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Until We Meet Again

A global health crisis upends the campus

By Bates College

March 24^th, 2020

Note:

These photographs, showing the Bates community helping some 1,700 students leave campus in just five days, were taken as the imperative to ensure physical distancing was still taking hold. As such, they show hugging and other physical contact.

We share them to honor the experience of our students at a moment of intense sadness and to share how Bates faculty and staff have tried to support all our students during a difficult time for us all.

4:30 p.m., March 10
The Last Game

With the COVID-19 public health crisis unfolding in early March, Bates still hoped to continue in-person classes through the traditional end of the semester in April. But that would not happen.

On March 10, what would end up being the final home game of the spring season took place on Garcelon Field as the women’s lacrosse team defeated the University of Southern Maine by a score of 20-1. Here, co-captain senior Caroline Kerrigan of Falls Church, Va., is introduced before the game.

The next day, NESCAC announced cancellation of the spring season. Two days later came President Clayton Spencer's announcement.

Co-captain Caroline Kerrigan ’20 of Falls Church, Va., is introduced before the women's lacrosse game vs. the University of Southern Maine.

10 a.m., Friday, March 13
The Announcement

At mid-morning on Friday, March 13, President Clayton Spencer announced the difficult but inevitable decision to 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.

“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.”

“My heart goes out to all of our students,” she said. “The members of this community share a seriousness of purpose, a generosity of spirit, and a commitment to educating students who will be ethical and effective actors in the world. This moment of challenge and uncertainty calls on all of these qualities and more.”

11:34 a.m., March 13
Wasting No Time

Shortly after President Spencer’s announcement, Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Francis Eanes began reviewing his course materials in preparation for remote learning. Behind him are postcards from his travels.

Eanes’ courses this semester include one teaching students how to write about environmental issues for public audiences — everything from advocacy scholarship to personal essays — and a course where students team up with Lewiston-Auburn community partners on a variety of environmental projects.

12:05 p.m., March 13
The Final Class

As she does at the beginning of every class, Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies Holly Ewing led her students in guided meditation, this one a bit longer than usual, given the morning’s announcement by President Spencer that in-person classes would end that very day.

Adding a bit of needed levity, she joked that she assumed not many of the students had completed the assignment due that morning.

Carly Harris '22 of Orinda, Calif., joins her fellow students in meditation before their class with Holly Ewing.

12:20 p.m., March 13
The Doors Start to Swing Shut

Two days before the announcement that the college would switch to remote learning, the college began limiting all facilities to individuals with a Bates ID.

1:02 p.m., March 13
Gathering the Team

With the announcement that Bates would move to remote learning — meaning all students had to be off campus within four days, by March 17 — the staff of Student Affairs, supported by myriad other college departments, transformed Chase Hall into a full-service clearinghouse for students needing any manner of support leaving campus, including no-questions-asked financial assistance.

Students arriving at Chase Hall for help found it everywhere, from professors, coaches, and administrators, including President Spencer, who lunched in the Den while conferring with faculty about the challenging move to remote learning by March 23.

1:27 p.m., March 13
Support for Students

Throughout the transition, the focus was on supporting the wide range of student needs.

2:42 p.m., March 13
Keep Smiling

Much of the support given by Bates adults to Bates students was emotional, as the young people's dreams, plans, and hopes for spring 2020 unraveled before their eyes.

“Tell jokes,” said Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies Jane Costlow, as she urged students to use humor in the face of adversity. Although she was not scheduled to teach on Friday, one student dropped in for a last-minute conference, and others came to say goodbye.

Tommy Novick ’22 of New Canaan, Conn., was one of those students. He is in Costlow’s “Catastrophe and Hope” course, and he was writing a paper about a family displaced by civil war in Doctor Zhivago. His own displacement from Bates was on his mind, and Costlow helped him sort out the next steps.

Michelle Desjarlais of Albuquerque, N.M., also stopped by and received a social distancing–appropriate elbow bump from Costlow instead of a hug.

3:16 p.m., March 13
Pop-Up Exhibition

At Bates, milestones for graduating seniors include, for studio art majors, the annual Senior Thesis Exhibition at the Bates Museum of Art. Like all other campus events, this year’s edition had to be canceled.

Studio art major Grace Smith of Williamstown, Mass., knowing that she would not be able to show her work at the exhibition, invited her rowing teammates and coaches to an informal showing at her studio in Olin Arts Center. Some of her fellow senior artists did the same.

Grace Smith poses for a selfie with her rowing coach, Peter Steenstra.

Artwork by Michael Hogue '20 of Chicago.

4:29 p.m., March 13
‘Just Starting to Find My Place’

If Bates seniors had to cope with an abrupt end to their time on campus, at the other end of the spectrum was the experience of first-years.

