Grief support for when pets are dying via UNE
The University of New England’s Biddeford, Maine, campus.
Edited from a New England Council report
The University of New England has announced a new initiative in its online curriculum to include certification for students to work as end-of-life pet doulas. Pet doulas are non-medical-care providers who form companionships with pets, their human families, and veterinarians to guide all concerned through the pets’ dying process.
The fully online program is six weeks long and designed to provide students with expertise in advanced pet-care planning, grief support and emotional guidance. The course is open to participants from all backgrounds and will run from April 1 to May 12.
“It is important to acknowledge the loss people experience when their pet dies and give them the space for emotional expression and validation,” said Tracey Walker, the course instructor, “The more we can work to normalize talking about pet loss, death overall, and the deeply personal journey of grieving, the better we will be equipped to support each other when we need it most.”
A new way of scaring away sharks from fishing operations?
Electromagnetic field receptors and motion-detecting canals in the head of a shark
Seabirds attracted by longline fishing
Edited from a New England Council report:
“Students at the University of New England (UNE) are researching how electrical pulses can effectively protect sharks while saving fishermen time and money. (UNE has campuses in Portland and Biddeford, Maine.)
“The technology, which works by emitting small, erratic electrical impulses within the water, intends to scare away sharks, which can detect electrical fields, while leaving the intended catch unaffected. If the devices, which can be attached next to each fishing hook, are as effective as anticipated, they can significantly reduce shark bycatch on longline fishing equipment. This result would reduce waste and catch inefficiencies for fishermen and protect sharks from being caught unintentionally.
“Over the past decades, as fishing efforts have increased significantly, sharks and other marine life have seen their populations drop, in major part due to bycatch. The work by UNE students and faculty attempts to simultaneously minimize harm to wildlife, while boosting the sustainability and success of fishermen. While there is plenty of work left to be done before a final device is perfected, students understand how valuable this technology could become.
“‘[The fishermen] lose a lot of money, and they know it,’ Michael Nguyen, a second-year graduate student, told The Portland Press Herald. ‘We are still trying to work out specifics. This is a long way away from being integrated into any commercial fisheries, but there’s a lot of interest, a lot of need, especially now that they see the electrical field isn’t scaring away the tuna.’’’
University of New England med school will move to Portland
Maine Medical Center, in Portland, close to where the University of New England’s medical school will move.
Edited from a New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com) report
“The University of New England, will move its osteopathic medical school from Biddeford, Maine, to Portland. This new location will allow the university to expand the size of its facilities to accommodate more students, which will provide relief to the ongoing workforce problem in the health-care industry.
“This move will fast-track Portland (home of the Maine Medical Center) to be a regional hub for biotechnology and medicine. The university could break ground on this new construction in a month thanks to the Portland Planning Board’s unanimous approval of the plans. The construction will feature a 112,000 square-foot four-story central building to hold all the university’s health-care programs, including dentistry, nursing and the medical school itself.
UNE’s new facility will advance the college’s efforts in inter-professional education, an approach to training in which students are taught in a team-based, multidisciplinary setting. The new location will increase the number of students that the medical program can accommodate by 20 percent, raising the classes from 165 to 200 students. Additionally, the new facility will allow Maine Medical Center doctors to easily engage with UNE students because of the proximity to their facilities. This opens the doors to mentorship, teaching and continuing education in a lab setting for students.
UNE President James Herbert said, ‘We are the workforce engine for the health-care workforce in the state. I want UNE to be the national model for how you do IPE in rural settings’’’.
Ed Cervone: How a Maine college has adjusted to pandemic and recession
From The New England Journal of Higher Education, a service of The New England Board of Higher Education (nebhe.org)
In October 2019, NEBHE called together a group of economists and higher education leaders for a meeting at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to discuss the future of higher education (Preparing for Another Recession?). No one suspected that just months later, a global pandemic would turn the world upside down. Today, the same challenges highlighted at the meeting persist. The pandemic has only amplified the situation and accelerated the timeline. It also has forced the hands of institutions to advance some of the changes that will sustain higher education institutions through this crisis and beyond.
