This past fiscal year, colleges and universities throughout the country faced pressure, investigations and lawsuits from the federal government. Additionally, many of these institutions have also seen an increase in legal expenditures and federal lobbying costs.

Bowdoin is at the forefront of both these developments. Just a few months after the College was targeted in a congressional investigation following its 2025 Students for Justice in Palestine’s (SJP) encampment in Smith Union, it increased its federal lobbying spending to $130,000, as stated by The Maine Monitor.

This increase in expenditure is going to Cornerstone Government Affairs, a state and federal lobbying firm based in Washington, D.C. that Bowdoin retained in June 2025. This is the first time in recent history the College has spent enough money to be legally obligated to report their lobbying spending under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, a limit set at $3,500 for external representation.

In addition to these lobbying expenditures, the College increased its legal fees from $1.1 million in July 2024 to almost $3.5 million in June 2025. This marks a more than 200 percent increase, according to financial data obtained by The Maine Monitor.

This increase in legal fees also comes after Bowdoin’s involvement in a federal class-action antitrust lawsuit against over 32 selective liberal arts colleges and universities’ use of Early Decision (ED) admissions programs. The lawsuit alleged that Bowdoin, along with the other institutions named in the lawsuit, used ED admissions to engage in price fixing.

The College’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Katrina Chapman explained how the College’s legal expenditures vary across fiscal terms.

“Bowdoin’s expenses vary from year to year as the College responds to changes in the legal and regulatory environment,” Chapman wrote in an email to the Orient.

The College did not comment on its specific reasons for the increase in legal expenditures and lobbying.