Bates 'off to the races' with record-setting $19M in donations
Photo Courtesy / Bates College
The admissions office at Bates College. The Lewiston private liberal arts college will use $19 million in donations to start a new Digital and Computational Studies program.
Bates College in Lewiston will launch a digital studies major, thanks to $19 million in donations that will fund six new professors, the Sun Journal reported.
The new Digital and Computational Studies program, to begin in the fall of 2017, will join a trend in computer science, one of the fastest-growing majors in the country.
According to the Bates website, data and computers “are transforming virtually every facet of our professional and personal lives.” It said that computers are the dominant media for how we generate, apply and share knowledge. The digital and computational studies program aims to prepare students for lives of work and study that require proficiency in using constructed electronic platforms, software and large, complex data sets.
The program is problem-oriented and reflective. Instructors in the program assume that by paying attention to the values and motivations underlying the development and use of computers and their consequences for society, students are more likely to understand what goes on beyond the user interface.
Students, not only at Bates but at other institutions, have shown a strong desire for digital studies classes. In recent years, enrollments in computer science courses across higher education, including liberal arts colleges, have doubled and, in some cases, tripled.
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