annual report 2016 - university of maine · academic year 2015–16 was a productive one for the...

Academic AffairsAnnual Report

2016

A highlight of UMaine’s 150thcelebration in 2015 was OpenUniversity Day during Homecomingweekend.

In 2015 we celebrated the University of Maine’ssesquicentennial anniversary with a series of events heldthroughout the year. For me, the highlight of the 150thcelebration was Open University Day on Saturday, Oct. 17.

While our university is always open to the public, we extended aspecial invitation to the community to come learn about who we areby visiting our classrooms, laboratories, museums, library, sportscomplexes, outreach centers and arts facilities. For five hours, wellover 1,500 visitors roamed campus and experienced a university thatcelebrates its history, but has an unswerving focus on its future.

The 2016 Academic Affairs Annual Report clearly illustrates thatUMaine remains committed to the ideals of a land grant university150 years into its journey. The report highlights the many ways thatour faculty and students realize the tripartite mission of teaching,research and service. Like most reports of this type, it only scratchesthe surface — sampling accomplishments and activities. The reportconcludes with some of my thoughts about the challenges we faceand the opportunities we have moving forward.

The accomplishments summarized in this report provide evidence ofthe quality and commitment of the faculty, administrators and staffwho make up the Division of Academic Affairs. The immense prideI felt three years ago when provided the opportunity to serve asprovost has only grown as my understanding of this great institutionhas developed. It is a pleasure for me to present this report to you.

Jeffrey E. HeckerExecutive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

Academic Affairs Annual Report

2016Academic Affairs Annual Report

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I. Overview

Academic year 2015–16 was a productive one forthe Division of Academic Affairs. The fall 2015census showed 10,922 students enrolled atUMaine, 85 percent engaged in undergraduatestudies and 15 percent in graduate education.There were 260,983 student credit hours taught in2015–16, which represents a 5 percent increase inannual credit hour production over the past fiveyears. UMaine awarded 2,228 degrees, including359 master’s and 60 doctoral degrees.

Enrollment growth continues to be a key priorityfor the university and this past year witnessed someimportant progress in this regard. EnrollmentManagement developed a strategic repackaging offinancial aid, introducing the Flagship Match, MaineMatch and Maine Matters programs. Coupled withan aggressive marketing campaign, and revampingof recruitment and admissions operations, UMainesaw a record number of undergraduate applicationsfor fall 2016 admissions. The first-year classentering this fall is anticipated to be over 2,300students, the largest in UMaine’s history, with about40 percent of the new students from out-of-state. Atthe graduate level, new students who haveconfirmed acceptance into master’s and doctoralprograms are up 20 percent and 4 percent,respectively, over the same time last year, reversing a downward trend seen in recent years.

The UMaine faculty continues to excel asresearchers, scholars and creative artists. In FY16,$49,940,921 was received from external sponsors insupport of research activities. There were 492 newproposals submitted. Faculty and studentspublished well over 1,000 scholarly works, and gavescores of performances and exhibits.

The productivity of the faculty and staff is all themore impressive in the context of constrainedresources that has been the norm at UMaine formany years. As UMaine’s FY17 budget was built,support for the Signature and Emerging Areas ofExcellence and enrollment growth wereprioritized. For the first time in several years, theUMaine faculty will grow in the coming year,with 11 more faculty hires relative to vacancies.We will welcome 62 new faculty members tocampus this fall.

One exciting innovation this past year was thecombined graduate and undergraduate studentresearch symposium at the Cross InsuranceCenter. The symposium featured the work ofmore than 500 graduate and undergraduatestudents, with a total attendance of over 1,000individuals, including federal, state and citygovernment leaders and Maine-based employers.The Graduate Student Government, Center forUndergraduate Research, and Office of the VicePresident for Research and Dean of the GraduateSchool collaborated to pull off this first-of-its-kind event.

Student success continues to be a primary focus.In June 2014, the Provost’s Action Plan forRetention and Graduation, which outlined a seriesof action steps to be taken over the ensuing twoyears, was released. Nearly all action items havebeen completed, and we are evaluating theimpact of our efforts and developing newstrategies to build upon the momentum. Insummer 2015, the Think 30 initiative waslaunched. Over the past year, Think 30 hasbecome part of the UMaine vernacular.

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Community Engagement:• The College of Education and Human

Development (COEHD) has statewide reachthrough its connections with nearly every PK–20 school and educational organization inMaine. Examples include: the Maine AutismInstitute for Education and Research, MaineChildLINK with Centers for Disease Control(CDC), Transforming Rural EducationExperience (TREE) and Maine Department ofEducation (DOE) Teacher Education StateAccreditation Review Teams.

• Over the last academic year, the College ofEngineering (COE) interacted with nearly5,000 K–12 students. The COE coordinatedand offered tours and hands-on activities inengineering facilities to more than 1,780students from 51 Maine middle and highschools and other institutions.

• Hemant Pendse, Michael Bilodeau and AmyLuce, (Chemical and Biological Engineering)work with the Municipal Review Committee,Inc., a nonprofit organization composed of the187 municipalities in central and easternMaine, on a proposed waste processing facilityin Hampden.

• Many COE senior capstone projects benefitthe community, including the design of theWounded Warrior Recreation Hall Upgrade inMt. Vernon, and the design and fabrication ofan electric, all-terrain wheelchair for CodyO’Bion, a Portland teen with limited mobility.

• Key University of Maine Humanities Center(UMHC) programs included Maine NationalHistory Day; Bangor Humanities Day; and thefourth annual statewide Humanities Summit,focused on veterans and the humanities.

• The School of Performing Arts TheatreDivision provided facilities, props, scenery andcostumes for various community and highschool theatre productions.

• Numerous faculty in the College of NaturalSciences, Forestry, and Agriculture (NSFA)served as cooperating scientists for the MaineCooperative Forestry Research Unit, whichrepresents commercial forest landownersholding approximately 8.5 million acres offorestland in Maine.

• School of Social Work (SSW) studentsprovided approximately 56,600 hours ofservice to more than 80 health and humanservice agencies in Maine and beyond.

