UMaine News

The University of Maine’s 210th Commencement will be held in two ceremonies in Harold Alfond Sports Arena on Saturday, May 5. (more…)

The University of Maine Patrons of the Arts board members have selected Michael Lewis, an artist and longtime member of UMaine’s art faculty, as the 2012 Vincent A. Hartgen Award recipient. (more…)

The 10th annual opening of the Orono Bog Boardwalk will take place at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, May 1, with a special ceremony to mark the anniversary of one of the region’s most popular natural areas. Located in the Rolland F. Perry (Bangor) City Forest, the boardwalk wends its way through forested wetland and out onto a broad, open peat bog. The wheelchair-accessible boardwalk is free to visit and open from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. seven days a week during spring and summer. Managed jointly by the Orono Land Trust, the city of Bangor and the University of Maine, boardwalk operation and maintenance are funded entirely through donations and sales of merchandise. Information about the boardwalk and its nature programs is available on the website www.oronobogwalk.org, or by emailing jim.bird@umit.maine.edu or calling 581-1697.

Contact: Jim Bird, (207) 581-1697 or 866-2578

What do you get when you combine wind, water, loads of fun, and more than 425 middle and high school students and teachers from more than 40 schools in Maine? You get the Windstorm and Maine Wind Blade Challenges on Friday, April 27, at the University of Maine’s New Balance Student Recreation and Fitness Center. (more…)

Dr. Jimmy Jung has been named vice president for enrollment management at the University of Maine, effective July 1. (more…)

An unprecedented 500 people have registered for Friday’s Fifth Annual Healthy High Road Race and walk starting at 4:20 p.m. at the New Balance Recreation and Fitness Center. The event promotes fitness and raises awareness about healthy alternatives to alcohol and drug use. The UMaine Alcohol and Drug Education Office is sponsoring a 1-mile fun run and walk, a 5K run-walk and a 10K course. The event coincides with a health and wellness expo from noon to 4 p.m. at the recreation center. For information about the expo, the race, registration, a Soles for Souls charity shoe recycling initiative, and a performance at 2 p.m. by Frank and the Red Hots, visit an event website or call 581-1423.

Contact: Rebecca Davison, (207) 581-1423

ORONO, Maine — The public good inherent in the mission of the public university must be re-emphasized in an effort to recommit to the mutually beneficial partnership between citizens and their land-grant institutions, University of Maine President Paul Ferguson said Thursday morning at the Collins Center for the Arts in an address moments after he was inaugurated as the 19th president of the state’s flagship public university. (more…)

Meredith Jones, president and CEO of the Maine Community Foundation and this year’s University of Maine Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center’s Distinguished Maine Policy Fellow, will spend Thursday, April 12 on campus for meetings with President Paul Ferguson and faculty and students to discuss student-led philanthropy and advanced research funding under way at UMaine. Jones also will tour research facilities and meet with staff and faculty of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center. A native of Washington County, Jones is a member of the editorial review committee for Maine Policy Review and the advisory board of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, in addition to other community advisory boards in Maine. Since its creation 28 years ago, the Maine Community Foundation has awarded more than $175 million in scholarships and grants to individuals and nonprofit organizations throughout the state and region.

Contact: B.J. Kitchin, (207) 581-1644

With 76 million Americans poised to turn age 65 in the coming decades, it’s time to redefine the concept of the aged and elders, as older people today are far healthier, more mobile, better educated, more active, politically aware and outspoken than earlier generations, according to Len Kaye, director of the University of Maine Center on Aging in an article in the Spring 2012 edition of UMaine Today Magazine. Without diminishing the problems and infirmities that come with aging, Kaye says that society for too long has focused on the disabilities of aging and ignored the abilities of the aged. Read the story online.

Contact: George Manlove, (207) 581-3756