Press Releases

The University of Maine at Presque Isle is pleased to announce that a local couple has stepped forward with a major gift to assist the campus in its efforts to promote the cultural arts in Aroostook County and to serve as a cultural hub for the region.

Ray and Sandy Gauvin of Mapleton, well-known for their many County endeavors including the Aroostook Aspirations Initiative, have gifted the University a 75-acre woodlot and building located at 640 State Road in Mapleton. The couple also is donating all of its maple syrup production equipment to the University.

Officials with the University of Maine at Presque Isle and Husson University held a signing ceremony on Wednesday, Aug. 13, in UMPI’s Alumni Room, finalizing two articulation agreements that increase transferability for UMPI students who want to continue their education in two of Husson’s master’s degree programs—its Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration and its Master of Business Administration.

Officials with the University of Maine at Presque Isle and Siyuan University, located in Xi’an, China, gathered at UMPI on Aug. 12 for the formal signing of a collaborative agreement between the two institutions to establish a transnational college in China.

University is one of 66 Our Town projects selected nationwide for arts-based community development investment

The University of Maine at Presque Isle has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to assist in the creation of the region’s very first facility dedicated to the visual arts. The University has been working with the Wintergreen Arts Center, the City of Presque Isle, building owners, and several other partners to transform 149 State Street into the Northern Maine Center for the Cultural Arts.

Officials with the University of Maine at Presque are working with the nation’s top Competency-Based Education leaders—to establish shared guiding principles for the learning approach and offer recommendations that will help other institutions develop competency-based degree programs of their own—after being selected as one of only 20 institutions nationwide to participate in the Competency-Based Education Network [C-BEN].

Two University of Maine at Presque Isle students were able to get real-world experience creating promotional materials for a hospital-based rehabilitation unit in Bangor, Maine, and have that unit use their work, as part of their fieldwork practicum in Professional Communication and Journalism.

Dr. Kevin McCartney, Professor of Geology at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, has published an article in an international journal that describes a new genus and three new species of silicoflagellates, a single-celled algae that lives in the oceans.