A former dean of the faculty at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., Reich was most recently executive director of education for the American Psychological Association. From 1977 to 1994, she was a faculty member, department chair and associate graduate dean at Loyola University of Chicago. A graduate of Regis College, Reich received her Ph.D in experimental psychology from Dartmouth.

“As a scholar and teacher, her achievements are profound,” Harward said. “She has championed scholarship and teaching excellence within arenas of professional disciplines and in interdisciplinary contexts. We look forward to her leadership at Bates.”

The challenge of the academic vice president, Reich said, “is to foster the scholarly and teaching expertise of the faculty, while recognizing the times in which we live. These times demand a grounding in the liberal arts and sciences, shaped within a context that enhances applications to the community and the rapidly changing global marketplace.”

Reich said she looks forward to “my opportunity to help advance a liberal education of excellence, one that prepares its graduates to engage in the intellectual, economic, scientific, ethical and social challenges of the global community in which they live and for which many will serve as leaders.”

The endowed Bates College Class of 1997 Scholarship Fund, established last May by the 1997 graduating class, gives preference to children of hourly employees in secretarial services, Physical Plant, custodial services, Security and Dining Services.

Gousse, a senior at Lewiston High School, will use his $500 scholarship to help defray the cost of tuition at Wyoming Technical Institute of Technology, where he will study business and automobile body repair and custom painting. He is the son of Dan and Diane Gousse of Sabattus and Kathy and Donald Arsenault of Lewiston. Arsenault, Gousse’s mother, is secretary to the dean of admissions at Bates.

Houston, a senior geology major at the University of Maine, will use his $500 scholarship to help finance a three-week geology field trip to the Himalayan mountains in June. He is the son of Joan Houston, a secretary in the physical plant department at Bates, and Homer Houston of Poland.

The Class of 1997 Scholarship Fund was established through the traditional Senior Gift effort undertaken by each graduating class at Bates. The Class of 1997 raised $19,000, the largest Senior Gift ever, which was matched by Dr. Helen A. Papaioanou, a 1949 Bates graduate and college trustee. Seventy percent of the class participated in the gift effort, also a Bates record.

In announcing the gift last spring, Senior Gift chair Stuart Abelson of Andover, Mass., said the fund is an expression of gratitude. “We are very pleased to honor those who befriended us and contributed so positively to our Bates experience. We hope that this fund reminds everyone who works, learns, and teaches here that what is most important about Bates College is Bates people.”

The Class of 1997 Scholarship Fund supports a broad range of learning opportunities, including tuition support for secondary or post secondary education at the institution of the designee’s choice. Eligibility for a Class of 1997 scholarship is limited to children of Bates staff with priority given to hourly employees in secretarial services, physical plant, custodial services, security and dining services. Nominations for scholarships are directed to a committee composed of Bates employees that makes one or more scholarship awards annually.