Reunion Parade

Video scenes from the Annual Alumni Reunion Parade. H. Lincoln Benedict ’09.

Reunion Slide Show

Images from Reunion 2013. Photographs by H. Lincoln Benedict ’09, Mike Bradley and Phyllis Graber Jensen.

Who coined the cheer “Great day to be a Bobcat”?

This video reveals the origins of the distinctive Bates cheer “Great Day to Be a Bobcat.” H. Jay Burns.

More Still Photographs

See all Reunion 2013 photographs.

See Reunion 2013 class photographs.

See Connections photographs.

See Parade and Awards.

See “Andy’s Animals: Exploring Andrew Wyeth’s Depiction of Animals” photographs.

See “Nighttime Is the Right Time” photographs.

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ReunionTumblr

For more Reunion coverage, see Bates Reunion Tumblr.
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Check out the Commencement livestream on Sunday morning

The livestream of Commencement begins at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, and the ceremony itself starts at 10. We’ve also added a Commencement Week tumblr. Also check out the honorary degree recipients.

Ten (count ’em!) Fulbright grant recipients emerge from Class of 2013

Known as a top producer of students receiving prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Grants, Bates this month will graduate 10 such students, a record number for the college.

Matthew Auer, Indiana University honors dean, named vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty

A leading scholar and globally engaged expert in the arenas of environmental policy, energy policy, sustainable development and foreign aid, Matthew Auer comes to Bates from Indiana University, where he is dean of the Hutton Honors College and professor of public and environmental affairs. He becomes vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Bates on July 1.

599 ways Bates alumni made May 15 a Great Day to Be a Bobcat

The question was this: Would 555 alumni donors respond to the call to make their annual Bates Fund gifts on May 15? Well, it was never really a question. Zooming past the goal, 599 alumni made gifts. The influx pushed overall alumni participation up 3 points in one day, to 37 percent. The end-of-year goal is 55 percent by June 30.

Video: Pringle ’98 and Gottwald ’98 fuse hip hop and modern dance in a Shakespeare adaptation

This Short Term, choreographer and dancer Erin Gottwald ’98 joined rapper, writer, actor and director Postell Pringle ’98 in creating a multidisciplinary adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” that Bates students performed for Lewiston-Auburn schoolchildren.

Trustee Chair Emeritus E. Robert Kinney ’39 dies at 96

E. Robert Kinney ’39, LL.D. ’85, who entered the food industry by canning crabmeat in his Maine home en route to becoming CEO of General Mills, died May 2. A Bates trustee for 27 years, including 17 as chair, he was considered a creative entrepreneur and model corporate leader who, when appointed CEO of General Mills in 1973, was praised for his “good, gutsy Maine business sense” by his predecessor.

Senior thesis Q-and-A: The 1950s debate over Androscoggin River pollution

“Senior thesis sits in my mind as a project that will never actually be mine to take on,” admits first-year Hannah Albertine. But then she met senior Taryn O’Connell, and “I found myself staring directly at the very thing that had appeared so theoretical and scary to me: a big, black three-ring binder.” Inside the binder: O’Connell’s exploration of a citizen vs. business debate about Androscoggin River pollution in the 1950s.

MOOC master speaks at Bates

Al Filreis was named a “Ten Tech Innovator” by The Chronicle of Higher Education for his belief that massively open online courses (MOOCs) can bring the humanities to the masses. But it’s more than a belief, as he told the Bates faculty recently. He seems to have done it.

Bates in the News

Don’t feel bad. Scientific American quotes psychologist Jonathan Adler ’00, who says that negative feelings play a positive role in our well-being. Actor John Ambrosino ’01 talks with the LGBT-focused Boston Spirit Magazine about his lead role in On the Town. On campus, Darby Ray, director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, describes for the Sun Journal a Bates course that found a home in a local elementary school.

