9/18, 2003: Led by Ryan Creighton of Lyme, N.H., and Mike Neville-O'Neill of Rowley, Mass., Bates College debaters swept the 2003 American Parliamentary Debate Association's Novice Championships, held Sept. 12 and 13 at Columbia University.

8/22, 2003: Pole beans, cukes, and tomatoes are among the things that Bates senior Rachel Booty and a group of local teenagers grow in downtown Lewiston. They grow youthful aspirations, leadership skills and neighborhood spirit too.

5/28, 2003: Five Bates student-athletes earned All-America honors at the 2003 NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships held last weekend at St. Lawrence University's Merrick-Pinkard Track.

5/26, 2003: Fending off a threatening rain nearly until the end of its 137th annual Commencement, Bates College sent 443 graduates into the world Monday in a ceremony that also honored a leading expert on religion and law, a pioneering cardiologist, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund and the college's recently retired sixth president.

5/1, 2003: "It's been a great year," says Bryan Brito, director of debate at Bates, whose 2002-03 Brooks Quimby squad ranked among the top 25 of the 68 best teams in the nation competing at the American Parliamentary Debate Association Nationals.

4/24, 2003: Environmental students win bid and a retire a permit to pollute

4/18, 2003: In photographs, sculpture, ceramics, prints and paintings in a variety of media, 15 art majors cap their Bates College careers with the popular Annual Senior Exhibition, which runs at the Bates College Museum of Art through May 25 and is open to the public at no charge.

March 27, 2003: Kelley Puglisi (Scotia, N.Y.), Jesse Carney (Harpswell, Maine), Liz Wanless (Belleville, Ill.), Vanessa Williamson (Auburn, Maine) and Kara Seaton (Wayne, Pa.) all earned All-America accolades at their respective national championship events.

4/22, 2003: The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) selection committee chose Bates College men's tennis player Blake Wayman '05 (Concord, N.H.) to participate in the 2003 NCAA Student Leadership Conference, May 25-29, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

March 27, 2003: A cavalcade of Bates academic stars is ready to dazzle the College community and campus visitors at the second annual Mount David Summit, noon-8 p.m. Sunday, March 30.

12/22, 2004: "It has been a fantastic year," said debate coach Bryan Brito. "Once again Bates debaters won the novice tournament, and we have trophied at virtually every tournament we have attended.

11/26: A Bates College junior will represent Maine's 2nd Congressional District at the Republican National Convention in New York City starting Aug. 30.

8/25, 2004: Organized and run by students, the Annual Entering Student Outdoor Program -- commonly known by its acronym, AESOP -- puts Bates first-years, guided by older peers, onto hiking trails and into kayaks.

8/17, 2004: "Being at college, being away from home, you're set to feel you're on your own, you're adult now," says Matt Heffernan '05. But in Heffernan's case, it turns out, that feeling was premature. It wasn't until this summer, when Heffernan got an apartment and a job in downtown Lewiston, that he really cleared the launch pad.

5/19, 2004: Visiting muralist Marta Ayala has collaborated with students in Assistant Professor of Spanish Felicia Fahey's Short Term unit, "Muralismo: movimientos en práctica," to produce a mural on the second floor of historic Hathorn Hall.

5/4, 2004: On May 1, a hot and sunny Saturday, a bunch of Batesies and other volunteers gathered for National Rebuilding Day, an annual community undertaking to rehabilitate housing for the disadvantaged. The day is sponsored by Rebuilding Together, a national organization with 250 regional affiliates dedicated to refurbishing homes for low-income people, particularly the elderly, disabled and families with children.

4/28, 2004: Bates College junior Heather Bracken of Pittsburgh, Pa., has been named to the American Collegiate Hockey Association's Women's Division Academic All-America team.

4/9, 2004: Twelve art majors cap their Bates College careers with the popular Annual Senior Exhibition, opening with a reception at 7 p.m. Friday, April 9. The exhibit at the Bates College Museum of Art, 75 Russell Ave., runs through May 30 and is open to the public at no charge.

4/1, 2004: Saida Cooper, a Bates College senior from St. Albans, Maine, will perform the Jane Wagner-Lily Tomlin play "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, April 1-3, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 4, in Gannett Theater, Pettigrew Hall, Andrews Road.

3/30, 2004: Thanks to a challenge grant from an environmentalist inspired by Bates' efforts to retire air pollution permits, members of this year's "Environmental Economics" course have quadrupled the tonnage of sulfur dioxide that the college is keeping out of the atmosphere.

7/12, 2004: An exhibition of photographs titled "Cultura y Naturaleza Guatemalteca" ("Culture and Nature in Guatemala") by photographer Challen Willemsen, a first-year Bates College student from Guatemala City, Guatemala, is on display through March 26 in the Chase Gallery, Chase Hall, Campus Avenue.

1/19, 2004: A senior art major's thesis project has transformed Pettengill Hall's Perry Atrium, covering most of its three-story glass wall with translucent paintings that flood this popular space with the glowing colors of stained glass.

Aug. 20, 2002: Former U.S. Surgeon General M. Joycelyn Elders will officially open the 148th academic year at Bates College with the convocation address "Leadership and Responsibility in the 21st Century: What Will Your Role Be?" at 4:10 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4, on the college's main quadrangle. The rain site will be the Alumni Gymnasium.

Summer, 2002: Town and gown meet with comfortable frequency at the Bates radio station.

June 17, 2002: Thirteen Bates College students have been selected