Academic Affairs Anual Report 2018 - University of Maine...the 2018 Academic Aﬀairs Annual Report, I was filled with that same sense of amazement. As has been the tradition, the

Academic AffairsAnnual Report

2018

UMaine students on the mall.

In April 2018 we released Blue Sky Outcomes: Reaffirming PublicHigher Education at Maine’s Flagship University, the report ofour assessment of the Blue Sky Strategic Plan. I was honoredto have led the UMaine community through this yearlong

examination of what was accomplished, where we fell short, andhow we changed as an institution over the five years during whichthe plan served as a guide. If you have not already done so, Iencourage you to review the report. I suspect that, like me, you willbe amazed at the myriad ways in which our institution advanced aswe fulfilled our research, education and service missions. Preparingthe 2018 Academic Affairs Annual Report, I was filled with that samesense of amazement.

As has been the tradition, the 2018 Annual Report samples themany ways in which our faculty, staff and students realize UMaine’stripartite mission. e report is not comprehensive, but ratherhighlights accomplishments and activities that are illustrative of thegreat work being carried out across campus, throughout the stateand around the world under UMaine’s flagship banner.

e faculty and staff that make up the Division of Academic Affairsat the University of Maine are a diverse group of people who have incommon a remarkable dedication to students, scholarship andcommunities. As you read this report, I hope that you will recognizeand take pride in your contributions to the accomplishmentssummarized herein.

Jeffrey E. HeckerExecutive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

Academic Affairs Annual Report

2018Academic Affairs Annual Report

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On census day in fall 2017, UMaine’s totalenrollment was 11,240 undergraduate andgraduate students, with first-year studentsaccounting for 2,299 of the total — thelargest first-year class in UMaine’s history.Here are a few facts about that first-yearclass: 1,103 are “from away,” 296 arestudents of color, 38% had a high schoolGPA of 3.5 or higher, 62% graduated in thetop quartile of their high school class, andtheir mean SAT score was six points higherthan the previous year’s first-year class.Enrollment in graduate programs has grownfor the second consecutive year with 1,961graduate students enrolled, representing a20% increase over two years. UMainestudents earned 270,141 credit hours in2017–18 — over 3,500 more than in theprior academic year. UMaine awarded 2,416degrees — the most awarded in the past sixyears — including 1,895 bachelor’s, 375master’s, and 56 doctoral degrees.

UMaine faculty, staff and students continuea record of remarkable productivity inresearch and scholarship with well over1,000 publications and thousands ofpresentations, performances and exhibits.Between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018,

a total of $72,787,685 was received fromextramural sponsors, a 28% increase overthe prior fiscal year. e university received$9,868,848 in indirect cost recovery, 13%more than in fiscal year 2017. Total researchexpenditures for FY18 were $129.9 million.

Our campuswide focus on moving morestudents from matriculation to graduationin a timely fashion is paying off. e ink30 initiative has resulted in a 10% increasein the number of students who earn 30 ormore credit hours in their first year. Ourfour-year graduation rate has risen 5% inthe past five years.

In 2017–18, 42 outstanding academicsjoined the faculty resulting in a net increasein the overall faculty by more than 10 full-time equivalent. Twenty-one of these newfaculty members are on the tenure track,raising the total number of tenure-trackfaculty above 400 for the first time in sixyears. e infusion of new faculty members— over 100 in the past two years — isessential to the continued success of ourgreat university.

I. Overview

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Community Engagement

UMaine faculty, staff and students partner withhundreds of companies, agencies andorganizations.

• Bonnie Newsom (Anthropology — ANT)worked with a grassroots group promotingPenobscot River restoration through art andheritage-based activities.

• rough the Clement and LindaMcGillicuddy Humanities Center, JenniferMoxley and Katrina Wynn led a six-weekPenobscot Valley Senior College course on thetheme of “Juvenescence/Obsolescence.”

• Rebecca Schwartz-Mette (Psychology — PSY)worked in several schools implementingFRIENDS prevention programming to fosterresilience, and offered continuing educationtraining with the Penobscot River EducationPartnership.

• e eatre/Dance Division of the School ofPerforming Arts (SPA) co-hosted a professionaldevelopment workshop for 18 Maine highschool drama instructors, and worked with theMaine Department of Education to create andoffer a course, “Methods of Teaching eatre,”in summer 2017.

• David Sturm (Physics — PHY) partnered withBlake Lipton at ABC 7/FOX 22 to televise amonthly “Physics Friday” segment on theGood Morning Maine show.

• e Mainely Physics Road Show (EngineeringPhysics — EPS) presented physicsdemonstrations to approximately 9,500students on and off campus.

• Sheila Edalatpour (Mechanical Engineering —MEE) participated in Girls Engineer Maine,Sustainable Energy Leaders of the FutureProgram, panel discussion for 13 high schoolgirls.

• Sheila Pendse (College of Engineering —COE) coordinated on- and off-campus toursand hands-on activities for more than 2,000students from 50 K–12 schools.

• Richard Ackerman, Catharine Biddle and IanMette (College of Education and HumanDevelopment — COEHD) participated in theTransforming Rural Experience in Education(TREE) Steering Committee.

• Cooperative Extension (CE) faculty and stafftrained 139 new Master Gardener (MG)Volunteers, bringing our statewide active MGVolunteer corps to 1,030. ey donated over39,000 hours, and involved 7,054 youth inhorticulture. In 2017, donations of 213,770pounds of fresh produce from over 100 Mainefarms went to 165 hunger alleviationdistribution sites.

• Provost Jeffrey Hecker served on the Board ofDirectors for the Maine Math and ScienceAlliance and the Challenger Learning Center

• e Division of Lifelong Learning (DLL)provided outreach to 60 high schoolsthroughout Maine to partner on Early Collegeenrollments.

• e Frederick E. Hutchinson Center (FHC)continued to support the Belfast SeniorCollege Program, which now serves more than800 adults over the age of 50.

• Staff manage acquisitions for Fogler Library’srole as the State Research Library for Business,Science, and Technology that provides researchdatabases available to public, academic andschool libraries, and residents of Maine.

• Lecturer Martha Broderick (Maine BusinessSchool — MBS) is involved with theVolunteer Lawyers Project, Maine LegalServices for the Elderly and Spruce Runvolunteer lawyer, VITA coordinator.

