A selection of recent mentions of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ people in the news, including coverage of new poetry from a faculty member along with commentaries on the homelessness crisis, the Trump administration’s spending bill, and rural students in higher education.

Myronn Hardy

Deep water: ‘Threshold with Fog,’ by Myronn Hardy — Portland Press Herald

In July, new work from Associate Professor of English Myronn Hardy was . Megan Grumbling, the curator of the Press Herald’s series, describes the poem titled “Threshold with Fogâ€� as “hazyâ€� and praises Hardy’s imagery. “I love this poem’s vivid, dream-like imagery, and how it cross-fades between scenes, leaving us feeling as lyrically displaced and uncertain as the speaker,â€� Grumbling writes. 

Hardy told ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ News he finished writing “Threshold with Fogâ€� about a year ago and that it has been a busy time for him, poetry-wise.  “I’m currently writing poem after poem,â€� he says. As yet, he doesn’t have a new collection in mind. “I don’t know if a new collection is forming. This usually takes years to discover.â€� His inspiration for this poem, he says, was “thinking about being lost in the Leuthold Forest Preserve. And what it may mean to be found and guided by a stranger.â€� (Leuthold Forest Preserve is a spot in the wilds of Maine, southwest of Jackman.)

Hardy’s most recent collection, Aurora Americana (2023), was called “a clear-eyed vantage of Americaâ€� by Rebecca Morgan Frank in her review for the Poetry Foundation. 

Paul Schofield 

The homelessness crisis is a crisis of democracy — Jacobin

Associate Professor of Philosophy Paul Schofield , his for this quarterly magazine and website. For this piece, he interviewed homeless people in Olympia, Wash., offering a political and philosophical analysis of American homelessness and our current at-risk democracy. 

“Homeless people find themselves in what we might call a state of internal exile — cast out of, and excluded from, the society in which they physically remain,â€� Schofield writes. 

The people he interviews speak of horrific, rat-infested, living conditions, the lack of response from law enforcement to violence committed against homeless people, and the double-edged sword of government-provided transitional housing. “If they can tell us we’re not allowed outside, then where are we all supposed to go?â€� one man Schofield interviewed asked, framing the central question of the article. 

Where can people go when the left and right alike are uncomfortable coexisting with them? How can our society fix a problem that we have attempted to resolve using both extreme sympathy and extreme shame? Schofield offers a solution: “What’s needed is a broad, sustained transformational effort designed to bring those pushed to the margins back into the fold and to prevent people from being pushed out in the first place. What’s needed is a politics that is focused not just on keeping people alive, but on enabling everyone to flourish as the social beings they are.�

Geoff Swift 

How Trump’s big bill will reshape the affordability of Maine higher education —  Portland Press Herald 

In July, Geoff Swift, the vice president for finance and administration and treasurer at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, commented on changes in taxation to college endowments under the Trump administration in . The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” ultimately removed taxes on endowments for colleges with fewer than 3,000 students. But under various earlier Republican proposals on endowment taxes, Maine colleges including ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Bowdoin, and Colby, could have been impacted by the bill. The endowment tax was introduced under the first Trump administration, and it taxed the endowments of private schools with at least 500 students and endowments worth $500,000 per student or more at a rate of 1.4 percent on their annual investment income. That included Bowdoin and Colby colleges, but not ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Some politicians had advocated raising that tax into double digits, but ultimately the tax was capped at 8 percent on the wealthiest schools.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ will not be taxed under the bill, but Swift spoke out against endowment taxes in principle, saying they limit opportunities to extend access and aid to students with financial need. “Still, no matter how many students an institution enrolls, taxing endowments is not good policy,â€� Swift told the Press Herald. “While the taxed universities will feel the impact most acutely — it will stress their economics — indirect impacts will eventually reach other colleges, some of which might not have the resources to weather it.â€�

Mara Tieken

— Maine Calling

In late June, Professor of Education Mara Tieken was a panelist on an episode of , Maine Public’s weekday call-in show, focused on rural students. The episode examined the “options and goals� for rural students in higher education.

Tieken studies rural education and students; her book Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them, published by the University of Chicago Press and released in May, is a study exploring the ways that geography impacts the experiences of first-generation students from rural communities — from access to higher education, experiences during college, and postgraduation opportunities.

In August, Tieken, who received the 2024 Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching, was , the publication of Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she received both her master’s in education and her doctorate. When asked what she most hoped readers of Educated Out would come away with, Tieken gave this answer:

“I’d like readers to, first, come away with a more nuanced and complex understanding of rural America and a willingness to question many of the rural stereotypes. I also hope that they gain an awareness of how geography shapes college opportunity and, perhaps, some things we can do about that. For rural students reading this book, I hope that it validates some of their experiences. I want them to know that they’re not alone and that any challenges or barriers they face might reflect the larger geography of opportunity, which doesn’t favor folks from rural and remote places. I also want them to know that we — policymakers, practitioners, and researchers — have some real work to do to make colleges more accessible and inclusive, and we’ll need their leadership on this.�

A selection of recent mentions of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ people in the news media.

Therí Pickens and Stephanie Kelley-Romano

That racist Kamala Harris birther conspiracy is nothing new — Wired

Wired turned to two ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ professors to explain what’s going on with the conspiracy theories about Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

“[Harris] could show us a home video of her being born and it wouldn’t matter now. Rhetoric doesn’t have to be accurate to be effective.”

Whether such theories, such as the birther one about Harris, are true or not is not the point, says Professor of English Therí Pickens, whose areas of expertise include African American cultural studies.

“[Harris] could show us a home video of her being born and it wouldn’t matter now. Rhetoric doesn’t have to be accurate to be effective,� she told reporter Emma Grey Ellis, who noted that the rhetorical strategies being used, conspiracy theorizing and appeals to racism, “have been handed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years while remaining largely unchanged.�

And why are there so many conspiracy theories? Because they work, and are particularly effective in the political arena.

“Conspiracy is always a way to cause doubt,� says Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies Stephanie Kelley-Romano, who is teaching the course “Presidential Campaign Rhetoric� this fall. When people have doubt, they’re harder to mobilize. “People stay home.�

• Read the story: “â€� Wired, Aug. 19, 2020

Ayesha Sharma ’18

Civil death: How millions of Americans lost the right to vote — The Guardian

In a powerful historical overview of how America has disenfranchised millions of citizens, Ayesha Sharma ’18 explores the concept of  “civil death…a form of punishment that extinguishes someone’s civil rights.â€�

Civil death has been “reshaped and reinterpreted over many generations, persisting in the form of felony disenfranchisement, through which a citizen loses their right to vote due to a felony conviction.�

Some six million Americans “cannot vote in the country’s elections because of some form of civil death,â€� Sharma writes. Restricting the number of people who can vote in elections “goes back to the colonies” in its racist underpinnings. “It’s a history that has disproportionately affected black people.â€�

• Read the story: “â€� The Guardian, Aug. 7, 2020

J.J. Cummings ’89

Memories and a mission: USS Gerald R. Ford marks 9/11 while proving it can perform at sea — Daily Press

“Capt. J.J. Cummings, out at sea on USS Gerald R. Ford for this Sept. 11, can’t help thinking of another 9/11 — that awful morning 19 years ago,” writes reporter Dave Ress of the Daily Press of Newport News, Va.

Now commander of the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, Cummings was a young naval aviator in 2001, about to deploy to the Middle East. At home, he saw the second plane hit the South Tower. “I didn’t know it then, but I watched, live, as two of my friends died,â€� Cummings told Ress.

One was Peter Goodrich ’89, who lived next door to Cummings in Smith Hall their first year at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. The second was a former squadron-mate, Brian Sweeney.

In 2001, Cummings and his squadron were training for close-support missions. “We thought we were just checking a box,” never to need the skills in battle. But 9/11 changed that mindset. Deployed to the Middle East, Cummings flew close-support missions for months over Afghanistan.

• Read the story: “” — Daily Press, Sept. 10, 2020

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ compiling complete catalog of Marsden Hartley’s paintings and drawings — Portland Press Herald

Press Herald reporter Bob Keyes notes that “a comprehensive accounting of all the paintings and drawings of modernist painter and Maine native Marsden Hartley has never been completed.�

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art “aims to change that,â€� he says, “and has turned to noted Hartley expert and Portland art historian Gail R. Scott to lead the effort.â€� Still, he adds, “it’s a massive undertaking.â€�

• Read the story: “â€� Portland Press Herald, Aug. 16, 2020

Grace Ingabire ’19

There’s more to dance than entertainment — The New Times

The New Times of Rwanda profiled Grace Ingabire ’19, who graduated with a dance major and is now “using her art as a means for change.�

Ingabire is a project manager at BeneDico, a Rwandan consulting firm that is supporting efforts to showcase and preserve traditional Rwandan dance.

