Of the 113 photographs in this collection of our favorite images of 2012, we count just seven that do not show a person. (Six if you consider the Bobcat a person!)

There are photographs showing many people coming together as one: the Class of 2012 starting a new tradition by forming their class numerals on Garcelon Field; the memorial gathering in the Chapel following the death of Evan Dube ’15 last spring; and the audience of 2,500 witnessing the installation of a new 乐播传媒 president in October.

Other photos illuminate the singular power of two — like the image of President Emeritus Don Harward and Professor Emeritus John Kelsey leaning toward each other, affectionately, as they leave the service for the naming of the Gomes Chapel in October.

And a few show one person looking back at us.

And a few show one person looking back at us, like the portrait of theater faculty member Kati Vecsey, somehow appearing both very friendly and very demanding at the same time — which is perhaps why she won the Kroepsch teaching award last year.

No man, or woman, “is an island entire of itself,” wrote John Donne. “Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

These photographs 鈥� taken by Phyllis Graber Jensen, Mike Bradley, Lincoln Benedict ’09 and Mikey Pasek ’12 鈥� explore how that idea is alive and strong here at 乐播传媒, where, in other words (the words of President Clayton Spencer), “we encounter individuals in their full humanity.” 鈥� H. Jay Burns

OCTOBER: President Hansen congratulates 2009 NCAA Division III doubles champion Ben Stein 鈥�09 as he and partner Amrit Rupasinghe 鈥�10 (looking on with head coach Paul Gastonguay 鈥�89) present their championship trophies to the College at a special halftime celebration during the Oct. 3 football game vs. Tufts. The women's rowing team, runners-up at the NCAA Division III Rowing Championships, was also honored.

Members of the undefeated 1989 volleyball team and their former coach, Marsha Graef (right), enjoy a recognition ceremony in Alumni Gym during their reunion at Homecoming 2009. From left, Rachel Clayton 鈥�90, Cathy Meoni Ringling 鈥�90, Laurie Plante Graumann 鈥�90, Julie Roche Simplicio 鈥�91, Cindy Simonides Farina 鈥�93, Allyson Reynolds Wachtel 鈥�93, and Graef.

SEPTEMBER: Thomas Hedley Reynolds, known for nearly three decades of transformational leadership at two Maine educational institutions, died Tuesday, Sept. 22, at his home in Newcastle, Maine, after a long illness. He was 88 years old.

NOVEMBER: President Elaine Hansen makes a point during the annual Higher Education Media Dinner with Andrew Hacker of The New York Review of Books and Jane Karr of The New York Times. Nine college and university presidents were invited to join 24 members of national news media in a dialogue on higher education. Earlier in the fall, Newsweek called on five thought leaders in American higher education, including President Hansen, for its cover story debating "the merits of a three-year degree and assess the state of higher education." Photo by ASU Media Relations.

OCTOBER: A video of high-energy dancing in New Commons, organized by the student group 乐播传媒 Energy Action Movement, has been posted on YouTube. The dancing occurred at lunchtime Monday, Oct. 19, as part of the international 350.org climate change initiative. See the .

鈥� Click the thumbnails to view the slide show above

Through this retrospective slide show, we invite you to look back at some of the major 乐播传媒 stories, events and achievements of 2009, as published in 乐播传媒News, the College’s monthly e-newsletter to alumni, parents and friends.

Whether showing happy jubilation, pensive reflection or intense competition, the photographs tell about 乐播传媒 people setting the pace and attending to their friends, communities and world. As skier Sylvan Ellefson ’09 said as he competed at the 乐播传媒-hosted NCAA Skiing Championships last winter, “Seeing all my friends and all the people from 乐播传媒 that were here today really made my day.”

