Roughly one out of every three students balances representing the College in varsity sports on top of their schoolwork. The student-athlete experience, therefore, extends to how many students navigate academics, college life and their communities simultaneously. The Bowdoin Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (BSAAC) is an organization working to support that experience.

BSAAC is a student-athlete committee whose mission is to give students a voice in the athletic department and support them in both aspects of their college careers. The committee does not take a one-size-fits-all approach to the support it provides, but rather has built several subcommittees focusing on areas including community service, diversity, equity and inclusion, first-year integration and mental health. But what does BSAAC accomplish for students? Owen Weller ’27, president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and co-captain of the swim and dive team, recounted his experience with the BSAAC and described the organization’s voice as direct and influential in the athletic department.

“I was ready to apply to the executive board as a junior because I thought it was really awesome how direct of a role they had in determining the athletic experience,” Weller said. “As a member of the executive board, I felt like my input and opinions directly reflected what athletes experience.”

The committee includes not only student executive leadership, but also a student representative from every sports team. BSAAC representatives participate in conversations with offices across campus, such as the Office of Inclusion and Diversity and the Sexuality, Women and Gender Center.

BSAAC aims to address hurdles in the student-athlete experience, including challenges faced by first-year athletes. Mary Rainey ’27, vice president of BSAAC and co-captain of women’s soccer, described these hurdles as extending beyond those in the practice grounds.

“The biggest issue we hear from student-athletes is the difficulty of being a high-achieving student, members of co-curriculars and members of teams,” Rainey wrote in an email to the Orient. “So many athletes on campus are involved in many different groups … but the time commitments can make students feel they’re being pulled in many directions.”

One way this can manifest is athletes’ limited ability to participate in Bowdoin Outing Club trips. It’s a challenge that BSAAC is working to address.

“[We’re] going to collaborate with the BOC to allow more athletes to go on trips on the weekends that they couldn’t normally [attend],” Weller said. “There’s a lot of division because there really seems to be a natural, exclusive relationship where you can’t do both [BOC and athletics].”

The student-athlete experience involves long hours with teammates, both during practice and in team-building activities. As a result, sports teams can become a student-athlete’s closest community.

“It can be isolating to be on a team at times if you don’t put in real effort to make connections outside of your team, which can be really intimidating for certain people,” Rainey wrote.

This can be especially true for first-year athletes, for whom a new home, practice hours and academic responsibilities can leave little time to build community outside of sports.

For student-athletes, the BSAAC provides avenues to raise those concerns, be it a missing piece of equipment or finding a place in the broader Bowdoin community. Rainey emphasized that students do not need to wait for a major problem before speaking up.

“No request is too small, and if you’re feeling something is wrong or could be improved, other people probably are too,” Rainey wrote.