{"id":162578,"date":"2024-05-10T11:16:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T15:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=162578"},"modified":"2024-05-10T16:29:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T20:29:25","slug":"bates-in-the-news-may-10-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2024\/05\/10\/bates-in-the-news-may-10-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates in the News: May 10, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A selection of recent mentions of Bates and Bates people in the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sameer Maskey ’02<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CEO demonstrates the power of education \u2014 EnterpriseAI<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Sameer Maskey ’02 founded Fusemachines 10 years ago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Sameer Maskey \u201902 shares with Enterprise AI<\/em> his personal story of triumph to show the power in education.<\/a> Growing up in Kathmandu, Nepal, Maskey had very little experience with the internet as a child \u2014 yet he later founded the machine learning company Fusemachines, which provides a variety of AI products such as fraud detection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEducation has been transformative for my life. The only way to transform lives and make a change is through education,\u201d says Maskey, who is Fusemachines CEO as well as an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University, where he earned a doctorate in computer science. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maskey tells Enterprise AI <\/em>that he discovered computers and computing at Bates, and instantly embraced the new technology. He built the first Nepali speech-to-text voice recognition system and a Nepali-to-English translation system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, Maskey quit a job at IBM Watson and went to work on what turned into Fusemachines. \u201cI sat down in my living room and wrote a ton of code and built the first version of our natural language dialogue system,\u201d Maskey says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Matthew Paul \u201909<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Film Mode reports strong response to Breakwater<\/em> \u2014 Screen Daily<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Matthew Paul \u201909, a Bates theater major, former Navy SEAL, and now founder and principal of the independent film production company Loose Cannon Pictures<\/a>, has seen his most recent feature film, Breakwater,<\/em> starring Dermot Mulroney, gain international interest through distributor Film Mode Entertainment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFilm Mode has closed multiple sales\u201d on Breakwater<\/em>, reports Screen Daily<\/em>, noting that rights have been sold to the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Germany, Poland, Latin America, Brazil, and various airlines. Meanwhile, Vertical Entertainment is handling North American distribution rights<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breakwater<\/em> premiered last fall at several festivals, winning Fan Favorite and Best Actor (for Mulroney) honors at the Boston Film Festival in September. David Phillips of AwardsDaily<\/em> noted, <\/em>\u201cThis is a terrific film, and one of the reasons people like myself love going to festivals: to discover.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Keelin Godsey \u201906<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

College roundup: Bates graduate Keelin Godsey joins track and field hall of fame \u2014 Sun Journal<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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The Sun Journal<\/em> reports that Keelin Godsey \u201906 was inducted into the NCAA Division III Athlete Hall of Fame.<\/a> Godsey was a two-time NCAA Division III champion in the hammer throw and a 16-time All-American during his career at Bates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hall of fame is a program of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, which announced the six new inductees, noting that Godsey “ruled the hammer throw with an iron fist.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The most decorated athlete in Bates track and field history, Keelin Godsey ’06, photographed in April 2005 as a student, was a two-time NCAA Division III champion in the hammer throw and a 16-time All American thrower. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI actually didn\u2019t get heavily involved in track and field until I came to Bates,\u201d Godsey explains in a recent episode of the Bates Bobcast<\/a>. \u201cWhen I went to throw the hammer, it just clicked. I became a lucky person who found an event that worked perfectly for me in a sport that worked perfectly for me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godsey\u2019s two-year reign at the top of the Division III hammer-throw charts in 2005 and 2006 included an NCAA Division III championship meet record in the event that stood until 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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David Brooks \u201977<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Prolific and reliable, Monitor<\/em>\u2019s David Brooks inducted into New England Journalism Hall of Fame \u2014 Concord Monitor<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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After a nearly 40-year journalism career, David Brooks \u201977 was inducted into the New England Journalism Hall of Fame<\/a> on March 22, the Concord Monitor <\/em>reports. Brooks is well known for reporting the news with accuracy, reliability, and a sense of humor. He gave himself the pseudonym the Granite Geek because of his curiosity and penchant for learning new subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe reports the news, but he also explains it in a way that\u2019s informative and interesting,\u201d Steve Leone, the Monitor<\/em>\u2019s publisher, said while introducing Brooks at the Hall of Fame dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooks worked at the Nashua Telegraph<\/em> for 28 years before going to work for the Monitor <\/em>in 2015. \u201cI must say that the thing I’m really thankful for is being a reporter,\u201d Brooks tells the Monitor,<\/em> adding he has no plans to retire. \u201cAfter all, I get paid to badger complete strangers about things that interest me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leigh Weisenburger<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

