Stories from 2026
Everyone is a star in ‘Everybody’

Thursday, March 26, 2026 3:45 pm

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.

Yun Garrison wins Lee Young Leadership Award from YWCA

Thursday, March 26, 2026 3:25 pm

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.

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

Thursday, March 26, 2026 2:33 pm

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.

In the News: March 2026

Thursday, March 26, 2026 2:00 pm

Media coverage of faculty member Carolina González Valencia's film premiere, Anelise Shrout on Alabama Public Radio, women's basketball's winning season, and the news about the Stoddard Fitness and Well-Being Center.

There's something quietly radical about handing the keys of a museum's permanent collection to its community — about saying, this decision is yours. Bates Curates is an intimate evening built around exactly that. Curator Samantha Sigmon will guide attendees through three photographs by Shellburne Thurber — works that linger in doorways and dim interiors, that hold the weight of lives lived just out of frame — before opening the floor to a vote that will shape the museum's collection for good. Organized in conjunction with Shellburne Thurber: Full Circle, on view through March 21. Made possible by the Barbara Morris Goodbody Collection Endowment Fund.
Night at the museum: The community curates Museum of Art’s permanent collection

Thursday, March 26, 2026 9:13 am

During the first-ever Bates Curates event in March, faculty, staff, and students, and President Garry W. Jenkins, became “curators” as they gathered to select a new addition to the Museum of Art’s permanent collection.

First-generation student mentors help peers navigate academics, social life at Bates

Thursday, March 5, 2026 2:29 pm

In the Student Center for Belonging and Community, first-generation Bates students mentor their younger peers, providing guidance on everything from academics to internships to social life.

Bates announces Stoddard Fitness and Well-Being Center and athletics facilities upgrades

Thursday, March 5, 2026 9:00 am

Bates is embarking on a $45 million project to update two key athletic facilities and construct a new fitness and well-being center. A gift of $10 million from Jon W. Brayshaw ’90, P’25 and Jocelyn Stoddard Brayshaw ’88, P’25 has brought the college a vital step closer to construction. The new facility will be named the Stoddard Fitness and Well-Being Center. 

Over the woodlands brown and bare, over the harvest-fields forsaken, silent, and soft, and slow descends the snow. — Longfellow Back on campus after the February freak storm, Bates feels suspended between motion and stillness; cars crunch in half-melted tracks, boots drip by radiators, flights and plans still catching up somewhere in the clouds. Some of us are here, some are delayed, and the quiet holds space for both. It’s a strange return; rushed arrivals, late-night drives, weather maps open on our phones, yet the air itself feels calm, like the world pressed pause just long enough for us to notice it. The paradox is real; chaos in the forecast, steadiness on the quad. Snow does that. It softens edges, lowers voices, makes even a campus full of movement feel like it’s breathing slowly.
February at Bates

Thursday, March 5, 2026 8:25 am

February on campus saw sports successes, several large snowfalls, and our annual Winter Carnival — a week of events celebrating the joys of the chilly season.

The ‘limitless curiosities’ of Bates’ Watson finalists

Thursday, February 26, 2026 3:57 pm

Four Bates seniors are hoping to get the chance to spend the next year seeking answers to some big questions. Finalists for the Watson Fellowship, these students are exploring differing approaches to work across cultures, persistent traditions amid changing political boundaries, how meaning can be made from movement, and community-driven approaches to power grids.

Bates announces tenure and promotion for nine faculty members

Thursday, February 26, 2026 3:56 pm

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. 

Load more