Many alumni fought or otherwise served in the Civil War. Cheney asked Sumner to create a collegiate motto for Bates and he suggested the Latin phrase amore ac studio which he translated as "with love for learning." During the American Civil War, Bates played an important role in advocating for the rights of African Americans. Sumner also believed in integrated schools and equal rights for all races.
Senator Charles Sumner who was among the most radical of the abolitionists in the U.S.
The college, under the direction of Cheney, rejected fraternities and sororities on grounds of unwarranted exclusivity. Some members of the faculty voiced concern over the college's prestige when the first black and female students arrived, but the inclusive ethos of Bates as a relatively progressive institution prevailed. The original faculty were abolitionists and several of the institution's first students were African Americans and women. There is a long tradition of rivalry and competitiveness between the two colleges, revolving around socioeconomic class, academic quality, and collegiate athletics. Historically, Bates College served as an alternative to a more traditional Bowdoin College. The college began instruction with a six-person faculty tasked with the teaching of moral philosophy and the classics. Bates College already had a reputation for academic rigor and social inclusion and it primarily educated the middle and working classes from the State of Maine. The school was renamed Bates College in his honor in 1863 and was chartered to offer a liberal arts curriculum beyond its original theological focus. Bates extended $100,000 (in 2016 worth $3.0 million) to the endowment of the college.
Bates who developed an interest in the college. Ĭheney's impact in Maine was noted by Boston business magnate Benjamin E. The college was affected by the financial panic of the later 1850s and required additional funding to remain operational. The school gained academic prominence through its intellectual focus, including maintaining three literary societies: the Literary Fraternity, Philomathean Society and Ladies' Athenaeum. Soon after establishment, multiple donors stepped forward to finance portions of the school, such as Seth Hathorn, who donated the first library, which was renamed Hathorn Hall. The campus ran parallel to Frye Street, an area that was part of an affluent residential district of Lewiston. In 1855, Maine State Seminary was established in Lewiston, Maine. In addition to its Lewiston campus, Bates also owns an 80-acre coastal studies center in Shortridge and the 600-acre Bates Morse Mountain in Phippsburg, Maine. The main Bates campus is located near the Androscoggin River. Bates competes in the New England Small College Athletic Conference, and is often referred to as one of the Little Ivies. The college enrolls 1,773 students, 200 of whom study abroad each semester. It offers 35 departmental and interdisciplinary program majors and 25 secondary concentrations. īates provides undergraduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. Bates is the second oldest coeducational college in United States and the oldest in New England. The college was founded in 1855, by prominent abolitionists, and established with the funds of Benjamin E. Bates College is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States.