Commencement 2025 Archives
Video: ‘Do you drink the water or the wave?’ asks Baccalaureate speaker Chris Schiff
It’s a line from a postmodern novel: “Which do you drink? The water or the wave?” We plan to drink the water. But then the waves come crashing, says Chris Schiff in his Baccalaureate address.
Slideshow: Hour by hour with the Bates Class of 2023 on Commencement day
“A great, unpretentious, family-style Commencement!” is how a livestream viewer from Santa Fe, N.M., described this year’s Bates graduation. Here’s how it went, hour by hour.
‘Be better. Do better. Be an arc in the bigger circle,’ graduates told at Bates College Commencement
The 157th Bates Commencement saw degrees conferred on 439 Bates seniors and an address by author and scholar J. Drew Lanham — a self-described “bird-loving Black kid” from South Carolina — who spoke about freedom and Benjamin Mays, and called on the graduates “to be better, to do better” and “to be an arc in the bigger circle” that gives power to our freedom.
Bates Class of 2023 ivy stone points to the future
The Class of 2023 ivy stone was designed by Abby Segal, who is a professional magician. But there’s no dazzling illusion in the design, just simple storytelling about a class navigating COVID.
Q&A: Bates Commencement senior speaker Rishi Madnani discovered a ‘big part of who I am’ at Bates
This year’s Senior Address at Commencement will be offered by Rishi Madnani ‘23 of Langhorne, Pa., who came to Bates with two major expectations about his path forward. And both were upended.
J. Drew Lanham to deliver 2023 Commencement address
Author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, Lanham is a MacArthur Fellowship–winning ecologist, ornithologist, and inclusive wilderness advocate.
Celebrate With Bobcat Lawn Signs
Want to show your Bobcat pride? Download one of our printable PDFs.
Commencement 2022 Livestream
Join us on Sunday morning, May 29, for live coverage, beginning at 9:30 a.m., of the 156th Bates Commencement as we celebrate the Class of 2022 and welcome Commencement speaker Dr. Nirav Shah, leader of the COVID-19 public health response in Maine, and fellow honorary degree recipients Michael Bonney ʼ80, Nikki Giovanni, and Becca Stevens.
Commencement 2022 Map
This campus map shows locations of various resources and activities for Bates Commencement on Sunday, May 29, 2022, including vehicle…
‘I hate grass’: Confessions, quirks, and authenticity from Hoi Ning Ngai’s Baccalaureate Address
“Be comfortable embracing all of your strange and special qualities — and all of the people who love you for them,” said Ngai in an address that shared