Alumni Board of Directors
Mar. 31, 2007
Robert A. Kennedy, President, University of Maine
• Thank you for being here
with us today, and for your ongoing support of your alma mater. I
recognize that it is a big commitment, of time and energy, and I know
that Todd and the Alumni Association staff all share in my appreciation
for all you do.
• Amazingly, we are just six weeks away from Commencement. The
predictable cycles of the academic year are reassuring to those of us
who work in higher education, but I always find that it seems that the
years go by quickly. That is particularly true at UMaine, because of all
the great things that are happening in our community every day.
• I know that there is a current subject that is getting a good deal of
attention, and I'll address it at the top today. That is, of course, our
new radio deal with Clear Channel. We did not do a good job in
communicating with Stephen and Tabitha King as the process evolved and,
as a result, they are justifiably angry.
• We have learned a great deal from this experience, and I can assure
you that we won't repeat this kind of mistake in the future. As I hope
all of you know, we appreciate our friends and we try hard to let you
know that. In this case, with a lot on the line and with the spotlight
shining brightly, we did not treat two of our very best friends with the
respect they deserve.
• I am going to do everything I can to repair the relationship with the
Kings. Of course, I don't know what the ultimate outcome will be, but I
will continue to try. I have started that process, and I look forward to
the opportunity to speak with Steve and Tabby when they are ready.
• While that issue does represent a setback, I'm pleased to let you know
that there is a lot to celebrate these days at UMaine.
• Let's start with the obvious: how about those Black Bears? It's the
fourth time in Tim Whitehead's six years, and third time in the last
four, that we have qualified for the Frozen Four. That is an amazing
achievement, and a great credit to the players and coaches.
• And, while it's great to get into the Frozen Four, I can't help but
feel like it's our turn to win one. It's an exciting time, to be sure.
And I'm looking forward to traveling to St. Louis – Ben Bishop's
hometown by the way – for the games. Maybe, just maybe, we will be
celebrating a championship next weekend.
• And, while the hockey team has the highest profile, it also serves to
remind us of the general excellence that is around us every day.
• For example, Paul Mayewski, director of our Climate Change Institute.
Unless there's a late change in the schedule, Paul will be featured
tomorrow night on 60 Minutes. What a credit to Paul, and to UMaine, that
his expertise is so highly regarded that one of the world's leading news
programs will turn to him for comment on important issues.
• CBS correspondent Scott Pelley spent 10 days with Paul and his
colleagues in February, during a research expedition to Antarctica. The
report will be about King George Island, which is experiencing some of
the greatest warming anywhere in the world, and Paul will provide the
climate-related expertise.
• Two weeks ago, Paul was a keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the
Explorers Club, a well-known international organization based in New
York. He spoke to an audience of 1,000 at the black-tie event, held at
the Waldorf Astoria.
• Research in UMaine's Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center
continues to draw attention from important places. As you know, we
shipped a ballistic panel kit to an Army unit in Iraq, where it will be
used to line a tent, protecting soldiers from mortar blasts and other
dangers.
• Sen. Collins and Congressman Michaud were on campus to help us
celebrate the accomplishment, and it received front-page coverage in the
Portland Press Herald and Bangor Daily News.
• And, just this week, the undersecretary of Homeland Security used
AEWC's Composites Container research program as an example of a homeland
security research program that's working well. His audience, by the way,
was Congress' Homeland Security Subcommittee, certainly a group that he
wanted to impress – and he used UMaine research as his example.
• We've actually been to Washington twice in recent weeks. The first
time, at the beginning of March, was for an international conference on
nuclear proliferation in the Middle East – co-sponsored by UMaine's
Cohen Center for International Policy and Commerce and National Defense
University. This marked the first time that NDU has ever co-hosted a
conference with another institution. That is certainly good company, and
we are developing plans for a follow-up conference, to be held at UMaine
next year.
• The conference itself featured discussion at an extraordinarily high
level, and we were proud that our own Bahman Baktiari was one of the
presenters. It was very exciting to hear all the speakers mention UMaine
and the Cohen Center, and it really demonstrated the extraordinary
quality of our university, and it showed how our profile can be raised
through activities like this one.
• Going forward, as we aspire to new heights for our university, we will
continue to look for opportunities like this one, and I am sure that we
will continue to demonstrate that we belong in the same company as the
National Defense University, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the
other great institutions involved in that conference.
• Just about ten days ago, we hosted Capitol Hill Day, which we do every
other year at the Capitol Building. We bring some of our top
researchers, who demonstrate their projects for members of Congress and
their staffers. This is a great way to generate interest in our work,
and to show the D.C. crowd the results of their efforts on our behalf.
• I am really looking forward to the future development of the School of
Policy and International Affairs, which will give us inroads to more of
this type of activity. We are now looking at ways to identify the
faculty members who will be part of SPIA, and that is the first step
toward establishing degree programs in that school. Its potential is
practically unlimited, and we are excited about it becoming a signature
UMaine program.
