The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Bates College a $150,000 grant that recognizes President Elaine Tuttle Hansen’s leadership at Bates and supports three strategic projects: the Bates Arts Collaborative, a natural sciences and mathematics initiative, and strategies to advance learning in a residential liberal arts setting. That component includes a Learning Commons, an effort to encourage greater intellectual exchange in residence halls and a project to engage diversity as both a goal and a resource.

The award affirms Hansen’s idea to build momentum for Choices for Bates – the plan for Bates’ future released last fall following the Bates College faculty, staff and students’ two-year planning process.

“The Choices for Bates initiative is not your typical strategic plan that advances goals, objectives and mechanisms for every area of the institution,” Hansen said. “Rather, through our planning process, we identified three specific initiatives, among many choices, in which we will invest right now. A college cannot sensibly grow by doing everything all the time. You grow and improve by making smart choices. Our faculty, trustees and community have found agreement in these three strategic initiatives.”

The plan challenges members of the Bates community to “create the strongest possible web of relationships, academic programs and informal learning opportunities that extend throughout the College.”

“Projects like these not only define a residential liberal arts education, but also go to the heart of what is distinctive about Bates,” Hansen said.” With this, we are able to jump-start the key initiatives identified through our planning process. I am personally grateful to the Mellon Foundation for this gift to Bates, and for its long-standing support and appreciation for Bates’ educational mission in the liberal arts and sciences.”

According to key points in the grant proposal, Bates will:

• Form an Arts Collaborative that will work across disciplines and campus/community borders to enhance and coordinate the vitality and visibility of the arts. In addition, online initiatives will expand the Arts Collaborative throughout the college community; achieve clarity about future arts leadership, goals and activities; and present new activities like arts-related first-year seminars under the auspices of the Bates Arts Collaborative;
• Accelerate the faculty’s design of an integrated four-semester science and mathematics sequence for both science majors and non-science majors at Bates. With support from a previous Mellon Foundation grant, Bates faculty in the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics are already working together on the redesign and integration of the science and math curriculums. New funds will allow two scholars to work in the upcoming semester to finish constructing the courses;
• Implement a pilot project to expand and deepen one of Bates’ existing strengths: close, long-term contact between faculty and students working on real-world problems.
• Create a Learning Commons to promote excellence, innovation, diversity and collaboration between in-class and out-of-class life;
• Within the residential life program, help extend intellectual exchange beyond the classroom and strengthen students’ interpersonal skills; and
• Offer specific activities to support teaching and learning about difference and diversity issues to help the community cultivate a more inclusive climate.

The complete “Choices for Bates: A Plan for Bates College” is available at:
http://www.bates.edu/Prebuilt/ChoicesforBates2010.pdf

In the past three years, the Mellon Foundation has awarded more than $1.6 million to Bates to enhance the integration of faculty scholarship and research. “This remarkable series of successful grant proposals is a tribute to the achievements and quality of the Bates faculty,” Hansen said.

More than a year in development, the University & College Accountability Network is intended to help prospective students and their families find an institution of higher education that best fits their needs. It is the first national consumer information resource created and provided directly to students and parents by colleges and universities themselves. The initiative is coordinated through the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

“It is a start at getting families the consistent information that they want and need as they compare colleges and universities,” said Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen.

“Choosing a college is one of life’s major decisions, with profound implications. But there are so many fine colleges and universities where motivated students can get an excellent education, and there are so many factors to consider in finding a good fit between the character of an institution and the needs and interests of a student. I would encourage everyone to visit the U-CAN site as part of their exploration of the rich and variegated landscape of American higher education today.”

Information included in the U-CAN college and university profiles covers admissions, enrollment, academics, student demographics, graduation rates, most common fields of study, transfer of credit policy, accreditation, faculty information, class size, tuition and fee trends, price of attendance, financial aid, campus housing, student life, and campus safety. U-CAN provides easy access to information on average loans at graduation, undergraduate class-size breakdown, and net tuition for hundreds of colleges. This information, which comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) surveys and the Common Data Set, is often difficult for consumers to find and decipher.

For other helpful college search Web sites and some thoughtful observations on the issue of national college rankings, Hansen recommends a July 15, 2007 op-ed in the Lewiston Sun Journal by James Fergerson, Bates’ director of institutional planning and analysis.