Although Bowdoin students may be accustomed to viewing their contemporaries at Colby and Bates as rivals than as potential friends, a new student-run group on all three campuses, the Colby Bowdoin Bates Alliance (CBBA), is looking to make friends out of athletic foes.
Fhiwa Ndou ’13 and Drew Zembruski ’13 head up the Bowdoin branch, and are working with student leaders from Bates and Colby, to bring students from all three colleges together.
The CBBA plans to introduce itself to the Bowdoin community with a kick-off party at Jack Magee’s Pub on December 6. Both Colby and Bates plan to bus between 60 and 75 students to the event.
“What we’re really trying to do is create a stronger sense of community between students at the three schools,” said Ndou.
“There isn’t a lot of crossover between the campuses as of right now, which is kind of absurd if you think about how similar the student bodies and the activities that go on at each campus are,” said Zembruski. “We figure it’s kind of a mutually beneficial relationship.”
The CBBA thinks that all three schools could benefit from increased collaboration. Ndou noted that the perks of the network could extend beyond social connections, suggesting that students involved in extracurriculars such as improv or a cappella could coordinate inter-college events and performances.
“The students at these other schools aren’t so far away,” Ndou said.
Zembruski added that a successful event might encourage students at Colby and Bates to host similar functions. The head of CBBA’s Colby chapter, Elliot Marsing ’14, echoed this sentiment.
“We hope to do this kind of tradition of social mixers every other month and keep rotating who’s hosting it,” Marsing said.
The ambitions of CBBA do not end with these mixers. Students from all three chapters are working to organize a larger event at some point during spring semester.
“We’re planning on doing some sort of CBB Day where we highlight and showcase all three colleges’ clubs and campus organizations. That day would culminate in a large-scale dance along the lines of the Yule Ball,” said Mansing, referencing the dance that takes place in J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
According to Ndou, the CBBA hopes that the December 6 event will serve as inspiration for students to break out of the “Bowdoin bubble” and try something new socially.
“In all honesty, we have an opportunity to party with kids from our school all the time. This is really an opportunity to meet new people,” said Ndou.