President Safa Zaki has released the academic calendar for the 2024-2025 academic year, which includes alterations to the new student orientation schedule. In recent years, students have left for orientation trips the day after arriving on campus and participated in on-campus orientation events beginning the Saturday they returned and ending the Tuesday before classes began. Next year, new students will engage in orientation programming on campus for two days before going on their orientation trips and will proceed with orientation events on Saturday, August 31. Orientation programming will end on Monday, September 2 instead as a result of classes starting a day earlier.

In an email addressed to the campus community, Zaki said changes made to the fall 2024 semester are the result of the week-long Thanksgiving break she officially announced earlier this year.

“To [make up two additional class days], we will be starting the semester two days earlier. This year and next year, this shift in the calendar means that Convocation will take place on Labor Day,” Zaki wrote.

According to Associate Dean of Students Khoa Khuong, new students will be spending the full day on campus before orientation trips participating in on-campus programming, which he hopes will also help students feel more settled at Bowdoin before they leave on their trips.

“We decided that having a day for students to be on campus, to feel grounded, before sending them out into the woods of Maine or other communities, of course, is just better overall for students’ experience,” Khoung said.

The Class of 2028 will also be the first class to participate in the new first-year course registration timeline and will have registered for classes prior to their arrival on campus. New students will be able to meet with their pre-major advisors the Monday after they return from orientation trips.