At its last meeting of the semester, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) voted in favor of a proposal to extend Thanksgiving Break. The revised proposal includes multiple versions of the new break, intended to accommodate the demands of administration, faculty and students.
Additionally, BSG unanimously voted to pass a proposal allocating $400 to fund a Health Service event that will bring massage therapists to campus during the upcoming reading period. A student proposal to recruit military veterans to the College through the Yellow Ribbon Program passed as well.
After speaking with President Mills, Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster and Counseling Services, the academic affairs committee agreed that the Thanksgiving proposal should be amended for greater flexibility.
Vice President of Academic Affairs Representative Jordan Francke '13 introduced the proposal and discussed its attributes.
"We should approach this issue with several options," said Francke. "Basically, the point of that would be that it gives the faculty more power in the decision."
Each option in the proposal extends Thanksgiving Break to an entire week without classes at the least. Several of the options extend the break from five to nine days without omitting class time. For example, one option states that Orientation week should be shortened to allow for a longer Thanksgiving Break.
After a long discussion that debated the relevancy of a detail in the proposal, a motion to amend the Thanksgiving proposal was passed by Vice President for BSG Affairs Anirudh Sreekrishnan '12.
The amendment omitted references to a technicality that changed the name of Fall Break to "reading period."
According to the academic affairs committee, the intent behind changing the name of Fall Break was to encourage students to remain on campus and use the time for studying or leisure.
The name change was also an effort to make the longer Thanksgiving Break more environmentally sustainable.
Encouraging students to stay on campus during Fall Break would help counteract the carbon footprint of increased travel over Thanksgiving. With a week-long break, more students will be able to take flights home and therefore students will consume more energy. If students were to stay on campus during Fall Break, however, students' energy consumption would arguably remain about the same.
"Many incoming freshmen would think that they need to stay on campus and study. [The name change] is supporting the priority of studying," said Francke.
Class of 2012 Representative Becka Levin defended the numerous options of the proposal.
"We don't have the resources to know which one of these [options] is necessarily the best," said Levin.
Whether or not the proposal will be passed by the administration remains to be seen, but representatives hope that the flexibility of the proposal will lead to positive results.
After the discussion of the Thanksgiving proposal, BSG representatives presented their respective committee reports.
BSG President John Connolly '11 ended the meeting on a high note and applauded representatives on their work throughout the semester.