COLLEGE SHORTS Bowdoin student suffers attack

Author: Jason F. Siegel

More than one month after fending off a knifepoint attacker by hitting him across the face with a bottle of Tide, Bowdoin sophomore Joshua Cippel was attacked once again early last month in the same location.

Cippel went to open the door in the stairwell leading from the laundry room in his residence hall, but could not open the door, because it was being held from behind. Through the door he heard, "F--- you, Tide man." The intruder let go of the door, hitting Cippel in the head and causing him to fall backwards down the stairs. The victim then called emergency services, though they did not find the attacker.

Earlier, an attacker had threatened Cippel with a knife in an attempted robbery in that same laundry room. Because he did not see the intruder in the later attack, he could not determine whether it was the same man. Bowdoin Director of Security Randy Nichols said that it was a highly unconventional move for a criminal to avenge a failed crime.

The student lives in an area of which many Bowdoin students are wary. There have also been reports of peeping toms.

-Bowdoin Orient



Congress slashes student loans

Just before the holiday recess, both the House of Representatives and the Senate approved a $12.7 billion cut in federal student loan programs. The bill has not yet gone to the President, since there are slight differences in the bills approved by each branch of Congress that will need to be resolved before the bill can go to the White House. The President, who has never vetoed a bill, is expected to sign this one as well.

The cuts come as part of an effort to reduce the federal deficit, and make up part of a larger $40 billion package. This is by far the largest cut ever in the history of student loan programs.

The bill would impose an increase in interest on student loans from 4.7 to 6.8 percent. Students who are from low-income families are likely to be those most adversely affected by the legislation. Some predict that this legislation will deter low-income students from going to college or graduate school, since the amount of money to repay will be so much higher.

-U-Wire



Michigan drops Coke contract

On Dec. 29, the University of Michigan became the 10th university in the nation to stop selling and distributing Coca-Cola products, the result of activists who condemned the company's alleged mistreatment of its workers in Colombia and pollution habits in India.

Opponents of the soft-drink corporation claim that Coca-Cola has refused to acknowledge the role it played in the deaths of eight Latin American union leaders over a 14-year span, saying its recent internal investigation that cleared it of any current wrongdoing, was both biased and failed to address the controversies of the previous two decades. Other opponents claim that in India, one factory is responsible for soil pollution, reductions of available water in an arid region and the spread of pesticides in water.

Coca-Cola has denied the claim but has nevertheless faced strong resistance on college campuses.

The University of Michigan has demanded an independent investigation, and although the company is investigating the possibility, it did not do so by the school's Dec. 15 deadline.

-The New York Times