• Kirk Maasch, School of Earth and ClimateSciences/Climate Change Institute (SECS/CCI)and Sean Birkel (CCI) are collaborating withthe Maine CDC to develop regional-scaleclimate models for studying climate changeimpacts on airborne disease vectors.

• The student organization, Volunteer IncomeTax Assistance Program (VITA), with adviserMartha Broderick, Maine Business School(MBS), provided an income tax assistanceprogram and last-minute filing tips to localresidents.

• Provost Jeffrey Hecker serves on the boards ofthe Maine Math and Science Alliance and theBridge Year Educational Services, Inc.

• Melissa Ladenheim (HON) spearheadedHonors College participation at the 2015Welcome Weekend Day of Service meal-packing event and a second such event on theMLK Day of Service, These events involvedmore than 80 student volunteers and about43,000 meals.

II. Serving Maine

The people and programs in the Division of Academic Affairs served the state and region throughcommunity engagement, economic development and workforce development. Additionally, UMainefaculty and administrators played essential roles in advancing the University of Maine System’s OneUniversity vision, one goal of which is to create a sustainable public university system that will serve thestate well into the future.

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UMaine STEM education engagement initiatives include summer science camps,sponsored by Physics and Astronomy, complete with a “goo exercise.”

2016 Academic Affairs Annual Report

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Community Engagement continued• Matt Graham (MBS) is on the Board of

Directors of OHI Maine, a nonprofitorganization providing support and services topeople with intellectual disabilities, autism andmental illness.

• Volunteers with UMaine’s CooperativeExtension (CES) programs across the statecontributed more than 5,000 hours in 2015 togrow a record-breaking donation of over318,000 pounds of high-quality produce (valueof $537,000) to mitigate hunger, improvenutrition and health, and help recipientsdevelop lifelong positive nutritional habits.

• CES-certified Parenting EducationProfessionals (PEP) made 1,984 home visits to248 families. Using the evidenced-based modelParents as Teachers, PEPs met with families intheir homes to share activity ideas to supportchild development and build parenting skills,as well as links to community resources.

• The Fred Hutchinson Center (FHC) partneredwith Belfast Senior College to provide a six-weekend instructional Opera Series.

• UMaine’s Conference Services coordinated the2016 Expanding Your Horizons conference formiddle school girls in Maine, serving over 300students.

• The Marine Resource Exchange was held at theFHC on Jan. 8, 2016, bringing togetherUMaine graduate faculty and students, as wellas Sea Grant and Cooperative Extension,members from the Department of MarineResources, and individuals in the fishingindustry for a day of discussion around howuniversity research benefits the marine industry.

• Six staff members from UMaine’s Office ofFinancial Aid participated in the Maine SchoolSupport Initiative (MSSI), a program fundedby the Melmac Foundation aimed at helpingstudents and their families complete the FreeApplication for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

• Fogler Library staff assisted in hostingNational History Day at UMaine, giving twoworkshops for middle school and high schoolstudents.

• The University of Maine Press co-publishedbooks with the Penobscot Nation, Baxter StatePark, Friends of Acadia National Park andother nonprofit organizations.

• Amy Blackstone, Rising Tide Center director,served on the Maine Career Connect AdvisoryCouncil.

• The biennial Cohen Lecture featured amoderated discussion of current internationalaffairs by Secretary William Cohen,Ambassador Nicholas Burns and GeneralJoseph Ralston.

• CES provides a variety of education optionsthat earn education credits toward certificationfor growers in Maine who use commercial orgeneral-use pesticides on property owned orleased by them. The Board of PesticidesControl estimates that this enables more than2,000 growers to safely interact with the fullspectrum of agricultural treatments.

Economic Development:• Economic development is a key focus of the

COE; the five academic units and two researchand development centers (ProcessDevelopment Center — PDC and AdvancedManufacturing Center — AMC) contribute inthis area. This includes Habib Dagher (CIE),Krishna Thiagarajan, Mechanical Engineering(MEE) and others’ development of offshorewind energy, as well as Hemant Pendse (CBE)and Jake Ward’s (Office of Innovation andEconomic Development — OIED) efforts topreserve pulping assets at the Old Town Milland to repurpose these assets to producebioproducts. The AMC worked with 52Maine-based companies and individuals onnew product and production facilitiesdevelopment.

• The PDC collaborated with and providedsamples of cellulose nanomaterials to 55companies and 120 academic and governmentresearch groups from 22 countries in an effortto advance the commercialization of theseadvanced biomaterials.

Economic Development continued• In cooperation with the Maine International

Trade Center, the Canadian-American Centerorganized and hosted an internationalconference, “Ocean Technology in NewEngland and Atlantic Canada: Promoting aNetwork of Collaboration.”

• Research on high-temperature wireless sensorscarried out at the Laboratory for SurfaceScience and Technology (LASST) is beingtransitioned to a spin-off company,Environetix Technologies Corporation.

• NSFA partnered with more than 40 companiesand organizations on research projects, notincluding numerous individual forest andagricultural landowners.

• Mindy Crandall (SFR) updated economicimpact estimates of the forest productsindustry and worked with industrystakeholders to provide information on theeconomic impacts of the industries theyrepresent, and continued work assessing theimpacts of wildlife policy on forestmanagement through collaborations with nineconservation and forest companies that activelymanage Maine’s forests.

• Maine Studies students examined theeconomic impact of the increase in theminimum wage proposed by the Bangor CityCouncil in 2015, and the mechanical harvesterin the blueberry industry.

• School of Economics (SOE) faculty engagedwith the food and agriculture sector byestimating the economic impacts ofaquaculture; the costs and financialsustainability of dairy farms; how to effectivelycontrol damage risks due to Colorado potatobeetles; the costs of alternative wild blueberryproduction strategies; management methods forpollinator conservation; growth potential oflocal food networks; and impacts of aquacultureproduction on the value of coastal properties.

• The economic impact of the CES pestmonitoring and educational programs on theMaine potato industry is estimated to be $11.4 million for the 2015 season.

