Bates College | Bates People in the News 2008

In The Providence Journal, Dan Doyle '72, who turned 60 on Jan. 14, commented about becoming a septugenerian Baby Boomer. Doyle challenged his generation to "rediscover the idealism that defined our youth and that may have yielded...to pragmatism. Our sustenance can come from our selflessness. Our good deeds can benefit our families, youth leagues, charities and churches. These deeds or projects need not be large; rather they can simply create a 'chipping effect' that steadily dissolves a problem or challenge." Doyle is founder and executive director of the Institute for International Sport at the University of Rhode Island. He and Deb Doermann Burch '72, authors of The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting, were profiled in the Summer 2008 issue issue of Bates Magazine.

Tom Whalen '86 was part of a CNN panel that discussed President Obama's inauguration speech. Whalen, author of A Higher Purpose: Profiles in Presidential Courage, said the speech "overall [was] not a speech for the ages, but a speech for our times and the concerns people have. In many ways, it reminds me of a coach giving a halftime locker room speech to his team that's behind in the game. What Obama saying is that we have to make improvements or adjustment in order to prevail." Comparing Obama to another president, Whalen suggested that Obama might be aiming for an FDR-like pragmatism, using "both conservative and liberal approaches to solve the Great Depression problems. He's also paintiong himself as a non-idealogue."

Auburn mayor John Jenkins '74 was the subject of a story by longtime Portland Press Herald columnist Bill Nemitz, who wrote, "Forty years ago last spring, John Jenkins stood on the stage at his high school in Newark, N.J., and proudly shook the hand of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. One week after that, King was dead, felled by an assassin's bullet. And Newark, like so many other American cities, was ablaze with anger. Now here Jenkins stood on the National Mall...on the morning of Martin Luther King Day. In a day's time, hundreds of thousands of Americans were going to pack this frozen space to witness the inauguration of...the country's first black president." Jenkins, who is black, told Nemitz that Obama connects with mainstream white America because he speaks about everyday problems using everyday language. The effect is "transformational," Jenkins said. "It really changes people's hearts. It's not that you change them. They change themselves.''

In a New Yorker essay about presidential rhetoric, Jill Lepore highlighted the book Rhetorical Presidency by Jeff Tulis '72, who suggests that the founding fathers didn't expect or even want the president to communicate directly with the masses. Wrote Lepore, "Tulis and other scholars who wrote on this subject during the Reagan years generally found the rise of the rhetorical presidency alarming. By appealing to the people, charismatic chief executives were bypassing Congress and ignoring...the founding fathers, who considered popular leaders to be demagogues." According to Tulis, engaging the public directly leads to "a greater mutability of policy, an erosion of the processes of deliberation, and a decay of political discourse." Tulis, associate professor of government at UTexas–Austin, is a Laurence Rockefeller Visiting Fellow at Princeton this year.

Both the Portland Press Herald and Bangor Daily News recently profiled Maine native Adrienne Shibles '91, in her first year as head coach of women's basketball at Bowdoin College. Each story highlighted Shibles' relationship with her Bates basketball coach, Marsha Graef, now an assistant athletic director. “[Graef] was the first female coach that I had," Shibles told the Bangor Daily News. "It never occurred to me that I could [coach] until I saw that.” Graef told the Press Herald that Shibles was "always mentally ready to play and always inquisitive.'' Graef said. 'I think it was kind of natural for her to fall right into basketball coaching. She loved it.''

The waning days of 2008 yielded a growing consensus that Free at Last, the debut CD from Josh Fix '99, is quite download-worthy. Focusing on the production aspect of the CD, Electronic Musician noted "lush recordings and prominent use of piano and stacked vocals" reminiscent of the studio style of Supertramp and others. In placing the CD on one of its top album-lists for 2008, Time Out New York called Fix a "post-Radiohead Elton John" who has "obliterated slacker chic with a virtuosically glossy piano-pop opus." That keyboard sound, reported Keyboard Magazine, comes from an old Emerson upright that Fix chose to use, even though he had access to a Yamaha C7 grand in the studio. "I was in this anti-establishment state of mind,” he says. "I wanted a grungy feel.... We got a huge sound out of it and we were only using one mic."

Harold Yudkin '33 died in 2004, but his sense of philanthropy is still being felt in Derby, Conn., where he lived, practiced law and was a commercial developer for many years. Two homes that Yudkin and his widow, Selma, owned in Derby are being donated to the Valley Community Foundation, which will sell them to establish a fund in their names. "My uncle was the most amazing person ever," said his niece, who is handling the transaction. Besides his business dealings, he was a historian, she said, with a keen interest in Benedict Arnold. And he had a heart: People coming to him for a divorce could expect Yudkin to first try to get them to work out their problems, she added.

Retired federal judge Frank Coffin '40 was profiled by Maine Things Considered, the radio news program of Maine Public Broadcasting Network, on the eve of his being honored by the Maine Bar Foundation in Portland. The profile, which focused on Coffin's "remarkable contributions to legal aid for the poor" in Maine, noted that he is one of the "few people to have served in all three branches of government at the federal level as well as the military": as a congressman from Maine's 2nd District, deputy administrator for the Agency for International Development under the Kennedy administration and, for more than 40 years, a judge on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Portland Press Herald noted the "tremendous staying power" of the Stanton Bird Club, celebrating its 90th birthday. The club is named for a man who defined faculty longevity at Bates, Jonathan "Uncle Johnnie" Stanton, professor of Greek and Latin from 1863 to 1906. As reporter Deirdre Fleming wrote, "just as [the Audubon Society] was named for the world-famous ornithologist and artist from the 19th century...so was Lewiston's birding club named for a professor of note: Jonathan Young Stanton. The Bates College professor, whose mounted birds can be found at the Maine State Museum, influenced the study of birds in the state. As his namesake continues to do the same."

In its story about a new biographical film on Marsden Hartley, the Portland Press Herald spoke with Mark Bessire, director of the Bates College Museum of Art. The film by Michael Maglaras, Visible Silence: Marsden Hartley, Painter and Poet, is the second he's produced on the painter, after 2005's Cleophas and His Own. Bessire, who opened the museum's large Hartley collection to the filmmaker, spoke to reporter Bob Keyes about the growing interest in Hartley's work. "Yes, some people still don't like his innovative style and want to see more representational Homer. But there is a really dedicated following of Hartley fans that is growing." In fact, Keyes noted, a Hartley painting brought more than $6 million at auction last spring, setting a record for an American Modernist.

In its Fall 2008 issue, the Virginia Quarterly Review published "The Iraq Show," a piece of satirical fiction by writer Charles Antin '02. The story's first-person protagonist is a production assistant on "the most popular improvisational political dramedy on television." But despite its popularity, the show is suffering from a fewer compelling plot lines coming from Iraq. As the story opens, the protagonist explains his duties: "First, I hand out the Starbucks. Some of the 'Iraqis' invariably want what they call 'Iraqi coffee' so that they can stay in character. Every day, they ask for Yemeni beans, pulverized with ginger root and cardamom and brewed in a copper kettle. Every day, I bring them Frappuccinos." Antin's essays have appeared in Food & Wine magazine and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Why Nov. 4 Matters," a Bates student panel discussion moderated by David Scobey, director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, was broadcast by Speaking in Maine, a public-affairs lecture series of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. Scobey's first question was, "What, from your point of view, are the most important stakes in the election?" The panel featured Theodore Sutherland '11 of Accra, Ghana, an economics and French major interested in economic development, international relations and global environmental conditions; Rachel Kurzius '10 of Ridgewood, N.J., an English and women and gender studies double major who is co-president of the Feminist Action Coalition; Marshall Hatch '10 of Chicago, a politics major interested in community development and law; and Emily Grady '10 of Littleton, Mass., an environmetnal studies major who is active in the Bates Energy Action Movement, Environmental Coalition and the Bates Contemplates Food initiative.

