The Bangor Daily News has posted an announcement about a presentation on United States and Pakistan relations at 5 p.m., Monday, Jan. 7 at the University of Maine Buchanan Alumni House featuring Husain Haqqani, a Pakistani scholar and public figure who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 2008–11.
Archive for the ‘Education and Human Development’ Category
Newspaper Advances UMaine U.S.-Pakistan Relations Talk
Thursday, January 3rd, 2013CANCELLED Lecture on the Future of U.S.-Pakistan Relations
Monday, December 31st, 2012The future of United States and Pakistan relations is the subject of a free public presentation at 5 p.m., Monday, Jan. 7 at the University of Maine Buchanan Alumni House.
Sponsored by the UMaine School of Policy and International Affairs and the Bangor Foreign Policy Forum, the talk by Husain Haqqani, a Pakistani scholar and public figure who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 2008–11, is titled “The Future of U.S.-Pakistan Relations.”
Haqqani is widely credited with managing a difficult partnership during a critical phase in the global war on terrorism. Haqqani started his public life as an Islamist student leader and has emerged as a strong voice for democracy and civilian control of the military in Pakistan and an exponent of liberal values in the Muslim world. His career in government includes serving as an adviser to three Pakistani prime ministers, including Benazir Bhutto. Haqqani is the author of the book Pakistan Between Mosque And Military and hundreds of articles published in major international newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals. He currently is senior fellow and director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. and co-edits the journal Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, published by institute’s Center for Islam, Democracy and Future of the Muslim World. Haqqani also is director of the Center of International Relations and professor of international relations at Boston University.
For more information or to request a disability accommodation, email peter.fandel@umit.maine.edu, or call 207.581.1835.
Channel 5 Features UMaine School Counseling Program
Thursday, December 6th, 2012University of Maine assistant professor of counselor education Dennis Lin was interviewed for a Channel 5 (WABI) news report on a peer counseling program at UMaine, which trains students at the Piscataquis Community Secondary School and the Blue Hill Harbor School to learn about and employ counseling skills to help fellow students deal with troubling issues. Channel 7 (WVII) also carried a report on the training.
Contact: George Manlove, 207.581.3756
Allan Interviewed for MPBN Hazing Report
Thursday, November 29th, 2012University of Maine professor of higher education Elizabeth Allan was interviewed by Maine Public Broadcasting Network for a report on hazing in light of a recent incident involving hazing by members of the Dexter Regional High School football team.
Contact: George Manlove, 207.581.3756
Newspaper Reports on UMaine-Led Peer Counseling Project
Thursday, November 29th, 2012The Bangor Daily News reported on a new program, led by the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development, to train high school students in Maine as peer counselors to help identify problems resulting from depression, bullying and drug use.
Contact: George Manlove, 207.581.3756
Misplaced Scallop Innards Story Reported
Thursday, November 29th, 2012Several news organizations, including the Bangor Daily News and Maine Public Broadcasting Network reported on the misplacement and recovery of scallop innards collected for marine research at the University of Maine Darling Center in Walpole. A scallop diver delivering the scallop parts to a university researcher mistakenly placed the package in the wrong vehicle with UMaine license plates at a designated convenience store. UMaine College of Education and Human development faculty member Abigail Garthwait, who had stopped for gas in a university vehicle, discovered the package a short time later and notified marine scientists. The Seattle Post Intelligencer and the Houston Chronicle carried an Associated Press version of the story.
Contact: George Manlove, 207.581.3756
UMaine Community Collecting Food, Clothing, Cash, Books to Help Less Fortunate
Tuesday, November 27th, 2012University of Maine students, faculty and employees are collecting food, clothing, cash and books to help the less fortunate this holiday season. Dozens of initiatives are under way through November and into December, led by student groups, student-athletes, fraternities and sororities, and academic programs. What follows is a partial list:
The UMaine College of Education and Human Development, in collaboration with the University Bookstore, is accepting donations for its traditional holiday children’s book drive through Nov. 30. New, unwrapped books suitable for toddlers through teens may be dropped off at 151 Shibles Hall or at the Bookstore. The Old Town-Orono Kiwanis Club will collect books, wrap and distribute them at the organization’s annual holiday party for area children, a 35-year partnership with UMaine. In addition, the Bookstore is offering 20 percent discounts on books purchased there for the drive, and for every book purchased and donated, the Bookstore will match the donation.
