Dear Bates Community,

I want to share an update on changes to campus you may have noticed. As ever, we are dedicated to improving our campus and the state of our facilities.  The summer is always the most important window to undertake key projects and enhancements. After a flurry of years in which we opened Bonney Science Center, Dana Hall, and Chase Hall in succession, our Fall 2024 campus improvements were not quite as prominent but they are important and transformational.

Our newest residence hall, 96 Campus Avenue, has turned out beautifully and is now home to 65 students. The college’s original dormitory, Parker Hall, needed new flooring, and we used that opportunity to make other upgrades, installing bottle-filling stations and replacing all the furniture in student rooms. Parker is one of our largest student dormitories, housing nearly 160 students. 

Other noticeable improvements on campus include ongoing attention to the exterior of Hathorn Hall (with a notable discovery of honey bees!), and accessibility improvements to Ladd. We have completed extensive exterior painting and other upkeep projects in Smith, Lane, and Parker Halls. We also upgraded the interior of several spaces, including  beautifully reupholstered furniture in Pettengill Atrium. In addition, our team has expanded the college’s storage capacity to satisfy our growing needs and renovated some faculty and staff housing.

You may also see new Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and accessible vehicles on campus. We continue to improve our fleet of campus vehicles with electric cars. Some less visible but important improvements include significant investments in mechanical and electrical systems around campus, from our steam distribution system to upgraded electrical services and a new building controls system in Ladd Library. While less visible, these projects represent significant investments needed to keep up with aging building infrastructure.

Sometimes improvements mean taking down buildings, including some with a cherished campus history. For example, Canham House, an unpretentious home named for an influential Bates graduate, had created a family-type environment for generations of History faculty and students before the social science faculty’s move to Pettingill. It was then the home to Purposeful Work before their move to Chase last year. Along with its rich history were many quirks and flaws and due to its condition, we took the building down last month. Similarly, foundation challenges and structure conditions in the carriage house on Frye Street that had housed the Sailing team’s boats and another Frye Street garage housing college supplies required taking down those structures for safety reasons. Finally, we demolished 126 Wood Street, a college building that had been used for employee transition housing but was no longer viable because of its age and condition. 

Our work continues into the academic year. Soon, we will begin work on Leahey Field, replacing the current clay-and-grass infield with an artificial turf infield. Led by philanthropy and the generosity of gifts from parents and alumni, this improvement to the field will better position Bates to play home baseball games in the Maine spring, which has historically been a challenge due to rain and even snow. We expect the project to be completed by the end of November and ready for play in the spring.

We will use this effort as a challenge to similarly raise funds to support a new artificial surface for the Lafayette Street Field with 2026 as the target for that project. In the meantime, we are making investments to the existing field for our softball team, including improvements to drainage, fencing and dugouts, as well as scoreboard updates, replacing the existing batting cage and adding a second cage. 

Finally, I will note that we are nearing the conclusion of the upgrade begun this spring to Russell Street Field, which provides  a flexible artificial turf surface. We expect this project to be complete for games and practices later this month. It is exciting to see the quality of our playing surfaces improve. In addition to Russell, the Campus Avenue Field Hockey surface was redone in 2016, and Garcelon Field was resurfaced in 2023. As we make these welcome improvements to our facilities, a gentle reminder that these playing surfaces do require care: Please honor the instructions on the posted signage and resist the temptation to use fields for campus shortcuts, and, in particular, metal spikes, broken glass, and even food waste may cause substantial harm to those surfaces. We greatly appreciate your cooperation.

Many thanks to our Facilities team of about 125 employees, who worked closely with numerous contract partners, for their work this summer to ready the campus for the new academic year, upgrade facilities, and enhance the campus environment.

It’s a great day to be a Bobcat,

Geoff