• CES engages in private food safety consultingand process authority food product reviews fornew and existing companies statewide, andtrained over 10,000 people in Maine in thepast year.

• CES’s food process authority lab reviewed over500 products, leading to added income andjobs in Maine and New Hampshire.

• The NSF EPSCoR $20 million SEANETproject includes 11 other Maine institutions,37 faculty members, 23 graduate students and93 undergraduate students.

• Provost Hecker traveled with Governor LePageand business leaders from the seafood industryto Japan and China with the Maine TradeDelegation.

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Award-winning AtlasThe Historical Atlas of Maine, edited bygeographer Stephen Hornsby and historianRichard Judd with cartographer MichaelHermann (University of Maine Press, 2015)collected four awards: the 2016 AmericanAssociation of Geographers Globe Book Awardfor Public Understanding of Geography, the bestBook/Atlas and Best of Show awards from theCartography and Geographical InformationSociety, and the Excellence in Publishing Awardfrom the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.

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The NSF EPSCoR $20 millionSEANET project includes 11 other Maine institutions, 37 faculty members, 23 graduatestudents and 93 undergraduatestudents.

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Economic Development continued• Jake Ward (OIED) serves on the Maine

Technology Institute (MTI) board and BizAction Committee.

• Renee Kelly, Director of Economic Initiatives,serves on the board of the EconomicDevelopment Council of Maine and as chairof the board of the Bangor Region Chamber ofCommerce, and participates on the leadershipteam for the Regional Resources Council.

• Fogler Reference Services librarians offered theIncubator Without Walls instruction andconsultation for small business owners. Theyassisted with 54 patent and trademarkconsultations with members of the public.

Workforce Development:• Teacher certification programs in the COEHD

graduate more elementary and secondaryteachers than all other such programs in Mainecombined. All of the graduate programs in theCOEHD are offered online, and in theevenings and weekends to accommodate busy,working professionals.

• The COE granted 24 percent more B.S.engineering degrees in 2015–16 compared tothe prior year.

• Prior to graduation, 80 percent of COEgraduates had at least one internship.

• UMaine hosted the 2016 Northeast CollegiateCyber Defense Competition, which involvedapproximately 90 undergraduates from 10 universities.

• Seven students majoring in English hadprofessional writing internships on campus orin Bangor-area businesses.

• The Center for Cooperative AquacultureResearch (CCAR) has four companies usingincubator facilities, with over 15 employees.

• The School of Nursing is completing thesecond year of a HRSA Bureau of HealthProfessions-funded Advanced Education NurseTraineeship grant, “Ensuring Access toPrimary Health Care for Rural Maine.” Thegoal is to increase graduates of our MSN-Family Nurse Practitioner program.

• CSD is the only program preparing Speech-Language Pathologists in Maine. Within sixmonths of graduation, 100 percent of CSDgraduates found employment in the field.

• Managed by the Foster Center, the Innovatefor Maine Fellows program selects the best andbrightest college students with ties to Mainewho are interested in innovation.

• Amanda Plourde joined the MBS staff inNovember 2015 as an InternshipCoordinator/Professional Advisor. Since then,she has set up relationships with about 90employers to facilitate internships for businessstudents.

• The Cohen Institute developed andimplemented the Maine Law EnforcementLeadership Symposium in partnership with theU.S. Marshals Service and Maine ArmyNational Guard.

• The Honors College’s Idea Network ofBiomedical Research (INBRE) program andthe Sustainable Food Systems ResearchCollaborative (SFSRC) connect Honorsstudents to business, public serviceorganizations and other social change agents.

• UMaineOnline is growing enrollments in itsonline professional graduate programs, with asuccessful first year of the online MSW (fullcohort of 25) and a soft launch of a newonline MBA in spring 2016. Enrollments inthe PSM in Bioinformatics and inEngineering/Business are up, as well asenrollments in Special Education.Enrollments in graduate certificates are up inBusiness Administration, Autism SpectrumDisorders and Digital Curation.

• Enrollment Management efforts to increasethe number of out-of-state students aids theeffort to attract and retain future members ofthe Maine workforce. About 20 percent ofout-of-state students who graduate fromUMaine stay in the state for their first jobs.


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One University Initiatives• The COEHD faculty is engaged with the

University of Maine at Machias (UMM) onteacher education programs related to ruralpoverty and meeting teaching shortages inWashington County.

• The COEHD offers a master’s degree programin Instructional Technology in collaborationwith UMF and USM.

• The COE led the UMS Program IntegrationTeam (PIT) for Engineering focused on theEntry Level Engineering Community (ELEC)and the Electrical and Mechanical EngineeringCommunity (EMEC).

• Bruce Segee (ECE) submitted NSF proposalsin collaboration with all seven campuses ofthe UMS.

• Jane Smith (MLC) is leading efforts toorganize an ACTFL workshop slated forSeptember 2016 with language faculty fromacross UMS to plan for a proficiency-orientedcurriculum and assessment.

• The UMS program integration initiativecentered on CLAS disciplines, with facultyparticipants from Chemistry, English,Mathematics, Physics and Psychology.

• UMaine faculty members from Anthropology,Art, English, Mathematics, Music, Psychologyand Theatre, along with the dean and associatedean, participated with UMM faculty andadministrators on planning teams to developrecommendations for the “primary partnership.”

• Mazie Hough (History/WGS) and UMScollaborators are developing an exhibit for theMaine State Museum to mark the centennialof women’s suffrage.

• SOE is collaborating with USM, UMM, UNEand COA on health policy, coastalmanagement and aquaculture research.

• UMaine Darling Marine Center directorHeather Leslie and UMM professor Brian Bealdeveloped the SEA (Science for EconomicImpact & Application) Fellows Program tocatalyze university-industry partnershipsrelated to the state’s marine economy andecosystems on which it depends.

• An undergraduate student from the Universityof Maine at Presque Isle is pursuing a SeniorThesis in School of Environmental andClimate Science with Professor Aaron Putnam.

