The Board of Trustees convened on campus for its first meeting of the academic year during the weekend of October 17. The trustees discussed student access to academic resources and approved an updated budget for the current year, according to President Safa Zaki in a campus-wide email sent last Friday.

During the plenary session with faculty, senior officers, staff and student representatives, the board took the recommendation of the Audit, Risk and Reputation Committee and approved an updated budget for the current year, along with financial statements for the previous fiscal year. The new budget addresses the expanded size of the first-year class and the upcoming Reed House renovation.

The Audit, Risk and Reputation Committee also met to discuss insurance and a conflict of interest policy, as well as the risks associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its developing technologies.

The main focus of the other standing committee meetings was access and student experience. Trustees on the Academic Affairs Committee heard from students who participated in faculty-led trips and Bowdoin’s summer language study program. Additionally, representatives from the Office of Institutional Research, Analytics and Consulting joined the Committee on Inclusion to discuss how the Polar Bear Feedback Team incorporates student perspectives across campus to inform the work of campus offices and departments.

“It is the role of our trustees as fiduciaries to consider the best possible future for Bowdoin and what resources might be needed to support faculty, staff and students in this aspiration,” Zaki wrote. “Much of the weekend focused on how the College can continue to strengthen its longstanding commitments to access.”

Similarly, members of the Student Experience Committee heard from representatives of Ladd House about its community events, as well as Career Exploration and Development (CXD) about campus resources, including post-grad career support and donor-funded internships. Conversations also included supplemental and emergency funding available through Student Affairs.

“The update on support also highlighted supplemental and emergency funding which,… thanks to the ever-increasing support of alumni and members of the Bowdoin community, both the amount of funding available and the flexibility of its use have grown over time,” Executive Director of CXD Kristin Brennan wrote in an email to the Orient. “Students can receive support for needs such as travel to interviews or family emergencies, professional clothing for treks or interviews and winter coats and boots, among other things.”

In her email, Zaki also shared that a group of student orientation leaders joined the Trustees for a casual lunch.

“Over the past two years, we have created more opportunities for trustees to spend time with the campus community when they meet in Brunswick,” Zaki wrote. “Last Friday, a group of student orientation leaders joined trustees for an unstructured conversation over lunch. I heard from many trustees that this was a highlight of the weekend.”

The Board is scheduled to meet next in early February.