In each episode of the classic ’80s TV cop show Hill Street Blues, a sergeant delivers the same line as the officers head out for their shift: “Let’s be careful out there.”

On a residential campus like Bates, “let’s be careful” often means taking care of each other as you have fun — and, importantly, it also means that we support you as you take on this responsibility.

“Words are just the starting point. They must be backed up with action.”

President Spencer spoke to this imperative at Convocation. She said that “each and every one of us has a role to play in shaping and maintaining” our community, adding that “words are just the starting point. They must be backed up with actions, and these actions eventually need to become habits.”

My job in Student Affairs as your associate dean of students overseeing the Campus Life Office is to lead efforts — that is, the actions we hope will become habits — that will fulfill the Bates commitment to create a vibrant, inclusive, and healthy campus community for all students.

Here in Campus Life, Carrie Murphey ‘06, Qiu Fogarty, and I are ready to collaborate with you, and with faculty and staff, to develop and run programs that give you the knowledge, skills, and self-awareness needed to have happy and successful lives.

This work runs the co-curricular gamut, from teaching you leadership skills and helping you run your student organizations to giving first-year students that first, firm foothold in Bates life.

’80s Night Events

This Saturday night you’ll experience a few examples of our collaborative work. Not only will you have the annual ’80s Dance, featuring the cover band White Wedding, on the Library Quad, you will also have:

• An ’80s reception with food and treats, costume contest, and trivia: Office of Intercultural Education, Chase Hall;
• Super Smash Bros. tournament, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.: Chase Lounge, Chase Hall;
• Karaoke, 9:30 to 11:30 p.m.: Little Room, Chase Hall;
• ’80s photo booth, 8:30 to 11:30 p.m.: Chase Hall, inside main entrance.

These treats are part of Late at Bates ’80s Night, and are sponsored by Campus Life, Chase Hall Committee, the Office of Intercultural Education, Bates College Student Government, the Discordians, and, as the name indicates, the Late at Bates program.

I want to say a word about Late at Bates, now in its second year. Through this program, you can propose and win grant funding for a weekend activity of your invention, one that is vibrant, creative, and inclusive, and that strengthens our sense of community and campus culture.

Got an idea that you think is worthy of a Late at Bates grant? Then submit your proposal: The process is simple and straightforward.

Thursday and Friday

I also hope to see you at the first Village Club Series: 9 p.m. tonight (Thursday) at the Benjamin Mays Center, featuring Blair Crimmins and the Hookers. Here is more information on the Village Club Series.

And from 9 to 11 p.m. on Friday night (Sept. 18) on the LIbrary Quad is the first CHC concert of the year, with Bryce Vine. Check out his music:

Club 101 Workshops

Campus Life and the Office of Intercultural Education are pleased to offer workshops to help anyone who is a club leader, an aspiring leader, or merely interested. Each workshop is in Muskie from 8 to 10 p.m. The workshops take place on Sept. 21, 22, 29, and 30.

Most of you have experience running a student group in high school, but the responsibilities and complexity of leading a student organization at Bates are as different as, well, high school and college.

Workshops will teach you how to develop a mission statement and bylaws, plan and execute event programming, create and stick to a budget, and more.

And here’s a bonus: Student clubs and organizations can win programming money — two $200 prizes are available —  by submitting an event proposal based on skills their leaders learn in the Club 101 series. Learn more about the Club 101 Workshops!