First Impression from the President

President Peter S. Hoff

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Another UMaine Commencement is upon us, bringing to a close an extremely eventful year at the university. Levels of success in the classroom, in the laboratory, and in the athletics arena have never been higher. Our friends have been generous, and government officials have done a great deal to protect us from the budget axe. Yet higher education across the country is in the midst of an almost unparalleled crisis — and UMaine is no exception. Everyone, from students to professors to administrators to trustees, is engaged in a quest to find answers that will help us get through.

In March, the University of Maine System Board of Trustees announced a new draft strategic plan. For the University of Maine, the draft reaffirms our role as the state's leading public research university — Maine's only land-grant university and the only one to hold the top Carnegie classification of "doctoral research-extensive."

Everywhere I go, on and off campus, I hear about the vitality and excitement that characterizes UMaine. It has made us the state's university of choice and the university most engaged with the entire state, helping it to move forward socially, economically, and culturally. Priorities for higher education in Maine are part of our own strategic plan, including investment in Fogler Library, the Honors College, and graduate education.

Every legislator, governor, business leader, and citizen who has come to Orono to see our teaching and learning vitality, and our vast research enterprise, has come away with a deep appreciation for what we do here. We know, however, that we cannot stand still and must set our sights even higher.

Every major university in America is currently facing challenges almost unparalleled in history. Public disinvestment in higher education has generated a crisis that will take all of our ingenuity to resolve. Old approaches cannot be counted on to work any more; we must discover and embrace new initiatives.

In Maine, a serious effort to rethink public higher education has been taken by the System Board of Trustees. In these uncertain economic times, the University of Maine System must play to its strengths, and one of its foremost strengths is the University of Maine.

Peter S. Hoff
President