1. Convocation page features slide show, president's remarks
As the academic year opens, President Hansen speaks about the dangers of labeling, and on the value of diversity in ideas and in the campus community. Also on the Convocation page, see a slide show on orientation for the Class of 2009. www.bates.edu/x72719.xml

2. Sesquicentennial events go on the road
President Hansen, Trustee Chairman Burton Harris '59 and new Trustee Dana Petersen Moore '79 will speak to audiences at the first regional celebration of the College's 150th anniversary in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at the Willard InterContinental Hotel. Remarks will focus on the College's fascinating past and plans for the future. The event will feature a special sesquicentennial DVD on Bates' history and enduring values as well as a reception for guests to renew Bates connections. The following week, President Hansen, staff and trustees will travel to Boston (Oct. 18, Boston Harbor Hotel), New York (Oct. 19, Tribeca Rooftop) and Hartford (Oct. 20, The Goodwin Hotel) for similar celebrations. Please join us! E-mail Alicia Richard at arichard@bates.edu or visit the link below for more information.
www.bates.edu/alumni-events.xml

3. Enduring Values in a Changing World
In its sesquicentennial year, Bates is rightly celebrated as one of the first U.S. colleges to offer a true equal-opportunity education, one for all students regardless of gender, race, religion or socioeconomic status. Bates is now famous for its academic rigor, its powerful and open community and its strong tradition of service. But where did these remarkably enduring values come from? To answer this question, we turned to Professor Emeritus of History James S. Leamon, who has experienced Bates as a student, as an alumnus with the Class of 1955 and as a faculty member appointed in 1964. After spending a few summer weeks examining early Bates history, he offered these thoughts: www.bates.edu/x72163.xml

4. The Campaign for Bates: A race to the finish line
With nine months remaining in The Campaign for Bates: Endowing Our Values, the College needs to raise about $28 million to reach its goal of $120 million by June 2006. Trustees, volunteers and staff will continue to contact alumni, parents and friends to encourage "stretch giving" at all levels. This campaign is for everyone and counts all gifts made to the endowment, capital projects and/or Bates Fund. Trustees will challenge all Bates family members to participate by matching new, increased or Mount David Society gifts over the coming nine months. Look for an announcement of The Big Bates Challenge in the next week. For more Campaign information: www.bates.edu/campaign.xml

5. Climb every mountain
This fall, the Bates Outing Club has challenged members of the campus community to climb each of the 62 peaks in Maine and New Hampshire that are 4,000 feet or higher by New Year's Day 2006. To date, they have conquered 21. Alumni and parents are welcome to join the BOC's trips, which take place every weekend throughout the fall. For more information, e-mail the BOC's hikes and trips leader, Brooks Motley '06 (jmotley@bates.edu). The Bates Outing Club is celebrating its 86th year. abacus.bates.edu/people/orgs/outclub/boc.html

6. This Month in Bates History: Muskie speaks at Bates Moratorium
The October 1969 national Moratorium prompted millions of Americans to protest the Vietnam War in myriad ways, from marches and demonstrations to discussions and teach-ins. At Bates, Sen. Edmund S. Muskie '36, a leading Democrat after his vice-presidential campaign with Sen. Hubert Humphrey in 1968, returned to his alma mater to give his perspective before students, faculty and the media in Alumni Gym. Muskie noted that anti-war opinions were not political blasphemy but could even be patriotic. "A sense of responsibility for what we say and do should induce some caution, but it should not impose silence," he said. Story and photos: www.bates.edu/x75867.xml

7. Alumni lead Bates' first Finance Boot Camp
The Office of Career Services, along with 19 alumni representing all areas of the financial industry, presented its first Finance Boot Camp on Sept. 10. Alumni in finance have been communicating a desire to help students better understand the industry, as well as offering assistance to Bates students who want a head start in the competitive job and internship search. The effort was appreciated by more than 60 students who attended. www.bates.edu/career/JumpStart/bootcamp.html

8. Alumnus wins fellowship to fulfill Shakespearean dream
Matteo Pangallo '03 has received a prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship, one of the nation's largest graduate study awards. The scholarship, which can total up to $50,000 per year for up to six years, permits Pangallo to attend a one- year master's course on the study of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, taught jointly by King's College and the Globe Theater in London. www.bates.edu/x72947.xml

9. Where we slept, where we studied
The dorm and the library—two places integral to the college experience. This month's historic slideshow on the Sesquicentennial Web site takes a look back. www.bates.edu/x62318.xml

10. Latest on Bates' hurricane response
As of Sept. 27, the Katrina Relief Initiative—a combined effort by Bates students, staff and faculty to help victims of the hurricane and local residents affected by rising fuel costs—has raised $12,686: $5,097 from students and $7,589 from faculty and staff. The Bates College Harward Center for Community Partnerships is serving as the collection point for donations. www.bates.edu/x72684.xml

11. October brings Indiana show, cryptozoology symposium to art museum
In October, the Museum of Art is featuring an exhibition of prints by Robert Indiana and a symposium relating art to cryptozoology, the study of unknown, rumored or hidden animals. Robert Indiana: The Hartley Elegies, comprising 10 prints made in homage to pioneering American modernist Marsden Hartley, opens Oct. 1 with a 4 p.m. lecture by Indiana. A resident of the Maine island of Vinalhaven, Indiana is known for a widely used image of the word "LOVE" that came to symbolize the 1960s counterculture. On Oct. 28 and 29, the symposium "Out of Time Place Scale" examines issues of cryptozoology, science and art. www.bates.edu/x75532.xml

12. Program links student volunteers, community needs
Volunteerism is "one of the strongest ways students can involve themselves in the community, as opposed to just buying things in stores or having jobs," says Katie Seamon '06. "It shows that we're part of the community as well." Seamon is one of four student volunteer fellows, a group that matches fellow students with volunteer opportunities in the Lewiston-Auburn region. The volunteer program has involved hundreds of Bates students in projects that include occasional activities, such as helping to rehabilitate residences with the Rebuilding Together program, and ongoing efforts like the Longley School Mentoring program, the Trinity Soup Kitchen and the Hillview After-School Program. www.bates.edu/x72952.xml

13. Bates People in the News
Bates' offer of free courses to Maine students displaced by Hurricane Katrina was covered closely by local media, including all three TV news operations, and was carried regionally by the wire services. Meanwhile, a National Geographic story about firewalking quoted Charles A. Dana Professor of Anthropology Loring Danforth, who has researched the practice extensively. Finally, The Idaho Statesman offered a profile of John Daniels of the Bates Class of 1876, a schoolteacher and administrator described by a biographer as "the ablest disciplinarian of the West." www.bates.edu/bates-in-the-news.xml