“We believe that our traditional dances sometimes get modified because they are not being performed by the original culture,� she says. “So the objective of the project is to preserve these dances and promote local dancers in different parts of the country.�

• Read the story: The New Times, July 2, 2020

Mara Tieken

The pandemic has magnified the winners and losers in Maine’s educational system — Maine Things Considered

Speaking to Maine Public’s radio program Maine Things Considered earlier in the summer, Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken noted how the pandemic is illuminating how powerfully class lines are shaping students’ learning experiences.

“Wealthier districts and wealthy private schools are typically able to offer more instruction with more rigorous and engaging learning experiences than poorer districts can offer right now,� she said.

“But it’s also about a student’s home situation, where wealthier families might be more likely to have a parent at home who’s not working, who can support the student’s online learning. Or maybe they’re more likely to have multiple laptops or devices so that siblings can actually work simultaneously on schoolwork, or they’re more likely to have strong and consistent internet access.�

• Listen to the story: “,â€� Maine Things Considered, July 14, 2020

Shirl Penney ’99

Shirl Penney: The Power of Scale — µþ²¹°ù°ù´Ç²Ô’s

In a Q&A profile with µþ²¹°ù°ù´Ç²Ô’s, Shirl Penney ’99 explained how his groundbreaking firm, Dynasty Financial Partners, provides the soup-to-nuts services that independent investment firms require, while still emphasizing the brokers’ independence.

“We felt that any time you take an entrepreneur and turn them into an employee, bad things happen,� he said. “The key distinction is we work for the adviser, the adviser doesn’t work for us.�

Dynasty is a service platform for independent investment advisers — ones that aren’t tethered to a firm like Wells Fargo or Morgan Stanley — that’s now used by more than 200 advisers at 47 firms with $50 billion in client assets.

Among other topics, Penney predicts that the pandemic will fundamentally change the value of place in the investment experience. “If you think back 20 years ago, it was all about big mahogany offices. You had to show strength to bring clients in,� Penney says.

“That’s been turned completely upside down. We have some clients now who I think will go completely virtual once their leases are up. At a minimum, I think firms are going to decrease their footprint.�

• Read the story: “â€� µþ²¹°ù°ù´Ç²Ô’s, Aug. 28

Sam Mironko ’21

How the camera has advanced the BLM movement — Ebony

“It’s important that we take a moment to take a look at…some of the young creatives behind the scenesâ€� of the Black Lives Matter movement who have a “special talent with the camera,â€� writes Paige Rabb ’20 for Ebony.

Rabb’s select list includes Sam Mironko ’21 of Belmont, Mass., noting his stunning photography from his winter 2020 semester abroad in Ghana. 

Mironko, says Rabb, is motivated “to keep pushing for Black visibility and the legitimization of Black photographers’ work,â€� she says. “Mironko believes that the best way to continue to support Black creatives is to get involved with them…and allow their voices to be heard.â€�

• Read the story: “â€� Ebony, Aug. 25, 2020

Jason Castro

Cracking the neural code with phantom smells — Scientific American

Associate Professor of Neuroscience Jason Castro shows his chops for writing for a lay audience in Scientific American by explaining new research that “used precisely controlled pinpoints of light to , bypassing the nose altogether.�

The study, he writes, is “one of the most audacious and systematic efforts at ‘experience hacking’ yet.�

Why pinpoints of light? Because the researchers were using genetically modified mice with a light-sensitive protein “smuggled into their olfactory neurons,� explains Castro. “When light shines on one of these modified neurons, it evokes neural activity — the brief electrical “spikes� that are the basic language of the nervous system — with timing that can be exquisitely controlled.�

The paper, he adds, is an “unprecedentedly granular look at what, in the brain, makes a given experience that particular experience. The answer, at least in the context of olfaction, has a humanistic ring to it: an experience is a matter of timing and the sum of many small particulars.�

• Read the story: “,â€� Scientific American, Aug. 11, 2020

Noelle Chaddock

Beyond the protests, what meaningful actions can people take for racial justice? — Maine Calling

Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Noelle Chaddock, speaking to Maine Public’s Maine Calling program, explained the power and value of the term “anti-racist.�

“I have a strong preference for the term ‘anti-racism’ over terms like ‘racial equity,� Chaddock said. “Anti-racism centers the thing, it centers the problem, it centers the behavior, and it names the people who are responsible for fixing that behavior…. Anti-racism calls us to look at the very specific action, 400 years’ worth, that white folks need to grapple with and deconstruct.�

• Listen to the story: “â€� Maine Calling, Aug. 13, 2020

Richard Gelles ’68

Richard Gelles, scholar of family violence, dies at 73 — The New York Times

The New York Times published a featured obituary for Richard Gelles ’68, who taught at and was dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, noting that he “was one of the world’s leading scholars of family violence and child welfare.�

In the 1990s, Gelles was initially an ardent defender of “family preservation, the practice of reuniting biological parents with their children even if they had abused them. But after studying the horrific deaths of many children at the hands of their parents…Dr. Gelles did an about-face,” says reporter Katharine Seelye.

“He took his outrage to Washington…and helped draft landmark legislation that affirmed that the safety of a child should supersede attempts to reunite a family.”

As one expert said, “Rich’s critique of the child welfare system not only indelibly shaped public policy…but his work protected and saved the lives of innumerable children.â€�

• Read the Story: “â€� The New York Times, July 25, 2020

Josh Redd ’21

Uncommon schools summer program trains future Brooklyn teachers — Kings County Politics

“We need more Black male educators,� Josh Redd ’21 told Kings County Politics.

A graduate of an Uncommon charter high school in Brooklyn, N.Y., Redd originally wanted to be a doctor, but through summer experiences, including an Uncommon-sponsored teacher program where he was “surrounded by students eager to learn, he realized he wanted to ‘be part of something’ and to serve students in the community he grew up in.�

• Read the story: “â€� Kings Point Politics, Aug. 13, 2020

Nick Mazuroski ’09

$26 million solar farm to benefit Milo and Maine electricity consumers — Bangor Daily News

Construction of a large solar farm in Milo will feature 67,000 solar panels and produce enough energy for 5,430 homes, according to developers who include Nick Mazuroski ’09, director of BNRG Maine, a co-development partner with Dirigo Solar of Portland.

The power produced from the solar farm will be sold to Versant, northern Maine’s electricity provider. “It’s going to directly benefit Maine homeowners, ratepayers, anyone that uses the standard-offer program in the state,� Mazuroski said.

BNRG Renewables and Dirigo Solar have 10 projects under way or scheduled for construction in eight Maine communities.

• Read the story: “,â€� Bangor Daily News, Aug. 30, 2020

Sam Nader ’43

“Thirst for professional baseball in Oneonta quenched in 1965� — The Daily Star

The Daily Star of Oneonta, N.Y., told the story of how then-Mayor Sam Nader ’43 brought professional baseball back to the city in 1965 after the city’s prior professional team had folded in 1951.

A 1965 Star story quoted then-editor Frank Perretta, who said of Nader, “Sam is an old-time pitcher. He pitched in high school, at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College, and at Hartwick College. And since he took office four years ago he has been pitching for a minor league team in Oneonta.â€�

Nader landed a Class A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox for the 1966 season, which then became a Yankees affiliate in 1967 and then a Detroit Tigers affiliate. The team decamped for Norwich, Conn., in 2010.

• Read the story: “â€� The Daily Star, Aug. 25, 2020

Elizabeth Leavitt Nemirovsky ’88

Raising awareness and hope, Rosie the COVIDitor said, ‘We Can Do It!’ — The Bedford Citizen

Last spring, Elizabeth Leavitt Nemirovsky ’88 reimagined the iconic World War II–era Rosie the Riveter poster as a pandemic-era call to defeat the virus, showing a masked “Rosie the COVIDitor� using her well-muscled arm and fist to smash the coronavirus.

The Bedford Citizen reported how Nemirovsky created her poster as “Bedford’s COVID-19 lockdown moved from March into April and her mother entered hospice care, forcing her to quit her job.�

Initially, Nemirovsky placed the poster in a window facing the sidewalk as encouragement to the neighborhood’s growing number of walkers in the early days of the pandemic. “Rosie was an easy choice as far as an image to start with,� Nemirovsky told the Citizen. “The fun really began when I started to imagine her ka-POWing COVID.�

Later, she mounted her creation on posterboard and hauled it on her own walks of some 500 miles to raise money for a number of nonprofits, including the Greater Boston Food Bank.

• Read the story: “â€� — The Bedford Citizen,â€� Sept. 7, 2020

Sam Francis ’17

Bengals rely on one-man analytics department to make the team smarter and stronger — WCPO

“I tell people I’m the same as any analyst at any company, but my focus is football,� Francis told reporter Keenan Singleton of television station WCPO in Cincinnati.

“That can span from the roster to the draft, game management, game planning, studying opponents. We have the data available like any company does that pertain to what they do. Based on whatever question or problem we’re trying to solve, I’ll study that.�

Said Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, “He’s got a big book of information that he knows how to process a lot better than I do. I don’t hear his voice on game day. I hear it through one of the coaches, but I know there’s a lot of dialogue there.�

• Read the story: “â€� WCPO, Aug. 17, 2020

Jack Allard ’16

Former All-American lacrosse star released from hospital after long coronavirus battle — multiple outlets

On April 17, Jack Allard ’16, a two-time All-American lacrosse player and politics major at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, walked out of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as medical staff applauded.

