Orient Express

Miscellania performs outside The Gelato Fiasco during the fifth annual Scoop-a-Thon. (Courtesy of The Gelato Fiasco)

An estimated 350 Bowdoin students participated in The Gelato Fiasco's fifth annual Scoop-a-Thon.

Close to 50 "celebrity scoopers" from the College and other local organizations scooped an average of one dish or pint of gelato every 41 seconds during the 12-hour event.

"Celebrity scoopers" from Bowdoin included the men's and women's swim teams, ResLife, men's and women's track teams, and men's rugby. Performers included Miscellania, Ursus Verses, BellaMafia, the Longfellows, Nick Walker and the Polar Bear.

In 2006, Steve Kolowich wrote an in-depth guide to surviving Ivies:

1) Destroy your cell phone. Don't just hide it, because if you hide it you'll know where to find it. If you entrust it to a friend, one of two things will happen: either he'll give it back to you once you're sufficiently faded and encourage you to call the girl you asked to the junior high formal, or he'll leave lurid messages on every voice mailbox in your phonebook until he either passes out or forgets what he was doing. So destroy it. Verizon will buy you a new one.

2) Destroy your room phone, too. And suspend your AIM and Facebook accounts. If you own a telegraph, break it. If you own a messenger pigeon, kill it. In the interest of preventing regrettable correspondence with family, college administrators, and objects of lust, all communications media must be disabled. And pigeons spread diseases.

3) If you're wondering at what time of day it's OK to start drinking without officially qualifying as an alcoholic, here are a few mantras to quiet the ol' conscience: (a) Mimosa is more like orange juice than champagne. (b) In many cultures it's considered rude to show up to an athletic event sober. (c) If the sun hasn't risen yet, it's technically still nighttime. (d) There's always someone who started before you. And finally, for the truly desperate, (e) Time is a human abstraction whose rules are so inorganic that we changed them in 1883 so our trains could run more efficiently, and therefore any argument against alcohol consumption based on time of day is essentially baseless.

Download the new Ivies App, called "Ivies Companion" available now on the iTunes App Store.

The updated version the Violence Against Women Act that Pres. Obama signed into law on Thursday includes "new requirements for how colleges and universities handle allegations of sexual assault," reports NPR.

The new law — the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act, which was added to the Violence Against Women Act — clarifies the rights of victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence or stalking on campus. It gives victims a new ability to appeal an outcome. It also requires schools to inform victims of their rights and options, and to tell them where to get counseling and legal help.

The new law addresses issues raised in NPR's 2010 series of stories, Seeking Justice for Campus Rapes. That series, a joint effort with the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity, revealed that judicial proceedings were often secretive on campuses, and women often faced barriers when they tried to report rape complaints.

The CSVE Act updates the Clery Act, under which Bowdoin regularly publishes campus security reports.

The 2010 investigation included a look at a Bowdoin case in which a baseball player accused of rape (and found guilty of sexual assault, but not rape, by the College) was placed on non-academic suspension.

At times, though, even seemingly stringent sanctions can amount to little. In December 2007, Ariel Brown, then a junior at Bowdoin College, reported being raped by a baseball player in her dorm after an alcohol-soaked party. Two months later, the Bowdoin Sexual Assault and Misconduct Board deemed the student responsible for “the charge of Sexual Assault,” case records show. For Brown, it was little consolation: A school investigation had already dismissed her allegations of forced anal sex, making the finding solely for “an act of oral sex.” (Ariel Brown is a pseudonym to protect her identity.)

During her proceeding, Brown requested that the alleged assailant be suspended. Instead, he received “non-academic suspension” — in effect, social probation. Records show he was “removed from campus for all non-academic pursuits” — no housing, no activities. But Brown later learned Tim Foster, Bowdoin’s dean of students, had made an exception: The athlete could attend home baseball games.  Brown’s mother — a Bowdoin alumnae — remembers complaining to Foster, who relayed that the student had been in his office, crying, because of the penalty. He was allowed to march in the May 2008 graduation; according to records, though, his diploma was held for a year.  Foster declined to comment on Brown’s case, except to stress that “this matter did not involve any finding of rape.” The accused did not respond to several e-mails and phone calls seeking comment.

One of the women interviewed for the Center for Public Integrity investigation — Laura Dunn, a University of Wisconsin alumnae — lobbied Congress to pass the new act, and attended the signing at the White House.

NEW YORK — Orient alumni Karsten Moran ’05 and Beth Kowitt ’07 were married this evening in a ceremony at Chelsea Piers’ The Lighthouse. Celebration commencing. —RG

New York Times wedding announcement

Moran’s Orient author page