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FactsSlang
- Batesie - Bates student.
- Bean - Short for L.L. Bean, where many Batesies buy clothes and gear.
- Beast - Milwaukee’s Best, tied with Bud Light for most popular drink on campus.
- CBB - Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin; three liberal arts colleges in Maine.
- Cell Hell - The Short Term course required for all bio majors and pre-med students.
- JB - John Bertram Hall.
- ManOps - Bates’ all-male a cappella group, the Manic Optimists.
- Men - Bates all-male a cappella group, the Deansmen.
- Meris - Bates’ all-female a cappella group, the Merimanders.
- P-gill - Pettengill Hall.
- Pre-Frosh - Prospective student.
- The Bates Bubble - The Bates campus and community; refers to the fact that few Bates students are aware of anything outside the bubble.
- The Bill - Roger Williams Hall.
- The Cage - The Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building.
- The Puddle - Lake Andrews.
- The Quad - The lawn at the center of campus.
- The Silo - The Benjamin Mays Center.
- The Tones - Bates coed a cappella group, the Crosstones
Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School
- Bring a PC if you can (if anything goes wrong with a Mac, no one will know how to help you).
- Call your roommate before you get to campus (you both might show up with refrigerators).
- Don’t buy your computer or bed linen from the school.
- Get your PE credits out of the way as soon as possible.
- How long the Maine winter lasts.
- Sign up for a science class (or two) your freshman year.
- The main doors in Pettengill are push (not pull!) when you’re going out.
- There isn't much to do in Lewiston.
- Visit career services starting freshman year and utilize their services to find a job senior year and set up job interviews.
Tips to Succeed
- Be prepared to work harder than you’ve ever had to.
- Don’t ever hesitate to ask questions if you don’t understand what’s going on.
- Don’t take any 8 a.m. classes unless you really have to.
- Live near your friends senior year.
- Pettigrew and Pettengill are two very different buildings.
- Remember that your computer is for doing work, not just chatting on AIM, checking your e-mail and Facebook.
- Take advantage of the small class sizes, and establish personal relationships with some of your professors.
- Take at least one late-night trip up Mount David (from that distance, even Lewiston looks pretty).
- Take classes that actually interest you.
Urban Legends
- A car was found in the bottom of the Puddle when they drained it for cleaning. The owner of the car remains unknown. No bodies were found.
- An underground tunnel runs from Cheney House to Lane Hall.
- Dr. John Stanton came to Bates in 1863 as a professor of Greek and Latin at Bates. A nature lover, Stanton paid to have horses and carriages bring the freshman class to a picnic at which he would tell them the history of Bates. The tradition, called the Stanton Ride, continued for 100 years. Stanton would also take students on nature walks at Thorncrag to his cabin. After his death in 1918, students still made the walk to the Stanton Lodge. Supposedly, upon their arrival to the empty cabin, the students would discover a feast laid out for them. By whom? Some said it was Stanton spreading joy.
- There used to be a two-story high bong in the Bill.
Traditions
- Chalking the Quad - Every year, OUTfront, the school’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) club and other students apply sidewalk chalk to the paths on the Quad, writing slogans and drawing pictures that are meant to raise Bates’s awareness of issues facing the homosexual community.
- Climbing Mount David - Mount David is really more of a hill and less than a mountain located behind Rand Hall. Most students never see the summit of Mount David in the daytime, but at night, it is a very popular spot for students who have been indulging in illegal activities. Mount David provides a very nice view of the city, and it usually takes less than 10 minutes to climb.
- Harvest Dinner - Before Thanksgiving Break, dining services hosts a big Thanksgiving dinner, also offered to the local community. Turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin stew and many other foods adorn the tables around ice sculpture masterpieces. As a live folk band plays, raffle-winners are called, winning items like a chocolate fountain. Artificial pine trees scattered through Commons. You can get professional photographs taken with friends in front of fun backdrops. On the way to the Gray Cage for dessert, you can grab kettle corn and select any soda from blueberry to root beer from a soda pop wagon. At the close of your feasting, horse-drawn carriage rides are offered around the quad.
