Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to write with my monthly update, reflecting on the University of Maine events and accomplishments of the past month. I enjoyed catching up with many of you at the recent UMaine employee breakfast. The 30 days of September were full of those milestones and achievements, along with the excitement that always becomes with a new academic year.

We are very pleased with the news about UMaine’s enrollment, which continues to grow at a steady pace. Our total student population should be about 12,100 when the official numbers are announced on Oct. 15, and our new first-year class numbers approximately 2,105. Total enrollment and first-year student enrollment are at new record levels, reflecting widespread appreciation for UMaine’s quality and value. A closer look at first-year enrollment shows a sharp increase in the number of students from Southern Maine, with a total of 520 students from Cumberland and York counties combined, as opposed to 379 last year. Our admissions staff members working in that part of the state report a noticeable increase in student interest in UMaine. I believe that this trail leads back to each member of our faculty and staff, because our students are enjoying and succeeding at UMaine, and they’re telling their relatives and friends back home.

I also enjoyed First-Year Family Weekend activities during September, when we had the opportunity to visit with several new students and their families, including many parents who are UMaine alumni.

Several of those people told me how excited they are about the spirit and excitement they sense this fall, especially as it relates to the new Student Recreation and Fitness Center, which is already transforming our university community in a most positive way. More than 40,000 visits to the Rec Center have already been recorded, an incredibly impressive number that really shows the facility's impact on UMaine. It is getting very substantial use, as we hoped it would, and it is getting rave reviews. The impact of that facility on our community wellness and our community spirit, will be ongoing and impossible to calculate. Congratulations to all who have worked so hard to bring the Rec Center online, including Robert Dana, Kenda Scheele, Jeff Hunt and David Mahan, along with many others.

The other new facilities and initiatives in place this fall, including the renovated Hilltop Commons, the First Year Residence Experience programming and the move of all first-year students to neighboring residence halls, are all having their desired impact. There is real evidence that our student community is healthier and more productive than it has ever been.

Every year, we are all gratified to see examples of our students doing well, and we recently received news of a vivid example in the successes of Priyanth Chandrasekar, a 2007 graduate who was president of UMaine Student Government last year. Priyanth, who is a native of India, has been named the winner of the 2007 Alton T. Zerby and Carl T. Koerner Outstanding Electrical or Computer Engineering Student Award, given to the top student in the nation in those disciplines. This is the second time in four years that a UMaine student has won this prestigious award, with Matt Rodrigue having been honored in 2004. On top of that, a UMaine student named Louise Veilleaux won the award in 1979. UMaine is one of only three institutions, along with the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana and the University of California, Berkely, to have had three Zerby/Koerner Award winners since it was first awarded 42 years ago.

Just last week, we were thrilled and grateful to announce a $12 million bequest from the estate of George L. Houston, a 1937 UMaine graduate who died earlier this year. In accordance with Mr. Houston’s message, we will use the funds to create an endowment, known as the George L. Houston Scholarship Fund, to support School of Forest Resources scholarships and professorships. The impact of this bequest will be permanent and it will have a tremendous impact on Maine’s vital industries related to our forests. It will allow generations of UMaine-educated graduates to follow in the footsteps of people like George Houston to assume leadership roles in these fields and apply their education and skills to protecting and maximizing the great resource that exists in our forests. UMaine’s School of Forest Resources, with its tremendous faculty and under the leadership of interim director Steve Reiling and Dean Ed Ashworth, is already held in very high regard, and this bequest will help it to rise to an even higher level.

Another September milestone was the Sen. George Mitchell Lecture on the Environment, featuring Sen. Mitchell and Yale University Dean Gus Speth, both of whom gave inspiring and insightful talks before a large audience at Hauck Auditorium. It was a pleasure to welcome Sen. Mitchell back to campus, and my thanks go to David Hart, Ruth Hallsworth and the rest of the staff at UMaine’s Sen. George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research for organizing this wonderful event.

Another seminal figure in Maine politics, former Gov. John Reed, also visited UMaine during September, for an event unveiling his portrait at Buchanan Alumni House. Interestingly, Gov. Reed’s grandson, Reed Duford, painted the portrait, which is exceptionally nice. Gov. Reed, who graduated from UMaine in 1942 and first became governor in 1960, also gave a nice talk that day to UMaine’s Charles F. Allen Society, which recognizes alumni and friends who share the intent to support the University of Maine by will or other form of planned or deferred gift $10,000 or greater.

