On Wednesday evening, Associate Vice President of Safety and Security Bill Harwood and Director of Safety and Security Paul Hansen joined Bowdoin Student Government (BSG)’s weekly meeting in the Mills Hall Event Space to answer student questions about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in Brunswick.

Students shared concerns and inquiries about Tuesday’s ICE operation in Brunswick, protocols regarding ICE encounters on and off campus and methods of conveying information to the Bowdoin community regarding such incidents.

Harwood emphasized that the ICE operation on Tuesday was likely a one-off.

He cited national trends, the practical difficulties of conducting arrests and the termination of the Department of Homeland Security’s enhanced ICE operation in Maine as reasons why ICE is unlikely to conduct operations on campus.

“Safety is our primary concern for all of you,” Harwood said.

Harwood referred students searching for answers to the College’s previous communications and informative events about ICE. These included emails with links to resources for community members, a “Know Your Rights” session with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine last week, and another session with attorney and immigration law expert Russell Ford on Wednesday.

He also indicated interest in joining future meetings with students, including affinity groups, to discuss their questions and suggestions regarding the College’s protocols relating to ICE.

“By all means, if there’s a group that wants me to come, I’m very happy and encouraged to hear all the questions and write down more things.

Because, believe me, this is not perfect. We’re not going to manage this perfectly. We’re going to be learning sometimes. Like, that email yesterday was too slow,” Harwood said. “The only way that we learn that there are some places that are falling short of your expectations is meetings like this.”

BSG then discussed updates to the spring break airport shuttle program and upcoming campus programming.

As of now, the spring break shuttle program will involve a 14-person van chartered through an outside company departing every two hours from noon to 6 p.m. Friday afternoon and from 6 a.m. to noon on Saturday, supplemented by a BSG-driven van on Friday morning.

BSG’s Academic Affairs Committee also briefly discussed its project to facilitate free textbooks for international students facing employment restrictions.

Near the end of the meeting, BSG Vice President Harper Stevenson ’27 shared an update regarding BSG’s annual winter community event, “Cold at Coe,” for which they have secured food trucks, ordered new merchandise and prepared old class council merchandise to be provided on a first come, first served basis.