BatesNews January 2012
For Bates alumni, parents and friends, here’s a look at some major Bates happenings of the past month, upcoming events and Bates people in the news.
In this issue:
1. MLK Day at Bates explores environmental justice
2. Student-community partnerships help write Androscoggin’s next chapter
3. Slide show: A year at Bates
4. Board chair Mike Bonney ’80 is named a top U.S. CEO
5. Arts Crawl and Asia Night light up the campus Jan. 27
6. Alexandra Strada ’10 honored for photography
7. Year-End Update is online
8. Is your name in the 2011 Report of Giving?
9. Deadline Is March 1 for Barlow Alumni Travel Grant proposals
10. Did you know?
11. Bates in the News
1. MLK Day at Bates explores environmental justice
Led by environmental policy expert Julian Agyeman, the Bates community on Martin Luther King Jr. Day explored environmental justice: the idea that “environmental quality and human equality are inextricably linked.”
2. Student-community partnerships help write Androscoggin’s next chapter
“The Androscoggin tells such a story,” says Bates environmental studies major Leigh Michael ’12. “It caused this town to blossom into a metropolis. But today the river is just not the focal point of Lewiston-Auburn’s economy.” Michael is one of 28 students whose environmental studies projects are helping to write the next chapter of that story: the chapter in which residents and visitors reconnect with the river through recreation, enlivening the local economy in the process.
3. Slide show: A year at Bates
If you’ve got 7 minutes and 14 seconds (yep, we timed it), you can experience a year at Bates through this 107-photo show of 2011’s people, places, events and quiet moments.
4. Board chair Mike Bonney ’80 is named a top U.S. CEO
Bonney has helped his firm, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, safeguard its primary money maker, the superbug-fighting drug Cubicin. He’s bolstered the company’s product pipeline. And his management style is open and encouraging. Put it all together and you’ve got one of the top American CEOs, according to the financial news publication MarketWatch.
5. Arts Crawl and Asia Night light up the campus Jan. 27
The college’s second annual outdoor/indoor Arts Crawl, set for Jan. 27, concludes with the spectacular variety show known as Asia Night. The crawl features more than 100 students sharing their creative voices through film, dance, music, spoken word and theater, while Asia Night offers pop dances (including Bollywood numbers), performance art, visual art, gamelan music and more.
6. Alexandra Strada ’10 honored for photography
Over a three-year period as a Bates student, Alexandra Strada ’10 photographed residents of Clover Manor, an Auburn nursing home. One photo, “Josephine,” has won Strada a 2011 InFocus Photography Award.
7. Year-End Update is online
The audio recording of the Year-end Update by interim president Nancy Cable and board chair Mike Bonney ’80 is online, complemented by a slide show of Bates photographs. The Update included a report on the endowment market value (just over $220 million through September), annual debt service (“very healthy,” Bonney says, representing about 6.4 percent of the annual budget) and the Class of 2015. “The makeup of the class is exceptional, and they’ve taken the college by storm,” Cable says.
8. Is your name in the 2011 Report of Giving?
Better check! Also, take a look at a video, Power of Community, featuring a few of the tight-knit and welcoming student groups that distinguish the sense of Bates community.
9. Deadline March 1 for Barlow Alumni Travel Grant proposals
Worth up to $3,500, Barlow Alumni Travel Grants help alumni educators strengthen their skills through travel abroad. This year’s deadline is March 1. Last summer, Barlow recipient George Waymouth ’75 of The Key School in Annapolis, Md., traveled to Africa to support a three-continent partnership involving his school, a UK school, and a Tanzanian school. Adrienne D’Olimpio ’88 of Lyndon Institute in Vermont used her Barlow grant to travel to China. An ESL teacher, she wanted to observe the experience of Chinese students in English-speaking classrooms. Open to educators who’ve taught kindergarten through 12th grade for at least five years, the program is supported by the Barlow Endowment, made possible by David Barlow ’79.
10. Did you know?
The 1936 Bates Winter Carnival featured familiar events like ski races and snowshoe football. Then there was the lollypop dash, a lickety-split race up Mount David. First prize? A pair of six-and-a-half-pound lollipops, one for the first man and first woman to reach the summit. Sweet!
11. Bates in the News
Overseas, Arab News praises Leena Nasser ’12, who’s helping anthro professor Danny Danforth create Bates’ first-ever class to involve coursework in Saudi Arabia. Closer to home, the Maine media show a taste for the hard cider company founded by three young alums, and the Sun Journal spotlights the medal performance by former All-American Sylvan Ellefson ’09 at the U.S Cross Country Championships. Capping the year, a Chronicle of Higher Education blogger toasts President-elect Clayton Spencer, calling her appointment a “best” moment in 2011.
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