1. Watson winner heads to Africa and Asia to ask how various cultures perceive stroke

Olivia Norrmen-Smith ’13 will use her Watson Fellowship, among the most coveted award at highly selective liberal arts colleges, to travel to Africa and Asia to understand the cultural perceptions of medical stroke, one of humankind’s leading causes of death and disability.

2. At 3 percent, the Bates annual fee increase is lowest since 1972

The single fee for 2013–14, covering tuition, room, board and fees, is $58,950 and represents a 3 percent increase over 2012–13, the lowest fee increase in more than four decades. Forty-four percent of Bates students qualify for financial aid, and the college delivers financial aid packages that meet 100 percent of each student’s demonstrated need.

3. Mount David Summit offers display of student work, plus the plague

Multimedia coverage of the 2013 Mount David Summit. You know you’ve got a rocking academic event when the bubonic plague stops by, in person.

4. Bates Magazine, the pixel version

Just a reminder that Bates Magazine stories are always available online, including the Winter 2013 edition, with a new profile of Benjamin Mays ’20 — April 9 being the 45th anniversary of his eulogy for the slain Martin Luther King Jr. — plus photographs from three young alumni and the cover story about training your brain to handle what’s known as “eco-anxiety.”

5. Multimedia: Cultural collisions drive Kroepsch honoree Loring Danforth

Getting students to think like anthropologists, says Loring Danforth, winner of the 2013 Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, means getting them to see and admit the cultural underpinnings of their beliefs and interests. Although the process “can be really agonizing” for students, Danforth says, the intensity means “you’re hitting on something really important and interesting.”

6. Sonja Pieck and her exploration of “the nexus of power and nature”

What is nature, who gets to decide its fate and why? And how can those who are excluded from environmental governance get some say? Sonja Pieck’s excellence in trying to answer those questions, through her teaching and her South America–focused research, is why she’s been promoted to associate professor of environmental studies, with tenure.

7. Audio slide show: Alpine skiers “race like you train, and train like you race”

Since winter seems to be hanging on for dear life, why not share this audio slide show, produced late in the ski season by photographer and videographer Michael Bradley, featuring Avril Dunleavy ’15 of Salt Lake City and Emily Bamford ’15 of East Melbourne, Australia talking about life as Bobcat alpine skier.

8. How men’s lacrosse is sticking with a winning formula

With a winning NESCAC record so far this spring, men’s lacrosse is something of a bookend to the other resurgent men’s sport in 2012-13, that being football and its 5-3 season last fall. Sports Information Director Andy Walter says success follows the familiar formula of combining something old and something new.

9. Bates in the News

Here in Maine, Doug Hodgkin, emeritus professor of political science, compares the attitudes of Maine voters who favor gun rights with those who favor gun control, and marine biologist Will Ambrose explains the biology and the sociology of a dispute between worm diggers and clam diggers. In Chicago, Postell Pringle ’98 is wowing audiences as Othello in a sizzling hip-hop adaptation of the play.

1. Multimedia: “Bates was my early decision choice,” President Spencer tells WRBC hosts

2. In Berlin on New Year’s Eve, two Bates debaters waited join “elite of elite”

3. Pettigrew Hall temporarily closed for repairs after flooding

4. Remember the name of this squash phenom: Abdel Khalek ’16

5. Kate Detwiler ’95 plays key role in confirming new African monkey species

6. Video: Come along on the Arts Crawl

7. Fire on the mountain, thanks to Bates Outing Club’s sky lanterns

8. Sophomores’ letter opposing tar sands proposal is finalist in national competition

9. Makman ’14 among first nationwide to receive new language scholarship

10. Memoriam page shares information about the passing of alumni and friends

11. Bates in the News

1. Multimedia: “Bates was my early decision choice,” President Spencer tells WRBC hosts

President Clayton Spencer’s interview on student radio station WRBC-FM touched on a range of topics, including the obligation of a liberal arts college to help graduates get a job and what responsible investing looks like. Lest those topics seem a tad stuffy for a student radio show called Chin Wags and Grab Bags with DJ Nosebleed and Friends, Spencer rose and dipped to her hosts’ level as needed.

