News

The Village Soup wrote an article about the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Kids Can Grow program, a youth gardening program for ages 7–12 that will offer six hands-on classes from May to September at the Knox-Lincoln counties office in Waldoboro.

Karen Hagemann, distinguished professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Anne Margaret Johnstone Memorial Lecturer, will present “Gendering World War II: The History and Memory of German Women’s War Service during the Third Reich” 3:15–5 p.m. Monday, March 25 in Hill Auditorium at Barrows Hall on the UMaine campus. For more information or to request disability accommodations, call Julie Riley at 207.581.1228. The talk, co-sponsored by the Women in the Curriculum and Women’s Studies Program along with the Department of History, is part of the Women’s History Celebration on campus, “Out of the Shadows: Gender, Identity, and History.” The lecture will focus on how women in Germany during WWII provided critical wartime service.

More than half of the University of Maine’s student-athletes — 250 in all — will be honored and recognized for their success in the classroom at the 24th annual Scholar-Athlete Recognition Ceremony March 25.

This is the 10th consecutive year that more than half of UMaine student-athletes have been so honored for their academic achievement.

At the 6:30 p.m. ceremony in Wells Conference Center, 165 student-athletes will be recognized as Scholar-Athletes for achieving a 3.0 or better grade-point average in 2012 year and/or having a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better. In addition, 85 first-year student-athletes will be honored as Rising Stars for earning a 3.0 or better.

The event also will include two announcements: the recipients of the “M” Club Dean Smith Award, presented annually to the top male and female scholar-athlete; and members of Team Maine, honoring the sophomore, junior or senior from each team who achieved the highest GPA last year.

All scholar-athletes will receive medallions representing the number of years they earned the award. This year, 81 student-athletes will receive bronze medals signifying their first award, 49 will receive silver medals as second-time award winners, and 31 student-athletes will receive gold medals as three-time recipients. Four student-athletes will receive double gold medals for their fourth-time award.

Since the start of the annual awards in 1989, 2,994 medallions have been awarded. The event is sponsored by the University of Maine Foundation, University Credit Union, the M Club and the University of Maine Alumni Association.

A list of the names of the student-athletes is online.

The Bangor Daily News, WLBZ (Channel 2), Portland Press Herald, WABI (Channel 5) and WVII (Channel 7) were among several news organizations that covered the University of Maine’s football Pro Day. Eleven members of the Black Bear football team’s senior class got the chance to perform tests and drills for a New England Patriots scout in hopes of getting noticed by an NFL team.

The 50-member University of Maine Symphonic Band, conducted by Christopher White, will tour Down East and northern Maine April 3–6 with free public performances from Machias to Madawaska at school assemblies during the day and evening community concerts.

The 7 p.m. concerts are April 3 with the Machias Town Band at the University of Maine at Machias, April 4 at Houlton High School and April 5 at Madawaska High School. There also will be a 1 p.m. concert April 5 with the University of Maine Presque Isle Community Band on campus in Presque Isle.

The program includes works by Clifton Williams, R. Vaughan Williams, Dana Wilson, Johan Halvorsen, Frank Ticheli and R.B. Hall.

Among the performance highlights: Soloist Blake Ford, a senior music education major from Princeton, Maine, will play electric guitar in a unique piece, “Chaos Theory 3.0 Concerto for Electric Guitar and Wind Orchestra” by composer, sound designer and guitarist Jim Bonney.

Jason Priest of Old Town, Maine, winner of the Symphonic Band solo competition in December and a UMaine senior majoring in music performance and music education, will solo on the euphonium in a piece, “Rhapsody for Euphonium and Concert Band” by James Curnow.

Faculty member Dan Barrett will perform a featured trombone solo in “Variations on Barnacle Bill The Sailor” by Steven Frank, who teaches low brass at UMaine.

The Symphonic Band’s spring concert, featuring selections from the tour, will be 7:30 p.m. April 18 at in the Collins Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12; free with a student MaineCard, and can be purchased at the Collins Center for the Arts box office or at the door before the performance. For more information or to request disability accommodations, call the Collins Center for the Arts, 207.581.1755.

