Two hundred and thirty-eight students graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Saturday, May 12, during the 2012 Commencement Exercises – the University’s 103rd Commencement ceremony. President Donald Zillman conferred degrees for the 2011-2012 academic year upon 161 students who participated in the ceremony held in Wieden Gymnasium.
President Don Zillman has announced that Laurie Lachance, President and CEO of the Maine Development Foundation, will deliver the commencement address during the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s 103rd Commencement Ceremony, to be held on Saturday, May 12. During the event, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree will be presented to Lachance.
University of Maine System Chancellor James H. Page announced today that the System’s Board of Trustees approved two individuals he recommended as the next leaders of the University of Maine at Farmington and the University of Maine at Presque Isle. The Board’s executive committee met late Tuesday to consider the appointments.
Dr. Kathryn A. Foster, currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., was appointed as UMF’s next leader. In addition, Dr. Linda K. Schott, dean of the School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, was appointed as the next president at UMPI. They begin their new roles on the respective campuses on July 1 and each will receive a salary of $160,000.
The University of Maine at Presque Isle will host alumnus Christopher Morton for a reading and book signing to mark his debut publication – a compilation of 20 essays that provide humorous insight into life for one particular family guy in northern Maine. The event will take place on Monday, April 30 in the UMPI Library and include a reception and welcome at 6:30 p.m., a reading at 7 p.m., and a book signing to be held immediately following.
Morton’s book, You Kids Quit Pooping on the Lawn!, explores a wide range of unexpected topics. According to the back of the book, this includes: “Braised hippo tonsils. Whirling visionary Pentecostal dancers. Aliens. Accordions. Strange piles on the lawn. With gentle humor and a keen eye for deeper meaning, a simple man takes on the world swirling around him in a series of short essays. From family life and the terrors of fatherhood to the perils of hunting camp exorcisms, the essays are funny, poignant, sincere, occasionally bizarre, and always entertaining.”
The University of Maine at Presque Isle Fine Art Program faculty is pleased to announce that three solo shows developed through the 2012 Fine Art Senior Thesis Exhibition course will be hosted in April and May at the Pullen Art Gallery.
UMPI’s Fine Art Senior Thesis Exhibition, a six-credit, academic-year-long course, provides students with the kind of in-depth educational opportunity that most Art students never experience until they are in graduate school. In fact, UMPI’s Fine Art program is the only one in the entire State of Maine in which every senior must prepare for and host a one-person art exhibition of his or her work, and defend it orally and in writing, in order to graduate.
The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Fine Art Gallery will present its second exhibition of photographs by Andy Warhol at the opening reception of Eye to Eye with Andy Warhol: The Multiples on Friday, May 4 from 5-7 p.m. The public is invited to attend the exhibition’s reception, which is being held in conjunction with the Presque Isle First Friday Art Walk.
The exhibition, which will be on display May 4 through June 16, is being sponsored by the Maine Community Foundation (The Meander Fund); the Maine Arts Commission; the Bank of Maine Presque Isle; and Morningstar Art and Framing, which framed the exhibit. The photos are among the 153 silver gelatin prints and Polaroid photographs that UMPI received in the spring of 2008 – valued at more than $100,000 – from the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program.
Students from the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Native Voices group will host a day-long event meant to develop strong connections between higher education and the Native American/First Nations indigenous populations by setting aside a day on campus that focuses on their culture and traditions.
The group will host the Fifth Annual Native Appreciation Day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 21, in Wieden Hall. All interested students, faculty, staff, and members of the general public are welcome to attend and participate in this free event, which is being supported by Project Compass.
University of Maine System Chancellor James H. Page announced today that he is recommending Dr. Linda K. Schott as the next president of the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
“Dr. Schott’s combination of experience in leading change and community engagement make her an excellent choice to lead the University of Maine at Presque Isle,” Page explained. “She fully understands the University’s mission and will be a valued member of the System’s change team as we move forward in shaping the future of the University of Maine System.”
The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Alumni Board of Directors has announced that Maine State Teacher of the Year Alana Harrington Margeson has been named the recipient of its 2012 Distinguished Recent Alumni Award. Margeson, a Caribou High School English teacher, will be presented with the award during the University Day luncheon at Noon on Wednesday, April 11, in the Campus Center.
A member of UMPI’s Class of 2000, Margeson earned her Bachelor’s degree – a double major in Elementary Education and Secondary Education-English. She later went on to earn her Master’s degree in education administration from St. Joseph’s College in Standish.
In remembrance of a well-known and honored Maine geologist and paleontologist, the University of Maine at Presque Isle will host a memorial gathering for UMPI Emeritus Professor of Geology William H. “Bill” Forbes on Friday, April 13 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Campus Center. The gathering is being held in conjunction with the spring meeting of the Geological Society of Maine, which takes place on campus earlier that day. Former students, colleagues and friends are invited to attend the memorial.
Forbes, who passed away in 2011, was a long-time geologist, accomplished field investigator, and internationally known researcher of Devonian paleobotony who taught at UMPI for more than 20 years. Officials said holding the memorial in conjunction with the GSM meeting seemed the appropriate thing to do since Forbes had such a significant impact on geologists throughout the state – and the greater science community – during his lifetime.