![\"Bates](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/09\/250917_OpenDoor_Garry_Jenkins_1446.webp\")
One theme of discussion was the value of education for Jenkins, both personally and universally. He spoke of his early years in the public school system, and his experiences at the private liberal arts school he attended, Haverford College, as well as the large public universities he worked at prior to coming to Bates in 2023. He described the powerful, formative impact growing up with parents who were educators themselves had on him, and reflected that his own experience steered him toward Bates, a place that quickly felt like home to him, and which has given him a sense of optimism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe students are kind,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cThey’re thoughtful. They are interested in making a difference in whatever way that means for them, and they’re open to that exploration. That makes me excited for the future.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Watch the full conversation embedded below<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n During an open Q&A, an audience member asked how Bates is meeting a new reality, when the value of higher education is being called into question by some in both government and the public. \u201cThe public seems to be much less supportive, much more skeptical, [and] has much less regard for colleges and universities than was the case previously,\u201d the attendee said before asking: How is Bates handling this new reality? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jenkins acknowledged that shift in public perception. \u201cTo be honest, for a long time, the college degree, its importance, the value, was almost taken as given,\u201d he said. That value hasn\u2019t changed, he said, but it can\u2019t be taken for granted that others see it that way. Bates is trying to \u201ccommunicate more and communicate better about the value that we add,\u201d Jenkins said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bates has a mission to educate the whole person and prepare students to be leaders, he said. \u201cCollege is not about teaching people what to think,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cIt’s about teaching people how<\/em> to think. That’s really important. I think we’ve lost the thread a little bit on that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The public needs to be aware of these myriad benefits of higher education, Jenkins explained, and this can only be achieved collectively. None of these perceptions developed overnight, he noted, citing the steady erosion of support for public institutions, including state funding, over the course of his own career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBoy has that changed over the past, what, 40 years, 50 years? Right?\u201d Jenkins said. Immediately prior to coming to Bates, he served as the dean of the University of Minnesota Law School. Looking at how the percentage of funding that came from the state 40 years ago compared to how it is now represents a dramatically different scenario, he said. \u201cWhen I left the University of Minnesota Law School, the percent [of school funding] from the state was in single digits. So this is part of a much longer narrative, and we’ve got to really dig in and work together to change that, but it’s not an overnight type of solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is going to require citizen to citizen action,\u201d Jenkins told the audience. \u201cAnd so what we can do is we can enlist others to join us in this fight and in talking about the value, the importance that college had to you, to your life, to your family, and really tell that story.\u201d He encouraged attendees to \u201ctalk to our politicians, talk to your neighbors,\u201d to help bring about a cultural shift. \u201cBecause that’s what we need.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week Bates President Garry W. Jenkins joined Stefanie Manning, Maine Trust for Local News\u2019 managing director, for a public conversation about his leadership and journey to Bates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":170571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":["garry-w-jenkins"],"_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":"On Sept. 17, Jenkins sat down for a public conversation about his leadership and journey to Bates","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":170609,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,8,1,30,224,234],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-bates-values","category-batesnews","category-civic-engagement","category-society-culture","category-teaching-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170522","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\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170522"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170611,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170522\/revisions\/170611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bates](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/09\/250917_OpenDoor_Garry_Jenkins_7376.webp\")