The Rev. Peter J. Gomes, named one of America’s most influential preachers by Time magazine, opens the 151st academic year at Bates College with a convocation address at 4:10 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6, on the main quadrangle. In case of rain, the event will take place in Alumni Gymnasium.

Gomes’ convocation address will explore themes related to the college’s 150th anniversary.

Gomes is Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University and minister in the university’s Memorial Church. A 1965 Bates graduate, he was first elected a college trustee in 1973 and is in the fifth year of his current term on the board.

Gomes will face about 2,400 Bates faculty, staff and students, including 511 students new to Bates (another new student is studying with the Bates program in Russia this fall). The Bates student body will total some 1,844, with 1,688 on campus and 156 in off-campus programs this fall.

An American Baptist minister, Gomes belongs to Harvard’s faculties of divinity and of arts and sciences. Named one of the nation’s seven most influential preachers by Time in 1979, he is an insistent voice of conscience.

Gomes’ closely reasoned sermons rank among the quintessential Harvard experiences. As likely to quote T.S. Eliot and Mae West as the Bible, he delivers serious moral content with a welcoming humor. He is a sought-after speaker whose engagements have included the inaugurations of presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

In his most recent address at Bates, during the alumni reunion weekend in June, Gomes offered observations inspired by the college’s sesquicentennial. “Bates was always peculiar. It was peculiar in that it involved women and men on equal footing. It was peculiar in that it had persons of color in its earliest classes,” he noted.

“And it was peculiar in that it was the first college chartered by the state of Maine,” as Massachusetts chartered Bowdoin and Colby prior to Maine statehood.

Gomes is the author of several books, including the 1996 best seller The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart (Morrow) and his most recent, Strength for the Journey: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living (HarperSanFrancisco, 2003). He has received 30 honorary degrees, including one from Bates in 1996, and in 2001 was honored with Harvard’s Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award. He is an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, the University of Cambridge, England, where the Gomes Lectureship is established in his name.

A native of Boston, Gomes graduated from Bates and from Harvard Divinity School. After teaching and serving as director of freshman studies at Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Ala., he arrived at Harvard in 1970 as assistant minister in the Memorial Church. He has been minister there since 1974, when he was appointed to the Plummer professorship. He is a leading authority on the Pilgrims of Plymouth.

This fall’s class of first-year students at Bates comes from 34 states and from 35 countries ranging from Azerbaijan to Venezuela. Forty-eight of the first-years are from Maine. The entire student body represents 75 countries and 47 states, with the most from Massachusetts, at 443 students. The next largest group comes from Maine, at 194. As for the other New England states, Connecticut sent 145, New Hampshire 128, Vermont 52 and Rhode Island 29. New York state sent 181.

Text of Maine Gov. John E. Baldacci’s “Bates College Day” proclamation, May 2, 2005, honoring the College’s 150th anniversary of its founding

WHEREAS, Maine’s educational leaders in the 1850s saw a great, unmet need in the state – to broaden the educational opportunities for young men and women through the founding of a new institution of higher learning; and

WHEREAS, Maine citizens then petitioned the Legislature to incorporate and endow a “Literary Institution…of a high order, on a broad basis, and centrally located”; and

WHEREAS, the Maine Legislature granted a charter and financial support for this new school, at first called the Maine State Seminary, and Governor of Maine Anson P. Morrell signed the legislation on March 16, 1855; and

WHEREAS, the seminary was located in Lewiston, and by an act of the Maine Legislature became Bates College in 1864, its new name and status honoring the philanthropy of Benjamin E. Bates, an industrialist and early developer of Lewiston manufacturing, who believed in the power of education to benefit the economic and social weal; and

WHEREAS, Bates College has stood throughout its history for the pursuit of social justice and equality, broadly defined, reflecting the beliefs of its founders, who were fervent abolitionists and reformers, thus its graduates have linked education with service, leadership, and obligations beyond themselves; and

WHEREAS, the motto of Bates College, the Latin phrase Amore ac Studio, “with ardor and devotion,” complements the spirit evoked by the State of Maine motto, Dirigo, “I lead,” admirable qualities embodied by Bates graduates who have served the public good of our state and our nation, epitomized by the late Edmund S. Muskie of the Class of 1936, Maine governor, U.S. senator, U.S. Secretary of State, and son of Maine; and

WHEREAS, thousands of Bates College graduates exercise these qualities of leadership, citizenship, and collaborative spirit, helping sustain and make better the communities, careers, and endeavors in which they strive; and

WHEREAS, the first college class to graduate from Bates College comprised eight students, all native-born Mainers, today Bates enrolls 1,700 students who represent forty-eight states and the District of Columbia, including 72 countries around the world, and with great pride continues to enroll more than 150 students each year from the State of Maine; and

WHEREAS, Bates College is today a national college of the liberal arts and sciences that prizes the profound usefulness of learning and understanding; and

WHEREAS, Bates College commits its efforts to both the dignity of the individual and, by means of scholarship aid, to access by qualified learners to its programs and opportunities; and

WHEREAS, Bates College celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2005 and is to be honored for its unswerving commitment to providing an education in the liberal arts and sciences, recognizing their critical role in a just and civil society,

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOHN ELIAS BALDACCI, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby proclaim May 2, 2005 as BATES COLLEGE DAY throughout the State of Maine, and urge all citizens to recognize this observance.