2. In Berlin on New Year’s Eve, two Bates debaters waited to join “elite of elite”

On New Year’s Eve in Berlin, Bates debaters Catherine Djang ’13 and Ben Smith ’13 were listening to a countdown of a different sort. Along with 384 of the world’s best debate teams, they waited to hear if they were among the elite teams to “break” into the elimination rounds of the World Universities Debating Championship.

3. Pettigrew Hall closed for repairs after flooding

The academic building Pettigrew Hall is closed for repairs and remediation after a Feb. 9 flooding incident caused by a student’s act of vandalism. The flooding has displaced faculty and staff and damaged floors, carpets, furniture and walls as well as equipment in the college’s Digital Media Center.

4. Remember the name of this squash phenom: Abdel Khalek ’16

In sports, a loss can be more telling than a win. First-year squash player Abdel Khalek of Cairo, Egypt, sailed through his initial Bates squash season with a 10–0 record in NESCAC and a 17–1 overall record. The only blemish — the tell-tale loss — was his hard-fought 3–1 loss to fellow Cairo native Ali Farag of Harvard, the 2012 College Squash Association national champion.

5. Kate Detwiler ’95 plays key role in confirming new African monkey species

Known as a lesula, the monkey was recently confirmed as a distinct species by Kate Detwiler ’95, who did the genetic tests needed to make the case, and her fellow primate researchers, who gave it the scientific name, Cercopithecus lomamiensis.

6. Video: Come along on the Arts Crawl

A relatively new addition to the Bates arts calendar now in its third year, the annual Arts Crawl showcases the college’s diverse and energetic campus arts scene.

7. Fire on the mountain, thanks to Bates Outing Club’s sky lanterns

A century ago, Bates students hauled logs and tar barrels up Mount David for massive bonfires. Fire on the mountain is still a part of Bates life, thanks to an occasional Bates Outing Club tradition known as Children of Midnight, this time featuring the launch of sky lanterns.

8. Sophomores’ letter opposing tar sands proposal is finalist in national competition

Two sophomores who wrote to a Maine congressman opposing a proposal to pipe so-called tar sands oil across the state will head to New York City in March to present and defend the ideas in their letter. The other finalists in the letter-writing competition hail from Berea, Carleton and Swarthmore colleges and Chatham University.

9. Makman ’14 among first nationwide to receive new language scholarship

Isabel Makman ’14 is in St. Petersburg, Russia — and will stay there till spring thanks to a competitive scholarship from CIEE, an international education and exchange program designed to enable serious, academically focused students to pursue deep language acquisition.

10. Memoriam page shares information about the passing of alumni and friends

This new Memoriam page shares information about the Bates men and women who have died in the past year and who will be remembered at the Alumni Memorial Service at Reunion. This year’s service is Sunday, June 9.

11. Bates in the News

The media describe the career arc of newspaperman Brian McGrory ’84, The Boston Globe‘s new editor. Way out west, The Oregonian says the Web application Your Brandlive, developed by Fritz Brumder ’01, lets retailers add social media component to their online product demos (yep, Ron Popeil meets Facebook). Meanwhile, Drew Gallagher ’11, a Teach for America educator in Washington, D.C., talks to his hometown paper, The Sun of Lowell, Mass., about his teaching awards.

1. Campus explores economic justice on MLK Day 2013

2. Bates debuts bold new Bobcat

3. Shifts in student routines may explain H1N1 surge in 2009, Bates researchers find

4. You Can Play video extends Bates leadership in LGBT inclusion

5. Bill Hiss ’66, for whom Bates is a calling, retires after 34 years

6. Audio slide show: ‘Blessed and Dancing’ — Victoria Lowe’s goal of arts and education

7. Multifaith Chaplain Bill Blaine-Wallace to retire in June

8. Mellon Foundation awards $1 million to support learning and teaching innovations

9. Video: ‘Bird’s-Eye Bates’ — see the campus in a high way

10. Multimedia: Bates Outing Club decamps from 84-year-old digs

11. Bates in the News

1. Campus explores economic justice on MLK Day 2013

Spotlighting a less-known aspect of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s work, MLK Day at Bates explored issues of financial inequality and debt. Coverage includes a story about the experiences of athletes outside the lines, an audio slide show featuring the voices of MLK Day, and a summary of the keynote address by Anthea Butler, who says that rhetoric around poverty in America tells us that “helping people [is] a bad word.”

