The College

Mission Statement

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, nationally recognized for the qualities of the educational experience it provides. It is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual and access to its programs and opportunities by qualified learners. Bates prizes both the inherent values of a demanding education and the profound usefulness of learning, teaching, and understanding. Moreover, throughout the history of the College, Bates graduates have linked education with service, leadership, and obligations beyond themselves.

As a college of the liberal arts and sciences, Bates offers a curriculum and faculty that challenge students to attain intellectual achievements and to develop powers of critical assessment, analysis, expression, aesthetic sensibility, and independent thought. In addition, Bates recognizes that learning is not restricted to cognitive categories and that the full range of human experience needs to be encouraged and cultivated. The College expects students to appreciate the discoveries and insights of established traditions of learners as well as to participate in resolving what is unknown.

Bates is committed to an open and supportive residential environment. The College's programs are designed to encourage student development, and to foster leadership, service, and creativity. The College sponsors cultural, volunteer, athletic, social, and religious opportunities that are open to all students, and it values participation in these activities.

Bates also recognizes that it has responsibilities to the larger community. Where possible and when consistent with its primary responsibilities to its students, faculty, and alumni, the College makes available its educational and cultural resources, its expertise, and its collective energies to professional as well as to regional communities outside the institution.

The Foundations of the College

Bates was founded in 1855 by people who believed strongly in freedom, civil rights, and the importance of a higher education for all who could benefit from it. Bates has always admitted students without regard to race, sex, religion, or national origin. Great efforts were made in designing the institution to ensure that no qualified student would be turned away because he or she could not afford the cost of a Bates education. Although they met with considerable criticism from other colleges, the founders held fast to their commitment to admit both men and women: Bates was New England's first coeducational college and one of the first coeducational colleges in the country. The inclusive nature of the College's philosophy has guided, enriched, and strengthened the institution for more than 150 years.

As with many New England institutions, religion played a vital role in the College's founding. The Reverend Oren Burbank Cheney is honored as the founder and first president of Bates. He was a Freewill Baptist minister, a teacher, an abolitionist, and a former Maine legislator. Cheney steered through the Maine Legislature a bill creating a corporation for educational purposes initially called the Maine State Seminary. The school was established in Lewiston, at that time Maine's fastest-growing industrial and commercial center.

Cheney assembled a six-person faculty dedicated to teaching the classics and moral philosophy to men and women. In 1863 he received a collegiate charter, and obtained financial support for an expansion from the city of Lewiston and from Benjamin E. Bates, the Boston financier and manufacturer whose textile mills dominated the Lewiston riverfront. In 1864 the Maine State Seminary became Bates College. The College consisted of Hathorn and Parker halls and a student body of fewer than 100. By the end of Cheney's tenure, in 1894, the campus had expanded to fifty acres and six buildings. Bates was already known for its inclusive admissions practices, classical curriculum, and commitment to preparing its graduates for careers in the professions, education, and public service.

George Colby Chase succeeded Cheney in 1894. A graduate of the Bates Class of 1869, he taught English at the College for twenty-two years before assuming the presidency. A teacher-president in the old tradition, Chase taught at least one course each year throughout his incumbency. Known as "the great builder," Chase oversaw the construction of eleven new buildings on campus, including Coram Library, the Chapel, Chase Hall, Carnegie Science Hall, and Rand Hall. He tripled the number of students and faculty, as well as the endowment.

In 1919, at age seventy-four, Chase urged the Board of Trustees to select a successor who was "a man strong in scholarship, in his Christian character and influence, in business ability, and in warm sympathy with young people." That successor was Clifton Daggett Gray, a clergyman and former editor of The Standard, a Baptist periodical published in Chicago. Gray saw Bates through an era marked by vibrant growth and modernization, but also through the years of the Great Depression and World War II. By the early 1920s, Bates' now-famous debate team achieved recognition in international competitions. On campus, renovations were completed on Libbey Forum and the Hedge Science Laboratory, and the Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building and Alumni Gymnasium were constructed. Though the Depression placed serious financial burdens on students and on the College, Bates continued to thrive. In the 1940s, when male students abandoned college campuses to enlist in the armed forces, Gray established a V-12 Naval Training Unit on campus, assuring the College talented students — men and women — during wartime. When he retired, in 1944, Gray had increased the student enrollment to more than 700.

Charles Franklin Phillips, whose selection at age thirty-four made him the College's youngest president, was a professor at Colgate University and a leading economist before coming to Bates. Phillips is credited with bringing sound business acumen to the College and with encouraging students to link their academic experiences with future careers. He initiated the Bates Plan of Education, a liberal arts "core" study program, and a "3/4 Option" that allowed students to complete their college education in three years. He also directed expansions of campus facilities, including the Memorial Commons, the Health Center, Dana Chemistry Hall, Pettigrew Hall, Treat Gallery, Schaeffer Theatre, and Page Hall. Phillips' legacy continues to serve Bates directly. In 1998, he and his wife, Evelyn M. Phillips, made what was at the time one of the largest presidential bequests ever to an American college. The Phillips Endowment now supports student and faculty research fellowships, two endowed professorships, and academic programs.

