Welcome back!
Dear students, faculty, and staff,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you back to campus for the start of the fall semester. As I said yesterday at Convocation, it is a privilege and an honor for me to join you here, and I hope very much to meet many of you in person over the coming weeks.
We begin the fall semester with 504 new first-year students from forty-seven states and several US territories. Students with international backgrounds make up 13 percent of the class, 21 percent of the class are the first in their families to attend college, and 42 percent are domestic students of color. The class includes one veteran of the US armed forces, ten transfer students, and 154 students who speak a language other than English at home. We have 100 students who play at least one musical instrument, ten entrepreneurs, at least two beekeepers, a national figure skating champion, and a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.
Members of the Class of 2027 and I have already talked about our special bond as newcomers to Bowdoin, and that’s something I also share with sixty-one new faculty and staff who have joined the College since July 1. I enjoyed meeting many of these new members of our community yesterday at the reception following Convocation, and I invite you to have a look at the full list here on the Bowdoin website.
Over the summer, faculty continued their research, scholarship, and creative work. You can see a few samples of this work on the Bowdoin website. Faculty and staff were also tapped over the summer by the news media for expertise in a number of areas, including politics and government, the risks of discovering alien life, the emergence of artificial intelligence, and even the impact of Barbie and Oppenheimer.
Students had busy summers as well. Nearly two hundred students received Bowdoin funding to conduct research projects alongside faculty mentors on campus. Other students took advantage of summertime grants from the College to pursue their dream internships around the world; journeyed to the Arctic for research, discovery, and personal reflection; and dug into research projects at both the Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island and in Harpswell at Schiller. Have a look here on the Bowdoin website to learn more about these summer activities.
While much of the country and world faced record hot temperatures this summer, those of us in Maine saw what I’m told was an unusual amount of rain in June and July, especially. And while that made it challenging for our groundskeepers to keep up, I’m sure you’ll agree that campus is looking exquisite for the start of the semester. Even with all the wet weather, the College was able to accomplish a great deal over the summer on a number of capital projects, renovations, and restorations. And with nearly twenty residential summer programs—including a teacher training program in genomics sponsored by The Jackson Laboratory and the first in-person Watson Foundation conference since the pandemic—staff in events and summer programs, housekeeping, and dining were fully occupied making Bowdoin shine!
Meanwhile, the newly opened Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum welcomed summer visitors to its new space and enjoyed media coverage that helped spread the word about three amazing inaugural exhibitions. And the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s big summer exhibition, People Watching: Contemporary Photography since 1965, has also been drawing crowds looking to view the more than 120 photographs by more than four dozen leading contemporary artists.
As you can tell, Bowdoin has been alive with activity and progress this summer. I am so appreciative for the kindness and generosity shown to me and Huff as we arrived and settled in, and for the enthusiastic welcome we have received by members of this community. Today, we begin a new chapter in the storied history of this exceptional college. I am proud to be here and thrilled to begin.
With my very best wishes for the semester ahead,
Sincerely,
Safa