Even the fusilli figurine, fondly known as the E-room troll.

On the evening of Jan. 9, Bates Outing Club moved their longtime headquarters (and stuff therein) from Alumni Gym, across the Library Quad and into newly renovated space in Chase Hall. In true can-do BOC spirit, they chose to execute the move mostly themselves.

The BOC, whose basement space in Alumni Gym had been the club’s meeting room since 1929, will have its equipment room, now in Hathorn Hall, also move into Chase Hall in the coming months.

Chase, formerly dominated by the campus dining Commons, which in 2008 moved into a Sasaki-designed building of its own, has recently been renovated to better accommodate student-life programs.

Below is a time-lapse video of the BOC move below and a gallery of images, both by Mike Bradley of the Bates Communications Office.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sponsored by the Bates Student Philanthropy Club, the event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6129.

Brothers Bert and John Jacobs began the company that would become Life is good in 1989, when they designed their first T-shirt. They started in Boston, selling their shirts college to college, dorm room to dorm room, but had little luck until they designed what is now known as the “Jake” shirt: a cartoon drawing of a face with a contagious grin, sunglasses and the words “Life is good.”

In September 1994, the brothers presented their new Jake shirts at a street fair in Cambridge, Mass. The shirts were a hit. Since then the small company has grown to a much larger enterprise, with Jake the trademark figure. Today their merchandise is sold across country and the company has reached sales of more than $100 million a year, without a dollar spent on traditional advertising.

The company is known for its nonprofit organization, The Life is good Kids Foundation. The Foundation receives financial support principally through the company’s donation of 100 percent of the profits from the sale of select products and public donations at Life is good Festivals held in major cities across the country.

The foundation supports extraordinary charities that create a lasting positive impact on children facing unfair challenges, including the traumas of violence, poverty and loss. So far, more than $4 million has been raised for this cause.

Roy Heffernan is “chief operating optimist” for Life is good, ensuring that the company delivers on its promises. His presentation is sure to offer solid lessons for entrepreneurs, philanthropists and optimists alike.

The Bates Student Philanthropy Club provides Bates students the opportunity to become acquainted with the philanthropic process, increasing philanthropic awareness on campus and strengthening the Bates community at large.

One evening, over wine and hors d’oeuvres in the Bobcat Den, two themes prominent on campus enjoyed an intimate encounter.

With the Bates Contemplates Food initiative spotlighting what we eat, and the renewed curricular emphasis on the practice of writing, the time was right for a “Literary Café.” The Writing Workshop event in December gathered faculty and staff for food-related readings and chat, seasoned with jazz from physics professor-guitarist John Smedley and bassist Tim Clough.

Readings were personal or historical, humorous or solemn. Poems by Rob Farnsworth, visiting professor of English, pinpointed inner junctions between food and words. His “After Dinner” explored the stimulations of postprandial conversation, while “Douce Ame” resorted to food aromas as a palliative for writer’s block:

“…I take spice bottles down from the cabinet one at a time… / and fill my head with their fragrances, as I would with sad airs / for strings.…”

A splendid Dining Services buffet — featuring Swedish meatballs, phyllo filled with cheese and vegetables, pesto and sundried tomato pizza, and mini-whoopie pies — set a fitting context for poems read by Jane Costlow, professor of Russian.

She focused on other essential questions about food: What to do when there isn’t enough? And what, when there is enough?

First she read from “Hunger,” Velimir Khlebnikov’s long lament about a Russian famine in 1920–21: “‘The acorns are gone! The people have eaten my acorns!’ / The scampering squirrel chatters angrily.”

Next came Nikolay Zabolotsky’s “Dinner,” whose conclusion, as we sat there feeling satisfied with life, was worth remembering:

“[I]f only we could see in shining rays / the blissful childhood of the plants / surely we should descend upon our knees / before the bubbling pan of vegetables.”

“It’s often said that democracies are measured by the participation of their citizens,” President Elaine Tuttle Hansen observed. “We are fortunate at Bates to have student Democrats and Republicans who each year take that civic commitment to heart and work to register their fellow students.”

Hansen listed several ways Bates is getting out the vote as we approach Election Day Nov. 2:

* As in past years, both groups set up tables on Orientation Day to register new students to vote. Since then, the effort has continued one-to-one.

* Discussions on the debates have been moderated by Assistant Professor of Rhetoric Stephanie Kelley Romano and Professor of Political Science James Richter. Richter is also moderating a series of student discussions about election issues each Wednesday, 6-7 p.m. in the Rowe Room of Commons.  Occasional guests have included Judy Meyer, editorial page editor of the Lewiston Sun Journal.

* TV debate-watching nights are being organized around their respective big screens by the Republicans, Democrats, and those who prefer a non-partisan venue.

*A panel discussion was held on Oct. 6 to discuss the Palesky Tax Cap referendum in Maine, and what it would mean to Lewiston.  Panelists were:  John L. Painter, Candidate for District 74; Dale Douglas, Maine School Management Association; Nathan Harrington, Bates ’05; Weston Bonney, Maine State School Board; Tom Hood, Longley Elementary School Principal; Robert Walker, President of Maine Education Association and chair of Maine Education Leadership Consortium.

*  Election issues will again be the topic of a speech by Thomas E. Mann www.brook.edu/scholars/tmann.htm of the Brookings Institution on “The 2004 Election: What’s at Stake?” at 7 p.m. Oct. 18 in Chase Hall Lounge.  There will be a voter registration drive outside of Chase Lounge beginning at 6:30pm.

