The University of Maine at Presque Isle presents a night of improvisational jazz by the Brooklyn, New York based quartet SPOKE at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30 in Wieden Auditorium.

SPOKE – featuring Justin Wood (originally from Presque Isle) on saxophone, Andy Hunter on trombone, Danny Fischer on drums, and Dan Loomis on bass — has performed in some of NYC’s top jazz venues such as the Cornelia Street Café and Brooklyn’s Tea Lounge. Individually, Spoke’s members have performed around the world at clubs, concert halls, and festivals, including Radio City Music Hall, the Jazz Standard, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Playboy Jazz Festival.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle will hold its annual fall blood drive on Tuesday, October 20, from noon to 6 p.m. in the Campus Center’s Multi-Purpose Room.

The blood drive is sponsored by the University’s Residence Life Office, the Brothers of Kappa Delta Phi and the Sisters of Kappa Delta Phi NAS. Walk-ins are welcome and door prizes will be given away during the drive. If donors wish to reserve a time in advance, they should call 768-9585 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Ms. Colleen J. Quint, Executive Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute, will speak on “The Mitchell Institute and Higher Education in Aroostook County” at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s next Business Breakfast, to be held at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 30 in the UMPI Campus Center.

The Mitchell Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Senator George Mitchell to provide scholarship assistance to Maine students, and to research means of removing obstacles to higher education. Each year the Mitchell Institute awards a $5,000 scholarship to a graduating senior from every public high school in Maine.

Dr. Bonnie Wood, a Biology Professor at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, will take part in a book signing event on Tuesday, Oct. 20 from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the UMPI Bookstore to celebrate the publication of her new book Lecture-Free Teaching: A Learning Partnership Between Science Educators and Their Students.

Dr. Wood, a fulltime faculty member since 1989, garnered a contract in 2007 from major science publisher NSTA [National Science Teachers Association] Press to write a book on her innovative lecture-free teaching strategies. The newly published book will be showcased for the first time to the local region during the Oct. 20 book signing.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle presents two classical musicians for one evening filled with works by Schubert, Brahms and Dvorak when pianist Duncan J. Cumming and his wife violinist Hilary Walther Cumming perform on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in the Campus Center.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle brings the editor and publisher of a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper to the region when it hosts journalist Mike Jacobs as its second Distinguished Lecturer of the 2009-2010 academic year.

Jacobs will offer a free community workshop titled Replacing Place in Modern Communities? on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 6 p.m. in the Campus Center. The next day, he will deliver a Distinguished Lecture titled Just How Anxious Are We? A Report from the Field on Media in America at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 7, in the Campus Center.

Jacobs, the editor and publisher of the Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota and the recipient of several top journalism awards, brings to these events more than 40 years of journalism experience, including the 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning coverage his North Dakota newspaper provided in the wake of flooding, a blizzard and a fire that devastated much of Grand Forks in the spring of 1997.

Officials from around the County, the State of Maine, and New England will gather at the University of Maine at Presque Isle from Wednesday, Sept. 30 to Friday, Oct. 2 for a three-day meeting centered on the University’s Project Compass grant program and its efforts to develop and improve culturally responsive strategies for its Native American students.

The event will feature a keynote address by John Bear Mitchell, the blessing of a new student center designed specifically for Native American students, and a gathering of educators and community leaders who will determine next steps for the grant program.

“This meeting marks an important milestone for the University’s Project Compass efforts and is a recognition of how hard our community of practice group has worked to bring the program to this point,” Dr. Ray Rice, who is overseeing the grant program at UMPI, said. “We are very much looking forward to the results of this gathering, and the brainstorming, idea sharing, and long range planning that will ultimately and most importantly benefit our Native American student population.”

Twelve years ago, a first-of-its-kind event was held at the former Loring Air Force Base that drew thousands of people and, for a few days, turned Limestone into the ‘largest city’ in the State of Maine. The 1997 event was called The Great Went and behind it was the American rock band Phish. The overnight-city phenomenon was repeated twice – in 1998 for the band’s Lemonwheel concert and in 2003 for the IT festival. Together, the three concerts brought more than 200,000 concertgoers to northern Maine and pumped more than $25 million into the economy. This month, a week-long event at the University of Maine at Presque Isle will be held to reflect upon the three Phish concerts held in northern Maine, the creative energy surrounding them, and their impact on Aroostook County.

The Phish Retrospective – which is being co-organized by Art Professor Anderson Giles, Cultural Affairs Director Carol Ayoob, and Reed Art Gallery Director Sandra Huck – will be held from Sept. 28 to Nov. 21. The retrospective will include a forum, a documentary film viewing, a guest lecture, and an art gallery exhibition.