Current Chair: Sam Thomson ’24
Definition: The Facilities and Sustainability committee handles all physical resources on Bowdoin’s campus. While this might sound like a trivial task, Bowdoin is in fact the Napoleon of college campuses – despite its small stature, it has tremendous power that must be harnessed for good, and possesses a surprisingly vast set of physical features to be managed for this very purpose. The facets of Bowdoin’s campus that fall under the ever-eager umbrella of this committee include all shuttle services, newspapers, discounted movie tickets, dining services, on-campus buildings, Internet Technology services, to name a few. Moreover, the committee serves as the voice for green initiatives and general sustainability awareness on the BSG. We work closely with the fine folks at Bowdoin’s Facilities Department, Keisha Payson of Sustainable Bowdoin, the friendly faces of the Information Desk, and several off-campus organizations including USA Today and Brunswick Taxi.
Past Accomplishments: Some past and notable tasks of the Facilities and Sustainability committee have been adding shelves to upperclassmen laundry rooms, adding outlets in the Smith Union, organizing shuttles to specific events such as Girl Talk and other trendy concerts in Portland and to Freeport on Black Friday. We have also worked with the library to implement laptop storage in the library and worked with Dining Services to improve the guest-meal policy at Bowdoin.
Regular Responsibilities: The Facilities and Sustainability committee has several responsibilities that fall into our eager laps every year including organizing the weekly shuttles to Portland and Freeport as well as the break shuttles to the airport, coordinating the newspaper program, and providing discounted student movie tickets. The committee typically has a representative on the advisory committees for Dining Services and Information Technology.
Goals:
Short Term:
- Expand shuttle service to include shuttles to more off-campus events
- Upgrade on-campus laundry services through LaundryView, shelving and environmentally-friendly machines
Long-Term:
- Expand OneCard services in greater Brunswick
- Work with IT to create useful apps for students such as a weekend calendar app and a dining hall friend-finder for the socially insecure app
- Improve SafeRide services with better trackers or adding to the fleet