2. Bates debuts bold new Bobcat

Unfurled from the Alumni Gym rafters at halftime of the men’s basketball game on Saturday, the new Bobcat takes its design cue from an outpouring of opinion collected during last fall’s alumni survey. Give us confident and distinguished, you said, and hold the whimsy!

3. Shifts in student routines may explain H1N1 surge in 2009, Bates researchers find

Bates researchers discovered that two campus vaccine clinics held during the 2009 swine flu outbreak actually led to a surge in flu cases. That curious fact (and it had nothing to do with the clinics themselves) is explained in a recent scholarly article by Bates epidemiologist Karen Palin and mathematician Meredith Greer in the Journal of American College Health.

4. You Can Play video extends Bates leadership in LGBT inclusion

Produced by the Bates Communications Office and featuring 19 Bobcat student-athletes, the Bobcat contribution to the national You Can Play video campaign celebrates Bates’ historic commitment to inclusion and its contemporary leadership in LGBT inclusion in college athletics, says President Clayton Spencer, the first college president to participate in a You Can Play video.

5. Bill Hiss ’66, for whom Bates is a calling, retires after 34 years

From his appointment as dean of admission in 1978 to his retirement in 2012, Bill Hiss ’66 was a college leader whose good works made it abundantly clear to alumni, parents and friends that Bates was loved and well-cared for. See a slide show from Hiss’ retirement celebration.

6. Audio slide show: ‘Blessed and Dancing’ — Victoria Lowe’s goal of arts and education

Victoria Lowe ’12, a double major in dance and American cultural studies, discusses her Short Term experience with “Tour, Teach, Perform” in Lewiston-Auburn last spring and her goal of advancing arts education.

7. Multifaith Chaplain Bill Blaine-Wallace to retire in June

The college’s multifaith chaplain since 2006, Blaine-Wallace was praised by President Spencer for the “extraordinary energy, imagination and sensitivity of his service to Bates,” adding that he has “counseled and mentored us as individuals; brought us together in times of both celebration and sorrow; and encouraged our community to pursue the goal of greater social justice through religious, spiritual and cultural attentiveness.”

8. Mellon Foundation awards $1 million to support learning and teaching innovations

On the heels of President Spencer’s prediction in her inaugural address that “success will go to the institutions that engage most robustly and effectively with the forces that are reshaping our world,” specifically the forces changing scholarship and knowledge creation, Bates announced a four-year initiative to foster innovative approaches to teaching and research in the humanities, supported by a recent $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

9. Video: ‘Bird’s-Eye Bates’ — see the campus in a high way

Hop aboard a multicopter for a new perspective on the Bates campus and environs.

10. Multimedia: Bates Outing Club decamps from 84-year-old digs

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

11. Bates in the News

The New York Times calls the Cooper-Hewitt’s Object of the Day blog, brainchild of Caroline Baumman ’87, one of the coolest new things in the design world. The Sun Journal checks in with Bates’ newest professor and her zebrafish. The magazine International Educator cites a Bates course on the Rwandan genocide as a model for teaching such painful and difficult social-justice topics.

