Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature preserve known as the "Bates-Morse Mountain" near Campbell Island and a coastal center on Atkins Bay. With an annual enrollment of approximately 1,800 students, it is the smallest college in its athletic conference. As a result of its small student body, Bates maintains selective admit rates and little to no transfer percentages. The college was founded on March 16, 1855, by abolitionist statesman Oren Burbank Cheney and textile tycoon Benjamin Bates. Established as the Maine State Seminary, the college became the first coeducational college in New England and went on to confer the first female undergraduate degree in the area. Bates is the third-oldest college in Maine, after Bowdoin College and Colby College. It became a vanguard in admitting minority students before the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation. During early 1900s the college began to aggressively expand and by the mid-1940s, amassed large amounts of property, becoming a major economic power in Lewiston. Since the 1950s, the college has acquired and attempted to remedy a reputation for educating the affluent of New England. Improvements to its reputation were diminished after large losses during the 2008 financial crisis increased its tuition costs. The late 2010s saw a redoubled push for socioeconomic, racial, and cultural diversity as well as a major expansion of student financial aid. Bates provides undergraduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering and offers joint undergraduate programs with Columbia University, Dartmouth College, and Washington University in St. Louis, among others. A baccalaureate college, the undergraduate program requires all students to complete a thesis before graduation, and has a privately funded research enterprise. Its most endowed departments of political science, economics, and environmental science are particularly noted within U.S. higher education. In addition to being a part of the "Maine Big Three", Bates competes in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) with 31 varsity teams, and 13 club teams. The students and alumni of Bates are well known for preserving a variety of campus traditions. Bates alumni and affiliates include 86 Fulbright Scholars; 22 Watson Fellows; 5 Rhodes Scholars; as well as 12 members of the U.S. Congress; 10 State Supreme Court chief