• Richard Borgman, MBA Director, ledrecruitment efforts to other campuses toexpand the pipeline into the UMaine MBAprogram.

• The dean and associate dean of the HonorsCollege met several times with directors andrepresentatives of the honors programs fromUMF, UMA and USM to discuss revival of asystemwide Honors annual meeting,collaborative projects in engaged research andrevival of the System Honors journal.

• Lakesh Sharma was hired into the joint-appointment of Assistant Extension Professor(80 percent) at UMaine and AssistantProfessor of Sustainable Agriculture (20 percent) at University of Maine at PresqueIsle, College of Arts and Sciences. This is thefirst time a single faculty position has beensplit between two UMS campuses.

Prior to graduation, 80 percent of Engineeringgraduates had at least one internship.

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One University Initiatives continued• The Division of Lifelong Learning’s online

student adviser is working with others in theSystem to develop a fully online orientationprogram.

• The Research Reinvestment funds from UMSare supporting more than 50 UMaine facultymembers in their applied research work andfostering collaborations across UMS.

• The Division of Enrollment Management isworking with the University of Maine atMachias on admissions, marketing andfinancial aid.

• Rising Tide Center staff engaged in discussionswith UMS Human Resources director and staffmembers about Rising Tide policy initiatives,trainings and forms.

Maine Business School has partnered with other campusesto expand the pipeline into UMaine’s MBA program.


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The Division of Academic Affairs strives towardexcellence in fulfilling our teaching, research andpublic service missions. In 2015–16, ourprograms, faculty and students were recognizedfor excellence locally, regionally, nationally andinternationally.

Several graduate programs were ranked in thetop 100 of schools nationally. The University ofMaine’s College of Education and HumanDevelopment was ranked 93rd, the School ofEarth and Climate Sciences 88th, and theSchool of Social Work 78th in the 2016 U.S.News and World Report Guide to the BestGraduate Schools. Additionally, the School ofSocial Work was ranked 17th out of the 25 mostaffordable MSW programs by the Social WorkDegree Guide.

External FundingOne indicator of excellence is the successUMaine faculty and students have competing forgrants to support research, teaching and service.During FY16, a total of $49,940,921 wasreceived from extramural sponsors, comprising319 awards. UMaine saw a $3 million (~6.5percent) increase in total grant dollars from thosereceived in FY15. UMaine has averaged $50million in annual grant dollars received in thepast five years. Some noteworthy grants receivedin 2015–16 include the following:

• UMaine was selected as one of 37 institutionsnationwide and awarded $150K to host 25emerging public management leaders fromSub-Saharan Africa for a six-week academicand leadership institute through the MandelaWashington Fellowship. This high-profileproject is sponsored by the U.S. Departmentof State and represents the flagship program ofPresident Obama’s Young African LeadersInitiative (YALI).

• Ellen Mallory (CES/School of Food andAgriculture) received $999,000 in funding forher work: Innovative sowing, cultivation, androtational strategies to address weeds.

• Heather Leslie (School of Marine Science/Darling Marine Center) was awarded $1.8million for the grant, Resiliency and adaptivecapacity for small scale fishing communities.

• Stephanie Welcomer (MBS) received a FY17research grant through the SustainabilitySolutions Initiative, $39,348, forCheesemaking in Maine: Investigating Social,Economic and Environmental Practices andSustainability.

• Eric Chapman received a $551,225 U.S.Department of Education grant for theStudent Support Services Program.

• David Hart (Mitchell Center for SustainabilitySolutions/SBE) accepted $900,000 for hisgrant, Strengthening the basis for scientific decision-making.

• Sally Molloy (HON) was the principalinvestigator for a $50,000 grant from theHoward Hughes Medical Institute thatsupported her position as NSFA-HonorsPreceptor of Genomics in FY16.

• Bruce Segee (ECE) was awarded a $2 millionNSF grant to develop curriculum for ruralmiddle school children that will engage themwith programming, spatial reasoning andproblem-solving skills through the use ofcomputer games.

• Neal Pettigrew (SMS) accepted a $800,000award for his grant, NERACOOS, Gulf ofMaine ocean monitoring.

• Claire Sullivan (CMJ) received a DavisEducational Foundation grant for $187,245 to implement the Engaged Black Bear digitalbadging project.

• Maine Aqua Ventus offshore winddemonstration program qualified for $40 million of construction funding from the Department of Energy Technology.

III. Culture of Excellence


Faculty Awards

Presidential Public ServiceAchievement AwardAmy Fried Political Science

Presidential OutstandingTeaching AwardHoward “Mac” GrayConstruction EngineeringTechnology

Presidential Research andCreative Achievement AwardNeil Pettigrew School of Marine Sciences

Distinguished Maine ProfessorPaul “Jim” Roscoe Anthropology

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External Funding continued• The Center for Cooperative Aquaculture

Research hosted a $650K, two-year study ofland-based integrated multitrophicaquaculture SBIR project awarded by theNational Science Foundation to AcadiaHarvest, Inc.

Faculty Achievements• Jennifer Moxley (ENG) was a finalist for the

Claremont Graduate University’s $100,000Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.

• Anne Knowles (HTY), a 2015 GuggenheimFellowship winner, was awarded an NEHDigital Humanities Start-Up Grant toestablish UMaine’s Digital History Lab.

• Mohsen Shahinpoor (MEE) was inducted as aFellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Habib Dagher (Civil Engineering, AdvancedStructures and Composites Center) wasrecognized as a 2015 White HouseTransportation Champion of Change.Professor Dagher was also profiled in TheMaine Magazine’s 50 People to Watch issue.

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• Howard Segal (HTY) received the LymanTower Sargent Award for DistinguishedScholarship from the Society for UtopianStudies.

• Ramesh Gupta (MAT) was honored with aspecial issue of Communications in Theory –Statistics and Methods dedicated to him.

• Habib Dagher (CIE, Advanced Structures andComposites Center) was recognized as a 2015White House Transportation Champion ofChange. Professor Dagher was also profiled inThe Maine Magazine’s 50 People to WatchIssue.

• Sandra Caron (COEHD) was awarded thecollege’s Research and Creative AchievementAward.