1. Video: Behind the scenes with the Bobcats at the NCAA Cross Country Championships

2. Psychology department receives national award for service to the discipline

3. Video: Alex Bolden ’15 and the 2013 Sankofa performance

4. With presidential installation complete, Spencer heads to Welcome Events

5. Hospital reveals inside story for physics students exploring medical imaging

6. Did you know? Goosie and the peat bog

7. Emily Kane’s book The Gender Trap attracts media interest

8. Video: First-graders give a ‘Bates-Bates’ cheer

9. End-of-year giving info: How to contact the Bates Fund during the holidays

10. Bates in the News

1. Video: Behind the scenes with the Bobcats at the NCAA Cross Country Championships

Bates photographer and videographer Mike Bradley, a former collegiate runner himself, traveled with the men’s and women’s cross country teams to the NCAA Division III Championships in November. Here, he offers behind-the-scenes stories that capture the mindset of Bates’ elite runners as they head into intense national competition.

2. Psychology department receives national award for service to the discipline

In various realms, the Bates psychology department provides robust service to their discipline and, by extension, the people and communities they engage with. That service has earned Bates top honors from the American Psychological Association.

3. Video: Alex Bolden ’15 and the 2013 Sankofa performance

Bates photographer and videographer Phyllis Graber Jensen profiles Alex Bolden ’15 of Cleveland, Ohio, director of the 2013 Sankofa performance set for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A relative newcomer to the Bates arts scene, Sankofa is a loose-knit, creative student collaboration that has drawn critical applause for its vibrant, artistic interpretations of the African diasporic experience.

4. With presidential installation complete, Spencer heads to the Welcome Events

Following President Clayton Spencer’s installation on Oct. 26, she is now embarking on a series of visits to Bates alumni, parents and friends, the first of which were in Hartford, Boston and New York City. Coming up in early 2013 are Welcome Events in Washington, D.C. (Feb. 6), Chicago (March 5) and Seattle (March 7).

5. Hospital reveals inside story for physics students exploring medical imaging

A hospital visit isn’t high on anyone’s list of compelling moments, but for 23 Bates students in a 100-level course, heading to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center is part of a course curriculum designed to attract students to physics.

6. Did you know? Goosie and the peat bog

In the winter of 1917–18, the U.S faced a coal shortage caused by botched federal attempts to regulate national fuel distribution during World War I. With alternative fuels on the minds of many, Professor of Greek George Millett Chase told the Lewiston Evening Journal that the city should mine peat from Garcelon Bog, about a mile east of campus. The bog, said the professor nicknamed “Goosie,” could yield enough energy “to heat all [Lewiston's] homes for one thousand years.”

7. Emily Kane’s book The Gender Trap attracts media interest

In recent interviews with public radio, Professor of Sociology Emily Kane, author of The Gender Trap, emphasizes a theme of her new book: While parents often try to lead their children into  experiences beyond gender stereotypes, social pressure pushes parents back into traditional attitudes and actions.

8. Video: First-graders give a ‘Bates-Bates’ cheer

First-graders at Equitas Academy, a charter school in Los Angeles, school the rest of us on how to give a Bates cheer.

9. End-of-year giving info: How to reach the Bates Fund during the holidays

Though college offices are closed Dec. 24 through Jan. 1, those wanting to make year-end gifts by phone, or needing to ask gift questions, including instructions for securities transfers, will have help. The toll-free Bates gift line, 1-888-522-8371, will be staffed Wednesday-Friday, Dec. 26-28, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and on Monday, Dec. 31, until 9 p.m. Our Advancement colleagues tell us that uncertainty around fiscal cliff discussions and possible tax changes in 2013 have prompted some donors to make their annual gifts before the end of calendar 2012.

10. Bates in the News

In a letter to The New York Times, Dana Professor of Anthropology Danny Danforth takes issue with characterizations in the new book On Saudi Arabia. The landmark astrophotography exhibition at the Museum of Art garners another glowing review, this time in the Maine Sunday Telegram. Lena Sene ’00, considered an expert in private equity investing in Africa, is named one of the most influential women in corporate America by Savoy Magazine.

