INAUGURATED The Betty Doran Stangle Professorship in Applied Economics, with a lecture Feb. 1 by Margaret Maurer-Fazio, who became the first Stangle Professor last August. Maurer-Fazio, who came to Bates in 1994, studies the effects of a liberalizing Chinese economy on that nation’s labor markets. The Stangle Chair is made possible by a gift from Trustee Bruce Stangle ’70 and his wife, Emily Siegel Stangle ’72, honoring Bruce’s mother.

APPOINTED As registrar, Mary Meserve, effective Jan. 1. Meserve joined the registrar’s office as records administrator in 1993 and rose through the ranks to become interim registrar, succeeding Meredith Braz, in November 2006.

As associate dean of faculty, Associate Professor of Chemistry Matt Côté, effective Aug. 1. A member of the faculty since 1991, he succeeds Maurer-Fazio as associate dean.

SERVED The first board plan meal in Bates’ new dining Commons, on Feb. 24, after nearly 17 months of construction.

PUBLISHED Sounds, an innovative proposal for the role of sound in our perceptual experience, by Assistant Professor of Philosophy Casey O’Callaghan (Oxford University Press, 2007); and Rational Animals: The Teleological Roots of Intentionality, which examines the intentionality of mental states such as beliefs and desires and their biological basis, by Professor of Philosophy Mark Okrent (Ohio University Press, 2007)

Also, The Diary of a Maidservant, a translation of Krishna Baldev Vaid’s novel from Hindi by Lecturer in Asian Studies Sagaree Sengupta (Oxford University Press, 2008); and Essays from Women Writers in Contemporary China and Selected Short Stories from Contemporary China, translations from Chinese by Professor of Chinese Shihu Yang, in collaboration with Yunqin Yang (both from Better Link Press, 2006).

DEPARTED James Fergerson, founding director of the Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis, on March 3. In 1993 Fergerson established the office that evolved into OIPA, and over the next 15 years awed the campus with his skill in painting Bates by the numbers, statistically speaking.

Fergerson (whose e-mails ended with the slogan “Torture numbers long enough and they’ll confess to anything”) has become director of the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment at Carleton College. Ellen Peters ’87, OIPA’s assistant director since 1998, is now director of the newly renamed Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.

Joyce Seligman, founding director of the Writing Workshop. Seligman was hired in 1981 to single-handedly establish a center to help students with their writing; the workshop now boasts five staffers. Officially retired at the end of July, Seligman will have more time to exercise a green thumb that is her second claim to renown at Bates. Colleague Pat Hager will serve as interim director for the rest of the academic year.

DECEASED Evelyn A. Veazie, a member of the Dining Services staff from 1969 to 1993, on Jan. 12, at 93.