David Chen ’23 of Rockaway, N.J., is a photographer for The Bates Student and had just started shooting for the Bates Communications Office. A rower, he was also looking ahead to the spring season. All that felt good: He was “just starting to find my place at Bates.”

Chen packed up his room, said goodbye to friends and his College Street view, and headed to the lobby to await the arrival of his father, who was driving up from New Jersey.

10:23 a.m., March 14
‘We’ve Come to an End’

March and April can be happy and raucous times on the first floor of Ladd Library as students engage in a joyous Bates tradition: a senior and a friend placing the completed senior thesis into its traditional black binder.

English major Jonathan Farrell ’20 of Middletown, Conn., did a yearlong creative writing thesis that comprised short stories whose characters are coping, in different ways, with loneliness. His adviser is Lecturer in English Jessica Anthony ’96.

“One of the stories is about a guy sitting on the roof of a chapel talking to gargoyles,” Farrell explained. “In another, a guy is thinking about how to get a goldfish out of his toilet; his goldfish is like, almost, a plastic God. The characters cope with their own loneliness and they move forward.”

Farrell gathered a group of friends in the library at 10 a.m. Saturday to bind his thesis. It wasn't quite done, but he desperately felt he needed a ritual of closure. “These stories are an amalgamation of my time at Bates — something that I’ve been fortunate enough to write, and a reminder of everything I’ve been through.”

He asked his rock-climbing friend Steve Shea ’22 of Wilson, Wyo., to do the honors. “Steve was always around when I was working on my thesis, which was Saturday nights when the deadline was Sunday morning,” Farrell says. His friend provided steady and unquestioning support, a steady stream of “It’s all good,” or “You’re writing. You’re doing well,” or “Just keep on going.”

Said Farrell, “That was something I was so thankful for.”

He added, “Yes, we’ve come to an end, and we didn’t have the regular end that so many others do, but I think we’re going to remember this better in some sense, sad in some sense.

“I did the binding. Other people are having one last hurrah with friends. We all deal differently, you know.”

English major Jonathan Farrell ’20 of Middletown, Conn., did a yearlong creative writing thesis that comprised short stories whose characters are coping, in different ways, with loneliness.

11:03 a.m., March 16
Up to Speed

Turning their attention to remote learning, Bates faculty members gather in person and remotely for a support session.

Associate Professor of Sociology Heidi Taylor asks a question during a session in the Keck Classroom.

Shauma’h Fuegen, senior academic technology consultant and manager of the digital media studios, speaks with Associate Professor of Mathematics Chip Ross.

Via video conferencing, Assistant Director of Writing Stephanie Wade asks a question during a sessions in Commons Room 226.

12:33 a.m., March 16
Storing Up

Gloves on, Bates College Store staffer Jerryanne Laperriere made a gesture of tranquillity in response to the query, “How are you doing?”

After packing up his room to head home to Newark, N.J., Lucas Clement ’23 did some shopping before departing with his parents, Neydi and David, and older sister, Sophia, a sophomore at Williams College, which has also closed.

12:48 a.m., March 16
The Weight

“My life in two boxes,” said Nick Eaton ’20 of Lake Oswego, Ore., commenting on the two tubs he purchased at Walmart, now weighing about 95 pounds each and stuffed to capacity with his belongings.

Helping him secure the tubs for shipping with strappers (normally used with MUCH smaller containers) were Assistant Director of Post and Print Ed Jawor, right, and Michal Cwik ’20 of Auburn, Maine, a friend who came to help.

1:07 p.m., March 16
The Presses Have Stopped

Vanessa Paolella ’21 of Dingmans Ferry, Pa., took one last look at The Bates Student office, where she spent every day this year working as one of the newspaper's editors. An athlete in cross country and track, she missed competing at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, which was canceled on March 12.

2 p.m., March 16
‘Toughest Goodbyes’

Seniors Nick Hill of Baltimore and Lila Patinkin of Chicago paused for a quiet moment together at Lake Andrews. Later, they shared their thoughts in an email: “It’s been unprecedented and heart-wrenching for our whole class. These are some of the toughest goodbyes we’ve ever had to make. But it’s taught us to hold each other close, and given us a real sense of urgency to stay connected.”

2:19 p.m., March 16
Midfield Moment

“He’s going abroad for all of next year, so this is our last time together on campus,” said Christine Bourdeau ’21, a biology major from Milton, Mass., seated with Alex Gailey ’22, an English major from Berkeley, Calif., on a warm patch of turf near midfield on Garcelon Field.

3:34 p.m., March 16
The Long Goodbyes

From Friday afternoon through Tuesday, buses and shuttles, both chartered by Bates and regularly scheduled, arrived outside Chase Hall and departed to start students on their homeward journeys.