II. Serving Maine

As Maine’s land and sea grant university, UMaine is deeply committed to community engagement,economic development and workforce development. Increasingly, we work with our sister UMScampuses to serve the state. UMaine provides accessible, affordable and high-quality educationalopportunities, as well as the cultural and economic advancement of Maine and the region.

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The Student ResearchSymposium, highlighting thework of over 1,360undergraduate and graduatestudents, was held at the CrossCenter in Bangor.

2018 Academic Affairs Annual Report

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• Office of Innovation and EconomicDevelopment (OIED) staff Jake Ward, ReneeKelly and James Beaupré have been activelyengaged in the federal Forest OpportunityRoadmap (FOR/Maine) initiative to addressthe crisis in the forest products industry causedby the closure of several paper mills in thestate.

• A total of 158 students in the School of SocialWork (SWK) contributed 54,713 hours ofservice to more than 70 agencies across Maineand beyond.

• Approximately 750 individuals statewide seekservices from the Conley Speech, Languageand Hearing Center’s Audiology Clinicannually. In addition, free speech and languagescreenings were provided to six local schoolsand preschools.

• Jessica Leahy’s (School of Forest Resources —SFR) development of local wood banks hasexpanded to multiple locations and provideswood for heating to needy families.

• e Office of Sustainability participated in the WindowDressers 2017 BangorCommunity Builds.

• e Office of International Programs (OIP)organized programs for 70 Chinese studentsfrom Washington Academy, 20 Chinesestudents from Stearns High School and 20 students from Daegu Girls’ High School in Korea.

• Maine Impact Week showcased the depth andbreadth of UMaine’s research and creativeactivity, and its effect on Maine’s workforceand economic development through a series ofpublic events, including: the Student ResearchSymposium (highlighting the work of over1,360 undergraduate and graduate students);Business Connect (student/businessnetworking event with Bangor RegionChamber of Commerce); CelebratingScholarship; Maine Sea Grant ResearchSymposium; and the Stephen King ChairLecture.

• e Honors College (HON) played a lead rolein the Maine Day Meal Pack-out in whichover 250 volunteers packed more than 87,000meals for area food banks.

Economic Development:

UMaine supports the economic well-being ofMaine communities in a variety of ways.

• Hemant Pendse (Chemical and BiomedicalEngineering — CBE), working with SteveFitzpatrick, managing director of BiofineTechnology, upgraded the Biomass toBioproducts Pilot Plant (B2P2). B2P2 was gifted to UMaine by ABB LLC in October 2017.

• e Advanced Structures and CompositesCenter’s (ASCC) offshore deepwater windenergy research and development effortscontinue to impact Maine’s energy landscape.

• Ali Abedi (Electrical and ComputerEngineering — ECE) and Marie Hayes’ (PSY)startup company, Activas Diagnostics,completed their product development last yearand started the clinical tests in collaborationwith area hospitals.

• e Advanced Manufacturing Center (AMC)assisted 46 Maine companies including:General Electric, Caron Engineering, FiberMaterials Inc, Labree’s Bakery, GroverGundrilling, Mobility Technologies,Mölnlycke Healthcare, Packgen, PossumHollow Farm Soap, Evonik, ProgressEngineering, Hinckley and Compotech.

• Art faculty serve on boards and committees toenhance the creative economy in Maine,including: Bowdoin College Museum of Art,Camden International Film Festival,Farnsworth Art Museum, Maine ArtEducation Association, Maine ArtsCommission, Maine Curator’s Forum, MaineFilm Commission, Maine HumanitiesCouncil, Northeast Historic Film, PointsNorth Institute, Schoodic InternationalSculpture Symposium, e Strand and theUniversity of Maine Museum of Art.

• e emerald ash borer research program, ledby Darren Ranco (Anthropology —ANT/Native American Programs — NAP),has a deep partnership with the Maine IndianBasketmakers Alliance and is engaged with anumber of forestry-related industries.

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A UMaine School ofEconomics study foundMaine breweries added

$228 million to thestate’s economy and

employed 2,177 people

Economic Development continued

• e economic impact from CE’s pestmonitoring and educational programs forMaine’s 2017 potato industry season isestimated to be more than $8.8 million.

• A UMaine School of Economics (SOE) studyfound Maine breweries added $228 million tothe state’s economy and employed 2,177people. CE’s hops variety plantings andtrainings at the Maine Agricultural and ForestExperiment Station at Highmoor Farmresulted in the establishment of at least threenew commercial plantings and the formationof a hops grower association.

• e University of Maine Animal Health Lab(UMAHL) provides services to Maineveterinarians, livestock producers and animalowners. e Cooperative Extension Diagnosticand Research Laboratory that opened in June2018 has expanded UMAHL’s services, reachand positive impact on Maine’s more than8,000 farms.

• FHC hosted Belfast’s Nordic Aquacultureinformation sessions regarding the proposed$450 million–$500 million economicdevelopment project to build one of the largestland-based salmon farms in the world.

• Fogler Library is the Tri-State RegionalDepository for Federal GovernmentPublications. is collection is far-reaching inscope and provides valuable resources forbusinesses of all types.

• e UpStart Center for Entrepreneurship inOrono has eight tenant companies and twoaffiliate companies, out of which twograduated from the incubator. OIED staffworks closely with these companies, whichadded five new jobs. Collectively, thecompanies raised $2.25 million in MTI grantsand equity funding.

• e OIED business incubation staff providessupport at the Union River Center forInnovation incubator in Ellsworth and haspartnered with the Maine AquacultureInnovation Center to help support its businessincubation activities at UMaine’s Center forCooperative Aquaculture Research (CCAR)and the Darling Marine Center.

• Adam Daigneault (SFR) provided threeseparate sustainable biomass supply analysesfor various stakeholders interested in economicdevelopment and energy independence inMillinocket, East Millinocket and MountDesert Island.

• Heather Leslie (School of Marine Sciences —SMS) chaired the Alliance for Maine’s MarineEconomy, a partnership involving universityand nonprofit research institutions,commercial fishing and aquaculture interests,community-based organizations and private-sector businesses in Maine.

• Susan Gardner (Rising Tide Center — RTCand Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies— WGS) served on the Maine Career ConnectAdvisory Board.