1. Live streaming for presidential inauguration, Gomes Chapel naming service

2. Welcome Events schedule announced for President Spencer

3. College community remembers Troy Pappas ’16

4. Former interim Bates President Nancy Cable named president of A.V. Davis Foundations

5. Bates adds voice to Supreme Court case on race-conscious admissions

6. Slide Show: Parents and Family Weekend 2012

7. Convocation 2012 reveals common ground in art of compromise

8. Bates is best in higher-ed website competition

9. Meet the minds: Six new Bates professors in tenure-track positions

10. Bates in the News

1. Live streaming for Spencer inauguration, Gomes Chapel naming service

Watch live coverage of two major Bates events this week: the service for the naming of the Chapel in memory of Peter Gomes ’65 (Thursday, Oct. 25, 4:15 p.m.) and the inauguration of President Clayton Spencer (Friday, Oct. 26, 2:30 p.m.). To watch, go to bates.edu/inauguration/live-coverage.

2. Welcome Events schedule announced for President Spencer

Post-inauguration, a series of Welcome Events will bring President Clayton Spencer to cities near many Bates alumni, parents and friends. Click on the link above to find the Welcome Event nearest you.

3. Bates community remembers Troy Pappas ’16

During the first part of October, two different campus gatherings honored the life of first-year student Troy Pappas, who died on Oct. 5, 2012, of injuries suffered in a fall down a Parker Hall stairwell. The first was the Bates football game vs. Williams at Garcelon Field on Oct. 6, which began with a moment of silence for Pappas, a member of the team from Eliot, Maine, and the second was an observance in the Chapel on Oct. 11. Read a story about the Chapel gathering, and view a slide show of game photographs.

4. Former interim Bates President Nancy Cable named president of A.V. Davis Foundations

Nancy Cable, Bates interim president during 2011–12 and currently a Bates vice president, has been appointed president of The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, a Florida-based philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting education, theological education, public television and health care.

5. Bates adds voice to Supreme Court case on race-conscious admissions

As the U.S. Supreme Court hears a case challenging consideration of race as one factor in college admissions decisions, it will consider an array of “friend of the court” written arguments, among them one submitted by Bates and other selective private colleges and universities.

6. Slide Show: Parents and Family Weekend 2012

The emotions and events surrounding the annual visit by Bates parents and families is captured by Bates photographers Mike Bradley and Phyllis Graber Jensen.

7. Convocation 2012 reveals common ground in art of compromise

Telling the Class of 2016 that there is no higher reward than to work with passion and purpose, President Clayton Spencer offers stories about working for the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, considered a master of compromise. And compromise was the theme of Convocation 2012, echoed also by Stephen Engel, an assistant professor of politics in his Convocation address.

8. Bates is best in higher-ed website competition

Redesigned in 2011, the Bates website has won top honors in a 2012 competition sponsored by eduStyle, a leading website for higher education Web design professionals.

9. Meet the minds: Six new Bates professors in tenure-track positions

The renewal of the Bates faculty is seen in the retirements of longtime professors in the spring followed by the arrival of new professors in the the fall. In psychology and neuroscience, for example, new faculty member Jason Castro takes over from John Kelsey, who retired last year. Read staff writer Doug Hubley’s profiles of Castro and five of his colleagues who are new to the Bates faculty.

10. Bates in the News

Chemistry and Engineering News turns to Bates to show how internships boost job prospects for science majors. The aforementioned Bates neuroscientist Jason Castro tells Minnesota Public Radio that our brains make decisions before we’re aware of it. Politics professor John Baughman explains to the Portland Press Herald why a much-anticipated campaign spending war for retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe’s seat hasn’t materialized.

1. Sarah Pearson ’75 appointed vice president for college advancement

2. Questions and answers from Bates summer student researchers

3. It’s a wrap as 2012 Bates Fund sets all-time participation record

4. Clean Sweep raises $21,000 for Lewiston-Auburn nonprofits

5. Audio slide show: Baccalaureate’s distinctive Bates vibe

6. Nathaniel Boone ’52 and Montford Point Marines receive Congressional Gold Medal

7. Economics fund established in memory of David Aschauer

8. Anthropologist Loring Danforth explains for Slate why firewalkers don’t feel the burn

9. Professor Emeritus of Geology Roy Farnsworth dies at 84

10. Programming note: Olympic final for Andrew Byrnes ’05 and Canadian rowers is Aug. 1

11. Bates in the News

1. Sarah Pearson ’75 appointed vice president for college advancement

Bringing deep experience at leading U.S. universities, including Harvard, Cornell, the University of Chicago and Northwestern, Sarah Pearson ’75 becomes vice president for college advancement at Bates effective Aug. 27, 2012.

