Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) addressed two orders of business at Wednesday night's meeting: the current proposal to amend the fall break schedule and an update on tickets for the upcoming midnight premier of the latest Harry Potter movie .
Vice President for Academic Affairs Jordan Francke '13 opened the floor and discussed the current schedule proposal.
After conversations with the Office of Residential Life, Director of Student Life Allen Delong and the counseling service, the Academic Affairs committee agreed that Fall Break should be kept and instead, adjustments should be made to lengthen Thanksgiving break.
"We talked about the possibility of making fall break three days," said Francke. "Then we talked about whether it's a break [three days]. We decided to keep it as it was. The conversation developed into how we could lengthen Thanksgiving break."
The current proposal would have classes beginning one day earlier, which in turn would move ResLife training and Orientation back a day.
This change would allow the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week to become a rescheduling day instead of Wednesday.
In addition to Tuesday, Monday would also become a rescheduling day.
If the proposal is accepted, Thanksgiving break would be extended to nine days instead of five days including the weekend.
"A lot of people feel the current system is geographically and economically discriminatory," said Francke.
Inter House Council President Georgia Nowers '12 pointed out that shifting Thanksgiving break would make the cost of plane tickets more feasible for students, particularly those who live in the Midwest or on the West Coast.
"If you got a Friday flight the week before, it would be extraordinarily cheaper than if you got it the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week," said Nowers.
"It makes it financially more possible," Francke added.
Addressing criticism from representatives on whether having a longer break before the five-week winter break was necessary, Francke highlighted the benefits of having a longer Thanksgiving break to counteract the stress and anguish of finals week.
"It's more study time for finals if students choose to use it that way. But it's also a time for students to decompress and relax before finals," said Francke.
At next week's meeting, BSG plans to go into further detail on the schedule proposal.
After two weeks of deliberation and a survey, BSG voted unanimously for the first time this semester in favor of allocating money for movie tickets to a midnight screening of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
In a follow-up interview, Class of 2013 Representative Leah Greenberg said: "Harry Potter is a very popular thing. BSG basically doesn't do too much programming and we wanted to do a fun event."
"It's nice that Student Activities is co-sponsoring and helping to get transportation for 100 students," said Greenberg.
BSG will provide transportation to Regal Cinemas for the event on November 18. Tickets will be priced at $7 and transportation will be $2.