Dear Bates Community,

With the fall semester underway and the campus alive with students, I write to highlight some of the updates and investments in our campus from a busy summer of activity. As ever, we are dedicated to improving our campus and the state of our facilities. For those who are new to the Bates community, oversight of facilities is one of my roles, and I look forward to sharing these updates at the beginning of the fall semester.The summer is always the most important window to undertake key projects and enhancements, and it also provides an opportunity for dedicated planning time as we look forward.

Key Investments in Academic Buildings

We have made our most significant and ambitious investment in Carnegie to comprehensively upgrade the building’s systems. This summer we performed a full replacement of the building exhaust system, proactively replacing the two main fume hood exhaust fans located on the fifth floor with new roof-mounted fans. The existing fans were at the end of life, and this fan replacement brings additional benefits of balancing the building pressurization, improving ventilation in classrooms, improving building space thermal comfort, and improving building humidity levels. We’ve also replaced the building automation system and the building reverse osmosis (“RO”) water generation system. This is generally in the background in the building, but for those who rely on it, when it doesn’t work effectively it’s problematic. This work—well over a million dollars in total—was done in partnership with the faculty in the building and with the company Cote Crane of Auburn. Replacing these systems is intensive and important work, and we appreciate the patience of the building occupants this summer. Paul Farnsworth led this effort. These investments follow work in prior years to replace the hot water loop, invest in active learning classrooms, improve the greenhouse on the top of the building, replace furniture, and more.

Elsewhere in academic buildings, after a series of office moves, we have converted space in Hathorn that had been used by our College Advancement team (who are now in Libbey) into offices for the Math Department. This has allowed more natural light into the second floor and creates needed faculty offices. We’ve also improved access by removing the angled entrance to classroom 207. This renovation project was led by Ian Stanley.

Enhancing Campus Welcome and Accessibility

Ian also has been coordinating substantial improvements in Lindholm, which will refresh our primary guest reception area for all prospective students and their families, and create improved and accessible restroom facilities in this building. Attention to these details is essential for creating an exceptional first impression with prospective students visiting our campus. To further improve accessibility, two older restrooms on the second floor of Lane have been combined to make an accessible bathroom in this location as well. The work in Lindholm, Hathorn, and Lane was performed by M.W. Hoss Construction.

Student Residence Upgrades

In student dormitories, Rand Hall has received considerable attention, with several teams working alongside each other for IT and electrical upgrades, elevator refurbishment, code improvements, light bathroom renovations, adding water bottle fillers, new lighting and shades within rooms, and all new student furniture. We are particularly appreciative of our partners who moved over 100 bedroom sets (beds, dressers, desks, and chairs) in the late August heat. This complements the work done in Parker last summer, where we similarly replaced all the student room furniture and completed the flooring work on the ground floor. David Larrabee masterfully choreographs the coming and going of furniture. He has been an important steward for the college for nearly 40 years, ensuring that the furniture we use in our buildings is functional and durable.

If you have walked between Parker and Gomes Chapel, you may have noticed that the front porch of the Parker has been entirely rebuilt.  Tim Pratt and his team have been working closely with Randall Swan, a longtime Bates partner, to ensure the porch is safe for the next several decades, complete with a new decking layer that both looks and performs better. Coupled with the work last summer on the fourth floor dormers, Tim has improved both the integrity and appearance of one of our oldest buildings on campus.

A Safer and More Beautiful Campus

On Alumni Walk we’ve reset the stairs to Hedge Hall, which has had related work on the surrounding pavers. Our beautiful Alumni Walk was completed nearly 20 years ago now, and in some spots areas of the pavers are showing wear and some underlying shifting of the ground. These undulations are slight, but can be troublesome for  people and snowplows. We’ll review what we learn from this work as we approach other improvements to Alumni Walk in the summers ahead.

Athletics and Field Improvements

One visible project has been the work on Leahey field, continuing the improvements that began last autumn. This work, which was largely donor-funded, resulted in the installation of artificial turf on the infield a year ago, enabled more opportunities for practices for the Baseball and Softball teams last spring and significantly more and earlier home games for Baseball than ever before. The work now underway will replace the dated tension netting system with a more modern four-post system with a knee wall and enhanced spectator viewing around the home plate area. In August, we improved the soils and positioned frost walls and similar subterranean support, which is invisible once finished, but essential. Planning and fundraising efforts are underway to replace the playing surface for the Lafayette Softball field in the summer of 2026, and we continue to make improvements in the interim.

A Team Effort

I hope you’ve had a chance to walk about campus to see these improvements. Additionally, our grounds team, led by Mike Fox and Rick Ouellette, has improved greenery all over campus, and is responsible for the various pops of color from planters and flower beds. Campus investments are a team effort, to be sure, and for every name highlighted above there are a dozen more who make this campus what it is for our students, faculty, staff, and local community. We’re thrilled to have campus and all these spaces energized anew.

Best wishes for a great fall semester,

Geoffrey Swift