About Us

The Bates Student is the editorially independent student-run newspaper of Bates College since 1873

The Bates Student began as a monthly, then bi-weekly publication, as a combination campus newspaper, alumni magazine, and literary journal. Student editorials, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction writing, and sports results were the main features of the newspaper until its format was changed in 1916. That year the paper became a “classic” newspaper in both size and content, reporting on campus news and events along with an editorial opinion page.

The only interruption in the print run of The Student occurred after the printing of the final issue of volume 70 on May 6, 1943. Volume 71 was not started until the following year, with the first issue arriving on March 15, 1944. This gap is likely due to a major decline in student enrollment during World War II.

During the pandemic, The Student was published as a weekly newsletter by the students of Bates College. Currently, The Student publishes stories online three times a week—every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  The Student also publishes a newsletter every other week and produces a couple print editions of the paper per semester. The Student reserves the right not to print any article and to edit for clarity and length.

Past editions of The Student are also available digitally on SCARAB for the years 1873-2019.

Views expressed in letters to the editor, columns, and forum articles are the opinions of the writers unless explicitly stated and may or may not reflect the opinions of the staff.

 

Equity and Inclusion in The Bates Student

The Bates Student recognizes our history, our institution’s history, and the history of journalism itself as exclusionary and extractive on multiple fronts. As a campus community and student organization composed of different racial, gender, sexual, religious, political, and other intersectional identities and backgrounds, we seek to discuss, analyze, and reflect on issues affecting our campus and the world at large. The Bates Student is committed to pursuing stories with care and respect to all community members.

 

Anonymity Policy

The Bates Student reporters operate under the assumption that interviews are on-the-record. If a source requests that an interview be on background or off-the-record, terms of anonymity will be negotiated before the start of interview. 

It is The Bates Student’s general policy to avoid using anonymous sources in order to maintain our credibility as a publication and our commitment to transparency. However, in exceptional cases where a source’s information is absolutely necessary to the report and revealing their identity could cause the source harm or unfair retribution, anonymity may be granted. 

Each request for anonymity must be brought to the Editor-in-Chief for approval and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. In each request for anonymity, the editor and reporter must know the identity of the source and may not reveal the name or other identifying information to others. In the story, the reason behind sources’ anonymity must be explained. 

In such cases, anonymity will be negotiated in varying degrees depending on the risk to the source and the vitality of their information. An anonymous source may be identified by their first name and last initial, first name only, their initials, by description, or in severe cases (wherein the information is not attainable by any other means) may be granted total anonymity. If the source is a student, it is preferred that their class year be published along with their identifier, though may be omitted in certain cases. 

Reporters should make serious efforts to avoid interviews conducted off the record. When information is used off the record, it is best practice to verify the information with multiple other sources. 

The Bates Student uses the Associated Press’s definitions of “on the record,” “off the record,” and “on background.” 

This policy extends to identifying subjects in photo and video content. Photographers/videographers are entitled to take pictures and video of people outside on campus, as we operate under the assumption that we are not the sole videographers and photographers in a public space.