In addition to unanimously approving a set of revised Students Activites Funding Committee (SAFC) policies, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) welcomed two major campus figures to its meetings over the past two weeks. Tim Diehl, director of Bowdoin's Career Planning Center (CPC), and Kim Pacelli, director of the Office of Residential Life, attended the October 3 and October 10 meetings, respectively, for open forum discussions.
During the meeting, he told BSG that he hoped "career planning at Bowdoin could be a point of distinction for the College."
Diehl gave a PowerPoint presentation titled "Career Planning Center Update & Priorities." He stated that he hoped to gain student input to help guide the future of the CPC, remarking that "there's a lot of energy right now about the potential there is at the CPC."
Pacelli attended this week's meeting for a discussion of Residential Life policies, particularly the situation of Bowdoin's chem-free housing.
Pacelli presented a variety of data regarding chem-free housing and raised the question of why so few students remain in the chem-free program through their four years at Bowdoin, among other issues.
"The issue of which spaces to offer as chem-free is a really challenging one for our office," she stated at the meeting. "What I want to be able to provide is the right amount of space...you have to pick the right space so that you get the right people living there."
Students raised questions about the implementation of "quiet housing" as an alternative to the chem-free label. Pacelli noted that "quiet housing" has not been popular among students.
"I'll be honest, we didn't get a lot of support for this," she said. "I'm glad we tried it, but I think we need to evaluate it."
Pacelli also reassured students that the imbalance sometimes created by students studying abroad is less evident this year than in the past, and reiterated the increase in student desire to live on campus.
"I thought the meeting went really well," Pacelli wrote in an e-mail. "We're just beginning to ask some questions about how to improve the chem-free housing experience for students so while we didn't get anything resolved, my time with BSG last night was very helpful in talking about some of the issues and identifying the right questions to ask."
"It was good for BSG to get a chance to hear Tim Diehl's objectives for Career Planning as he goes into his first year as director," Brooks wrote.
Through the month of October, BSG will assemble in Smith Union's Morrell Lounge to address one of the group's main goals: engaging the student body.
"We're working on transparency and efficiency and I believe we've done that in the content and context of our meetings," according to Will Donahoe '08. "We're meeting in public places and advertising as best we can."