May 2008
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Jacqueline Hunter |
Aquaculture's Jacqueline Hunter
Celebrating 45 Years of 'Opportunity'
Forty-five years ago, Jacqueline
Hunter applied for a job at UMaine in a novel but straightforward
fashion. She offered to spend two weeks working for free for animal
and veterinary sciences professor Frank Witter.
"I said, 'It won't cost you a thing.
It will give you a chance to evaluate me,'" Hunter recalls.
Witter agreed. The 18-year-old Alton
teenager who grew up on a farm had been taking secretarial classes
at Husson College. She had already done a high school internship
with UMaine's Student Financial Aid Office, and had been invited to
continue on during the summer of 1963.
But after the successful two-week
trial with Witter, Hunter was offered a full-time job. Not with
Witter, it turned out, but as a technician with microbiologist
Melvin Gershman, a professor in the Department of Animal and
Veterinary Sciences.
Over the next 27 years, Hunter
assisted in bacteria research, helped teach lab classes, and even
co-authored with Gershman several manuscripts that appeared in
prestigious scientific journals. Hunter, whose early work involved
mastitis-testing of milk from farms around the state, eventually
became an authority in her own right on various strains of
salmonella, E coli and staphylococcus.
Now a Scientific Technician II in the
School of Marine Sciences, Hunter acknowledges her good fortune.
"Today, you couldn't even get in the door without a B.S. degree,"
she says.
In 1990, the university created its
aquaculture and marine sciences program and – with Gershman nearing
retirement — Hunter was asked to join fish nutritionist Linda Kling,
associate professor of aquaculture nutrition, in the new program.
"I was right there on the ground floor
with her," Hunter says. "I had so much fun learning something new —
a new experience. It was like a new chapter. That's how I look at
life."
Hunter has spent the last 18 years
continuing her on-the-job training — experimenting with food stock
for salmon and smelt in the early days, then haddock, cod and
halibut, and now zooplankton, the tiny organisms that become food
for fish raised at the UMaine Center for Aquaculture Research.
Hunter says her enthusiasm for her
work stemmed from lessons from her mother, a schoolteacher who
retired to raise Hunter, and her father, who worked in the woods and
farmed, teaching his daughter about ethics, principles and
discipline.
"He said when you go to work, always
expect to give more than you receive, and then if you receive
something extra, you'll be very grateful. And that's how I was
brought up," Hunter says.
Hunter also has some very personal
reasons for being grateful. On a fall day in 1977, a disturbed
neighbor confronted Hunter and her father with a rifle as they
collected loam at the family sand pit.
The neighbor shot and killed Hunter's
father and then shot her in the face. Hunter barely survived, but
came away from the experience more spiritual and appreciative of
life's second chances, she says.
Since that episode, Hunter says her
philosophy is "no matter what you throw at me, it's a piece of cake.
I was 33 when I was shot. This year will be 31 years since then.
I've almost doubled my life again."
Hunter's can-do spirit led her to
teach herself carpentry, plumbing and even electrical work.
In the early 1990s, she, Kling and
colleagues organized the renovation of a university chicken barn
behind Perkins Hall into the Aquaculture Research Center. Her work
included outfitting the aquaculture center with PVC piping that
still circulates oxygen and water for fish tanks.
The university that allowed her to
come to work "through the back door," as Hunter says, "gave me
tremendous opportunity. The university has been a great learning
experience."
The rewards of her work are
"tremendous," she says. "It makes you feel good when somebody
depends on you for something and you can accommodate their needs."
Hunter, who received an outstanding
employee of the year award in 1992, will be honored for her 45 years
at UMaine at the Employee Recognition and Achievement ceremonies May
14. She is considering retirement in a few years, but in the
meantime, is still enjoying nearly half a century of "opportunity."
Dining Services Recruits 'Secret Shoppers'
Black Bear Dining at UMaine is taking
a new approach to improving dining experiences and to boosting use
of Dining Services facilities by faculty and staff.
Black Bear Dining recently began
sending almost a dozen secret shoppers out to have breakfast, lunch
and dinner at the dining facilities at no cost in exchange for
rating their experiences.
"We want to improve every day," says
Glenn Taylor, director of culinary services with Black Bear Dining.
"Our commitment is to provide the best dining service we can."
