On Wednesday evening, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) held its inaugural meeting of the semester, where it outlined its goals for the coming year. Members of the assembly expressed their desire to launch efforts in addressing the mental health of Bowdoin students and providing support for students of traditionally under-represented backgrounds.

Spearheading the mental health and under-represented student support efforts are BSG President Ryan Britt ’22, Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee Philip al Mutawaly ’24 and Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee Carolina Escobar ’24. Their plans for the year include working with administrators to provide free graduate school test preparation, working with the admissions office to admit more first-generation/low-income and undocumented applicants and expanding the College’s blue light system.

“This institution wasn’t built for people that are diverse, it was built for rich white men,” Escobar said at the meeting. “Even if you aren’t first-generation/low-income, neurodivergent or undocumented, you have a responsibility as an ally.”

In addition to these efforts, BSG hopes to create a mental health board on campus and work with administrators to revitalize the academic honor code.

“My hope for this year is to establish a review board of the social code and the honor code that meets every couple of years to make sure that it is something our student body feels is applicable to us as students,” BSG Vice President Andrew Kaleigh ’24 said.

With all this action, members of BSG hope to reinvigorate student interest in the governing body and make the student government have a more visible role in student life on campus.

“BSG is at a very critical point right now,” al Mutawaly said. “No one thinks that BSG does anything … this has to be a year that we all take it seriously, and we all have to work together.”

Other BSG initiatives discussed included revamping the BSG website—which still contains the BSG’s old constitution—and continuing the work on the Bowdoin Discord server that was started last year.