At the October 2019 meeting, the panelists identified the primary challenges facing colleges and universities: a declining pool of traditional-aged students, mounting student debt, increasing student-loan-default rates and growing income inequality.
Taken together, these trends were creating a perfect storm, simultaneously putting a college education out of reach for more and more students and forcing some New England higher-education institutions to close or merge with other institutions. Those trends were expected to continue.
Just three months later, COVID-19 had begun spreading across the U.S., and the education system had to shut down in-person learning. Students returned home to finish the semester. Higher-education institutions were forced to go fully remote in a matter of weeks. Institutions struggled to deliver content and keep students engaged. Inequities across the system were accentuated, as many students faced connectivity obstacles. Households felt the economic crunch as the unemployment rate increased sharply.
By summer, the pandemic was in full swing. Higher-education institutions looked to the fall. They had to convince students and their families that it would be safe to return to campus in an uncertain and potentially dangerous environment. Safety measures introduced new budgetary challenges: physical infrastructure upgrades, PPE and the development of screening and testing regimens.
In the fall, students resumed their education through combinations of remote and in-person instruction. Activities and engagement looked very different due to health and safety protocols. Many institutions experienced a larger than usual summer melt due to concerns from students and families about COVID and the college experience.
Despite these added challenges, New England higher-education institutions have adapted to keep students engaged in their education, but are running on small margins and expending unbudgeted funds to continue operations during the public-health crisis. Recruiting the next class of students is proving to be a challenge. The shrinking pool of recruits will contract even more and reaching them is much more difficult. Many low- and moderate-income families will find accessing higher education even harder and may choose to defer postsecondary learning.
Change is difficult but a crisis can provide necessary motivation. Maine institutions are using this opportunity to make the changes needed to address the current crisis that will also set them on a more sustainable path over the long term. Maine has a competitive advantage relative to the nation. A low-density rural setting and the comprehensive public-health response from Gov. Janet Mills have kept the overall incidence rate down. Public and private higher-education institutions coordinated their response, developed a set of protocols for resuming in-person education that were reviewed by the governor and public health officials, and successfully returned to in-person education in the fall.
In addition, Mills established the Economic Recovery Committee in May and charged the panel with identifying actions and investments that would be necessary to get the Maine economy back on track. This public process has reinforced the critical ties between education and a healthy economy. Not only is higher education a focus of the work, but the governor appointed Thomas College President Laurie Lachance to co-chair the effort. In addition, the governor appointed University of New England (in Biddeford, Maine) President James Herbert, University of Maine at Augusta President Rebecca Wyke, and Southern Maine Community College President Joseph Cassidy to serve on the committee.
At the individual institution level, a wide array of innovations will enable Thomas College to endure the pandemic and position itself for the future. Consider:
Affordability. Most Thomas College students come from low- to medium-income households and are the first in their families to attend college, so-called “first-generation” students. Cost will always be top of mind. For motivated students, Thomas has an accelerated pathway that allows students to earn their bachelor’s degree in three years (sometimes two) and they have the option of doing a plus-one to earn their master’s. This, coupled with generous merit scholarship packages (up to $72,000 of scholarship over four years) and a significant transition to Open Educational Resources to reduce book costs, represents real savings and the opportunity to be earning sooner than their peers.