The newly renovated UpStart Center in Orono, Maine

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Economic Development continued

• e Innovation and Economic DevelopmentCouncil (IEDC) is composed of cabinet-leveland other campus leaders. Reporting to thePresident, IEDC is charged with ensuring thateconomic development is a strategic priorityfor the institution.

• In FY18, the UMS Research ReinvestmentFund (RRF) focused on enabling researchcommercialization activities connected toMaine’s industries and priority research areas.e new RRF Phase II Accelerator Programhas the goal of identifying projects within theexisting RRF funding portfolio that couldachieve measurable commercial outputs after a16-week time frame (spring 2018 semester)with an infusion of technical assistance andfunding.

Workforce Development

UMaine graduates more students every year thanany other institution in the state and ourgraduates are prepared for success. Over 79% ofstudents who earned a UMaine baccalaureatedegree in 2015–16 are employed full time andanother 18% are enrolled in graduate school fulltime. Almost 60% of the students employed fulltime are working in Maine, earning a medianincome of $43,000 in their first jobs.

• Wabanaki Youth in Science (WaYS) seeks toestablish a pipeline of Native scientists frommiddle school through high school and tocollege and graduate school. WaYSparticipation more than doubled this year to 30 summer camp participants, 60 seasonalcamp participants and 10 interns across three tribes.

• Master’s students in the School of Policy andInternational Affairs (SPIA) interned atAdaptation Fund Project Field Research, theCouncil on Foreign Relations, the EuropeanUnion Delegation to the United NationsGeneral Assembly, Impact NetworkInternational, International Republican

Institute, Maine International Trade Center,Permanent Mission of the Republic of Koreato the United Nations, Reclaim Childhood,e Cohen Group, and the United NationsCapital Development Fund.

• WGS majors were interns with the MainePeople’s Alliance, Hardy Girls HealthyWomen, Healthy Communities of the CapitalArea, Mabel Wadsworth Center, RainbowResource Center, and the Women’s ResourceCenter.

• CBE worked with 24 employers to provide co-op and internship opportunities forstudents.

• In Civil and Environmental Engineering(CIE), over 85% of 2018 graduates had aninternship, co-op, or engineering researchassistantship while undergraduates.

• AMC worked with numerous companies onexpanding workforce training for their staff and hosted tours for over 1,000 K–12students.

• Maine Medical Center in Portland contractedwith Conferences and Institutes to host PIERProgram: Voices of Recovery and LessonsLearned in Early Treatment of Psychosis, atraining program for 200 clinical workers.

• Amanda Paradis, MBS InternshipCoordinator/Professional Advisor, hasestablished relations with over 120 employersto facilitate internships.

• e Innovate for Maine Fellows programplaced 34 interns on 39 company projects. To date, 181 companies have been served with 187 fellows, representing 33 colleges and universities.

• In FY18, Angela McCue, OIED’s InnovationOutreach Manager, joined the FocusMaineInternship Executive Committee to help lead the effort to expand the program andopportunities to interns and companies in the Bangor region.

• CCAR has the unique capacity to offer hands-on training and operation ofrecirculating aquaculture systems growing fish at commercial scale conditions. Recentannouncements by two companies of plans


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to build land-based salmon farms in Maine(Belfast and Bucksport) highlight the criticalimportance of aquaculture for Maine’seconomy.

• Mary Walker (School of Nursing — SON) inconjunction with co-PIs at University of Maineat Machias (UMM) are developing anAdvanced Standing B.S.N. option to facilitateaccelerated completion of the degree with afocus on Washington County.

• SOE continued its productive partnership withFarm Credit East to increase interactions ofstudents in finance majors with that company.

• Maine EPSCoR is housed at UMaine andadministers the state’s NSF EPSCoR programs.e current RII Track 1 project is theSustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network(SEANET), which is building a network ofinterdisciplinary researchers to help advanceaquaculture in the jurisdiction. Highlights of FY18 SEANET activities include: 85 undergraduates and 36 graduate studentssupported across the partner institutions;recruitment of 13 Innovate for MaineAquaculture Industry Interns, in partnershipwith the UMaine Foster Center for StudentInnovation and the Aquaculture ResearchInstitute; and reaching 10,438 K–12 studentswith STEM programming.

One University

UMaine provides collaborative leadership insupport of the UMS One University initiative. As the flagship campus, UMaine embraces itsunique responsibility in partnership with its sistercampuses to ensure continued focus onaccessibility, affordability and quality ofeducational opportunities for Maine citizens, and to support the state and region throughresearch and development, as well as communityengagement.

• Ryan Dippre and Dylan Dryer (English —ENG) lead a project to calibrate outcomes forfirst-year composition across UMS universities.

• With assistance from Nigel Pitt and BobFranzosa, Natasha Speer (Mathematics andStatistics — MAT) leads the UMS ProgramIntegration team for mathematics. As a result of their efforts, all sections of Calculus I atUMaine, University of Maine at Augusta(UMA), and UMM have the same studentlearning outcomes, and are run with a uniformsyllabus, textbook and pedagogical approach,calibrated through weekly coordinationsessions.

• Maine Studies and Maine Folklife Centerdirector Kreg Ettenger (ANT) is exploring with University of Southern Maine (USM)possible participation in UMaine’s M.A. ininterdisciplinary studies, and with UMM about contributing to the minors in Mainestudies, and in folklore and the traditional arts.

• Faculty and staff in NAP administer thesystemwide Native American Waiver andEducation Program, serving approximately 500students. ey also coordinate a systemwideNative American Waiver advisory group.

• e Entry Level Engineering Community(ELEC), with representation from across UMS,developed a 1+3 program to allow students tostart their first year of engineering study atUniversity of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI),UMM, UMA or University of Maine atFarmington (UMF) before transferring toUMaine or USM to complete their degree.

Maine EPSCoR’s Sustainable Ecological AquacultureNetwork (SEANET) is building a network ofinterdisciplinary researchers to help advanceaquaculture.

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One University continued

• Masoud Rais-Rohani (MEE) led thedevelopment of a proposal (involving 10 UMaine and one USM faculty) to UMSProgram Innovation Fund for “BoostingEnrollment, Employability and CareerReadiness by Expanding Pathways Toward aMaster’s Degree in MEE.”

