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From Tuesday through Thursday, Bates welcomed back to campus some 1,700 students, including the incoming Class of 2024. (Another 170 or so students will do their fall coursework remotely.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday through 8 p.m. Thursday, all student arrivals were scheduled and spaced out like a New York City subway schedule. There was much less revelry and merrymaking, but still a strong sense of purpose as Bates reopened with myriad protocols \u2014 universal masking, twice weekly testing, social distancing, limited extracurriculars \u2014 for the first time since closing on March 13 due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Nellie Breen ’21 of Pasadena, Calif., said, “We all so want to be here<\/em> and we want to stay here. We\u2019re going to do everything we can in order to stay.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n We felt their joy and enthusiasm as we watched over three days, and shared every bit of it. Here’s what it looked like, day by day, hour by hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reporting by Bates Communications staff members Jay Burns, Dave Ernst, Aaron Morse,<\/em><\/em> and Mary Pols, and photography by Phyllis Graber Jensen<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily, that question had been anticipated: spray-painted squares, the familiar distance of 6 feet apart, told students where to queue up for the first of their twice-weekly COVID-19 tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m nervous to see how it goes,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I suppose in a few minutes, it will be normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In terms of putting a plan into action, Day 1 of testing \u201cis like the first game of the season,\u201d says Nick Cooke, surveying the scene as students arrive Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until this summer, Cooke had one Bates hat, assistant athletic director for athletic performance. Hence the sports comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the announcement of the college\u2019s plan to reopen, he added another: director of the new Bates College Testing Center at Underhill Arena, which will test all students, some 1,700, twice weekly<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe message that I\u2019m giving to our staff is that students will be anxious because it\u2019s a brush with the unknown,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s our job to guide them from the unknown to the known.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manganiello, at left, following classmate Alan Bisesi ’21 of Bloomington, Ind., steps out of the Testing Center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Could he come up with one word to describe the test? \u201cEasy.\u201d he says. It felt good, he adds, to get a feel for the process which will play such a big part of every student\u2019s fall routine. \u201cI know how part of this will go for the rest of the semester.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n From there, all arriving students head into a temporary quarantine in their residences until receiving a negative COVID test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI did the math,\u201d says Director of Dining Cheryl Lacey, standing behind a stack of Sterno cans that she needs to keep food warm in the many chafing dishes set up in the dining tent next to Garcelon Field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the first week back, students will pick up their grab-n-go Dash meals \u2014 hot and cold dishes, from egg sandwiches to veggie Italians \u2014 from the tent. After that, they\u2019ll start picking them up in Commons or the Gray Cage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The math? \u201cI\u2019ve got 28 cases of Sterno, 72 cans per case.\u201d Those 2,016 cans should last a total of 4,000 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the end of the day, despite no football, it\u2019s exciting to welcome our Bobcats back to campus because we still have each other,\u201d says head football coach Malik Hall. Dollies at the ready, Hall joins Sarah Pearson ’75, vice president for college advancement, to greet students at Kalperis Hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They are two of many Bates faculty, coaches, and staff helping with the historic move in. Students moving in Tuesday are all returning students, with first-years scheduled to arrive Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI haven\u2019t seen the first-years in-person since they made their visits to campus a year and a half ago,\u201d Hall says. \u201cI am so excited to see those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hayley Neighmond ’22 of Ballston Spa, N.Y., moves into Kalperis Hall with the help of professional movers. To ensure that residence didn’t get clogged with students and parents lugging gear, the college hired local moving companies to help out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m so happy to be back!