Combined News

The University of Maine will hold the second annual 12-hour BearFest Dance Marathon starting at 5 p.m., Feb. 23 at the UMaine New Balance Field House to benefit the Bangor-area Children’s Miracle Network and the pediatric wing at Eastern Maine Medical Center. Last year, the event — coordinated by the UMaine Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council, and Campus Activities & Student Engagement — raised $32,000. As of Feb. 7, more than 500 preregistered participants planning to dance until 5 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 24 have pledged more than $19,000 toward the 2013 goal of $35,000. For information or to request disability accommodations, call 207.973.5051. Pledges and registration information is on the Children’s Miracle Network website.

Join Dottie & Crystal from the Graduate School on Monday, February 25th from 1-3pm or Tuesday, February 26th from 2-4pm in the Graduate Commons of Stodder Hall for an informative session about how to format your thesis or dissertation!  They will be covering the same information on both days and will focus on common mistakes along with samples of what to do.  Please email the "Thesis Workshop" folder in FirstClass  or thesis.workshop@umit.maine.edu with the session you plan on attending and your current degree program to register.  Call 207-581-3291 with any questions.

The University of Maine Department of Art is inviting the public to a free artists’ reception from 5:30–7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 8 at the Lord Hall Gallery to mark the opening of two new exhibits that include works by Maine artists. “Surface Tension: Prints by Scott Minzy” features work by Minzy of Pittston, Maine. “Print Portfolios: Selected Images” includes paintings and drawings from artists across the country and from Maine, including UMaine art faculty members Susan Groce and Susan Camp, and former adjunct art instructor Kristisu Sader. The exhibits will be up through March 15. Lord Hall Gallery is open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. For information or to request disability accommodations, call 207.581.3245.

Ana Mauricio, a Doctor of Philosophy of Interdisciplinary Studies student, is the February 2013 Graduate Student of the Month.

Graduate School: Where are you from originally?

Mauricio: I am from Peru.

Graduate School: What undergraduate institution(s) did you previously attend?

Mauricio: I attended to the National University of Trujillo in Peru.

Graduate School: Why did you choose to attend UMaine?

Mauricio: I chose UMaine because I was interested in applying environmental studies and geo-archaeology in Andean archaeology. UMaine is a good place to have this specialization within an interdisciplinary environment.

Graduate School: What degree program are you pursuing?

Mauricio: I completed the M.S. Program in Quaternary and Climate Studies through the Climate Change Institute and now I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Environmental Geoarchaeology through the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program.

Graduate School: What are your plans after graduation?

Mauricio: My plan is to continue working on Andean archaeology, developing topics related to the understanding of the processes of transformation and creation of cultural and natural landscapes and how this is related to the rise, development and fall of pre-Columbian societies. I would also like to develop a research center for environmental studies in Peru where researchers from any part of the world can work interdisciplinarily, relating their studies to both past and present environmental topics.

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Posted February 6, 2013

Neil Shelley’s film, Telling Hannah, has been accepted into the third annual Lewiston Auburn Film Festival. Shelley is an UMaine Intermedia MFA student, manager of the Collaborative Media Lab in the Fogler Library, and a Teaching Assistant for Professional Video Production at the University. According to Shelley, in the film,

“After the death of her father, Hannah is raised by her Uncle Tim. As both Hannah and Tim move on, the pair forms a close bond with one another, but when a dark secret is revealed, their trust is broken and the relationship shattered.
A story of deception, honesty, and ultimately redemption, Telling Hannah is a reminder to us all about the power of the human heart.”

Over 1,000 people attended last year’s Lewiston Auburn Film Festival and the Festival has seen submissions from all over the world. Shelley said of the event, “they receive a wide array of submissions, including several other shorts with credits that include Shia Lebouf, and several Saturday Night Live stars. It should be a great festival that accepts both local, small and large productions, so the audience will be in for a nice mix of content.” The Lewiston Auburn Film Festival is from April 4-7 in downtown Lewiston Auburn. For more information, go to the festival website at lafilmfestival.org.
  