• Susan Bennett-Armistead (COEHD) wasawarded the college’s Outstanding TeachingAward.

• Richard Young (COEHD) was awarded thecollege’s Adjunct Teaching Award.

• John Maddaus (COEHD) was awarded theFaculty Service Award.

• Margo Brown (COEHD, Child DevelopmentLearning Center) received the University ofMaine Graduate Faculty Mentor Award.

• Robert Glover (POS/HON) was an ENACT(Educational Network for Active CivicTransformation) Faculty Fellow at theInternational Center for Ethics, Justice andPublic Life at Brandeis University, and was alsoa national finalist for the Ernest A. LyntonAward for the Scholarship of Engagement forEarly Career Faculty.

• Melissa Ladenheim (HON) was the 2016recipient of the Dean Lucy Award given by theUMaine Bodwell Center for Service andVolunteerism.

• Ed Nadeau (ART/HON) was Artist inResidence at the Atelier Fourwinds in Aurielle,France.

• Aaron Putnam (SECS) was awarded aNational Science Foundation Early CareerAward.

• Adrienne White (School of Food andAgriculture) and Rebecca Van Beneden (SMS)received 2016 Advance Career RecognitionAwards.

• Niclas Erhardt (MBS) was visiting professor atProvidence College Business School.

• Sebastian Lobe (MBS) received the 2014 BestPaper Award of the journal European FinancialManagement for his article, “The AlternativeThree-Factor Model: an Alternative beyondU.S. Markets?”

• Robert Wheeler (MBMS) received a FulbrightSenior Scholar Award for Study and Researchin Italy.

• Jessica Leahy (SFR) received the 2016Northeast Master Logger Support Award.

• George Denton (SECS) received the 2015Distinguished Career Award from the Divisionof Quaternary Geology and Geomorphologyof the Geological Society of America.

• Paul Mayewski (CCI/SECS) received theprestigious Hans Oeschger Medal foroutstanding contribution to ice core andclimate research.

• Jeff Runge (SMS) received the Prixd’Excellence award from the Department ofFisheries and Oceans, Canada.

• Edward Grew (SECS) was awarded the CollinsMedal by the Mineralogical Society of GreatBritain and Ireland.

• Elizabeth DePoy (SSW) was selected for aFulbright Flex Award to support hercollaborative research with colleagues at theUniversity of Dundee, Scotland.

• Heather Leslie (SMS) was named a LeopoldLeadership Fellow.

• Michelle Smith (SBE) received a PromotingActive Learning and Mentoring fellowshipfrom the Genetics Society of America.

• Robert Rice (SFR) received the Society ofWood Science and Technology 2016Distinguished Service Award.

Faculty Achievements continued• Denise Skonberg (School of Food and

Agriculture) received the Graduate StudentGovernment Faculty Mentor Award and the2015 Outstanding Service Award from theIFT Education, Extension, and OutreachDivision.

• Nancy Hall (CSD) received a DistinguishedMentor Award from the All-Maine WomenHonor Society.

Student Achievements• In AY16–17, the graduate student body will

include five NSF Graduate Research Fellows,two Switzer Environmental Fellows, and sixFulbright and USAID Pretasi Fellows.

• Hilary Warner-Evans (ANT) presented a paperon the North Pond Hermit at the AmericanFolklore Society meeting in Long Beach,California.

• Reuben Dendinger (ENG) won a HenryBraun Memorial Poetry Prize.

• Graham Van Goffrier (MAT) finished in thetop 400 participants (out of over 2,000nationwide) in the annual William LowellPutnam mathematics problem-solvingcompetition.

• Haleigh Moran and Katrina Ogden (SOC)were chosen to participate in the AmericanSociological Association’s prestigious summerhonors program.

• Abbie Wessels (CHB) received the GermanResearch Internship in Science andEngineering (RISE) on a grant from theGerman academic Exchange Service for 2015–16.

• Nadir Yildirim (SFR) founded RevolutionResearch, Inc., which won the Top GunShowcase, was a voters’ choice finalist in theGreenlight Maine show, and was awardedBusiness Accelerator and TechStart grants fromthe Maine Technology Institute.

• Emilia Golebiowska (CHB) was the winner ofthe Best Student Paper Award at thePAPERCON’16 in the Coating and GraphicsArts Division.

• Michael Choinere (MEE) was awarded theIberdrola Graduate Fellowship, a scholarshipthat supports research in sustainable energy,energy efficiency and climate-related areas ofstudy.

• Tara Mullins (SVT) was awarded the FrancisH. Moffitt Memorial Scholarship at AmericanSociety of Photogrammetry and RemoteSensing.

• Karen Pianka and Noah Oppenheim (SMS)are Knauss Fellows in Washington, D.C.

• Morgan Robinson, Melissa Thompson, KaraCapossela, Morgan Kinney, Joseph Flanagan,Joshua Stanhope, Matthew Dunning, ChrisRowley, Erika Marsters, Kathryn Ventrella,Samantha Pelletier, Nicholas Stahl, KatieDelcourt, and Yusen Zhai received COEHDOutstand Student Awards.

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Jessica Waller’s micrograph of a larval Americanlobster won the Visualization Challenge Awardsponsored by the NSF and Popular Sciencemagazine.

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• Emily Wilkins (SFR) won the best posteraward and received special recognition inNatural Resources and Tourism field at the2015 International Congress on Coastal andMarine Tourism.

• Jessica Waller’s (SMS) micrograph of a larvalAmerican lobster won the VisualizationChallenge Award sponsored by the NSF andPopular Science magazine. She also received theEdith Patch Award.

• Charlotte Royer (SMS) received funding fromthe NSF East Asia Program Summer Instituteto study at Hokkaido University, Japan.

• Jacob Schwab (Environmental Horticulture)received a Vic and Margaret Ball InternScholarship from the American FloralEndowment.

• Margaret Pierce received the CommunicationSciences and Disorders OutstandingUndergraduate Research Award, as well asnational American Speech-Language-HearingAssociation Minority Leadership award.