Thomas Hedley Reynolds assumed the presidency in 1967. His greatest achievement was the development of an extraordinarily talented faculty, which brought Bates recognition as a national college. In addition to recruiting outstanding teacher-scholars, Reynolds championed better faculty pay, an expanded sabbatical leave program, and smaller classes. He also worked to include more women in the faculty. A historian, Reynolds' own experience as a professor at Middlebury College made him keenly aware of the link between great teaching and scholarship, and he did much to encourage faculty research and creativity. Under his leadership, Bates joined the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). He also guided the College through a tumultuous period of social change, when students resisted the conservative sensibilities left over from the 1950s and demanded their own voice in College decisionmaking.

Additions to the campus under Reynolds' presidency included the George and Helen Ladd Library, Merrill Gymnasium and the Tarbell Pool, the Olin Arts Center and the Bates College Museum of Art, as well as the conversion of the former women's gymnasium into the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and the acquisition of the Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area. Many of the early twentieth-century houses on Frye Street, a popular alternative to larger residential halls, were also acquired at this time.

Donald W. Harward's presidency was distinguished by intellectual rigor, institutional self-examination, and commitment to civic engagement. A former philosophy professor and academic dean at the College of Wooster, Harward began his service as sixth president of Bates in 1989. His leadership was inspired by the notion that "learning is a moral activity that carries responsibility beyond the self." He challenged students and faculty to see how the College's traditional values of egalitarianism, service, and social justice created a moral imperative to connect intellectual life to the world beyond Bates. During Harward's presidency, students received greater opportunities to study off campus with Bates faculty or in College-approved programs. He secured funding to support student research under the direction of Bates teacher-scholars or at other institutions. He integrated more fully into student intellectual life the senior thesis, the important capstone experience that has been a part of the Bates curriculum since the early twentieth century but is now a focal point.

Under Harward, Bates reached out to the community of Lewiston-Auburn in new and mutually beneficial ways. Bates students and faculty built relationships in the community through one of the most active service-learning programs in the country. Harward helped Bates provide a national model of ways in which colleges and universities can advance academic excellence and intellectual autonomy while they engage with and support local communities.

Harward worked to diversify both the faculty and its curricular offerings. He oversaw the development of a number of new academic programs, including eight in areas of interdisciplinary study. He expanded opportunities for faculty research and tripled the number of endowed professorships. More than twenty major academic, residential, and athletic facilities were built during his tenure, including Pettengill Hall, the Residential Village and Benjamin E. Mays Center, and the Bates College Coastal Center at Shortridge.

Bates Today

Elaine Tuttle Hansen became the College's seventh president in 2002. Hansen is an expert in medieval English literature and feminist literary theory. Before coming to Bates she was a professor of English and provost at Haverford College. She seeks to sustain and enhance the traditional strengths of Bates: open and intense intellectual inquiry; individualized student and faculty interactions in a historic residential setting; and a community unified by the ethical principles of integrity, egalitarianism, and social responsibility. Her goals include securing resources for financial aid, competitive faculty and staff salaries, increased diversity of the faculty and student body, environmental sustainability and stewardship, technological advances, and new curricular initiatives. To advance these ambitious goals, Hansen has undertaken a range of institutional planning initiatives, including facilities master planning and academic planning.

The College has given particular attention to diversity through its program Educating for Excellence. In describing this initiative, Hansen has said, "Today's commitment to achieving excellence through diversity is consistent with the College's tradition of egalitarian access, and in the twenty-first century this commitment demands a broader and more complicated understanding of diversity than the representational diversity of students, faculty, and staff reflected in demography. By diversity we mean not simply our range of embodied identities, but also the generative range of experience and ideas, consideration of which we share and value as a resource for achieving excellence in the life of the mind. Exposing students to a diverse range of peers and professionals also positively influences their cultural awareness and capacity for democratic citizenship. Diversity, thus, enables the College to achieve its educational goals and position its graduates for sustained local and global participation, service, and leadership. Each person in our community, bringing a distinctive set of skills and experiences, flourishes in an environment that acknowledges our various and complex identities and supports each of us in our pursuit of excellence."

The Faculty and Students. The faculty exemplifies the College's commitment to academic excellence and intellectual rigor. Faculty members' professional lives encompass scholarship and research, but they are at Bates because they are dedicated first and foremost to teaching undergraduates. Currently, 99 percent of tenured or tenure-track faculty members hold the Ph.D. or another terminal degree. Bates students work directly with faculty; the student-faculty ratio is 10-to-1, and faculty members teach all classes. More than 65 percent of class sections, excluding independent studies, have fewer than twenty students enrolled. A Bates education serves graduates well and offers excellent preparation for further study and careers. More than 70 percent of recent alumni have earned graduate or professional degrees within ten years of graduation. The approximately 1,700 students on campus come from forty-six states, districts, and territories and sixty-five other countries. The College is recognized for its inclusive social character; there have never been fraternities or sororities, and student organizations are open to all.

