Bates College Party Policy

Hello, I’ve heard that Bates has had issues with parties/drinking in the past and has been trying to crack down on them. Has this created a divide between the student body and the administration? What is this “ban” like?

My daughter, a current sophomore, is home for break and we were just talking about this. Like many colleges, these things go in cycles. Kids at Bates are still having parties, but they are being a little more careful about it. The good thing though is that the college is putting on a lot of events to keep kids busy, and they are well-attended and popular. I don’t get a sense that they are enjoying life any less, and I wouldn’t worry about it.

There are always going to be parties at Bates, but if you are looking for a raging Greek-type party, I am not sure they have a lot of that. There’s no Greek life. My understanding is that the athletes have a lot of parties, but my daughter doesn’t really hang out with athletes. Given the large percentage of athletes at Bates, I doubt there is a shortage of parties.

Just straight up not true.

So, a brief statement on this from a current Bates student:

Yes, there have been issues with college partying and the community, but really not in any specific instances. It’s just come to a head this year as Bates and the community try to figure out how to mitigate reoccurring issues. As far as I understand it, most of the problem is related to off campus parties. Thus, it seems like Bates has tried to make more social events on campus, especially on school sponsored party nights, and seem to be more for on campus partying rather than off campus partying. I like security here and trust me when I say that there are still plenty of parties on campus if that is your weekend scene. If you’re not into it like me, there’s other things to do with friends on the weekends

Maybe I can add some historical context. In 2014 Clayton Spencer, the college president, hired a new Dean of Students, Josh McIntosh. Around this time there had been a number of complaints about drunk Bates students in the Lewiston community, one of which involved a Bates student who knocked over an elderly man in his home, injuring him, when he though he was returning to his own off-campus house. McIntosh and Spencer, in an effort to deal with off-campus drinking issues banned a fairly recent Halloween tradition known as “Trick or Drink.” Although students acknowledged that ToD involved heavy drinking some were upset that it was cancelled less than 2 weeks before the event, providing little time to plan for an alternative event. It caused a bit of tension at the time.

The college held open hours with the Dean, collected suggestions from students, and convened a Campus Culture working group which included students, faculty and administration. The college committed funds for greater on-campus activities and planning. Some examples are concerts by T-Pain and Lil Yachty. Students seem to be pleased with the results. The Trick or Drink controversy has been pretty much forgotten as students who had once participated in it graduated.

A second issue was security. In an effort to lessen drinking issues Bates security was cracking down on underage drinking and unsanctioned parties. This had caused a divide between students and security. Bates had previously had a history of cooperation between security and students so this was a real problem. These tensions came to a head last year when a student of color accused the Bates Director of Security of excessive force after an incident at a party. Student protests ensued, including one at the kickoff to the school’s new capital campaign at the Museum of Arts in Boston. It was a respectful and effective protest that garnered praise from the college President and those of us in attendance. The school engaged two independent investigators with experience in higher education and civil rights to interview party participants. The end result was that the Director of Security was replaced by Douglass Morency, an African American man who seems to be doing a great job. He appears to have a much better rapport with students. From what I hear the school has also loosened up on on-campus enforcement of alcohol rules, choosing to focus on dangerous or destructive drinking instead of coming down on small groups of underage kids having a few beers in their room.

A third step the college has taken is to restrict the number of off-campus houses going forward. What had recently begun to happen was that students were passing down off campus houses from group to group and this was becoming somewhat institutionalized. Thus White House might be the place where all the Senior baseball players lived one year, and then again the next as the next year’s kids took over. These off-campus houses became a locus for parties, much to the consternation of local residents. Bates has now made it much harder for seniors to go off-campus, although they did grandfather in a couple of years of students to cover those who had already put down deposits on a house. As mentioned above, the college is currently providing a lot more on campus entertainment and parties.

A synopsis:

  1. Fewer off-campus houses
  2. More on-campus activities
  3. Better, more cooperative and flexible security

I can add too that my D, a sophomore, really doesn’t care about any of this. Nor do her friends. They have fun. They are happy.