Anthony Phillips '10, a double major in African American studies and philosophy from Philadelphia, offered a commentary for "My America 2008," a special election-year series of The Tavis Smiley Show, broadcast by Public Radio International. Phillips talked about how his educational performance improved once he moved from an overcrowded public school system in Philadelphia to a private school, where teachers were able to give him greater individual attention. "No parent should feel the need to send their child to private school to garner a sound education, especially if they can barely afford it," he says. "The next president will need to push Congress to pass legislation that will adequately fund our nation's public schools."

The Portland Press Herald interviewed David Aschauer, the College's Elmer Campbell Professor of Economics, to gauge the accuracy of political advertisements being rolled out during Maine's U.S. Senate race between Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat, and Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican incumbent. Allen's ads tried to pin blame on Republicans like Collins for the financial crisis but Aschauer didn't buy the connection. He cited legislation signed during the Clinton administration that allowed banks to take greater risks. "It's not balanced to say that it's just Bush," Aschauer said.

The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine used Bates' sustainability efforts in a story about what has the current generation of college students fired up: "They're all about green, focused on saving energy, serving organic and local food, and reducing carbon emissions." What's different about this student crusade is that colleges are hand-in-hand with student activists. "More educators agree that going green can help their schools reduce waste and cuts costs. But they also see a more fundamental reason to follow this path: It impresses parents, applicants, and, most important, donors, as Bates College in Maine learned last month, when a graduate donated $2.5 million to help the school serve more local, organic, farm-fresh foods on campus."

In summer 2009, Tyler Fish '96 and friend John Huston hope to become the first Americans to ski unsupported to the North Pole. In October, the Chicago Sun-Times caught up with Huston as he trained on North Avenue beach by dragging five SUV tires behind him. The story explained what "unsupported" means for Huston and Fish: "No food waiting along the way. No helicopter to take them halfway. No dogs. It's just two guys on cross-country skis dragging sleds for 475 miles over 55 days in temperatures that could drop to 60 below." Besides making it to the pole and back, Fish and Huston's goals also include "inspiring others to embrace challenges and shining a spotlight on climate change. They plan to do some teaching along the way, using a satellite phone to upload messages and photos so schoolchildren can follow their trip online." The project's Web site is www.forwardexpeditions.com.

Intrigued by the $2.5 million gift that Bates received to fund the purchase of more natural, organic and local food, Portland Press Herald reporter Meredith Goad talked to Dining Services director Christine Schwartz to learn more about what's going on. Goad noted that Bates has gained a national reputation for its food, partly because of the College's "emphasis on serving local, organic foods" to a student body eager to know more about what they eat. "If there's any doubt about just how savvy people have become about the food they put into their mouths," Goad wrote, "consider the e-mails that Christine Schwartz gets every day from students at Bates College," such as why the pesto-soup recipe changed, when's the local cider coming in and a heads-up that "we're out of the low-fat French vanilla soy yogurt."

Among the experts quoted by The Chronicle of Higher Education in its story about philanthropy and the financial crisis, Vice President for College Advancement Kelly Kerner came first. He told the Chronicle that fundraising veterans have a long-term focus. "It can't just be about the moment. It's about the horizon, and you have to meet donors where they are," he said. The story said it's too soon to know what the effects really are on giving. Better information will come at the end of the year (the story didn't specify calendar or fiscal), when most donors make their gifts.

The Lewiston Sun Journal asked "local bankers, financial experts and economic gurus," including George Perkins, visiting associate professor of economics, to comment on the proposed $700 billion bailout of U.S. financial firms. Perkins called the plan a "good idea," adding that "this is not some wild and crazy scheme.... [It is] what is probably the most effective tool government can use to stabilize financial markets: using the lender-of-last-resort function."

An Associated Press story about the Bates history course "Red Sox Nation," taught by Professor of History Margaret Creighton, was picked up by many outlets, from Yahoo! Sports to the New York Times' global edition. The AP story explains that "the course title refers to Boston's zealous fan base, of course, but it isn't just about the Red Sox. Instead, it takes a big-picture look at major league baseball and its place in American history and culture. Students are asked to explore baseball's ties to politics, religion, race, gender and class. They examine what fans eat at games, why umpires dress like they do and how rivalries — does the Yankees-Red Sox bad blood sound familiar? — have helped shape regional identities."

The New York Times reported that precipitious drop in the population of a fish found only in a hot spring-fed pool in the Nevada desert is confounding scientists. The Devils Hole pupfish, an iridescent blue minnow, was one of the original fish protected under the Endangered Species Act and figured in a 1976 landmark case before the Supreme Court. Now scientists are scrutinizing the remaining fish and their habitat in hopes of understanding a 90 percent population drop-off -- down to about 45. At least, the researchers noted, pupfish numbers rose slightly in the most recent count. "It's not up a lot," said Paul Barrett '80, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist coordinating the research. "That's true. But we may have bottomed out and stopped the decline, and in my book that's a winner."

The Foxboro (Mass.) Reporter profiled George Young '73, who is retiring as health agent in the town of Foxborough after 20 years. One of his colleagues, Board of Health chairman Eric Arvedon, was quoted in the story: "I have always regarded George as the uber-environmental health professional.... George is both a walking comprehensive environmental health reference manual and a patient professor. He seems to always know the answer or where to find it and then he is eager to pass along his knowledge to make sure the board and the Health Department understand the issues so that we can address the challenge du jour."

"This changes everything." That's how Peter Carlisle '91, agent to the hottest athlete on the planet, summed up the likely effect of Michael Phelps' historic Olympics performance -- not only for Phelps, but perhaps for the Olympics themselves. Carlisle, director of the Olympic and action sports division of the marketing firm Octagon, is based in Portland, but his world is global. Carlisle said Phelps' real impact will be evidenced in coming years. "The Olympic market changed, not just Michael -- but the Olympics themselves, the way we look at them, the way they will be presented," said Carlisle, whose stable of Olympic swimmers also includes Portland's Ian Crocker, world record holder in the 100-meter butterfly. They will all benefit from Phelps' effort, though Carlisle said it may take some time.

Sally Ehrenfried '89 traces her interest in public policy back to fourth grade, when her letter to presidential candidate Jimmy Carter prompted an invitation to Carter's inauguration. Later Ehrenfried spent 13 years in Washington working for U.S. senators George J. Mitchell of Maine and Ronald Wyden of Oregon. Now, as community relations director at the software company Blackbaud Inc., Ehrenfried is able to foster her love of public service through Blackbaud’s philanthropic efforts. One of the company’s core beliefs is that service to others makes the world a better place, and Ehrenfried helps the company and its employees live out that value. "I’m really having a whole lot of fun," she said. "I'm able to maintain my public service roots while working in a corporate environment."

A Wall Street Journal story said that the hard word is just beginning for Peter Carlisle '91, agent for Michael Phelps, after the swimmer won his historic eighth gold medal. The task ahead is to "transform the swimmer's Olympic feat into a marketing juggernaut, akin to Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods." Indeed, Carlisle and Phelps continue to sort through a tidal wave of offers. "I've been doing this for a while," Carlisle told the WSJ, "and I didn't think I'd be super-surprised at what was going to happen here. But I am actually." See also the profile of Carlisle in the Fall 2008 issue of Bates Magazine: www.bates.edu/x169891.xml.

The Portland (Maine) Press Herald noted the Maine connection of Andrew Byrnes '05, a member of the Canadian men's eight crew that captured the gold medal Aug. 17 during the 2008 Olympics -- Canada's first medal in the event since 1992. "We've pushed each other so hard and have such a great mentality on this team, it's very confidence-inspiring," he told the paper. "And I feel very fortunate to be rowing with these guys, being someone at his first Olympics." After earning a physics degree at Bates, Byrnes went to the University of Pennsylvania and earned his master's degree in mechanical engineering. "I knew I had to finish schooling before I got to rowing full time because it would be tough to go back after rowing," said Byrnes, who holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship.