Jack Allard ’16 (left) and classmate Charlie Hildebrand celebrate a big ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ lacrosse win over Tufts in April 2016. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Allard’s dramatic story — his weeks long fight with COVID-19 — had drawn steady attention from the national media but this happy chapter was particularly well-chronicled.

Not long after first showing COVID-19 symptoms in mid-March, Allard was hospitalized in New Jersey. He was placed on a ventilator and later airlifted to Philadelphia to take part in a trial for an experimental treatment. There, his condition improved day-by-day.Ìý

https://twitter.com/RHSBOYSLACROSSE/status/1251141155640741888

Due in part to Allard’s young age and otherwise good health, his family speaking out, and his high school and college lacrosse teams rallying around him, his story drew international attention.

“He took personal responsibility for lifting the Bobcats to national competitiveness,� wrote Lasagna. “Most importantly, his teammates will tell you that he is a better and more giving person, a more caring mentor than he is an attackman.�

Five weeks ago, former standout and All-American Jack Allard was confirmed positive for . He was put on a ventilator. Last Thursday, he walked out of the hospital. For Jack and the hundreds more who have recovered, we’re optimistic.

— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy)

From his family’s home in Ridgewood, N.J., Allard told Matt DaSilva of US Lacrosse Magazine that his story should serve as a cautionary tale.ÌýÌý

“We need to listen to our scientists and our doctors when they give us warnings and give us guidance,� he said. “People my age think it’s not going to hit them and, if it does, it’s going to be a slight flu. That’s clearly not true. It took me to my knees.�

Read the stories:

• “,â€� US Lacrosse Magazine, April 22, 2020Ìý
• “,â€� USA Today, April 19, 2020Ìý

Andrew Mountcastle

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ professor leads effort to print coronavirus protective gear — Sun JournalÌý

Steve Collins of the Lewiston Sun Journal reported on an initiative led by Assistant Professor of Biology Andrew Mountcastle to 3D-print face shield visors to protect medical personnel from the coronavirus.

The Androscoggin County Emergency Management Agency is distributing the shields, which faculty and staff from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Bowdoin, Colby, and other institutions with access to 3D-printers are creating.Ìý

“I feel it’s the least I can do to support members of my community and state who need it most,â€� Mountcastle said.Ìý

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€� Sun Journal, April 3, 2020Ìý

See also:Ìý

• “Shields up! ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ helping to ease PPE shortages,â€� ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ News, April 3, 2020Ìý

Jane CostlowÌý

In teaching stories of disaster, hope lies hidden in plain sight — Literary Hub

Writing in Lit Hub, Jane Costlow, the Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies, reflected on teaching a course, “Catastrophe and Hope,â€� during the very kind of catastrophe her students read about.Ìý

As an added layer, this semester is Costlow’s last as an instructor before she retires. For her, there will be no opportunity to incorporate the present moment into her future teaching. But she’s trying to convey to her students that upheaval like this need not be defeating.Ìý

“My experience of life first in the Soviet Union and then in post-Soviet Russia had convinced me … that people in extraordinarily constrained political and economic conditions make lives of dignity, lives inflected with moments of joy and commitment,� says Costlow, whose background is in Russian literature.

“I wanted my students to read a book like Zhivago because it’s about a society that comes apart, lives that are profoundly—viciously—unsettled, and yet there are forms of endurance, too.â€�Ìý

Read the essay:Ìý

• “,â€� Literary Hub, April 24, 2020

Ru Freeman ’94

We owe more to our young writers: On the relevance of the workshop — Literary Hub

Also in Lit Hub, writer and writing professor Ru Freeman ’94 argued that creative writing faculty and university writing departments should prioritize not the craft of writing or the parsing of prose, but helping students understand their own experiences within their society and become “fearlessâ€� writers who speak truth to power.Ìý Ìý

“We must commit, as a collective, to bringing a fierce energy to our classrooms where a few students may develop an intensity of discomfort in their intestines, but most will finally identify their guts as being part of the body they inhabit,â€� Freeman writes.Ìý

“With passionate effort, our students might yet go from being a concert of crows cawing in the same register, safe within the dull shades of uniformity, to articulating the music and iridescence of a truly creative menagerie.â€�Ìý

Read the essay:Ìý

• “,â€� Literary Hub, April 16, 2020

Todd Nelson ’78

T.S. Eliot and Me — The Ellsworth AmericanÌý

Retired high school English teacher Todd Nelson ’78 wrote a column for the Maine Ellsworth American about reading the poems of T.S. Eliot and, after a fashion, encountering the poet himself.Ìý

Nelson lived for a time near the London home where the late Eliot had lived. Nelson took to the poet in high school and college; Eliot’s “Four Quartetsâ€� helped inspire his senior thesis on religious poets.Ìý

“Eliot follows me, bursts from his poems informing my own arc,â€� Nelson writes. “It’s a life’s work fathoming Eliot’s poems. Why not? It was a life work to write them; to weave the threads of memory, history, family experience, religion, and philosophy into self-study.â€�Ìý

Read the essay:Ìý

• “,â€� The Ellsworth American, April 17, 2020

Anne Williams

Piecing together the history of jigsaw puzzles — multiple outletsÌý

As quarantined Americans turn to jigsaw puzzles to pass the time, several news outlets have turned to Professor Emerita of Economics Anne Williams, an expert on toys and puzzles, for a history lesson.Ìý

The first jigsaw puzzles were made with scroll saws — also known as jig saws — and were intended to teach geography, said Williams, author of The Jigsaw Puzzle, Piecing Together a History.Ìý

During the Great Depression, families used jigsaw puzzles not only for entertainment, but for income. “They set up the saw in their kitchen or their basement, started making jigsaw puzzles and selling them to their neighbors or renting them out through the local drug store,â€� Williams told CBS News.Ìý

Read the stories:Ìý

• “,â€� CBS News, March 29, 2020
• “,â€� NPR, April 5, 2020
• “,â€� CNBC, April 5, 2020

Phyllis Graber Jensen

Documenting history during the pandemic — UPAAÌý

In a roundup of the how college photographers were documenting the closure of their campuses, the University Photographers’ Association of America featured work by Phyllis Graber Jensen, director of photography and video for the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Communications Office.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ photography focused on the experiences of and historic transition to remote learning in mid-March.Ìý

Graber Jensen told the UPAA that she was guided by professional training and her instincts. “I didn’t yet have specific directions or assignments, just my usual internal, professional guidance — ‘ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Communications needs to document this’ — plus the unequivocal support from my boss to forge ahead.â€�

Read the story:

• “,â€� UPAAÌý

Henry Colt ’19

In a time of crisis, a twentysomething rookie reporter learns the value of community newspapers — Anchorage PressÌý

As the coronavirus sent the country into a lockdown and sent people scrambling for information, Henry Colt’s thoughts turned to his recent stint as a reporter for the Daily Sitka Sentinel in Alaska. For this 2019 graduate, the pandemic underscored the value of community newspapers.Ìý

“Newspapers, of which more than one in five have closed in the U.S. during the last 15 years, are as vital to their communities as potlucks, concerts, salmon-sharing and marine-invertebrate-themed house parties are to Sitka. And in Sitka, few things are more vital than the Sentinel,� Colt wrote in the Anchorage Press.

“Who else will tell you that an electric fishing boat took its maiden voyage? That your neighbor just won a $50,000 grant? That an injured great horned owl passed its rehabilitation test with flying colors?

“Who else, when crisis strikes, will tell you exactly what’s happening in Seattle, D.C., and Italy — then tell you exactly what’s happening at the Backdoor Café, the Pioneer Home, and Mount Edgecumbe High School?â€�Ìý

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€� Anchorage Press, March 29, 2020

Andrew Kennedy and Michelle Greene

When professors are cut off from their students, what do they do? — 207Ìý

NewsCenter Maine’s 207 news magazine talked to professors Andrew Kennedy and Michelle Greene, whose remote class “movie trailersâ€� were a hit among their students and thousands of people on the internet.Ìý

https://twitter.com/Prof_AJKennedy/status/1241071316599439365?

Kennedy, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, made a trailer for his course “Mechanisms of Memory.â€�Ìý

“It’s like preparing for a baseball season, and you show up to your first game and after the fifth inning the umpire says, ‘Well actually we’re gonna play football now,’â¶Ä� Kennedy told 207’s Rob Caldwell, referring to the abrupt shift to remote learning.Ìý

“So I was learning these new tools and learning how to make videos. I went down a rabbit hole of, ‘This is funny; I might as well try it.’â€�ÌýÌý

Inspired by @Prof_AJKennedy 's great class trailer and my own lifelong desire to be James Bond, I present Neuroethics 2020: The Classroom is Never Enough.

