Preamble
In 1920, Benjamin E. Mays graduated from Bates College. He was to become a president of Morehouse College, renowned civil rights leader, and mentor and teacher of Martin Luther King, Jr. Reflecting upon his Bates experience, he wrote,

"Bates College did not 'emancipate' me; it did the far greater service of making it possible for me to emancipate myself, to accept with dignity my own worth as a free man. Small wonder that I love Bates College!"

Bates College, a residential college that nurtures human ties, inspires such affection and loyalty. Dr. Mays also remembered that, "The weather was cold but the hearts at Bates were warm." Even more importantly, the College embodies the irresistible values of a liberal arts education. It encourages students to think as intensely, creatively, rigorously, and freely as possible. If they do so, they will, in Dr. Mays' words, emancipate themselves and "accept with dignity" their own worth as free people.

Founded in 1855, Bates College was part of the great wave of educational creativity in the 19th-century United States. Oren B. Cheney, a minister of the Freewill Baptist denomination, conceived the idea of founding the Maine State Seminary in Lewiston. Within a few years, the seminary became a college. Cheney obtained financial support from Benjamin E. Bates, a Boston manufacturer for whom the College was named.

From the beginning, Bates was ethically courageous and stood firmly for ideals of social justice. Its graduates were to include men and women from all racial and religious backgrounds. Its founders had abolitionist principles. It was the first coeducational college in the East. On principle, all organizations on campus were to be open to everyone. For that reason, Bates never had fraternities or sororities. During the 20th century, Bates' strength as an intellectual center grew. It is now recognized as one of the nation's finest colleges of the liberal arts and sciences. In 2005, it will celebrate its sesquicentennial and its belief in the inseparability of academic and ethical powers.

As Bates undertakes this presidential search, the campus community expects its next president to be at home on its campus and embody its values and guide it for a significant period of time. Bates is a college for all seasons, and wants a president who will settle in and yet be the pioneer that generations of Bates' men and women have been.

Faculty
The College's commitment to academic excellence and intellectual rigor is best exemplified in its faculty. The almost 200 men and women who make up the faculty are the College's most important resource. Their experience ranges widely: from distinguished specialists with 40 years of teaching and research behind them to dynamic young scholars just completing their doctoral studies. Ninety-nine percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty members hold doctoral degrees or other terminal degrees appropriate to their disciplines.

These men and women carry on vital professional lives that encompass scholarship and research, but they are at Bates because they are dedicated first and foremost to teaching undergraduates. The College honors its superb teacher-scholars through a growing endowed professorship program. In the last decade alone, ten new endowed professorships have been established, and numerous grants are available to faculty in support of scholarship and teaching; the Special Faculty Development Grants provide support for exploration of new areas of research and new approaches to pedagogy, and for development of new courses.

Bates is devoted exclusively to undergraduate education, awarding Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees, and members of the faculty — not graduate students or teaching assistants — teach all the courses. Because the student to faculty ratio is small (10 to 1), students have many opportunities to know faculty members well, and lifelong friendships and professional relationships between professors and students are common.

During the 1990s, Bates sought to develop a faculty that would be poised to serve its mission during a period of educational change. Paramount among these evolutionary features has been an expansion of the size of the faculty, its racial and gender diversification, and an increase in its involvement in interdisciplinary programs. The twenty academic departments and eight interdisciplinary programs are clustered into four divisions: humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and interdisciplinary programs. Faculty have a strong voice in determining the academic curriculum and in college governance, through faculty legislation, through service on various standing and ad hoc committees, and through the leadership of department and division chairs.

Academic Programs
The College offers thirty-two major fields of study and twenty-four fields of secondary concentration as well as self-designed, guided interdisciplinary majors. Students are required to complete several courses in each division along with their major requirements. Bates is one of a small number of colleges and universities requiring a senior thesis to complete most majors, an unusual capstone opportunity for extended, closely guided research and writing, performance, or studio work.

In general, Bates has been a pioneer in establishing undergraduate research programs. Students are encouraged to pursue their own original research as an extension of their regular coursework. The College offers opportunities and financial support to facilitate such research during the academic year and the summer months. For example, students have worked effectively on science research internships at the Bigelow Laboratory for Oceanographic Studies in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and other nationally recognized research laboratories in the natural sciences.

Each year approximately forty seniors engaged in thesis research are elected by their advisors to participate in the Honor's Program, wherein their completed work is submitted for examination and oral defense before Bates faculty as well as invited, well respected scholars from outside the College. It is an intellectual highlight of the College's academic year which exposes students to a level of engagement with scholarship reserved more commonly for post-graduate study.