• Kimberly Miner (SECS) received severalsignificant awards including: the College’sOutstanding Service Award; a Fulbright grant; aSMART (Science, Mathematics and Researchfor Transformation) grant from the Departmentof Defense; and a Switzer EnvironmentalFellowship for emerging environmental leaders.

• Ashley Cooper (PRT) was the first-everrecipient of the Erika Hall Life EnrichmentAward and will participate in a worldconference in Spain.

Kimberly Miner received several significant awards,including a SMART grant from the Department ofDefense and a Switzer Environmental Fellowship foremerging environmental leaders.

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2016 Valedictorian and SalutatorianNicholas Fried of Millerstown, Pennsylvania, is the 2016University of Maine valedictorian and Connor Smart ofLincoln, Maine, is the salutatorian.

Fried majored in animaland veterinary sciences,with a minor in chemistry.This fall, he will be anM.D./Ph.D. student at theLouisiana State UniversityHealth Sciences Center,Schools of Medicine andGraduate Studies in NewOrleans. He plans tobecome a primary carephysician in a medicallyunderserved communityand conduct research inzoonotic epidemiology. Fried’s numerous academic honorsinclude a J. Franklin Witter Undergraduate Research Grantfrom UMaine, the Helen Louise Stinchfield ’18 MemorialScholarship from the University of Maine Foundation, andthe Inez Boyd Environmental Research Award from thePenobscot Valley Chapter of Maine Audubon.

Smart double majored inaccounting and finance,and was the OutstandingGraduating Student in theMaine Business School. Hewas the 2012 valedictorianof MattanawcookAcademy. Smart ispursuing a career as acertified public accountantin Maine, and plans to beactively involved innonprofit and social serviceorganizations. In the spring2015 semester, Smart interned with the certified publicaccountants firm of Edwards, Faust & Smith in Bangor.On campus, he was a peer tutor in accounting and studentambassador in the Maine Business School, and worked insummer 2014 in UMaine’s Office of Research andSponsored Programs.

2016 OutstandingGraduating Students

Ahmed AlmaghasilahInternational StudentCollege of Engineering

Mikaela GustafssonInternational StudentCollege of Liberal Artsand Sciences

Kathleen HillDivision of LifelongLearning

Jade McGuireCollege of Education andHuman Development

Yi PengCollege of Engineering

Connor SmartMaine Business School

Dominika TrzilovaInternational StudentCollege of NaturalSciences, Forestry, andAgriculture

Nipun VaidyaInternational StudentMaine Business School

Hilary Warner-EvansCollege of Liberal Artsand Sciences

Annabelle WilsonInternational StudentCollege of Education andHuman Development

Elizabeth WoodCollege of NaturalSciences, Forestry, andAgriculture

Nicholas Fried

Connor Smart

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Student Performance on NationalBoards and Exams• One hundred percent of Communication

Sciences and Disorders (CSD) students earnedpassing scores on the national Praxis Test inSpeech-Language Pathology. The national passrate is 86 percent.

• The first-attempt pass rate on the RN nationallicensure exam (NCLEX-RN) for BSNgraduates in the last reporting period was 84percent. The national mean was 83 percent.May 2015 graduates of the MSN family nursepractitioner program had an 89 percent first-attempt pass rate on the national certificationexam.

• One hundred percent of COEHD studentspassed the Praxis II examination, the primaryexam used across UMaine’s teacher certificationprograms. For more than half of the studentstested, reading scores exceeded the passing scoreby 20 points. Every graduate student in specialeducation achieved a passing score on relatedPraxis tests as well. Graduate certificationstudents in English, math and science alsoachieved 100 percent pass rates. All fourCounselor Education students who completedthe National Counselor Examination passedwith scores higher than the national average.Finally, all Athletic Training students who tookthe national certification exam passed the examon their first attempt.

One hundred percent of COEHD students passed the PRAXIS II examination,the primary exam used across UMaine’s teacher certification programs.

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Degrees Granted (Excluding post-baccalaureate certificates)

Bachelor’s Master’s Doctoral TotalEducation and Human Development 175 117 * 6 298Engineering 375 35 8 418Honors College (76 bachelor’s degrees with Honors)Liberal Arts and Sciences 425 70 23 518Maine Business School 261 22 – 283Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture 501 136 17 654Division of Lifelong Learning 19 – – 19(Bachelor of University Studies)Other programs – 3 6 9

====== ====== ====== ======University of Maine totals: 1,756 383 60 2,199

*Includes 22 certificates of advanced studies


Now in its second year, the Think 30 initiative is an important component of UMaine student success.

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Student success is at the core of the AcademicAffairs mission. Success starts with attracting thebest and brightest students to UMaine andcontinues through delivery of innovativecurricula and programs. Students are supportedthroughout their tenure at UMaine so that theygraduate in a timely fashion and are prepared tosucceed.

Enrollment Management• The Darling Marine Center and the School of

Marine Sciences offered tours of the DMC inparallel with tours organized by EnrollmentManagement. In 2015 –16, 141 high schoolstudents visited the center through individualfamily visits and organized school trips.

• Division of Lifelong Learning (DLL)partnered with Enrollment Management andthe Graduate School to adopt the Target Xdata management system for UMaineOnlineand the Graduate School. This product willsignificantly improve enrollmentmanagement functions for DLL’s onlinegraduate programs, while allowing theDivision to work with the Graduate Schoolmore closely and effectively.

• In partnership with Mathematics andStatistics and Marketing andCommunications, Academic Affairs andEnrollment Management created the MathPlacement Exam video, a Think 30 initiativeencouraging incoming students to take theexam in spring or summer in order to secure aseat in the right Fall math course. The videowas sent to nearly 1,000 incoming students. Itresulted in a substantial uptick in thepercentage of students completing the exam ina timely fashion.

• Through a pilot with Admissions, COEHDstaff participated in targeted recruitmentevents in Maine and other states.

• Cooperative Extension worked withAdmissions counselors to help high schoolstudents apply to the university during the 9thAnnual 4-H@UMaine Weekend.