— Michelle Greene (@MGreenePhD)

Greene, an assistant professor of neuroscience, made her trailer in James Bond fashion. Her students appreciated a section about her new teaching assistant — her cat, Tesla.Ìý

“To not have those in-person dialogues is hard,â€� she told Caldwell. “That being said, we still have deep, rich, lovely conversations.â€�Ìý

Read the story:Ìý

• “?â€� 207, April 14, 2020

See also:Ìý

• “ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ professors’ humorous movie-trailer videos brighten the move to remote learning,â€� ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ News, March 27, 2020Ìý

Mara Tieken

Coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating a rural access crisis — Bangor Daily NewsÌý

For the Bangor Daily News, Mara Tieken, an associate professor of education and expert on rural education and issues, wrote that while images from the coronavirus pandemic are primarily urban — empty streets, subways, and airports — the crisis also poses serious risks for rural communities.Ìý

In rural areas, hospitals tend to be sparse and under-resourced, fewer rural residents than urban dwellers have internet access, food banks are running low, and newspapers that deliver important information are scaling back or closing.Ìý

“Right now, what rural communities need most is access: to health care, to the internet, to food, to information,â€� Tieken writes. “This access will help mitigate the worst effects of an already deadly crisis. But what is particularly frustrating about this moment is that these inequalities were identified long before now.â€�Ìý

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€� Bangor Daily News, April 22, 2020

What happens when a middle-school student’s classes have moved online due to the coronavirus — but her rural community doesn’t have high-speed internet? What if her family can’t afford the breakfast and lunch she and her siblings normally get at school? And what happens to the accommodations she usually gets for deafness, or dyslexia?Ìý

Travis Palmer ’21 is one of the people trying to answer these questions in his western Maine community. A school board member in a district that comprises his hometown of Rumford and several smaller towns and communities, he’s had a front-row seat to decisions about feeding students, remote learning, and long-term planning.ÌýÌý

Palmer, who has been on the board for four years, has also been talking to and learning from Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken, an expert on rural education who is closely watching how rural teachers and school districts across the country are rethinking, often in a matter of days, their entire approach to education.

Over the past several weeks, Tieken has heard from a variety of educators, from administrators of big Texas school districts to college advisors who serve public and semi-private schools in Maine, about what’s working for them and what they need in a new era of remote learning. She’s also helped create a for school administrators.Ìý

The answers she got paint a picture of educators doing their best in uncharted waters — teachers moving instruction online, administrators distributing food and technology. She hopes that the stories she has gathered will help shed light on the issues these communities face and help direct resources to the schools and districts most in need.Ìý

“In the long term, I would like to help think about what we can take away from this experience and how we can change our educational system based on what we’ve learned,â€� Tieken says.ÌýÌý

Perhaps the most pressing problem facing rural school districts around the country is food. During the school year, many students rely on breakfast and lunch provided by schools free or at reduced prices, and educators have to figure out how to continue to distribute those meals. (For students who are homeless or transient, the challenge grows exponentially more difficult.)

It’s a little easier for urban and suburban school districts to set up convenient meal pickups at places around a city. It’s harder for rural schools, which might serve families across a vast geographic area and whose families still might not have transportation.Ìý

Palmer says school administrators in his district, Regional School Unit 10, have set up meal pickup points, distributing hundreds of meals a day, as close to families’ homes as possible. “Ideally, we’re trying to get out to the places where people are, because it’s difficult to expect parents to have the time or transportation to get the kids to these places,â€� Palmer says.Ìý

Tieken has heard from other districts that are using school buses to deliver meals, or asking paraprofessionals like classroom assistants to do so. The schools still have to navigate legal issues — what does an ed tech’s union contract allow him to do? — plus ever-evolving stay-at-home orders and practical concerns like refrigeration. Still, “that flexibility is great,â€� Tieken says.Ìý

Keeping students fed is a concern for any school district, rural or urban, that serves poor families. But rural schools in particular have to be creative about technology, Tieken says. Many families don’t have the devices they need for the kids to do schoolwork, and . In 2019, only 63% of rural adults were broadband users.

“The terrain can make it more difficult for signals to reach farther,â€� Tieken says.Ìý

Access to technology varies within Palmer’s own district, he says. Districts in other states have had to scramble to distribute tablets or laptops, but Maine has long been a leader in so-called one-to-one technology, and RSU10 has already purchased Chromebooks for most students.Ìý In the towns in Palmer’s district, up to 90% of families have access to broadband.Ìý

“This problem is so frustrating because it’s so fixable, and we knew it.�

Palmer is happy with the way these students and their teachers have transitioned to remote learning.Ìý

But some pockets of his district don’t even have cell service, let alone high-speed internet. Families there receive lesson plans via paper “storm packets,â€� a holdover from snow days. The packets, Palmer says, are focused more on retaining old material than learning something new, since students don’t have as much contact with their teachers and can’t necessarily rely on their parents to teach them.Ìý

“It’s an imperfect system,â€� Palmer says. “If this blows through, in the next school year we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.â€�Ìý

Other districts around the country are trying different solutions. Tieken heard from one in Texas that wants to set up strategic internet hotspots, though demand for them has made them scarce. Some districts have resorted to asking families to come to the parking lots of schools or local businesses to tap into their Wi-Fi from the car, Tieken says.Ìý

“This problem is so frustrating because it’s so fixable, and we knew it,â€� she says. “There’s been a persistent rural-urban digital divide, so it should surprise nobody.â€�Ìý

Food and technology access directly affects how well students learn, Tieken says — if you’re hungry or anxious about the future, or your laptop dies, you’re not going to be thinking about math or reading as much. But even when schools and districts can provide food and educational technology, the quality of delivery of these resources will vary from district to district and state to state.Ìý

Tieken has talked to educators working in many locations and in all kinds of environments, from private schools to large public districts with thousands of students to small districts with a single school. No one setup is better than the other, she says. Some, it seems, are dropping the ball in terms of revamping their curriculum and making sure everyone has the technology they need.Ìý

Others, however, are full speed ahead. “I’ve seen some pretty amazing things happening in terms of districts making sure all their kids have technology,â€� she says. “Teachers are providing synchronous instruction that helps students structure their days, and they’ve got some really cool, innovative lesson plans or videos that are up on the internet.â€�ÌýÌý

As it turns out, each type of school or district has advantages and disadvantages, Tieken found. A smaller district might be better able to distribute devices and be more supportive of teachers, but a bigger district with more resources and people could ensure that thousands of students get the same educational experience.Ìý

“This idea of centralized control versus local control, small and nimble versus big and consistent — it will be interesting, the lessons we learn,â€� she says. But COVID-19 is “not going to equalize things,â€� Tieken says. Instead it will only exacerbate existing differences.ÌýÌý

“If this blows through in the next school year we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.â€�Ìý

This is especially true when it comes to helping students go to college, Tieken says. Rural students were than urban or suburban students. And across the board,

Organizations like Upward Bound, a federal program that since 1965 has helped low-income, first-generation, and rural students gain access to college, have traditionally operated within school buildings, forming relationships with students to help them see college as a possibility, then helping them get there.

“They can pull a kid from a class and say, ‘We’ve got an admissions representative coming from this particular school, and I think it would be a great fit for you,’â¶Ä� Tieken says. “You can’t do that in the same way in this remote environment, build that same kind of trust.â€�Ìý

For Tieken and the educators she’s talking to, other questions abound. What about rural students of color, particularly East Asians and Asian Americans, and might as a result become more isolated? What happens to the diner that serves Friday night sports fans? How will the pandemic affect the school budget long-term? How do you provide special education services?Ìý

Those last two are particularly concerning to Palmer in Rumford. A quarter of students in this district receive special education services, which the district is committed (and required by law) to continue to provide. Meanwhile, the 13 members of the school board are trying to pass a budget, made all the harder by the knowledge that many families have lost jobs and are struggling to pay basic bills, let alone an increased property tax to fund the schools.Ìý

Many of the educators Tieken has spoken with “are grateful for the light this is shedding on inequities they encounter on a regular basis,” she says.ÌýÌý

Now the question is, how and when will the light shine on some solutions, too?

Mara Tieken 

School closures can hit rural communities hard — The Conversation 

Writing for The Conversation, Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken argued that the closure of rural schools can devastate students, families, and communities.

Schools often close for reasons of poor academic performance, budget constraints, or declining enrollments. When they do, students’ relationships with peers and teachers are disrupted, absences go up, and involvement in extracurricular activities goes down, often because students have to commute longer distances. 

“In many rural communities, schools are the largest employer,â€� Tieken wrote. “They provide political power, and they tie people together. Once the schools are gone, the community loses all of these benefits.â€� 

Read the story: 

• “,â€� The Conversation, Jan. 9, 2020

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Museum of Art 

Snow School: ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College makes life drawing practical, if not easy — Sun Journal 

Amy Paradysz of the Lewiston Sun Journal covered a Wednesday-night fixture sponsored by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Museum of Art: live figure drawing. 

