Mary Pols

mpols@bates.edu 207-786-8248

Stories by Mary Pols
Everybody in the pool: The making of Metamorphoses

Thursday, December 4, 2025 5:09 pm

Shortly after Courtney Smith joined Bates in the fall of 2024 as an associate professor of theater, he floated an idea for a production that was both over-the-top ambitious and absolute catnip to his colleague Sally Wood, a visiting lecturer in theater who was trying to decide what play to direct in the fall of 2025.

Drone photography operated and captured by Theophil Syslo on October 10, 2024. (Theophil Syslo | Bates College)
In the News: Oct. 10, 2025

Friday, October 10, 2025 10:44 am

For Mother Jones, in a Sept. 24 article headlined “How America’s Elite Colleges Breed High-Status Careers—and Misery,” journalist Evan Mandery named Bates as an outlier — for its emphasis on meaning and purpose.

Picture Story: September 2025 at Bates

Friday, October 10, 2025 10:41 am

From Convocation to fierce field hockey matches, double overtime football victories, and relaxing on the quad, we bring you September 2025 at Bates.

Trees of Bates: A History Tour, August 27th at 10am-11am Meet up location: Front steps of Hathorn Hall Come join us as we explore the evolution of the trees on campus from the farmland beginnings to the lush campus of today. Pat Webber, Director of Archives and Special Collections, will discuss the early years of tree planting and various tree traditions. Christine Murray, a Maine Master Naturalist and Ladd’s own Social Sciences Librarian, will be on hand to discuss the natural history of our trees and the challenges they face including issues of disease. No need to sign up! See all our upcoming events here! Please let me know if you have any questions! All the best, Caitlin -- Caitlin Lampman Education & Engagement Archivist Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections, Bates College Also featuring College Archivist Pat Webber
The way back Bates machine

Thursday, October 2, 2025 4:09 pm

Staff at the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library love giving walking tours of the campus. They function like walking Bates encyclopedias, dropping tidbits about everything from which building was the first one on Frye Street to which are the oldest trees on campus.

‘Rising Star’ Marshall Hatch Jr. ’10 is on TIME 100 NEXT list

Thursday, October 2, 2025 3:54 pm

Marshall Hatch ’10 received a lot of texts on Sept. 30. Not surprising, given that at the crack of dawn, Time magazine announced its TIME 100 NEXT, naming him one of “The World’s Most Influential Rising Stars” for 2025.

Museum’s director Carrie Cushman: The world needs museums more than ever

Thursday, September 25, 2025 3:00 pm

Carrie Cushman joined the college as director of the Bates College Museum of Art in August. She came to Bates from the University of Hartford, where she had been the Edith Dale Monson Gallery director and curator at the university’s Hartford Art School.

President Garry W. Jenkins wins Maine Black Excellence Compass Career Award

Tuesday, August 5, 2025 4:56 pm

President Garry W. Jenkins has received the 2025 Maine Black Excellence Compass Career Award from The Third Place Maine, a network that connects Maine’s Black professionals, students, and entrepreneurs to opportunities across multiple areas, from social to professional. 

Bates College Board of Trustees elects four new members effective July 1, 2025

Thursday, June 26, 2025 5:13 am

Bates College has announced the election of four new trustees, effective July…

Draft for social media post: Social post for Carmona family/to run Thursday Art: combo of Phyllis fresh art from last Thursday and vintage (2018) images of young Jose at the Commencement of his siblings Christopher and Alanis Carmona. Most Thursdays, Jose Carmona ’25 of Chicago walks a few blocks from campus to visit Carmen Thibodeau at her home. They don’t share blood, but she’s been his Lewiston grandmother the whole time he’s been at Bates. “Some of my friends know that she’s not my actual grandma,” Carmona says, but others assume it. “They’ll be like, ‘Oh, you’re going to Granny’s house today?” Even before Jose came to Bates, Carmen Thibodeau — along with her late husband Richard, who died in 2022 — has represented family to three of his siblings before him, Christopher Carmona ’18, Alanis Carmona ’18 and Carolina Carmona ’22. This weekend Thibodeau will be in the audience when Jose walks across the stage in front of Coram Library and officially becomes a graduate of Bates, and she couldn’t be prouder. Since 2014, when Christopher and Alanis arrived on campus as first years, Thibodeau has been guiding this tight knit group of siblings through their Bates experience, serving up lemonade, snacks and good advice. She’s taken them on trips to family favorites like Mac’s Grill in Auburn and the Fryeburg Fair, and other Maine highlights and offered steady, enduring support and love. Look for our full story about how this relationship started, and why it won’t end, in Bates News on Friday.
Four Bates siblings, their ‘Lewiston grandmother,’ and one last Commencement celebration

Friday, May 23, 2025 10:44 am

Since 2014, a succession of four Bates siblings from Chicago have been able to lean on Lewiston neighbor Carmen Thibodeau for rides, rest, and real connection.

Bates Faculty in the News: Therí Pickens’ debut poetry collection gains media attention and sparks a busy spring, on and off campus

Friday, May 9, 2025 9:09 am

Dana Professor of English and Africana Therí Pickens' debut poetry collection earns praise in publications like Down East and The Adroit Journal as she shares her work through readings, panels, and an recent campus celebration in Commons.

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