Two books on energy and sustainability issues that University of Maine at Presque Isle President Don Zillman helped to write are taking on new life online and have even helped add to the global conversation surrounding the United Nations Climate Change Conference underway this week in Copenhagen.

More than $60,000 in new equipment has been installed at Gentile Hall thanks to the Legacy Gift given to the institution earlier this year by the late Caroline D. Gentile, the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s longest serving faculty member. The equipment is helping to increase energy efficiency in the campus building and provide more options for exercise facility patrons.

A $50,000 pool cover system and about $13,000 in exercise equipment have been put in place at the health and wellness center this fall. Officials were able to purchase these items because of Miss Gentile’s efforts during her lifetime to promote health and physical education, which are continuing now through her Legacy Gift.

An Aroostook County family recently honored the memory of their father and grandfather, Edgar Doak – and his example of service to his community – with the donation of an electric scooter chair to the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

The scooter chair, valued at more than $5,400, will be made available to campus visitors as well as students, faculty, and staff who need mobility assistance in order to travel around campus. The chair will be kept in South Hall and signed out on a need-to-use basis.

Edgar Doak was born in Caribou and lived in Aroostook County for his entire life. He was 93 years old when he passed away this summer. Doak was well known to many through his work over the years as a farmer and with the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad. In retirement, he volunteered at Cary Medical Center, where he received honors for providing more than 1,500 hours of community service.

Dr. Bonnie Wood, Professor of Biology at the University of Maine at Presque, was recently in Denver, Colorado, to present a Special Workshop entitled Lecture-Free Teaching: A Learning Partnership between Science Educators and their Students at the 2009 Professional Development Conference of the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT). Each participant received a copy of Dr. Wood’s newly-published book of the same title (NSTA Press, 2009), the cost of which was included in the Special Workshop fee. The book was used as a workbook during the session.

An Education professor at UMPI recently was in Spain to present at the Global Conference on Inclusive Education, an event organized by Inclusion International, a global federation of organizations advocating for the human rights of people with intellectual disabilities worldwide.

Dr. JoAnne Putnam gave a presentation titled Teacher Education Program Models for Inclusion during the conference, which was held in Salamanca, Spain from Oct. 21-23. Inclusive education involves including students with special needs in the same educational arrangements as the majority of children through quality education and support for different styles and rates of learning.