page_title: History of Bates College
section_title: Social class and rise of elitism
hierarchical_section_title: History of Bates College / Social class and rise of elitism
caption_attribution_description: English: Green Scenery of Bates College
context_page_description: The history of Bates College began shortly before Bates College's founding on March 16, 1855, in Lewiston, Maine. The college was founded by Oren Burbank Cheney and Benjamin Bates. Originating as a Free Will Baptist institution, it has since secularized and established a liberal arts curriculum. After the mysterious 1853 burning of Parsonsfield Seminary, Cheney wanted to create another seminary in a more central part of Maine: Lewiston, a then-booming industrial economy. He met with religious and political leaders in Topsham, to discuss the formation of such a school, recruiting much of the college's first trustees, most notably Ebenezer Knowlton. After a well-received speech by Cheney, the group successfully petitioned the Maine State Legislature to establish the Maine State Seminary. At its founding it was the first coeducational college in New England. Soon after it was established, Canadian and American donors stepped forward to finance the seminary, developing the school in an affluent residential district of Lewiston. The college struggled to finance its operations after the financial crisis of 1857, requiring extra capital to remain afloat.
context_section_description: The college's faculty and students voiced concern over the college's prestige when the first black and female students arrived. The college, under the direction of Cheney, rejected fraternities and sororities on grounds of unwarranted exclusivity. However, some secret societies were established in 1881, and served as the primary organ of segregation by socioeconomic status on campus. Select students at the college "desired more aristocratic company" similar to that of Bowdoin College.
  
  Although the egalitarian reputation held during the late 1800s and early 1900s, in the later half, the college's reputation was denounced as elitist. During the late 1940s, it earned a reputation for predominately educating white students who come from upper-middle-class to affluent backgrounds.
  
  In the 1950s the college fenced off the campus in an attempt to "represent boundaries between Bates and Lewiston," to create a "symbolic separation between the purity of the Academia Batesina and underdeveloped city that surrounded them." The New York Times detailed the atmosphere of the college in the 1960s with the following:
  The prestigious Bates College — named for Benjamin Bates, whose riverfront mill on Canal Street in Lewiston was once Maine’s largest employer — provided an antithesis: a leafy oasis of privilege. In the 1960s, it was really difficult for most Bates students to integrate in the community because most of the people spoke French and lived a hard life.
  The Bates Student published an article entitled "Debunking the Middle Class Myth", detailing how low income students are “the largest and least visible minorities” at the college and often feel isolated by their more wealthier peers. The college has come under criticism for lack of diversity and socioeconomic homogeneity. On April 13, 1994, students protested the Dean of Admissions Office because 90% of the student populate was white and the office made no attempt to rectify the situation. A Chronicle of Higher Education article quoted a student as saying "It's preposterous that a school of this elite stature should have so few minorities."
  Minorities at the college, typically classified as non-white and low income students, have noted selected practices and experiences at the college, such as: lack of safe spaces, insensitive professors, tokenism, financial insecurity, indirect racism and social elitism. In 2011, the college was covered by national news outlets for being the most expensive college in the United States, which sparked backlash in the Bates community and American academia, citing the statistic as a "signal to the world that Bates is a luxury item" later adding "that is not what higher education is about."
  According to a 2017 article on income inequality by The New York Times, 18% of Bates students came from the 1% of the American upper class (families who made about $525,000 or more per year), with "median family income[s] of student[s] at $226,500." One out of seven students at Bates comes from the top 20 percent. In January 2017, the college was reported to be the most expensive college in Maine.
caption: The college was called a "leafy oasis of privilege" by Lewiston locals in the 1960s.
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