The College promotes the development of excellent writing and critical-thinking skills through all its curricular offerings, from the first-year seminar to the senior thesis. Bates also supports the academic development of students through the Writing Workshop, now over twenty years old, and the newly created Math and Statistics Workshop. The Office of the Dean of Students also provides advising, a mentor program and support for students with learning differences.

Recognizing the fundamental role the liberal arts play in the development of a social conscience and good citizenship, the College encourages students to integrate social service into their academic work and provides opportunities for service internships and field research on social issues. One tool of the curriculum that sustains these goals is the 4–4–1 calendar, which provides a five week Short Term each spring. The Short Term program has encouraged educational innovation, including the integration of off-campus study and field research into the curriculum.

Bates' aspiration to link learning to action has provided several national models of service learning. The vitality of the connections is expressed in the extraordinary level of participation by faculty and students in service learning: over half of the student body is involved. In 1999–2000, Bates students contributed more than 59,000 hours to the local community through projects arranged in cooperation with the Bates Center for Service Learning. A new program just underway is the Connected Learning Initiative, which encourages students to build their own interconnected web of learning activities through various combinations of internships, service learning, off-campus study, employment, research, independent study, fellowships and/or volunteer work.

The College also seeks to link learning on campus to learning away from the United States. In 1998–1999, Bates ranked ninth among baccalaureate institutions in the percentage of graduates who had received credit for study abroad. Bates sponsors Fall Semester Abroad programs (locations vary) and supports study abroad programs in Quito, London and Cape Town through the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Study Abroad Program. Students are also encouraged to pursue cooperative or consortium-sponsored domestic or international study, including Junior Year Abroad and Junior Semester Abroad programs. Over the past decade, more than half of the junior class has studied abroad in programs located in 75 different countries, and 21% of the class of 2000 earned either a major or a secondary concentration in a language other than English.

Library and Information Services
The George and Helen Ladd Library houses 524,830 catalogued volumes, 292,326 microforms, 26,134 audiovisual materials, 2,012 periodical subscriptions, and numerous on-line services. The library is a member of CBB (Colby-Bates-Bowdoin) Library Consortium, complete with online access and direct patron-generated borrowing. With study spaces available for 635 students, the recently renovated library is a central and essential academic gathering space for students on campus.

The College prides itself on its computing services. An award winner for the depth and breadth of information available on its web site, Bates established campus wide networking early on. The College recently reorganized to merge the Library and Information Services, which has engaged in an in-depth strategic planning process. As part of that process, Bates is moving to web-based interactive student and faculty services through a reinvigorated web site that also includes on-line alumni communities.

Student Life
Bates students embrace life. They are eager to improve themselves in the classroom and laboratory, in athletic competition, in the studio, on stage, and in the wider world. Bates' rich and vibrant campus life reflects a spirit of openness. Bates students are independent, yet profoundly engaged in their connections to one another and to the Bates community.

The student body is made up of approximately 1,700 students with strong academic credentials from a wide variety of backgrounds, and from 50 states and 66 countries. Each year, the number of applicants increases, and for the fall of 2000, over 4,200 applications were received. Only 29% of these students were admitted, and 471 entered as first year students. Bates College was a leader in moving to optional submission of test scores, emphasizing the individual consideration that each candidate receives. Bates has a reputation for the high level of personal attention it gives to its students beginning with the admissions process.

Students run seventy-seven organizations — from the Outing Club to the Film Board to the New World Coalition. The Student Activities Office provides support for students in the creation of new student organizations as well as programming. The Student Activities Office offers van service to local spots as well as to Freeport, Portland, and Boston. In addition to the Student Activities Office, students take advantage of both the programming and the counseling offered by the Dean of Students Office, the Housing Office, the Multicultural Center, the Bates Leadership Academy, the College Chaplain, the Office of Career Services, Athletics, and the Health Center to fortify their Bates experience.

Student life facilities at Bates are also varied and well equipped. While most student activity centers around Chase Hall, the renovated Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building provides a versatile center for all-campus gatherings, and the Benjamin Mays Center in the Residential Village provides a place for small gatherings and daily lunch service for students. The College has also renovated a neighborhood house into a student run coffeehouse (The Ronj), which serves as a social space free of alcohol. A new Campus Center and expanded dining facilities are in the planning stages and will be central to the upcoming Comprehensive Campaign.

Along with student activities and programming, athletics (intramural and extramural) plays an important role in the life of students. As a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), Bates offers 30 varsity and 12 club sports, with gender equity in varsity sport participation. In 1995, the College completed construction of the Underhill Arena (an ice arena) and the Davis Fitness Center. Major capital improvements to the athletic fields are underway, and when complete, Bates will have a new 10-lane synthetic surface track with a grass infield for men's and women's soccer; in 2000, the College opened the James G. Wallach '64 lighted tennis facility.