Congratulations to Prof. Ali Abedi and UMaine’s Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Communications Society chapter. It has been named one of the four best chapters in the world by that international organization. UMaine’s is the only North American chapter to be recognized with this honor, along with a chapter from Latin America, one from Europe/Middle East and one from Asia.

UMaine audiologist Amy Booth, who is incredibly dedicated to providing hearing services to underserved populations, has joined an international team of health professionals providing hearing aid assessments and audiology screenings at the Special Olympics World Summer Games, getting underway this week in China. Amy has worked very hard with Maine Special Olympics for many years, and her tireless efforts to help others are commendable.

It was nice to see representatives of so many student organizations turn out last week to sign an anti-hazing pledge as part of National Hazing Prevention Week activities. The UMaine Dean of Students Office and the UMaine Dept. of Athletics are providing real leadership in helping students and others in our community understand hazing and its implications.

As is the case every month, I have interesting items to report about the accomplishments of UMaine’s faculty members.

Prof. Liam Riordan from UMaine’s history faculty has written a new book “Many Identities, One Nation: The Revolution and Its Legacy in the Mid-Atlantic.” In this book, Liam examines early American society, looking at religious, racial and ethnic diversity in the pre-Revolutionary mid-Atlantic region.

Prof. Sandra Caron has worked very hard to create a self-guided walking tour that highlights UMaine women and the contributions they have made to the university’s history. It’s called “The Walking Tour and UMaine Women: Past and Present.” UMaine multimedia producer Kim Mitchell and others collaborated with Sandy on this effort, which shines a bright light on some of the most important people in UMaine's past and its present.

Marie Hayes, a professor in UMaine’s psychology department, was a key player in a Sept. 14-15 Bar Harbor neurogenetics conference. Marie is an allied senior scientists at the Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health (MIHGH), a collaboration involving UMaine, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and The Jackson Laboratory. The meeting brought together neurogenetics researchers from around Maine to further develop collaborations and scientific networking opportunities.

UMaine’s School of Policy and International Affairs’ Bangor Foreign Policy Forum presentation series is getting strong reviews for bringing interesting and insightful speakers to our area, to deliver talks each month in Bangor. In September, Deepti Choubey, deputy director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Nonproliferation Program, discussed U.S.-India relations and other issues related to nuclear proliferation.

Maine Sea Grant at UMaine deserves kudos for organizing a presentation on the dynamics of scientist/journalist relationships, featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ken Weiss of the Los Angeles Times and science communications expert Nancy Baron. Local journalists and others in our community joined in a lively discussion about that interesting and important subject.

Nine Orono High School students recently made presentations based on their summer research projects developed with UMaine faculty members in UMaine’s Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative (FBRI). This is a wonderful example of good local students taking the opportunity to work with, and learn from, UMaine experts in the important research fields of forest-based consumer products, chemicals and energy.

Congratulations to the seven new members of the UMaine Sports Hall of Fame. The new inductees include Ed Barrows '42 (football), Andy Bedard '00 (men's basketball), Kevin Buckley '81 (baseball), Mike Flynn '97 (football), Vanessa McGowan-Ray '00 (cross country/track and field), Garth Snow '92 (men's ice hockey), and George Wood (equipment manager). We look forward to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, always a Homecoming Weekend highlight.

I hope that most of you have registered with UMaine.txt, the university’s emergency messaging system. It’s a free service, and you can register online at umaine.edu/umainetxt. Once you’re signed up, you will receive cell phone messages and/or email messages in the event of a campus emergency.

The other primary element of our new emergency situation communications system is a siren, located on the top of Class of 1944 Hall. We’re going to begin conducting regular siren tests on Mondays, starting Oct. 8 (Columbus Day). On that day, at 12 noon, the siren will sound at full volume for three minutes. Every Monday thereafter, it will sound on low volume for three seconds at 12 noon. We’re also planning a full-scale test of the entire messaging system on Friday Oct. 19, beginning at 11:55 a.m.

In closing this month, I would like to remind you that two referendum questions on the November ballot will have an impact on UMaine. Question 2 is a $55 million jobs bond, while Question 3 seeks $43 million for a variety of capital purposes, including $11.3 million for classroom and laboratory upgrades at UMaine. The University of Maine System has created a Web page (http://www.maine.edu/system/ea/2007BondProposalsFAQ.php) with a good deal of relevant information.

My thanks to each of you, for the great work Y do on behalf of our students and our state.

Sincerely,
 

Bob Kennedy

President