Meeting the goals of the Bates Sustainability Roadmap will "touch and enrich our lives here on campus," said President Clayton Spencer, while also furthering the college's stated mission of "to prepare leaders with a commitment to responsible stewardship of the wider world."
Phyllis Graber Jensen Published on March 10, 2021
The email went out at 10:07 a.m. on Friday, March 13, 2020, from President Clayton Spencer.
Due to the surging pandemic, Spencer announced, Bates would immediately suspend in-person classes, asking all 1,700 students except those granted waivers through petition to move off campus in preparation for remote learning to begin in 10 days.
“My heart goes out to all of our students,” Spencer said. But, “we are at a pivotal moment with respect to both the spread of the COVID-19 virus and our ability as a college to take proactive, rather than reactive, steps.”
Thus began a year filled to the brim with reactions, proactions, and a lot of Bates teamwork, culminating in a return to campus in August and a successful so far in-person academic year.
To greet with praise the listening skies. From an ode by Mabel S. Merrill, an 1891 Bates College graduate, sung during the dedication of the chapel in 1914.
LEWISTON On a chilly November afternoon in 1912, Bates President George Colby Chase dedicated the cornerstone of what would become the college’s chapel.
A small section of the large window facing the congregation.
Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
He told the audience of students, professors and residents that “eminent and skillful architects” had designed an English Collegiate Gothic-style chapel that would be “commodious, beautiful in outline, harmonious in details and enduring as our New England hills.”