Press Releases

Letter to the community from President Don Zillman:

Let me encourage you to use Gentile Hall at the University of Maine at Presque Isle as your base or ending point for the Presque Isle Light Parade on Saturday, December 4. We will open Gentile Hall for parade fans at 6 PM. We will have coffee, hot cocoa, and cookies in the lobby, along with posters describing some of UMPI’s achievements during the year.

IN ADDITION, you will have an opportunity to watch UMPI’s two films—Wind 101 and THE PROPOSAL. We will be showing the films continuously before, during, and after the parade in Gentile Hall.

An encore showing of The Proposal, a short film that had its beginnings in a University of Maine at Presque Isle course on screenwriting and filmmaking – and was completed by a Hollywood cinematographer and a nationally acclaimed writer – is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 18 at 7:00 p.m. in the UMPI Campus Center.

The half-hour film presentation was directed by Zoran Popovic – the cinematographer for the 2008 film War, Inc. – and co-directed by award-winning writer Cathie Pelletier. Pelletier taught the UMPI screenwriting course where the film was conceived and gave students in the class a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with Popovic and gain an understanding of what it takes to turn a screenplay into a movie.

Friday, 05 November 2010
Maine State Geologist and Director of the Maine Geological Survey Robert Marvinney will give a lecture, Lessons Learned from Maine’s Ocean Energy Test Siting Process, at the University of Maine at Presque Isle at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 16 in the Campus Center.

In 2009, State Geologist Dr. Robert Marvinney led the team effort to locate suitable sites in Maine State coastal waters for testing the technology necessary to deploy wind turbines in deep waters of the Gulf of Maine. This presentation will provide an overview of that effort, including the GIS process for narrowing down the list of potential sites. Marvinney will also highlight the effort to communicate to and get input from fishermen, recreational boaters, coastal resource managers, and other stakeholders with interest in Maine’s nearshore marine environment.

The First Friday Downtown Art Walk on November 5th will provide viewers with multiple opportunities to see art work created by artists who are graduates of the University of Maine at Presque Isle art program. That evening, four of the seven First Friday display venues will feature UMPI graduates Keary Nichols, William Duncan, Joseph Donald Cyr, and Jme Smith. All four of these featured artists have strong ties to Aroostook County.

Upward Bound Alumni and former instructors are invited to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Upward Bound program at the University of Maine at Presque Isle campus. The celebration on Saturday, Nov. 27, is scheduled for 1-4 pm in the UMPI Campus Center and will include a social time and appetizers.

The Upward Bound program was established on the UMPI campus in 1980. It has served hundreds of students over the last 30 years. Since 2007, the UMPI program has collaborated with the University of Maine at Fort Kent and UMPI’s Houlton High Education Center in order to better serve students in the St. John Valley, as well as Southern Aroostook.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle is pleased to host the Presque Isle Community Players’ Dinner Theatre entitled This Land is Your Land: A Celebration of American Folk Music. The event debuts on Friday, November 5, at 6 p.m. in the University’s Campus Center. Three additional performances will be held – Saturday, Nov. 6, Friday, Nov. 12, and Saturday, Nov. 13.

This Land is Your Land: A Celebration of American Folk Music is under the musical direction of veteran musician and performer Rod Thompson. The music and songs will pay tribute to the long and rich history of American folk music, including songs such as Tom Dooley, Good Night Irene, Blowin’ in the Wind, If I had a Hammer, and This Land is Your Land.

Farm Credit of Maine will be recognized by the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Tuesday, Oct. 26, at 1 p.m. for their generous donation of $5,000 to support the University’s Solarium in Folsom Hall. The event will take place in the solarium, which is located on the third floor of Folsom Hall.