Posted on Thursday, March 21

Assistant Professor Dylan Dryer, of the English Department, has received the Braddock Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication. The CCCC is the largest organization in the world devoted to theory, research, and instruction in college-level writing. The Braddock Award is given annually to the best article published in the organization’s flagship journal, College Composition and Communication. An appointed review team carefully considers the dozens of peer-reviewed articles published in the journal during the previous year, and then decides which one rises above all the others in its intellectual, scholarly, and expressive excellence. Acceptance into the journal is extremely competitive, but the Braddock Award is a mark of even greater excellence, one that instantly brings visibility to its recipient and has an important impact on his or her career.

Dr. Dryer was the first faculty member in residence in Stodder Hall and held that position for more three years. He has also led the Thesis and Dissertation Studio for graduate students since Spring of 2010. The Studio is a UMaine Graduate School and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences-supported program that engages small, interdisciplinary groups of graduate students in structured peer review and feedback on drafts of their Thesis or Dissertation projects. 

The University of Maine Bookstore will sponsor its annual Grad Fair 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Thursday, March 21, at the lower level of the Memorial Union in front of the University Bookstore.

During the fair, graduating students can purchase caps and gowns and order items such as diploma frames, announcements, class rings and commencement day DVDs.

Students can also have their senior picture taken and be entered to win prizes.

Many university departments and outside vendors will be on hand to offer information about services and products related to commencement, according to Keven Higgins, associate director of the University Bookstore.

The event is co-sponsored by Campus Activities and Student Engagement (CASE).

Those unable to attend can purchase graduation items from the University Bookstore. For more information on the bookstore, call 207.581.1700 or visit bookstore.umaine.edu.

For more information on the fair, or to request disability accommodations, call Thomas Diaz at 207.581.4350.

Members of the UMaine community are invited to hear presentations by the three finalists for the position of Honors College dean. The candidates have been asked to speak on the topic: “Honors Education at the Public Research University.” The candidates’ vitae are online. Their campus presentation schedules: Rhonda Phillips, Associate Dean, Barrett, The Honors College Downtown Campus, Arizona State University, 9:30–10:45 a.m., March 26, Bangor Room, Union; Francois Amar, Associate Professor and Chair of Chemistry, University of Maine, 1:15–2:30 p.m., March 29, Room 3, Wells Conference Center; Steven Shapiro, Professor of Physics and Director of Academic Advising, Guilford College, 9:30–10:45 a.m., April 9, Bangor Room, Union. For more information, contact Dianne Avery, 581.1595.

The Bangor Daily News reported on a small kitchen fire that broke out in the Memorial Union on the University of Maine campus Tuesday morning. The Union was evacuated for about a half hour. No injuries were reported.

Mainebiz interviewed Kathy Hopkins, a maple syrup educator with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and Jenny Shrum, a doctoral biology and ecology student at the University of Maine, for the March 18 article “Maine syrup makers brace for widespread variability.” Hopkins spoke about the unusually warm seasons producers have been seeing in the past few years. She said despite the variability of the seasons, syrup production has been booming and state licenses for commercial production have increased. Shrum spoke about her research into how to better define what temperature rises and weather variability will mean for sap flow, as well as possible steps that could safeguard the state’s industry.

Assistant Professor of English Dylan Dryer has won the 2013 Richard Braddock Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) for his article, “At a Mirror, Darkly: The Imagined Undergraduate Writers of Ten Novice Composition Instructors” published in the February 2012 issue of College Composition and Communication. CCCC is an association in the National Council of Teachers of English. The award is presented to the author of the outstanding article on writing or the teaching of writing in the CCCC journal, College Composition and Communication, during the year before CCCC’s annual convention. The award was created to honor the memory of Richard Braddock from the University of Iowa, an extraordinary person and teacher who touched the lives of many people. The Braddock Award was presented at the annual convention March 15 in Las Vegas.

The University of Maine Chamber Jazz Ensemble will present a program of jazz standards and contemporary works in an April 2 performance on campus. The 12-member student ensemble is directed by Associate Professor of Music Karel Lidral.

The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in Minsky Recital Hall. Admission is $9; free with a student MaineCard. For tickets or to request disability accommodations, call 207.581.1755.

Other performances of the Jazz Ensemble include: 8:30 a.m., April 15, Sophomores and Juniors Preview Day, Collins Center for the Arts; 6:30 p.m., April 16, Bangor Public Library; and 11 a.m., April 22, “Jazz Corner,” Union Central, Memorial Union on campus.