Artists come to campus, often traveling long distances, to draw models — some are ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students, others community members — holding poses of various types and lengths. 

The exercise is valuable practice for a tricky but rewarding aspect of art. “It’s good for me to be reminded how challenging it is to observe and capture what I’m seeing,� said Mike Hickey of Yarmouth. “It’s good to be humbled.�

Read the story: 

• “,â€� Sun Journal, Dec. 29, 2019

Carissa Aoki

Racist housing practices from the 1930s linked to hotter neighborhoods today — NPR 

Neighborhoods that were subject to historical redlining — a racist housing practice that segregated cities and concentrated poor, minority, and immigrant residents — are hotter than non-redlined neighborhoods, Meg Anderson of NPR reported. 

Part of the reason for heat disparities of five degrees or more involves tree cover, according to a study coauthored by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Lecturer in Environmental Studies Carissa Aoki. 

“In 37 cities around the country, formerly redlined neighborhoods have about half as many trees on average today as the highest-rated predominantly white neighborhoods on those maps,â€� Anderson wrote. 

Read the story: 

• “,â€� NPR, Jan. 14, 2020

Dorothy Foster Kern ’42

For these ‘three Dots,’ 100 years of friendship, fellowship, and fun — NPR

National and local news outlets have noticed a curious and happy occurrence: Three women named Dorothy, including Dorothy Foster Kern ’42 — all friends and all living in Auburn — celebrated their 100th birthdays in 2019.

Kern, Dorothy Buchanan, and Dorothy Murray all became centenarians in 2019, with Kern celebrating her 100th in September with a special luncheon at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. 

A graduate of Auburn’s Edward Little High School, Kern was inspired to attend ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in part by a relative who taught at the college.

“I’m just a kid,â€� Kern told Maine Public’s Susan Sharon, in a piece about the “three Dots” that NPR later picked up. “I don’t feel any different than I did at 16.â€� 

Down East magazine also featured Kern in collaboration with Maine Public. 

“My life is quiet and happy, and I’m doing what I like to do, but I miss people — everyone who is not still here,â€� said Kern, who has outlived two of her five children. “In that sense, it’s lonely. I miss the children that were, but I’m happy to have the ones I’ve got. I’m lucky.â€� 

Read the stories: 

• “,â€� NPR, Dec. 22, 2019
• “,â€� Down East, December 2019 

Muskan Verma ’21

South-Asian Americans protest India’s citizenship bill — NBC News 

Reporting on South-Asian Americans’ protests against a bill in India that excludes Muslim immigrants from a path to citizenship, NBC News’ Mythili Sampathkumar talked to Muskan Verma ’21 of Shimla, India, a coordinator of the South Asian Students Against Fascism movement. 

Many South-Asian Americans, Sampathkumar wrote, see parallels between what is happening in India and religious and racial discrimination in the United States. Some are organizing protests in major American cities on Jan. 26, India’s Republic Day holiday. 

Verma told Sampathkumar that her group wants to send “a very strong message not just to the [Indian] government, but to the people protesting that they are not alone and that protests are not happening in a void.�

Read the story: 

• “,â€� NBC News, Jan. 19, 2020

Michael Rocque

Megan Rapinoe did not stomp on the flag. Here’s why people got outraged regardless — Newsweek

In Newsweek, Associate Professor of Sociology Michael Rocque argued that a recent Twitter flareup — in which World Cup-winning soccer player Megan Rapinoe was accused of stomping on the American flag, when she’d done no such thing — is part of a pattern of often-uninformed outrage on social media.

“The temptation to jump to outrage is especially strong on social media, where our virtual communities of the like-minded, created by choosing our ‘friends’ and whom to follow, reinforce our preconceptions and can block any facts that get in their way,� Rocque wrote.

Michael Rocque, associate professor of sociology. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Anger spreads more easily online than other emotions, and collective anger paradoxically leads to feelings of affirmation and unity, Rocque wrote. “We’re wired to crave that collective anger.â€�

So before taking part in an online mob, he suggested, wait a second to get the facts.

“When we see a meme, post or tweet that sparks that familiar tingle of outrage, take a minute to look into it, verify sources or, better yet, wait to see how the story unfolds once more information is gathered.�

Read the story:

• “,â€� Newsweek, July 12, 2019

Joyce White Vance ’82

Prosecutors pick their battles. I chose not to pursue an ICE raid in Alabama — The Washington Post

Best-known these days for her legal insights into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and report on the 2016 elections, Joyce White Vance ’82 recently turned her attention to the massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid of food processing plants in Mississippi.

Former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce White Vance ’82 speaks at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Mueller Report on Capitol Hill in June. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

A former U.S. attorney for Alabama, Vance once declined to pursue an ICE raid in her state because she failed to “see how it would be a wise use of our resources to pull away from crimes that were affecting our community in visible ways to arrest people who, while they might have lacked legal immigration status, were going to work every day.�

Noting that it took months to plan the ICE raids, Vance wondered if there aren’t other prosecutions that might have “better served the community� than “removing parents from children — children that the parents were hard at work for, so they could help them grow into productive citizens.�

Read the story:

• “,â€� The Washington Post, Aug. 9, 2019

Scott Allen ’84

These doctors risked their careers to expose the dangers children face in immigrant family detention — CNN

For years, Drs. Scott Allen and Pamela McPherson did their work — inspecting facilities where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains immigrant families — quietly.

But in 2018, the two doctors, who are medical consultants for the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, became whistleblowers.

Since then, Allen and McPherson have appeared in myriad media outlets, including The New York Times, 60 Minutes, and The Washington Post, to call attention to the harm children suffer when confined, with or without parents, to detention facilities, such as the ICE centers at the Southwest U.S. border.

“Each passing day of continued detention of children — and no acknowledgment of the risk that we have reported — alarms me,” Dr. Scott Allen ’84 told CNN in May.

“The medical community is quite unified in opposition to the detention of children. Decades of research have shown that detention is harmful to their medical and physical health,� Allen told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in June.

For their work, Allen and McPherson, along with Scott Shuchart, received the 2019 Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling.

Read and watch:

• “,â€� CNN, May 23, 2019
• “,â€� The Washington Post, Dec. 19, 2018
• “,’â¶Ä� The New York Times, July 18, 2018

Stephanie Kelley-Romano

If the Democrats master this single strategy, they can defeat Trump in 2020 — Newsweek

Stephanie Kelley-Romano, associate professor of rhetoric, film, and screen studies, watched the second set of Democratic presidential primary debates in late July and concluded, in a Newsweek op-ed, that the candidates need to work on framing — defining the issues they’re talking about and the limits on their solutions.

Stephanie Kelley-Romano leads a “Television Criticism” class on March 6, 2019. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

For example, debate moderators often framed discussions of universal healthcare as “taking away� private insurance in favor of government-funded care. It was only toward the end of these discussions that several candidates argued that universal healthcare would be a gain, not a loss.

“In the lead-up to 2020, Democrats must remember to take control of the framing of issues early, so they can focus on what it is they are trying to explain and why,� Kelley-Romano wrote.

Read the story:

• “,â€� Newsweek, Aug. 1, 2019

Dan Mills

An Artist’s Maps of Imperialism and Greed — Hyperallergic

Carl Little reviewed inÌýart news site Hyperallergic an exhibit at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art by Dan Mills, director of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art.

Recently named by Maine magazine as one of 50 Mainers who are “creating a brighter future for the state,� Mills creates “collaged maps,� displays of numbers related to war and colonialism overlaid on vintage maps.

“Mills delves into the devastating numbers and then converts them into chaotically beautiful cartographies,� wrote Little, a well-known Maine art critic and historian. “The central paradox of his map pieces is that, even as they record the woes of the world, they are stunning and seductive. The visuals engage; the numbers appall.�

Read the story:

• “,â€� Hyperallergic, Aug. 10, 2019

Rebecca Fraser-Thill

The five biggest myths about meaningful work — Forbes

Backed up by a recent study by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College and Gallup on purposeful work, Rebecca Fraser-Thill explained in Forbes that meaning in work and a meaningful life go hand in hand.

Rebecca Fraser-Thill is the director of faculty engagement and outreach at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ Center for Purposeful Work and a lecturer in psychology. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Dispelling several myths, Fraser-Thill, a visiting instructor of psychology and the director of faculty engagement and outreach at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ Center for Purposeful Work, argued that meaningful work is subjective and individual — it does not have to be a helping profession, high status, low paying, or even different from what you’re doing now.

“Whether it’s simply asking a co-worker about her weekend or bringing a smile to customers in a coffee house, any act that makes us feel more connected to others also makes our work — and our lives — more meaningful,� she wrote.

Read the story:

• “,â€� Forbes, Aug. 7, 2019

John A. Elsesser ’80

Conversation with: John Elsesser — Journal Inquirer

Tim Leininger of the Manchester, Conn., Journal Inquirer sat down with John A. Elsesser ’80, who has been the town manager of Coventry, Conn., for more than three decades.