• A report issued February 2018, entitled“Growing Engineering to Grow Maine’sEconomy,” is a five-year plan to build upengineering in the UMS. e following COEpersonnel participated in this effort: DanaHumphrey, Mohamad Musavi, AriaAmirbahman and Clay Wheeler.

• e Maine Leadership and Policy DevelopmentCouncil, a consortium of faculty members fromUSM, UMF and COEHD, promoted theimplementation of Positive BehaviorIntervention and Support in Maine schools.

• Since 2015, the Executive Director of CE hasserved as a resource to the UMS team that isaddressing the five-year food services contractfor six of the seven campuses. At this time, over23% of the food served is sourced locally,exceeding the UMS-BOT goal.

• CE’s 4-H continued to coordinate the STEMAmbassadors program, a collaboration among

all seven UMS universities, to reach 1,026youth at 63 community sites in 2017, and 105 college students trained in the developmentand delivery of informal STEM-basededucational experiences, committing 2,100 hours to the program.

• DLL staff are collaborating with UMScolleagues to develop recommendations fordistance education coding to the UMS DataAdvisory Committee, including development of guidelines for online/blended descriptionsfor consistency across UMS campuses.

• UMS libraries continue to work together toprovide services and resources to the System.Committees work on collaboration issues, suchas collections, circulation policies, reference and cataloging.

• e Maine Business School was restructured tocomprise the Undergraduate School of Businessand the Graduate School of Business. efaculty of the Graduate School of Business willbe made up of UMaine and USM businessfaculty members.

• OIED has been tasked with expandingtechnology transfer and commercializationcapacity throughout UMS, and expandingindustry engagement and partnerships. UMaineand USM entered into a memorandum ofunderstanding for shared business development

Growing engineering education and research to grow Maine’s economy


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services and commercialization initiativesbetween the campuses.

• Ecology and Environmental Sciences conveneda meeting at the Schoodic Institute to buildinterest in a statewide winter ecology networkwith faculty from UMaine, UMF and USMattending.

• SON faculty members continue to work withUSM colleagues to develop integratedprogramming at the graduate level.

• RTC worked with all UMS campuses on acollaborative $1M proposal to the NationalScience Foundation (NSF).

• e Office of Student Records (OSR) workedwith other UMS registrars to establish a NameUsage Policy, allowing students and employeesto indicate their preferred names to theuniversity community, even if they have notchanged their legal names.

• In collaboration with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, UMM, and USM,UMaine developed a five-year, $20 millionNSF EPSCoR RII Track 1 proposal that wassubmitted July 2018.

• e Graduate School has appointed 34 facultyfrom other UMS campuses to graduate facultystatus at UMaine so that they can participatein graduate programs. More full and associategraduate faculty appointments are expected inUMS with the creation of the joint MBAprogram between UMaine and USM and thepossible expansion of 4+1 pathways.

• Research Administration Services to otherUMS Campuses — UMaine’s Office ofResearch Administration (ORA) now providesresearch administration services to theUniversity of Maine at Fort Kent (UMFK) and UMM.

• e objective of the Research ReinvestmentFund (RRF) is to strengthen research,development and commercialization activitiestied to Maine businesses and industries thatare critical to the future of the state of Maine.FY18 represented the fourth year of RRFsupport from UMS BOT. A total of$1,459,601 was awarded to UMS researchers(80% or $1,300,631 to UMaine PIs) throughits competitive grants programs.

III. Culture of Excellence

Faculty Mentoring and Professional Development

• e first UMaine faculty accelerator, MaineInnovation, Research and TechnologyAccelerator (MIRTA), was piloted in spring2018 as part of the RRF initiative. Five teamswere selected to advance their projects frombasic and applied research and developmentstages to commercialization. Each teamsignificantly advanced their commercializationreadiness level and developed acommercialization plan for their innovation,with two teams now planning to pursuestartups, two teams developing partnershipsfor licensing opportunities and the fifth teamplanning to start with direct licensing from theuniversity to end users that may lead to astartup company.

• e Office of Research Development (ORD)conducted 38 separate training sessions during FY18, which provided grant writingand research commercialization professionaldevelopment opportunities to 330 faculty,staff, and graduate and undergraduatestudents. Offerings included workshops onwriting competitive proposals to selectedfederal programs, support for faculty researchcommercialization training, new researcherorientation, guest lectures, invited panelspeakers and facilitation of grant-writingcircles.

• e first named faculty award is beingestablished in the College of Liberal Arts andSciences (CLAS): the Wickham SkinnerAward for Humanities Scholarship.


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Faculty Mentoring and ProfessionalDevelopment continued

• ORD makes a concerted effort to providesupport to faculty in their pursuit of NSFCAREER awards through workshops, 1:1 technical assistance, and linking withfaculty reviewers. In FY18, a total of 10 CAREER proposals were submitted andtwo were funded (Kristy Townsend (School ofBiology and Ecology — SBE) and JacquelynGill (SBE, Climate Change Institute — CCI)),representing a notable increase from FY17’sfive submissions and one funded proposal.

• All new COE faculty members are assigned asenior faculty mentor with whom they workthroughout the probationary period.

• Center for Innovation in Teaching andLearning (CITL) facilitated a monthlyCommunity of Practice open to new facultyhires (hired after 2016). ese faculty metmonthly to read about evidence-basedteaching practices and discuss how toincorporate these practices, known to increaseretention and learning, into their teaching.

• All CE faculty participate in mentoring anddiverse professional development, includingthe creation of a written professionaldevelopment plan.

• e Provost’s Council for Advancing WomenFaculty worked with the Rising Tide Centeron key initiatives related to faculty mentoring,including: revised departmental mentoringplan materials, the inclusion of questionsabout faculty mentoring in annual reports and

in the faculty profile database, and a focus onfaculty mentoring in a Marketing andCommunications story.

• New Researcher Orientation was offered forthe first time in FY18 by the Office of the VicePresident for Research and Dean of theGraduate School (OVPRDGS), providing anin-depth view into research support servicesavailable to new faculty, and promotinginteraction between faculty and staff.

• e Provost’s Committee on Chairs andDirector Training offered five breakfast events,two one-half day workshops with externalguests, and a reception of these academicleaders at the President’s House.

• e College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, andAgriculture (NSFA) annually supports three tofive faculty members to attend CornellUniversity’s Faculty Development Program.

