Events

The University of Maine at Presque Isle is pleased to announce that it will begin its 2010-2011 University Distinguished Lecturer Series with a presentation by award-winning journalist Karin Fischer, who serves as a senior reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Fischer will deliver her talk The New China: A Rising Superpower Opts for Brainpower Rather than Manpower, and Looks to U.S. Colleges to Help It Succeed at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 9 in the University’s Campus Center. The event serves as a homecoming of sorts for Fischer, who grew up in Presque Isle and is a 1992 graduate of Presque Isle High School.

Riverside Park in Downtown Presque Isle will once again be filled with music on Sunday afternoons this summer as the City of Presque Isle, the Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee and the University of Maine at Presque Isle host the Third Annual “Music in the Park” Series.

This year’s concerts will be held on Sunday, July 11, 18, 25 and August 8, 2010.

The free concert series, which attracted average crowd sizes of about 200 people per show last year, will include four shows this summer, ranging from Acadian music to African drumming. Each Sunday afternoon performance will feature an opening act and a main act.

The American Red Cross and the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Residence Life Office are teaming up to pull off the University’s third “Super Blood Drive” this summer, the time of year when the need for blood increases. Right now, type O negative blood is especially needed in the New England region.

The Super Blood Drive will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 29 in Wieden Gymnasium. The event is being sponsored by the University, UMPI’s Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, Mojo’s, and Trinity Blue Mason’s Lodge #130. The event will feature prizes, food and snacks for all donors.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle is pleased to announce that it will serve as the host of the 35th National Institute on Rural Social Work. The institute is expected to bring together social work and human services professionals from all over the United States and parts of Canada for a three-day conference focused on issues surrounding rural social work.

The event, to be held from July 14-17 and sponsored by UMPI’s Social Work Program and the National Rural Social Work Caucus, was held last year in Duluth, Minn. and will be held next year in Natchitoches, La. The theme of this year’s conference is “The 3 R’s of Rural Social Work: Relationships, Resources & Resiliency.”

Two hundred and seventeen students graduated from the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Saturday, May 15, during the 2010 Commencement Exercises – the University’s 101st Commencement ceremony. President Donald Zillman conferred degrees for the 2009-2010 academic year upon 133 students who participated in the ceremony held in Wieden Gymnasium.

U.S. Senator Susan M. Collins addressed the graduates as this year’s commencement speaker. During the graduation event, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degrees were presented to Senator Collins, and David and Roberta Griffiths, long-time pillars of the Presque Isle and university communities.

Campus and community members will have the opportunity to watch an evening’s worth of new and locally-produced short films when the Fine Art Department of the University of Maine at Presque hosts the first annual Fiddleheads Film Festival, starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 13, in UMPI’s Wieden Auditorium.

Several short films, each 15 minutes or less and created by local students and community members, will be showcased.

Sarah Smiley – author of the nationally syndicated newspaper column “Shore Duty,” which reaches more than 2 million readers weekly – will serve as guest speaker during the Houlton Higher Education Center’s “Graduation Celebration” at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 20.

The nationally known writer is coming to northern Maine through the coordination of Bernadette Farrar, Assistant Director of the Houlton/Hodgdon SAD #29/70 Adult Education program, which is housed at the Houlton Center, and HHEC Director Chuck Ames. The center, which opened its doors for classes in August 2001, is administered by the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

Students in a Social Work class at the University of Maine at Presque Isle spent the day on May 3 helping to create awareness for the people affected by the recent earthquake in Haiti during their project “A Tribute to Hope.”

Students in Professor Shirley Rush’s Social Work 287 course “Human Behavior in the Social Environment II” undertook a campus wide, non-verbal demonstration for the project, which included a multimedia presentation in the Campus Center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., as well as the 24-hour installation outside of Folsom Hall of a tent constructed with salvageable materials to symbolize resilience. The tent was similar to the make-shift shelters Haitians have had to make for their families after the earthquake.

Live classical music returns to the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Wieden stage with a special recital concert by the students of Dr. Anatole Wieck, Professor of Upper Strings at the University of Maine in Orono, at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 14.

Dr. Wieck’s students will perform their year-end recital, and Dr. Wieck will play a collaborative piece with local musician Carol Ayoob during this very special performance done in partnership with the two UMaine campuses.

President Don Zillman has announced that U.S. Senator Susan M. Collins will deliver the commencement address during the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s 101st Commencement Ceremony, to be held on Saturday, May 15. During this event, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degrees will be presented to Senator Collins as well as the Honorable David Griffiths and Roberta Griffiths, long-time pillars of the Presque Isle and university communities.

“As the University marks this commencement ceremony, we are honored to have an Aroostook County native who has gone on to achieve great things at the national level visit our campus and speak to our graduating class. Senator Collins is a true inspiration for our graduates who are preparing to make their own mark on the world,” President Zillman said. “We are also very pleased to be honoring Senator Collins, and our very own David and Roberta Griffiths for the fine examples they have given us of the importance of serving the people in our community, our state and nation.”