Elsesser, who over 30 years has improved Coventry’s trash and sewer systems as well as its school and recreation programs, mused that he took to local government, in part, because of his upbringing, as the son of a Baptist minister.

“We always had company over,� he told Leininger. “We were taught that you should do good for others, try to make an impact. There was a lot of pressure for me to become a minister, me and my brother and sisters actually. None of us did, but I think the issue of trying to make a positive difference was the core of that.�

Read the story:

• “,â€� Journal Inquirer, Aug. 3, 2019

Sarah Strong

Across space and time: translating Night on the Galactic Railroad — Metropolis

Kenji Miyazawa’s masterpiece Night on the Galactic Railroad is exceedingly difficult to translate, wrote Eric Margolis of English-language Japanese magazine Metropolis. The novel, about a lonely Italian boy who rides to heaven on a magical train, contains surreal imagery and sound effects, made-up words, and regional dialect.

In taking on the task of translation in 1991, Sarah Strong, who is now professor emerita of Japanese language and literature, sought to represent in English the emotions of reading the novel in Japanese.

“If something was weird, I wanted the reader to think, ‘That’s weird,’â¶Ä� Strong told Margolis. “What was funny? What was happy? What was sad? I needed to get as close as I could to really understanding the writing.â€�

Read the story:

• “,â€� Metropolis, Aug. 2, 2019

Stephanie Wade and Megan Guynes ’11

River story workshop held in Lewiston — Sun Journal

In early August, Stephanie Wade, assistant director of Writing at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, ran a writing workshop at Tree Street Youth through the Androscoggin Land Trust.

Children at the youth center went fishing in the morning, then came back to write a story about their experiences, which Lewiston Sun Journal photographer Daryn Slover documented. Also on hand was Megan Guynes ’11, program director at Tree Street Youth.

See the photos:

• “,â€� Sun Journal, Aug. 1, 2019

Emily Kane

Winners overlook rigged games’ lack of fairness, study finds — Associated Press

For context on a Cornell study about winning and fairness, Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein turned to Professor of Sociology Emily Kane.

In the study, nearly 1,000 people played a card came in which winners could throw out their worst cards and take other players’ best cards. The winners attributed their winning to talent and only acknowledged the unfairness of the game after they were allowed to exchange cards a second time.

The study “tells us something about privilege and about society,� Kane told Borenstein. “It reminds us how powerful perceptions are — it’s not just what is happening that matters, it’s often more a matter of what we think is happening,�

Read the story:

• “,â€� Associated Press, July 17, 2019

Mara Tieken

Despite West Virginia education reform, the extraction of rural youth to continue — The Register-Herald

Associate professor of education and rural education expert Mara Tieken spoke with reporter Erin Beck of West Virginia’s Register Herald about the state’s struggle to both promote college education and keep young people in the state.

Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken teaches “Community Organizing for Social Justiceâ€� in May 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Tieken said that few high school graduates in West Virginia are getting college degrees — there aren’t a lot of jobs in rural areas that require them, even as traditional jobs like coal mining are declining.

“If we’re really trying to support kids to go to college, we also need to make sure that there are jobs in rural places that can use that college education,� Tieken said.

Read the story:

• “,â€� The Register-Herald, Jul. 14, 2019

Karl Alexander ’12

Getting Bike Share Right Is a Balancing Act — U.S. 1

Karl Alexander ’12 spoke with Princeton, N.J., newspaper U.S. 1 about how bike-sharing companies can establish themselves responsibly in communities.

Alexander, marketing manager for Zagster, told reporter Diccon Hyatt that the bike-sharing company tries to move into places — like Princeton — that will already be receptive to more bicycles, and promote bike-friendliness from there.

“You have to take the time to look at what works best for the community, whether that’s bikes or scooters, or if it is something else entirely, like increasing walkability,� he said. “You have to think before you act. You’ll probably be better off in the long run.�

Read the story:

• “,â€� U.S. 1, July 10, 2019

Purposeful Work

Five ways to optimize your internship experience — Forbes

“At least 80 percent of us want purpose in our work,” says Rebecca Fraser-Thill, referencing a recent study by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College and the polling firm Gallup, “and having an internship during college is the most powerful way to get there.”

A Forbes contributor who is director of faculty engagement and outreach for Purposeful Work, Fraser-Thill also notes that an “internship is only as transformational” as a student makes it.

With that in mind, she offers tips for interns, such as how to make the most of each day, “beyond the office as well as within it.”

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€� Forbes, June 27, 2019Ìý

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College achieves carbon neutral status — multiple outletsÌý

Media outlets reported on the announcement that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ achieved carbon neutrality — bringing the college’s net carbon emissions to zero — one year ahead of schedule.

Out of 700 colleges and universities that pledged in 2007 to go carbon neutral, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is one of seven to have achieved the goal. It did so through a combination of efforts, most notably by reducing energy consumption, strengthening a culture of sustainability, and using wood-derived renewable fuel oil.

“The one that often gets overlooked, but is closest to my heart, is efficiency,â€� ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ sustainability manager Tom Twist told Mainebiz. “That’s been our silent strength.â€�

Read the stories:Ìý

• “,â€� Mainebiz, May 27, 2019Ìý
• “,â€� Sun Journal, May 16, 2019Ìý
• “,â€� Bangor Daily News, May 16, 2019Ìý
• “,â€� Energy News Network, June 5, 2019

Carrie Diaz Eaton

Misinformation is everywhere. These scientists can teach you to fight BS — The Washington PostÌý

Ben Guarino of The Washington Post highlighted efforts by Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies Carrie Diaz Eaton to teach her students how to sift through misinformation in the news.

Her winter semester course, “Calling Bull in a Digital World,” was modeled on a similar course at the University of Washington.Ìý

“The problem is not new,� Diaz Eaton told Guarino. “BS has been around forever. But it’s the way that technology has exploded that has really scaled up the amount of information and the amount of BS and how much we’re required to filter.�

One of Diaz Eaton’s students, Carol Harding ’19, learnedÌý to use statistical methods to make graphsÌý showing Lewiston’s declining crime rate, countering public perceptions of the city.

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€�Ìý The Washington Post, June 24, 2019Ìý

Louis Scolnik ’45

ACLU of Maine honors Judge Scolnik — Andover TownsmanÌý

Andover Townsman covered the news that the ACLU of Maine has honored its founding president, Louis Scolnik ’45, with its annual award for “outstanding commitment to the protection of civil liberties.�

Scolnik, born in Lewiston and a local resident for many years, is a retired justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

Louis Scolnik ’45 is seen in 2013 at the annual luncheon for graduates of the Navy V-12 officer training program stationed at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ during World War II. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Scolnik was honored for a number of achievements during his long legal career including, as chair of an advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in the 1960s, efforts to end housing discrimination against African American military personnel stationed at Dow Air Force Base in Bangor.

He also had a hand in an unusual court case involving ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students in 1959.

• “,â€� Andover Townsman, June 13, 2019 Ìý

Jennifer Guckel Porter ’88

How to move from self-awareness to self-improvement — Harvard Business ReviewÌý

In Harvard Business Review, regular contributor Jennifer Guckel Porter ’88 took on a prickly topic: changing unproductive behavior and rewiring bad habits in the workplace.

The answer is self-management, “a conscious choice to resist a preference or habit, and instead, demonstrate a more productive behavior,� wrote Porter, who is the managing partner of The Boda Group.

“Start by recognizing your current actions, considering alternative options, and then putting in the hard work required to resist what may be most familiar or comfortable,â€� she wrote. “Instead, commit to effectively executing what is most productive.â€�Ìý

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€� Harvard Business Review, June 19, 2019Ìý

Kevin Lentini ’13

Married teachers win trip to Croatia — TodayÌý

Using creativity and humor, Kevin Lentini ’13 and his wife, Kristin, won a seven-day vacation to Dubrovnik, Croatia, in a contest sponsored by NBC’s Today show and Airbnb.

Both teachers, the Lentinis submitted a video showing the pair standing at a marked-up whiteboard delivering a lesson on how to use persuasive rhetoric — specifically, how to “use persuasive rhetoric to persuade AirBnb and Today show to gift us a vacation.�

In the “logosâ€� part of the lesson (an appeal to logic), they calculated that together they had graded 9,000 assignments this year. Conveniently, the distance from their Massachusetts schools to Dubrovnik and back is — wait for it — about 9,000 miles.Ìý

“We know that teaching is hard,â€� said host Jenna Bush Hager as she congratulated the couple. “Y’all could really use a vacation.â€�Ìý

Watch the video:Ìý

• “,â€� Today, May 14, 2019Ìý

Dorothy Foster Kern ’42

Three Auburn natives — all named Dorothy — turn 100 this year — Sun JournalÌý

The Lewiston Sun Journal reported that Dorothy Foster Kern ’42 is one of three local women named Dorothy celebrating their 100th birthdays in 2019. All three graduated from Edward Little High School and have been friendly with each other for nine decades.Ìý

Kern worked in newspapers in the area before becoming Edward Little’s school librarian. As a child, she recalls one special treat: doughnuts.

