News

Putting up steel and stir-frying food don’t have much in common, but there is one salient resemblance: pretty much all the slow and fussy work happens at the beginning, and the end goes fast.

The fate of Chase Hall. The state of town-gown relations. The tradeoffs between finite resources and key priorities. And what does it say that Bates ranks fourth in a Newsweek listing of schools “stocked with jocks”? Those were a few of the topics some 60 parents raised in a conversation with President Elaine Tuttle Hansen and a handful of senior staff early on Parents & Family Saturday.

Exploring topics of broad interest, Bates College’s Civic Forum series begins in October with a panel discussion on education reform, followed by a presentation by an expert on health care finance. In a discussion titled Wrestling with School Reform in Maine: National Strategies, Local Realities, national and regional education experts examine different approaches to reform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave. The following week, Dr. William Hsiao, an economist at the Harvard School of Public Health and architect of Taiwan’s universal healthcare system, offers the presentation Taiwan’s Health Reforms: Lessons for the U.S. and Maine at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 18, also in Muskie Archives.

From Oct. 15-17, Bates hosts African Refugee Health: Best Practices, a regional conference also sponsored by, and presenting refugee health experts from, St. Mary’s Health System and the Central Maine Medical Family in Lewiston, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

With its dedication and inaugural game a week away, what’s left to be done in the renovation of Garcelon Field? “Just a whole lot of loose ends,” says project manager Mike Gustin.

So here we were contemplating the renovation of Hedge and Roger Williams halls and thinking, Steel, baby, steel! It’s all about the steel! — But that’s so two weeks ago. Because now it’s all about the wood.

With the Garcelon Field dedication and inaugural game just days away, it’s a race to the finish for the R.A.D. Sports crew renovating the facility. Meanwhile, Hedge Hall is gaining headroom while Roger Williams Hall embiggens its footprint.

Hello from Bates! Here’s a preview of public events at the college in October 2010.

The author of the short story collection Unkempt and the novel The Generosity of Women, Courtney Eldridge visits Bates College to read from her work at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 22, in Skelton Lounge, Chase Hall.

Nationally esteemed as a curator and arts administrator, Dan Mills is the new director of the Bates College Museum of Art.