UPDATE From: President Richard L. Pattenaude
Number 10, July 2006
> USM Receives Prestigious Kresge Challenge Grant!
> Open Meetings on University Commons
> From the Civic Center to Lincoln Center
> Portland Campus New Home for Business Incubator
USM Receives Prestigious Kresge Challenge Grant!
I'm pleased and proud to announce that the Kresge Foundation has awarded us a $750,000 Challenge Grant to help fund University Commons, the centerpiece of our capital campaign. The Kresge Foundation of Troy, Michigan is considered the nation's preeminent foundation for “bricks and mortar” projects. Consequently, the competition for these grants is intense and Kresge's standards are rigorous. In one recent year, for example, Kresge reviewed 636 proposals and awarded just 175 grants. The award of this challenge grant –- which is contingent on us raising the $3.1 million needed to reach our campaign goal -- speaks volumes about the quality and importance of our work. One of Kresge's primary goals is to help organizations use these grants as a way to build long-term relationships with donors and volunteer leaders. According to the Kresge Foundation, “We invest in organizations that have engaged boards, capable senior staff, loyal donors, and committed volunteers. We believe that a healthy, sustainable nonprofit can deliver the greatest benefit to the community it serves.” My special thanks to Vice President for University Advancement Beth Shorr; all members of her team; our volunteer campaign leadership; and many other key USM staff members who made a compelling case for support. This indeed is a major milestone in our effort to become a nationally recognized, public regional university.
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Later this summer, we will file an application with the City of Portland to initiate the municipal permitting process for University Commons (a new home for the Muskie School and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute; an expansion of the Osher Map Library; redesign of the first floor of the Glickman Family Library; and a public promenade along Bedford St., Portland). Before doing so, we will hold open meetings to give you and our off-campus neighbors opportunities to review plans and ask questions. Those meetings will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m., and again from 6:30 to 8 p.m., this Thursday, June 29, in the Glickman Family Library's University Events Room. Please attend whichever meeting is most convenient.
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Student success is at the heart of what we do. At our Commencement, music major Ashley Emerson of Bangor walked across the stage at the Cumberland County Civic Center to receive her diploma and later that afternoon flew to New York for an audition with the music director of the Metropolitan Opera. The following day, Ashley was notified that she had passed the audition and that she would be one of 12 vocalists in the nation to join the Met's prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Ashley was profiled recently in the Maine Sunday Telegram.
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Maine's first business incubator, The Maine Center for Enterprise Development (MCED), will move this fall to the Bioscience Research Wing on our Portland campus. MCED's move from Southern Maine Community College will offer newer space plus opportunities to work more closely with the School of Business and other university programs and services. Though our long-range plans call for expansion of research labs in the Bioscience Research Wing, we welcome MCED’s move because it provides a foundation for technology transfer at USM, and opportunities for faculty and students to work with interesting start-up companies.
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