New Faculty, Staff Get Taste of Maine with Tour of State, Private and University Facilities

UMaine Alert

Posted: April 19, 2024 - 1:32 PM

At approximately 9:24 a.m. on Friday, April 19, a University of Maine graduate student was struck by a university vehicle on Long Road at the University of Maine campus in Orono. The student reports that they are at a local hospital with minor injuries.

Emergency services, including the Orono Fire Department, University Volunteer Ambulance Corps, University of Maine Police Department, Orono Police Department and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene.

The university vehicle involved in the incident was a Chevrolet Express van. It was being operated by a university employee.

Counseling services and support are available for students, faculty or staff who may have been affected. The Counseling Center can be reached at 207-581-1392 and the Dean of Students Office can be reached at 207-581-1406.

The scene has been cleared and Long Road is now accessible. An investigation is being conducted by the University of Maine Police Department with assistance from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit. Any witnesses to the incident are encouraged to contact Lt. Noel Santiago at noel.santiago@maine.edu.

June 14, 2006 Archives

Contact: George Manlove, 581-3756

ORONO – More than two dozen faculty and staff members at UMaine recently took a two-day guided tour of several businesses and institutions in central and coastal Maine that are important to the state’s economy, as well as the University of Maine as it serves to protect and create jobs.

Organized by Interim UMaine Provost John Mahon and Wanda Legere, senior assistant to the provost, the trip also was planned as a camaraderie tour to give newer members of the university community a chance to meet one another and see first-hand some of the research or manufacturing being done by or in conjunction with UMaine.

Participants say they found the trip enlightening and informative, offering an insider’s view of several key places they might not have had access to under normal circumstances.

“This trip was to allow people to meet one another and get to know one another beyond just being a name in the phone directory,” Mahon said as the 30-passenger van returned to campus after the last site visit, an aquaculture farm and UMaine business incubator in Franklin, where sandworms and halibut are being raised.

“It’s also to give people an opportunity to see some of the facilities of the University of Maine around the state and to see some of the private companies with which we have relationships,” he said.

The tour included visits to the Hutchinson Center, a satellite UMaine campus in Belfast operated through the Division of Lifelong Learning, the UMaine Darling Marine Center in Walpole, where shellfish and various nutrient soups to nourish them are grown, Fisher Engineering Company in Rockland, where several UMaine alumni work designing and manufacturing one of the world’s biggest supplies of snow plows, and International Paper Company in Bucksport, with which the university often works to improve paper-making technologies.

The trip also included a tour of the Maine State Museum and one of the Statehouse in Augusta, led by former state Sen. Mary Cathcart, a senior policy associate at the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, who explained how the Maine legislature operates.

Legere says she has heard enthusiastic feedback from several of the 28 people who signed up for the trip.

Says Pankaj Agrrawal, a newly hired assistant professor of finance in the Maine Business School: “The tour was absolutely fantastic. The opportunity to visit places of economic activity and cutting-edge research, in the company of accomplished and talented faculty and professionals, was simply priceless. Going forward, every new faculty should make it a priority to be on this bus – it is part of the journey.”

Suzanne Paonessa, associate director of Budget & Business Services, says she enjoyed getting to know some of the nine professors from an array of academic disciplines.

“Although I had been to some of the towns we visited, I did not have an opportunity before the bus tour to learn about and see the various facilities that are affiliated with UMaine, such as the Hutchinson Center and the Darling Marine Center,” she says. “It also gave me a better understanding of some of the research that UMaine faculty and staff are involved in, and will be much more meaningful when I see related financial transactions cross my desk.”

The trip included a history component, as well. Michael Hastings, director of research and sponsored programs and a student of Maine history, provided colorful perspectives on many of the towns, rivers, lakes and populations the tour bus passed on the journey. His observations included details about early settlements, regional folklore, notable events of the last century and details about several of Maine’s historically significant industries, such as early shipping and ice harvesting, and forestry and papermaking.

Jake Ward, executive director for Research and Economic Development at UMaine, provided industry-specific background on various facilities and industries with which the university has working relationships.

Legere says faculty tours of parts of Maine have been offered periodically in the past, but none has taken place for about four years. Mahon says he hopes the Provost’s Office will continue the introductory tours for new faculty and professional employees, particularly those whose work involves some form of outreach to businesses and organizations.