School Spirit

Many students at Bates are passionate, but few of them are passionate about Bates. People who play sports have lots of school spirit, but others remain fairly apathetic.

Most students busy themselves by rallying for causes such as saving the rainforests or stopping third-world sweatshops rather than devoting their energies to school spirit. There are a number of students who are proud to be Batesies, but many students look at the school as simply a means of getting a degree from a small, private, liberal arts college. Certainly, Bates is a selective school, and students are proud to have gotten in, but this has more to do with “personal pride” in their own accomplishments than pride in the school itself. Still, the school store does a brisk trade in clothing and supplies with the Bates logo; students are certainly not ashamed to be Batesies.