We could not have asked for a more beautiful — in every sense of the word — start of the academic year.
Welcoming arms, open hearts, and warm, sun-kissed skies launched new beginnings for the Class of 2028 arrived, joining the returning classes of 2027, 2026, and 2025.
And so the 2024–25 academic year has commenced, with fanfare and anticipation. Take a look at some memorable moments in the latest edition of This Month at Bates.
Bobcat Well-Being
Lilly Miller ‘25 (left) of Claremont, Calif., joined by Maria Femia ‘25 (center) of Canton, Mass., and Sergio Beltran ‘26 of Palo Alto, Calif., offer their insights during a Well-Being at Bates presentation for new students in Commons, where the students and professional staff shared tips on goal setting, mental health, and accessing health resources on campus.
New Community
President Garry W. Jenkins welcomes Class of 2028 Kessler Scholars and their families in the Benjamin Mays Center in late August.
The college’s Kessler Scholars are high-achieving students who are among the first in their family to pursue a college degree.
Ready When You Are
One day before the arrival of the Class of 2028, the several dozen members of the college’s Residential Life student staff gather for a portrait on Alumni Walk.
Serving as junior advisors, community advisors, and team leaders, the student staff members live and work in first-year residences during the year, mentoring and supporting new students and creating community within all Bates residences.
Unpacking College Life
Holly Sullivan ’28 of Raleigh, N.C., gets settled into her room in Chu Hall during on Opening Day.
Chu Hall is one of 10 campus residences, from large residence halls like Page Hall (97 first-year students) to cozy Frye House (23 first-year students), that serve as new homes for the Class of 2028.
An Inspiring Start
President Garry W. Jenkins welcomes the Class of 2028 during his address on Opening Day on the Historic Quad.
“People matter here,” he says. “We are individuals, each with something unique to offer, but we are together a powerfully strong community that cares deeply about each other and about the world around us.”
Taking a Trip
The day after their arrival, members of the first-year class gathered at Keigwin Amphitheater to meet their trip leaders (standing at right) for the Annual Entering Student Orientation Program. Known as AESOP, the program offers on- and off-campus overnight trips led by current students.
This year’s edition of AESOP featured 120 student trip leaders who guided 445 first-year students on 55 trips over two nights and three days.
A Big W at Wesleyan
Football’s road victory over previously unbeaten Wesleyan in late September was particularly sweet. It was the first Bates win in Middletown, Conn., since 1981. Wesleyan is the alma mater of Bates head coach Matt Coyne — and he was as fired up about it as anyone.
“It’s great to get a win down there for the first time in 43 years and show the true progress in our development of the program,” Coyne said.
Next up is a 7 p.m. game vs. Colby in Waterville. “This game means everything to our guys,” Coyne said.”It’s about pride, tradition, and representing Bates in the best way possible. We’re ready to go out there and give it everything we have.”
Class in Session
Seulgie Lim, assistant professor of politics, hands out papers in her First-Year Seminar, “Gender Without Borders: A Transnational Odyssey.”
The course poses the question “Fifty years since the International Women’s Year in 1975, what has changed for women across the world?” to examine women, women’s issues, and women’s rights from a global and transnational perspective.
Connecting Beyond Campus
Community-engagement in Lewiston was the theme of this AESOP trip during Orientation, led by Mary Beth Tune ’25 of Pegram, Tenn., and Ines Knirsch ’25 of Larchmont, N.Y. In describing their trip, the leaders said, “We can’t wait to show you why we love Bates, and introduce y’all to a wonderful community of people.”
Pieck Experience
Reflecting a Bates tradition, Sonja Pieck, the Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies, was chosen by the graduating Class of 2024 to offer this year’s faculty address to the incoming Class of 2028 at Convocation.
Pieck urged the new students to roam freely around their new home. “Open yourself to notice and appreciate what is here now,” she said. “There are so many quiet, lovely corners waiting to be discovered, like Lake Andrews and its inhabitants, memorials and markers,” she said.
Growing Together
Convocation concluded with the traditional tree-planting service, including poetry, music, and a watering ritual, that is held in memory of Bates faculty and staff who have died in the past year.
Planted along the path between the Class of 1929 Gate and Hathorn Hall, the new campus tree is a hop hornbeam.
First Finance
Among the many classes that had their first session of the year on Sept. 4, 2024, was a seminar class on international finance taught by Daniel Riera-Crichton, the Betty Doran Stangle Professor of Applied Economics, who has a bit of the day’s lesson projected on his arm in this photograph.
Pack Mentality
The Bobcats swept the top three places as the women’s cross country team rolled to an eighth consecutive Maine State Meet title in September.
Shown at the start are, from left, Isabelle Demeritt ’25 (bib No. 133) of Acton, Mass., Elizabeth Holcombe ’26 (No. 136) of Tacoma Park Md., Phoebe Pohl ’25 (No. 138) of Wayland, Mass., and Kyra Buckley ’28 (No. 131) of Peabody, Mass.
Pohl won the six-kilometer race in 22:48.4. Demeritt and Holcombe finished second and third, respectively.
Sociology Under the Sun
On a very warm September day, Associate Professor of Sociology Heidi Taylor and her students traded their Roger Williams Hall classroom for a patch of lawn outside the Bill for a class session of “Senior Capstone in Sociology.” Joining the discussion that afternoon was Professor of Sociology Emily Kane.
