{"id":63326,"date":"2013-03-10T16:57:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-10T20:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=63326"},"modified":"2016-01-14T12:07:08","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T17:07:08","slug":"letters-winter-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2013\/03\/10\/letters-winter-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters: Winter 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

By about a 10\u20131 margin, readers approved of the Bates Magazine<\/em> makeover that debuted with the Spring 2012 issue. Some said the perfect binding \u2014 rather than saddle stitched \u2014 makes the magazine hard to keep open. Hint: The binding is more malleable than you might think! Sample comments:<\/p>\n

Outstanding job! As an enthusiastic alum (and a long, long-retired IBM manager of graphic design), I \u201chappily pronounce\u201d the new number intelligent, inviting and a joy to both read and behold. An encore may well present a challenge, but the timing for Clayton Spencer\u2019s arrival is exquisite. Heartiest congratulations.<\/p>\n

Jonas Klein \u201954<\/strong>
\nFalmouth, Maine<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019re on the beach in Florida reading Bates Magazine<\/em>. It is fantastic.<\/p>\n

Bates Parent<\/strong>
\nBy phone<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

I have mixed feelings about the new format for Bates Magazine<\/em>. It doesn\u2019t read easily from left to right, given all the marginal notes, boxes and extended captions. It reminds me of The One-Page Magazine feature in The New York Times<\/em> magazine. The Bates format is better, but not much. Overall, I think it\u2019s trying too hard to be cute or different, but it\u2019s always good to see if there\u2019s a better way than \u201cthe way we\u2019ve always done it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyn Whiston \u201966<\/strong>
\nGlen Ellyn, Ill.<\/em><\/p>\n

More redesign comments at bates.edu\/magazine\/redesign\/reactions<\/a>. \u2014 Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Lofty Perspective<\/h3>\n

The aerial campus photo (\u201cFrom a Distance,\u201d Spring 2012) vividly reminded me of what Bates has meant to me.<\/p>\n

In 1994, I arrived with great intentions of becoming a physician. Two pivotal events that fall allowed that path to change \u2014 for the better.<\/p>\n

First, President Donald Harward welcomed us by urging us to \u201cpursue paths of ambiguity.\u201d What I took from this speech was that Bates was ready for us to experience life in new ways we hadn\u2019t even yet imagined.<\/p>\n

Second was meeting Stuart Abelson \u201997, president of the Bates Aviators. Full of contagious energy and excitement, Stuart urged me and other flying enthusiasts not only to join the club, but also to try an introductory flight at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport.<\/p>\n

I did, becoming enamored with flying that fall even as I discovered my shortcomings in chemistry. I considered leaving Bates to attend an aviation-specific college but stayed to pursue my own paths of ambiguity.<\/p>\n

I majored in Spanish, spent a year abroad in Costa Rica (where I met my wife) and wrote a thesis in Spanish literature with the gracious guidance of Professor Baltasar Fra-Molinero.<\/p>\n

After earning my private pilot\u2019s license (and floatplane license at Twitchell\u2019s Airport in Turner), I frequently took Batesies on aerial tours of campus and Maine, working at Security and Campus Safety and Twin Cities Air Service to support this new passion.<\/p>\n

My post-Bates life found me pursuing my passion. After several years as a flight instructor and charter pilot in New England, life brought my wife and me to the paradisiac island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, where I flew a nine-passenger propeller plane on short flights between Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n

Now a Canadair Regional Jet captain for a Delta Connection carrier, Pinnacle Airlines, I still look back very fondly on those formative days as a pilot, Bates student and citizen of the world.<\/p>\n

Thanks for putting together a great magazine. Thanks to Bates for encouraging students to be themselves and open their eyes to the world.<\/p>\n

David Tzeutschler \u201998<\/strong>
\nSt. Paul, Minn.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"In<\/a>

In his letter, Rocky Query explains the misgivings about the GI Bill in 1944 that President Spencer alluded to in her inaugural address. While the union of excellence and opportunity embodied in GI Bill was old hat for Bates, the return of older servicemen and their families to Bates did shake up the campus scene, as suggested by the cover photo of the May 1947 Bulletin<\/em>, showing Joseph LaRochelle \u201944 and his 1-year-old daughter, Mary Jo \u2014 now Mary Jo LaRochelle McBride-Beece \u201968.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHobo Jungles\u201d Explained<\/h3>\n