In an essay published in Maine's Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel newspapers in Maine, Visiting Professor of Politics Eric Hooglund writes about his early summer trip to Iran, which coincided with U.S. Senate and House resolutions (since blocked) authorizing President Bush to set up a naval blockade of Iran. It was big news in Iran, writes Hooglund, where the media "uniformly depicted the U.S. congressional resolutions as tantamount to a declaration of war.... Consequently, I was put in the uncomfortable position of having to explain...why I believed these resolutions did not mean war." Attending a village wedding, "our discussion turned to U.S. policy. Jasmine, an articulate 20-year old computer science major who had composed and read a poem for the bride and groom, asked, 'Why does America hate Iran and want to attack us?'"

A book review in The New York Times praised the team of U.S. Army medical professionals, including Dr. Dave Lounsbury '72, a retired colonel, that pushed for publication of War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq: A Series of Cases, 2003–2007. The Army-published book is intended as a guidebook of new techniques for battlefield surgeons, but the book's extremely graphic photography, showing shredded flesh, disfigured faces and bloody wounds, prompted "strenuous efforts within the Army...to censor the book and keep it out of civilian hands," according to the Times. ''The average Joe Surgeon, civilian or military, has never seen this stuff,'' Lounsbury told the paper. "And they need to see this on the plane before they get there, because there's a learning curve to this.''

In a Boston Globe story about what was probably the last visit to Kennebunkport by a "Bush who is a sitting president," reporter Matt Viser interviewed self-described "little guy" Steve Kingston '88, owner of The Clam Shack. During the George W. Bush presidency, Kingston has provided lobster for international dignitaries and once was interviewed by the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera. "It's bittersweet," he says of the end of the presidential Bush visits to the town. "It's put Kennebunkport on the map."

The Concord (N.H.) Monitor interviewed lawyer Jay Surdukowski in July after the capture of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who will stand trial after 12 years at large. While at Michigan Law School, Surdukowski spent two summers working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, helping to build a genocide case against Karadzic. He later published a law review article about the leader's nationalist poetry, suggesting that Karadzic's widely published poems should be used in the case against him. "It's when you take the poetry and you combine it with poetic actions," Surdukowski tells the paper. "I think it is part of the mental element of what it is to destroy a people."

Maine's Sun Chronicle newspaper profiled Russ Keenan '75, a vice president and technical director at the environmental consulting firm AMEC. The paper says that Keenan has "always been interested in how people can best use and protect the natural resources the earth provides." Armed with a Bates biology degree and doctorate in environmental biology from Duke, Keenan still gets his hands dirty with "real scientific study," he says. "We do the analysis of the samples and try to determine the impact of any contamination.” And he particularly enjoys making recommendations for remediation. "What I like about my work is the problem-solving aspect and the variety. The issues that we look at are often very involved and there are no easy solutions."

The Gloucester (Mass.) Daily Times profiled Salem State College geology professor Brad Hubeny '97, whose research looks at changing of sea levels, mostly in Chesapeake Bay. "Sea level is going up," Hubeny tells the paper, adding that melting sea ice is probably having an impact. "But it can't be explained by just that.... We believe it's tectonic." That is, rising water levels might be caused by the falling Maryland shoreland. "Preliminary results show sea level is going up faster than global sea level. We're pretty intrigued."

The Maine Sunday Telegram reported that economic uncertainty is leading more and more people to consider big career changes. Some are seeking new fields after a layoff, while others seek just-in-case alternatives in anticipation of troubles ahead. The frequency of job changes reflects the loss of job security, said Bates economics professor James Hughes. The notion of a lifetime career has diminished with the decline of organized labor and company pension plans, which encouraged long tenure among workers, Hughes said. Workers are now increasingly mobile, and employers often expect employees to move on to advance their careers. "The whole 'company man' idea -- there was something to that in the '60s and '70s. But now you would be hard pressed, in the service sector particularly, to be at the same firm your whole life," he said.

Peter J. Gomes '65, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and pastor of Memorial Church at Harvard University, recently celebrated his 40th anniversary in the ministry. The celebration, held at his home church in Plymouth, Mass., was attended by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and 400 other well-wishers. Gomes, known as the "Conscience of Harvard," is a graduate of Bates College and Harvard Divinity School. He holds honorary degrees from 36 colleges and universities.

In summer 2006, Mark Bessire immersed himself in the studio zone of Shanghai. His mission: To see as much contemporary Chinese art as possible. The result of his efforts is on display at the Bates College Museum of Art. The new exhibition "Stairway to Heaven" explores China's transformation from a closed society to a global power. China will be under more focus than usual this year as it hosts the Summer Olympics. Bessire, director of the Bates museum, hopes the photography show will provide an alternative Chinese voice to complement the sanctioned one that many will experience during the Olympics. "We want to offer the opportunity to hear from artists in China today: What are they thinking, what are they doing, how are they expressing themselves?" said Bessire.

"From the mid-1800s, milltowns sprang up in a great arc from Biddeford to Millinocket, part of Maine's economic bedrock for more than a century. Yet to a great extent, the history of the millworkers' world remains to be told. A new traveling exhibit [presented by Museum L-A] . . . contributes to that story. 'Weaving a World: Lewiston's Millworkers, 1920-2008' describes the mills, millworkers and the social world they made . . . [and] gives us a front-row seat on history. . . . Bates partnered with the museum; students produced more than 80 oral histories of retired millworkers and a student-faculty team researched and wrote the traveling exhibit." -- David Scobey, director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships and author of Weaving a World: Lewiston's Millworkers, 1920-2008

On Wednesday, Adrienne Shibles '91 was named women's basketball coach at Bowdoin College, replacing Stefanie Pemper. ''This is a dream come true,'' said Shibles, who has been the dean of athletics and co-curricular activities and girls' basketball coach at Gould Academy in Bethel the last three years. Shibles, who grew up in Knox, Maine, and attended Mount View High School, graduated from Bates as a 1,000-point scorer. She was the head women's basketball coach at Swarthmore (Pa.) College from 1996 to 2005, with a record of 138-96. ''I really enjoyed my time at Gould. I think I learned a lot about myself and I think I pushed myself professionally,'' said Shibles. "But I really missed coaching. And this is just a fantastic opportunity. I feel blessed.''

Litigator Dana Petersen Moore '79, who spent more than two decades at Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP, has joined Venable LLP. Moore turned down an offer to become Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's chief of staff in favor of becoming of counsel at Venable. The litigator said she "wanted to do both jobs" and agonized over the decision, even getting her college career adviser's opinion. "I thought to myself, what's the best law firm in Baltimore that is not Whiteford, and Venable was the first one that I thought of. And I just was fortunate enough to receive an offer," she said. Moore, 50, spent 22 years at Whiteford before resigning last month. She serves on Baltimore's ethics board and Gov. Martin O'Malley's Appellate Judicial Nominating Commission.

A Rogers Casey Inc. researcher argues that targeted bets on "green" companies could prove superior to more sweeping strategies that purge polluters from institutional portfolios. In the consulting firm's recent white paper, "Environment-Friendly Investing: The Different Shades of Green," author Jamil Zraikat '05 said small allocations to companies positioned to profit from "green" trends could spice up an institutional portfolio, while providing the most direct environmental bang for the buck. The report noted that a growing number of money managers are stepping into the green landscape. If the main objectives behind green investing can be distilled to having a direct positive environmental impact, and profiting from green trends rather than sacrificing returns, then small targeted allocations to green investment strategies could prove the best mix for institutional investors, Zraikat said.

There were no classmates to share memories with, but 100-year-old Alfred Webber '28 found plenty of admirers when he returned to Bates to mark his 80th class reunion this weekend. "They really make a lot of it," said the Chadds Ford, Pa., resident, who flew to Maine for the gathering of alumni from classes spanning the last several decades. Webber is the only member of any of the classes of the 1920s who attended the reunion. A Lisbon Falls, Maine, native, Webber majored in physics and math at Bates before launching a career with DuPont Co. that took him to southeastern Pennsylvania. He stays active and involved in hobbies including astronomy. Webber said he also spends time with his neighbor, artist Andrew Wyeth, who's a decade younger than Webber.