The Curriculum. In their academic work Bates students are encouraged to explore broadly and deeply, to cross disciplines, and to grow as independent thinkers. The College offers thirty-eight fields of study (with thirty-two majors and twenty-four minors) as well as opportunities for guided interdisciplinary study. Bates is one of a small number of colleges and universities requiring a senior thesis to complete most majors. The senior thesis provides an opportunity for extended, closely guided research and writing, performance, or studio work. A growing number of students collaborate with faculty in their research during the academic year and through the summer; each summer between sixty and eighty students receive support from the College to pursue research. Bates recognizes the special role that international study plays in providing students with the perspective and the opportunities that lead to international careers or service as well as a sense of world citizenship. Over 60% of students study abroad for a semester or longer during their time at Bates, one of the highest rates in the nation.

Community Engagement. Bates has long understood that liberal education includes the development of social responsibility and civic engagement. A Bates education seeks to connect learning to action, a connection expressed by high levels of student participation in academic and volunteer community work, as well as by graduates' choice of careers and community leadership. Many faculty members routinely incorporate service-learning or community-based research into their courses, and about half of Bates students are involved in a wide variety of community-based projects with more than 135 public and private agencies.

Bates is committed to its home communities of Lewiston and Auburn, together constituting Maine's second-largest urban area, which provide a valued setting that enriches Bates' educational mission and social life. The College intends its many forms of engagement beyond campus to be true partnerships, drawing on the strengths of all partners for mutual benefit. The Donald W. and Ann M. Harward Center for Community Partnerships, named for the College's sixth president and his late wife, provides an institutional hub for community-based learning and research by students and faculty, volunteer community service, and civic engagement.

The Campus. Bates is located on a 109-acre traditional New England campus. Academic and cultural resources on campus include the George and Helen Ladd Library, the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, and the Olin Arts Center, which houses a concert hall and the Bates College Museum of Art. The College also holds access to the 574-acre Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, in Phippsburg, Maine, which includes stunning coastal wetlands and preserves one of the few remaining undeveloped barrier beaches on the Atlantic coast. The neighboring Bates College Coastal Center at Shortridge includes an eighty-acre woodland and freshwater habitat.

Consistent with its purpose of providing the benefits of a small residential college, Bates has limited its admissions and grown slowly, yet has also pursued an ambitious program of construction and equipment acquisition to support teaching. Carnegie Science Hall and Dana Chemistry Hall have facilities for research-based independent student work and provide laboratory space for the College's interdisciplinary programs in biological chemistry and neuroscience. Study of the sciences also has been enriched by the addition of major scientific instruments. The Bates College Imaging and Computing Center enhances and supports teaching, learning, research, and creative work in all disciplines that benefit from the visual representation of information.

In Pettengill Hall, teaching spaces, laboratories, student research centers, and facilities for eleven social science departments and interdisciplinary programs provide an arena for intellectual interaction. The building's design also fosters the connection between the formal and informal learning that is the hallmark of a residential college.

The first building phase of the College's facilities master plan has focused on enhancing residential life. A new residential village for 150 students at the foot of Mount David opened in August 2007. A new dining Commons, opened in February 2008, preserves the Bates tradition of centralized student dining. Linking the new student housing and the Commons is the Alumni Walk, a cross-campus pedestrian corridor from the athletics facilities in the east to Mount David in the west. Benches, terraces, and gathering spaces connect academic and residential buildings with the open space of the campus.

Other student life facilities at Bates are varied and well-equipped. Athletic facilities include the Joseph A. Underhill Ice Arena, the Davis Fitness Center; James G. Wallach Tennis Center, twice the venue for NCAA championship play; the Bates Squash Center; a synthetic turf field; and the Bert Andrews Room, providing enhanced cardio and fitness facilities. The Merrill Gymnasium was renovated and resurfaced in 2009. The Marcy Plavin Dance Studio, named in honor of the founding director of the Bates dance program, includes two studios and a warm-up area.

Alumni. The educational mission of the College is supported generously by a significant percentage of its nearly 20,000 alumni who have made a lifetime commitment to their alma mater. The College's alumni, living in 50 states, Washington, D.C., and 88 countries, remain actively connected to Bates in various ways. Thousands of alumni volunteers serve annually as admissions representatives, career resource people, fundraisers, Reunion volunteers, and regional leaders. The College's endowment provides resources for financial aid, academic programs, and general support of the educational mission. At the close of fiscal year 2008, endowment investments of the College totaled more than $267 million and provided 13.4 percent of operating budget support.

Bates is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the American Chemical Society. It maintains chapters of Phi Beta Kappa and of Sigma Xi, the national scientific research and honor society.

Statement of Community Principles

Membership in the Bates community requires that individuals hold themselves and others responsible for honorable conduct at all times. Together we create the educational and social setting that makes Bates College unique, with an atmosphere characterized by trust and mutual concern. Our actions must support our ability to work, study, live, and learn together productively and safely. We are dedicated as a community to intellectual honesty and to the protection of academic freedom. These values are fundamental to scholarship, teaching, and learning. We expect one another to maintain the highest integrity in all of our academic, social, and work-related undertakings.