Jay Burns
As the editorial director for the Bates Communications Office, Jay guides Bates Magazine and BatesNews.
Stories by Jay Burns
Newly named Gillespie Hall honors John Gillespie’s ‘love and ambition for Bates’
Thursday, June 29, 2023 1:48 pm
The residence hall located at 280 College St. has been named in honor of John Gillespie ’80, whose engagement with the college spans more than four decades and two generations, including 20 years on the Board of Trustees and four years as chair.
This ‘beautiful, dreamlike’ cloud photo by a Bates professor is Best in Show
Thursday, June 29, 2023 9:20 am
The clouds above Maine on April 23 suggested a psychedelic landscape painting — Salvador Dali meets John Constable? — and created a photographic moment for Associate Professor of Biology Andrew Mountcastle
Celebrating the tenure of President Clayton Spencer
Thursday, June 1, 2023 4:46 pm
A $1 million gift to Bates honors a signature contribution by President Clayton Spencer, plus an invitation to offer thanks for Spencer's service as Bates' eighth president.
‘Be better. Do better. Be an arc in the bigger circle,’ graduates told at Bates College Commencement
Sunday, May 28, 2023 12:41 pm
The 157th Bates Commencement saw degrees conferred on 439 Bates seniors and an address by author and scholar J. Drew Lanham — a self-described "bird-loving Black kid" from South Carolina — who spoke about freedom and Benjamin Mays, and called on the graduates "to be better, to do better" and "to be an arc in the bigger circle" that gives power to our freedom.
An honors thesis creates a French connection between Martha Coleman ’23 and shuttle driver Herb Saucier
Friday, May 19, 2023 1:57 pm
Herb Saucier was flabbergasted. Invited to attend a senior’s thesis-binding ceremony on the porch of Coram Library, he suddenly found himself at the center of attention.
10 new CatFacts (the Bates trivia edition) about Ultimate, risqué dancing, and yagging
Friday, May 12, 2023 12:43 pm
This edition of CatFacts, our second, tilts toward the trivial. But where else are you going to learn what “yagging” is?
From Bates history: Granite from Mount David and a prince from Liberia
Friday, May 12, 2023 11:34 am
A few items from the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library and elsewhere on campus, and our thoughts about what they are and mean.
A Ukrainian student’s dance about war and hope: Why ‘love cannot be killed with just one shot’
Friday, May 12, 2023 10:31 am
To express human hope in the face of war’s inhumanity, Ruslan Peredelskyi '25 has used his immense talent in dance and in writing tell two stories about the war in Ukraine, including the killing of Iryna Filkina.
Video: Campus osprey tries to build a nest at Garcelon
Friday, April 21, 2023 1:52 pm
Immense talent at finding prey doesn’t mean that an osprey, or any bird, will also be good at nest-building.
Keeping it real as Bates’ record-setting admission season hits the home stretch
Thursday, April 13, 2023 1:34 pm
A record 8,937 prospective students applied to Bates this year. And on April 3, a dozen of those newly admitted students made their way to a Pettengill Hall classroom to get a real taste of Bates academics.