Bill Walsh '86, a former Washington reporter for New Orleans' Times-Picayune, delivered remarks as he accepted the National Press Club's Robin Goldstein Award for Washington Regional Reporting: "The number of reporters actually digging up the news has dwindled. Washington bureaus are hemorrhaging reporters or closing altogether. In tight times, papers see their Washington operations as luxuries. That's misguided. The result is that members of Congress, except for the leaders, are getting less scrutiny than ever.... We think of ourselves as watchdogs, integral parts of a healthy democracy, but we have become expendable." Walsh is now a senior strategic adviser at AARP.

Shortly after returning from sailing across the Pacific as part of a semester-abroad program, Emily Chandler '09 returned to the third seat on the Bobcats' first varsity eight boat. She had less than a month to fine-tune her rowing skills, but she could fall back on plenty of experience. Chandler is one of three members of the first varsity eight from last season's team, which made Bates' first appearance in the national championships, finishing third in Division III. "At nationals last year, we just thought it was the coolest thing in the world, but we didn't really grasp it," said Chandler. "Then we were on the nationals medal podium, and that just energized and inspired us." Bates is one of nine Division III teams competing at the national championships in California.

Lindsay MacMillan '01 decided to use her love of gardening to help teach her students about the scientific method. As a result, the garden MacMillan and her seventh-graders started at Mountain Valley Middle School in Mexico, Maine, may produce lots of really local flowers and vegetables in time for the next school year. Some of the students have been researching soils and the wind direction at the garden site. Others have researched the acidity of the rainfall. MacMillan, of Greenwood, will stop by the school each week to work in the garden. This is the first year for launching the garden, and if all goes well, it will be expanded next year. "We'll find out where the interest is," she said.

Wake Forest University will no longer require applicants to submit standardized test scores. The decision to make standardized test scores optional is designed to enlarge the university's applicant pool and to increase diversity, officials said. Bates College, one of the schools cited by Wake Forest for its promising results, saw its applicant pool widen after becoming entirely test-optional. Its research shows that the difference in overall college GPA between those who submit test scores and those who don't averages out to only .05 points. "It's continued to be inspiring to watch students come to Bates . . . for whom their testing might have been a hurdle to gaining admissions," said Wylie Mitchell, Bates' director of admissions. "They're clearly great students. In the end, that's what we're seeking."

Princeton University astronomer Alicia Soderberg '00 and Edo Berger, a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton, in Janaury became the first astronomers to have caught a star in the act of exploding. The once-in-a-lifetime event, described in a paper published in the May 22 issue of Nature, has transfixed the worldwide astronomical community. "It's a really lucky chain of events -- a surprise," said Soderberg, who is leading the group studying the explosion. "It was all over in a matter of minutes." It's a gratifying situation for Soderberg, who grew up loving nature and expecting someday to be an environmental scientist. Her Astronomy 101 class at Bates College in Maine, however, set her on a different course. "After that, looking at stars was all I wanted to do," she said.

Robert Feintuch, a member of the Bates College studio art faculty who is celebrated for his droll, evocative paintings, has received a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of stellar achievement and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment. Individual grants in 2008 averaged $43,000, with awards totaling over $8 million. Feintuch will use the Guggenheim to support the creation of a body of work for his next exhibition at New York's CRG Gallery in 2009. He explains that unbroken stretches of concentrated painting enable him to make his best work. "When I'm working well and I've had enough time in the studio, I feel immersed in the stream of images I find, and one begins to lead to another," he says.

Many students worry whether they'll be accepted by any college. And once they finish college, they stress out again over graduate school. That's not the case with Bates College senior Jennifer-Kate Linton. The West Redding, Conn., biochemistry major has been accepted by seven postgraduate programs in veterinary medicine. They include five in the United States and two in Scotland. Linton said she was very surprised by her success. But her adviser, Lee Abrahamsen, associate professor of biology at Bates, said she's not surprised, considering the quality of Linton's work. Linton decided to attend the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, which Abrahamsen said has one of the most selective programs in the country. (Maine news outlets carrying this story included the local ABC-TV affiliate.)

After many years of playing basketball and coaching college basketball and hosting tournaments for scholar-athletes from around the world and raising six children, Dan Doyle '72 has some advice for parents of young athletes. "On matters of playing time and strategy, stay out of it," he says. "On matters of ethics, jump in." Actually, Doyle has considerably more than that to say on the subject. He and Deborah Doermann Burch, classmate and co-author, have just published The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting, a 446-page first of two volumes that covers everything from no-cut youth leagues to college recruiting. Woven in with the pointers on travel teams and sports camps and athletic scholarships are nuggets about parenting itself, be it of athletes or artists, and motivational verses that Doyle penned.

On the celebration of his 20th anniversary as town manager, John Elsesser '80 was saluted Monday night by everyone from the governor's emissary to the local police chief. Guests at a surprise reception praised Elsesser's style and substance and presented a pack of plaques as Elsesser's his wife, Holly, and teenage daughter, Jenna, looked on. Chris Cooper, the governor's spokesman and a former Coventry councilman, said he was here to honor Elsesser officially and personally. "If there were a Good Guy Hall of Fame, he would be elected on the first ballot," he said. Elsesser, who came to Coventry with town management experience in Manchester, Wethersfield and Avon, has been part of a team that has added new facilities for the high school, firefighters, police and seniors.

Scientists confirm computer model predictions that oxygen-depleted zones in tropical oceans are expanding, possibly because of climate change. A team of oceanographers has discovered that oxygen-poor regions of tropical oceans are expanding as the oceans warm, limiting the areas in which marine organisms can live or enter in search of food. The study, "Expanding Oxygen-Minimum Zones in the Tropical Oceans," appears in the May 2 edition of the journal Science. The study is led by Lothar Stramma from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Germany, and co-authored by Janet Sprintall at Scripps Oceanography. Also on the team is National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist Gregory Johnson '85. The researchers found that oxygen at depths from 985 to 2,300 feet has declined during the past 50 years.

"This would be revolutionary, from an economic point of view, if you could get this into one rapid, efficient step. And we think we can prove this in a few years, and other people are assuming this is decades away. And time will tell if we're right." -- Biofuel researcher Lee Lynd '79, on the prospects of genetically engineering a microbe that can convert cellulosic vegetable matter to ethanol motor fuel in a single step. Lynd welcomed program hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi, better known as "Click and Clack" of radio's Car Talk, to his laboratory at Mascoma Corporation.

Libby Goldman '29 remembers World War I. She lived through the great fire of 1933 that destroyed part of New Auburn, and the great flood of 1936. Veteran of a 40-year teaching career in Auburn, Goldman lives in an assisted-living apartment at Montello Heights, where some of her fellow residents are former students. Goldman converses easily. She hears well. Her memory is sharp. Goldman turns 100 today, an event marked earlier this month by a party that included Bates students who wanted to honor her. Yet Goldman says that becoming a centenarian has never been something she focused on. "I never thought about it. I just lived my life." She says, "I just love people, I really do. I think that's what kept me living."

"I am not sure which factor dismays me more: a college applicant's decision based on the dining hall menu and one meal, or the whole idea that what is served appears to be a more important factor than a college's academic program. . . . I ate at Bates College in its new dining room. The food was delicious, the service impeccably polite, the choices beyond belief. That is a big change from the '50s, but the academic rigor has never changed." -- J. William Mees '60. His was one of three letters published in response to the April 9 Times article "Latest College Reading Lists," in which a non-Bates student criticized Bates' food. Letters by Peter Gault '11 and Bates executive chef Roger Ouellette also defended Dining Services.