The University of Maine Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is among the groups collecting for Toys for Tots again this year. Black Bear fans are asked to bring toys to the men’s ice hockey games Nov. 30 or Dec. 1, or to the men’s basketball game Dec. 6. In addition, there is a donations box in Bear Necessities at Alfond Arena. The University of Maine Athletics Department also plans a teddy bear toss during the first intermission at the men’s ice hockey game against Vermont Nov. 30. Fans may bring new or gently used stuffed animals to throw onto the ice.
The Bodwell Center, with Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, Pi Beta Phi sorority and other groups on campus, also is collecting toys and gifts in partnership with Crossroads Ministries for its Holiday Sharing Program. Donations can be brought to the Bodwell Center, 311 Memorial Union, or dropped in one of several donation boxes on campus, according to Bodwell Center coordinator Lisa Morin.
In addition, the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity is coordinating its second annual Blue and Gold donation drive to collect in clothing, nonperishable foods and gifts for children. Members have set up trees in the Memorial Union that various campus groups are decorating, and then filling nearby boxes with nonperishable goods. This year, the organization is working with the Salvation Army. For additional information, contact Elek Pew, elek.pew@umit.maine.edu.
The offices of Student Records, Student Financial Aid and Student Employment are holding a food drive from Friday, Nov. 30 through Friday, Dec. 21. Canned and nonperishable foods will go to the Manna Ministries Food Pantry. Donations can be dropped off 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m., Monday–Friday, 100 Wingate Hall beginning Nov. 30. For information, contact Daniel Lamson, 207.581.1308, or Meredith Lee, 207.581.1336.
U.S. military troops will be the beneficiaries of a holiday cards and letters project coordinated by the Bodwell Center for Service and Volunteerism, students from communication and journalism professor Claire Sullivan’s CMJ 345 class, and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Students, faculty and staff through Dec. 1 are writing cards and letters of thanks to soldiers and their families to be sent through a clearinghouse by the American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes. Information, including requirements for overseas mail, is available by calling the Bodwell Center, 207.581.3091.
Through funds collected from its “jeans Fridays” and internal fundraising, the University of Maine Alumni Association is donating $500 to Ann’s House shelter for women and children in Bangor and $250 to the Good Samaritan Agency for pregnant women and teens in Bangor this month. The association is designating a different local charity to support each month with help from the university community. In December, the association will collect items and cash donations for Star Bright Animal Rescue in Glenburn. Donations can be dropped off at the Buchanan Alumni House. For information, contact Betty-Jo Watt, 207.581.1217.
Students in a Maine Business School (MBS) class taught by Martha Broderick, senior lecturer of business and commercial law, and MBS Corps student volunteers have contributed more than 150 cans and boxes to the Bodwell Center’s Black Bear Exchange food pantry in Estabrooke Hall this month to help members of the campus and outside communities in need of food assistance. Some students contributed cash to help UMaine students who are running out of funds and food, according to Broderick. Students in Broderick’s classes have been collecting food donations for other local cupboards every semester for more than 15 years, and this year is donating through the Bodwell Center.
The School of Biology and Ecology has raised money and is collecting food for Crossroads Ministries in Old Town, gently used outerwear for the Bangor Homeless Shelters and Services for the Needy, and beginning Dec. 3, holiday gift donations, according to Susan Anderson, administrative associate in the school.
Earlier, the Kappa Sigma fraternity raised more than $500 through its gently used jackets, coats, hoodies and sweaters sale to benefit the Fisher House Foundation, which provides temporary housing for families of veterans hospitalized due to illness, disease or injury, according to member Jonathan Carney.
UMaine’s Classified Employees Advisory Council, in conjunction with the UMaine Student Athletic Advisory Committee and the Bodwell Center, also collected $75 worth of food and $550 in cash during their annual “Stuff the Bus” project Homecoming Weekend to benefit the Black Bear Exchange.
And students rolled up their sleeves in mid-November for an American Red Cross blood drive at the New Balance Student Recreation Center, organized by the Bodwell Center.
