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And They're Off

A new year, new Bates president, and big Bates welcome to the new Class of 2027

By Bates College

September 15^th, 2023

Follow along, from just before Bates’ reopening — a quiet summer moment captured at the local balloon festival — to the first day of classes of the new Bates year.

August 20: Harbinger of a new year

Held along the Androscoggin River near Bates on the weekend before the first students begin to return to campus, the Great Falls Balloon Festival is a harbinger of a new year. Here, a balloon rises next to the chimney of the old Bates Mill.

August 23: Return to run

A disc golf course and landmark ice cream shack might seem an unconventional venue for the first practice for one of Bates’ varsity teams.

But this venue, Roy’s All Steak Hamburger and Golf Center in Auburn, has proven to be the ideal gathering spot for the Bates men’s and women’s cross country teams as they embark on their second season as a single program under a single coach, Danny Feldman.

Yes, post-workout ice cream is a selling point.

August 23: Getting on the AESOP express

During the last week of August, Memorial Commons in Chase Hall is the staging area for all the gear needed for this year’s AESOP trips — 57 three-day trips led by 114 student trip leaders, fanning out across Maine and into New Hampshire, from the coast to the mountains, and right near campus in and around Lewiston-Auburn.

In Memorial Commons, we caught up with this year’s AESOP senior coordinators: Maeve McSloy (left) of New York City and Casey Shultis (right) of Portland, Ore. (Their third coordinator, Faith Nwando of Queens, N.Y., is studying abroad this semester.)

Working with college leaders, AESOP coordinators have restructured the program in recent years “to make it inclusive for every Bates student, not just those who grew up participating in the outdoors,” McSloy said.

August 28: Scholars arrive

The college’s new first-generation program, the Kessler Scholars Program, seeks to “provide holistic support for a diverse community of high-achieving students who are the first in their family to pursue a four-year college degree.”

The first cohort of scholars arrived this year to a warm Bates welcome, joined by President Garry W. Jenkins on Aug. 28.

August 31: Opening Day

Hundreds of student leaders and Bates staff members teamed up on a gorgeous Opening Day, Aug. 31, to help the members of the Class of 2027 get settled in their campus residences.

Presidential Greetings

A buoyant President Garry W. Jenkins and his husband, Jon Lee, took time to greet arriving students and families outside Commons.

Move in at Chu and Kalperis halls

Many hands made for light work on Opening Day.

Wipe out

Facility Services staff wipe down the rows of chairs set up on the Historic Quad for the annual welcome by President Jenkins and other college leaders later in the day.

With 850 chairs to tackle, it’s a team effort.

Parker and Gillespie

Parker Hall is the oldest campus residence, opened in 1857. Nearby, Gillespie Hall isn’t the newest residence (it has been around since 2007), but it has the newest name.

Long known simply by its street address, 280 College Street, the residence hall’s new name honors John Gillespie ’80, whose engagement with Bates spans more than four decades and two generations, including 20 years on the Board of Trustees and four years as chair.

Turn the Page

James Reese, pictured at lower left, who joined the Bates Student Affairs team in 1977, has observed thousands of Bates families arriving for college, including many students who are the children of alumni that Reese knows.

“Within the joy apparent in the graduate family, there is a noticeable rush, akin to a ripple or a wave,” he said. “It’s a flow of feelings and emotions that is quite detectable going back and forth when I meet grads who are dropping off their now college-aged children.”

“There are smiles; postures of pride; and immense optimism about the learning, the experiences, the associations, and the discoveries that will come — all familial in a Bates way.”

Otis Caron ’24 has tattoos with acronyms that honor his late father (“Think before you speak”) and his mom (“Patience is a virtue”). The family turned out to help first-year student Ella move in.

International Gathering

International first-year students and their parents gathered in the Fireside Lounge in Commons to listen to Associate Dean of Students for International Student Programs James Reese explain how he will watch over their children, help them in any way he can, and be a friend to them.

Hello, and Goodbye

Bates’ newest families gather in front of Coram to hear welcomes from three college leaders.

Leigh Weisenburger, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission and financial aid, speaks of the pride she and her team felt in helping the new students find their college.

Dean of Students Erin Foster Zsiga follows with warm words about entering a brand new community. “Be kind to yourself, particularly when you may experience moments of self-doubt. It takes time to build your life in a new place. If no one has told you yet, let me be the first: You are here for a reason. You belong at Bates.”

President Garry W. Jenkins closed the afternoon welcome, telling the students, families, and loved ones that they are all joining a special, kind, and committed community.

“Be open to newness, find deeper connections with people whose experiences and backgrounds, and taste in music, may be different from yours,” he said. “I guarantee you, you’re going to be enriched by the process. My college friends are still among my closest friends and confidants in the world.”

