Bates College traditions

Robert F. Kennedy, in front of Smith Hall during Winter Carnival in the early 1940s.

The college, on odd to even years, has held a Winter Carnival which comprises a themed four-day event that includes performances, dances, and games.[8] Past Winter Carnivals have included "a Swiss Olympic skier swooshing down Mount David", faculty and student football games, faculty and administration skits, over-sized snow sculptures, "serenading of the dormitories", and an expeditions to Camden. When alumnus Edmund Muskie, Class of 1936, was a Governor of Maine, he participated in a torch relay from Augusta to Lewiston in celebration of the 1960 Winter Olympics.[9] Robert F. Kennedy, with his naval classmates, built a replica of their boat back in Massachusetts out of snow in front of Smith Hall, during their carnival.[9] This tradition is second only to Dartmouth College as the oldest of its kind in the United States, and serves as a major contribution to the connection between the two colleges.[10]

An annual party celebrating beards and mustaches held during winter carivnal. The tradition was profiled by The New York Times in 2010.[11]

Research has shown references made to Newman Day in The Bates Student as early as the late 1970s, however, the day was marked originally with students throwing food at each other in the dining hall.[14][15] The tradition was debuted in the January 1976 Winter Carnival with one of the student exclaiming that Paul Newman once said "24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not," as a rhetorical mandate. Originally named Paul Newman Day, it was subsequently renamed Newman Day, and includes activities where one consumes one beer every hour during the hours 12:00 am to 11:59 pm on April 24th.[16][17][18]

Newman opposed the tradition,[4] which received media attention in 2004 after Newman's lawyer sent a letter to Princeton University and Bates registering Newman's disapproval,[2][3] and requesting that the event be disassociated from his name, due to the fact that he did not endorse the behaviors. Bates disavowed any responsibility for the event, responding that Newman Day is not sponsored, endorsed, or encouraged by the university itself and is solely an unofficial event among students.[3][7] Celebration of Newman Day has continued, however, and participants indulge during the stipulated 24-hour period, during which participants are forbidden to sleep or vomit; sleeping or vomiting constitutes a "reset" that negates previous consumption, requiring the participant to restart from zero.[19][20][21]

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Originally taking place on a day near Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, but since incorporated as part of Winter Carnival in late January, the Bates College Outing Club cuts a hole by a chainsaw or by the original axe used in the inaugural Puddle Jump of 1975, in the ice on Lake Andrews. Students from all class years jump into the hole, often in costumes, to celebrate, "exuberance at the end of a hard winter." By mid-evening, they eat donuts, drink cider and receive a cappella performances.[22]

Ivy growing on the side of Hathorn Hall, featuring respective classes' Ivy Stones

The class graduates participate in an Ivy Day which installs a granite Ivy Stone onto one of the academic or residential buildings on campus.[23] They serve as a symbol of the class and their respective history both academically and socially. Some classes donate to the college, in the form gates, facades, and door outlines, by inscribing or creating their own version of symbolic icons of the college's seal or other prominent insignia. This usually occurs on graduation day, but may occur on later dates with alumni returning to the campus. This tradition is shared with the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. On Ivy Day, members of Phi Beta Kappa are announced.[24]

Bates' founder was a friend of U.S. Senator Charles Sumner who was among the most radical of the abolitionists in the U.S. Congress. Sumner also believed in integrated schools and equal rights for all races.[25] 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" or "with ardor and devotion."[26]

On the afternoon of May 22, 1856, Preston Brooks confronted Sumner in the Senate chamber and assaulted him with a cane after reading Sumner's speech regarding the Kansas–Nebraska Act.[27] After the incident the chair was gifted to Bates.[28] It is used for inaugurations, graduations and other formal occasions.[27][29]