A Portland Press Herald blog on large animal veterinarians in Maine included a question-and-answer interview with University of Maine Cooperative Extension Veterinarian Anne Lichtenwalner, director of the UMaine Animal Health Laboratory and assistant professor of animal and veterinary sciences, about the dwindling numbers of large animal veterinarians in the state.

For the Feb. 5 edition of Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s Maine Calling program, Jessica Leahy, assistant professor of human dimensions of natural resources in the University of Maine School of Forest Resources, joined Scott Williams, executive director of the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, and Susan Gallo, a Maine Audubon wildlife biologist, for a discussion about how citizen scientists in Maine help environmental researchers document aberrations in seasonal changes in nature.

A photograph of a snow-capped Mount Katahdin taken by Nancy Michaud, a library specialist in the University of Maine Science and Engineering Center at Fogler Library, has been selected to represent the month of February in a 2013 calendar produced by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc. The company binds science journals for UMaine and other colleges and universities in the Northeast, and asks employees at institutions it serves to submit photos each year to be considered for its annual calendar.

Mary Cathcart, senior policy associate at the University of Maine Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, is one of two women selected for induction into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame Saturday, March 16 at a ceremony at the University of Maine at Augusta. Cathcart, a former three-term member of the Maine House of Representatives and a four-term member of the Maine Senate representing Penobscot County, has been a long-time advocate for the rights of women and girls, according to an article in the Bangor Daily News. At the Margaret Chase Smith Center, she established the Maine NEW Leadership program, a nonpartisan training program for undergraduate college women in public and private institutions. The Maine Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs created the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame in 1990 to honor women who have made notable contributions to improving opportunities for Maine women. The second Hall of Fame inductee is Colby College Professor Lyn Mikel Brown, an activist, author and co-founder of Hardy Girls Healthy Women in Waterville.

Head football coach Jack Cosgrove has agreed to a new three-year contract that will keep him at the helm of the Black Bears through June 2016, according to University of Maine Director of Athletics Steve Abbott.

“I am pleased to announce that we have signed Jack Cosgrove to lead our football program for another three seasons,” says Abbott. “Jack has done a terrific job as the leader of the Black Bear football team. He thrives on the intense competition and rivalries in the Colonial Athletic Association, and is committed to continuing to build upon the team’s success.”

Cosgrove, who just completed his 20th season leading the Black Bears, is a 1978 Maine graduate and All-Conference quarterback. He holds the program record with 111 wins. His 76 CAA wins put him fifth in conference history.

“I am especially pleased that we have finalized the contract for Coach Cos,” says UMaine President Paul W. Ferguson. “We have been enjoying a productive conversation with Jack over the last several months following the season’s end, both reflecting on his successful decades of service, but also on a vision for the future of Black Bear Football. I look forward to continuing our close friendship and partnership with him.”

Cosgrove has led the team to four NCAA playoffs (2001, 2002, 2008, 2011), including advancing to the NCAA Final Eight on three occasions (2001, 2002, 2011) and two conference championships (2001, 2002).

Cosgrove’s teams have produced 21 All-America selections and 129 All-Conference honors in the toughest conference in the Football Championship Subdivision. In the classroom, the Black Bears have garnered 26 Academic All-CAA honors from 2009-11, including 13 in 2011.

“In addition to being a first-rate football coach, Jack has been a great mentor and teacher for a whole generation of Maine football players,” Abbott says. “Coach Cosgrove firmly believes in the importance of the academic and personal development of his athletes, and he has made that a priority for more than 20 years. I am delighted that he will continue to guide this program in the future.”

Cosgrove has earned several coaching accolades, including being named the 1996 and 2001 Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year, the 2001 American Football Monthly I-AA National Coach of the Year and the 2011 New England Football Writers FCS Division I Coach of the Year.

“The Cosgrove family is grateful for this opportunity to continue to serve the state of Maine and the University of Maine and its Black Bear Football Program,” Cosgrove says. “We look forward to facing — and embracing — the challenge of providing a quality academic and athletic experience for the young men in our program. We are already hard at work preparing, through our recruiting and training of our current football team, for the challenge of CAA football and our 2013 schedule.”