Complementing the slide show are links to a few multimedia pieces about life at 乐播传媒 in 2009:

• President Elaine Tuttle Hansen’s annual “President for a Day” exchange with student Walter Garcia ’11;
• The 2009 Mount David Summit, the College’s annual celebration of student academic achievement;
• Dedication of and made possible by the Class of 2004 and other donors.
• Student-produced聽 video of to spark interest in the 350.org climate-change initiative;
• Kickoff of North American tour of Beautiful Me, first-ever 乐播传媒 Dance Festival concert held during the academic year;
• Football team’s euphoric rendition of the “Fight Song” after the Bobcats’ victory over Bowdoin at Garcelon Field;
• , the heart behind the College’s medical studies program.

Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30, 31 and Nov. 1; and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 1 and 2, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St. Admission is $6 general admission and $3 for senior citizens and non-乐播传媒 students. For more information, please visit www.batestickets.com or call 207-786-6161.

Winner of the 1986 New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play, A Lie of the Mind depicts two families joined by marriage and torn apart by a brutal act of domestic violence. It’s the darkly humorous story of archetypal American characters trying to piece together their lives while dealing with rage, vengeance, disillusionment and abandonment.

See a short video about聽Dissanayake’s mainstage production below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcSWfuU2wRU#t=0m09s

“The play is universal in its dysfunctionality of families,” says Dissanayake. “We all know people like that. It’s just how some families behave. The two families seem to avoid the reality of what’s happened.”

Where 乐播传媒’ mainstage productions are usually directed by a member of the theater faculty, Dissanayake directs A Lie of the Mind as a part of her senior directing thesis.

“This is very rare,” says Katalin Vecsey, lecturer in the theater department and vocal director for theater productions. “I’ve been here for 14 years and this is the first time that a student has been invited by the theater department to direct a mainstage production.” Dissanayake has already acted in a show and directed several others, and directed a short film for a filmmaking course. “Sulo was invited to direct the main stage because she has displayed not just imagination and intelligence, but rarer qualities like organizational skills, dependability, keen listening abilities, and interpersonal warmth and care,” says Paul Kuritz, professor of theater and Dissanayake’s thesis advisor.

Coming from southern California and Montana, the play’s two families are connected by the marriage of Jake and Beth. An incident of spousal abuse leaves Beth brain-damaged at the beginning of the play.

The play follows the two families in their struggle with Beth’s brain damage and Jake’s retribution. The families mirror each other, and the audience sees that Jake’s out-of-control nature is influenced by his environment and his family.

Dissanayake chose the play in part because of its wit. “Shepard uses a completely brilliant humor to comment on how absurd families can be,” she says. “It’s very dark but absolutely hysterical.

A Lie of the Mind has contemporary young people in the main roles but in socioeconomic conditions very unlike those of the typical 乐播传媒 student,” says Kuritz. “From underneath the superficial differences, the common brokenness of all people emerges.”

Shepard is an American playwright who acts and directs in many of his own plays. In 1979, his play Buried Child received a Pulitzer Prize for drama. He has been nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor’s Guild Award. “A Lie of the Mind,” says Vecsey, has “a lasting impact. It will make you think about how people live their lives.”

An unusual donation of $2.5 million to 乐播传媒 College has increased the college’s already high use of local, organic and natural food.

The gift coincided with the construction of a new energy-efficient聽[intlink id=”1370″ type=”post”]dining Commons[/intlink] that opened last February. Together they inspired a yearlong college focus this academic year on the complex issues connected with food and food systems.

The anonymous gift, although one of the most generous in 乐播传媒’ history, would not be unusual in college philanthropy if it were directed toward supporting a faculty chair or naming a building. But the purpose of this gift is unique in its focus on developing and expanding healthy, local food purchases by the college.

“I am so glad that we have a donor with this vision,” said 乐播传媒 President Elaine Tuttle Hansen. “People often give to support faculty and curriculum and programs, and that’s necessary and wonderful. But here is a gift that actually supports operations and recognizes that there is a financial cost to doing the right thing, from both a nutritional and an ethical perspective. Our donor says to us, ‘I understand and I want to help. I want to make feasible what I believe is important for the present and the future.'”

A yearlong exploration of food and the many issues connected to food is called “Nourishing Body and Mind: 乐播传媒 Contemplates Food.”

