Even though Director of Residential Life Kim Pacelli now sits at her desks in Moulton Union taking care of all sorts of administrative duties, just a few years ago she was finishing her last final exam and thought, "it's time to get out of Brunswick."
Pacelli is a central Connecticut native. Her father is in computer programming and her mother works in retail. Pacelli stayed in Connecticut until fifth grade when her family moved to New Hampshire where she finished elementary, middle and half of high school. After her parents divorced, Pacelli moved back to Connecticut to live with her grandparents and graduated valedictorian of Plainville High School. After she switched high schools, Pacelli got heavily involved in politics; her grandfather was a highly influential figure. It was then that she considered a possible political career and thought about going to college in Washington D.C., such as Georgetown University or American University.
During Pacelli's senior year, Kem Appell '50 came to her high school in order to encourage students to reach for more competitive and prestigious colleges. At this point, while she was sure she wanted to attend college, Pacelli said that her college search had no real direction.
"I knew I was going to college but I was not very organized or thoughtful about how I was going about my search," she said.
Kem acquainted himself with Pacelli and her family and arranged for them to come up to Bowdoin for a visit. This visit was Pacelli's first real introduction to the "NESCAC small-college scene."
Pacelli had crossed Bowdoin off her list after she discovered that it was in Maine. However, she reconsidered after stepping foot on campus.
Pacelli explained, echoing countless other Bowdoin students, past and present, that "the place just felt right."
During her college years, Pacelli was involved in the College Republicans for some time and participated in intramural sports. She was also involved with the debate team.
"I'm one of the odd people," Pacelli said, "who has grown more moderate as I've gotten older."
Greatly influenced by her grandfather's conservative views, Pacelli's political outlook was right-of-center when she arrived at the College. After her grandfather passed away, however, her political views became much more middle-of-the-road. During her time as a student here, the College Republicans grew more polarized and leaned towards more extreme conservatism. Pacelli lost interest in the club and decided to become an independent.
Pacelli's main extracurricular activity was not politics. She was most involved with the Office of Residential Life. Pacelli was a proctor in Moore Hall for two years and later a resident advisor in the Harpswell Apartments. Kim described her time here at Bowdoin as pretty typical.
"The people...the friends that you make here, are really, you know, one of the most formative parts of the experience," she said.
As director of the Office of Residential Life, Pacelli deals with infringements on Bowdoin's alcohol policy and talking with students who have been caught in activities prohibited by College rules. When necessary, she also metes out punishments to violators.
Given her position of power with regard to alcohol policy, an obvious question is "What role did alcohol play in Pacelli's college experience?"
As a student, she "checked out the party scene." It was a fun way to "meet upperclassmen along with other classmates," she said. While not a drinker before coming to Bowdoin, Pacelli did not shy away from campus-wide parties once here. She was certainly neither "a huge boozer" nor "a huge partier" but allowed herself to have fun, Pacelli said.
All in all, Pacelli was just like any other Bowdoin student, attempting to find the perfect balance between work and play.
I could not help but wonder how she went about scoring the office in which we were sitting. How did Pacelli go from a student to director of Residential Life in such a short amount of time? How did she become a prominent administrative figure at Bowdoin so quickly?
Taking advantage of an opportunity to get involved with student policy discussions during her sophomore year, Pacelli became an active member of the alcohol task force. By her junior year, Pacelli was a member of the Trustees' Commission for Residential Life that recommended the abolition of fraternities and the implementation of the College House system. As Kim worked closely with other students and administrators to address the question of "what we want this community to feel like and how will we get there?" Pacelli began to consider a career of higher education administration for the first time.
After graduating in 1998, Pacelli decided to go ahead and try politics as a possible career. For her, it was definitely time to break out of the bubble and into the real world of government affairs.
After a few years in D.C., Pacelli decided she did want to give higher education administration a shot. She packed up and moved her life north, back to Brunswick and into a room on the 16th floor of Coles Tower. Although she was only away from Bowdoin for a few short years, she experienced a kind of culture shock re-entering the college community. Pacelli was hired as an assistant director of Residential Life and spent two years in that position. She then left to get her master's degree in education at Harvard. Afterward, she returned to Washington and got a job with the United States Department of Education.
When Bob Graves, the former director of the Residential Life Office, made a last-minute decision to go to Benedict College in the late spring of 2004, Pacelli returned to Bowdoin as the interim director. Pacelli officially became director of Residential Life in the fall of 2005.
Pacelli speaks fondly of her current job.
"When people ask me what it's like to work here, I always say it's a such a wonderful experience... and it changes the nature of the place forever for you," she said.
On the subject of alcohol and College Houses, she has very clear opinions.
"I don't think people give the college houses enough credit for the amount of programming events they do outside of the campus-wide parties and as long as there's a certain demand for campus wides... and as long as those buildings are the obvious locations for these kinds of events to occur, that's always going to pigeon hole students who live in the college houses," she said.
Pacelli is confident that as long as Bowdoin continues having good discussions about the issue of alcohol, its students will continue to make healthy decisions.
Given that Pacelli graduated from the College in 1998, some might think that cracking down on the students here and dealing with violations against alcohol policies might be particularly difficult. Pacelli explained that while there is always an "inherent tension" and a tendency to sympathize with students and the situation they are in, she tries to focus on communicating with students in order to find out what exactly lead them to their "wrong" decision as opposed to an ineffective slap-on-the-wrist approach.
For Pacelli, the strong connections made between students, faculty and staff is a defining characteristic of Bowdoin.
She also mentioned the committed alums that continue contributing to the Bowdoin community as a factor that helps to preserve the College's unique character.
"I don't have any plans...to leave at this point...I really love being back at Bowdoin," she said.
Perhaps a doctorate in sociology is somewhere down the road for Pacelli, but for the moment she is entirely committed to improving residential life at Bowdoin.
"There's a lot we've accomplished and there's a lot more that needs to be done," Pacelli said with a cheerful smile.
"I don't think we're that far off from ensuring that this place can feel like home to all Bowdoin students," she said.
After all, Pacelli added, "that's kind of what it's about at the end of the day."