One of Bates' distinguishing features is that at least 90% of its students live in campus housing, and that most of those who do not live on the campus are within a short walk of the campus. Many of the students do not live in traditional residence halls, but in historic neighborhood houses that the College has renovated as student residences. Because the College recognizes the importance of early college experiences, it has, for many years, required first-year students live in First-Year Centers of 12 to 16 with a Junior Advisor. A more recent enhancement to the residential program has been the establishment of student organized theme houses. Some recent examples include the environmental house, the creativity/performing arts house, the community service house, the spirituality house, and three foreign language houses. Another option for students is chemical free housing, which has been growing in popularity each year.

Financial Aid
The Bates financial aid program reflects policy decisions made by the College. Given the large number of applicants, Bates could restrict admission only to those who could afford it. But that would be the very antithesis of the College's culture and mission. The commitment to accessibility is one of the College's most prized elements of its history and a necessary feature of its culture. For approximately four out of every ten students who attend the College, a Bates grant, based on need, is extended. The average financial aid grant in 2000-2001 is approximately $17,610. Bates offers access through scholarships to nearly 670 students. Overall, the College's fee and grant program uses $12 million in aid.

Facilities
The campus facilities are generally in an excellent state of repair, the product of long years of conscientious care and tending of the College's physical assets. Three facilities dedicated to the arts are the Bates College Museum of Art, Schaeffer Theatre and Olin Arts Center. Two natural science buildings, Carnegie Science Hall and Dana Chemistry Hall, have been renovated. In addition, Bates pursued an ambitious, environmentally conscious program of building and equipment acquisition to support teaching. In the past decade, eighteen buildings have had major renovations or been built, including Pettengill Hall. Dedicated in 1999, this ninety thousand square foot structure houses fully networked teaching spaces, faculty offices, laboratories, student research centers, and other facilities for eleven social-science departments and interdisciplinary programs.

Lewiston/Auburn Community
Bates is located on a beautiful 109-acre traditional New England campus in Lewiston, Maine, which is 35 miles north of Portland; 140 miles north of Boston, and 340 miles north of New York City. The College also holds access to the 574-acre Bates Morse Mountain Conservation Area in Phippsburg, Maine; this area 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, scientific field station, and retreat center. The natural beauty and resources of Maine, its environment and recreational possibilities, are crucial to many members of the Bates community.

Bates is committed to its home community of Lewiston and neighboring Auburn, which together form a small urban center of about sixty-five thousand people. Fundamental to its purpose, BatesŐ students, faculty and staff define and shape the life of the College; by living, working, volunteering, and raising families in the community, they also help define the character of the host cities. Over the last decade, the College has acknowledged that connecting Bates to the community takes institutional leadership as well as individual relationships among Bates citizens and local residents.

The College and the two cities are involved in an extensive collaboration known as L/A Excels. This project, spearheaded by President Donald Harward, brings together leaders from all sectors of Lewiston and Auburn to work toward the highest standards in five areas of community life: educational aspirations, economic vitalization, culture and diversity, environment and quality of life, and leadership development. Maine Governor Angus King has said: " L/A Excels already represents the most ambitious coalition of community leaders in the memory of the Twin Cities."

Alumni and Alumnae
A significant percentage of the College's more than fifteen thousand (15,000) alumni maintain a lifelong relationship with their College and support its educational mission. The College and its alumni actively connect with one another in a variety of meaningful and beneficial ways. The College invaluably benefits from alumni volunteers who serve as admissions representatives, career resources, class agents, and alumni club leaders. The Alumni Council, a leadership group of 15 alumni and 2 students, fosters the connections between alumni and the various constituencies of the College by creating and maintaining an array of alumni programs and events to affirm that the Bates experience is one that lasts a lifetime.

Development
A mark of the last decade has been more systematic approaches to development. In 1996 Bates completed the largest fund-raising campaign in its history, exceeding its goal by raising $59.3 million in philanthropic support. In 1999–2000, the College received gifts of $18.75 million — nearly four times what was received early in the decade. This has helped the College triple its endowment to nearly $200 million over the past ten years, while increasing resources for financial aid, academic programs, and improvements to the campus.

Bates is preparing to announce a comprehensive capital campaign that will be completed in the 2005–2006 sesquicentennial year. The objective is to achieve, through new gifts and investment growth, a total endowment of $325 million, an effective increase of 60 percent. In addition to increasing the endowment, the College will seek to increase the Bates Fund, the annual-giving program composed of the Bates Alumni Fund and the Bates Parents Fund, from $2.5 million in 2000 to more than $4 million.