• Jordan Labouff (PSY/HON) is a UMaineFaculty Fellow and won a competitivefellowship to participate in MaineDevelopment Foundation’s Leadership Maineprogram in 2017–18.

Research Excellence

UMaine is consistently ranked among the topthird of public universities engaged in researchthrough the NSF Higher Education Researchand Development (HERD) Survey and we areclassified as a Higher Research ActivityInstitution by Carnegie. e graphic (right)illustrates the most recent four-year trend datafor UMaine research awards and expenditures,including total awards of $72.8 million andresearch expenditures of $129.9 million forFY18. Recent investments have been made toincrease faculty support for proposaldevelopment and grant writing, assistance withgrant submissions, and professional developmentrelated to grants in order to increase the numberand quality of grant submissions to externalsponsors. A concerted effort is being made tofurther diversify UMaine’s funding portfolio,including increasing proposal activity tononfederal sponsors.

Faculty Fellows

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Of the new $57.8 million extramural funding received during FY18, 81.4% was from federal agencies,3.1% from state and local government, and the remaining 15.5% was from other sources, includingprivate business, industry and foundations. e graphic below illustrates the Top 10 external sponsorsfor FY18. See Executive Summary for further details.

Highlights of UMaine Research Centers and Institutes

• e Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) was allocated a $40 million milestones-based grant to build the New England Aquaventus floating offshore wind demonstration project byU.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Funding by the Numbers FY18

Awards by Funding Agency

• e Forest Bioproducts Research Institute (FBRI) opened a Biomass to Bioproducts Pilot Plant(B2P2), with a design capacity to process one dry ton per day of biomass.

• e Aquaculture Research Institute (ARI) constructed a new $2.8 million Aquatic Animal HealthLaboratory (AAHL), one of only a few high-containment aquaria facilities in the U.S. designed toconduct research on aquatic animal pathogens.

• e NSF Teaching Fellowship Program, offered through the Maine Center for Research in STEMEducation (RiSE), continued with seven of the fellows teaching in high-needs rural districts. Fifteen ofthe 22 fellowship positions have been awarded to date and the remainder will be selected within thecoming year.

• National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) doctoral student Hari Palanistarted a Maine-based company, Unar Labs, that is a spin-off of his dissertation research, and was theentrepreneurial lead on a 2017–18 NSF I-Corp project to perform customer discovery for productcommercialization.

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Notable external grants secured by UMaine faculty and researchers include:

• “Technology Maturation of Wireless Harsh-Environment Sensors for Improved Condition-BasedMonitoring of Coal-Based Power Generation,” U.S. Department of Energy/National EnergyTechnology Laboratory, PI: Mauricio Pereira da Cunha, Award: $2.5 million.

• “CAREER: Environmental Change and Extinction on the Mammoth Steppe,” National ScienceFoundation, PI: Jacquelyn Gill, Award: $794,000.

• “Investing in Waterfront Infrastructure to Power Maine’s Economy rough Applied Research &Development, Workforce Training, and Business Incubation,” U.S. Department of CommerceEconomic Development Administration, PI: Heather Leslie, Award: $1.5 million.

• “Maine Mass Timber Commercialization Center,” U.S. Department of Commerce EconomicDevelopment Administration, i6 Regional Innovation Strategies Program, PI: Stephen Shaler, Award: $1 million.

• “CAREER: Hypothalamic Tanycytes and Neuronal Plasticity in the Regulation of Energy Balance,”National Science Foundation, PI: Kristy Townsend, Award: $1 million.

• “e role of G alpha signaling in gradient tracking,” National Institutes of Health (AREA R-15), PI: Josh Kelley, Award: $424,000.

• e University of Maine at Machias received a $200,000 Davis Educational Foundation grant toimprove student retention and academic performance.

Research Excellence continued

Presidential Public Service

Achievement AwardIvan J. Fernandez

Research Professor inAnthropology, the

Climate ChangeInstitute and the

Margaret Chase SmithPolicy Center

PresidentialOutstanding

Teaching AwardSenthil S. Vel

e Arthur O. WilleyProfessor of Mechanical

Engineering

Presidential Researchand Creative

Achievement AwardYong Chen

Professor of FisheriesPopulation Dynamics

Distinguished MaineProfessor Award

Francis A. DrummondProfessor of Insect

Ecology, and InsectPest Management and

Wild BlueberryPollination Specialist

Faculty Awards

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• “Fostering climate change resilience: Asocio-ecological forest systems approach,”U.S. Department of Agriculture, PI: SandraDe Urioste-Stone, Award: $150,000.

• “Potato Breeding and Variety Developmentfor Improved Quality and Pest Resistancein the Eastern U.S.,” U.S. Department ofAgriculture, PI, PI: Greg Porter, Award:$388,000.

Faculty Achievements

• Michael Socolow (Communication andJournalism — CMJ) received the 2018Broadcast Historian Award for his book Six Minutes in Berlin from the Library ofAmerican Broadcasting Foundation and theBroadcast Education Association.

• Frédéric Rondeau (Modern Languages andClassics — MLC, and the Canadian-American Center — CAC) was awardedthe 2017 Jean-Éthier-Blais prize for bestbook of literary criticism in Quebec, for Le manque en partage: La poésie de MichelBeaulieu et Gilbert Langevin.

• Douglas Allen (Philosophy — PHI) gavethe keynote address to the GeneralAssembly of the United Nations on the UN International Day of Nonviolence.

• Emily Haigh (PSY) was selected toparticipate in the 2017 National Instituteon Aging Butler-Williams ScholarsProgram.

• Shaleen Jain, Aaron Gallant and MelissaLandon (CIE) all took and passed theProfessional Engineers Exam, and are nowlicensed engineers in Maine.

• Clay Wheeler (CBE) received COE AshleyCampbell Award, the highest award givenby the college to one of its faculty.

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Faculty Achievements continued

• In COEHD, Phil Pratt was awarded theExcellence in Adjunct Teaching Award, andErin Straine received the Excellence in StaffService and Engagement Award.

• Catharine Biddle received the GraduateFaculty Mentoring Award for COEHD from the UMaine Graduate StudentGovernment (GSG).

• Tori Jackson (CE) received the 2018 Distinguished Service Award fromthe National Association of CountyAgricultural Agents.

• James McConnon (CE) was appointed to athree-year term on the Technical AdvisoryCommittee for the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development.

