Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I N O. X I V J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 2 0 20 ainebiz: What has been the biggest challenge for you during COVID-19? Dannel Malloy: In late January, I rec- ognized that this was a potential chal- lenge to us as news was filtering out from China, and followed it through February. By early March, I felt that we were likely to have to send stu- dents home at some point and had a discussion with the presidents, which led to a decision on March 12 that we would not reconvene after spring break. We safely evacuated and sent home about 7,000 residential students who would otherwise have been living on campus, and thousands more who rent or share space. MB: These are tough times for all public institutions. What does that mean for the University of Maine System? DM: If you want to talk about a long- term healthy Maine, you have to talk about a healthy public educational sys- tem that doesn't end at 12th grade — it goes through community college, it goes through university-level learning, and that's our return. It is also important that the public understand that during the pandemic, our ambulances were loaned, our buildings were pressed into service, and we made products that couldn't oth- erwise be obtained on the open market — including hand sanitizer shipped to hospitals. We're not just higher educa- tion, we're your neighbor, we live next to you, we're part of you, we educate your children, we grow the economy — that's what a public education system does. MB: What's your message to 2020 college grads looking for jobs? DM: I think they'll be more employ- able because they have that degree, and hopefully more employable in the state of Maine for that degree. We know our nurses will be fully employed, and engineers will be snapped up, as will people doing computer or data pro- cessing work or coding. We know our graduates get jobs, retain jobs and do so in the state of Maine. MB: What will be the biggest difference for students returning this fall? DM: I think it will be a richer mix of experiences in some ways, as long as we keep our distance and wash our hands and wear our masks where we should. Until there's a vaccine, we're all going to be changed in how we live this experi- ence out, but get the experience, come here, get an education. is is a terrible time to not go to school, or to waste the time in a particularly weak economy when you could have been working away at getting your degree, certification or license to practice in whatever field you want to practice in. MB: How does running a public university system compare to running a state like Connecticut or a small city like Stamford, as you have done? DM: I have been blessed to have had five distinct careers. I like being busy, and I think I was probably well-pre- pared to handle the challenges that we have just been through with the COVID pandemic, but we have had other challenges — management, reten- tion and admission challenges. MB: What's on your to-do list in the coming 12 months? DM: Implementation of unified accreditation is going to be very impor- tant, and making our students, faculty and staff as safe as possible and learning from the [pandemic] experience. We also need to get more of our students their degrees in a timely fashion. MB: How significant is unified accreditation? DM: It will cause us to work more closely together as universities to make sure we're meeting the needs of the people of Maine. It will give us opportunities to expand offerings at all of our campuses, because we can work together to do that. We're going to be better organized, but a lot of it is also psychological. We're going to see our- selves not as a member of a team that wears a different color, or has a dif- ferent mascot, but that we're on Team Maine, and we need to work together to bring the best results to Maine. MB: After a year in this job, what grade do you give yourself? DM: Well, we switched to pass-fail — I definitely passed. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A I N E S Y S T E M As Dannel Malloy wraps up his first year as University of Maine System chancellor, he chatted with Mainebiz via Zoom about the challenges posed by the pandemic, and the significance of getting a single, common accreditation for the System's seven member universities that it expects to implement in July. Dannel Malloy, at center in blue suit, former governor of Connecticut, is chancellor of the University of Maine System, whose seven member universities serve 30,000 students annually. B Y R E N E E C O R D E S B Y R E N E E C O R D E S O N T H E R E C O R D If you want to talk about a long-term healthy Maine, you have to talk about a healthy public educational system that doesn't end at 12th grade. M

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