As snow piles up outside of the Admissions Office, some prospective students might become a bit wary about the prospect of spending the next four years in Maine. But Bowdoin Admissions has a plan: The Scott Meiklejohn Hawaiian Shirt Campaign.

Named for the dean of admissions and financial aid, the campaign — along with lawn chairs, tiki torches, decorative snow sculptures and gallons of hot chocolate outside of Admissions — aims to help prospective students make light of the cold.

“Meiklejohn has a lot of Hawaiian shirts,” explained Madeleine Livingston ’16, a head tour guide. “He said that he would provide the Hawaiian shirts if we could convince tour guides to wear them.”

So far, the campaign has been a success, said Hayley Nicholas ’17, another tour guide. People find the shirts “comical and a good way to approach the bitter cold.”

For prospective students who remain skeptical, tour guides offer advice.

“You can avoid being outside as much as you want,” Livingston pointed out. Multiple buildings have tunnels between them and those who are passionate about avoiding the elements can get from one side of campus to the other by walking through the row of first year bricks on the Main Quad, she reassures her tour groups.

Nicholas recommends walking on the roads instead of the sidewalks to decrease travel time.

“I also tell people that the cold is a way that I make friends. We bond over being miserable together. Friendships form in the fall and then get solidified in the winter. You learn who your real friends are,” Nicholas said.