Policies

The following policies represent the administrative policy and guidance in use by the Dean of the Faculty. See also the Faculty Handbook and the College Catalog for Legislated Policies.

Advising
The Dean of the Faculty and the AAC established this visiting faculty independent study and thesis advising policy in 2017

Budget Management for Chairs
In collaboration with the chairs, the Dean of the Faculty created a guide for Chairs to managing academic unit budgets for chairs in Fall of 2025.

Campus Guests
Student Affairs updated the college’s guest access policies in 2025.

College Vehicles
Faculty wishing to use a College vehicle must read the Bates College Motor Vehicle Policy carefully and take seriously the responsibilities associated with operating a College vehicle. The College also offers a Van Driver Orientation Program.

Communication & Events
The Dean of the Faculty and Bates Communication and Marketing established policies for moderated content in 2024.

Courseload
The Dean of the Faculty updated its Course release and buyout policy in 2025.

Data Governance
The Data Governance Group updated the college’s data governance policies in 2025.

Endowed Chairs
Bates has more than 30 endowed professorship for its teaching faculty. The AAC revised endowed professorship policies in 2025.

Emergencies
The VP for Finance and Administration and the Dean of the Faculty established this weather emergencies policy in 2021.

Faculty Lines & Hiring

The AAC updated its long term faculty line retention policy in 2025.
The Dean of the Faculty and the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion updated the policy for target of opportunity hires in 2025.
The Dean of the Faculty created a policy on startup fund extension in 2025.

Grading & In-Class Matters

In January of 2026, the AAC created this policy related to faculty retention of graded student work.
The Dean of the Faculty established this policy in 2016 regarding student academic appeals.

Majors and Minors
The AAC established this policy on Major / minor curricular changes in 2016.

ORSP Research Compliance Policies and Resources
ORSP keeps updated information regarding Research Compliance Policies and Resources to assist faculty with external grants.

Professional Development & Travel
Accounting updated its travel policies in 2025.

Retirement
The Dean of the Faculty updated the options for faculty retirement plans in 2021.

Short Term
The Dean of faculty and AAC agreed on this policy regarding Short Term courses taught by faculty in their first year of teaching.

News & Updates

Assistant Professor of PsychologyYunkyoung "Yun" Garrison poses for a portrait on the edge of the Bates campus across from Lindholm House on Campus Avenue on Sept. 10, 2020

March 26, 2026

Yun Garrison wins Lee Young Leadership Award from YWCA

Yun Garrison, associate professor of psychology, was honored on March 8 with the Lee Young Leadership Award from the YWCA of Central Maine in recognition for her community-engaged work.

February 26, 2026

Bates announces tenure and promotion for nine faculty members

Nine members of the faculty have received promotions, including seven tenure awards, effective Feb. 6. The promotions were recommended by the Faculty Personnel Committee and approved by the Bates College Board of Trustees.

All the way from Greenland, Arctic soil samples give Bates professor, students a glimpse into ancient climate conditions

Hadley Blodgett ’26 of Buckfield, Maine, spends a lot of time thinking about just that — time.

In a laboratory in Carnegie Science Hall, as she conducts research for her senior thesis, Blodgett gazes over 7,000 years of history condensed into a sediment sample extracted from a lake in northern Greenland. As a double major in earth and climate sciences and music, with a minor in religious studies, Blodgett enjoys reflecting on the way that time has constructed and altered her fields of study. Sometimes, when the immensity of the sediment sample’s past hits her, she thinks, “How am I holding this?”
“To think about the scale of what's in front of me is just kind of crazy,” Blodgett says.
How exactly did sediment buried deep beneath Arctic waters find its way to the surface, then to Bates? The story crosses oceans and icebergs, tundras and deserts, but connects to Bates through Blodgett’s thesis advisor, Associate Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences Nick Balascio.

As a paleoclimatologist, Balascio studies how Earth’s climate system has changed across millennia, primarily through analyzing lake sediment cores, which are layers of mud, dirt, and organic material extracted from the bottom of lakes in long tubes.

“Those lakes are natural history books that record what's going on around the watershed of the lake as well as within the lake itself,” Balascio says.

February 26, 2026

Bates professor, students study ancient climate with Arctic s…

Bates students are getting a firsthand look at 7,000 years of ancient climate history with a group of lake sediment cores extracted from northern Greenland.

News & Updates

March 26, 2026

Everyone is a star in ‘Everybody’

Bates Theater’s production of 'Everybody' sold out every performance at Gannett Theater last week — waitlists at the door, eager audience members finding out they’d gotten seats five minutes before curtain — and the room earned that anticipatory urgency.

March 26, 2026

Yun Garrison wins Lee Young Leadership Award from YWCA

Yun Garrison, associate professor of psychology, was honored on March 8 with the Lee Young Leadership Award from the YWCA of Central Maine in recognition for her community-engaged work.

March 26, 2026

‘Equally at home everywhere’: Brett Karpf ’26 wins Watson Fel…

Brett Karpf walks to make sense of the world and because he has to, for reasons he’s still trying to understand. Beginning in August, fully funded by a fellowship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, Karpf will spend a full year walking — and thinking about walking.