Bates senior Ryan Heffernan of Napa, Calif., exhibits Portraits of the Harvest 2004, a series of black and white photographs of workers harvesting grapes in Mendoza, Argentina, and in his hometown, in Chase Hall Gallery, Campus Avenue, Bates College. The public is invited to attend the exhibition, on display through Oct. 18, at no charge. A two-hour reception with the photographer will be held in the exhibtion space at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 9.

Heffernan grew up in the small town of St. Helena in the heart of the Napa Valley. Each fall, he remembers, the valley would be transformed as the wine industry geared up for the grape harvest. Thousands of predominantly Mexican migrant laborers would arrive to fill the immense labor demand created by the harvest.

“I was always fascinated by the lives of these workers and how their hard labor contrasted with the sophisticated and delicate world of wine,” Heffernan says.For his junior year at Bates, Heffernan decided to explore the world of the grape harvest, both in his backyard of Napa, and abroad in the wine region of Mendoza. “Within the context of a photographic essay, I sought a greater understanding of the lives of the harvesters who are truly the backbone of the wine industry,” the art major says.

The evening lecture, The Challenge of Feminist Peacework in Israel and Palestine, begins at 8 p.m. in Chase Hall Lounge. The public is invited free of charge to attend both presentations and may call 207-786-8272 for more information.

These events are co-sponsored by the chaplain’s office, Harward Center for Community Partnerships, the Multicultural Center, Mushahada Association, New World Coalition, the political science department, the Women’s Resource Center and the program in women and gender studies.

An Arab-Palestinian feminist and peace activist with the Coexistence Forum for Arabs and Jews and with the New Israel Fund’s Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel, Abu-Rabia coordinates the Bedouin Women’s Empowerment Program that reaches out to Bedouin women and raises their awareness about their rights. “I believe that living in a reality of conflict does not excuse me from my responsibility and duty towards my society,” Abu Rabia says.

Safran is an Israeli peace activist with Women in Black, a weekly peace vigil that opposes the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Co-founder of the Coalition of Women for Just Peace, she coordinates the Haifa Feminist Center and the women’s studies program at the University of Haifa.

The women’s tour is organized by Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, a network of university faculty promoting peace in the Middle East.

Huda will consider the meaning of the words by Sufi poet and philosopher Jalal ad-din Rumi: “Remembrance makes people desire the journey; it makes them into travelers.” Is it possible, asks Huda, to think that remembering God in everyday activities can also bring about a hunger for self-annihilation? He believes the inner path of Islamic spirituality, commonly referred to as the Sufi way, balances these two worlds while embracing the encounter with the Holy. Huda also will explore a variety of questions linked to the wisdom of Sufism that can assist in personal liberation.

Numbering about 470, the entering class of 2001 features students from 35 states and 14 countries. Scholastically, 36 percent of the class ranked within the top five percent of their high school graduating class, the highest percentage since institutional data became available in 1981. Fifty-six percent of the first-year students are from New England, consistent with recent years, while applications from Maine students showed a 10-percent increase. Multicultural students make up nine percent of the class and more than half of the Class of ’01 is receiving some form of financial aid.

Owned by the college since 1939, 32 Frye St. is being converted into a student-operated coffeehouse for members of the Bates community and their guests. The 4,000 square foot building is the site where local construction workers recently discovered civil war-era correspondence between Bates professor Uriah Balkam and his wife, Annie. Upon completion this fall, the capacity of the two-story house will be in excess of 250 people. The coffeehouse will provide additional social options to students in a non alcoholic setting.

Renovation work is being done by Ouellet Construction of Brunswick in conjunction with Bates College physical plant crews. Until the recent renovations, the Bates-owned house was used as a dual-family dwelling. The house will be wheelchair-accessible on the first level, where some of the walls have been removed to create an open, airy ambiance. A room for smoking patrons will also be available.

The student-run operation will feature student programming and a menu offering a variety of coffees and pastries. “We’re really excited about the possibilities for this informal space within our community and look forward to an additional, relaxed setting where students, faculty and staff can gather,” said Peter Taylor, assistant dean of students at Bates.

The coffeehouse is expected to open sometime at the start of the 1997-98 academic year. Second-floor renovations are incomplete, but at some later date, upstairs meeting rooms will be used by student groups and organizations. The house has been connected on both floors to the garage, formerly a barn, which will be used as a performance area on the first floor, and a gallery upstairs.

Renovations at the Den in Chase Hall include new music equipment and a big screen TV in addition to enhanced food production including a conveyor oven for hot sandwiches, nachos, buffalo wings and small pizzas as well as the establishment of a pub with limited hours when beer will be served to those 21 and over. Proper identification will be required at the door, where bracelets will be distributed differentiating between those 21 years of age and older and minors. Wait staff will take orders at the tables, checking bracelet identifications and ensuring that minors are not served.

Pub clientele will be limited to members of the Bates community and their guests. Initially, the pub will operate on Fridays and Saturdays between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. with beer service ending at 1 a.m. Managed by dining services at Bates, “the pub’s operation will be in strict compliance with Maine liquor laws,” Taylor said. The Den will continue to operate as a snack bar during the day, serving breakfast and lunch.

More than 50 local businesses have been invited to participate in the annual Merchants Fair Sept. 4 in the Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building for a day-long display of merchandise and services available to Bates students.