1. The Campaign for Bates nears $120 million goal
Midnight tonight – June 30 – is the deadline for final contributions to The Campaign for Bates: Endowing Our Values. The College continues to process last-minute gifts postmarked in June. Campaign leaders will make an official announcement via e-mail later this month once the books for fiscal year 2006 close, noting the final campaign fund-raising total. Vice President for College Advancement Victoria Devlin said: “We’re all very optimistic about achieving goal and look forward to sharing the final results with members of the Bates community. It’s been a wonderful six years and an honor to be part of this campaign for Bates.” www.bates.edu/campaign.xml

2. Reunion 2006 highlights
We have proof that one of the wettest springs in Maine history failed to dampen spirits at Reunion. Check out the slide show and other links at: www.bates.edu/x119127.xml

3. Coffey resigns to take AD post at Amherst
After 21 years at Bates, Director of Athletics Suzanne Coffey announced her resignation to become athletic director at Amherst College. Associate Director of Athletics Dana Mulholland will serve as interim athletic director while a national search is conducted for Coffey's replacement. www.bates.edu/x119339.xml

4. Lena Sene '00 named White House Fellow
Lena Sene '00 is one of 14 outstanding individuals from across the country selected to serve as White House Fellows for 2006-07. Sene works in New York as an investment representative in the private banking division of Lehman Brothers, advising high net worth individuals on investment strategies and goals. The program is considered the most competitive and prestigious public leadership program in the United States. View White House Fellow biographies at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060616-1.html and a Bates profile of Sene at www.bates.edu/x110716.xml.

5. Receptions for interns in Boston, D.C. and New York City
The Office of Career Services has organized receptions in July for student and graduate interns in Boston (July 12), D.C. (July 19) and New York City (July 17). Each summer, current Bates students and graduates gain valuable hands-on work experience by interning. Come meet Bates people who are interning in your area this summer, and the alumni who are hosting them! Kindly register no later than one week in advance by calling (207)753-6930 or at www.bates.edu/alumni-events.xml. The sessions are hosted by the Bates Business Networks in the three cities, along with Career Services and Alumni & Parent Programs. There is no charge for this event. If you have any questions, please contact Amy Smith at asmith8@bates.edu or Eileen Wisnewski at ewisnews@bates.edu.

6. Bates Dance Festival begins July 15
Showcasing the power and invention of contemporary dance and music, the Bates Dance Festival launches its 24th season with Tania Isaac Dance on July 15. Featuring some of the most acclaimed innovators in dance, the festival's 2006 series presents works that –during an increasingly troubled era – examine the issues of our times. For entertainment and inspiration, see www.bates.edu/dance-festival.xml.

7. Cryptozoology exhibition to run through Oct. 8
This summer's major exhibition at the Bates College Museum of Art presents 16 artists in a wide-ranging examination of a field enjoying an increasingly high profile in pop culture: cryptozoology, the study of unknown, rumored or hidden animals, such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. With humor and daring use of artistic media, "Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale" offers a probing interrogation of a field that occupies a shadowy realm somewhere between myth, hucksterism and hard science. www.bates.edu/x119319.xml

8. Bates Oral History Project concludes, available online
As we formally close the Sesquicentennial celebrations and projects that marked academic years 2005 and 2006, the Bates Oral History Project also officially concludes. See full transcripts and hear select audio clips from 48 oral history interviews with Bates presidents, faculty, staff and alumni spanning from the Class of 1928 to the Class of 2005. abacus.bates.edu/oralhistory

9. Archive materials show changes in women's rights
Seven Bates College faculty and staff have been awarded Harward Center grants in the inaugural round of a new, annual funding program by the www.bates.edu/haward-center.xml. The grants, awarded competitively by a selection committee, are designed to offer faculty and staff significant support for publicly engaged teaching, research, cultural and other community projects. Seven projects – five led by faculty and two by Bates staff members – received grants totaling $33,500. www.bates.edu/x119389.xml

10. Farnsworth poet-in-residence at The Frost Place
Robert Farnsworth, poet and lecturer in English at Bates, is this summer’s poet-in-residence at The Frost Place, the farmhouse in Franconia, N.H., where Robert Frost and family spent 19 summers. Farnsworth will offer public readings during his July–August stay. “The residency is a great honor, and I hope the new work I intend to develop there will seem worthy of it,” Farnsworth said. “I can think of no other writer I’d rather be haunted and inspired by than Frost. Writing, sleeping, living in Robert and Elinor’s house, touching the griddle, writing in the chair of the immortals – what a thrill!” For details on the readings, go to www.frostplace.org.

11. Bates People in the News
The national media recently tapped the expertise of Bates alums in illuminating big issues of the day. Reuters telecom expert Jeremy Pelofsky '97 talked with PBS about higher fines for indecent broadcasts, while Howard Kunreuther '59, an expert in risk management and professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, appeared on NPR's Morning Edition to discuss hikes in homeowner insurance premiums. Bates biologist Will Ambrose and former student Kelton McMahon '05 were cited by a Norwegian science magazine for their contributions to an Arctic research project. Closer to home, geologist Beverly Johnson spoke with the local NBC affiliate about Bates' ventures into the realm of alternative fuels. www.bates.edu/bates-in-the-news.xml