• The Cohen Center is a cornerstone of SPIA, and there is a good deal of
activity in that unit as well. In addition to co-sponsoring the Middle
East conference, there are plans under way for a series of activities
celebrating the center's tenth anniversary. We're getting ready for a
Cohen lecture, perhaps in May, and some summertime activities as well.
Secretary Cohen tells me that he is pleased with the direction we are
taking, and that is important to us.
• Another restructuring that you might find interesting is the
development of our new School of Economics, formed by merging the Dept.
of Economics and the Dept. of Resource Economics. This represents a
logical melding of academic expertise, and it will be good for our
students and for our ability to serve our state in addressing important
concerns.
• We've been working hard in communicating with the legislature. I
testified before the Appropriations Committee twice this week, and
several of us have been working hard on advocating for our needs. We
even had two outstanding senior students – Ben Briggs and Erin Kinney –
testify this week about the need for upgraded lab facilities. Since Ben
is going to med school and Erin is going to vet school, and both are
Maine natives, they certainly captured the lawmakers' attention!
• We are being received well, but the legislature is facing some serious
complications. Our needs are significant, though, and we are doing all
we can to make that case. Our top priority is base funding, but we also
have R&D and infrastructure needs that are critical. Our message is that
UMaine is the best investment our state can make.
• We could, of course, use your help in making our case. Those of you
who live in Maine could do us a lot of good by contacting your
legislators and telling them why this university is so important, and
what it has done to help you get to where you are. Every contact counts,
and the timing is exactly right for your input.
• I've spent some time traveling in recent weeks, visiting with UMaine's
friends in California and South Carolina – perhaps some of your
classmates and other UMaine friends.
• In California, I met an alum named Ken Murray. Ken is in San Diego,
and he works as a consultant for Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a global
financial management firm. A few days after we met, Ken sent a great
email message. I'd like to read part of it to you:
Bob,
My dad was the first person in either his or my mother's family to
attend college. He went seven year's to night school, after working a
full day. During that seven-year period in the late 1940s-early 1950s,
he had four children. I was the second child and we had all the
childhood diseases of that time...chicken pox, measles, mumps and
scarlet fever.
I got out of second grade early one day in June of 1952 to attend his
graduation. Later in life, I more fully understood his effort and the
impact it had on our lives. All six of his children graduated from
college; one is an attorney and another is an OB-GYN doctor. I believe a
college education will improve your life and raise the standards for
generations to follow.
I'm told the young man getting the scholarship this year is married, may
have a child and was living last year in a tent. Can there be a more
deserving student? I am overwhelmed at his dedication to better things
for himself and his family. I promise you that today, I am committed to
seeing this young man get an education. This sort of effort must be
rewarded.
Warmest regards,
Ken
• That kind of message says so much, and it really makes me feel good
about UMaine, what it has meant to generations of people, and what it
means to people today.
• In addition to those who play hockey, our students continue to do
impressive things, and I thought I would finish my prepared remarks with
a few examples:
- Dozens of our students gave up their Spring Break vacations to
participate in volunteer activities all around the U.S. and in other
countries. We are part of Alternative Spring Break, a national
organization that places student groups in important service locations
in the U.S. Additionally, other groups formed in different ways to take
on challenges in rural parts of countries like Mexico, Honduras,
Nicaragua and Ecuador. In Ecuador, for example, students worked in
medical facilities to help extremely poor people get dental and medical
care. What a great learning experience for our students, and what a
credit to them that they are willing to take on such challenges.
- Susan Saucier of Millinocket, a senior chemical engineering major, has
been named Student of the Year by the Paper Industry Management
Association.
- Junior Chelsi Snow and sophomore Ben Burpee have received prestigious
Goldwater Scholarships, and David Welch has earned honorable mention in
that competition.
- Baseball player Matt McGraw and swimmer Tal Shpaizer were recently
named winners of our athletics department's Dean Smith Awards, given
annually to the top male and top female student-athlete.
- And, one that really pleases me, relates to a team of engineering
students that just returned from Michigan, where they took second place
overall in the Clean Snowmobile Challenge – a competition involving
universities form all across the northern U.S. and Canada. Teams work to
create environmentally friendly snowmobiles, and they do some remarkable
things. In addition to the second place finish, our team took first
place in the Most Economical Snowmobile category and the Quietest
Snowmobile category.
• Those students work with a tremendous professor named Mick Peterson,
and they get the kind of experiential, hands-on learning that will
really make a difference in their ability to do well after they graduate
from UMaine and go on to work or further education.
• They're having great experiences, as I hope you did. And I hope that
they will someday return to provide the kind of support that you provide
to your alma mater. It is much appreciated, by all of us.
Back to Speeches