University of Maine’s Reader’s Theatre will perform the play “Seven” on March 27 as part of the Women’s History Celebration on campus. The documentary play features seven monologues illuminating women’s inspiring journeys as leaders from around the world. The free public performance begins at 7:30 p.m. in Minsky Recital Hall as part of the Reader’s Theatre series, offered by the School of Performing Arts Theatre Division. For more information or to request disability accommodations, call 207.581.1781.

UMaine Professor of Theatre Tom Mikotowicz says he decided to produce this script because of its emphasis on women and diversity. He has been working with UMaine’s Women’s Studies and International programs to cast the production that will feature several international students.

“As a theatre piece, it explores the plight of significant women throughout the world and the global politics that affected their personal lives,” Mikotowicz says. “Our production will serve as a starting point for a discussion of the issues pertinent to women and international politics. Through involving many of our regular and international students, this work will be a collaboration among several programs, which makes it an interdisciplinary effort.

WABI (Channel 5), WLBZ (Channel 2) and the Portland Press Herald were among news organizations that carried an Associated Press report stating the University of Maine’s tuition is among the lowest in New England. According to a New England Board of Higher Education report, Maine’s public four-year universities have the second-lowest in-state tuition and fee rates in New England. The report says Maine’s schools charge an average of $8,725 a year for in-state tuition and fees. Only Connecticut’s in-state rates were lower.

WLBZ (Channel 2) spoke with University of Maine Engineering Professor Harlan Onsrud about Project>Login, an initiative that aims to attract students to computer technology-related majors and support them throughout their studies. Onsrud spoke about the importance of working with local businesses, such as Eastern Maine Health Systems and Cianbro, to offer internships and opportunities for students to stay and work in Maine after graduation.

The Portland Press Herald was among the news organizations that carried an Associated Press report about the University of Maine System Board of Trustees granting tenure to 25 faculty members during their meeting Monday. Six of the 25 faculty members are from the University of Maine in Orono. A Bangor Daily News blog lists the names of all the professors who were given tenure at the meeting. The trustees also approved the establishment of two assistant professorships at UMaine and the spending of an additional $1 million for a project at UMaine’s Memorial Gym and Field House Complex.

The newest entry in the Bangor Daily News blog “Education: Future Imperfect,” by UMaine Professor of History Howard Segal is online.

Mainebiz interviewed University of Maine faculty members Jim McConnon and Beth Calder for the March 18  article, “Belfast food hub creates new market forlocal vendors.” McConnon, a University of Maine Cooperative Extension business and economics specialist and professor of economics, explained why a food hub has taken root in Belfast. Calder, a UMaine Extension food science specialist and associate professor of food science, spoke about the sustainability needs of creating a “common kitchen.” Both weighed in on what makes for a “recipe for success.”

The Margaret Chase Smith Public Affairs Scholarship is now accepting applications from University of Maine undergraduate students of all majors. The 2013–14 scholarship of $3,500 ($1,750 fall/$1,750 spring) will support undergraduate independent research relevant to public policy. The scholarship will be awarded to a student who is a resident of Maine, currently enrolled in 12 credits or more, has a GPA of 3.0 or higher and will have completed 40-plus credit hours before the fall 2013 semester. Deadline to apply for the Margaret Chase Smith Public Affairs Scholarship is April 18. Applications are online. For more information, contact Peggy Mckee, margaret.mckee@maine.edu; 207.581.1644.

Selections from several of Christopher Durang’s finest one-act comedies will be featured in a University of Maine School of Performing Arts production of  “Beyond Therapy: An Evening with Christopher Durang,” March 27–29.

The performances by an 11-member student cast, directed by UMaine Professor of Theatre Sandra Hardy, begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Cyrus Pavilion Theatre on campus. Admission is $10; free with student MaineCard.

Tickets are available online at umaine.edu/spa or at the door unless sold out. For more information or to request disability accommodations, call 207.581.1781.

Works selected for the performance include “Funeral Parlor,” “’Dentity Crisis,” “Beyond Therapy,” “Gym Teacher” and “Kitty the Waitress.” Currently Durang’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” with Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce, is running on Broadway.