- Lick-It and Gala - Bates offers a free semi-formal dance in the spring every year with excellent desserts and two live bands. Students generally put a lot of work into looking nice for Gala, and the event is attended by professors as well. The night before Gala is Lick-It, another school dance, but one of a very different sort. The point of Lick-It is to come absurdly drunk wearing as little as possible. Students have been known to arrive at Lick-It wearing nothing but cellophane or a single, strategically placed sock.
- Newman Day - On the Friday of Winter Carnival, some students partake in Newman Day. Batesies founded the day, which is also celebrated at Princeton. Each year, students try to drink 24 beers in 24 hours. The College has tried to eliminate the event in the past, but students continue it. The Deans allow Newman Day on the condition that students don’t disrupt the dining hall or classes. Students are generally respectful of this request. Newman Day is undoubtedly much more fun for the people who don’t participate and get to watch their classmates stumble around campus than it is for those who do and generally end up making fools of themselves in very public places. Paul Newman learned of the day held in his honor, and was disgusted. He wrote a letter to the College in 1987 asking that it ban the drinking on Newman Day and instead make the day about sports or raising money for charity. The JAs and RCs honor Newman’s request, raising money to donate to charity. They campaigned in 2009 to stop Newman Day to little success. A copy of the letter can be viewed at https://webmail.bates.edu/portal/index.php?Horde=cdf20df40cb551632d7b82666eedadde.
- Senior Pub Crawl - In the spring, seniors form teams, choose silly costumes for their teams (Vikings, Smurfs, and so on), and go on a pub crawl through Lewiston. At the end, everyone comes back to Bates and jumps in the Puddle.
- The Daily Jolt - The Daily Jolt is a student-run Web site that provides information and amusement to Batesies. It has a link to the official Web site, as well as event listings, a cross-campus forum, humorous quotes from professors, and horoscopes.
- The Drag Show - A fairly new tradition on campus is the drag show run by OUTfront and a number of other groups, including Bates’s improv comedy group and the Strange Bedfellows. This is immensely popular, playing to a standing-room-only crowd.
- The Puddle Jump - One of Bates’s more interesting traditions is the jump in the Puddle during Winter Carnival. Every year, dozens of zany students take a dip in the water through a hole that is cut in the ice. Some bold souls even do this in their birthday suits. Polar Bear Club, eat your heart out!
- Trick or Drink - Trick or Drink takes place on a weeknight before Halloween and is organized by the seniors in off-campus houses. Each off-campus house has a different theme such as “Alice and Wonderland.” Students parade through the streets in costume, going off-campus house to off-campus house, each house to sample a wide variety of mixed drinks, from the delicious to the disgusting. Students pay $5 at the first house. Bates security and the Lewiston police have an agreement not to shut the event down until 10 p.m., as long as things don’t get too out of hand.
- Winter Carnival - Bates Winter Carnival brings a bit of cheer to the fierce Maine winters. There is a snow sculpture contest and a number of other competitions. There is sledding, skating, family fun night and inflatables. Many students will jump into the Puddle as well and it is said that you cannot graduate before you jump in.
School Spirit
Many students at Bates are passionate, but few of them are passionate about Bates sports. People who play sports and have friends on sports teams have lots of school spirit, but others remain fairly apathetic. Most students busy themselves by rallying for causes such as saving the rainforests or stopping third-world sweatshops rather than devoting their energies to school spirit. Still, the school store does a brisk trade in clothing and supplies with the Bates logo; students are certainly not ashamed to be Batesies. Students are often drawn to Bates because of the people, and Batesies often maintain strong friendships outside of college. Most Batesies are willing to do anything to help out a fellow grad.
Most Recent Contributing Author
Name: Jessie Sawyer
Hometown: Farmington, CT
Major: English with a concentration in Creative Writing and a Spanish minor As a journalist, Jessie has interviewed two contestants on "The Bachelorette," Doug Gray (lead singer of The Marshall Tucker Band), bestselling novelist Elizabeth Strout, Pete Francis and Bradiggan of Dispatch, and actor Patrick Dempsey Contributing Author Internship  College Prowler is actively seeking talented students to be "Contributing Authors," and assist with updating
the College Prowler guide to their school. This is a great opportunity for a student to gain internship experience, be a part of a nationally
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