Standing the Test of Time

             The odds were stacked against the Mouthpiece due to the eventual development of technology.  Its vitality to the campus no longer exists.  It stands today with a few notices, which does not draw the attention of most students.  Its irrelevance stems from the change in how and where we get our information; namely announce emails and the Internet.  Despite this fact, the last documents acknowledging its significance comes from a list of “Bates Vocabulary” given to incoming freshman in 1980.  According to this article, the Mouthpiece is defined as “an enclosed bulletin board in front of Hathorn Hall. Class locations are posted there at the beginning of each semester.”[i] Although we are not aware of the exact downfall of the Mouthpiece, it is evident that the bulletin board maintained an important role on campus until at least the beginning of the 1980s.  Not long after that, however, several factors led to the downfall of the Mouthpiece. One of the two most significant factors was the expansion of Bates, which changed the central location on campus.  The other was the development of technology.  The search for efficiency trumped the historical component of the Mouthpiece.  Despite these two factors, the history of the bulletin board proves the significance of the Mouthpiece as a once key component of campus.