BDN, WVOM interview President Ferrini-Mundy about possible fall opening
The Bangor Daily News and WVOM‘s “George Hale and Ric Tyler Show” interviewed University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy about plans to reopen UMaine’s campus in the fall. The largely rural locations of public universities in Maine and social distancing rules Gov. Janet Mills enacted in response to COVID-19 have informed plans to reopen to students potentially earlier than some metropolitan-based universities, she said. “We are not in a city in the way that the Boston universities of course are,” she said. “We’re very much in touch with [public health] networks, which I think gives us an even wider insight into where we are as a state.” UMaine has begun making a list of all large lecture courses to determine if they need to be split up, according to BDN. The university will seek state guidance on international student admissions; general travel by students, professors and athletic teams; athletic events and performances; arrangements for employees returning to work on campus; and the use of residence and dining halls. Enrollment projections for the fall semester at UMaine are “generally on track,” said Christopher Richards, interim vice president of enrollment management at UMaine, although it’s impossible to predict the actual number of students on campus this fall.