“We had to be very careful how we spent money, but whenever we could have a doughnut, it was a real treat.�

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€� Sun Journal, May 10, 2019Ìý

Mara TiekenÌý

Why more teachers should consider working in rural communities — Ed.

For a dive into the challenges, misconceptions, and promises of rural schools, Elaine McArdle of Ed., the magazine of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, talked to Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken.

Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken teaches “Community Organizing for Social Justiceâ€� in May 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Rural schools are often assumed to be white and one-size-fits-all, Tieken said. In fact, they are quite diverse and function as “nerve centersâ€� of rural communities, bringing people together and tackling issues of sustainability and equity.Ìý

“There is some really, really good work happening in rural places,� Tieken told McArdle. “We should be getting behind those good efforts and listening to people who live in rural areas and seeing their needs and strengths and what’s going well and how can we support that.�

Read the story:

• “,â€� Ed., Summer 2019Ìý

Benni McComish ’20

What’s in your recycling bin? Interns will grade the contents this summer in 4 communities — Portland Press HeraldÌý

Kate Lusignan of the Portland Press Herald covered a new internship program in four southern Maine cities and towns, in which interns peek at residents’ recycling to rate how well they’re sorting their waste. Benni McComish ’20 of Williamstown, Mass., is one of the interns.Ìý

In the program piloted by waste management company ecomaine, interns open recycling bins and study the contents at the top. Then they tag the bins with a sticker — green for good sorting, yellow for some contaminants, red for so many non-recyclable contents that the city won’t pick it up.Ìý

“Most often, the items they see that do not belong include paper towels and plastic bags — items that are commonly thought to be recyclable,â€� Lusignan wrote. “Seeing similar items in every bin implies that residents care about recycling efforts, but are unaware that certain materials are not recyclable.â€�Ìý

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€� Portland Press Herald, June 19, 2019Ìý

Joselle Deocampo-Gautam ’01Ìý

A woman of influence works to bring women and minority groups into startup funding — Silicon Valley Business JournalÌý

Silicon Valley Business Journal named Joselle Deocampo-Gautam ’01, a new product innovation portfolio lead at Linkedin, one of its 100 Women of Influence.Ìý

Deocampo-Gautam “democratize[s] finance for historically underserved and underbanked communities,â€� contributor Becky Bergman wrote.Ìý

“Deocampo-Gautam is an immigrant to the U.S., as well as the first in her family to earn a college degree,â€� she wrote. “Never forgetting her roots, Deocampo-Gautam works to reform global finance in a way that brings more of the hidden market of women and minority groups into startup funding, global growth strategies and values-based entrepreneurship.â€�Ìý

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€� Silicon Valley Business Journal, May 14, 2019Ìý

STEM at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½

Lots of ‘cool science’ at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ spurred by federal program — Sun JournalÌý

Steve Collins of the Lewiston Sun Journal covered ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students’ and faculty’s participation in Maine INBRE, a federal- and state-funded program led by MDI Biological Laboratories that promotes biomedical research.Ìý

The program, which helps students do high-level research, includes a wide range of projects, from a Short Term course to MDI Lab to use mouse poop to study gut microbiomes, to developing a high-resolution imaging system, to understanding aspects of nervous system cells.Ìý

INBRE shows students that “every student can thrive, not just survive, in an academic discipline,â€� said Dean of the Faculty Malcolm Hill.Ìý

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€� Sun Journal, June 9, 2019Ìý

Nick Mazuroski ’09

Entrepreneurs on a mission: Three Maine eco-innovators out to conquer the green economy — Mainebiz

Solar entrepreneur Nick Mazuroski ’09 was one of three “eco-innovatorsâ€� Mainebiz featured in order to highlight the green economy.Ìý

Mazuroski is a part-time law student in Portland and vice president at Biomass Power Association. He also co-founded Dirigo Solar LLC, which in partnership with an Irish company is preparing to build solar power plants, employing more than 1,000 Maine residents in the process.Ìý

Any green entrepreneurship has to make business sense, Mazuroski told reporter Renee Cordes. “We live in a capitalist society,� he said. “If the economics don’t work, you’ve got to find another way.�

Read the story:Ìý

• “,â€� — Mainebiz

Sophie Claus ’19

Beverly’s Claus reflects on fantastic crew career — The Salem News

Columnist Jean DePlacido of The Salem News profiled Sophie Claus ’19, whose decision to try rowing for the first time in her first year at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ made her an integral part of a wildly successful team.Ìý

A co-captain in her senior year, Claus helped lead the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ women to their third straight NCAA championship this year.Ìý

“It’s been wonderful, and now my teammates are my best friends,� said Claus. “You’re out there all working hard together and moving faster than you thought you could.�

Read the story:

• “,â€� The Salem News, June 14, 2019Ìý

Sameer Maskey ’02

A Conversation with Sameer Maskey — Voices in AIÌý

For analysis firm GigaOm’s podcast Voices in AI, Byron Reese talked to Sameer Maskey ’02, founder and CEO of fusemachines, a company that recruits artificial intelligence programmers from around the world.Ìý

Maskey said he came to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ with the goal of eventually building a machine that could read a book and then discuss the book with the human, preferably in Nepali, his native language.Ìý

Sameer Maskey ’02 works with Kristyna Alexova ’19, a 2018 Purposeful Work intern at fusemachines. (Nick Romanenko for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

After years of studying artificial intelligence, he learned that such a machine would require artificial generalized intelligence, which means the machine can perform the same tasks as humans.Ìý

But we’re not there and unlikely to get there soon, he says. “There’s probably some fundamental new ways of exploring things that is required.”Ìý

Listen to the podcast:Ìý

• “,â€� Voices in AI, May 16, 2019Ìý

How colleges help students find purpose in their work — The Chronicle of Higher Education

In a major feature story, explores the value of the college’s signature Purposeful Work initiative.

Now beginning its fifth year of implementation, Purposeful Work helps students “clarify the connections between classroom and career, and to prepare students for lives of meaningful work,” writes Kelly Field of the Chronicle, the leading source of academic news in the U.S.

Purposeful Work stands apart, says Field, for how it “blends the philosophical and the pragmatic.”

Purposeful Work is particularly valuable because it helps to “increase graduates’ confidence that they can succeed in an increasingly technical work force, and to dispel parents’ and policy makers’ doubts about the returns on an expensive liberal-arts degree.”

While many colleges are launching similar programs, Purposeful Work stands apart, says Field, for how it “blends the philosophical and the pragmatic, offering students both concrete skills and an overarching theory of work: namely, that it ought to have both personal meaning and societal relevance.”

Purposeful Work interns in summer 2018, Isabella Del Priore ’19 and Emily Lufburrow ’19 pose outside the Sidney Kimmel Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Portland, Maine, is the 2018 Restaurant City of the Year — Bon Appetit

Andrew Knowlton ’97, Bon Appetit’s longtime restaurant editor and now editor at large, , citing the city’s many new openings and the variety of offerings, from “an Instagram-worthy lobster roll and a dozen local oysters� to “the killer pho spot or the guy selling hand rolls out of a Yeti cooler.�

Knowlton brings some subjectivity to the selection. “I’ve got a thing for Maine,� he wrote. “I went to college there, I got married there, I regularly vacation there.� But Portland was not picked just out of “blind favoritism,� he explains, offering a long list of restaurants as evidence.

Among the spots mentioned are ±á³Ü²µ´Ç’s, one of three eateries co-owned by award-winning chef Andrew Taylor ’03, and Allagash Brewing Company, whose brewmaster is Knowlton’s classmate Jason Perkins.

‘Strangers’ creator Mia Lidofsky breaks the mold with queer female narrative — Huffington Post

As the second season of Strangers wrapped, director and producer Mia Lidofsky ’09 talked to about how her own life has inspired the Facebook Watch show and the importance of narratives created by and featuring queer people.

Strangers follows a bisexual woman and her lesbian best friend, a “self-discovery tale against the backdrop of Airbnb,� Wong wrote.

Lidofsky, who worked on the shows Girls and Nurse Jackie as an assistant to director Jesse Peretz, told Wong she wanted to make women feel “feel more seen, more heard and less alone.�

“I wanted to show queer women in a positive light, and show their hilarity, their beauty and their charisma,� she said. “The more depictions of queer people onscreen by queer people, the better.�

How Matt Golden started a lunchtime mentorship program in Maine that is reaching New Bedford — SouthCoastToday

Brendan Kurie of the New Bedford Standard-Times profiled Matt Golden ’20, who at Lewiston Middle School.

A sociology major and football player, Golden and fellow ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students make regular visits to LMS, where they hang out with students and, importantly, give them a chance to see what it’s like to be a college student.

Matt Golden ’20 of New Bedford, Mass., carries the ball during a 2016 game against Hamilton College. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“Students talking to other students is a big thing,� Lewiston Middle School administrator Billie Jo Brito told Kurie.

