Seen as Green

Bates’ progress toward environmental sustainability made news. In February, New England Cable News followed up on a visit by Maine’s 2nd District Rep. Michael Michaud to inspect Bates’ environmental initiatives.

Michaud and NECN visited a lab where biodiesel is made from used cooking oil and heard about the “green” aspects of the new student housing and dining Commons projects. President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, housing project manager Pam Wichroski, and geo major Maria Jenness ’07 were among Bates people in the NECN spot.

Also on hand was geology professor Beverly Johnson, who works with students on the biodiesel pilot project. Shortly before Michaud’s visit, Johnson commented to the Maine Sunday Telegram about the high-profile United Nations report describing threats posed by global climate change.

At right, U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud talks with Maria Jenness ’07 of Newport, Vt., and Greg Henkes ’08 of Chapel Hill, N.C. The students showed Michaud a bench-scale biofuels process that converts used vegetable oil from the College’s dining services to a fuel that can be burned in furnaces for heat.

Short Terms

As the Bates Dance Festival prepared for its 25th anniversary season, festival director Laura Faure took part in a May gathering of Maine performers and arts administrators. Faure talked with the Maine Sunday Telegram about the annual conference of the Maine Performing Arts Network, which hopes to boost the fortunes of theater and dance in the state. “Business as usual doesn’t work,” she said.

Historian Michael Jones talked with The History Channel about the ancient Saxons for the program Barbarians 2. It first aired in March.

.Admissions dean Wylie Mitchell revealed to National Public Radio a practical implication of the College’s lack of a requirement for standardized test scores. Dealing with the extra materials Bates applicants tend to submit in lieu of SAT scores is time-consuming, he explained, and admissions staffers normally read each applicant’s folder cover to cover, multiple times. “If we had 16,000 applications, we’d be hard-pressed to do that,” he said.

Rebecca Herzig, associate professor of women and gender studies, co-convened a gathering of scholars whose research into the phenomenon of “medicalization” appeared in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet…

Reporting on drug and alcohol abuse on campuses nationwide, USA Today quoted President Emeritus Donald Harward’s thoughts about students’ need to reconnect with academic and civil life. Harward helms the Bringing Theory to Practice Project, a national effort to effect that reconnection.

Eric Hooglund, professor of politics, talked with Agence France Presse about the Bush administration’s inflexible approach to Iraq. “[T]hey can’t even listen to what the Republicans are saying,” he said.

When it comes to statistics for alumni giving, which in turn affect a college’s place in rankings like U.S. News & World Report’s, Bates plays it straight, Kimberly Hokanson told The Wall Street Journal. “I’m not into quick fixes” like asking for token gifts just to boost participation rates, the College’s director of alumni and parent programs said.