Hello Bowdoinians,
This is an open letter to you. It is an ode to student government, a request that you will challenge me to serve you and meet your needs, an invitation for you to come to me in the Moulton light room and ask me to do difficult things, a deep hope that you will see Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) as a mechanism through which you can effect change.
I am Harriet, your president, and I think BSG is dope. I am also fully aware that for many of you, BSG is an amorphous arm of the administration, an overly political and self-important coterie or a party-planning committee. So, I am writing to articulate our vision for this year and to explain the ways in which you can use BSG to get things done.
This year we, the executive team, want to make our individual roles and realms clearer to the student body. I oversee six Vice Presidents who chair committees on particular aspects of Bowdoin: VP for BSG Affairs (Reed Fernandez ’17), VP for Student Affairs (Ben Painter ’19), VP for Academic Affairs (Evelyn Sanchez ’17), VP for Student Organizations (Kelsey Scarlett ’17), VP for the Treasury (Irfan Alam ’18) and VP for Facilities and Sustainability (Carlie Rutan ’19). Each of these people has a specific realm of work and is so, so eager to work with you. We are already working on initiatives ranging from increasing culturally-cognizant curriculum to picnic tables by Moulton to reviving Uncommon Hour. Help us to know what our next steps should be.
Every Wednesday our 8:30 p.m. meetings in Daggett Lounge begin with public comment time. Come and be the public. Bring forward questions and demands about how Bowdoin can and should operate. Create petitions through the online portal we built and demand that BSG open a forum for debate and release a press statement. Apply for funding through the Good Ideas Fund to bring a “good idea” you have for our campus to fruition. Ask us to publicize your event. Let us know what you want us to convey in our meetings with deans, staff and administrators. Interview through BSG to serve on one of the faculty or trustee committees and offer your input on major college decisions. Make BSG work for you.
I was asked to speak to the Class of 2020 on the topic of “making an impact” at their Convening Dinner. While this was a rather daunting task, I want to share with you some of what I said.
I asked our first years to remember [that] Bowdoin was chartered in 1794 and in 1802 graduated eight students from Massachusetts Hall—when Bowdoin College was, in its entirety, that one building and this state was called Massachusetts. We graduated our first black man in 1826 and not again until 1910; we graduated our first woman in 1971. These markers of Bowdoin’s evolution do not begin to encapsulate the diversity Bowdoin represents and strives to represent today, but it is abundantly clear that Bowdoin was founded as a very different college, and certainly not a place for most of us. Students, faculty and staff long before us—but still grounded in our very offer of the college—pushed, challenged and demanded that Bowdoin evolve. And so it did. Each of us lives very much in that legacy. Indeed, the Bowdoin you are now a part of is different from Bowdoin when I sat at this very dinner just three years ago. It is a fluid place and a constant place.
BSG is a mechanism for you to fix the things that frustrate you. We are so ready to support you in changing Bowdoin policies and practices.
I hope sincerely that you will see BSG as a way to make change, build community and ensure that our college reflects our students. We, the executive team, are here for you. Come to our meetings, get coffee with us and—in the spring—run for office!
Harriet Fisher is a member of the Class of 2017
You can reach Harriet at hcfisher@bowdoin.edu.