Role-reversal rituals have been around at least since masters and servants switched places during the Roman Saturnalia.

So what are we to make of the Bates iteration, in which President Elaine Tuttle Hansen and junior Meaghan Creedon of Holden, Mass., changed places last Dec. 5? (President and student offer their own thoughts on the subject here.)

Here's one insight: Though Bates is still a place where you expect to know the person approaching on the Quad, there’s value in trying to learn more about the other guy’s life.

“Bates is collegial,” notes Assistant Professor of Psychology Krista Scottham, who welcomed Hansen into her class, a seminar on racial and ethnic identiy issues. “But it is also so busy that we sometimes don’t understand the roles others play that contribute to the College.”

“We all have our perceptions, in this case of what it is like to be an administrator or a student,” Scottham adds. “I’m sure it was an intense day for both of them, and if you’re not overwhelmed, are you able to stop relying on perceptions and actually examine them?”