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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Bobcats finished sixth at the meet, their best performance ever at nationals.

The video was produced by Bates photographer and videographer Mike Bradley, himself a former collegiate runner.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Indeed, though Bates was chosen as their classroom college at random, they’ve made the most of the chance acquaintance.

Their teacher, Madelyn Hashemi, created the cheer, which the class sings every week in front of the school. They also spent time early in the year learning about Bates. “My scholars know the mascot is the bobcat and can tell you interesting facts about the animal,” Hashemi says.

“They know that the college is in Maine, diagonally across the U.S. They have seen pictures of the campus, sports and classes from the website. They are beyond thrilled to have had a true connection with the college.”

Equitas Academy is a K–2 charter school in Los Angeles, and this clip is courtesy of Bates parent Joe Pagano P’14, who visited the school while working on a marketing communications project involving several U.S. charters that are associated with Building Excellent Schools. He and his wife, Kathleen O’Brien Pagano ’86, head up Pagano Media.

Bates photographer and videographer Mike Bradley produced this audio slide show about the competitiveness, camaraderie and mutual respect of the women’s cross country team as it treks to Terre Haute, Ind., for the 2012 NCAA Division III Championships on Nov. 17.

Championship meet story here.

Curated by Craig Saddlemire ’05 and commisssioned by the Bates College Martin Luther King Jr. Day Committee

This MLK Day Jr. Day exhibit is open from noon through 5:30 p.m. in Perry Atrium, Pettengill Hall.

The making of video is the making of social identity – personal as well as collective. This video exhibit features work that tells a story about Maine people and/or was produced by Maine videomakers. In both cases, each video is made from one independent point-of-view, and serves to dialogue with the other videos about our individual and collective identities. They explore how identities are strengthened, segregated, imposed, exposed, or self-actualized.  They also reveal how identity shapes relationships of power and equity. Through participating in free and independent media production, each video artist is helping to diversify and complicate the conventional identities that saturate “popular culture.”

Ubuntu: Humanity (Scott Hamann, 1 minute) Looks at the challenge of the first world’s indifference to third world poverty as articulated by Kayamandi, South African resident Peter Mayekiso.

Ubuntu: Kayamandi (Scott Hamann, 20 minutes) Shows first-hand the poverty cycle in post-Apartheid South Africa. Townships (or shantytowns) are the remnants of the Apartheid era, imprisoning black South Africans in a culture of Poverty.

Gay Marriage and Petitioning (Craig Saddlemire, 11 minutes) Craig Saddlemire talks with a petitioner who is collecting signatures to repeal the equal marriage law passed by the Maine State Legislature.

Walk Across Maine Drag-a-thon (Tim Berry, 15 minutes) An artistic investigation into Maine culture and how it relates to something typically outside of itself (like a drag queen), trying to do something good within/for it.

A Dark Life (Scott Hamann, 10 minutes) Depicts the struggles of a runaway teen in post-Apartheid South Africa.

In the Aftermath of Marriage: Equality in Maine (Ryan Conrad, 22 minutes) Seven queer and trans activists offer their often-unheard perspectives critiquing both the campaign and institution of marriage.

George Coleman Interview and Gordon Parks Lecture (Patrick Bonsant, 16 minutes) George Coleman talks about the Portland-based anti-poverty organization P.O.W.E.R. and class oppression.  Followed by footage of Gordon Parks (activist, journalist, filmmaker) speaking at the Portland Museum of Art.

Birth at Home (Nicolle Littrel, 6 minu) Documents one couple’s homebirth and explores women’s rights and the stigma surrounding birth.

MVAN 40th Episode Music Video “This Little Light of Mine” (Craig Saddlemire, 5 minutes) A video montage of 4 years of documenting the Social Justice movement in Maine.

No On One – The Campaign to Protect Marriage Equality in Maine (Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll, 14 minutes) A portrait of the final days of the 2009 “No On One” campaign in Maine.

Thrive Digital Storytelling ­(Thrive Youth Committee, 12 minutes) Young people from Androscoggin County share their stories of overcoming homelessness, drug abuse, and mental health problems.

Seven Jewish Children (Pete Sirois, 9 minutes) People in Waterville do a street performance of a play by Caryl Churchill about how different parents describe atrocities (such as apartheid and genocide) to their children, starting in Nazi Germany and ending in Gaza.

Rooted in Community 2009 (Craig Saddlemire, 10 minutes) Youth from across the United States gather in Lewiston to develop leadership skills, share culture, and work to strengthen the food justice movement.