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walking on Campus Avenue to her Chu Hall residence, Orientation week leader Katia Ryan \u201923 of Amsterdam, N.Y., does a jig to express her excitement about returning to campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Page Hall, junior adviser Nathan Huynh \u201923 of San Diego looks all around and likes what he sees. Like most returning students, he has not seen the campus since mid-March, when the college moved to remote learning due to COVID-19. And it looks quite different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe trees are green,\u201d Huynh says. \u201cThe grass is tall and the weather is warm. It’s perfect here. <\/em>My favorite part about being on campus is just walking around. So yeah, I\u2019ve been stretching my legs a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What else? \u201cJust interacting with people again. And also the ducks. I really missed the ducks here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLook what\u2019s coming,\u201d says a dad from New Jersey, holding out his phone to show the pulsating orange blip on his weather radar app. \u201cFive minutes until it\u2019s here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He looks a little skeptical about whether or not the movers can get his daughter and all of her stuff into 280 College St. residence before the thundershower hits. The trees on Mount David are already starting to bend under the wind and the thunderheads are building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then the seven-person crew at 280 College descend with their secret weapons: dollies topped with refrigerator-sized cardboard boxes with one side cut out, into which the student\u2019s gear goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 3:11, when the welcome “committee” \u2014 men’s lacrosse coach Peter Lasagna \u2014 has finally conceded to sheltering from the torrential rain under the dorm\u2019s portico, the sophomore is moved in and the family is pulling away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a student rubs her hands with sanitizer, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer Geoffrey Swift points the way to the Bates Testing Center entrance. After testing in Underhill, students walk across the way to Merrill Gym for final check-in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ridge Kelly ’23 of Bremen, Maine, moves a couch into his residence at Chu Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There isn’t the usual levity \u2014 but Bobcats will be Bobcats. Orientation week leaders Jackie Tam ’22 of Gardena, Calif., and Aaliyah Black ’22 of Auburn, N.H., greet students and families in front of Wentworth Adams Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With parents Katherine and Andy, Ellory Kearns ’24 (right) of Steamboat Springs, Colo., ponders her next move after her stuff is unloaded from the family truck outside her Wentworth Adams residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sydney Phan ’24 of Zion, Ill., offers a goodbye hug to sister Kay, 10, as their mother Wendy prepares to head out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Greeting students and families outside Parker Hall, College Advancement staff member Meghan Getz Metzger ’07 found a creative way to greet folks with a friendly smile by wearing a button with her unmasked face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 280 College St., men’s lacrosse coach Peter Lasagna stands at the ready to greet students moving into the 280 College residence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two of coach Lasagna\u2019s players \u2014 whose season was cut short last spring \u2014 stop by to greet their coach. Before their arrival, they had been grumbling to their coach about their housing assignment at the downtown Hampton Inn, pressed into use mostly for juniors who cannot go abroad as they planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that they are moved in, it is not bad at all, the players say, and even have some bonuses: Because the inn\u2019s laundry facilities will be off-limits to students, the college will offer them a laundry service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Under sunny skies, Pierson Rambusch \u201922 of Madison, N.J., tells his coach about his timetable for applying to medical school. And naturally, the conversation shifts to talk of training and the hope of a spring season for the team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the dining tent near Garcelon, three lanes guide students to their Dash meals. Students will pick up all meals from the tent for the first week, then pick them up from the Gray Cage or Commons thereafter. (All meals will be Dash.) On the brunch menu:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, Chidubem Umeh \u201922 of Randolph, Mass., poses for a photo after picking up lunch. He’s a residence coordinator at Hacker House.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 1: Aug. 25<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
8:25 a.m. Standing Room Only<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWhere do I stand?\u201d asks Harris Manganiello \u201921 of Collegeville, Pa., first in line at the Bates Testing Center, a repurposed Underhill Arena, on the first day of arrivals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n8:26 a.m. Game On<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a>8:33 a.m. That Was Easy<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
8:57 a.m. A Sterno Test<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
9:19 a.m. A coach with a different role<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
9:36 a.m. Move-In to Kalperis<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>9:47 a.m. Dance Happy<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
11:22 a.m. Duck, duck, Bates<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3:01 p.m. Coming Attraction<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Day 2: Wednesday, Aug. 26<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
8:36 a.m. Sanitize and Step This Way<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
9:34 a.m. Couching Bobcat<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
10:12 a.m. Hoot Hoot Hellos<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
10:23 a.m. Almost Done<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
10:38 a.m. Goodbye Sis<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
10:56 a.m. On the Button<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
9:58 a.m. Room at the Inn<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>11 a.m. Al Fresco<\/h4>\n\n\n\n