Once in a while this semester, The Student will be randomly choosing one member of the senior class to interview and highlight in our features section, as a means of celebrating the senior class and all that they have done in their time at Bates. For the first edition of this column, The Student has selected Lily Ritch ‘25, a European Studies Major from Cincinnati, Ohio. Lily has a General Education Concentration in English and her specific area of study is Post-Soviet Politics and Theory. In this interview, Lily discussed her campus band, The Roaches, WRBC, and academics at Bates.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Sydney Schuster: So Lily, why did you choose to come to Bates?
Lily Ritch: Well, I came from a very small school in Cincinnati, where I’m pretty sure I was one of five people to leave the tri-state of Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. And my dad went to Colby. So I had the privilege of being exposed to the framework of liberal arts education. And I was lucky enough that before COVID, I got to tour. But I came to Bates because I got in.
I remember getting my acceptance letter and running outside to my dad mowing the lawn, and we just freaked out. I knew I didn’t want to go to Colby because I didn’t want to be just like my dad. But I think that Bates is just a little bit weirder and nice for me. And I love Maine! I didn’t think that I would resonate with it as much as I do, but it’s definitely my favorite state.
Schuster: Tell me what you do here at Bates!
Ritch: I am the General Manager of WRBC 91.5 Bates College Radio. That is my baby. I’ve been on the board since my freshman year, and it’s definitely my most involved sphere of influence here. And that is because of my deep love of music.
Additionally, I am a singer for The Roaches, an on-campus band. We definitely rock, come to one of our concerts!
What else do I do here at Bates? I study a lot. There are only a few people majoring in European Studies, so I work pretty closely with the department. Additionally, I’ve added French as a goal of mine since the beginning of college. So I’ve been in a pretty intense French study schedule for the last couple of years, and that is definitely the most dedicated area of my studies.
Schuster: And what do you do for fun around here?
Ritch: I like to hang out with my friends. I’m living off campus this year, which is a big change from the dorms. I’ve spent a lot of my time living on Frye Street, which was the best. And I love getting Commons with my buddies, we could sit there for hours (and do). I’ve been trying to work out for fun more, especially because Bates has good resources for that. But it’s getting really cold, so these days my life revolves around listening to music.
Schuster: If you could change one thing about Bates, what would it be?
Ritch: The most important thing for me is that Bates needs to be an ADA-compliant and accessible campus. I think it’s definitely not a coincidence that Bates has one student in a wheelchair at a time, it illustrates that the school doesn’t really have the resources to support students with a wide variety of needs.
I invite everyone to come to the radio, like general meetings or to see the station, but there’s no way to get into the building if you’re in a wheelchair or just having a hard time walking. I would definitely change the accessibility of the school – there’s a big difference between saying you have the resources and inviting people of multiple needs to come to our school versus actually having the resources to support them when they get here.
Also, Bates does not make its resources very notable – there are three things that many people at Bates don’t know about. One, you can get an IUD at Health Services. You can get all of your reproductive and sexual needs taken care of there. Two, you can check out a camera or any technological equipment that you need from the DMX studio. Three, that you can get full-gloss posters printed at Post and Print for $2. Nobody really knows this!
I also would change the campus life and Student Affairs framework. I think that Bates makes it really difficult to have spontaneous gatherings of people to have fun, because you have to, like, register a room and get the stuff approved on Bates engage. And of course that is very important for making sure that people know what’s going on, but I also think there needs to be a more casual framework at Bates for people just getting together.
Schuster: If you could teach one course at Bates, what would it be about?
Ritch: I guess it would be called Opportunity of Theory or something. Something that really frustrates me is when an idea is codified so that it can be replicated as a principle. When you take abstract things to write them down and study them, that takes away the possibility of an idea being in the subjunctive, and the possibility of the idea changing is off the table. I think the power of theory and keeping ideas pliable for change is super important.
What guides me in this is that in the system we currently exist in, the people in power benefit the most, and the system doesn’t change unless they want it to. So the things that you think are codified need to be brought back to a community conversational space to be re-evaluated. Who are they serving? Are they really serving us? The people who tell you there’s no more room to advance as a society are the ones who are benefiting the most from it. We’re never done cooking.
Schuster: You’re writing a thesis right now, tell me about it!
Ritch: My thesis is an analysis of five Czech New Wave films. The Czech New Wave is a film movement from Czechoslovakia from the 1960s. The films are super surrealist and subversive, and they’re like psychedelic political critiques. I’m analyzing five of them for stylistic elements, and seeing how all of them are like whispers of dissent. How are these subtle critiques of authority?
If I could implore anyone to watch any of these films, it would be the 1966 Dasies by Vera Chytilova. It is my favorite film of all time. I watched this freshman year in a class here at Bates with Cheryl Stevenson. And it is such a blessing to me that that has stayed with me all four years and is now the crux of my thesis. The biggest thing that Cheryl Stevenson taught me is that because you are in school, you are an academic, what you say matters. What you say is worth listening to, and there is a space for you in academia in that regard, every single person here.
Schuster: What is your favorite class you’ve taken here at Bates?
Ritch: Politics of Memory with Jim Richter. This was a really theoretical class about identity in relationship to your state and to the past, in a very post-Soviet context. What I really took away from this class was the idea of narrative engagement, and that the only way to have peace in the world is for narratives to have multiple truths. Like history has multiple perspectives that affect multiple people differently, there are victims and there are perpetrators, and you can be both at the same time. That was a really good class by Jim Richter, we really miss him here at Bates.
Schuster: As we’re looking towards our final few months of being here at Bates, do you have any plans, hopes, or goals? Anything else you’re hoping to leave out on the field?
Ritch: I want to form a band with my friends. And I would like to have my band play the Armory. Additionally, I really want to finish my thesis strong, and I would like to touch my toes, because I am in jazz dance class now. And I would like to make a plan for finding everyone again in my life after graduation.
