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UMPI recognizes Maine Community Foundation, local donors during Nordic event

UMPI recognizes Maine Community Foundation, local donors during Nordic event

Officials with the University of Maine at Presque Isle recognized the Maine Community Foundation and local donors who have given a combined total of more than $50,000 in support over the next two years to the University’s new NCAA Division I Nordic Ski program. The recognition ceremony took place during a special event held on Thursday, Oct. 29 in the Campus Center.

The event served as a celebration for the ski program in achieving its new NCAA status and as an introduction of the new ski team and its new coach – Alexei Sotskov – to members of the region’s skiing community. At the start of the event, University officials held a short recognition ceremony for major donors to the ski program.

Campus, community create Wabanaki Heritage Project garden

Members of the campus and community are working together to create a new garden for the University that is tied to the local region and Native American culture.

Professors Alice Sheppard and Dave Putnam received a 2009 Project Compass Educational Mini-Grant for about $1,000 this summer to work with students and community members on the installation of representative plant specimens at a small plot near the central campus park woods. These plants are used by the region’s Native peoples in many ways, including food, healing, dyes, ceremonies, and artifacts.

Three at UMPI achieve scholarly distinction

VPAA article on RateMyProfessors.com published
UMPI Vice President of Academic Affairs Michael Sonntag has had an article he co-authored about the website RateMyProfessors.com published in the most recent issue of the peer-reviewed journal Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.

Art class releases projects on Aroostook River

Students in Art Professor Renee Felini’s ceramics class headed to the Aroostook River on Sept. 30 for a special class project that helped them to understand more fully the organic nature of the art form they’re learning about.

Felini and her class gathered at the boat landing near the Route 1 Bridge at the north end of Presque Isle to release into the river more than a dozen hollow, clay spheres that they had made in the ceramics studio.

Students host 10th Fit and Fun Day

Local kids will unknowingly be getting exercise while taking part in fun activities during the 10th semi-annual Fit and Fun Day, to be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31 in Gentile Hall and sponsored by the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Physical Education Majors Club.

UMPI grad makes international headlines with economics study

Thomas Wire, a 2008 University of Maine at Presque Isle graduate, recently made international headlines for a study he completed this summer which concluded that spending money on family planning, as opposed to more conventional green technologies, would be more cost effective in the global effort to reduce carbon emissions.

Wire completed the study – which was commissioned by the Optimum Population Trust, a UK think tank concerned with the impact of population on the environment – in August 2009 as a postgraduate student at the London School of Economics. His study was mentioned in The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, and the story was then picked up by media outlets such as The Economist, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post.

Project Compass announces Mini-Grant recipients

Officials with Project Compass, an effort on the University of Maine at Presque Isle campus to develop and improve culturally responsive strategies for its Native American students, has announced that it has funded 9 mini-grants to campus faculty and staff totaling nearly $18,000 that will help to support the mission of Project Compass while engaging students and increasing campus awareness of Native cultures.

Jazz quartet SPOKE to perform at UMPI

The University of Maine at Presque Isle presents a night of improvisational jazz by the Brooklyn, New York based quartet SPOKE at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30 in Wieden Auditorium.

SPOKE – featuring Justin Wood (originally from Presque Isle) on saxophone, Andy Hunter on trombone, Danny Fischer on drums, and Dan Loomis on bass — has performed in some of NYC’s top jazz venues such as the Cornelia Street Café and Brooklyn’s Tea Lounge. Individually, Spoke’s members have performed around the world at clubs, concert halls, and festivals, including Radio City Music Hall, the Jazz Standard, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Playboy Jazz Festival.

University hosts annual blood drive

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will hold its annual fall blood drive on Tuesday, October 20, from noon to 6 p.m. in the Campus Center’s Multi-Purpose Room.

The blood drive is sponsored by the University’s Residence Life Office, the Brothers of Kappa Delta Phi and the Sisters of Kappa Delta Phi NAS. Walk-ins are welcome and door prizes will be given away during the drive. If donors wish to reserve a time in advance, they should call 768-9585 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Executive Director of Mitchell Institute to speak at UMPI Business Breakfast

Ms. Colleen J. Quint, Executive Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute, will speak on “The Mitchell Institute and Higher Education in Aroostook County” at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s next Business Breakfast, to be held at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 30 in the UMPI Campus Center.

The Mitchell Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Senator George Mitchell to provide scholarship assistance to Maine students, and to research means of removing obstacles to higher education. Each year the Mitchell Institute awards a $5,000 scholarship to a graduating senior from every public high school in Maine.