• Brad Beauregard (Fogler Library) was thewinner of 2018 PR Xchange Award fromAmerican Library Association for hisinteractive building map.

• Edward Grew (School of Earth and Climate Sciences — ERS) was elected aForeign Honorary Member of the RussianMineralogical Society.

• Michael Coffin (ERS) was awarded the 2018International Prize of the Geological Society of Japan.

• Andrei Alyokhin (SBE) won the NationalAssociation of County Agricultural AgentsCommunication Award.

• Joyce Longcore (SBE) received the 2017American Academy for the Advancement ofScience Golden Goose Award.

• Melissa Maginnis (Molecular and BiomedicalSciences — BMB) received NSFA’s UMaineGSG Mentor Award.

• Linda Silka (SOE) and Kathleen Bell (SOE)were both recognized by the Rising TideCenter with the Career Award and MentoringAward, respectively.

• Mimi Killinger (HON) was selected asVisiting Honors Scholar at the U.S. Air ForceAcademy for 2018–19.

Student Achievements

• “Black Dog,” a story published by M.A.student Alex Terrell (ENG) in Black WarriorReview was awarded a 2018 PEN/Robert J.Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.

• Dair Cruz (International Affairs — INA) wasselected to attend the Out4Undergrad LGBTengineering mentorship program at StanfordUniversity and received the USA UnitedNations Global Advocate Scholarship to attendthe Global Engagement Summit at UNHeadquarters.

• Matt Ireland (MEE) received the J. MorrisWeinberg Student Innovation Award.

• Graduate Student Kayla Marquis (CBE) won aNASA Graduate Fellowship.

• e Student Investment Portfolio Fund(SPIFFY) won first-place in Quinnipiac GlobalAsset Management Education (GAME) for“Value Portfolio.”

• Tyler Cote (MBS) won a $500 prize at the Big Gig Pitch Off business competition, apartnership of municipalities/universities/organizations in the Penobscot River Valley.

• Zephyrus Simulation, a student spin-offcompany formed from a UMaine biomedicalengineering undergraduate capstone course,won the Big Gig finale and the UMaineBusiness Challenge. e company was chosento receive VentureWell funding and participatein their innovator training program. Zephyrusalso received MTI TechStart and Seed grantsand a Libra Future Fund grant.

• Robert Boenish (SMS) received the 2018NSFA Graduate Student Research ExcellenceAward and Mackenzie Mazur (SMS) receivedthe Chase Distinguished ResearchAssistantship.

• School of Food and Agriculture (SFA) studentsLindsey Robbins, Angela Masse and TylerLeBlanc designed and built a landscape exhibitthat earned the People’s Choice Award at the2018 Bangor Flower and Garden Show.

• Eleven of 15 UMaine Black Bear teams hadmulti- or single-year NCAA academicperformance scores, exceeding those of allDivision I programs or public institutions.


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2018 Valedictorian and Salutatorian

Graham Van Goffrier ofNorwell, Massachusetts was the 2018 valedictorian. Van Goffrier majored inphysics, with minors inelectrical engineering,mathematics andnanotechnology. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physicsand a master’s degree inelectrical engineering in hisfour years at UMaine. Inaddition to other honors,Van Goffrier was one of 240outstanding sophomores andjuniors nationwide to receive a 2017 Goldwater Scholarship.In October, Van Goffrier will enter the MASt program inapplied mathematics at Cambridge University.

Brianna N. DeGone ofTurner, Maine was the 2018salutatorian and theOutstanding GraduatingStudent in the College ofEngineering. DeGone is afirst-generation collegestudent who majored inbioengineering, with a minorin business administration.DeGone has been acceptedinto UMaine’s MBAprogram, and may return inthe fall to complete hergraduate degree and throwfor the track team another year. She also is pursuing entry-level positions with biomedical companies.

2018 OutstandingGraduating Students

Yousuf AliInternational StudentCollege of Engineering

Austin D. BlakeMaine Business School

Marie France-GeorgesInternational StudentMaine Business School

Callie W. GrecoCollege of NaturalSciences, Forestry, andAgricultureHonors College

Tina M. HedrickDivision of LifelongLearning

Katelyn J. ManzoCollege of Liberal Artsand Sciences

Duc Ngoc Hong NguyenInternational StudentCollege of NaturalSciences, Forestry, andAgriculture

Rachel E. SiroisCollege of Education andHuman DevelopmentHonors College

Aliya UteuovaInternational StudentCollege of Liberal Artsand SciencesHonors College

Graham Van Goffrier

Brianna N. DeGone

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Student Achievements continued

• For the 15th straight year, over one-half(approximately 63% in 2017) of our student-athletes were honored for academic success, with 190 named UMaine Scholar-Athletes forachieving or maintaining a 3.0 GPA, and 78 newstudents were named Rising Stars for achieving a3.0 GPA or higher in their first semester.

• Women’s Cross Country achieved a perfect score of 1,000 for the 13th consecutive year, marking every year the award has been inexistence. Women’s Cross Country is one of only 85 teams out of 6,700 nationwide to haveearned this score every year over that period.

• Outstanding Student Awards were presented toStacy Beal, Rebecca Blodgett, Josie Champagne,Sierra Colson, Tomohiro Ebihara, DavidGlasberg, Teresa McGuire, Amelia Reinhardt,and Rachel Sirois in COEHD.

• Eight UMaine graduate students are active NSF Graduate Research Fellows.

• AAUW Nontraditional Women StudentScholarships were awarded to DLL studentsNancy Desjardin, Nastacia LaVerde and Anna Cabellero.

Student Performance on State and National Exams

• School of Social Work M.S.W. graduatescontinue to exceed the national averages forlicensing exam pass rates. For 2017, 90% (n=30)of M.S.W. graduates passed the LicensedMaster’s Social Work Exam on the first attempt,compared to 81% nationally. 95% (n=43) ofM.S.W. graduates passed the Licensed ClinicalSocial Work Exam (taken one-year post-graduation), compared to 81% nationally.

• Communication Sciences and Disorders studentshave achieved a 100% pass rate on the Praxis IISpeech-Language Pathology Exam for fourstraight years. e national pass rate is 86%.