• The University of Maine Alumni Associationand Enrollment Management collaborated toinvolve alumni in recruitment and retentionefforts in Maine and nationally.

• COEHD offered UMaine’s first LivingLearning Community, a program designed tostrengthen academic outcomes andsocialization for students in the college.

Student Credit Hour Production

Undergraduate Graduate TotalEducation and Human Development 17,392 4,049 21,441Engineering 27,982 1,297 29,279Honors College 5,320 – 5,320Liberal Arts and Sciences 115,976 4,418 120,394Maine Business School 16,773 739 17,512Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture 56,486 6,488 62,974Division of Lifelong Learning 1,346 81 1,427Other programs 2,493 144 2,637

========== ========= =========University of Maine totals: 243,766 17,216 260,982

IV. Student Engagement and Success

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The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Maine Business School finalized anagreement in which the college becomes the general offering partner to makethe five-year MBA available to liberal arts and sciences undergraduates.


Enrollment Management continued• Enrollment Management staff worked with

the Honors College, the School of Biologyand Ecology, and other units to updatecatalog information, web pages and othermaterials shared with prospective orconfirmed students.

• College of Engineering, the Maine BusinessSchool and DLL worked with EnrollmentManagement to develop high-qualitypromotional videos.

Curricular Innovations• Associate Provost LaRocque and Senior

Associate Provost St. John led a FacultyDevelopment Working Group culminating in aset of recommendations and an agreement thatthe new Center for Innovation in Teaching andLearning (CITL) will launch in September2016. Led by Director Peter Schilling, thecenter will support faculty, instructors andgraduate teaching assistants in course design,the use of classroom technology, the use oflearning analytics, and other facets of teachingand learning. The center will also offercolloquia, workshops, and other presentations.

• CLAS developed a first-year student successcourse (LAS 150) available to all its incomingstudents.

• CLAS and the Maine Business School finalizedan agreement in which CLAS becomes thegeneral offering partner to make the five-yearMBA available to CLAS undergraduates.Students who complete the coursework neededfor entering the MBA program will beconsidered to have met the BA minorrequirements, in effect creating a 4+1 MBAoption for which any CLAS student could beeligible.

• The Cohen Institute For Leadership & PublicService launched a new Washington, D.C.-based travel course, Leadership in ChaoticTimes. Students gain hands-on experience andinteract with high-level government leaders inan immersive learning environment.

• Electrical and Computer Engineeringestablished a five-year B.S./M.S. pathway forboth ELE majors. Exceptional students arepre-admitted into the graduate programs intheir junior year and may apply a portion oftheir advanced coursework from theirundergraduate program toward their nonthesisM.S. degrees.

• Molecular and Biomedical Sciences hasdeveloped a comprehensive learning outcomesassessment plan for its B.S. degree programs.

• The new Student Hacker Space will open infall 2016 in the Memorial Union computercluster. This innovative space will promotestudent creativity for individual students andclasses. The Hacker Space initiative is apartnership involving DLL, Academic Affairs,the Division of Student Life and others.

• In collaboration with DLL, the MaineBusiness School has developed an onlineversion of the MBA. Students who prefer theonline format will be able to complete theirMBA program entirely online.

• The School of Forest Resources has capitalizedon the university’s longer winter break bydeveloping a Forest Winter Operations course,offered the week before classes begin inJanuary. This course, the first of its kind atUMaine in over 70 years, involved operationsat three forest company locations in northernMaine along with two days of activities onUniversity Forest lands.

Athletics and Academics• Over half of our student athletes were honored

this year for academic success. A record 218were named UMaine Scholar-Athletes forachieving or maintaining a 3.0 GPA incalendar year 2015, and 79 new students werenamed Rising Stars for achieving 3.0 in theirfirst semester.

• Women’s Basketball was ranked 24thnationally out of 349 Division I teams andwas named to the WBCA Top 25 AcademicHonor Roll.

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Athletics and Academics continued• Women’s Cross Country was recognized by the

NCAA for being in the top 10 percentacademically of all teams nationwide in theirsport. The team achieved a perfect AcademicProgress Rate score of 1000.

• Three student-athletes were named theOutstanding Graduate or OutstandingInternational Student in their colleges:Mikayla Gustafson (CLAS, Women’sBasketball); Annabelle Wilson (EDHD,Women’s Track & Field); and Elizabeth Wood(NSFA, Women’s Basketball).

• In 2015–16, 97 student-athletes graduated.

Retention and Graduation• DLL reintroduced Winter Session, a Think 30

initiative featuring a select group of high-demand undergraduate courses taught byveteran online instructors. Winter Session’s678 students, principally juniors and seniors,enrolled in 2,032 credit hours.

• Led by Registrar Kim Page and the StudentRecords team, and with ongoing help fromchairs/directors and staff campuswide, theuniversity adopted the Infosilem course-scheduling system with the twin goals ofmaking scheduling more effective for studentsand faculty and reducing bottlenecks in falland spring.

• The RiSE Center’s Faculty Course ModificationIncentive Grant and Maine Learning Assistant(FIG-MLA) program supported 16 STEMfaculty and 18 modified STEM courses across12 departments — a total enrollment of over2,400 students — with the help of 65 STEMundergraduate Learning Assistants.

• UMaine continues to succeed in preparingnew graduates for the workforce. Of the mostrecent cohort survey (2013–14 grads), 75 percent of UMaine graduates are employedfull-time. Of those, 90 percent of MBSstudents and 86 percent of Engineeringstudents are employed full-time.

• CLAS and Academic Affairs partnered to movethe Explorations Program into CLASbeginning July 1, where it will be led by CLASAdvising Center Director John Mascetta andcontinue to serve the needs of first-yearstudents who have not yet declared a major.

• In collaboration with Marketing andCommunications, DLL developed acomprehensive marketing and awarenesscampaign to promote the Think 30 initiative.Efforts included large banners, table-top signs,digital ads, promotion at campus events,communication with advisers and other staff,the co-branding of Winter Session andSummer University with the Think 30, and a partnership with Admissions to feature Think 30 in student recruitment.