“It’s so hard for middle school students, many times, to get out of their own way. To be encouraged by a college student and hear about their middle school days and have that fresh face is such a positive thing for them.�

Golden got support from the college’s Harward Center for Community Partnerships, but “this was his initiative,â€� said Martha Deschaines ’75 of the Harward Center. “He’s so enthusiastic and dedicated to this program and helping youth to move forward.”

Women to Watch: Clayton Spencer, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College — Mainebiz

Mainebiz named ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President â€� in 2018. In a profile, editor Peter Van Allen outlined Spencer’s path from law to higher education, her leadership of the $300 million ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Campaign, and her drive to prepare students for meaningful careers through the Purposeful Work initiative.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Clayton Spencer speaks during Convocation on Sept. 4. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“Most students realize they’re not da Vinci or Yo-Yo Ma,â€� Spencer said. “They worry they don’t have a passion. But finding your passion is a trap. You have to try things.â€�

“Work can be for pay or not,� she added. “But it has to be purposeful work.�

Here’s why we need to democratize artificial intelligence — Forbes

In an , Sameer Maskey ’02 says the world needs a lot more artificial intelligence professionals than it currently has.

The founder and CEO of Fusemachines, a Manhattan-based AI services and education firm, Maskey argues that students from developing countries should fill the gap — they’re as curious and qualified as Ivy League grads, and “someone who experiences complex problems in his/her own country could be more suited to try and solve those problems with AI.�

Kristyma Alexova ’19 and Sameer Maskey ’02 speaks with Kristyna Alexova ’19 during Alexova’s Purposeful Work internship at Fusemachines, Maskey’s AI company. (Nick Romanenko for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Maskey, a member of the Forbes Technology Council, which comprises world-class CIOs, CTOs, and technology executives, recently started a fellowship program to teach machine learning to students in the Dominican Republic, New York City, Rwanda, and Maskey’s native Nepal.

“If we want everyone to benefit from the development of AI, and not just a few select countries, we need to make AI equally accessible around the world,� Maskey says.

David Bowie welcomes Lewiston High students back for the 51st time — Sun Journal

Bonnie Washuk of the , who has been teaching Lewiston High School students and coaching fellow teachers for 51 years.

David Bowie poses in the hall by the door of his office at Lewiston High School, where he has taught for 51 years. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)

Bowie has witnessed dramatic changes over his five decades in the classroom. Standardized testing became more important, technology progressed — Bowie was one of the first to learn to use computers — and the student population became far more diverse.

Now some of his former students are teachers at the high school, and he sees people he taught at LHS in town. “I usually run into somebody I had in a class, which makes it kind of fun,� Bowie told Washuk.

McCain’s straight talk impressed those on the North Shore — The Salem News

Ethan Forman of The Salem News on the Aug. 25 death of U.S. Senator John McCain.

Pangallo, now chief of staff for the mayor of Salem, was a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ student in 2000 when he worked in New Hampshire for McCain’s first presidential campaign. He wrote that though McCain was the only Republican he ever voted for, he admired the senator’s stance on campaign finance reform, as well as his relationship with the press and, later, his position on climate change and his vote against the repeal of Obamacare.

“Tonight, I’m remembering those cold and snowy nights across countless small Granite State towns, running lawn signs, holding the rope line, setting up stages, handing out palm cards,â€� Pangallo wrote of working on the campaign. “The thrill of being in the vanguard of the Straight Talk Express.”

The comeback kids: how a struggling public school made the grade — The Guardian

Amanda Holpuch of The Guardian Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken for a story about the school district in Pike County, Ala., which has many students from poor rural backgrounds.

The district closely watches and tries to support its students, and offers programs that allow students to earn college credits and even associate’s degrees in a variety of fields.

Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken teaches “Community Organizing for Social Justiceâ€� in May 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Tieken praised that dual enrollment program, but offered this caution:

“What I worry about is rural kids, particularly rural students of color, being disproportionately tracked into associate’s degrees, so then they are not able to continue on with education, which we know corresponds with higher earnings and all kinds of other benefits.”

GirlsGetMath engages local high school students — The Brown Daily Herald

Brown University’s student newspaper at the university, directed by Associate Professor of Mathematics Katharine Ott, that teaches high school girls about math and computer science.

Associate Professor of Mathematics Katharine Ott. (Sarah Crosby/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Ott told reporter Cate Ryan that the program seeks to encourage girls to stay engaged with math and science in high school and college and, ultimately, pursue careers in STEM fields.

“There is clear evidence that even though jobs in STEM are growing very rapidly and they pay better than a lot of other jobs, women are very underrepresented in these careers,� Ott said.

The program, GirlsGetMath@ICERM, was hosted by Brown’s Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics.

French schools say ‘au revoir’ to smartphones — what if the U.S. dialed up a similar ban? — KPCC-FM

Schools in France instituted a ban this year on cellphones on school grounds. Larry Mantle of Pasadena-based public radio station KPCC how such a policy might translate in the United States, talking with ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ Anita Charles and the University of Michigan’s Liz Kolb about the effectiveness of cellphone bans.

Anita Charles teaches “Basic Concepts in Special Educationâ€� in March 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Charles, lecturer in education and director of secondary teacher education, told Mantle and several callers that outright bans on cellphones are “seldom effective, it’s unenforceable, and it begs for subversion.�

Whether schools and teachers allow cellphones in the classroom or require students to put their phones in a cubby, they have to develop relationships of trust, Charles said.

“We tend to miss the boat if we’re only about the policy,� she said. “We have to also have the conversations. We have to talk to students about why and how and what are we trying to help them do when they put them in that cubby, and what we hope they’ll learn to understand about appropriate contexts.�

A humble pleather armchair sits across from Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken’s sleek desk in her third-floor office in Pettengill Hall.

Foam stuffing spills from holes in the armrests, and the holes get bigger as students fidget with them during office visits. Call it ugly, and she’ll agree, but she still loves the green chair for its personality and history, if not its Mad Men style.

She first sat in the chair in spring 2002 when she was a young college grad. One day, as she drove past an elementary school in Vanleer, Tenn., population 310, she thought, “This might be a school I would love to teach in.�

Mara Tieken, her chair, and her dog, Lulu. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

So she dropped in, knocked on the principal’s office door, and was invited to take a seat in the green chair, where she explained that she hoped to begin her teaching career in a rural setting. Two months later, she was hired.

Tieken acquired the chair the next year when the school moved into a new building. The principal – who hated the chair — wanted it gone. “But it wasn’t ready for the trash heap,â€� she says. “It was comfortable.â€�

“I wrote my dissertation in that chair.�

So she put it in her classroom. “It was the chair I sat in when I read to my third-graders. We read all sorts of books in this chair.� One year, she read every Roald Dahl book, plus Where the Red Fern Grows, “a perennial favorite of mine and my students.�

In 2005, Tieken and the chair left Vanleer for the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “I sat in that chair in my apartment to study,� she says. “I wrote my dissertation in that chair.�

Six years later, the chair came to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ with her. At the time, Tieken was sure that teaching college students would be very different from teaching third-graders. But when students came to her office, sat in the chair, and talked with her, she saw “how much it was the same.â€�

Tieken is a national expert on rural education and the many ways it differs from urban or suburban educational environments. “I look at how context shapes education and shapes schools.� At the same time, the chair is a reminder of “how similar teaching can be and education can be and schooling can be across varied geographies and demographics.�

“So much of teaching is about the human element,� she says. “It’s about having the courage to put yourself out there as a teacher or learner, because there’s still a third-grader in all of us. I like that that chair reminds me of all that.�

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has announced faculty promotions, including tenure awards and full professorships, effective for the 2017–18 academic year.

“Our newly tenured and promoted faculty are exemplars of the scholar-teacher-mentor ideal,” said Matthew Auer, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty. “They areÌýleaders in their disciplines, deeply engaged in our community, and focused on the success of their students with sincerity and purpose.”

Recommended by the faculty’s Committee on Personnel and approved by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Board of Trustees, the promotions have been awarded to faculty members in the fields of education, French and francophone studies, history, neuroscience, politics, and psychology.

Meet the seven newly promoted professors, learn their research fields, and discover why they teach:

Promotions to associate professor with tenure

+Jason Castro

Jason Castro has been promoted to associate professor of neuroscience at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

+Caroline Shaw

Caroline Shaw has been promoted to associate professor of history at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

+Mara Tieken

Mara Tieken has been promoted to associate professor of education at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Promotions to full professor

+�slaug �sgeirsdóttir

Ã�slaug Ã�sgeirsdóttir has been promoted to professor of politics at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

+Helen Boucher

Helen Boucher has been promoted to professor of psychology at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. (Josh Kuckens/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

+Alex Dauge-Roth

Alex Dauge-Roth has been promoted to professor of French and francophone studies at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

+Karen Melvin

Karen Melvin has been promoted to professor of history at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. (Ryan Donnell for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)