• In the School of Nursing, the first-attempt passrate on the RN national licensure exam(NCLEX-RN) for B.S.N. graduates was 87%, up from 82% last year. May 2017 graduates ofthe M.S.N. family nurse practitioner programhad a 100% pass rate on the nationalcertification exam.

• 100% of COEHD students in the elementaryand secondary education teacher certificationprograms passed the Praxis II exam this year, asdid all students in special education. In addition,100% of students who took the BOC exam inathletic training passed.

Now in its fourth year, the Think 30 initiative is animportant component of UMaine student success.

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Enrollment

• Ongoing collaborations with UMaine’s sixcolleges include participation in on-campus,in-state, and out-of-state open house events;campus tours; accepted student days; andother recruitment activities. New events in2017–18 include two open houses hosted bythe Darling Marine Center in partnership withthe Office of Admissions.

• MBS staff made phone calls to each of itsaccepted students in summer 2017. MBS alsofolded its pre-business population directly intothe school over the summer, resulting in anadditional 101 students who were able to starttheir MBS careers without delay.

Degrees Granted (Excluding post-baccalaureate certificates)

Bachelor’s Master’s Doctoral TotalEducation and Human Development 212 127* 6 345Engineering 371 52 10 433Honors College (80 bachelor’s degrees with Honors)Liberal Arts and Sciences 442 51 9 502Maine Business School 319 28 – 347Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture 527 132 25 684Division of Lifelong Learning 214 – 1 25(Bachelor of University Studies)Other programs – 8 5 13

====== ====== ====== ======University of Maine totals: 2,085 398 56 2,349

*Includes 23 certificates of advanced studies

Student Credit Hour Production

Undergraduate Graduate TotalEducation and Human Development 17,177 5,254 22,431Engineering 26,503 1,486 27,989Honors College 4,753 – 4,753Liberal Arts and Sciences 121,684 3,537 125,221Maine Business School 19,664 801 20,465Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture 59,734 6,945 66,679Other programs* 1,848 755 2,603

========== ========= =========University of Maine totals: 251,363 18,778 270,141

*Other programs include University Studies, Labor Studies, Innovation Engineering, Intermedia,ROTC, Disability Studies and GSBSE courses not taught by UMaine faculty.

IV. Student Engagement and Success

Student Achievements continued

• e Provost and all college deans contactedadmitted students in spring 2018 to answerquestions and encourage them to come toUMaine. e call sessions were organized bythe Office of Admissions.

• e DLL partnered with the Graduate Schooland Enrollment Management to better serveprospective students by using a new customerrelationship management software. DLL staffare collaborating with EnrollmentManagement to set up email campaigns and track inquiries, applications andmatriculations.

• A nine-member group of UMaine facultyserved as scholarship judges at the Maine StateScience Fair in March. Category winners fromhigh schools in all regions of the state wereoffered Maine Top Scholar awards: four-year,full-tuition scholarships, admission to theHonors College, assignment of a UMainefaculty research mentor and a $500 annualstipend for research activity.

Curricular Innovations

• MBS continues to develop new online orhybrid courses each semester in support itsonline MBA program.

• SPIFFY students in MBS attended twonational forums in New York this year, fundedby private donations. e student-led SPIFFYportfolio currently manages assets in excess of $3 million.

• Innovations in the CLAS include a 4+1agreement between International Affairs andSPIA, a new climate change concentration,and a new B.S. in mathematics.

• Provost Hecker participated in a yearlongDigital Fellowship, funded by the Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation, to explore ways touse digital technology to increase the retentionand graduation rates among undergraduates,especially those who are first generation, lowincome or students of color.

• Jen Tyne and Natasha Speer (MAT), led ateam to revamp the curriculum for Calculus I,incorporating the seven “Characteristics ofSuccessful Programs in College Calculus”identified by the Mathematics Association of America.

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UMaine’s Stormwater Management ResearchTeam (SMART) program trains high school andcollege students in water sampling techniques.

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• CBE introduced a Clinical ObservationRotation program for biomedical engineeringstudents. is non-credit component connectsCBE students with real-world opportunitiesfor biomedical engineering applications.

• ECE faculty engaged numerousundergraduates in projects connected toexternally funded high-altitude balloonactivities. Sixteen launches involving anywherefrom two to a dozen students each wereconducted in AY18. A highlight was a launchat Clemson University in which two facultyand 19 students participated.

• COEHD’s School of Learning and Teachingdeveloped three of the six programs approvedfor participation in the UMaine GOLDinitiative.

• COEHD’s School of Kinesiology, PhysicalEducation, and Athletic Training is workingwith USM and UMPI on an M.A. in athletictraining, which will replace the undergraduateprogram on all three campuses.

• CE and UMaine collaborators continue tooffer the Follow A Researcher® (FAR) program.

FAR seeks to increase young people’sunderstanding of research processed byengaging them directly with UMaineresearchers in the field. Since 2015, theprogram has attracted 4,200 young people and120 educators from Maine and eight otherstates, and has been featured on NationalPublic Radio’s “Science Friday” program.

• e Flagship Internship Program is now in itssecond year. In 2017–18, the program sawmore than 20 employers commit to the corecohort, while nine UMaine students took partin an internship boot camp in May 2018.

• e Center for Innovation in Teaching andLearning delivered or supported the followingprogramming:

– 62 educational technology workshopsdrawing 229 attendees

– 38 pedagogical workshops drawing 344 attendees

– 320 different persons attending workshopsand trainings for a total cumulativeattendance of 573, and communities ofpractice met monthly throughout the year.

The Gerald S. Cassidy Capital Markets Training Laboratory in the Maine Business School.

Retention and Graduation

• NSFA became the first college at UMaine totext incoming students as a means of improvingcommunication, supporting the transition tocollege, and reducing summer melt. MBS andCOE will join NSFA in texting initiatives in2018–19. College Success Programs in DLLalso successfully texting TRIO-supportedstudents.

• Winter Session enrollments continue to grow,with over 1,200 students completing a WinterSession course in 2018.

• e campuswide ink 30 initiative continuesto impact student credit hour earnings. epercentage of students entering their secondyear of study with 30 or more earned credithours continues to increase.

• e most recent Life After UMaine surveyresults (Office of Institutional Research, April

2018) reveal that among recent graduatesreporting full-time employment, 88% indicatedthat their job is related to their UMaine degree.Of respondents employed full-time in a jobrelated to their degree, 93% believe theirUMaine experience prepared them “very well”or “moderately well” for their job.

