This October at Bates will be hard to beat. It was a lively month for academics, with visiting speakers and admission events for prospective students, and community, with alumni returning to campus and Lewiston-Auburn families gathering on Alumni Walk to celebrate Halloween — all framed by the impeccable, signature Maine fall foliage that each year illuminates our campus.
Brain business
Peter Strick P’98, Thomas Detre Professor and Chair of Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh, gives a talk on using neurotropic viruses to map brain circuitry, the first iteration of the Bates Program in Neuroscience’s new seminar series. A proud Bates parent of Benjamin Strick ’98, Peter Strick will become president of the Society for Neuroscience, the field’s largest academic organization, in 2027.
Back to Bates
During a panel as part of Back to Bates weekend, which welcomes alumni and parents of current students to campus, Wyatt Teaford ’27 of Peru, Vt., Angelina Amastal ’27 of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Mya Hicks ’27 of Ann Arbor, Mich., share their experiences completing internships in law and government with support from Bates’ Center for Purposeful Work.
Hall of Fame induction
From the podium at left, Bates Director of Athletics Stacey Bunting addresses the crowd gathered for the college’s second annual Athletics Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Olin Arts Center Concert Hall.
Hello, Heisman
The Heisman Trophy makes an appearance at Back to Bates weekend, offering students, parents, and alumni the opportunity to view up-close the coveted trophy. Jeff Price ’87, the first CEO of the Heisman Trophy trust, brought the trophy to campus, where it was displayed in the Bobcat Fan Zone on Bardwell Field prior to a football game against Tufts.
Bobcat greetings
The college’s new Bobcat mascot, unveiled earlier this semester, poses for a photo with a young Batesie during Back to Bates weekend.
Open house
Tori Neason Wallace, Bates’ vice president for enrollment and dean of admission and financial aid, addresses prospective students and their families during Bates Admission’s Fall Open House.
Exploring education
Associate Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies and History Mark Tizzoni welcomes prospective students to a classroom in Hedge Hall during the Fall Open House’s academic sessions, which featured lectures from seven different faculty members, aiming to give prospective students a brief glimpse into academic life at Bates. Tizzoni’s session was called “Short Introduction to Medieval Africa.”
Bobcat’s fall spirit
Bates’ new Bobcat mascot, recently released onto campus, is spotted enjoying the fall foliage on the Historic Quad, holding up a fallen sugar maple leaf.
Quad walks and lacrosse fits
Bates women’s lacrosse players Molly Henshon ’30, left, of Longmeadow, Mass., and Natalie Lesch ’30 of Evanston, Ill., take a stroll through the color-spattered Historic Quad in mid-October, just after Lewiston reached peak fall foliage.
Cold Front takes the plunge
Members of Cold Front, one of Bates’ club ultimate frisbee teams, take advantage of the season by gathering on the Historic Quad to rake piles of leaves and dive into them. Sophomores Luca Bernardin of Amherst, Mass., Margaret Carlsmith of Arlington, Mass., and Ximi Xu from Shanghai, China, jump into the colder months, all wearing their trusty Bates sweatshirts.
Jenkins joins the tennis team
President Garry W. Jenkins, right, high-fives tennis player June Kim ’30 of Plano, Texas, during a tennis mixer featuring the women’s and men’s tennis teams at Bates’ Wallach Tennis Center. Jenkins joined the players for warm-ups and even a few matches, trying his hand against the Bobcats.
Bates Votes
Bates students, joined by President Garry W. Jenkins (third from left), pose for a photo on campus before heading to downtown Lewiston to early vote prior to the Nov. 3 election. Bates Votes, a student-led voting initiative housed in the Harward Center for Community Partnerships, organized the outing and provided transportation for students from campus to Lewiston City Hall.
Softball grins
Bates softball players Bridget Schalk ’30, Maddy Miller ’28, Juleah Somers ’30, Maya Lee ’27, Riley Valent ’30, and Sienna Pietrasiewicz ’27 take a break during a pre-season practice on Lafayette Street Field, outfitted with fresh turf updated this summer.
Trick-or-Treat
Bates President Garry W. Jenkins and his husband Jon Lee dress up as Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, the fictional hockey couple from hit television series Heated Rivalry, for Bates’ annual Trick-or-Treat event on Alumni Walk.
Vying for the presidency
Charlotte Bernhard ’28 of Wellesley Hills, Mass., plays Michelle Foster — the fictional presidential candidate she created for Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies Stephanie Kelley Romano’s course “Presidential Campaign Rhetoric.” In the course, students assume the roles of candidates, campaign managers, and journalists to play out a mock election across campus. Here, Bernhard debates her opponent in front of the class in Pettigrew Hall. She would go on to win the election on Nov. 3, becoming Bates’ mock president-elect.
Bates Plays returns
Students gather atop Mount David for this year’s iteration of Bates Plays, an event organized by the student-led Bates Musicians’ Union that invites student musicians to come together, often creating bands just for the event, to play musical covers from a particular artist’s discography. This year featured the music of rock band Wilco, and the previous two years featured the music of indie folk band Big Thief.
Welcome, Brian!
Director of Photography and Multimedia Production Brian Rimm ’05, who joined the college in October, captures two luminaries of the Marsden Hartley scholarship world downstairs at the Bates College Museum of Art in front of a Hartley display.
At left is Gail R. Scott, art historian and the director of the Marsden Harley Legacy Project, an online catalog of all known works by the Lewiston-born artist. The project went live earlier this year, and the college held an event on Oct. 30 to celebrate the accomplishment, which Scott worked on for several years before joining forces with Bates in 2019 to complete it.
At right is Barbara Haskell of the Whitney Museum of American Art, who curated a major retrospective of Hartley at the Whitney in 1980 that toured four other American cities and helped establish widespread interest in the artist. Haskell gave a keynote address at the Oct. 30 event.
Community engagement
Audience members at the Olin Concert Hall listen intently to speakers at the Oct. 30 celebration of the Marsden Hartley Legacy Project launch. Since 2019, Bates has been engaged with the project, an online catalogue of 1,600 works by Marsden Hartley (1877-1943).
Brilliant colors, brilliant campus
In mid-October, the Historic Quad is teeming with the best of the fall’s foliage. Looking to the horizon, exuberant reds, playful yellows, and calm greens dot the landscape for as far as the eye can see, giving way to sweeping mountains in the distance.
Photography by Theophil Syslo, Brian Rimm ’05, and Carly Philpott ’27, with text by Alexandra DeMarco and Ramona McNish ’28.
Faculty Featured
Mark L. Tizzoni
Associate Professor of Classical and Medieval Studies and History
Stephanie Kelley-Romano
Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies
Melinda A. Plastas
Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies and American Studies
Categories BatesNews
