Campus Update

Through painting, sanding, the building of an elevator and the creation of office space over the summer and fall, a new Bates emerged from the old.

photos by James Bourne

Bates: Going Up?

The new Bates elevator is just part of the transformation of Bates—much of it to create new spaces to enhance student life and student activities on campus. Work picked up speed over the summer and is continuing into the new academic year.

“We are determined to seize this moment in order to enhance student life in the center of our academic community,” says President Michele Myers. In a short film depicting the ambitious and much-needed plans for Bates, student voices chime in. “It will allow a lot of students from different areas with different interests to come together and bring [new] life to campus,” says Sonia Arora ’05, co-leader of the student group Common Ground. The film can be viewed online at www.sarahlawrence.edu/bates.

The College has established a $3.1 million fundraising goal to help refurbish the 21,000 square feet of campus space (in Bates and other buildings) that was made available by the completion of the Monika A. and Charles A. Heimbold, Jr. Visual Arts Center. A core group of parents, led by Susan Shieldkret Dull (mother of Kaitlin Dull ’07), has formed the Parents Leadership Committee in support of this two-year fundraising effort to strengthen community on campus. And former Sarah Lawrence Dean of Studies and Student Life Marilyn Ogus Katz ’54 is spearheading the formation of an alumnae/i committee to help raise funds.

Several naming opportunities in each of the new spaces are available to recognize leadership gifts, including $500,000 for the new faculty dining room, $150,000 for the coffeehouse, and $25,000 each for student program and individual club offices.

—J.B.

For more information on the many ways to support the Bates fundraising effort, please contact Scott Rubin, manager of College Resources, at (914) 395-2540 or srubin@sarahlawrence.edu.