Faculty development throughout career (1.4)

Create structures and practices that support faculty throughout their careers.

• Bates joined the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity to help faculty navigate the academy and receive more robust professional development.
• Efforts are currently underway to identify national best practices in mentoring.
• All new faculty line allocations must now include a mentoring plan.

Integration of staff into the intellectual life of Bates (1.5)

Strengthen the integration of staff into the intellectual life of Bates.

• Opportunities to engage staff in traditionally academic activities have increased, including new staff membership on the Honorary Degrees Committee, Campus Life collaborations with academic departments, and Student Affairs staff engagement with Purposeful Work curricular programs.
• The Office of the Dean of the Faculty runs a Faculty Commons program that is open to staff, and a new program in the 2019–20 academic year will expand engagement with the annual Common Read to staff.

Organizational structures that support educational programs (1.8)

Ensure that organizational structures adequately support our educational programs and promote the intellectual vibrancy of the college.

• The Academic Affairs Council is consulting the faculty at large on the most effective approach to organizing the college’s academic structure.
• Efforts are underway to promote the academic life of the college, including the promotion of a faculty expertise website, the creation of a Twitter feed for the Dean of the Faculty, and the establishment of a strategic partnership between Academic Affairs and the Bates Communications Office.
• An external review of the college’s faculty governance system will take place in the 2019–20 academic year.

Academic advising, pre-major (2.2)

Support all students for academic success.

• Initial planning for a coherent and comprehensive approach to academic advising is underway in the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.

Arts (2.6)

Support the arts as a core element of the liberal arts experience.

• The Arts Collaborative is a vibrant hub for promoting the arts on campus.
• A proposed Artist Residency Program is being considered as a funding opportunity in The Bates Campaign.

Integration of global education off-campus with on-campus experiences (2.9)

Integrate global education off-campus with campus, curricular, and community work.

• The Center for Global Education was established in 2017 to improve off- and on-campus global experiences.
• A new associate dean is shaping the path forward with the intentional design and implementation of new programs to better support the international student experience.

Multidisciplinary institute (2.14)

Create a multidisciplinary institute focused on questions or topics of societal importance.

• Additional consideration is needed to determine whether and how the college should create a multidisciplinary institute.

Integration and reflection in student experience (3.1)

Create a more coherent and intentional approach to the student experience that promotes reflection among students and greater self-awareness of their trajectory through Bates.

• The Harward Center’s Bonner Leader Program offers the college’s most comprehensive student development program, with a four-year arc of exploration, capacity-building, goal-setting, and self-reflection. The Bonner Program’s developmental model has influenced many other college programs, including Purposeful Work, the Bates Civic Action Team, and emerging plans for a college-wide approach to student leadership.
• Purposeful Work philosophy and programming are grounded in reflection.
• Efforts are underway to strengthen student leadership programs across a range of activities, and to introduce a coherent leadership curriculum that will involve reflection as a key element.

Institutional collaborations (4.5)

Explore institutional collaborations.

• Ladd Library’s collection development is done in partnership with Colby and Bowdoin, resulting in the tripling of both the college’s print collection and buying power for digital collections.

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