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Within a year of graduation, 75percent of UMaine graduates areemployed full-time. Photo by Monty Rand

Reflecting upon the activities andaccomplishments of the Division of AcademicAffairs, there is much to celebrate, particularlywhen one considers the financial challenges theuniversity has faced. Decisions by theUniversity of Maine System Board of Trusteesto leave the in-state tuition rate flat for sixconsecutive years and to reallocate the stateappropriation so that an annually decreasingportion is allocated to UMaine has createdtremendous financial pressures. We havemanaged these fiscal realities by maintaining afocus on strategic priorities and engaging theUMaine community in an ongoing dialoguethroughout the budget-development process.For the fiscal year 2017 budget, the Division ofAcademic Affairs needed to manage a gap ofnearly $2.5 million between revenue andexpenses. As in years past, the Academic Affairsbudget was developed through a collaborativeand iterative process involving faculty, staff,college leadership, the provost’s office, thepresident’s office and the Chief BusinessOfficer. Throughout this process, we kept focuson strategic priorities. Consequently, for thefirst time in recent memory, and despite thebudget cut, the number of new facultymembers hired was larger than the number offaculty lines vacated through attrition. Growingthe faculty is essential to meeting our strategicgoals.

Growth in the size and quality of the UMainestudent body is also essential to continuedsuccess. The work of the EnrollmentManagement team to significantly grow thenumber of student applications to UMainepositions us to achieve our goals. This past year,UMaine created a waiting list for acceptedstudents and enforced a May 1 deadline forconfirmation, the first time these steps havebeen taken in decades. Even with thesemanagement strategies, the entering class of fall

2016 will be the largest in UMaine’s history.The enrollment growth is due entirely toincreased interest in UMaine among out-of-state students. Increased applications will allowus to raise the selection standards for studentsin the coming year, thus raising UMaine’sprofile nationally. At the same time, we willredirect resources previously allocated tosupport students who were less well preparedfor college to meet the needs of the growingnumber of prepared students. Through strategicpartnerships with other UMS universities lesswell-prepared students will continue to haveopportunities to earn their way into UMainedegree programs through 1+3, 2+2 and othercollaborative initiatives.

Partnerships with our sister universities in theUniversity of Maine System have been developingthrough the UMS Academic Transformationprocess. UMaine faculty have played lead roles inso-called Program Integration Teams that areexploring ways to increase accessibility to, andenhance the quality of, UMS academic programsthrough collaboration among campuses. Anexample launching this fall is UMaine’s Master’sof Education in Instruction Technology program,which will be delivered by UMaine, University ofSouthern Maine and University of Maine atFarmington faculties. This summer, under theauspices of the proposed “primary partnership,”UMaine and University of Maine at Machiasfaculties have been working in disciplinary teamsto develop recommendations for greaterintegration of academic programming betweenthe two campuses.

In the 2016–17 academic year, three newinitiatives hold great promise for UMaine’sfuture. First, the University of Maine RisingTide Center will be established as a permanentunit focused on advancing women faculty atUMaine. The NSF ADVANCE grant that

V. Challenges and Opportunities

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provided funding for the center for the past six years will end on Sept. 30, 2016. Over thepast year, and with significant input from acrosscampus, we developed a plan for sustaining theRising Tide Center and introducing someinnovations, such as the Rising Tide Professors,that will support ongoing work toward UMainebecoming a model institution where all faculty,regardless of gender, have unimpededopportunities to succeed. I am grateful toShannon McCoy (Psychology) who will serve asInterim Director of the Rising Tide Centerwhile we complete a national search for thepermanent director. Second, the Center forInnovation in Teaching and Learning will openin September with Peter Schilling, ExecutiveDirector of Innovation in Teaching andLearning, at the helm. The center will be thehub for faculty development in the areas ofteaching and learning. A primary focus of thecenter will be on innovative use of emergingtechnologies to enhance pedagogies. Finally, wewill launch the Flagship Internship program togrow the opportunities for our students toengage in experiential learning throughpartnerships with businesses and agenciesthroughout the state. The Flagship Internship

and the Engaged Black Bear initiatives will bemanaged by the Coordinator of CommunityEngagement, a new part-time administrativeposition. Claire Sullivan (Communication andJournalism) will be the inaugural Coordinator.Professor Sullivan and her colleagues secured agrant from the Davis Educational Foundationto launch the Engaged Black Bear initiative.

We are moving into the fifth year of theuniversity’s strategic plan, the Blue Sky Project.The plan has been a guidepost for severalimportant strategic initiatives including theidentification of UMaine’s Signature andEmerging Areas of Excellence, the sharpenedfocus on student retention and graduation,improved Enrollment Management operations,consistency in portraying the UMaine brand andothers. Looking beyond the current plan it istime, once again, to reflect on who we are, andwho want to be, as an institution. The evolvingstate and national higher education picturesprovide the context for this self-reflection. In thecoming academic year, President Hunter willlead the UMaine community in a dialogue aboutour future. We look forward to participatingwith you in that dialogue.


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UMaine is welcoming the largest incoming class in fall 2016.

The University of Maine does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, including transgender status and gender expression, national origin,citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities. The following person has been designatedto handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies: Director, Office of Equal Opportunity, 101 North Stevens Hall, 581.1226, [email protected].

The 2016 valedictorian and salutatorian were both Honors College students.

For over 150 years the University of Maine has fulfilled the land grant mission— providing affordable education to Maine citizens, advancing the state’s

economy, and serving its communities. The activities and accomplishments ofthe 2015–16 year illustrate UMaine’s ongoing commitment to this mission. The2016–17 year will undoubtedly present challenges and opportunities. We lookforward to working with UMaine’s outstanding faculty, staff, students and

stakeholders to meet the challenges and realize the opportunities.

University of Maine Office of the Executive

Vice President for Academic Affairs

and Provost5703 Alumni Hall

Orono, ME 04469-5703

umaine.edu

annual report 2016 - university of maine · academic year 2015–16 was a productive one for the...

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