Classes were held six days a week then, gym was mandatory (without credit), the Androscoggin was not pristine as it is today (before clean air and clean water acts), a thesis was required to graduate, classrooms were filled with lively discussions and broad points of view were expressed (before political correctness invaded much of higher ed), debating and arguing late into the night were the rule. The Vietnam War was boiling over, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were soon to be murdered,
American’s cities were exploding in violence, and ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ was a place for lively discourse. I feel privileged to have attended ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ during such an activist period.
The music, from young Bob Dylan to the Byrds, Beatles, Stones, Who, Joanie Baez,
James Taylor, Buffie St. Marie, etc. was energizing, and a bright and motivated faculty made it four years that passed far too quickly. Coretta Scott King, Martin’s wife, was our commencement speaker. TREASURE YOUR TIME AT BATES.

Bill Matteson