College admitted student days: what to know \u2014 U.S. News & World Report<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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In a story about admitted student days,<\/a> Leigh Weisenburger, Bates vice president for enrollment and dean of admission and financial aid, tells U.S. News & World Report <\/em>that at Bates\u2019 admitted student days, students can attend mock classes and learn about academic support services, study abroad opportunities, and co-curricular and extracurricular activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leigh Weisenburger, Bates vice president for enrollment and dean of admission and financial aid, speaks with a newly admitted student during the college’s Bates Beginnings program on April 14, 2023. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Admitted student days, like Bates’ robust Bates Beginnings program, welcome newly admitted students to campus<\/a> to have the chance to ask more targeted questions and get more practical information. In addition, Bates offers a suite of virtual resources, such as \u201cask-me-anything sessions\u201d that answer questions specific to academics, like how to transfer high school AP credits to college credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As students review schools they’ve been accepted to, it’s time to “put anxiety behind you since it\u2019s truly a celebratory moment,\u201d Weisenburger says. \u201cIt\u2019s really the students\u2019 moment where, you know, we\u2019ve chosen them and then they get to choose us. They\u2019re really in the driver\u2019s seat in that way, so it\u2019s a fun, exciting, celebratory time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Martin Carriere \u201924<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Youth representative: Martin Carriere \u2014 Maine.gov<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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After being tapped to serve on the Maine Climate Council\u2019s Energy Working Group, Martin Carriere \u201924 of Davis, Calif., shares his personal story on the Maine Climate Council\u2019s website. Growing up, Carriere watched his family\u2019s farm struggle from drought<\/a> caused by climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Martin Carriere ’24 of Davis, Calif., (right), stops during a tour of Bates\u2019 new solar array in Skowhegan with fellow EcoRep Izzy Larson \u201925 of East Aurora, N.Y. (left) and Bates sustainability manager Tom Twist in September 2023, a month after the new array was installed. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As an EcoRep team member at Bates, Carriere says he\u2019s learned from his classmates about how Maine\u2019s changing climate has affected farm fields in the Northeast, as well. Carriere says he wants to learn more about renewable energy and ways to decarbonize the electric grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think something that has been a powerful takeaway from the energy working group is that there is a plan. Motivated people are working everyday to form a plan that is deeply grounded in Maine\u2019s climate reality. It\u2019s very inspiring,\u201d Carriere says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Holly Ewing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Experts say building resilience needed for watersheds to withstand climate change \u2014 Sun Journal <\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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A front-page story in the Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em> quotes Bates Professor Holly Ewing on how Maine\u2019s lakes and sources of drinking water need to become more resilient to combat the impacts of climate change and manmade threats<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe intersection between climate change and land-use change is the biggest threat we have to all our lakes here in the Northeast,\u201d says Ewing, Bates professor of environmental studies and the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ewing says big rain storms during the winter months, on the heels of snow storms, are also happening more frequently, eroding roads and carrying material into lakes. \u201cThis is the kind of thing we have to worry about now that we didn’t before,\u201d Ewing says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon Cavallero<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s Bates Film Festival reunites old Hollywood friends \u2014 Portland Press Herald <\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Oscar-winning actor Chris Cooper is just one of the notable guests speaking at the fourth Bates Film Festival.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cJon Cavallero\u2019s vision for the growing Bates Film Festival is to make it sort of a summer camp for filmmakers, a place where they can reunite with old colleagues and catch up on each other\u2019s work,\u201d writes Portland Press Herald<\/em> reporter Ray Routhier in his story<\/a> advancing this year\u2019s festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival is distinctive for how it\u2019s produced: by Bates students who are guided by Cavallero, an associate professor of rhetoric, film, and screen studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running May 14\u201319, the 2024 festival<\/a> features 26 films and 23 guests, with venues at Bates and in Portland. Guests include Oscar-winning actor Chris Cooper (recently interviewed by the Press Herald<\/em><\/a>) and his wife, actress and writer Marianne Leone; director Nancy Savoca and her husband, producer Richard Guay; and Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director John Sayles and his longtime partner and producer Maggie Renzi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will be a chance to meet up with some old friends, people I\u2019ve known a long time,\u201d Sayles tells Routhier. \u201cPlus I haven\u2019t been to Maine in about 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Films