Guest Speakers:
Jim Hoppe: Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs, oversees about 150 staff. Has been at Bowdoin for about three months. Was always heavily involved with Student Government and is eager to learn more about pressing issues for the student body.
Q&A
Angelica: How has it been living between Reed and Booty? What are your thoughts on the college houses and their events?
- Hoppe: It’s nice to see the community and the bond formed. I love that first years are affiliated to the college houses, which allows them to easily integrate into the social life at Bowdoin.
Elliott: How could the school help BSG get transport to Portland Jetport during breaks?
- Hoppe: We would love to work closely with the BSG on this, and offer support while BSG leads the initiative.
Eisa: In your previous experience in working with the student body, what have been some of your favorite activities?
- Hoppe: To increase the connection between the Student Government and the other communities on campus, every year we would have activities like secret pal, and ‘Midnight Breakfast’ members of senior staff would serve late-night breakfast to the student body and increase connection.
Max: How did you work with the Student Government in your past roles? How would that apply currently to the way you would work with BSG?
- Hoppe: I believe my role is to be an advisor, let BSG take the lead, and make sure the BSG is supported when making decisions.
Jonathan: Is there an event that you are particularly excited about?
- Hoppe: I’ve talked with a few groups about how we can coordinate leadership such that it minimizes the amount of training and increases your connection with other areas on campus. To remind student leaders that they do not have to shoulder responsibility alone. In one of my previous roles, we had a reverse trick or treating program where areas of the school would go give out candy and information about their departments. I also know that during Halloween there are many fun events.
- Harper: What Halloween traditions come to mind?
- Angelica: Howell House has Haunted Howell and College Houses host events.
Vincent: There are times we might have trouble getting engagement and feedback from the student body, what tips would you give the BSG?
- Hoppe: I would say that it is situation-specific. For example, we always had an ‘Academic Town Hall’, and it was difficult to get people to participate. So we put posters in elevators. A simple solution such as this can go a long way.
Max: When it comes to divisive political issues where students hold strong beliefs over how the college’s administration should be, how do you conceive your job as an administrator at a college?
- Hoppe: I don’t agree with how we handled it in Emerson last year, I believe in listening to different points of view. At Bowdoin, student life and perspectives are the main focus of what we do. My job is to know what’s going on and make myself available to listen to the student body. One of my proudest moments is how I made close connections with the leaders of activist groups on campus. I believe it is important to maintain strong connections and ensure students feel listened to.
- Elliott: To what extent do you believe responding to student activism is appropriate?
- Hoppe: One of the challenges as an administrator is being able to balance between what may be very supportive to one group of students and very harmful for another group. Our job is to be able to maintain the balance between the two and make sure that all sides feel confident in expressing their voice.
- Elliott: Do you see your role more as a facilitator of discussion rather than a direct participant in the discussion?
- Hoppe: That might be dependent on the situation. We assess how our decision affects different groups of the student body and make changes based on that.
Angelica: Have you had any involvement in the Sophomore Bootcamp?
- Hoppe: When I arrived, the program planning had already been mostly finalized, I look forward to being able to give more feedback for its planning in future years. When I was at Macalester, I was in charge of planning the equivalent of the Sophomore Bootcamp there.
Nolan: What about Bowdoin drew you here? What is one thing that you would like to improve?
- Hoppe: I first experienced Bowdoin in 2004, it had been on my mind over a few years. I love the sense of community and how the college puts in a lot of effort into creating it. I would like to look more at how we can help those who perhaps do not feel as involved in the community and have been unable to find their spot.
Aidan: How do you plan to help first years integrate into the community at Bowdoin?
- Hoppe: I’m still getting to know what is already in place, but I am particularly interested in the proctor system. Right now, I am focusing on understanding what is in place and what the needs are to make adjustments.
Vincent: So far, do you have any concerns?
- Hoppe: One of the things that has been on my mind is what is the right way for the college to respond to the bias incidents that have been reported recently. To me, it is really important that students feel comfortable reporting things that are affecting them.
- Eisa: Do you know of any measures that Bowdoin has planned to take regarding this and is there any way BSG can help?
- Hoppe: Providing an open space for support and discussion, reminding people that they are not alone. I would love to hear feedback from the BSG as well.
- Harper: As with the Israel-Palestine war, I think a good first step is acknowledging that something has happened. Even just having an administration-wide message about what happened and support options is a great way to reach out.
- Eisa: I would ask that the administration reconsiders silence when facing challenges and takes the risk to give a stance.
- Elliott: I would add that support emails are different than a stance, since I would say that emails guiding students to helpful resources are not a college taking their stance.
- Hoppe: There are different ways for administrators to speak out on subjects and I believe that there are many ways to encourage discussion.
- Elliott: I also believe it is important to distinguish between when the college might take a stance in different circumstances, such as local vs. international issues.
- Max: I personally agreed with President Zaki’s decision to not take a political stance, my question to you is would you agree with that decision if the same situation happened again?
- Hoppe: From my past experience of being on a campus where there was a struggle to decide what the institution should say, and the president took a stance the president thought was neutral but ended up in each side involved thinking that the statement was supporting the opposite side… I wonder if going back I would advise the president to act differently. I think an administrator’s sense of what should be done to respond to an international crisis changes according to the current political climate, depending on what happens this might shift.
COMMITTEE AND GENERAL UPDATES
Shelby: Met with Dallas about the transition to Workday, and will have a meeting on December 3rd, can send an email with details.
Eisa: Boxes with Narcan have been added to bricks on campus. Huge shoutout to Health Services for this.
Angelica: Facilities and Sustainability, working on getting a survey for dining. Are also working on a security survey to get data on how people feel about lighting on campus. Also working on a water map for campus, and compost systems, and am working on getting in touch for ideas brought up last meeting such as hooks in Moulton booths.
Max: SAFC’s new at-large reps came to their first meeting on Monday, and everything running smoothly. Happy to answer any questions regarding funding.
Nyla: I may be a bit absent from BSG activities due to personal circumstances. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to reach out to me. If I am not here, please reach out to Abigail in my absence.
Harper: In Student Affairs, have three interested representatives working on water/printer/bathroom maps. Had a meeting with Katie to get direction for the laundry initiative and working on getting a proposal sent to Matthew Orlando.
Jonathan: Academic Affairs, a lot of students are unhappy because they are not able to see the syllabus in the class registration system. Working on getting meetings to talk more about this. Thinking about holding an event (involving cookies) to ease anxiety over the transition to Workday.
Vincent: SOOC had a meeting last week, no big updates for the moment. We want to create an event to increase leadership interest and new clubs.
Eisa: Would love to work on Finals Flowers, where we all go and pass out flowers to students on campus. A nice way to make people smile and let people know who is on the BSG.
Andy: On the idea of bringing water fountains to the first-year bricks, how could we go about that?
Elliott: We didn’t fully explain how to draft a proposal. A lot of the work gets done before we come to the assembly with a proposal, which generally includes the action the general assembly could take such as sending out emails and helping with funding. For new ideas, we encourage members to bring them up during the General Assembly so we can begin planning.
Nyla: Nate is a good initial point of contact since he can guide you in the right direction to get started.
Elliott: The architects that help with building planning are coming to campus and will be tabling in Smith Union, next Monday 7-9 pm and Wed 11:30 am -1:30pm in Thorne. Headspace and Ivies funding got approved. Headspace subscriptions are active and available.
Eisa: We will circle back next week and send out an email to the student body if there are still spots available.
Nate: Since the subscription starts every year, do we want to remove the subscription yearly and have them re-subscribe every year?
Eisa: Are we able to make this change?
Nate: Yes, we can if needed.