Student success supports. Accelerated programs (or any program, for that matter) are not viable without purposeful strategies to keep students on track to complete based on their plans. In addition to a traditional array of academic and financial supports, Thomas College has invested in a true wraparound offering serving the whole student. For eligible students, Thomas has a dedicated TRIO Student Support Services program. Funded through a U.S. Department of Education grant, the program provides academic and personal support to students who are first-generation, are from families of modest incomes, or who have an identified disability. The benefits include individualized academic coaching, financial literacy development and college planning support for families. Thomas was also first in the nation to have a College Success program through JMG (Maine’s Jobs for America’s Graduates affiliate). Thomas College has expanded physical- and mental- health services in the wake of the pandemic, including our innovative Get Out And Live program, which uses Maine’s vast natural setting to provide a range of exciting four-season, outdoor activities for the whole campus community.
Employability. Thomas College students see preparing for a rewarding career as part of their college experience. This is core to the college’s mission and more important than ever in an uncertain economic environment. It is so important that it is guaranteed through the college’s Guaranteed Job Program. Thomas College’s Centers of Innovation focus on the employability of each student. Students pursue a core academic experience in their chosen field, and staff work with each student starting in their first semester to increase their professional and career development. This means field experiences and internships with Maine’s top employers. About 75 percent of Thomas College students have an internship before graduation. As part of their college experience, Thomas College students are coached to earn professional certificates, licenses and digital badges prior to graduation that make them stand out in their professional fields and improve their earning potential. These might include certificates in specific sectors like accounting and real estate or digital badges that show proficiency in professional skills like Design Thinking or Project Management, to name just a few. On the academic side, Thomas has expanded both undergraduate and graduate degree offerings to programs where the market has great demand, including Cybersecurity, Business Analytics, Applied Math, Project Management and Digital Media. Delivery is flexible in terms of mode and timing. And the institution is now offering Certificates of Advance Study (15-credit programs) in Cybersecurity, Human Resource Management and Project Management to meet the stated needs of our business partners seeking to upskill their employees.
Looking Ahead
Some of these changes and investments align with challenges identified before the pandemic as necessary if higher education institutions are to survive and sustain changing demographic and economic trends. The pandemic provided the opportunity to focus on these more quickly, allowing institutions such as Thomas College to right the ship today and set the right course for tomorrow.
Ed Cervone is vice president of innovative partnerships and the executive director of the Center for Innovation in Education at Thomas College, in Waterville, Maine., also the home of Colby College.
New England in the Arctic
Via The New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com)
“The University of New England (UNE) and New England law firm of Verrill Dana LLC are partnering to host the first Arctic Investment Conference in New England. This day-long event will give participants an overview of the North Atlantic and Arctic investment landscapes. The conference will be held Tuesday, May 21, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Innovation Hall, University of New England, Stevens Avenue, in Portland, Maine.
“The conference will explore how technologies developed to solve problems and promote the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in the North Atlantic and Arctic are creating potential investment opportunities in New England. Additionally, participants will learn about key actors and how they work across sectors, models for cross sector collaboration, and the proper scale for investment.
“The NEC congratulates UNE and Verill Dana for its success in organizing the first Arctic Investment Conference in New England, and for promoting partnerships between private enterprise and the stakeholders who are working to address climate change.’’
2 Maine schools announce new marine-law program
Portland waterfront and skyline.
This is from The New England Council
“New England Council member the University of New England (UNE), in Biddeford, Maine, has announced a partnership with the University of Maine School of Law (Maine Law), in Portland, that offers marine-science students a faster track to a law degree. This new arrangement will enable students to earn a bachelor’s degree in marine science and a law degree in only six years, one year faster than is typical.
UNE is one of only four schools in the country that offer a bachelor’s degree in marine affairs, while Maine Law is one of six law schools in the country that specialize in marine and maritime law. Under this new arrangement, students can save time and money by enrolling in what will be known as the UNE Marine Affairs – Maine Law 3+3 Pathways Program. This will allow UNE marine affairs students to enroll in Maine Law after their junior year.
James Herbert, president of UNE, said, “Marine affairs is a fast-growing discipline, and law plays an increasingly important role in the field. This partnership between UNE and Maine Law will give strong and highly motivated college applications incentive to come to Maine or stay in Maine for their education and their careers.”