Announcement of Institutional Planning at Bates

This message to the Bates community was sent by President Clayton Spencer and Vice President of Academic Affairs Matt Auer on March 20, 2015.

Dear Members of the Bates Community,

We are pleased to announce the formation of the institutional planning teams. Many thanks to all of you who participated in the open conversations and information sessions held over the past few months. Interest in the institutional planning process has been robust and we are pleased to be able to accommodate a broad representation of students, faculty, and staff in various roles. For those of you who are not on designated teams, there will be many opportunities to engage with this work in the coming months.

Goals for the Process

The overarching goal for the planning process is to identify a framework for institutional decision making over the next five to ten years that will allow Bates to continue to evolve and adapt in creative ways, to lead in certain areas, and to achieve greater financial flexibility and sustainability. The planning process will be grounded in Bates’ history, mission, and core values while also taking into account both specific market challenges in the liberal arts and the forces that are transforming higher education as a whole.

Constituting the Teams

The work of the planning process will be carried out by four teams and a steering committee, with community consultation throughout the process. The teams, consisting of students, faculty, and staff, have been composed based on the needs of the team, individuals’ expressed interests, and other considerations.

The teams were composed based on broad outreach and an invitation for individuals – students, faculty, and staff – to express an interest in participating.

  • Faculty were chosen through an election process, organized by division. Teams were composed based on the highest voting totals in each division with additional appointments made for purposes of achieving balance of various sorts. All faculty participants in the planning process were drawn from faculty who stood for election.
  • Interested staff were appointed to teams in consultation with their supervisors and managers.
  • Students submitted statements of interest to the Committee on Committees and were interviewed and appointed by the CoC with additional appointments made for purposes of achieving balance of various sorts.

Timeline

The teams will commence their work immediately and will work through the end of May. The steering committee will continue work over the summer, and teams will re-convene in the fall. We expect the work of teams to conclude in December 2015. Opportunities for the community to engage with the planning process will occur throughout.

The teams are as follows:


Intellectual Life at Bates

  • Chair: Georgia Nigro
  • Staff: Matt Duvall

Team Members-Faculty

  • Senem Aslan
  • Matt Auer (Ex Officio)
  • Jon Cavallero
  • Jane Costlow
  • Matt Côté
  • David Cummisky
  • Alex Dauge-Roth
  • Nancy Koven

Team Members-Staff

  • Ellen Alcorn
  • Christina Bell
  • Mary Meserve
  • Dan Mills

Team Members-Students

  • Jeremy Glover ’17
  • Cira Mollings Puentes ’16
  • Erica (Jaqui) Veazey ’16

Educating the Whole Person

  • Chair: Stephen Engel
  • Staff: Genevieve Leslie

Team Members-Faculty

  • Rachel Boggia
  • Dyk Eusden
  • Rebecca Fraser-Thill
  • Margaret Imber
  • Darby Ray
  • Kirk Read (Ex Officio)
  • Mike Retelle
  • Susan Stark

Team Members-Staff

  • David Buckwald
  • Julisa De Los Santos
  • Gwen Lexow
  • David McDonough
  • Josh McIntosh (Ex Officio)

Team Members-Students

  • Kristen Kelliher ’16
  • Deshun Peoples ’17
  • Sarah Stanley ’16
  • Shanina van Gent ’18

Facilities, Infrastructure and Technology

  • Chair: Nathan Lundblad
  • Staff: Scott Tiner

Team Members-Faculty

  • Aslaug Asgeirsdottir
  • Ryan Bavis
  • Dennis Browne
  • Carol Dilley
  • Kathy Low (Ex Officio)
  • Adriana Salerno
  • Nate Tefft

Team Members-Staff

  • Kevin McHugh
  • Camille Parrish
  • Andrew White
  • Pamela Wichroski

Team Members-Students

  • Nikolay Stambolski ’17
  • Molly Chisholm ’17

Resources

  • Chair: Geoff Swift
  • Staff: Jeremy Cluchey

Team Members-Faculty

  • John Baughman
  • Raluca Cernahoschi
  • Hong Lin
  • Michael Murray
  • Mary Rice-DeFosse
  • Paul Shea

Team Members-Staff

  • Doug Ginevan
  • Wendy Glass
  • Randy Shaw
  • Jason Scheideman
  • Christine Schwartz
  • Heather Ward

Team Members-Students

  • Ben Wilentz ’16
  • Alex LeFevre ’16

Steering Committee

  • Co-Chairs: Matt Auer and Clayton Spencer
  • Staff: Christina Estabrook

Committee Members-Faculty

  • Stephen Engel
  • Rebecca Herzig
  • Nathan Lundblad
  • Lillian Nayder
  • Georgia Nigro
  • Michael Sargent
  • Robert Strong

Committee Members-Senior Staff

  • 
Josh McIntosh
  • Geoff Swift
  • Crystal Williams

Data and Technology Support Team

  • Staff: Becky Albitz

Team Members-Staff

  • Kendall Blake
  • Laura Juraska
  • Thomas McGuinness
  • Nicholas O’Brien
  • Ann Marie Russell

Thank you so much for your interest in this important institutional process. We very much look forward to working with all of you.

Best regards,

Clayton and Matt