2. Questions and answers from Bates summer student researchers

From biology labs and sea marshes, Bates students emerge for a Q-and-A session about their funded summer research, including an invitation to dish on their advisers.

3. It’s a wrap as 2012 Bates Fund sets all-time participation record

With 55 percent alumni participation in the 2012 Bates Fund, ending June 30, alumni roared past the 50-percent Bates Challenge goal, thus securing an extra $500,000 from a group of alumni leaders. Donors surpassed the Bates Fund dollar goal of $6 million with an annual giving total of $6,390,613.

4. Clean Sweep raises $21,000 for Lewiston-Auburn nonprofits

A popular community tradition, the annual green “garage sale” of appliances, furniture, electronics and other goods donated by the college community raised $21,223 for 14 local nonprofit organizations.

5. Audio slide show: Baccalaureate’s distinctive Bates vibe

Among the college’s most distinctive annual events, Baccalaureate affords graduating seniors an opportunity to create, with guidance from the Multifaith Chaplaincy, a program marked by reflection, festivity and gratitude on the eve of Commencement.

6. Nathaniel Boone ’52 and Montford Point Marines receive Congressional Gold Medal

Twenty thousand African American Marines, including Nate Boone ’52, went through basic training at the racially segregated Montford Point facility at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in the 1940s. To honor their pioneering achievements, Congress presented Boone and his fellow 367 surviving Montford Point veterans with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.

7. Economics fund established in memory of David Aschauer

Part of the proceeds from a Maine triathlon on Aug. 19 will create a fund supporting research and internships in the Bates economics department in memory of the late economics professor David Aschauer, who died in 2011.

8. Anthropologist Loring Danforth explains for Slate why firewalkers don’t feel the burn

After 21 people in San Jose, Calif., burned themselves during a firewalk, Slate asked Dana Professor of Anthropology Loring “Danny” Danforth why firewalkers don’t always fry.

9. Professor Emeritus of Geology Roy Farnsworth dies at 84

Professor Emeritus of Geology Roy Lothrop Farnsworth, who helped make fieldwork a defining part of the Bates geology curriculum, died July 18.

10. Programming note: Olympic final for Andrew Byrnes ’05 and Canadian rowers is Aug. 1

The Canadian rowing team competes in the finals of the Olympics men’s eight on Aug. 1 at about 5:30 a.m. Eastern time. Check your local listings for when the final will be broadcast by NBC.

11. Bates in the News

Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory ’84 tells a lobster tale about Steve Kingston ’88, proprietor of The Clam Shack in Kennebunk, Maine. Book reviewers enjoy the storytelling in Man of War by Charlie Schroeder ’95, who spent a year with reenactment groups. Comic and juggler Brent McCoy ’03, familiar to Reunion-goers for his routines on Alumni Walk, is profiled by the The Royal Gazette of Bermuda.

1. Commencement coverage

2. Reunion coverage

3. A new look and feel for Bates Magazine

4. Heaps of good counsel from the Alumni Legacy Program

5. Are you in? Bates Fund Challenge ends June 30

6. Bruce Stangle ’70, the very model of a modern volunteer

7. Weisenburger named Dean of Admission and Financial Aid

8. Godsey ’06 featured in Sports Illustrated report on transgender athletes

9. Good heavens! Astrophotography is at the Bates College Museum of Art

10. Fulbrights for seven

11. Bates in the News

1. Commencement coverage

Online coverage of Commencement 2012 features addresses by honorands Bonnie Bassler, Robert De Niro and Gwen Ifill plus loads of stories in photographs, video and words. Plus, what did the members of the Class of 2012 form on Garcelon Field?

