Turning Points: Winter 2011

PROMOTED To tenured positions as associate professor: Cynthia Baker, religious studies; Holly Ewing, environmental studies; Sylvia Federico, English; and Pallavi Jayawant, mathematics. To full professor from associate professor: Charles Nero, rhetoric.

IN TRANSITION Jill Reich, after 12 years as vice president of academic affairs and dean of the faculty. Effective June 30, Reich will take a sabbatical and then become a tenured member of the psychology faculty. President Elaine Tuttle Hansen specifically praised Reich’s oversight of efforts to improve faculty salaries, revisions to the Gen Ed requirements, and early development of the Mount David Summit and Harward Center for Community Partnerships. 

APPOINTED As associate dean for admission and student transition — that is, “swing dean” Michael Martinez, effective Dec. 1. Martinez previously served as director of the Dallas-based Academic Success Program, which helps low-income and minority students get into college.

PROMOTED From associate director to director of Alumni and Parent Programs, Marianne Nolan Cowan ’92, effective Sept. 8. Cowan, a 10-year member of the Advancement division, “brings a deep passion for Bates, a strong connection to a vast swath of our constituency, a clear understanding of the College culture, and an entrepreneurial spirit,” said Advancement VP Kelly Kerner.

PUBLISHED The Other Dickens: A Life of Catherine Hogarth by Lillian Nayder, professor of English. In the first comprehensive biography of the wife of Charles Dickens, Nayder debunks the common view — fabricated by the novelist as he wriggled out of his marriage and pursued a bit o’ crumpet named Ellen Ternan — that Catherine was mentally infirm and an unfit wife and mother.

AWARDED A $150,000 grant from the George I. Alden Trust to support the $15 million expansion and renovation of Hedge Hall and nearby Roger Williams Hall into academic buildings.

CURTAILED The burning of fossil fuels to heat empty buildings during Bates’ end-of-the-year break. Facility Services turned down thermostats to 55 degrees in unoccupied buildings and 65 degrees when occupied, for a predicted savings of $50,000.

BURNED A mock dorm room, set up near Garcelon Field on Oct. 27, as a Fire Safety Day demonstration of the incendiary hazards presented by tapestries, cooking equipment, candles, and other illegal amenities in student residences. Though rare, room fires are typically caused by amorous Batesies lighting candles to enhance the mood, says longtime dean James Reese, who gave out flickering electric candles at the event.

DECEASED John Margarones, professor emeritus of education and passionate historian of his hometown of Old Orchard Beach, on Nov. 15, at 87; Joseph Woodhead, assistant track and field coach who achieved unequaled success in throwing events, on Oct. 18, at 76; L. Ross Cummins, faculty member from 1952 to 1989, on Sept. 21, at 91; Louis Vaillancourt, custodian for Facility Services from 1992 until 2004, on Sept. 4, at 74.