include a range from the Academy Award\u2013winning French legal drama Anatomy of a Fall<\/em> to the documentary We Are the Warriors,<\/em> about a Maine high school coming to terms with having a Native American mascot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Molly Newton \u201911<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Opinion: What is lost when students choose their roommates? \u2014 The New York Times <\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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The New York Times<\/em> sought out Molly Newton \u201911, senior associate dean of students at Bates, for a column decrying the trend of colleges giving first-year students control over roommate selection<\/a>, even letting students choose first-year roommates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Molly Newton ’11, senior associate dean of students at Bates, uses her trademark kick scooter to seemingly be everywhere at once on Opening Day for new students on Aug. 31, 2022. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Learning to get along with a complete stranger in close quarters is “essential to preparing young people for the world,” writes Pamela Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Bates, Newton oversees the professional team that, among other work, assigns first-year roommates using survey information from students. As she told Paul: \u201cRoommate experiences are an intense learning experience. They\u2019re fun and they\u2019re hard,\u201d Newton says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Today\u2019s divided campuses need students to learn as much as possible about getting along with the kinds of people they don\u2019t know,” writes Paul. “Kids certainly deserve the chance, too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bates Inauguration <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Garry Jenkins formally installed as ninth president of Bates College \u2014 Sun Journal<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Bates President Garry W. Jenkins\u2019 inauguration<\/a>, was featured by the Sun Journal<\/em>\u2019s Steve Collins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 90-minute installation, Collins writes, \u201coffered huge heaps of tradition, including handing Jenkins the records kept starting in 1855 by Bates\u2019 first president, along with oft-cited hopes for an even brighter future for the widely respected liberal arts institution.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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President Garry W. Jenkins is just the ninth president installed at Bates College \u2014 and the first Black and openly gay president \u2014 since the college was founded in 1855. (Rene Roy for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Collins writes that when Jenkins took office last July he became the first Black and the first openly gay president of one of the first colleges in the United States to accept women and Black students.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collins generously quotes Jenkins\u2019 address, titled \u201cRising Together,\u201d including how Jenkins said the ceremony \u201crepresents exciting beginnings and celebrates some historic firsts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael Rocque <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Opinion: five reasons why immigrants aren\u2019t bringing high crime, as Trump claims \u2014 CNN Opinion<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Associate Professor of Sociology Michael Rocque writes with Steven E. Barkan for CNN Opinion<\/em> how Americans historically have linked immigrants with crime and former President Donald Trump has repeatedly stoked this fear. But Rocque and Barkan contend Trump\u2019s claim is false.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rocque and Barkan explain how research and evidence on immigration and crime contradict such beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBased on many studies from the past two decades, the answer here is clear: Immigration does not produce more violence or other crime, and immigrants do not have higher crime rates than native-born Americans,\u201d Rocque and Barkan write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Myron Beasley <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bates College professor awarded Maine\u2019s Public Humanities Prize \u2014 Sun Journal <\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Myron Beasley was awarded the Maine Humanities Council’s public humanities prize. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Myron Beasley, associate professor of American studies and gender and sexuality studies at Bates, was recognized by the Maine Humanities Council on May 8<\/a> for his innovative leadership in conversations around art and the breadth and depth he brings to his creative projects, the Sun Journal<\/em> reports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMyron Beasley\u2019s work as a scholar, curator, and performance artist recognizes the power of art and ideas to transform communities,\u201d says Luis Millones, a Maine Humanities Council board member. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to honor his commitment to highlighting the important stories and work of people from marginalized groups.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maya Williams, Portland\u2019s seventh poet laureate, was the other winner of the 2024 Maine Humanities Council\u2019s Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the founder of a 10-year-old machine learning company and two hall of fame inductees to a Bates Film Festival packed with several Hollywood stars, this month\u2019s installment of Bates In the News highlights high achievement and notable Bates news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1705,"featured_media":162700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[11051],"class_list":["post-162578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-alumni","tag-bates-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1705"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162578"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162736,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162578\/revisions\/162736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}