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<\/a>President Clayton Spencer’s 2017 Convocation remarks stressed the power of Bates values in an era of inflamed U.S. politics and civic culture. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n
In her keynote address<\/a>, Professor of Sociology Emily Kane urged the class to make deep and durable connections with faculty \u2014 \u201cconnections that leave you students wanting to update your former professors on your achievements, your struggles, your moments of joy and your moments of loss, teaching us as much as we taught you.\u201d<\/p>\n Starting the ceremony, President Clayton Spencer held the vision of Bates community up high <\/a>against the backdrop of the nation\u2019s inflamed political and civic culture, and reminded her listeners that the values that unify this community are needed now more than ever.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year, in the midst of our rituals of welcome and celebration, we find ourselves confronted with brazen displays of racism, anti-Semitism, hatred, and violence in Charlottesville,\u201d she said, \u201cwith frequent accounts of racially motivated killings in cities across our country, and a national discourse driven too often by impulse rather than informed thought and laced with intolerance, dishonesty, and verbal violence.<\/p>\n \u201cIt suddenly feels urgent to bring to consciousness \u2014 for ourselves and our students \u2014 the values that shape the education we offer here at Bates.\u201d<\/p>\n Spencer used as her departure point the college mission statement, with its invocation of the \u201cemancipating potential of the liberal arts\u201d and its exhortation to engage \u201cthe transformative power of our differences.\u201d<\/p>\n Shown on Alumni Walk on Sept. 5, Convocation Day, members of the Class of 2021 prepare to march in their first academic procession at Bates. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cWe believe in truth,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cWe understand that hard problems do not admit of glib or easy answers. Rather they are solved incrementally and over time, often with painstaking work that builds on the knowledge of previous generations and gains strength through the insights of contemporary colleagues.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is called expertise,\u201d she said, in a pointed rejoinder to the alt-facts discourse that increasingly prevails in some circles. \u201cIt is developed in institutions like colleges and universities, and it is safeguarded by respect for standards of inquiry and expression. Expertise matters, because it brings the promise of making lives \u2014 and life on this planet \u2014 better.\u201d<\/p>\n She said, \u201cWe teach our students to reason from evidence. We believe that facts matter. A college campus is a culture that depends on persuasion and reason-giving, not on authority derived from power or position.\u201d<\/p>\n Noting that Bates\u2019 founding principles insist that all persons must be treated as equal and worthy, Spencer took particular aim at the virulent bigotry that has deranged the American conversation over the last few years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that engaging with difference is a powerful force for good,\u201d she said. \u201cIn education, it is a source of growth and transformation. \u2026We encourage our students to approach ideas and each other with openness and generosity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have our work cut out for us,\u201d Spencer concluded. \u201cNever has the humanistic project of the liberal arts been more important. Never has this form of education been more needed \u2014 or more challenged.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a time to lose heart: It is a time to take up our work with new resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n Walter Washington ’19 of Fleetwood, N.Y., president of the Bates Student Government, delivers greetings to the Class of 2021 during the 2017 Convocation, on Sept. 5. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n The student government president, the college president said in her introduction, is \u201ca very talented person who is not shy about letting me know what students are thinking and what we can do to make Bates better.\u201d A politics major, football player, Deansmen crooner, and aspiring law student, Walter Washington of Fleetwood, N.Y., introduced the Class of 2021 to Bates<\/a> in a strikingly personal way.<\/p>\n Washington recounted his mother\u2019s battle with cancer during his last year of high school and first two years at Bates. \u201cFast-forward to sophomore year, and her good days were off and on,\u201d he said. \u201cLuckily, she was able to string together a few good days during the fall to come for Parents Weekend \u2014 and that weekend, she watched her son sing a solo with his newly joined a cappella<\/em> group and register his first college sack against Williams.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a pretty awesome weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s mother was declared cancer-free during his second winter at Bates. But before that point, when the outcome was still in doubt, \u201cthere is no way, absolutely no way, that I could have persevered through such an ordeal without being a part of the community that is Bates,\u201d he told the Convocation audience.<\/p>\n \u201cOn a larger scale, the true moral of that story is that in the midst of all that success, joy and accomplishment you\u2019ll have here at Bates, I can also guarantee you that there will also be times when you feel like you cannot keep going,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n It’s a light moment as senior marshals Isabella Miller ’18 of New York City and John Dello Russo ’18 of Revere, Mass., lead first-years across the Historic Quad in the Convocation procession. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cBut take a moment and look at the people to your left and to your right. This place, the people sitting right next to you, the relationships, friendships and extended family you\u2019ll make during your next four years here \u2014 it is that that makes this place so special.\u201d<\/p>\n Sociology professor Kane was chosen to address the incoming class by last spring\u2019s departing Class of 2017. Teasing her listeners with a bit of mystery, she started out with a sampling of social media posts and emails she received during the summer \u2014 from endearing pictures of a 3-year-old at a ball game to a list of 21 tips for incoming students, offered by a fellow sociologist whose Facebook post netted 14,000 likes.<\/p>\n Kane\u2019s point, of course, was that all of those summer correspondents were former students \u2014 in fact, thesis advisees of hers.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery faculty member sitting out there with you has their own stories of former students with whom they\u2019ve developed lasting relationships, connections forged in learning together and sharing a passion for a particular set of topics and commitments,\u201d Kane told the Class of 2021.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>