June is Pride Month, and a time for all of us at the University of Maine at Presque Isle to celebrate and support the LGBTQIA+ community.  It is just as importantly a time for us to recognize the impact that the LGBTQIA+  movement has had locally, regionally, and globally, as well as the challenges that it still…

Dear UMPI Community, The University of Maine at Presque Isle stands with those across higher education in our unequivocal condemnation of Russia’s invasion of the democratic nation of Ukraine. As a public institution, our mission and values are grounded, first and foremost, in democracy and the processes by which individuals and their elected representatives make…

Dear UMPI Community, This February, the University of Maine at Presque Isle celebrates Black History Month and honors the contributions and sacrifices African Americans have made to and for society, as well as their inspirational impact upon this nation and our world. This recognition is particularly critical today, as our nation continues to struggle with…

Dear UMPI Community, On Monday, we honor the achievements and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., an extraordinary civil rights leader, voting rights champion, and Nobel Prize-winning peace and justice advocate, whose legacy serves as an enduring inspiration to us all. We honor not only his achievements and his unbounded dedication and sacrifice, but…

Dear UMPI Community, On September 11, 2001, I was doing what a number of faculty and staff who are still here at UMPI, these twenty years later, were doing that very day—teaching class, at work in our offices and around campus, and otherwise doing the things we would normally do on a bright and clear…

Dear UMPI Community, On March 31, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” Yesterday, April 20, 2021, a diverse jury in Minneapolis, comprised of seven women and five men, individuals who identified as white, Black, and multi-racial, from their…

Dear UMPI Community, When COVID-19 changed life on our campus, in our families and communities, and all across the United States just over a year ago, the Asian and Pacific Islander communities came under unfair attack, suffering hate crimes and bias incidents across the country.  This was encouraged by misinformation and bigotry.  In recent weeks,…

Dear UMPI Students, There are a great number of “what am I thankful for?” posts and memes circulating on social media this year—both the posts and their responses are often particularly poignant and powerful in this year of such overwhelming loss, experienced simultaneously as it has been on a global and very local and personal…

Dear UMPI Community, Tomorrow we celebrate Veteran’s Day and all of those who have served this nation honorably during times of conflict or in peacetime. Veteran’s Day originated as “Armistice Day” on Nov. 11, 1919– the very first anniversary of the end of World War I.  It falls on the 11th day of the 11th…

Dear UMPI Community, One of the cornerstones of a college’s ability to provide an education to individuals and their families is to offer education within a civil and safe environment.  More than anything else, UMPI has an obligation to provide such an environment to all of its students and extended community members as well as…