All college students should reach deepened levels of learning and understanding, as well as develop a strong sense of self-direction, and self-realization or well-being, and a greater sense of civic identity and responsibility. These are three separable, equally important categories of outcomes, related to the core purposes of liberal education. The integration, the reassertion and the achievement of these all-important aims and outcomes can and must become the priority of our colleges and universities. And if we are to seek reliable indices of quality and achievement at our institutions, we can and must develop reliable means that get at each of these outcomes and their interrelatedness. -- Donald W. Harward, Bates president emeritus, is director of the Bringing Theory to Practice Project.

At a recent gathering in Maryland for the Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference, business officers joined campus planners and the latest subgroup to make its presence felt: campus sustainability coordinators. Five years earlier, those coordinators would have had little to no representation at such an event. But as colleges commit to reducing their carbon footprints, a growing number are introducing or redefining a staff position to organize the efforts. Julie Rosenbach, environmental coordinator at Bates, said she appreciates the fact that as the first person to fill the position full time, she's setting precedent. Much of her time is spent working with students and coordinating with an existing sustainability committee of faculty, staff and students that reviews and makes recommendations on building projects and other greening efforts.

"The Bulgarian argument is that [the Macedonian language is] a dialect of Bulgarian. And the argument you often hear in Greece is that it's not a language [unto itself], it's a linguistic idiom . . . But that's not sound linguistics. Linguists recognize that determining whether something is a dialect of something else or a separate language depends on a political situation, not something that can be answered purely linguistically . . . In the Balkans, each nation-state wants its own language. And so throughout the world, Slavicists recognize Macedonian as a South Slavic language even though it's very similar to Bulgarian." -- Bates anthropologist Loring Danforth on the Macedonian language and the tension between Greece and the Macedonian republic over the name "Macedonia"

Baldwin-Wallace College is the region's first to make the SAT and ACT tests optional for the freshman class of 2009-2010. B-W is small enough that admissions staff can take the time to review essays and take a long look at applicants. Picking students based on individual traits is one factor in the decision to go with test-optional admissions, but de-emphasizing testing was a big factor. Luis Martinez '05, a graduate of St. Ignatius High School, chose Bates, which has a 20-year history of test-optional admissions. Bates finds students who have exceptional talents even they might not have fared well in all subjects, he says. "Test-taking is an ability much like any other, but unique in its own right. It's like evaluating a receiver's athleticism by how well he shoots free throws."

The odd metal cones on pontoons constituting a government fish-counting system will be back in place in the Sheepscot River at Alna's Head Tide Village by mid-April. Fisheries biologist Christine Lipsky '95 of the federal Atlantic salmon and smolt trapping program reviewed the seven-year project during the Sheepscot River Watershed Council's regular meeting last week. Involving the state Department of Marine Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the project uses so-called rotary screw traps to funnel water carrying fish into pens where they can be measured and released. The smolt are 2- or 3-year-old salmon juveniles that are emigrating to the ocean, where they will spend one to three years before returning to their natal river to begin the cycle again.

Molly Taber '95 could be on her way to the Beijing Olympics, if she qualifies for the trials in a 26.2 mile race in April. Taber, a competitive marathon runner, has to come in third out of 150 runners in the April 20 qualifying marathon in Boston. She tried out for the American Olympic team in 2002, and ran the 26.2-mile course under the qualifying time of 2 hours and 42 minutes. In 2006, she qualified for this year's trials with a time of 2:44, the fastest American at the tryouts and third overall. If she doesn't make it this year, Taber said this might be her last try at the Olympics, but she would always keep running. "I'm 35," she said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Chief curator at the Portland Museum of Art since 2006, and named acting director in May, Thomas Denenberg '90 wants to bring even more Maine art into the museum. "I've always been fascinated with the museum's role in the history of American art," he says. "From pretty much 1820 on, nearly every important American artist has been through Maine . . . so we can lay claim to almost any of them as part of our story." Soon after arriving at the museum, Denenberg realized that the quality of the staff and facilities -- not to mention its impressive collection -- makes the PMA feel much larger than it is. (This issue of Maine Home Design also mentioned Bates studio art faculty Paul Heroux and Joseph Nicoletti.)

Lauren DuBois, Manchester Essex: A 2004 graduate of Bates College in her third year coaching basketball, DuBois led Manchester Essex to a Division 4 North title this season when it defeated Mt. Alvernia, 59-56, in overtime. She was named Cape Ann Coach of the Year.

As Barack Obama pitches the attractive prospect of a postracial society, artists have, as usual, already been there and sent back skeptical reports. Bates lecturer and acclaimed artist William Pope.L short-circuits the very concept of what artists, black or white, "should" be. In his performance pieces, he smiles as he inches up the street on all fours; he uncomplainingly devours news of money he’ll never have. He makes sculpture from Pop-Tarts, the stuff of welfare meals. His main subject might seem to be class, not race, but race is everywhere in his art. He works with white materials — mayonnaise, milk, flour — but also runs the Black Factory, a mobile workshop-van equipped to transform any object of any color into a "black" object. How? By covering it with cheap black paint.

Garcelon Society chair Barbara Trafton says that the Garcelon Society is a Bates-community partnership launched two years ago and named after 19th-century Lewiston civic leader Alonzo Garcelon. "Our goal is to enhance the relationships between the community and the college, provide activities such as receptions and opportunities for the community to hear from professors and others associated with the college. And also to inspire giving to the Androscoggin Fund, a dedicated endowed fund that supports local students' opportunities to go to Bates College. We currently have raised half-a-million dollars, and we're able to send four Androscoggin Scholars who are currently at Bates."

A book-signing packed with friends and admirers was a fitting reward for author Bob Labbance '74, whose passion for golf has benefited the game and its fans. The event in Montpelier, Vt., recognized two new books by Labbance. One, written with Brian Siplo, was The Vardon Invasion, about Harry Vardon's historic 1900 North American tour in which the British Open champion played against the best talent he could find. The other, written with Kevin Mendik, is The Life and Work of Wayne Stiles, a salute to one of golf's great course architects. The fact that Labbance has done this work while taking on a battle with the insidious disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a testament to an admirable spirit. "It's been a labor of love, no doubt," said Labbance.

George Cole, formerly a top executive in the field of interactive voice technology and now head of the local boat service, has joined the Bates board of trustees. Cole, of Brookhaven, N.Y., was elected to the board in February, said President Elaine Tuttle Hansen. Cole worked at Periphonics, a maker and vendor of interactive voice response systems, from 1975 until 2000, rising through the ranks to serve in various vice-presidential positions. Periphonics was purchased by Nortel Networks in 1999, and Cole retired from Nortel in 2000. Since 2002, he has served as president and general manager of Isle au Haut Boat Services, a nonprofit that operates year-round passenger, mail and freight service to the island. Cole is also a member of the board of trustees of the Island Institute.

From the Fire Department's Sept. 11 memorial to the Empire State Building, some of the city's most hallowed sites bear the mark of a company founded 110 years ago. Stained glass and intricate metalwork are specialties of Rambusch Decorating, co-owned by twins Edwin '88 and Martin Rambusch and launched by their great-grandfather. The only time the twins, who both live in New Jersey, spent apart was during their undergrad years -- their parents encouraged them to split up for school. Edwin went to Bates and Martin went to Tulane in New Orleans. Edwin, who has a master's in lighting design from Parsons in Manhattan, heads a Rambusch division that makes custom lighting fixtures, and he is now making lobby chandeliers for the Empire State Building.

Lawrence University in Appleton is among a growing list of colleges and universities that have some kind of test-optional admissions. After Lawrence went test-optional in late 2005, about a quarter of admitted students were non-submitters. A study of students admitted in 2006 showed that non-submitters had lower test scores, but ended up with roughly the same GPAs at the end of their first term as those who submitted test scores. Lawrence's results mirrored the findings of a 20-year study at Bates, released in 2004. Bates found no differences in academic performance or graduation rates between score submitters and non-submitters. "America is apparently throwing away some substantial portion of its future talent by relying far too heavily on its standardized tests as a screening system," said Vice President Bill Hiss '66.

