May 14, 2021
Last March, during its 218th academic year, the College sent the student body home for the first time in institutional history. In the midst of every major world event from 1794 to present day, Bowdoin felt that it had the ability to maintain the safety of its students, faculty, staff and surrounding community. However, that streak came to a screeching halt with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when students were told during spring break in March of 2020 that they would not be allowed to return to campus.
“It was unprecedented,” said Dr. Jeffery Maher, director of health services, in a Zoom interview with the Orient. “The whole idea of sending students home was unprecedented. It’s not something the school has ever done. It didn’t happen during the World Wars [and] it didn’t happen during the flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919.”