• Nearly 95% of respondents who graduatedfrom MBS reported full-time employment,followed by 87% of COE graduates.

• e four broad occupational sectors whererespondents who reported full-timeemployment are most likely to be holding jobsare architecture and engineering (20.5% of allfull-time employed graduates), health carepractitioners and technical occupations(12.9%), education, training and libraryoccupations (12.6%), and business andfinancial occupations (10.4%).


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Number of students earning three credit hours during Winter Session

2014 cohort

1,200

1,000

800

600

400

200

0

683

2015 cohort

930

2016 cohort

1,219

University of Maine Office of Institutional Research (8/10/18)

Four-Year graduation rate

20%

20%

’09 cohort

30%

35%

40%

45%

30%

’10 cohort

36%

’11 cohort

38%

’12 cohort

40%

’13 cohort

38%

Students entering year two with 30+ credit hours

2014 cohort

72%

71%

70%

69%

68%

76%

66%

65%

64%

63%

62%

65%

2015 cohort

68%

2016 cohort

71%

23


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V. Reflections

e University of Maine ended the 2017–18 yearin the strongest fiscal position that it has been indecades, and the 2018–19 budget includesstrategic investments required for continuedsuccess. Importantly, the budget for the comingyear was built without making operating orpersonnel cuts to any major unit within theuniversity. Our financial stability has allowed usto invest in crucial faculty lines so that, for thesecond consecutive year, there has been netgrowth in the overall faculty size. is fall we willwelcome 60 new faculty members to the UMainecommunity, which will result in a third year ofnet faculty growth. UMaine’s positive financialpicture did not occur by accident. As acommunity, we identified strategic goals andworked together to achieve them. With shrinkingstate appropriation and a freeze on the in-statetuition rate, it became clear that strongenrollment would be the foundation of ourfinancial house. We have built enrollmentstrategically, recruiting larger, academically strongfirst-year classes, and focusing on studentretention and degree progress. Development ofnew revenue streams has been important as well.As an example, enrollment in fully onlinegraduate degree programs increased 96% over thepast three years. Looking forward, ourdependence on healthy student enrollment tomaintain a healthy fiscal position will continue.Fortunately, we have in place the essential

ingredients for continued success: qualityacademic programs, faculty and staff committedto student success, and a strong EnrollmentManagement team with a dynamic new leader,Vice President for Enrollment ManagementLizzie Wahab.

As Maine’s only research university, we have aspecial responsibility to advance knowledge,spawn innovation, and support economicdevelopment. is past year, tremendous strideswere made to advance UMaine’s research mission.In his first year, Vice President for Research andDean of the Graduate School Kody Varahramyanled a transformation of our research operationsthat included significant reorganization to bettersupport the research enterprise. Some of the keytenets of this transformation included:

• Removal of silos, including those betweenacademic and research units, through closealignment and integration of universityresearch and academic programs.

• Emphasis on interdisciplinary researchaddressing grand socioeconomic challenges.

• High-impact experiential learning programsthrough undergraduate research.

• Core/shared research resources and facilitiesthat are widely accessible to the university andoutside community.

Support for commercialization of research is alsoundergoing transformation. Highlights of the

e University of Maine is an EEO/AA employer, and does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, transgender status, gender expression,national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information or veteran’s status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities. e following person hasbeen designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies: Sarah E. Harebo, Director of Equal Opportunity, 101 North Stevens Hall, University of Maine, Orono,ME 04469-5754, 207.581.1226, TTY 711 (Maine Relay System).

past year include launching of the Innovation andEconomic Development Council (IEDC) and theMaine Innovation, Research and TechnologyAccelerator (MIRTA). e IEDC is advisory tothe president and is charged with ensuring thateconomic development is a strategic priority forthe institution. MIRTA was a 16-week programin which five faculty-led teams advanced basicand applied research projects throughdevelopment stages to commercialization.

e University of Maine continues to play a leadrole in advancing the University of MaineSystem’s One University concept: 1) University ofMaine at Machias became a regional campus ofUMaine on July 1, 2017. In year one, thefinancial aid, enrollment management, finance,and student service operations have beencoordinated; 2) e Maine Business Schoolreorganized into the Undergraduate School ofBusiness and the Graduate School of Businesswhich was important for the development of ajoint UMaine-University of Southern Maine

graduate business faculty; 3) UMaine continuesto offer the M.Ed. in instructional technology incollaboration with USM and the University ofMaine at Farmington. is three-year-oldcollaboration has resulted in significant growth inthe online degree program; 4) the College ofEngineering developed collaborations with theother UMS universities to align curricula so thatstudents can start their studies at one of our sistercampuses and transfer to UMaine (or USM) toearn an engineering degree in four years; 5) thisfall, 35 students who applied to UMaine, but fellshort of our standard acceptance criteria, willenroll at the University of Maine at Augusta(Bangor Campus) to complete a Foundationsprograms over three semesters. Students whosuccessfully complete the required courseworkwill automatically matriculate at UMaine.

e University of Maine is constantly evolving in the ways that we advance our tripartitemission. Given the rapid cultural, technological,demographic and economic changes thatcharacterize the 21st century, constant evolutionis necessary if we are to remain vital. Transition of leadership is one form of healthy evolution.On June 30, UMaine bid farewell to PresidentSusan Hunter, whose presidential tenure sawunprecedented successes in enrollment,fundraising, legislative support and other areas.On July 1, we welcomed President Joan Ferrini-Mundy who brings with her a stellar record ofscholarship, administration and leadership atresearch universities and the National ScienceFoundation. In President Hunter’s final year, wecompleted our assessment of the Blue SkyStrategic Plan, marking the end of thatdocument’s formal status as the guide for strategic actions. In the coming year, withPresident Ferrini-Mundy’s leadership, we will re-examine who we are as an institution, establish anew set of goals and create a new strategic visionfor the future.

University of Maine Office of the Executive

Vice President for Academic Affairs

and Provost5703 Alumni Hall

Orono, ME 04469-5703

umaine.edu

Documents

Academic Affairs Anual Report 2018 - University of Maine...the 2018 Academic Aﬀairs Annual Report, I was filled with that same sense of amazement. As has been the tradition, the