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V O L . X X X N O. I X A P R I L 2 9 , 2 0 2 4 12 3 0 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y HIGHER ED gets ahead Despite ups and downs, institutions always had an eye to the future B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r D uring the Great Recession of 2008-09, higher education institutions experienced layoffs, tuition hikes and budget freezes to make it through the economic decline. But the institutions had an eye to a prosperous future. At the height of the economic down- turn, the University of Maine at Fort Kent launched a winter sports-manage- ment program to prepare students for careers at ski areas. Husson University aspired to launch a law school. e University of Maine's Advanced Structures & Composites Center spun out a private company to use composite technology in bridge construction. Northern Maine Community College welcomed its biggest incoming class in memory — a good news-bad news development because many stu- dents were Aroostook County work- ers laid off from paper mills and the lumber industry. e Augusta-based Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education and a group of business and other partners launched the Prepare Maine Initiative, aimed at strengthen- ing the state's educational system and workforce training. History in the making ose kinds of optimistic developments turned things around. In recent years, institutions have undertaken a wealth of facility and program advancements. Here's a sampling. e University of Maine was estab- lished in 1862 as the Maine College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts under the provisions of the Morrill Act, approved by President Abraham Lincoln. e institution opened in 1868 with 12 students. It became the University of Maine in 1897 and now has 110,000 alumni worldwide. In 2014, UMaine's Aroostook Farm in Presque Isle celebrated 100 years of service to Maine's potato industry. In 2015, the Darling Marine Center in Walpole celebrated 50 years. Since 1996, new facilities have included the Advanced Structures & Composites Center, Bryand Global Sciences Center, Frederick E. Hutchinson Center in Belfast, Museum of Art in Bangor, Foster Center for Innovation, New Balance Student Recreation Center, Innovative Media, Research and Commercialization Center and Wyeth Family Studio Art Center, and Harold Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Laboratory and Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory. In the past two years, the Orono campus unveiled the $78 million E. James and Eileen P. Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center. A green engineering and materials building, called Factory for the Future, will be the next project for the Orono campus. In 2023, Maine Law moved from a 1960s-era building to a renovated 64,000-square-foot space at 300 Fore St. in Portland, close to state and federal courts and several law firms and under the same roof as UMaine's Graduate and Professional Center, Graduate School of Business, Portland Gateway, University of Maine Foundation and University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Service. University of Southern Maine, created in 1971, had recent revamps with the $63 million, 40,000-square-foot Crewe Center for the Arts in Portland, slated for completion in 2025. e McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success in Portland includes spaces for student leadership, diversity, scholarship and government. e adjacent Portland Commons Residence Hall is USM's first on-campus dormitory. Both are built to LEED Gold certification. University of New England's College of Osteopathic Medicine outgrew its Biddeford location and began construc- tion in 2022 on the 110,000-square-foot Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for Health Sciences in Portland, to bring together UNE's health professions pro- grams into an interprofessional learning community. In 2023, UNE created a College of Business and a School of Education within the College of Arts and Sciences. Husson University in Bangor dates to 1898. In 2021, Husson opened Harold Alfond Hall for the College of Business, including the Ronan Center for Financial Technology and the iEX Center equipped with an extended reality lab. F O C U S P H O T O / F R E D F I E L D P ROV I D E D R E N D E R I N G / U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H E R N M A I N E P ROV I D E D P H O T O / H U S S O N U N I V E R S I T Y UMaine's Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center. The Crewe Center for the Arts, at USM's Portland campus, is due to be completed in 2025. Harold Alfond Hall is the home of Husson University's College of Business, in Bangor.

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