BatesNews: May 2013
In this issue:
Check out the Commencement livestream on Sunday morning
The livestream of Commencement begins at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, and the ceremony itself starts at 10. We’ve also added a Commencement Week tumblr. Also check out the honorary degree recipients.
Ten (count ’em!) Fulbright grant recipients emerge from Class of 2013
Known as a top producer of students receiving prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Grants, Bates this month will graduate 10 such students, a record number for the college.
Matthew Auer, Indiana University honors dean, named vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty
A leading scholar and globally engaged expert in the arenas of environmental policy, energy policy, sustainable development and foreign aid, Matthew Auer comes to Bates from Indiana University, where he is dean of the Hutton Honors College and professor of public and environmental affairs. He becomes vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Bates on July 1.
599 ways Bates alumni made May 15 a Great Day to Be a Bobcat
The question was this: Would 555 alumni donors respond to the call to make their annual Bates Fund gifts on May 15? Well, it was never really a question. Zooming past the goal, 599 alumni made gifts. The influx pushed overall alumni participation up 3 points in one day, to 37 percent. The end-of-year goal is 55 percent by June 30.
Video: Pringle ’98 and Gottwald ’98 fuse hip hop and modern dance in a Shakespeare adaptation
This Short Term, choreographer and dancer Erin Gottwald ’98 joined rapper, writer, actor and director Postell Pringle ’98 in creating a multidisciplinary adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” that Bates students performed for Lewiston-Auburn schoolchildren.
Trustee Chair Emeritus E. Robert Kinney ’39 dies at 96
E. Robert Kinney ’39, LL.D. ’85, who entered the food industry by canning crabmeat in his Maine home en route to becoming CEO of General Mills, died May 2. A Bates trustee for 27 years, including 17 as chair, he was considered a creative entrepreneur and model corporate leader who, when appointed CEO of General Mills in 1973, was praised for his “good, gutsy Maine business sense” by his predecessor.
Senior thesis Q-and-A: The 1950s debate over Androscoggin River pollution
“Senior thesis sits in my mind as a project that will never actually be mine to take on,” admits first-year Hannah Albertine. But then she met senior Taryn O’Connell, and “I found myself staring directly at the very thing that had appeared so theoretical and scary to me: a big, black three-ring binder.” Inside the binder: O’Connell’s exploration of a citizen vs. business debate about Androscoggin River pollution in the 1950s.
MOOC master speaks at Bates
Al Filreis was named a “Ten Tech Innovator” by The Chronicle of Higher Education for his belief that massively open online courses (MOOCs) can bring the humanities to the masses. But it’s more than a belief, as he told the Bates faculty recently. He seems to have done it.
Bates in the News
Don’t feel bad. Scientific American quotes psychologist Jonathan Adler ’00, who says that negative feelings play a positive role in our well-being. Actor John Ambrosino ’01 talks with the LGBT-focused Boston Spirit Magazine about his lead role in On the Town. On campus, Darby Ray, director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, describes for the Sun Journal a Bates course that found a home in a local elementary school.
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