Bates College: Maine’s battleground

On Thursday, I entered the last state in the northeast corridor of the United States, Maine. It was the 30th U.S. state I have visited in my lifetime (I snuck over the border of Vermont on the same day, from Hanover, NH – that was #29).

So, I arrived at Bates College… it was a very strange arrival (my cell phone was out of service everywhere up there and I couldn’t get in touch with Jonathan Browher and I couldn’t find a pay phone, but finally the book store let me use their phone, little did they know they were accomplices in a vast right-wing conspiracy).

Ok, I’ll cut the humor there… so I met with Jonathan, who may in fact be the best ISI Campus Representative in the country. He’s certainly the most enthusiastic, and he’s only a sophomore. As a freshman, Jon started and remains the Editor-in-Chief of The Pachyderm Press, Maine’s first and largest statewide college newspaper. It’s a conservative paper and serves as the voice of the Maine College Republicans.

Jon walked me around campus, which was cool and we saw many faculty doors that were “over the top” partisan. Then, we met a visiting professor in the history department who Jon likes because “she doesn’t make us feel bad about American history.” She’s conservative and she’s getting her Ph.D. from a large state school in California that I was just at (I’ll protect her privacy). So, how’d she land the job as a history professor at Bates? Well, I’ll repeat, she’s only a visiting professor, with a 1-year appointment. Ahh, the faculty will figure it out and make sure she doesn’t return, despite the fact that the students love her. But who knows, maybe she’ll beat the odds.

After meeting the prof, we ventured to “the quad”, where Jon showed me all the “chalkings” on the sidewalk. I am missing my digital camera about now (it’s broke). The chalkings were placed there by a gay rights group and certainly one can understand their writings about “tolerance”, etc. But, then it just gets weird from there. I won’t repeat some of them, but one in particular was pretty vulgar. It said, “Masturbate, Don’t Discriminate.” Another said “Have you ever questioned your heterosexuality?” There’s nothing like making students think, eh? Thank goodness for the contemporary liberal arts college.

Finally, we made it to the campus chapel, which is not as impressive as Princeton’s or Duke’s, but certainly a worthy piece of architecture… until you open the doors and take a look inside and see that every Christian symbol was ripped out of there. Gone. All that remains that reminds you of religion is 8 banners hanging from the ceiling, each of which represents a different religion. Sure, the one with the cross represents Christianity, the menorah represents Judaism, there was Hindu one, and some others. But one stood out: Mother Earth. That’s it. I have no idea if the environmentalists have their own religion now too, but that was kind of strange. It was sad that this building that once stood for something good, moral, and holy, has been desecrated in the name of “tolerance.”

Later that evening, Jon and I were joined by Nathan Walton, the State Chair of the College Republicans of Maine (also a Bates College student), 3 other conservative students from Bates, as well as Dan Schuberth, who was the former state chair of the CR’s and now is the Secretary of the national organization, the CRNC. It was a conspiracy in the making. We plotted for some good conservative speakers to hit the campus, Nate Walton gave me some good ideas, and Jon gave me about 50 copies of The Pachyderm Press to take back with me to ISI. It looks good, I was very impressed.

My final commentary on Bates College is this: I was shocked and appalled several times on campus, whether it was from the pornographic art in the art museum/building, the chalkings on the quad telling me to masturbate, the over the top partisanship on faculty members’ doors, or the desecrated chapel that I wish I could say was a “remnant”. But, I was left hopeful and optimistic and energized by a small, but growing group of students who are pressing on despite the pressures to conform. My last conversation of the evening was with Nate Walton who told me that Jon was the most “enthusiatic” student leader he knew and that he was always telling Nate “ISI! ISI!”. Nate said, “that guy [Jon] just really has a passion to learn: whether it’s about conservatism or about history or whatever. He came to Bates to learn and that’s great because that’s what our educational experience is supposed to be about.” Well said Nate. And, well exemplified Jon! I left motivated, proud, and yet humbled.