UMaine to Welcome Class of 2014 Friday
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — More than 1,800 new first year students will join the University of Maine community on Friday Aug. 27 during the traditional Maine Hello move-in event. Part of Fall Welcome Weekend, the award-winning Maine Hello features more than 800 volunteers — faculty and staff members, students and alumni — who greet the new students and their families, providing a friendly welcome and a helping hand as they move into residence halls.
The first-year students, members of the Class of 2014, will spend the weekend involved in a series of activities intended to help them acclimate to university life and prepare to begin classes on Monday, Aug. 30.
Friday’s activities will be centered around the residence halls that constitute the home base for UMaine’s First Year Residence Experience (FYRE) programming, a year-long series of residence hall-based initiatives intended to help students achieve academically while successfully becoming part of the overall UMaine community. Those residence halls are Oxford, Somerset, Knox, Androscoggin, Gannett and Cumberland. The best times for news coverage tend to be in the 9 a.m-1 p.m. time frame.
Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Robert Dana will be available to offer his perspectives on Friday. To determine his location and arrange interviews, reporters should call Ron Lisnet at 949-4222.
A new feature has been added to Fall Welcome Weekend this year. The new first-year students will participate in a Saturday Aug. 28 day of service, providing community service at dozens of community organizations and agencies in the Bangor-Orono area.
For example, groups will leave UMaine on Saturday at 12 noon for three-hour projects at these locations:
- Spruce Run
- Manna Ministries
- Hands of Hope Store
- Orono Bog Boardwalk
- Good Samaritan Agency
- Penobscot Job Corps
Others will leave at 12:30 p.m. to provide service at these locations:
- Bangor Humane Society
- Ronald McDonald House
- Challenger Learning Center
- Parkside Learning Center
Reporters interested in covering service activities at any of these Saturday locations are asked to contact the host agency in advance to gain coverage permission.