”
Bell’s term “redemptive
hegemony” refers to the struc-
tures of power that fabricate
reality and make this active
construction into “the way
things are.” The redemptive
aspect comes into play when
the “day-to-day” is naïvely
seen instead “as a field for stra-
tegic action.” Bell suggests that
many people misunderstand
the degree of agency they have
in their lives, that this “expe-
rience” of empowerment is in
fact a fallacy. The term illumi-
nates the conciliatory tone of
assertions like Turner’s, that
marginalization can become
empowering.
The goal of this assertion,
especially when weaponized
by government officials, is to
force those on the margins
of society to fabricate power
from thin air and to stay where
they belong. If people feel as
though they have a choice, the
reality of their powerlessness
can be obscured with a veil
of optimism. This leads to the
pacification of those content
to remain in this “redemptive”
realm and allows for those
in positions of power to gain
even more legitimacy in ap-
propriating the narrative of
the weak.
“By imagining that they are
threatened,” Tolentino writes,
“men like Kavanaugh have
found the motivation to
demonstrate, at great cost to
the rest of us, that they are still
the ones who have the ability
to threaten others.”
I seem to have constructed
a pretty cynical assessment of
the limits of #MeToo. Howev-
er, the exhaustion and pitfalls
of cynicism that—especially
now—are tempting to suc-
cumb to, are a reality of any
movement towards liberation
and empowerment and should
be acknowledged. Talking
openly about the difficulties
of remaining positive and en-
ergized instead of spackling
them over with hashtags and
pithy sayings is what allows a
movement to become genu-
ine and cultivates a solidarity
that can transform into radical
action. For while this rather
somber assessment points out
the remnants of older power
ED
Y
NN
KE
LLY
MO
constructions that
are still present in
our society, I want to
also argue that some ele-
ments retain their value and
shouldn’t be underestimated.
Turner’s idea of communitas
can in today’s world be most
succinctly summarized in two
words: “me, too.” These words
have deepened the bond be-
tween me and many women
I love in ways none of us had
anticipated over this past
year—I am in no way arguing
that the words themselves are
powerless.
I am suggesting that if these
words remain within a larger
framework of “redemptive
hegemony,” content to stop at
solidarity within the liminal
as their end goal, optimism
will quickly fade to hollow
hope. Exploring liminal spac-
es as forms of resistance does
have potential, but as with
other aspects of the #MeToo
movement, illuminated in
Tolentino’s article, it must be
approached with a degree of
caution and intention so that
redemption may be trans-
formed into revolution.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Change in the world by voting on November 6 GOT

Dear Bowdoin neighbors,
On Tuesday, November 6, 2018, you
have a prodigious opportunity to ex-
ercise a precious and fragile right that
we have as Americans. Your privilege
to vote was made possible by hundreds
of thousands of men and women that
gave “the last full measure of devotion”
to protect the freedoms that I treasure
more than life itself. Our country is
still one of the greatest experiments in
history, yet it can still fail if you don’t
take an active role. It is now your turn
to lead our nation into the future. I
pray and have hope that you will do a
better job than we did.
One of my favorite quotes is by Ma-
hatma Gandhi: “Be the change that
you wish to see in the world.” In my
65 years, I have learned that one per-
son can change the world. Bowdoin
students and graduates are famous for
it. Again, you must act. Your vote will
make a difference, and you will partic-
ipate in a process that is very rare and
admired across the world. I have been
heartened to see so many students reg-
istering to vote as I walk my dog across
campus.
As you enter the polling center or,
even better, as you vote early by ab-
sentee ballot, please think about two
things. First, believe me that you are
changing the world. Second, remem-
ber the brave Americans who made
this possible for you. I urge you to vis-
it the memorials across campus that
honor Bowdoin veterans who gave
their lives to ensure your freedom,
including the ability to vote. Visualize
their names chiseled into the granite.
THOUGHTS?
They have done you proud. You
have the greatest opportunity in the
world to thank them for their sac-
rifice by voting. To quote Abraham Submit an Op-Ed or a
Lincoln in my favorite speech: “…we
here highly resolve that these dead Letter to the Editor to
shall not have died in vain—that this
nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom—and that govern-
orientopinion@bowdoin.
ment of the people, by the people, for
the people, shall not perish from the
edu by 7 p.m. on the
earth.”
Thank you for your time and for all Tuesday of the week of
that you do to help make our commu-
nity a special and vital one. publication. Include your full
Glenn Michaels
Brunswick resident
name and phone number.
 16 Friday, October 26, 2018

