In the fall of 2016, Bates adopted an Institutional Plan to produce a framework of priorities, collectively derived, to guide the work of the college over the subsequent five to eight years, and to inform choices for  the Bates Campaign that launched publicly in May 2017.  This web page provides highlights of the college’s progress in carrying out the plan, and is up-to-date as of May 2019. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather to give the Bates community an overview of the relative status of each priority two and a half years after the adoption of the plan.

Some of the most significant progress on the plan is highlighted below. More detailed updates on each of the plan’s priorities follow, organized by three categories: completed or significant progress, work in progress, and limited progress to date. Necessarily, because the update is focused on progress under the Institutional Plan, it does not reflect some of the most fundamental and important work that Bates faculty and staff do every day to provide students with an excellent undergraduate experience.

Selected Accomplishments to Date

• Admission applications up 55 percent over the past two years with increasing quality across the student body
• $209 million raised to date toward goal of $300 million in The Bates Campaign—the largest fundraising campaign in the history of the college
• $50 million gift for the building of the Bonney Science Center and transformation of STEM facilities across campus
• Digital and Computational Studies Program established and three faculty hired
• Seven new endowed professorships with a target of 11 new lines by the end of The Bates Campaign
• Significant investments to support all students for academic success, including major grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as a new endowed professorship dedicated to STEM equity and inclusion
• Structural changes to increase the college’s effectiveness in promoting equity and inclusion, including the creation of a vice president for equity and inclusion at the senior staff level; the revitalization of the Office of Intercultural Education with new leadership, increased staffing, and enhanced programming; and a commitment to active and inclusive faculty searches, resulting in 11 of the 27 faculty hired for tenure-track positions since 2016 coming from underrepresented backgrounds
• Comprehensive redesign of student services, including the Academic Resource Commons, accessible education, campus life, counseling and psychological services, health services, residential life and health education, and student support advising and case management
• Purposeful Work established as a fully operational program under a unified Center for Purposeful Work
• One of only seven colleges in the country to attain carbon neutrality before the 2020 target date. Bates reached this goal in part by becoming the first college in the country to use renewable fuel oil to heat facilities

More Information

For more information about progress within the full Institutional Plan, please see the following categories:

• Completed or Significant Progress
• Work in Progress
• Limited Progress to Date