{"id":101495,"date":"2016-05-23T15:07:09","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T19:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=101495"},"modified":"2023-01-24T14:43:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T19:43:12","slug":"commencement-advance-may-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2016\/05\/23\/commencement-advance-may-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2016: Some basics for the 150th edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"140525_Commencement_1714\"<\/a>

(Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

If you do something 150 times, you’re bound to get pretty good at it.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, the May 29 ceremony marking Bates’ 150th Commencement<\/a> is something special, featuring a Commencement speaker called \u201cone of the most courageous persons the civil rights movement ever produced.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would be Rep. John Lewis of Georgia who, along with three other notables representing the fields of psychology and neuroscience, literature, and higher education itself, will receive an honorary degree during the ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. on Bates’ Historic Quad.<\/p>\n

Livestream<\/h3>\n

If your heart is with Bates but you can’t make it to campus, the college’s Commencement livestream<\/a> is the next best thing to being here, with a four-camera setup that promises to bring viewers right onto the Quad.<\/p>\n

Resources for Attendees<\/h3>\n

Bates’ Commencement page<\/a> presents a host of resources for anyone attending Commencement, including a schedule of events, campus map, and a list of FAQs.<\/p>\n

On Stage<\/h3>\n
\"Rep.<\/a>

Rep. John Lewis offers Bates’ 2016 Commencement address.<\/p><\/div>\n

Hailing from 32 states and 43 nations, some 461 Bates students will receive bachelor’s degrees on Sunday, and President A. Clayton Spencer will confer honorary degrees on four notable Americans<\/a>, including two Bates alumni.<\/p>\n

Commencement speaker Lewis is esteemed as one of the most effective and enduring leaders of a civil rights movement that can claim as one of its founders a Bates alumnus: the Rev. Benjamin E. Mays ’20.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled that the Commencement address will be delivered by Congressman Lewis, whose life and work exemplify the animating values of this institution,\u201d said President Spencer.<\/p>\n

The history of Lewis\u2019 involvement<\/a> in the civil rights movement is virtually a history of the movement itself. And Lewis continues to dedicate his life to protecting human rights, securing civil liberties, and building a society ruled by justice and compassion \u2014 the \u201cBeloved Community\u201d described by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n

In addition to Rep. Lewis, Bates’ 2016 honorary degree recipients are:<\/p>\n