With the five-year mark of the invasion of Iraq fast approaching, Fox reporter Rick Leventhal wanted to catch up with Marines he knew from an embed in March and April 2003. One was Capt. Jon Custis '91, who during the invasion led 150 young Marines into battle through burning oil fields and desert sandstorms. Working without sleep for days, making tough decisions under fire, drawing battle plans in the sand, Custis says he doesn't miss the dirt and the grime but also doesn't regret a thing. He is now a major at Quantico, helping to train new Marines on how to handle the ever-changing mission in Iraq. "I definitely treasure more my every waking moment," says Custis. "I have my family."

Literary agents and publishers wanted no part of a novel about a professor with Alzheimer's. But the compelling Still Alice was the book the life of Lisa Genova '92 had led her to write. She'd long been interested in how the brain works, and when she was at Harvard researching this, right down the hall were other scientists trying to break Alzheimer's genetic code. Later her grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. And after countless rejections, a marketing rep who loved the Still Alice wanted to distribute it. But Genova didn't have a published book. "I thought then I could put the book on hold," she says. "Or I could put it out now, self-publish, and increase awareness." She self-published. And with no regrets.

Hazing is not just confined to locker rooms, fraternities and sorority houses. It's also a problem in performing arts groups, honor societies and other student groups, say two University of Maine researchers who surveyed 11,487 students at 53 large and small colleges and universities. Tedd Goundie, dean of students at Bates, said he believes the athletic department at Bates does a good job informing student athletes of what constitutes hazing. But most students outside athletics probably would be less certain if they experienced hazing. Goundie said instances of hazing are rare at Bates, but borderline incidents crop up every few years. And even if an incident were funny and voluntary, college officials would call that group in. "We would use it as an educational moment," he said.

After 40 years of directing for the stage, Bates professor of theater Paul Kuritz decided to make a movie. He made "New Life" as part of developing a new course on acting and directing for film. Based on a Mary Ward Brown short story, the piece premiered in the college's Olin Arts Center in March. The movie included a cast and crew from Bates and the local community. Kuritz, who has studied filmmaking at the Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, found directing a movie was not all that different from directing a play. "The process is very similar once you realize you're dependent on the skills of other people," he said. "But the star of a movie is the camera and the star of a stage play is the actor."

Colleges and universities are anxiously taking steps to address a projected drop in the number of high school graduates in much of the nation starting next year and a dramatic increase in the proportion of minority students. For colleges, the demographic changes will mean new ways of recruiting and educating students. Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen said the school has started to boost its aid budget by a few percentage points to "keep ahead" of the trend. Out of an $83 million budget, she said, $18 million went this year for financial aid. "This is all going to be huge for schools in a planning and financial sense," she said. "But we also have to look upon it as an opportunity."

Sylvan Ellefson '09 placed fourth in the 10K freestyle at the NCAA Skiing National Championships in Bozeman, Mont. It was the Bobcats' best finish since 1997, when Justin Freeman '98 was third in a 10K classic. "Basically, whatever I had left in me, I left out on the course," Ellefson said. "I had a really good sprint into the finish. I was guessing I finished anywhere from sixth to eighth." When the announcer chimed back in with Ellefson's result, it was music to Ellefson’s ears. "Our alpine team was out there cheering me on, too, and I was sitting down trying to recover in the finish area, and I heard all of them yelling at me. It seemed so surreal," Ellefson says. "It was amazing. I was overcome with emotion."

Actors are often worried about being flat at the beginning of a performance. It happens to John Ambrosino '02 -- every time, all the time. That's because Ambrosino plays the title role in the Intramusical Theatrical's production of "The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley," based on the Stanley Lambchop character from Jeff Brown's popular books. Struck one day by a bulletin board, Stanley wakes up the next morning flattened out -- and decides to get into a big envelope and travel the world as a giant letter. Ambrosino, who spent five years as founding artistic director of the acclaimed Animus Ensemble in Boston, called children "an amazing audience. In some ways, they're more picky than adults. You have to keep it real or they'll check right out."

There's suffering for your art, and then there's Kate Gilmore '97. For her video "My Love is an Anchor," Gilmore uses a hammer to free her foot from a bucket of plaster. In "Before Going Under," she's dragged along the ground by a rope. Gilmore sets up physical challenges for herself to overcome in her performance-based videos, exploring notions of struggle, identity, failure and achievement. "All my work has this desperate wanting, this desperate desire for something," she says. "Humor is a huge part of the work," Gilmore adds. "I have to have humor in the work to actually get the message across." Eight of her videos are on view in "Girl Fight" in the Hudson (Show)Room at Artpace San Antonio through April 20.

When Jere Calmes '92 was looking at colleges, his father's one piece of advice was to study Russian or Chinese. Like any intelligent teenager, the younger Calmes decided to study Russian; "Chinese classes were early in the morning." This decision, coupled with a competitive spirit borne of a youth spent downhill ski racing at the national level, has shaped Calmes' life. Calmes, who first visited Russia while still a Bates student, recently became CEO of 36.6, Russia's largest pharmacy chain. It's the latest in a series of positions that Calmes has worked in Russia, including involvement in the creation of Russia's second-largest cell-phone company. "Russia is a country on the move," Calmes said. "For the last 15 years, this has been the land of opportunity for risk takers."

"The Roger Clemens case presents parents, coaches and teachers with an opportunity to engage young people in stimulating discussions on issues that transcend baseball, such as why steroid use is wrong, the satisfaction of honorable competition and understanding the concept of 'presumption of innocence.' . . . The notion of fair play is central to any discussion of steroid use. Young adults might consider a salient point proposed by ethicist Michael Josephson to anyone who heeds a conscience: Victory without honor is profoundly unsatisfying." -- from an op-ed column about the dispute over Roger Clemens' alleged styeroid use by Trustee Daniel Doyle Jr. '72, founding executive director of the Institute for International Sport and author of The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting

Federal recruiter Jesse Tampio visited nearly 100 Bates undergraduates recently to bust the "myths" of government work. The presentation by Tampio, a State Department lawyer and volunteer pitchman, sold the upsides of federal service -- one slide depicted federal workers at a chili cook-off. The session came as the government strives to recruit a new generation of civil servants amid the biggest hiring crisis in Washington history, as an unprecedented number of federal employees are expected to retire in 2008. At Bates, Tampio found willing listeners. "I want to be part of the change sweeping the government," says Becky Rubenstein '08, a psych major who wants to work in public health. Maybe there's hope for Uncle Sam: After Rubenstein's summer interning at a struggling nonprofit, government chili might sound good.

If you still think that knitting is something only your great-great aunt is doing, take a look around Chatham, Mass. In recent years knitting has come into vogue with girls and women of all ages. They find it relaxing, they enjoy making hand-made gifts, and they treasure the camaraderie with other knitters. Marilyn Brown '52 learned to knit in high school and continued with it through her time at Bates. "I've come from a family of knitters," Brown says. "My mother always knit." In her dormitory, Brown's classmates knit and played cards in the smoking room. "It was very relaxing while waiting for dinner," she says. And what treasures did these women knit in the 1950s? Argyle socks for their boyfriends. "They were quite the rage," Brown recalls.

Under Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the camera was a propaganda tool to be used only by the government. But post-Mao China has produced its first generation of artists who focus on photography as art, and the exhibition "Documenting China: Contemporary Photography and Social Change" shows 57 images by members of this group. Organized by Shanghai scholar Gu Zheng, the exhibit premiered at the Bates Museum of Art in 2004 and was so well-received the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service took it on. Now it's at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Ariz. "Everyone was talking about China, but what Gu Zheng wanted to do was show what it was to be Chinese," said Mark Bessire, director of the Bates museum. "It's the influence of what's taking place on the people."