LGBT rights advocate Hudson Taylor, a wrestling coach at Columbia University and former NCAA All-American wrestler at the University of Maryland, will discuss building allies among athletes and making college campuses safer, in a free public talk at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 18 in 100 D.P. Corbett Business Building. Taylor is a heterosexual ally of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and an advocate for inclusion. His presentation is titled “Allyship: Becoming a Champion for Inclusion on Your Campus.” LGBT Services at UMaine is sponsoring Taylor’s appearance. For information or to request disability accommodations, call 207.581.1439.

Channel 2 (WLBZ) and its affiliate Channel 6 (WCSH) reported on the 5th annual Maine VEX Robotics Championship held Feb. 2 at Cape Elizabeth Middle School for middle and high school students. Organized by the University of Maine Black Bears Robotics Club, the annual event introduces students to real-world engineering and encourages them to apply math and science skills they have learned in school. The UMaine College of Engineering and Fairchild Semiconductor cosponsored the event this year.

Mainebiz carried an article, drawing information from a Maine Campus news report, about the expended 2013 UMaine Business Challenge, which now invites competitive business plans and proposals from students throughout the University of Maine System.

The Bangor Daily News interviewed University of Maine Cooperative Extension Cranberry Associate Charlie Armstrong about the 2012 cranberry harvest in Maine, which Armstrong said was the best harvest ever and due largely to a combination of suitable weather and better pest management.

Channel 5 (WABI) and Channel 2 (WLBZ) reported that University of Maine men’s ice hockey coaching staff, players and fans supported a Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence initiative during the Feb. 3 home game by wearing purple ribbons.

University of Maine Assistant Research Professor and polar ecologist Rhian Waller, who is collecting cold-water coral samples among icebergs in Alaskan fjords as a National Geographic grantee, posted a new blog and photographs of her expedition on the NG Explorers Journal website. Waller reports that expedition members slept through an earthquake, which caused pieces of icebergs to break off.

University of Maine School of Performing Arts faculty Beth Wiemann, clarinet, and Marcia Gronewold Sly, vocalist, taped an interview about the upcoming performance of Pierrot Lunaire by Arnold Schoenberg for “Morning Classical Music” with Suzanne Nance on Maine Public Radio. Their interview, including a discussion of the work’s 100-year history, is expected to air Feb. 8. The dramatic and influential Schoenberg work will be performed as part of the Cadenzato Faculty Chamber music concert at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 9, Minsky Recital Hall, Class of 1944 Hall.

From an archaeological excavation site on the Peruvian coast, University of Maine interdisciplinary Ph.D. candidate Ana Mauricio participated in a Jan. 13 live chat with primatologist Jane Goodall and underwater explorer and discoverer of the Titanic Robert Ballard, among other explorers from seven continents, organized by the National Geographic Society to celebrate its 125th anniversary.

Mauricio came to UMaine in 2009 from Peru on a Fulbright fellowship to do a master’s in Quaternary and Climate Studies with Dan Sandweiss, professor of anthropology and climate studies and dean and associate provost for graduate studies. She defended her master’s thesis in 2012 and received a master’s last August. At the same time, Mauricio began an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quaternary archaeology.

She currently is excavating the early mound site of Los Morteros on the Peruvian coast, initially supported by the National Science Foundation and the Climate Change Institute’s Churchill Exploration Fund. Recently, Mauricio was awarded a National Geographic Society Waitt Foundation grant and a Beca Andina (Andean Fellowship) from the French Institute for Andean Studies.

University of Maine Professors of Sociology Steve Barkan and Steve Cohn recently published an entry on member recruitment in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. In the entry, Barkan and Cohn discuss the importance of social movements as a basis for participation in democracies, which have achieved major political, social and cultural changes. The influence of social movements depends largely on their ability to recruit members, but what is less obvious is why people choose to participate in them, the authors say.

Click here to view the “Ice Climbing ” video on YouTube.