2. Reunion coverage

What do an incoming Bates president, a renowned historian of American art, a car enthusiast whose Chevy Coupe burned on Frye Street years ago, and a social-justice activist who works on behalf of post-Soviet Jews have in common? They all attended Reunion 2012 — and had a blast!

3. A new look and feel for Bates Magazine

Redesigned Bates Magazine, featuring President-elect Clayton Spencer on the cover, arrives in Bates mailboxes this week. The reasons for the redesign go well beyond “Why not?” so please check out these redesign FAQs. In short, we hope you’ll appreciate the magazine’s new approach to the mission it’s had since 1921: helping audiences feel the rhythms of Bates life, on and off campus.

4. Heaps of good counsel from the Alumni Legacy Program

Read about the inaugural edition of the Alumni Legacy Program, which formalizes a service that Bates Admission has provided to alumni for decades, namely professional advice to parents and their children on the college search advice. Also, Bates Communications intern Hallie Balcomb ’14 offers 10 college-search tips gleaned from the ALP.

5. Are you in? Bates Fund Challenge ends June 30

In the immortal words of Swedish hair metal band Europe, “It’s the final countdown” for the Bates Fund in June. (Or, if you prefer, it’s “The End,” from The Doors, or “Closing Time” by Semisonic.) Your participation with a gift of any size by June 30 helps push alumni participation closer to 50 percent — and achieving that benchmark puts into motion a major gift of $500,000 from a group of alumni leaders.

6. Bruce Stangle ’70, the very model of a modern volunteer

For more than a generation, Analysis Group Inc. co-founder Bruce Stangle ’70 has advised and encouraged Bates alums of all ages who are making their way in the business world. This spring, Bates said “thank you” to Stangle for his years of career service, making him the inaugural recipient of a new alumni award that carries the Stangle name. In May, Stangle, David Parmelee ’64 and Kathy Whelan P’05 retired from the Board of Trustees and were granted emeriti status.

7. Weisenburger named Dean of Admission and Financial Aid

Director of Admission Leigh A. Weisenburger is the college’s new dean of admission and financial aid, effective July 1. “Leigh brings to this position extraordinary energy, talent and commitment to Bates,” said President-elect Clayton Spencer in her announcement. “She understands the college’s values and aspirations, and she has played a key role these past two years in working to align our admission practices with the dual goals of increasing academic strength and broadening access to a Bates education. Leigh’s charisma and determination to enact best practice will make her a powerful force for Bates on and off campus.”

8. Godsey ’06 featured in Sports Illustrated report on transgender athletes

Sixteen-time All-American Keelin Godsey ’06, the most decorated student-athlete in Bates history, is the centerpiece of Sports Illustrated‘s special report on “The Transgender Athlete.” With a top three finish at the Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore., this week, Godsey will realize his lifelong dream: to make the U.S. women’s Olympic team.

9. Good heavens! Astrophotography is at the Bates College Museum of Art

As an emerging art genre, astrophotography yields images that “are nothing less than overwhelming, depicting humbling, glorious delights that are often invisible to both the naked eye and even the telescope, and are revealed only through photographic means,” says Anthony Shostak, organizer of Starstruck: The Fine Art of Astrophotography at the Bates Museum of Art through Dec. 15.

10. Fulbrights for seven

Seven 2012 Bates College graduates received Fulbright grants or related awards for teaching and conducting research in Argentina, Austria, Germany, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Vietnam.

11. Bates in the News

The New York tech media wonders what Jeremy Fisher ’06 is up to with his startup Wander. In Boston, there’s interest in Caitrin Lynch ’89, whose new book offers anthropological insight into a Needham needle company where workers’ median age is 73. BBC News learns from Associate Professor of English Sylvia Federico that women could lead a medieval mob just as well as a man, and on Father’s Day, the Sun Journal profiles father-daughter farmers Doug Chipman and Tomi Chipman ’14.