Last May and again in February, the media went to town speculating about the college writings of someone involved in the current presidential race. First it was Hillary Clinton's senior thesis for Wellesley; this week, Michelle Obama's for Princeton. "I'm torn on whether it's a useful/informative exercise," said Emily Kane, Bates sociology chair. Senior theses are fair game because their authors are responsible adults, Kane said. On the other hand, college seniors are encouraged to explore ideas and take risks within a conceptual framework imposed by their discipline -- all of which may result in a product hardly relevant to that individual now. Kane wrote, "It would never have occurred to me to advise a thesis advisee to be careful how their thesis might come across 25-40 years later!"

"You have to understand that reggae came from the blues. So if you can play blues, you can play reggae. . . . Blues is the blueprint, it's the foundation for Western music. Blues is the beginning of a story where people were taken in bondage and brought over here . . . I just am a musician coming from the black diaspora, and that's what I represent, and those are just places I've been, places that speak to me. And when I look at history I know that I share a common root with these different places." -- Visiting Bates in February, Corey Harris '91 spoke with MPBN's Tom Porter about the reggae influences on his latest album, Zion Crossroads, and about his wide-ranging musical explorations

The local chapter of Democracy for America hosted a forum Wednesday night to give voters a chance to meet the candidates for the 21st District congressional seat long held by Mike McNulty. Democrats Phil Steck, Tracey Brooks and Darius Shahinfar '88 are all running for the seat on the theme of "change" for the seat being vacated by . The three share similar ideas: universal healthcare, bringing troops home from Iraq and stabilizing the economy. Shahinfar believes he has the most experience in the House of Representatives. The former Albany assistant county attorney spent the last year as an aide to Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand. Shahinfar said, "I'd like to bring the experience I had in the 20th Congressional District and bring that to the 21st."

"So this is going to have more of a community feeling, and certainly [give students] more of an understanding of where the food comes from, and what that means . . . And [they'll be] able to have interactions with the individuals who prepare three meals a day for them." -- Christine Schwartz, director of Bates Dining Services, on the opening of the College's new dining Commons

Ted Hopkins has survived seven ownership changes to remain head professional at the Hidden Hills Country Club for nearly 30 years. But he's counting on the most recent ownership change at the Arlington club to be his last. Fellow club professional Russ Libby '89 bought the club in 2003 after a series of owners including golf management companies, absentee investors and banks. "It was a relief to finally have the club owned by someone who had been in a pro shop, and who would be here every day," Hopkins said of Libby. "Russ had been in the [Northern] chapter and knew the club and the area. It's been enjoyable to work for him." And the club, site of two Greater Jacksonville Opens, has thrived since Libby purchased it.

For many children of blue-collar workers in the 1990s, college wasn't in the cards – especially if they went to Lewiston High School. That's no longer the case. The percentage of high school graduates going on to college has increased significantly, as have college aspirations. In 2000, 58 percent of LHS students intended to go to college. By 2007, Lewiston had improved its intent rate to 87 percent, and actual attendance last fall was 78 percent. "Lewiston has done a tremendous job," said Colleen Quint '85, executive director of the Mitchell Institute, created to help get more Mainers to college. "Lewiston has focused very deliberately on kids who face significant barriers to go to college." Lewiston faculty have reached students "and lit a fire academically," she said.

Associate professor of psychology Amy Bradfield Douglass contends that eyewitness accounts less reliable than people think. In a talk hosted by the Lewiston Public Library, she said that eyewitness identifications are often right, but they're often wrong as well. Of 213 defendants exonerated using DNA testing by the nationally renowned Innocence Project, 61 out of the first 70 included mistaken eyewitness identifications, said Douglass. She engaged her audience in exercises to illustrate her point, including watching a video in which two groups of people pass basketballs around. Asked to concentrate on the ball-passing, many in the audience failed to notice a figure in a gorilla suit coming in and beating its chest. "It shows you how the mind is vulnerable to these pretty profound errors," she says.

William Worthy '42 reported from Communist China, the Shah's Iran, and Cuba in the early days of Castro. He aroused the ire of the State Department by slipping into nations off-limits to Americans. He was the subject of a celebratory Phil Ochs song, "The Ballad of William Worthy." And now this journalism legend sits nearly forgotten in an assisted-living facility. At 86, he is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. One of Worthy's professional highlights was his time as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, and the Nieman Foundation honors him today with the Louis M. Lyons Award. "We're going to make this a real celebration of Bill's life and career," curator Robert Giles said. But the honor won't do enough to rescue Worthy from his undeserved obscurity.

An industry reading of the new comedy Half-Married will be presented in Manhattan Feb. 18. Directed by John Simpkins, the reading of this play by Ryan Cunningham and Charles Antin '02 features the talents of Jill Abramovitz, Stephen Bienskie, Colin Hanlon and Lisa Howard. Half-Married follows a young couple through the most trying time in any New York City relationship: moving in together. Antin's writing has appeared in Alimentum, Ballyhoo Stories, Food & Wine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Rosebud and Glimmer Train. He won an award for short fiction for his work in that last publication. The reading will be presented under the auspices of Paradox Productions.

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are using television ads in Maine this week to build support as they head into Sunday's Democratic caucuses across the state. The two campaigns refused to disclose the size of their ad buys on Friday, but the candidates have become a staple on Maine television stations. Local advertising is less valuable when the candidates themselves campaign in a state, as Obama and Clinton are doing in Maine today, because campaign stops provide "alternative sources of information" in the form of heavy news coverage, said political scientist Douglas Hodgkin, professor emeritus at Bates College. Advertising is "probably only a small piece" in persuading caucus voters, said Hodgkin, who said the recommendations of family members, friends and neighbors may be more persuasive.

"I have such an ambivalent relationship to Maine," Elizabeth Strout '77 says, although her novels are all about life in her home state. She grew up in Harpswell and in Durham, N.H., but for the last 20 years, has lived in New York City. Mining her ambivalence, Strout's two novels -- the bestselling Amy and Isabelle and Abide with Me -- explore Mainers' rough lives, the claustrophobia of small towns and the encroachments of the world beyond Maine. Her new book, a novel-in-stories called Olive Kitteridge, is about a quintessential Maine character, Olive Kitteridge, a retired teacher in Crosby, Maine. The book's linked stories trace several decades in the lives of its titular character and other Crosby residents. -- By Craig Teicher '01

Q: [In one scenario,] you're a contestant on Iron Chef. The secret ingredient is bean curd. The judges are Ted Nugent, John Rambo and an American black bear. How do you take down Bobby Flay? A: How do you take down Bobby Flay? That's easy, because he doesn't use bean curd. Well, bean curd can be made in different ways: pies, stews, you can make sautes [or desserts] with it . . . Sauteed and deep-fried bean curd with sugar and molasses is amazing. . . . [For a dish that a meat-eater would eat,] Well, I think bean curd would be pan-seared with chipotle lemon-pepper glaze, served with a red onion marmalade and a potato pie. -- Writer Nick Altschuller '02 interviews Dinner: Impossible chef Robert Irvine

Vicki Toppses wants her president to reflect her values. A Republican, she wants a president strong on economic and foreign policy, and one whose policies support her views on immigration and her spirituality. Still undecided which Republican candidate to support, she criticizes the media for focusing more on polls than policy. "The Founding Fathers didn't put before us a popularity contest," she says. Brian Pfohl, another Bates staffer, supported John Edwards but now is "ambivalent," he says about the Feb. 10 Democratic caucuses. Observers see the struggles of people like Toppses and Pfohl as typical for New England voters. "The D or R beside the name does not influence their vote. It is about the candidate's views and opinions," says Will Fessenden, chairman of the Androscoggin County Democrats.

Jay Surdukowski's interest in politics began early. Befriended by long-time state Sen. Susan McLane of Concord, the then-13-year-old Surdukowski sat behind her during Senate sessions on an old couch. In the ensuing years, Surdukowski became student body president at Bates College, president of the law school senate at the University of Michigan and managing editor of the Michigan Journal of International Law. He co-chairs the state Democratic Party's platform committee. "Now that the Dems have some power, we should go back to the voters and hear what they want in 2008. We need to go all around the state and do some hard listening," he said. -- The Union Leader's "Forty Under Forty" are people younger than 40 who are making a difference in New Hampshire.

