Vice President Dana speaks with BDN about Family and Friends Weekend

University of Maine Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Robert Dana spoke with the Bangor Daily News for an article about parents and students preparing for family weekends at colleges and universities around the state. “The separation of young people from their homes and parents and families and communities is a complex transition and a really important one,” Dana said. “This is a chance for students and their parents to give each other space without feeling they’ve been cast off to the outer islands.” In addition to providing family members with a glimpse of their adult child’s new life, Family and Friends Weekend is an exercise in navigating the new territory of the relationship, according to the article. Though it’s important for students to feel their connectedness to family and friends back home, he said, they also are poised to move forward on their own as adults. Family and Friends Weekend at UMaine is Sept. 22–24.