The Symbols of Office
The Presidential Collar
Presidents of the College wear the Collar for all ceremonial occasions. It was designed and crafted by Leverett H. Cutten, Class of 1904, who presented it to the College in 1954 on behalf of his class. The links of the chain are in the shape of tassels and pinecones, the state flower of Maine, and enclose the letter B. The links alternate with ten books, each engraved with a symbol of a different academic field of study. They end in a starburst with a large garnet, the gem and color of the College, in the center. From the starburst hangs a pendant with the Bates seal. Above the seal are four garnets, two on each side of a small plaque bearing the state motto, Dirigo ("I lead"). Capping that is the star from the state seal. Ivy curves above the garnets and ends in a boss of a Greek shield -- a drachma that bears the likeness of Athena, goddess of wisdom. This coin was minted between 300 and 280 B.C.E. On the opposite side is the owl of wisdom. Beneath the Bates seal curve two pinecones and two tassels, and beneath those two oak leaves meet in a single acorn.
The Record Book
The Record Book is the first volume of minutes kept by the Trustees. It is meant to represent the longevity, high aspirations, and historical legacy of the College. The Record Book begins with the founding of the College as Maine State Seminary in 1855 and ends in July 1868 with an accounting of the expenses for that year. Begun in the hand of Oren Burbank Cheney with a record of the charter, which the Maine Legislature passed on March 16, 1855, to found the new institution, the Record Book chronicles the evolution of the seminary into a college. The Trustees gathered in the State House at Augusta on June 28, 1864, to hear the act that changed the name of the institution to Bates College. Soon after, they adopted the Laws of Bates College. The new regulations named the president as the executive officer of the College and outlined the duties of the faculty and students.
The Keys
The Keys symbolize the authority of the president. When Oren Burbank Cheney retired as president of the College in 1894, he handed the keys to Governor Dingley of Maine to pass on to George Colby Chase, Cheney's successor. "These keys, the emblem of my authority for so many years, I now surrender to you, for you to place in his hands as the emblem of his authority," Cheney told the governor. Keys were also part of the inaugural ceremonies of Clifton Daggett Gray in 1920 and Charles Franklin Phillips in 1944. The original keys have been lost. The set we use today was supplied by Physical Plant.
The Mace
The Mace occupies a place of prominence in every formal academic ceremony at the College. Like the Collar, it was designed and created by Leverett H. Cutten, who presented it to the College in 1949 as a gift of his class. The Mace is sterling silver plated with gold and is three-and-one-half feet from the golden sphere at the bottom to the garnet-tipped orb. The oak leaves and acorn on the lower end symbolize strength. On one side are the words, "A gift to Bates College by the Class of 1904, June 11, 1949." On the other side is Mr. Cutten's name as maker. The names of the first four presidents of the College are engraved above. Two-thirds of the way up the staff, on a bulge known as the "knop," raised letters indicate the major divisions of liberal arts studies at Bates: fine arts, natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The sphere above the knop is woven from thirty-six silver strips representing the states of the Union when Bates was founded. On the head of the Mace are four shields bearing the seals of Bates, the City of Lewiston, the State of Maine, and the United States of America. At the top is a large garnet, as well as pinecones and tassels. A tiny pinecone above the jewel symbolizes immortality. The Mace is kept in a mahogany box with handwrought oxidized copper hardware and a garnet lining in velvet, all the work of the master craftsman of the Class of 1904.
Symbols of the College
The President's Chair
On May 20-21, 1856, Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner (1811-1874), a leader of the anti-slavery forces in the United States Senate, delivered a scathing two-day oration against the expansion of slavery. In his remarks, called the "Crime Against Kansas" speech, he denounced the Kansas-Nebraska bill as a swindle and held up its authors, Stephen A. Douglas and Andrew P. Butler, to scorn. Two days later Preston S. Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina, confronted Sumner in the Senate chamber and denounced his speech as libel upon his state and upon Butler, who was his uncle. Then Brooks struck Sumner with his cane until the senator fell unconscious to the floor. This assault cost Sumner three years of struggling to regain his health, years in which his state re-elected him in the belief that his empty chair in the Senate made the most eloquent plea for free speech and resistance to slavery. It is in this chair, which symbolizes the College's founding commitment to egalitarianism, that President Hansen sits today. From Senator Sumner the College received not only this chair but also its motto. Oren Cheney, like Sumner, was a fierce abolitionist. Mutual dedication to this cause led Cheney to ask the Massachusetts senator to supply the new school with its motto. In a letter from Washington dated December 11, 1857, Sumner replied:
Amore ac Studio. I cannot send anything better than these words for the seal of your institution. I once thought I would have them cut on a seal of my own; but I did not.
Senator Sumner's words "With Ardor and Devotion" have served as the motto of Bates College throughout its history.
Academic Regalia
Faculty and students wear academic dress prescribed by the highest degree attained. The bachelor's gown is black with pointed open sleeves, while the master's gown, also black, has short sleeves closed at the elbow with long false sleeves cut in an arc. The doctor's gown has long bell-shaped sleeves and, though usually black, may be of a color indicating the university awarding the degree. It is faced with velvet with three velvet bars on the sleeves.
The colors bordering the hoods on academic gowns indicate the field of study in which the degree was taken. Just as the bachelor-of-arts hood at Oxford and Cambridge was trimmed in lamb's wool or rabbit's fur, hoods of graduates in the arts and letters today are edged in white. It has been said that the preoccupation of alchemists with turning base metals into gold accounts for the yellow of the science graduate's hood, and that the green of medicinal herbs is responsible for the green hood of a graduate in medicine. The red of theology has been a traditional color of churches, while blue has long been associated with the faculty of philosophy, and purple with the faculty of law. Among other academic colors are the light blue of education, pink of music, and brown of fine arts.
