Based on a poll of 286 Bates College students,

the Princeton Review last week rated the college the 18th worst for community relations.
By Lindsay Tice
Staff Writer

LEWISTON- The relationship between Bates College and Lewiston hasn’t been the best.

To many city residents, the prestigious liberal arts school and its students seemed wealthy and elitist. To many college students, the city felt dingy and unwelcoming.

A chain-link fence built around the college didn’t help.

For years, officials have tried to repair that rift with open doors and partnerships.

But a new Princeton Review survey shows that the situation may not be improving as much as either side had hoped.

Out of 351 American colleges, Bates College has ranked 18th for worst “town-gown” relations.

“There was a high degree of consensus among students that they don’t get along with members of the community,” said Erik Olson, senior editor of The Best 351 Colleges.”

The survey

Founded in 1855 by Maine abolitionists, Bates College was courted by city officials eager to have a college in their back yard. They even offered the school land and money to move into Lewiston.

Bates was established in the heart of the city, but relations didn’t stay friendly for long. The city and its college grew apart as the school gained prestige and the mill town lost it.

Each avoided the other.

“They just didn’t cross paths,” said Paul Badeau, marketing director for the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council.

By the late 1970s, Bates and Lewiston were trying to mend their relationship.

An old chain-link fence – once topped with barbed wire – was torn down from its place surrounding the college. In the 1990s, Bates opened its doors to the community with a Bates Breakfast Seminar. It established the Center for Service Learning to get students to work and volunteer in Lewiston-Auburn. The city and the college partnered to help form L/A Excels, a community booster group.

Despite all that, the Princeton Review poll showed that a problem may still exist.

Using 106,000 online and paper surveys from students, the company ranked American colleges in more than 60 areas, including best dorms and worst administration. On average, 300 students were polled at each college. At Bates, 286 students (16 percent of those enrolled) were surveyed.

For town-gown relations, students were asked to rate how well they got along with the community. They used a scale of one (worst) to five (best).

Nationally, Olson said, students usually give their schools a three – the average. To make the top 20 list of colleges with poor town-gown relations, he said, students had to consistently “answer in the extreme” with ratings of one or two.

Last year, the college didn’t rank at all in that category.

Bates officials said they can’t understand the change.

“Relations are far stronger now than they have been,” said Bates spokesman Bill Hiss.

He believes that the highly publicized murder of a Bates senior by a Lewiston man and the rape of a Bates freshman by a Sabattus man last year may have affected the Princeton poll.

“I think it’s a temporary thing,” Hiss said.

Dean of Admissions Wylie Mitchell said he knows many students who have great experiences in Lewiston and who would say Bates and the Twin Cities have a good relationship.

He tells prospective students to consider more than college guidebook surveys when they look into schools.

“So many companies are in the business of trying to sound-bite colleges, the public gets confused,” he said. “It’s a blip on the 18-month process.”

After “The Best 351 Colleges” was released last week, Bates touted its other Princeton Review rankings – 12th best academic experience for undergraduates and 10th best food – on the front page of its Web site. It did not mention the town-gown ranking.

Touring L-A

College officials may not understand the ranking, but Bates sophomore Minh Le said he can.

Hundreds of the school’s 1,700 students volunteer in the Twin Cities every year, but others rarely venture beyond school grounds, Le said. They don’t think there’s much to do in the old mill town. They don’t think there’s much for them.

“Many times they get this misconception. They don’t know, they don’t realize what’s in the community,” he said.

To fix that, Le suggested last winter that officials help incoming students get to know their new hometown. Monday afternoon, that suggestion became a reality.

About 400 Bates freshmen were bused to Kennedy Park in Lewiston and led on a tour of downtown Lewiston and Auburn. Officials hoped that students would discover the area’s cafes, restaurants and other businesses.

They hoped it would help prove the survey wrong.

Said the growth council’s Badeau before the event, “I hope we leave a positive impression in the minds of students, that there’s a lot here and the community cares about them and wants them.”

ltice@sunjournal.com

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