The course offers majors an intensive capstone reflection on the discipline of sociology and the application of the sociological imagination to understanding the world.
Belonging and Community
Students enjoy a welcome-back reception at the newly renamed Student Center for Belonging and Community, formerly the Office of Intercultural Education.
Thirty-one years ago, six student groups came together to ask Bates to create a multicultural center. At the reception, Tonya Bailey-Curry, an associate dean and director of the center, noted how the new name honors all Bates people who have worked to create belonging and community for students over the years.
Farm to Lab
Bates biology students have joined as effort at an organic farm in Freeport to work through the complex issues of soil contamination by PFAS, so-called forever chemicals, caused by the spread of contaminated sludge as fertilizer decades ago.
Here, post-baccalaureate scholar Sebastián León Fallas ’24 (left) is teaching students how to collect a soil core sample. From left, León Fallas, Trent Hieber ’26 of Granby, Conn., John Harun-Delong ’26 of Fairbanks, Alaska, Ben Leach ’27 of Atlanta, and Bryn Murray ’27 of Jupiter, Fla., who is a course teaching assistant.
Laura and Winslow Robinson, owners and operators of Fable Farm, have invited scientists at Bates and Yale University to do grant-funded research to better understand the effects of PFAS on farm and to find scalable solutions to the crisis.
The Bates students are in the course “Biological Research Experience: Molecules to Ecosystems,” taught by Levi Adams, a lecturer in biology. It’s the type of Bates course that engages students in hands-on research experiences, teaching them how to apply various research methods using multiple approaches that span a range of disciplines in biology, from molecular to ecological.
State Run
Nikhil Chavda ’27 of Nottingham, N.H., finished ninth of 104 runners as the men’s cross country team edged rival Bowdoin by six points to capture the Bobcats’ seventh Maine State Meet title in the last 10 years.
Bates’ depth ruled the day, as Bobcat runners took eighth through 11th place in the field.
Field of View
This aerial photograph shows newly renovated Russell Street Track and Field in late September.
The complex has been transformed since 2022. That year, the track gained a new Mondo surface. And this past summer, the field’s old grass surface was replaced with durable and plowable FieldTurf for nearly year-round usability.
The complex also added stadium lights to expand its availability even further for a variety of field-based sports at Bates, including soccer, lacrosse, rugby, and ultimate.
Up Vote
On National Voter Registration Day in September, Alex Appleton ’27 of White Bear, Minn., Ananya Rao ’25 of Bedford, N.H., and Neil Grover ’27 of Avon, Conn., support the Bates Votes effort that’s ongoing this fall.
The trio provided voting information, especially how to register to vote and the ins and outs of absentee voting. Each election, Bates students turn out to vote at among the highest rates of any U.S. college. Bates Votes co-chair Ethan Chan ’25 of Westborough, Mass., said, “Bates Votes has worked very hard to offer civic education as a norm here at Bates. And we’re really proud that it seems to be sticking.”
Score One for Bates
Rookie field hockey player Caroline Nowak (No. 9) of Pelham, N.Y., gets mobbed by teammates after scoring her first college goal during the Bobcats’ 2–1 win over Amherst in late September.
Ranked 12th in the nation, the team is off to its best start since 1983.
Night Walkers
Night falls on the Bates campus as students and families linger outside Commons for conversation on the Friday evening of Back to Bates
Goal and a Hug
David Ortiz ’26 (left) of Wake Forest, N.C., hugs Andrew Goddard ’27 of Enfield, Conn., after Goddard’s goal vs. the University of Maine at Farmington on Oct. 1. At right is Noah Greiff ’27 of Washington, D.C.
The men’s soccer team unloaded for a season-high six goals in the 6–1 win at Russell Street Field. Through early October, the team had a gaudy 6–2–1 record.
Cats and Community
Bates students celebrate their College Cup victory at the 2024 Dempsey Challenge. The campus community donated more than $30,000 to win the College Cup as the highest gift tally among Maine colleges.
Standing behind the Bobcat throng are Jack Stephenson ‘26 (left), a Bates varsity rower from Oreland, Pa., who is battling cancer and who accepted the College Cup from actor Patrick Dempsey (right).
A recipient of a 2017 Bates honorary degree, Dempsey grew up locally and hosts the fundraiser for the Dempsey Center, an organization dedicated to making life better for people impacted by cancer.
Artful Dialogue
The visual artist Carmen Winant speaks with students in the Keck Classroom in Pettengill Hall during her September visit.
Discussing her work with Casey Riley of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Winant talked about her acclaimed work, The Last Safe Abortion, featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2024 Biennial, as an example of the possibilities of collaborative and community-engaged creative practice, and of radical museum work.
The conversation was moderated by Erin Hyde Nolan, a visiting assistant professor of art and visual culture.
Leaning In
Nicole Tandetnitskiy ’27 of Newton Center, Mass., battles with a Trinity opponent during the Bobcats’ victory over the Bantams in early September. The team concluded the month with a 4–2–1 record.
Happy Treat
Outside Merrill Gymnasium, Jasmine Gray ’27 of Atlanta enjoys a visit with a four-legged friend, Cookie.
