FARMINGTON – When Kathryn Foster speaks to the incoming freshmen at a ceremony Saturday at the University of Maine at Farmington, she already knows she has something in common with them.

“It’s my first year at UMF also,” she said. “We’re all new to this place. I expect I’ll have a special bond with this class.”

Foster has begun to settle into her new position as president of UMF after only seven weeks. Along with learning about the campus, meeting staff and faculty and community members, she’s visited around Franklin County learning more about the area, observing and getting to know “people in their place,” she said.

Next week there will be 2,000 more new faces to learn as students return and classes begin on Sept. 5. That will take a while, she said.

Moving here from a position as policy director at the University at Buffalo, Foster said the communities of Western Maine and western New York have similarities in terms of socio-economic classes and lake communities, filled with hard-working people who are loyal and love their community.

“Farmington is fabulous,” she said.

As an educational, governmental and business center for the county, the resources here are above what’s expected for a town with a population of 7500, she explained.

“It plays above its population weight,” she said.

With help from the University’s Board of Visitors, Foster has already met with business and community leaders and meetings are planned with local school superintendents and principals to help give her “a sense of the landscape of education in Western Maine,” she said.

The job as president includes fostering a connection not only with the community but with the rest of the UM system, she said. She’s made several trips to Bangor and Augusta which have helped her learn more about the state.

One main goal for this coming year is to plan for the university’s 150^th anniversary as the first public institution of higher learning in Maine, she said. The celebration takes place in 2014. A year in preparation, one that includes alumni and the community, for a celebration that “reverts the focus of the state back to UMF,” she said.

She also wants to continue promoting a student intern program, UMF’s Partnership for Civic Advancement. Students worked locally this summer in organizations that align with their majors. This allows them to learn and gain experience while helping with the workplace needs.

When she first arrived in July, she lived in the dorm during renovation of the president’s home.

“It was a wonderful welcome,” she said of the time around young, energetic, dynamic Upward Bound and Jazz Camp students.

Her home is not ready but she’s left the dorm. The home is being made handicap accessible for meetings and events there.

She intends to visit the dorms this fall, meeting students on their turf, she said. Her door is always open for students and faculty, she said.

“We are close, we’re a community,” she said of the campus. “It’s one of the things that attracted me to this place.  I’ve already fallen in love with UMF.” 

The UMF colors are those from her own high school days, she said. She has a maroon and white scarf, hat and band jacket saved that she expects will help her fit right in.

abryant@sunjournal.com

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