September 1: AESOP kickoff

This year’s edition of AESOP kicked off with a welcome to first-year students at the Florence Keigwin Amphitheater, where they met their trip leaders to begin their weekend adventure.

The welcomes concluded with a traditional prank: dousing the head coordinators, Maeve McSloy ’24 and Casey Shultis ’24, with a secret sauce, which they dealt with by taking a cleansing jump into Lake Andrews. (The third program coordinator, Faith Nwando ’24 of Queens, N.Y., is studying abroad this semester.)

September 2: Nezinscot Farm

Another AESOP trip destination was Nezinscot Farm, located just 20 minutes away from campus in Turner, which is a sustainably run organic farm of veggie gardens, rolling fields, and farm animals, all tucked by the Nezinscot River.

September 2: Lake Chillin' at Crescent Beach

Crescent Beach, located on Taylor Pond, just a few minutes from campus, was one stop on a laid-back AESOP trip.

September 2: Game on

An AESOP trip gave first-year students a chance to connect with the community and with folks who know Lewiston-Auburn better than most, residents of a nearby assisted-living facility.

The students met the seniors for board games and conversation, offering a unique blend of wisdom and youthful energy.

September 3: The cleanup crew

One AESOP trip gave Bates students the chance to do what generations of students have done before them: help maintain a 3.6-mile section of the Appalachian Trail in Rangeley, Maine — clearing trees from the trail, cutting back brush at the edge of the trail, and other projects as needed.

September 5: A gift from a past class

The Class of 2027 walked to Opening Convocation past the Mouthpiece bulletin board, a gift to Bates from a century ago, the Class of 1927.

At Convocation, President Garry W. Jenkins promised the new students that Bates is a place where “you get to be who you want to be.” His words underscored a resounding message: that Bates is a community centered on caring and kindness.

'You are not alone'

Associate Professor of Biology Andrew Mountcastle put a fine point on that message in his Convocation address, inviting the Class of 2027 to “embrace the process of learning in all of its messy imperfection” and then promising: “You are not alone. You see all of these folks up front in colored robes? We are literally here for you.”

Jenkins asked the Class of 2027 to “please treat each other with kindness and a generous spirit.” The new president’s request drew a few claps, to which Jenkins, with humor in his voice and a nod, responded: “You can clap for that.” With that, the audience of students, faculty, and staff burst into applause.

“And, by the way, I’m right there with you,” Jenkins said to the new students. “I’m totally plunged into the newness of Bates and, because of that, I feel a special connection to the Class of 2027.”

Support and remembrance

In their Convocation remarks, Student Government co-presidents Rebecca Anderson ’24 of Boone, N.C., and Dhruv Chandra ’25 of Kolkata, India, also encouraged the first-years to try new things, talk to everyone, say hi to people on your floor, and to “form relationships with people from across campus.”

As they shared their speech, alternating back and forth throughout it, they promised, “you will soon realize that Bates is a community of collective support.”

Convocation was followed by the memorial tree planting service, offering the Bates community the chance to gather and remember those members of the campus community who died in the past year.

The short service included live music, including “Ashokan Farewell,” performed on the violin by Maple Buescher ’25 of Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The musical offering was “from a Maple to a maple,” quipped the Rev. Brittany Longsdorf, the college’s multifaith chaplain, referring to the gifted performer and the newly planted maple tree.

The ritual of watering the tree with water from Lake Andrews drew nearly 50 who lined up to share in the practice.

September 6: Family stories

Professor of French and Francophone Studies Kirk Read is one of the senior members of the faculty, but he still gets a big thrill from teaching a First-Year Seminar. “It’s my absolute favorite class to teach,” he said.

He is teaching “Family Stories,” which kicked off on Sept. 6 with a rousing series of conversations in his Roger Williams classroom (and a quick stop outside for a class photo).

One of the first activities: passing a baguette around the room to learn each other’s names, a nod to Read’s “other life in French.”

The course’s theme, he says, is about family, connection, kinship, belonging, and cultural specificity — which “is ripe fruit” for students in their first months at Bates, he says. “We read stories from a variety of cultural viewpoints, with some ‘grounding voices’ on storytelling (Adichie), intersectionality (Crenshaw), and displacement (Baldwin), that hopefully resonate with lived experiences or concerns around the room.”

For their final work, the students will tell a story of their own, “or simply one they would love to tell, with a nod to how the class might have influenced their style and message.”

Read says that he teaches the course only every four or so years, so that one FYS “family” can graduate “before I take on a new crew.” And so begins another four-year cycle with a new group of Bates students.