Staff
Bates is very proud of its work force, and in turn, those individuals contribute deeply to the life of the College. The College employs 738 staff (salaried and hourly) members who work within an inclusive community that values their opinions and recognizes the effect their presence has on the life of the College. They participate in a regularly convened Employee Advisory Committee that monitors and addresses issues and areas of interest to staff members, weekly senior staff forums to address campus wide issues, and are routinely named to ad hoc committees convened to focus on issues of import to the Bates community. Staff members also serve as academic advisors and mentors to individual students and student organizations.

Budget and Finance
Bates College is financially healthy. Its budget for the current year (ending June 30, 2001) is $61 million. The College has leveraged its endowment through bond borrowings amounting to $30 million at June 30, 2000. The operating budgets and results for the last ten plus years have been balanced and in some cases have shown a slight surplus. The College's endowment stood at $198 million at June 30, 2000. Of this amount, approximately $40 million is in funds functioning as endowment (board designated endowment).

Although the College is balancing its budgets, the budgets are tight. When compared to its peer institutions, Bates has less operating resources available by approximately $10,000 per student FTE. The College has started developing a Multi-Year Resource Plan, a five-year plan that incorporates resources expected from a comprehensive capital campaign as well as operating resources and financing capabilities. These resources are then allocated in line with the goals of the College in six designated Areas of Focus. These areas are (alphabetically): affordability and access; compensation; facilities; faculty; information and information technology; and, L/A Excels, college/community collaboration.

Despite the College's financial health and successful campaigns, its endowment is low in comparison to its peer institutions. In the next decade, its under-capitalization will be a key issue for its leadership and supporters.

Recent Accreditation
In 2000, the College underwent its ten-year accreditation study and subsequent visitation (chaired by John McCardell, Jr., President, Middlebury College) by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, resulting in a strong affirmation of BatesŐ goals. Through the process of this evaluation, the College was praised for its: strong sense of community; dedicated constituencies (including staff, faculty and the Board); elegant physical plant; commitment to consultation in decision making; commitment to the Lewiston/Auburn community; strong student body; rigorous academic program and faculty; and the emergence of the College as a national liberal arts college. The visiting team, however, also identified critical areas on which it will focus, including: faculty workload; the need for strong financial planning; the need for a master plan for facilities; a balance between interdisciplinary studies and traditional departments; a healthy student culture; and a very aggressive capital campaign. Overall, the entire accreditation experience was a chance for the College to celebrate its traditions and cultures, and identify the specific steps needed to keep its vision strong.

Reporting Relationships
The President of the College reports to a bicameral board consisting of the President, fifteen Fellows who serve until a mandatory retirement age of 70 years, and not more than 25 Overseers, elected for five-year terms. The Alumni Association of Bates College nominates two of five members elected annually to the Board of Overseers. Currently, reporting to the President are five Vice Presidents — Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, Vice President for Asset Management and Treasurer, Vice President for Budgeting and Accounting, Vice President for External and Alumni Affairs, and the Vice President for Development — and three Deans — The Dean of Students, Dean of the College and Dean of Admissions.

Qualifications
Bates College has had strong, wise and stable presidential leadership, having had only six presidents as it approaches the sesquicentennial celebration of its founding. The search process takes for granted that the College's next leader, its seventh President, will have managerial acumen and skills. Its hope is to find a person who will confidently embody these capacities of mind and character:

• The ability to provide strong intellectual leadership and vision to the College, to nurture academic interests, and to act on a deep commitment to excellence in the liberal arts educational experience;
  
  
• A commitment to openness, accessibility, and consensus building, and to the principles of diversity, community and egalitarianism;
  
  
• The energy and capacity to raise significantly the level of private, alumni, corporate, foundation and other forms of financial support in order to achieve Bates' long-term goals;
  
  
• The ability to raise Bates' national profile and celebrate publicly its many strengths through clear and enthusiastic communication to both internal and external constituencies; and,
  
  
• A talent for caring, as an element of an ethical presence, combined with a sense of humor.

Contacts
The search committee will begin reviewing materials in May 2001 and will continue throughout the summer 2001. For best consideration, please forward nominations and applications, in complete confidence, to:

Shelly Weiss Storbeck
Managing Director and Vice President
The Education Practice
A.T. Kearney, Inc.
333 John Carlyle Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

Phone: 703/739-4613
Facsimile: 703/518-1782
E-mail: shelly.storbeck@atkearney.com

Electronic submissions are particularly encouraged. For more information about the College, please consult its website: www.bates.edu.

Bates College is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

• Presidential search main page
• Position specification
• Search advertisement
• Contact the Presidential Search Committee
• Committee members
• "The Search Is On," article from Bates magazine

• Press releases:
  "Harward retiring from Bates College presidency in 2002"
  "Bates presidential search committee named"
• History of Bates and Mission Statement
• About Bates