Contact: Lisa Morin, 207.581.4194 or George Manlove, 207.581.3756
UMaine Economic Analysis Finds Obese Youth Could Cost Maine $1.2 Billion
Monday, November 19th, 2012The medical costs of obesity for the current cohort of children and adolescents in Maine could reach an estimated $1.2 billion over the next 20 years, according to a new study by a University of Maine economist.
UMaine professor of economics Todd Gabe’s study suggests that the incidence of obesity is likely to increase from 7.8 percent of Maine’s kids and teens to an estimated 25.7 percent as they grow into adults.
“We’ve all heard about the nationwide obesity epidemic,” says Gabe, “and these figures bring the problem — especially the challenge facing our children as they become adults — closer to home.”
In his study, Gabe used statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and data on upward of 2,000 school-aged children in Maine, compiled by physical education teachers in 18 schools across the state.
The data on schoolchildren was collected during the last three years as part of ongoing research in the UMaine College of Education and Human Development, led by physical education professors Steve Butterfield and Robert Lehnhard, with statistician Craig Mason, kinesiology and physical education master’s graduate Sarah Livingstone, and exercise science graduate student Aaron Runner.
The physical education research team began collecting fitness data on Maine schoolchildren after training physical education teachers in the use of a standardized periodic fitness test called PACER (Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run), designed by the Cooper Institute.
The physical education project, funded in part by the Betterment Fund in Maine, is one of the first of its kind in the nation, Butterfield says, and could become a national model for quantifying the extent and cost of obesity.
“A project combining exercise science and economics helps us examine an important issue facing our state, and it’s a good example of the growing interdisciplinary research happening at UMaine,” Mason says.
Last year, the medical costs of obesity for all age groups in Maine were an estimated $452.7 million, with most of these costs due to adult obesity.
The concern, say Butterfield and Lehnhard, is that obese children and adolescents are much more likely than their non-obese peers to become obese adults, when the medical costs are very high.
“If anything, these cost numbers are conservative,” says Gabe, whose study was funded, in part, through a partnership between the Maine Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; the Maine Department of Education; and UMaine’s College of Education and Human Development.
“These are medical costs related to obesity, and do not count indirect costs due to early mortality or morbidity. Other studies have uncovered non-medical costs from reduced workforce productivity that are more expensive to the economy than the medical costs of obesity,” Gabe notes.
Contact: George Manlove, (207) 581-3756 or george.manlove@umit.maine.edu
Symposium to Focus on International Student Recruitment
Thursday, November 8th, 2012A symposium scheduled Friday, Nov. 9 at the Buchanan Alumni House is being organized by the UMaine College of Education and Human Development and the Office of the Vice President for Enrollment Management to bring together Maine teachers and school administrators to discuss and share ideas about recruiting international students. Nearly 60 participants in addition to 18 international high school students studying in Maine will explore successful recruitment strategies and discuss classroom integration from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. during the Educators of International Students in Maine Symposium. Both secondary and post-secondary schools in Maine and elsewhere are looking to enroll international students to boost tuition revenue.
Contact: George Manlove, 207.581.3756
President’s Community Conversation 2.0 Scheduled for Monday
Wednesday, October 24th, 2012On Monday, Oct. 29, University of Maine President Paul Ferguson will hold Community Conversation 2.0, his second annual discussion with the UMaine community.
The President’s Community Conversation 2.0 will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. in Wells Conference Center. This year, the President’s Community Conversation is being combined with the annual Employee Breakfast. For UMaine employees working evening shifts, an “evening breakfast” is scheduled for 9–10 that night.
Last October, President Ferguson held the first Community Conversation to share his first impressions of UMaine. He also described the collaborative process about to be initiated to shape a bold, pragmatic vision for UMaine’s future. That Conversation launched the “The Blue Sky Project: Reaffirming Public Higher Education at Maine’s Flagship University,” the strategic planning initiative led by a 26-member leadership team of faculty, staff, students and alumni.
Community Conversation 2.0 will focus on both achievements and challenges at UMaine this past year, and will introduce the Blue Sky Project Implementation Plan.
Contact: Margaret Nagle, (207) 581-3745
