Featured

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will give students the opportunity to spread kindness on and off campus during the week of Nov. 13 through Nov. 18 by showing acts of selflessness as part of the University’s first ever Kindness Week celebration. Hosted by the UMPI Inclusion and Civility Task Force, the week was specifically chosen to coincide with World Kindness Day, which takes place on Nov. 13, and the International Day of Tolerance, which is on Nov. 16.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s very own Chelsey Briggs will serve as the next speaker in the 2017-2018 Distinguished Student Lecturer Series on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m., in the Campus Center. Briggs, who is the fifth UMPI student to serve as a student Distinguished Lecturer, will deliver her talk An Unconventional Journey. Her talk is free and the public is encouraged to attend the event.

Through its efforts to provide an affordable and accessible college education to students in Maine and beyond, the University of Maine at Presque Isle has experienced a 6.2% increase in enrollment by headcount—the largest such increase within the University of Maine System from Fall 2016 to Fall 2017. Officials are attributing this increase to the work UMPI does to provide affordable options to its out-of-state students and ease of access to its Early College and adult learners.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle and the Alumni Association recently honored two alumni with awards of achievement—the Educator of the Year Award and Distinguished Educator Award—at the University’s Second Annual Alumni Hour on Saturday, Oct. 7 during Homecoming 2017: Friends & Family Weekend.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Reed Art Gallery will present Thérèse L. Provenzano’s artwork The Lay of the Land Reconsidered, showing paintings of Maine farmlands and agriculture, from Nov. 3 through Dec. 15, 2017. The public is invited to view the exhibition throughout the show’s run and attend the Gallery Reception on Friday, Nov. 3, from 5-7 p.m. with an artist’s talk at 5:30 p.m.; light refreshments will be served. This reception is being held in conjunction with the First Friday Art Walk. The Reed Gallery is located on the second floor of the University’s Center for Innovative Learning.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will present Sarah Brown Wessling, author, international speaker, and 2010 National Teacher of the Year, as the next speaker in its 2017-2018 Distinguished Lecturer Series on Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center. The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle is taking a bold step toward college affordability and accessibility for Maine students and families, and strengthening its commitment to on-time degree completion and the needs of the Maine workforce, with the announcement today of The Way It Should Be, the state’s first comprehensive program that provides free and significantly reduced tuition for eligible Maine families. First-time, full-time college students who are Maine residents and Pell Grant-eligible will be able to take advantage of free tuition and no fees, saving them nearly $8,000 per year, while other Maine students may be eligible for $3,084 or more in financial aid packaging, which would reduce their tuition and fee costs by nearly 40 percent or more.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will present Joel Berg, international hunger expert, author, and CEO of Hunger Free America, as the first guest speaker in its 2017-2018  Distinguished Lecturer Series on Friday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center. As part of the 4th annual Maine Hunger Dialogue taking place at UMPI, Berg, the author of All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?, will deliver the keynote address, discussing hunger in America and how the public can build the political movement necessary to end the problem once and for all. This event is free and the public is encouraged to attend.

After a summer “out of orbit” for re-painting, the Planet Jupiter will return to its spot in the Maine Solar System Model on Friday morning, Oct. 6. Located 5.2 miles from the Sun, which is housed at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, the planet is one of the most easily-spotted features of the Maine Solar System Model, which stretches from UMPI to Topsfield, Maine.