In its first meeting, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) passed four funding requests, all unanimously.
The first of the four proposals requested $4,500 for the BSG shuttle service, which takes students to Freeport, Cooks Corner, and Portland on Fridays and Saturdays for $3, as well as the Brunswick Night Taxi, which provides free taxi service to students on weekend nights.
Despite the expansion of Security's shuttle service, Vice President of Facilities Mike Dooley '10 said he thought that BSG should continue to support the additional transportation options.
"We've always offered this service to students," Dooley said. "Volume-wise, the Bowdoin Shuttle probably won't be enough at certain times, and we want to give students as many options as possible."
In addition, BSG passed funding requests for the campus newspaper service and discounted movie tickets, both of which were initiated by Dooley, as well as a request to help fund the Polar Bear Nation tee-shirts.
During the meeting, members of the executive council laid out their goals for the upcoming semester. Carly Berman '11, the vice president of student affairs, said she hopes to work collaboratively with Peer Health and the Health Center to help spark a discussion about students' health experiences at the College.
"This will be an opportunity to separate fact from fiction?myth from reality?as well as to identify and deal with actual problems that affect students," said Berman in an e-mail to the Orient.
"We want to increase students' trust in the Center by creating a dialogue addressing concerns which may not have received sufficient attention or discussion in the past."
Also new to BSG this year is the Special Committee on Programming, which will take the place of the Programming Chair.
President of BSG Sophia Seifert '09 said, "We have revamped the position to include a committee, both as a way to delegate responsibility but also as a venue to generate new programming ideas."
"One of BSG's priorities this year is to actively reach out to the community, and programs which support the issues we are discussing are going to be a key part of that initiative," she added.
The new committee will be co-chaired by two first years, Kris Klein and Derek Brooks, "who have amazing energy and enthusiasm," said Seifert.
Overall, Seifert said she felt the meeting went well. "Even though our agenda focused largely on internal matters and funding allocations, people were being insightful and pragmatic, and most importantly, showing enthusiasm," she said. "I can't wait to see what they do when we really dig our heels in and get some issues on the table."