Text of the Joint Resolution voted by the Maine Legislature, April 28, 2005, honoring the 150th anniversary of the founding of Bates College.

(4-6)  On motion by Senator ROTUNDO of Androscoggin (Cosponsored by Representative MAKAS of Lewiston and Senators: BRENNAN of Cumberland, DAVIS of Piscataquis, DOW of Lincoln, President EDMONDS of Cumberland, GAGNON of Kennebec, MAYO of Sagadahoc, MILLS of Somerset, RAYE of Washington, WESTON of Waldo, Representatives: ADAMS of Portland, BEAUDETTE of Biddeford, BERUBE of Lisbon, BOWLES of Sanford, CARR of Lincoln, CLARK of Millinocket, CRAVEN of Lewiston, CROSBY of Topsham, CUMMINGS of Portland, DAVIS of Falmouth, DRISCOLL of Westbrook,DUPLESSIE of Westbrook, FARRINGTON of Gorham, HANLEY of Gardiner, LINDELL of Frankfort, MAZUREK of Rockland, MILLETT of Waterford, O’BRIEN of Lewiston, PARADIS of Frenchville, PELLETIER-SIMPSON of Auburn, Speaker RICHARDSON of Brunswick, SAMPSON of Auburn, SHIELDS of Auburn, STEDMAN of Hartland, TARDY of Newport, TUTTLE of Sanford, WALCOTT of Lewiston), the following Joint Resolution:

S.P. 588
Joint Resolution recognizing Bates College on its 150th Anniversary

WHEREAS, 150 years ago, education leaders in Maine, including Oren B.Cheney, a former member of the Maine Legislature, saw a great, unmetneed in the State:  to broaden the educational opportunities for young men and women through the founding of a new institution of higher learning; and

WHEREAS, citizens of 49 Maine towns, from Biddeford and Portland in the south to Corinna in the north, from Parsonsfield in the west to Brooks in the east, then petitioned the Maine Legislature, requesting that theLegislature incorporate and endow a “Literary Institution . . . of a high order, on a broad basis, and centrally located”; andWHEREAS, the Maine Legislature on March 16, 1855 granted a charter and financial support for this new school, at first called the Maine StateSeminary, to be located in Lewiston, a choice of location that respected the guidance and support of Alonzo Garcelon, member of the Maine Legislature and leading citizen of that city, who, it is written, “had his heart set on it coming to the city”; and

WHEREAS, Oren B. Cheney and his fellow founders of this school sought to create a college with egalitarian ideals, in keeping with and reflecting the spirit of fairness, independence, hard work and good will of the State of Maine; andWHEREAS, the Maine State Seminary became Bates College in 1864, its new name honoring the philanthropy of Benjamin E. Bates, an industrialist and early developer of Lewiston manufacturing, who believed in the power of education to benefit the economic and social weal; and

WHEREAS, the motto of Bates College is the Latin phrase Amore ac Studio,”with ardor and devotion,” which complements the spirit evoked by the State of Maine motto, Dirigo, “I lead,” admirable qualities embodied by Bates College graduates who have served the public good of our State and our nation, epitomized by the late Edmund S. Muskie of the Class of 1936, Maine governor, United States Senator, United States Secretary of State and son of Maine; andWHEREAS, the founders of Bates College were ahead of their time with a belief in coeducation and “a woman’s God-given freedom to do anything for which she has the ability,” and the first female Bates College graduate in 1869, Mary Wheelwright Mitchell of Dover-Foxcroft, worked in the mills to pay for college yet once politely turned down a scholarship from Maine’s governor, requesting that the scholarship be provided to someone more needy than herself; and

WHEREAS, Bates College has stood throughout its history for the pursuit of social justice and equality, broadly defined, reflecting the beliefs of its founders, who were fervent abolitionists. Bates College graduates have linked education with service, leadership and obligations beyond themselves, qualities embodied in alumni such as the renowned civil rights leader Benjamin E. Mays, who graduated in 1920, served as president of Morehouse College and was the teacher and mentor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; andWHEREAS, many thousands of Bates College graduates, in the fields of business, law, science, medicine, education and the arts and in other fields exercise these qualities of leadership, citizenship and collaborative spirit, helping to sustain and better the communities, careers and endeavors in which they strive; and

WHEREAS, the first class to graduate from Bates College comprised eight students, all native-born Mainers; today the college enrolls 1,700 students who represent 48 states, the District of Columbia and 72 countries around the world and with great pride continues to enroll more than 150 students each year from the State of Maine; andWHEREAS, Bates College celebrates its presence in Lewiston and Auburn, communities that help to inspire the academic lives of both students and professors. Through Bates College programs that integrate service into the intellectual life of the college and bring campus and community closer together, service-learning students give more than 40,000 hours of service annually to 120 community agencies, schools and institutions; and

