Dear Members of the Bates Community,

I write with an update on the planned Veterans Recognition Project at Bates, which was announced last May.

A Veterans Recognition Project Committee, comprising students, faculty, staff, and alumni, began work last summer to develop a recognition appropriate for Bates. We retained the landscape architecture firm MBLA of Freeport, Maine, who recommended a site for the installation and developed a design.

While we had hoped to proceed with construction of the installation this summer, we have extended the timeline for the project for two reasons. First, as you have likely read, Maine is in the midst of a very challenging construction environment, severely limiting the number of available contractors and driving costs beyond the scope of our budget. Second, we realized as a committee that we needed more time to engage the full range of viewpoints related to the project before finalizing the text and any other elements that will be part of the installation.

The committee will continue its work over the summer and into 2019–20, with the intention of rebidding the project early next winter so that we are well-positioned for the construction cycle in the spring of 2020.

I am grateful for the work of the committee to date, for committee members’ willingness to keep working into next year, and for the engagement of the broader Bates community. If you have thoughts on the Veterans Recognition Project that you would like to share with the committee, please write to veteransrecognition@bates.edu.

Sincerely,

Clayton Spencer