Secret shoppers have visited dining
facilities at York, Hilltop and the Marketplace to rate menu and
food quality, convenience, cleanliness and customer service.
The kind of experience a diner has
depends on many variables. "It's not just about food," says Taylor.
"It's also about the atmosphere and the service."
The secret shoppers, who have included
faculty members, staff and students, take notes on their
experiences. Members of the UMaine community interested in the
secret shopper program are invited to contact Bonnie Bates at
581-4580 or email (bonnie.bates@umaine.edu)
for details.
Katherine Kittridge, who directs
dining operations, says that Dining Services also wants to remind
UMaine employees that facilities are available to everyone.
Kittridge says that, with the exception of the Marketplace, many
people may view dining facilities as oriented to students only.
"We're trying to welcome all members
of the campus community," she says.
The three major campus dining facilities currently operating employ
more than 120 full-time employees and nearly 200 student employees,
preparing and serving more than 8,000 meals a day. Newly renovated
Wells Conference Center will open for dining during the summer.
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Brad Libby |
Littlefield Gardens Overseer Offers
Horticultural, Spring Planting Advice
At the top of the hill on the UMaine
campus — the highest point of Marsh Island — the seven-acre Lyle E.
Littlefield Ornamentals Trial Gardens and Research Center endures
some of the harshest weather conditions the state has to offer.
Wintertime temperatures sometimes plunge below minus 20 degrees
Fahrenheit and summer temperatures can approach 100 degrees.
With the arrival of spring,
thousands of trees, shrubs and flowering groundcover sprout fuzzy
buds, colorful petals and bright blossoms. The nearly 4 acres of
ornamentals comes alive with bumble bees and people. Hundreds of
school students, college classes and casual visitors wander the
gardens each year. Weddings are held on a weekly basis during the
summer.
The number of visitors to the
gardens increases with each season, especially as more people
discover them for both public enjoyment and for horticultural
research.
"There are still people who will
come up and say they've worked here for 15 years and didn't know the
gardens are here," says Bradly Libby, superintendent of horticulture
facilities, and manager of the Littlefield gardens and Roger Clapp
Greenhouses on campus.
Libby, who also has taught the
university's Woody Trees and Shrubs class, manages student work
crews, inspecting shrubs, trees and flower beds. He also keeps an
eye on the overall condition of the gardens and the nearly 3.2-acre
adjacent research area, where UMaine horticulturalists monitor
shrubs and trees for hardiness.
A 1994 UMaine graduate from
Newburgh, Libby has great respect for UMaine's horticultural program
and says the diverse conditions the Littlefield gardens are exposed
to also prepare future horticulturalists for almost any climate.
He adds that the Littlefield
gardens can serve as a model for amateur horticulturalists
landscaping their own backyards.
When designing an ornamental
garden, Libby says, gardeners should consider soil conditions,
exposure to the sun and plant characteristics, including what the
tree, shrub or bush will look like in maturity.
"Gardens are dynamic. Regardless of
what your intentions are, if you have a garden, it's going to
change," he says. "Some things grow; some things die and some things
perform differently than anticipated. Things are changing all the
time. Some things happen so slowly you don't realize it."
Regular walks through a successful
ornamental garden, Libby says, "are like rereading a good book. Any
time you can find something new, it's amazing. Even though I've been
working in these gardens for 16 years, there are new things I
discover."
UMaine horticultural professor Lyle
Littlefield founded the gardens and research station in the early
1960s. Littlefield was known for his work with crab apples, lilacs
and magnolias.
Inside UMaine Information
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We welcome your feedback.
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EAP Programs and Workshops
Yoga as stress management? Better ways to manage your time? Tips on
interviewing? Information on that and more is in the
list of current and upcoming EAP programs and workshops.
Office of Human Resources
Answers to benefits questions, new employment opportunities on
campus, collective bargaining agreements--and much more--are all
here at the
Office of Human Resources' Web site.
Employee Assistance Program
Questions on parenting? Need information on health, mental health,
legal, consumer, finances or career resources? Want to know how to
apply for an Emergency Loan? Would you like to do a private
self-assessment for alcoholism, depression or anxiety? Supervisors,
could you use a resource guide? It's all here at the
Employee
Assistance Program's Web site.
Inclement Weather Policy
New information on
UMaine's Inclement Weather Policy.
UMaine Today Online
For current news and information about UMaine, check out
UMaine Today
Online.
