Stories from 2026
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. 

Bates professor, students study ancient climate with Arctic sediment cores

Thursday, February 26, 2026 2:03 pm

Bates students are getting a firsthand look at 7,000 years of ancient climate history with a group of lake sediment cores extracted from northern Greenland.

Filmmaker Sandi DuBowski screen his film Sabbath Queens to members of the Bates community on Feb. 4, 2026 in the Keck Classroom of Pettengill Hall. Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Stephanie Pridgeon introduced the film and launched a conversation with the filmmaker that included a Q&A with audience members, who included members of the Religion Department Cynthia Baker, Alison Melnick, and Halla Attallah. SABBATH QUEEN, a feature documentary filmed over 21 years, follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis including the Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul—an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation. SABBATH QUEEN joins Amichai on a lifelong quest to creatively and radically reinvent religion and ritual, challenge patriarchy and supremacy, champion interfaith love, and stand up for peace, ceasefire, and an end to the Occupation in Israel/Palestine. The film interrogates what Jewish survival means in a difficult rapidly changing 21st century. SABBATH QUEEN is directed and produced by Sandi DuBowski
Filmmaker’s visit creates a full circle moment 

Thursday, February 12, 2026 3:35 pm

When she was a college student, Stephanie Pridgeon fell hard for a documentary by award-winning director Sandi DuBowski. In this full circle moment, she introduced her students to DuBowski's work through his latest acclaimed film.

‘Frost and Furious’: Time again to celebrate the annual Winter Carnival

Thursday, February 12, 2026 3:21 pm

During Winter Carnival at Bates, the community comes together not despite the winter but in celebration of all that it enables, with traditions like the beloved Puddle Jump.

In the News: February 2026

Thursday, February 12, 2026 3:16 pm

A selection of recent mentions of Bates people in the news, including music and arts achievements, coverage of Bates MLK Day observance, and op-eds on rural education from a Bates professor.

LOVE/ SICK By John Cariani Directed by Martin Andrucki Scenery and Costume Design by Christine McDowell Lighting Design by Michael Reidy PLAYWRIGHT'S NOTE: LOVE/SICK is a .. . nine-play cycle about love and loss-but mostly loss. Each play has its own arc and tells the story of a couple at a crossroads in their relationship. Since each relationship is more advanced than the previous relationship, a larger arc emerges and the individual plays work together to create a satisfying whole that chronicles the life cycle of a typical relationship from meeting through divorce ... and afterwards. TIME: 7:30 pm on a Friday night in June. PLACE: An alternate suburban reality. Play 1. "Obsessive Impulsive." WOMAN, Emily Diaz '23; MAN, Brady Chilson '23 Play 2. "The Singing Telegram." LOUISE, Alex Gilbertson '22; TELEGRAM MAN, Losseni Barry '22, Play 3. "What?!?" ANDY, Noah Pott '22; BEN, Lucas Allen '22 Play 4. "The Answer." KEITH, Kush Sharma '23; CELIA, Sadie Basila '23 Play 5. "Uh-Oh." SARAH, Emily Diaz '23; BILL, Rishi Madnani '23 INTERMISSION Play 6. "Lunch and Dinner." MARK, Brady Chilson '23; KELLY, Sadie, Basila '23 Play 7. "Forgot." KEVIN, Kush Sharma '23; JILL, Olivia Dimond '22 Play 8. "Where Was 17" LIZ, Muskan Verma '21; ABBIE, Hale Murch '22 Play 9. "Destiny." JAKE, Rishi Madnani '23; EMILY, Alex Gilbertson '22
Beloved and brilliant Martin Andrucki, Dana Professor Emeritus of Theater at Bates, dies at age 80

Thursday, February 12, 2026 12:56 pm

A beloved and brilliant teacher and scholar who secured a seat at the liberal arts table for Bates theater, Andrucki died Feb. 8, 2026, at age 80. A faculty member for 47 years, he was among the longest-serving Bates professors in the college’s history.

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