1. My four years at Bates
College Trustees invite a variety of students to join them each year for lunch at Chase Hall lounge on the Saturday before Commencement. After the meal, President Hansen invites students to offer a few thoughts on their time at Bates. See video clips of some of these spur-of-the-moment reflections by Bates' newest alumni: www.bates.edu/senior-trustee-videos.xml

2. Reunion 2004: The slideshow
We've posted a grand assortment of photos from Reunion 2004, including award winners, parading alumni and sleeping babies. We've got familiar photos from traditional events (lobster bake!) and unique events, like the Class of 1994's silent auction that yielded a deal you won't find on eBay: a 16-person luxury box at Fenway Park for a Chicago-Boston game, donated by Todd Robinson '79, that went for just $1,500. The really good news? Proceeds from the auction, totaling $4,200, benefited the Bates Fund. To see the Reunion slideshow, go to www.bates.edu/reunion.xml and click on the photo on the right side of the screen.

3. Class of 2004: Get lifetime e-mail address forwarding
If you graduated in May, your Bates student e-mail address expired on June 30! Make sure you register for the Bates Online Community community.bates.edu to get your free permanent e-mail forwarding address, which will forward all e-mail from yourname@alumni.bates.edu to your "real" e-mail account. This is a service for all Bates alumni — an e-mail address that remains constant no matter how many times you move. When you sign up for BatesNet, you will also gain access to the online Alumni Directory that allows you to keep in touch with your friends and look for Bates alumni in your area.

4. Maine Alumni Bates Club Lobster Bake
No summer in Maine is complete without eating lobster on the rocky coast. If you are a Maine resident or are traveling to Vacationland in July, bring your family and friends to the 8th Annual Maine Alumni Bates Club Lobster Bake on Bailey Island on July 24. More information about this and other alumni events in your area: www.bates.edu/alumni-events-calendar.xml

5. Bookstore offers eighth annual summer reading list
No exams involved: Here is the eighth edition of the Bates College Store summer leisure reading list. Each year, the bookstore's director, Sarah Potter '77, encourages Bates faculty and staff to submit book recommendations to this list. www.bates.edu/x56613.xml

6. New career service offered to alumni
The Office of Career Services is offering a new, improved credential service to alumni and students through Interfolio, Inc. The new program allows alumni to create and maintain a secure online credential file, containing letters of recommendation, writing samples, transcripts, and other documents relevant to job or graduate school applications. "In the past, alumni have had to wait often several days to have references sent from our office, due to the high volume of traffic. The new service offers faster turnaround, more flexibility, and top-notch customer service, " explained A. Charles Kovacs, director of career services. More information about this new program and other services — most of which are without cost — offered to alumni through the Office of Career Services: www.bates.edu/career/alumni/alumni.html

7. Davis Fitness Center requiring new ID
Beginning July 6, a valid new Bates ID must be used in a verification card reader at the Front Desk in the Davis Fitness Center in Underhill Arena. Eventually, the new ID cards will be required to access all Merrill gym facilities. Library users who do not use the athletic facilities may continue to use their current BatesCards, but may find it convenient to make the change now so they will have access to all the services that require the new card. If you are an alum who uses Bates facilities and you hold a pre-2004 Bates ID card, please go to the Access Control Office in the ground floor of Chase Hall, across from the bookstore. A new card will be made while you wait. The office is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. If you are an alum and have never held a card but want one, first contact Alumni and Parent Programs at 207-786-6127.

8. This month in Bates history: the Navy arrives
"Like two strange dogs" — that's how one observer, Professor of Biology William Sawyer '13, described the initially wary relationship between civilian male students and Navy men stationed at Bates during World War II as part of V-12, the Navy's inscrutably named officer-training program. It was a marriage of convenience: With the draft age at 18, the Navy feared a shortage of college-educated officers, while colleges like Bates faced dwindling enrollments. The influx of 300 V-12 sailors in July 1943 (nationally, 120,000 sailors were stationed at 131 colleges) not only helped Bates regain its firm fiscal footing but also brought a melting pot of American males to the Bates campus. They arose to reveille at 5:50 a.m., marched to the flagpole in front of Hathorn Hall to perform morning colors, and tackled chemistry and "commando" courses with the determination borne of a wartime mindset. www.bates.edu/x53874.xml

9. Bates People in the News
Three Bates people — Howard Dean staffer Kate O'Connor '86 and Chris Beam of the Muskie Archives and Trustee Dan Doyle '72 — provide insights about past and present presidential politics in the July-August Atlantic Monthly. In covering graduation at the Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School for Public Policy, The Washington Post noted that the salutatorian is Jin Lee Parada, Bates class of 2008. Finally, The Boston Globe turned to Dean of Admissions Wylie Mitchell for perspective on the growing student practice of using two consecutive early-decision deadlines to improve odds of getting into a top school. www.bates.edu/bates-in-the-news.xml