Welcome Back Breakfast Honors Employees, Looks Forward
University of Maine at Machias President Sue Huseman kicked off the 2016-17 academic year Tuesday morning with a welcome back breakfast for faculty and staff. At the event, 12 people were recognized for 5, 10, 15, and 35 years of service. New faculty and staff were also introduced and Huseman provided optimistic updates regarding the UMaine System’s One University effort and how a the primary partnership being developed between UMM and UMaine at Orono and how it will be beneficial to both institutions.
“In the coming year, we will be going through a period of intense self reflection, deliberation, and planning for some potentially significant institutional changes together,” Huseman said. “But I am both hopeful and optimistic that we will come through this transition with our unique mission and identity intact, with our sense of campus community stronger than ever, with our commitment and our connection to Downeast Maine not only undiminished but potentially enhanced, and with a path charted for the future that is both economically and academically viable.”
The systemwide efforts for greater collaboration and for consolidation of administrative services under the ongoing “One University” initiative have been ongoing since early 2015 and implementation will continue this year. “As someone who has been familiar with the university system for over 25 years, I am pleased to say that, coming back after a decade away, I have witnessed a new spirit of cooperation among our seven universities and between system-wide services and individual campuses,” Huseman said.
Huseman said that most in the UMM community are aware that the university system has subsidized UMM’s annual million dollar deficit for nearly a decade and, at their July meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to forgive an additional $1,069,000 debt that UMM had been carrying on the books for a half dozen years. “It is abundantly clear that the current chancellor and Board of Trustees support and value UMM, its unique mission, and the important economic, social, and intellectual role we play in our region,” she said. “But they and we need to find a path forward to financial solvency for our institution.”
Huseman told the faculty and staff gathered on campus that the most important task “is to maintain our sense of community and shared purpose and to continue to serve our students in this unique, highly personalized, interdisciplinary learning community that relies on our human and natural Downeast environment to provide students with a unique laboratory for discovery and applied learning in every discipline. We are Maine’s Coastal University and we have a proud heritage to honor.”
Those honored at the breakfast included:
Five years of service
- Uriah Anderson, Asst. Professor of Psychology
- Karen Beeftink, Asst. Professor of Environment, Recreation and Tourism Management
- Paul Hanscom, Facilities
- Garret Lee, Lecturer of Education
Ten Years of Service
- Bob Farris, Director of Facilities
- Loni Levesque, IT Specialist
- Linda Schofield, Interactive Television Technician.
Fifteen Years of Service
- William Otto, Associate Professor of Chemistry
- Danny Sprague, Facilities
- Pam Wood, Facilities.
Thirty-five Years of Service
- Julie Millay, Administrative Specialist in Student Life
- Rose Mondville, Administration Support Supervisor for Academic Affairs. (In Photo)
New employees
- Michelle Hale, Human Resources Business Partner
- Casey Seneczko, Associate Director of Admissions
- Christine Alexander, Faculty Administrative Specialist
- Travis Carignan, Athletic Trainer
- William Driscoll, Asst. Professor of Business Management and Entrepreneurial Studies
- Amanda Hardaswick, Conservation Law
- Bonnie Fortini, Study Center and Adult Learner Advisor
- Jake Hanley, Asst. Director of Student Engagement and Inclusion
- Patty Keene, Reynolds Center Administrative Specialist
- Vicki Morse, Facilities; Vincent Reed, Facilities Manager
- Sarah Stanley, Asst. Director of Residential Education and Commuter Life