"That makes me feel pretty good. Short of finding a pilgrim ancestor or a member of the royal family, I think that's pretty remarkable. . . . But it does mean, I think, that the image of black folks in America is much more nuanced than most of us grew up with. We weren't all slaves. Not even in the South. . . . I wonder what life was like for free Negroes in the South. It must have been terrifying sometimes, because if they were without all this paperwork, they were going to be snatched back into slavery." -- The Rev. Peter Gomes '65, commenting on his ancestor, Isaac Bailey, being a free man in the South in the early 19th century

In 1976, Emily Tennyson flew to Paris for her junior year. After she left, "my parents didn't even know I was hitchhiking around Europe" part of the time, she says. Now, Tennyson's daughter Chloe '09 is doing her own junior year abroad at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She has a few things her mom didn't have: An international cell phone to talk to her mother every day. The Internet to stay in touch with home. And a visit from her family over Christmas. As the number of students studying overseas reaches a historic high, parents are increasingly involved. "If you have a webcam, you can see each other," says Emily Tennyson. "I can make sure she's OK. I feel better seeing she has her hair washed and clothes clean."

John Rossi '88, design principal for PowerHouse Enterprises, has completed work on a three-bedroom home prefabricated in a factory and assembled on-site in less than a day. The house is "eco-friendly" as well as inexpensive, which PowerHouse hopes will prove that ecology and economics can coexist. Rossi oversaw many design elements in the project, and particularly loves the windows. "It's great to be able to open the windows and listen to the rain," he said. "It's a little romance at no extra charge." The house also boasts a $324,000 price -- much lower than many expected. In wider production, "this can have a really big impact," PowerHouse President Quincy Vale said. "Our houses use 30 percent of the energy, so you're cutting 70 percent of your carbon output."

The Jason Program, which helps families care for dying and critically ill children, has long wanted to be able to reach more families. Now it can. The organization has attracted enough donors to morph from a volunteer group into a full-time team of palliative care workers led by a medical director. And it now has an outpatient clinic in Portland for checkups and counseling. The program has worked with 50 to 75 families at a time, but can take more than 100 since Dr. Gary Allegretta switched from being a consultant to a full-time medical director in September, thanks to a grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation. "Everyone on this staff is driven passionately by the needs of the kids," said founder and executive director Kate Eastman '82.

Basketball's Derby Trailblazers have made two new signings but may face the loss of one of their key players. Tom Sherlock was to find out the extent of a knee injury yesterday and the club is waiting to find out if the forward faces a spell on the sidelines. But the good news is that Derby have completed the signings of forwards Ben Middleton and Rob Stockwell '07, who were both left without a club following Mansfield Stars' withdrawal from Division Three. Stockwell, a 6ft 5ins American, came to England this winter after finishing leading scorer and rebounder for NCAA Division III Bates, and has been a hefty scorer for Mansfield. Both make their debuts in the Division One match away to London Leopards tonight.

For the first time in the history of Hofstra University, a woman is head of the Law School. Nora Demleitner began her tenure as dean on Jan. 1, after serving as interim dean since March. University President Stuart Rabinowitz selected Demleitner, a former faculty member, after a committee of faculty, administrators and trustees conducted a nationwide search. She had been a finalist at dean searches at several other universities. "I am pleased that Nora Demleitner, who is both a distinguished legal scholar and a superb academic administrator, will lead Hofstra Law School into a new era of academic excellence," Rabinowitz said. Demleitner focused primarily on criminal, comparative and immigration law in her teachings and writings. She holds a particular expertise in the area of sentencing and collateral sentencing consequences.

When someone first suggested that Beth George '85 look into spelt, her first thought was . . . huh? But George started baking with this ancient cousin of wheat when her son proved wheat-sensitive. Now she has a spelt bakery in Portland, Spelt Right, and sells bagels and other goods in natural foods stores. Her biggest customer is Bates, where Dining Services director Christine Schwartz said that the bagels provide an option for students sensitive to wheat. Spelt Right is successful enough that George is leaving her position at a law firm to give it more time. Spelt has a sweeter, nuttier flavor than common wheat, but it isn't chewy the way some people like their breads to be. "I think that's why kids like it," George said. "It's soft."

Idaho native Kim Gamel '90 has worked as a news editor for The Associated Press in Iraq for the past year. A Russian major at Bates, Gamel took her first job in journalism in Russia as a reporter for The Moscow Tribune. She first went to Iraq in 2005, and in December 2006 became the AP's first news editor there. Reporting in Iraq isn't the safest of jobs, but Gamel said she and her reporters keep a low profile and always travel in armored vehicles with armed guards or with the U.S. military. Gamel works an intense six-week, non-stop shift of approximately 14-hour days -- and she's on call around the clock -- before getting two-week breaks that she uses for travel, mostly in Asia and Europe.

"For years we've had white candidates and nobody talked about whether they were white enough, because there was no other alternative to that. Of course they were white enough -- they were white. Now that we have [Barack] Obama, and until recently [Bill] Richardson, we have the option to talk about race. And I, for one, don't want to see that debate stymied by this insertion of ritual, by this discussion about woman vs. man, these conversations about white and black becoming parenthetical and the larger conversation about peace forgotten altogether." -- Ru Freeman '94 on gender and race in the 2008 presidential campaign. The interview expands on a piece Freeman wrote for the Web site of the organization Common Dreams, which promotes progressive visions for America's future.

"This council believes that regardless of all the mandates and rules and regulations, we as Lewiston family members do have the willingness and the capability to find solutions to our problems. . . . It has been said that the difference between accomplishment and failure lies in the willingness of the people to come forward and give of their time, ideas and energy. As a united council, we believe there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. . . . Divided, there is little we can accomplish. . . . A snowflake has little power, but an avalanche is unstoppable. -- Excerpt from the inaugural address by Lewiston City Council President Tom Peters '72

Dan Rice '73, manager of the BlackRock Global Resources Fund, says the equity market is pricing some oil stocks as though the commodity were trading at a much lower price. Right now, he figures the market is valuing assets of oil stocks at $60 a barrel crude, natural gas at $7 per million cubic feet and that coal had a $13 per ton cash profit. His long-term expectations of $70 oil per barrel, natural gas at $7.50 to $8 per million cubic feet and a $25 per ton cash profit on coal allow for lots of upside in these stocks. He expects coal to be one of the best-performing natural resources in 2008. "Shortages in certain areas of the globe will translate, over time, into higher prices world-wide," he said.

Amanda Ayotte '08 of Chelmsford directed The Birthday Party, the first full-length play by the renowned Harold Pinter, as her thesis project in theater in late November. "It's definitely a thinking person's show," said Ayotte. Ayotte, whose interest in stage began in her teens, began directing theater in high school. Her directing projects at Bates have included Still Life with Iris and I Dream Before I Take the Stand. Ayotte said she finds the technical and aesthetic sides of theater equally attractive. "I love how lighting and sound can just come together and make the show look awesome," she said. "And then I love making an audience think and making something really beautiful happen on stage."

In cubicles across the country, lunchtime has become the new prime time as workers click aside their spreadsheets to watch videos on YouTube, news highlights on CNN.com or other Web offerings. The trend -- part of a broader phenomenon known as video snacking -- is turning into a growth business for news and media companies, which are feeding the lunch crowd more fresh content. Will Coghlan '02 is the host of a popular three-minute Webcast reaching 10,000 to 20,000 viewers per week. Called "Political Lunch," it's filmed every day at 10 a.m. for uploading by noon. "It's an Internet version of appointment viewing," Coghlan's partner Rob Millis said. The Webcast was started this past September and is filmed in an apartment in Greenwich Village.