The anonymous alumni donor stipulated that investment earnings on the $2.5 million endowment be devoted to meeting the additional cost of serving more local, natural and organic food at 乐播传媒. For 乐播传媒, which has documented聽environmental sustainability programs back to 1986, that figure was already high. About 22 percent of the annual food budget had been spent in recent years on local, natural and organic food.

The gift has allowed the College to increase that number to 28 percent in the past fiscal year. For context, the national student initiative “Real Food Challenge” has as its target to redirect 20 percent of all food purchased by colleges and universities (currently $4 billion) toward “real food” by 2020.

In remarks prepared for delivery at聽Convocation on聽Wednesday, Sept. 3, 乐播传媒 President Elaine Tuttle Hansen said: “In their own characteristically ambitious yet modest way, so many 乐播传媒 faculty, students, staff members and alumni are clearly part of a quiet movement 鈥� national and international 鈥� that is tackling the problems of our food system. By contemplating food, we want to celebrate and share even more widely many powerful stories about 乐播传媒 and food.”

Besides celebrating and making visible what already occurs at 乐播传媒, the initiative has a second objective, Hansen explained.

“We want to add to the understanding and knowledge about food on campus 鈥� where our food comes from, the food system at 乐播传媒, the larger food system in which 乐播传媒 is embedded. So we don’t want to forget in celebrating how we all eat, that there are growing social problems associated with the food system. We want to raise consciousness. We want to educate ourselves. We want to dispel our own ignorance and complacency by considering these issues. We want to explore why, for 乐播传媒, a strong and healthy food culture is so important to the educational mission.”

乐播传媒’ focus on food has included a summer reading assignment for this fall’s incoming first-year students and plans for a variety of panels and presentations throughout the academic year.

乐播传媒’ exploration of food took root last spring when President Hansen gathered a small number of students, faculty and staff who share an interest in food and eating to consider the concept.

The group, she said, was “overwhelmed by how much was already going on at 乐播传媒. We felt we should develop a kind of clearinghouse, making it all more visible. With food as the thread that connects us, to each other and to our larger community, we will spend the next year celebrating and contemplating more deeply the ways that gathering together around food enhances and supports the college’s mission,” she said.

乐播传媒 is recognized as a leader in college environmental sustainability. In July,聽[intlink id=”5689″ type=”post”]乐播传媒 was notified it received a top score[/intlink], along with 10 other U.S. colleges and universities, in a “Green Rating” system developed by test preparation organization Princeton Review and ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing agency. In August, Kaplan Inc. also notified 乐播传媒 that it was on its list of “Top 25 Environmentally Responsible Colleges.”

Using traps baited with peanut butter, a 乐播传媒 research team spent the summer catching small mammals and studying the ticks they carried, specifically looking for ticks infected with the Lyme bacterium. Working with visiting biology professor Ronald Barry were biology majors Elizabeth Rogers 鈥�09 (shown above picking the critters off a white-footed mouse) of Mansfield, Mass., and Nelish Pradhan 鈥�10 of Kathmandu, Nepal. The research was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. [More…]

Squeezing the equivalent of two semester-long courses into just six weeks, the second annual Hughes Summer Scholars Program at 乐播传媒 has been a real academic workout for the students involved. “But the program really focuses on giving support and making sure that we have the resources we need to succeed,” says one of the first-year students taking part in the program. The program aims to bring into science and mathematics a wider range of students, including students from groups underrepresented in those fields. [More…]

Noah Gauthier 鈥�08 of Amherst, N.H., took home a national title in the weight throw in March at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships. Gauthier received his medal at the awards podium from his close friend, 乐播传媒 interim coach Matthew Capone 鈥�07, who led the 乐播传媒 track and field team during head coach Al Fereshetian鈥檚 sabbatical. 鈥淚 think he was as excited as I was,鈥� said Gauthier, whose national title was the first by a 乐播传媒 athlete since 2006. [More…]