1. Bates business networks go bi-coastal
Three East Coast business networking events are scheduled this month and next, and another in San Francisco is being planned. On April 14, the Bates Club of New York will host a Colby-Bates-Bowdoin career networking evening. A workshop on "Making the Switch: How to Change Careers" will be offered by Paul Steinberg '57, president of IMA Search, Inc., an executive search firm. May 4 will be a busy day for New York and Boston Bates alumni, with business networking events scheduled in both cities. Bates trustees Bruce E. Stangle '70, Michael W. Bonney '80, and John D. Gillespie '80 will speak at the Boston event titled: "From Smith North to Senior Management: Charting the Path of Bates Graduates in Business." Neal E. Neilinger '85 headlines the New York event with this topic: "A Survival Guide to the Changing Financial Services Landscape."

To register for the Boston event: www.bates.edu/x49703.xml

To register for the New York events: www.bates.edu/alumni-events-calendar.xml

2. Third annual Mt. David Summit celebrates academic excellence
If you are near Lewiston, this glimpse at the quality of our students is worth your time. Through poster presentations, panel discussions, exhibits and performances, more than 250 Bates College students will take part in the third annual Mount David Summit April 2-4. www.bates.edu/x49700.xml

3. Bates #5 in Princeton Review's 'Top 10 best-value colleges'
According to a March 29 announcement from The Princeton Review, the magazine has compiled a "best value" list, and a book on the same topic, based on quantitative and qualitative data obtained from students and administrators at more than 500 colleges. Topping the magazine's list was the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "We identified over 30 factors by which we rated colleges in three categories: academics, tuition, and tuition GPA: the sticker price minus average amount students receive in gift aid scholarships and grants," said Robert Franek, Princeton Review assistant vice president. "The 77 schools that met our criteria are all great education deals. We recommend them to students and parents seeking the best academic bang for their buck." While the methodology isn't clear, it is always nice to be included in anyone's Top 10 list. www.princetonreview.com/college/research/bestvalue/default.asp

4. Trustees seek nominations for honorary degree recipients
The Bates Board of Trustees Honorary Degree Committee seeks nominations for honorary degree recipients in 2005 and beyond. www.bates.edu/honorand-nominations.xml

5. Visit Saddam's spider hole with Paul Blume '98
Paul Blume '98, a reporter for NBC affiliate WMTV in Madison, Wis., recently returned from a two-week journey with a group of Wisconsin soldiers based in Tikrit, Iraq. His station is streaming several of his reports at www.nbc15.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647246

Click on "Wisconsin's Soldiers: Saddam's Last Hiding Place"

6. Debate sponsored on political diversity
The Office of College Advancement has sponsored a debate April 1 by the Brooks Quimby Debate Society on the issue of campus political diversity. The question to be debated reads: "Do Liberal Arts Institutions Inappropriately Marginalize the Right?" While this has been a topic at campuses nationwide, it became so at Bates recently due to a regrettable incident in which a staff member in Communications and Media Relations misdirected an e-mail referring to College Republicans as a "bunch of thugs." www.bates.edu/emailapology.xml

In a Feb. 27 meeting, College Republican leaders acknowledged the sincerity of the staff member's apology and the fair treatment they have received from the CMR office, but said the incident is emblematic of a larger problem of marginalization experienced by conservative students. The debate will take place at 8 p.m. in the Edmund S. Muskie '36 Archives.

7. Bates Dining Services cited by state for saving money through recycling
Bates' food-waste recycling system is being held up as a statewide model of "green consciousness" in both senses, helping the environment and saving money -- anywhere from about $40,000 to $70,000, said Dining Services Director Christine Schwartz. www.pressherald.com/business/stories/040316foodwaste.shtml

8. Economics students retire 9 tons of sulfur dioxide
Talk about applying theory to practice: For the fourth year in a row, students in the Economics 222 course taught by Associate Professor Lynne Lewis have successfully bid on, purchased and retired permits to emit sulfur dioxide. This year, however, they bid on and successfully purchased not one ton, but nine! Offered a challenge grant of $1,200 by the Community Organization for Renewable Energy, Lewis' class raised a $1,400 match in three days. The class was able to bid on nine permits and retired nine tons of sulfur dioxide -- the amount of SO2 emitted if one were to leave 3,600 100-watt light bulbs burning for a full year. Sulfur dioxide, a leading cause of acid rain, is emitted when coal is burned to produce electricity. Under the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, coal-burning utilities are required to have emissions permits. These permits are tradable and the Chicago Board of Trade holds an emissions allowance auction each March. The Bates econ classes now own 12 allowances for 12 tons of SO2 that will never create acid rain in Maine. For more information and to see Bates' name in print, check out www.epa.gov/airmarkets/auctions/2004/04spotbids.html

9. The Deansmen head west
The Bates College men's a capella group, The Deansmen, are traveling to Arizona for spring break to escape the cold and to perform at various venues. On April 21, they will be singing for area Bates alumni and parents at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. For more information on this concert and other alumni events, please click here: www.bates.edu/alumni-events-calendar.xml

10. World music plays at Bates
Featuring performances by students from Bates and Bowdoin colleges, as well as a special appearance by a Balinese gamelan orchestra from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bates presents World Music Weekend April 3-4. Bates' Gamelan Mawar Mekar, the college's Blazing Sun Steel Orchestra and Bowdoin's Vadzimu All-Stars, playing traditional music from Zimbabwe, appear in concert Saturday, and MIT's Gamelan Galak Tika performs Sunday afternoon. www.bates.edu/x49906.xml

11. This month in Bates history: Mays '20 delivers MLK eulogy
Benjamin Mays '20 and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. promised each other: He who outlived the other would deliver his friend's last eulogy. On April 9, 1968, Mays made good on the promise. After funeral services at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, King's mahogany coffin was born on a rickety farm wagon, pulled by two mules, to Morehouse College. There, Mays, the school's 70-year-old president emeritus, delivered a final eulogy that also renounced the black movement's own turn toward violence. King was "more courageous than those who advocate violence as a way out," Mays told the estimated 150,000 mourners. "Martin Luther faced the dogs, the police, jail, heavy criticism, and finally death; and he never carried a gun, not even a knife to defend himself. He had only his faith in a just God to rely on."

Read May's eulogy for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: www.bates.edu/x49908.xml

12. Attention Reunion 4s and 9s!
If you are in a reunion class this year and haven’t received your registration packet via e-mail or postal mail, please contact the Office of Alumni and Parent Programs by calling (207) 786-3837 or at alumni@bates.edu

For an update on Reunion activities and to see who’s already registered, click on www.bates.edu/reunion.xml

13. College Key launches Distinguished Alumni-in-Residence series
Chantal Berry Dalton '69, a career diplomat with the U.S. State Department, was the inaugural speaker in the new Distinguished Alumni in Residence program funded by the College Key. www.bates.edu/x49569.xml

14. Bates People in the News
Anthropology lecturer Heather Lindkvist, who has worked closely with the local Somali community, explained to The Associated Press how Lewiston's predominantly white population has come to understand these newest residents. Meanwhile, Massachusetts GOP Chairman Darrell Crate '89 talked to The Boston Globe about the implications of a tight state Senate race. Jeffrey Butland '73 of the Small Business Administration outlined for readers of the Portland Press Herald possible growth in his agency's offering. Also in the Press Herald was a Q&A with College Republicans vice chairman Oliver Wolf '06. www.bates.edu/bates-in-the-news.xml