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER
FRIDAY 26
LECTURE
Contemplative Engagement: Teaching and
Learning for Wholeness and Social Change
Professor Emerita at the University of Texas-San Antonio
Laura Rendón will discuss methods of learning that
acknowledge cultural oppression and place emphasis on social
justice. She aims to promote a path to enlightenment through
creative practices and personal transformation, rooted in
Latina feminist theory.
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. 3 p.m.

EVENT
Take Back the Night
The Office of Gender Violence Prevention and Education will
sponsor a program of speeches and readings on the Museum
of Art steps for the College community to take a stand against
sexual violence. Afterwards, participants will take a silent
march around campus followed by a reception at 24 College. DEVAKI RAJIV, THE BOWDOIN ORIENT

Bowdoin College Museum of Art. 7:30 p.m. BE AN ALLY: Students and faculty pose for a group picture after participating in Yellow Shirt Day. The Bowdoin Queer-Straight Alliance organizes
this annual event to show support for members of the LGBTQ+ community on campus as a part of OUTtober.

MONDAY 29 WEDNESDAY 31
SATURDAY 27 EVENT
March to the Polls with Janet Mills
Maine Democratic gubernatorial candidate Janet Mills will
DISCUSSION
Reputation and Information in the
Digital World
PERFORMANCE
visit campus to speak about her campaign and the importance Renowned Paris-based philosopher Gloria Origgi will visit
Aries Trio of voting in the upcoming elections. Students will have a Reed House to lead conversations on the importance of
Artist in residence George Lopez will perform piano chance to chat and ask questions to Mills at the Polar Bear reputation in everyday life as it relates to the digital world,
alongside flutist Martha Aarons and violinist Lev Polyakin. Statue before walking to the town clerk’s office where they can political figures and the #MeToo movement.
Studzinski Recital Hall, Kanbar Auditorium. 7:30 p.m. vote prior to election day. Reed House. 7 p.m.
Polar Bear Statue. 12 p.m.
PERFORMANCE
WBOR & Ladd Present: Milo
Maine-based producer and rapper Milo will perform at Ladd
House following the release of his new album. Milo is known
for his indie, artistic style of rap and recently announced that
he will soon retire from music.
Ladd House. 10 p.m.
TUESDAY 30 THURSDAY 1
LECTURE
FILM SCREENING The Economics of Digital Token Cross-
“Free Solo” listings
Frontier Cafe and Cinema will screen the film “Free Solo,” In a seminar sponsored by the Department of Economics,
following solo climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to scale Boston College Ph.D. candidate Hugo Benedetti will present his

SUNDAY 28 the famous rock formation El Capitan in Yosemite National

Park without any ropes.
Frontier. 7 p.m.
paper, “The economics of digital token cross-listings.”
Shannon Room, Hubbard Hall. 4:25 p.m.

FILM SCREENING LECTURE

“Time Out”
The Cinema Studies Program and Department of Romance
Languages and Literature will co-sponsor a screening of the
2001 French film “Time Out.” The film will be followed by a
discussion with its actor Aurélien Recoing who has an
extensive 40-year career in both films and theater.
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center. 4 p.m.
DEBATE
Public Senate and Congressional Debates
The College will host Maine’s U.S. Senatorial and 1st
Congressional District candidates for the upcoming midterm
elections. Doors will open 30 minutes before the debates
start. Tickets must be reserved ahead of time.
Studzinski Recital Hall, Kanbar Auditorium. 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Islamophobia at the Intersection
Amer Ahmed, University of Massachusetts — Amherst Director
of Intercultural Teaching and Faculty Development, will discuss
the intersection of Islamophobia with social identities along with
the importance of creating coalitions to support
marginalized groups.
Pickard Theater, Memorial Hall. 7:30 p.m.

2 PERFORMANCE 3 PERFORMANCE 4 5 6 EVENT 7 8 EVENT

Ursellania Maine Brass Election Day Trivia Night

Guild