I read President Clayton Spencer\u2019s inaugural address, \u201cQuestions Worth Asking,\u201d with great interest and appreciation.<\/p>\n

In her address, President Spencer comments on the importance of the GI Bill in expanding educational opportunities for a diverse pool of human talent. She contrasts that legacy with fears expressed by Robert Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago at the time of the GI Bill\u2019s passage, who said that \u201ccolleges and universities will find themselves converted into educational hobo jungles\u201d as a result of the act.<\/p>\n

Some might take from this quotation that Hutchins did not share President Spencer\u2019s belief in the importance of openness and opportunity in higher education.<\/p>\n

On the contrary. In his 1944 essay in Collier\u2019s<\/em>, from which the \u201chobo jungle\u201d language is taken, Hutchins notes that U.S. higher education has been the \u201cpreserve of the relatively rich,\u201d and notes hopefully that the GI Bill seeks to incorporate \u201cinto our national policy the principle that there must be no relation between the education of a citizen and the income of parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

What, then, were the concerns Hutchins had with the GI Bill?<\/p>\n

He explained that because \u201ceducational institutions, as the big-time football racket shows, cannot resist money,\u201d they would be distracted from a commitment to their mission by the revenues to be gained from the GI Bill.<\/p>\n

Colleges, he said, \u201cwill not want to keep out unqualified veterans; they will not want to expel those who fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, Hutchins worried that the principle of educational opportunity embodied in the GI Bill would be discredited when educators faced students more concerned with vocational assistance than a liberal arts education. And he worried that such students might feel defrauded by receiving an education ill-suited to helping them find employment.<\/p>\n

Today, some universities have indeed taken on aspects of Hutchins\u2019 feared hobo jungle, as students seek educational credentials not out of intellectual curiosity or commitment to academia but because they need jobs. Today\u2019s applicants to Bates seek the benefits of the college\u2019s commitment to an excellent liberal arts education, but they are also concerned with the price and affordability of the education they are paying for.<\/p>\n

Hutchins\u2019 concerns still seem valid, even as institutions like Bates have avoided the demoralization he feared. I suspect he would, in fact, be heartened by the optimism reflected in President Spencer\u2019s approach to today\u2019s important educational questions and by the enthusiastic response she has elicited so far from the Bates community.
\nJames \u201cRocky\u201d Query<\/strong>
\nPhiladelphia<\/em><\/p>\n

President Spencer\u2019s inaugural address is at bates.edu\/inauguration<\/a>. Read about Nate Boone \u201952 and the GI Bill on page 52. \u2014 Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Blue Bobcats<\/h3>\n

Our statement that no Blue Devil from Lewiston High School \u201cin recent memory\u201d had played baseball for Bates before Mekae Hyde \u201915 and Alex Parker \u201915 joined the team last year prompted a couple letters.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cRecent memory\u201d probably is right, but my not-so-recent memory contains the following:<\/p>\n

Larry Quimby \u201952 was the son of Professor Brooks Quimby and Inez Robinson Quimby, both Class of 1918. He graduated from Lewiston High, and I played with him \u2014 he was an excellent pitcher. His senior thesis was on the history of baseball.<\/p>\n

Dave Harkins \u201953 was an excellent catcher on our team, and a Lewiston High graduate.<\/p>\n

Fred Lebel \u201953 was a good player who was at Bates for a year or so, at a time when freshmen couldn\u2019t play varsity sports.<\/p>\n

Jim Moody \u201953<\/strong>
\nCape Elizabeth, Maine<\/em><\/p>\n

The late Norm Parent \u201950 was a legendary Lewiston High School football coach and Lewiston High grad who played on the 1946 Glass Bowl football team in addition to baseball.<\/p>\n

Marc Levasseur \u201984 was a LHS grad who played baseball when the baseball field was where the Village is now. And Matt Madden \u201987 played baseball; his son Chris \u201916 is now at Bates.<\/p>\n

Jim Taylor<\/strong>
\nLewiston, Maine<\/em><\/p>\n

Taylor is head athletics equipment manager. \u2014 Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Please Write<\/h3>\n

We love letters. Letters may be edited for length (300 words or fewer preferred), style, grammar, clarity and relevance to college issues and issues discussed in Bates Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Email your letter to: magazine@bates.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

Or post it to:
\nBates Magazine<\/em>
\nBates Communications Office
\n141 Nichols St.
\nLewiston ME 04240<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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