UPDATE From: President Richard L. Pattenaude
Number 4, December 2005
Happy Holidays!
> Gifts to Transforming USM
> 2005 Combined Charitable Appeal Results
> Presenting the Mid-Year Report
> Governor, Legislature Receive Recommendations for UMA/USM
> USM Readies Next Round of Earmark Proposals
> University Commons Going Green
> USM Libraries Unveil Information Commons
We are extremely pleased and proud to report the receipt of three new gifts to Transforming USM: The Capital Campaign. Our special thanks to these individuals, businesses and organizations for their extraordinary generosity. Additional details will be included in upcoming public announcements.
*A gift of $1 million from Leon and Lisa Gorman to establish the Gorman Scholars, a scholarship program for graduate or undergraduate students who intend to stay in Maine upon graduation.
*A gift of $500,000 from TD Banknorth for capital projects associated with University Commons.
*A gift of $250,000 from the Libra Foundation, also to be dedicated to capital projects in University Commons.
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Each year the USM Combined Charitable Appeal offers faculty and staff an opportunity to support hundreds of health and human service organizations. This year, USM employees generously gave $44,085 to the Combined Charitable Appeal, an increase of 16.8 percent over last's years total of $37,743.10. More importantly, however, the campaign also achieved its primary goal of increased participation, reporting a 31.4 percent increase in participation. Thanks to all who participated for their generosity and for helping to make this year's USM Combined Charitable Appeal a success. Special thanks to Terry Foster, University Outreach's director of special projects, for coordinating the 2005 campaign.
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Early in the New Year, I will be holding an open meeting on each of USM's three campuses to present a mid-year report on the state of our university. At this time, I will update you on several topics, including budgets, the capital campaign and retention. It is becomingly increasingly apparent that we need to renew our efforts on improving USM's retention rate. Our low rate of retention affects each and every department across our institution, and every one of us will have a role to play in improving this situation.
Dates for those open meetings are: Monday, January 30 - 10:30 a.m. at LAC and 3:30 p.m. in Portland; Tuesday, January 31, 2 p.m. in Gorham. An invitation will be sent in mid-January.
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Governor Baldacci and the State Legislature received the recommendations of the Task Force to Plan for Higher Education in the Kennebec Valley. This proposal to not proceed with the merger, however, does not preclude USM from becoming a provider of baccalaureate and graduate education in the Kennebec Valley, when and where appropriate. The Board of Trustees is now studying the recommendations. We will keep you posted as new opportunities unfold. In the meantime, I offer my thanks to all who dedicated their time and talents toward this endeavor. Your participation, regardless of your position on this matter, has helped enrich our experience.
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Earlier this month, many of us met with our Washington representative Marjorie Strayer who is helping us prepare for our next round of earmark requests. This year, we plan to submit no more than five to seven requests for funding, which we will do early in the New Year.
By now you have heard that many of the earmarks we requested in 2005 were eliminated from the various Congressional appropriations bills, primarily due to fiscal pressures placed on budgets from hurricane relief efforts, the war in Iraq, and other federal priorities. Despite this recent setback, we should not lose sight of our successful track record. In fact, with Marjorie's help, over the past three years USM has been able to secure $5.5 million in federal funding for projects ranging from expansions of Gorham's John Mitchell Center and Portland's Bioscience Research Wing, to upgrades of undergraduate teaching labs, expansion of the College of Nursing and Health Professions simulation labs, and the addition of the USM Alumni Skywalk.
Over the next several weeks, Marjorie will be working closely with Bob Caswell, USM's executive director of public affairs, and members of the Earmark's Advisory Council to prepare our new requests to submit to Congress. We'll keep you posted on our progress as the New Year unfolds.
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The Kresge Foundation has awarded USM a $50,000 grant to support the environmentally sustainable design of University Commons. The funding can be used to pay for energy analysis, evaluation of materials that support green buildings and ecological site planning. Our receipt of this award underscores USM's institutional commitment to sustainability and to the creation of a healthier community for learning, working and living.
As faculty members prepare syllabi for the upcoming spring semester, please consider pointing your students to the new Information Commons, housed within USM Libraries. Each campus library now features a comfortable, welcoming reference environment that brings together electronic resources with our print reference collection. Staffed seven days a week in Portland and Gorham, and six days a week at LAC, the USM Libraries Information Commons staff can help your students broaden their research horizons beyond Google and other commercial search engines.
To learn what our USM Libraries have to offer, please visit http://library.usm.maine.edu/. Barbara J. Mann (bmann@usm.maine.edu or x4672) also can explain how Information Commons can help our students get more out of USM classes and programs.
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