WHEREAS, Bates College students and faculty rejoice in the college’s location in the beautiful State of Maine, and they explore from thecoast to the mountains through academic and extracurricular programs, from kayaking trips along the Maine coast for geology courses and research at Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area in Phippsburg to annual orientation trips for new students that introduce each incoming class to the splendor and joy to be found in Maine’s environment; andWHEREAS, Bates College is today a national college of the liberal arts and sciences that prizes the inherent values of a demanding education and the profound usefulness of learning and understanding and is committed to academic rigor and ensuring in all its efforts the dignity of the individual and, by means of scholarship aid, access to its programs and opportunities by qualified learners; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED:  That We, the Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the One Hundred and Twenty-second Legislature, now assembled in the First Special Session, join in recognizing BatesCollege upon its 150th anniversary and for its unswerving commitment to providing an education in the liberal arts and sciences, recognizing their critical role in a just and civil society; and be it furtherRESOLVED: That suitable copies of this resolution, duly authenticated by the Secretary of State, be transmitted to the President and the Chairof the Board of Trustees of Bates College.

The state of Maine’s pivotal role in the founding of Bates College 150 years ago made Monday afternoon’s Statehouse celebration, featuring a “Bates College Day” proclamation by Maine Gov. John Baldacci and a legislative joint resolution sponsored by State Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Androscoggin, a proud event for both college and state.

The 2 p.m. gathering took place at the Augusta Statehouse in the Legislative Council Chambers.

“We are fortunate to have Bates College in our state,” Baldacci said in his remarks. “Not only for the good work it does in Lewiston-Auburn, but throughout the state, and for the recognition that we get because of the greatness of the institution throughout the country.”

Baldacci’s proclamation compared the motto of Bates College, Amore ac Studio, translated “with ardor and devotion,” to “the spirit evoked by the state of Maine motto, Dirigo, ‘I lead,’ admirable qualities embodied by Bates graduates who have served the public good of our state and our nation, epitomized by the late Edmund S. Muskie of the Class of 1936, Maine governor, U.S. senator, U.S. Secretary of State, and son of Maine….”

Baldacci, in his remarks, noted that “sometimes what seems like a modest bill can have wonderful long-term effects for Maine. The 1855 charter that authorized the institute that later became Bates College is a signal example…. Starting as almost entirely a Maine institution, it has become a world-renowned institution, and part of Maine’s reputation for excellence and productivity.”

Baldacci noted also that Bates was recently named the No. 1 ”Best Value” college in America by The Princeton Review “for its combination of superb academic offerings, high graduation rates, and reliable and generous financial aid awards.”

Elaine Tuttle Hansen, president of Bates, noted Bates founder Oren Cheney’s efforts to seek passage of the bill to establish what was then called the Maine State Seminary. While the final act of passage took only a few hours in March 1855, he toiled for months to secure its approval.

“Then as perhaps now, the bill addressed primarily the State’s commitment of an allocation of funds for the Maine State Seminary,” she said. “The simple truth is that probably Bates would not have existed without some sustained lobbying and some state seed money. Some things never change.”

Hansen also invited the gathered guests to “take part in Sesquicentennial events and celebrations, to learn more of the history of the College, and to join us in an ongoing discussion of how Bates, founded on principles of academic rigor and human egalitarianism, can honor its founders’ dreams as it continues to become one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the world.”

In comments prior to today’s event, Baldacci reflected on Bates’ contemporary mission, both in Maine and around the world. “Each successive generation grows up to face a new set of challenges, whether here in Maine or across the nation and globe,” he said. “What should hearten us all is that great liberal arts colleges like Bates College excel at giving men and women adaptable skills to succeed in a rapidly changing world and to contribute to its betterment. At 150 years old, Bates has never been more relevant and important.”

With 37 legislators joining Rotundo as co-sponsors of the joint resolution, the Maine Legislature, with its vote on April 28, honored the public-spirited efforts to found the College in 1855.

Those efforts were led by Cheney, a former member of the Maine Legislature, who, in the words of today’s resolution, “saw a great, unmet need in the State: to broaden the educational opportunities for young men and women through the founding of a new institution of higher learning….”

In its conclusion, the joint resolution honors Bates as a college that “prizes the inherent values of a demanding education and the profound usefulness of learning and understanding and is committed to academic rigor and ensuring in all its efforts the dignity of the individual and…for its unswerving commitment to providing an education in the liberal arts and sciences, recognizing their critical role in a just and civil society….”

Rotundo is associate director of the Center for Service-Learning at Bates, and among the joint-resolution cosponsors are five Bates alumni (Sen. Kevin Raye ’81, R-Washington, and representatives Gerald Davis ’59, R-Falmouth; Kenneth Lindell ’86, R-Frankfort; Elaine Makas ’67, D-Lewiston; and Sawin Millett ’59, R-Waterford) and a Bates parent, Sen. Michael Brennan, D-Cumberland, whose son Ryan is a member of the Class of 2007.

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May2:
Text of the joint resolution passed by the Maine Legislature

May2:
Text of Maine Gov. John Baldacci’s “Bates College Day” proclamation