FARMINGTON — University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy toured the University of Maine Farmington campus then greeted university staff and stakeholders at a reception in the North Dining Hall.

Malloy noted he had a pretty good tour of the facilities, seen its strengths and weaknesses and things that need to be addressed.

“There’s bond money to spend on some things,” he said. “One of the great challenges for us in Maine will be to rebuild some of the infrastructure at all of our institutions

“I’m very proud to be part of your team. You’re doing a great service.

“Education is a profession and a calling. It’s reward is you are allowed to make inter–generational change in families. This is a place that really was built on that concept and idea.”

Malloy said first and foremost, the job is to educate people in liberal arts and education to change their personal trajectories and that of their families.

“You have a special mission representing half of your students in the school of education, giving it back that way as well as making sure you’re sending out well prepared individuals to carry out that work,” he said.

Malloy took over as chancellor of the UMaine System July 1. Last week he visited campuses in Fort Kent and Presque Isle. He plans to visit each of the system’s seven campuses by the end of July.

Malloy was introduced at the reception by UMF President Edward Serna who also began his position July 1.

Malloy’s UMF tour included an update on plans for approximately $8.5 million in campus investments approved as part of the $49 million University Workforce Bond approved by voters last November. Among bond-funded projects at UMF are plans for an updated new home for the Sweatt-Winter Early Care and Education Center that will improve facilities needed to prepare the next generation of Maine early childhood teachers.

Malloy visited UMF’s Biomass Central Heating Plant. The facility was projected to save UMF and taxpayers nearly $800,000 in fuel costs for fiscal year ending June 30 while sustaining jobs in the region’s forest products industry. Since the plant’s opening in 2016 carbon emissions at UMF have been reduced an average of approximately 3,000 metric tons annually.

University leaders briefed Malloy on efforts to build on UMF’s reputation as a premier public liberal arts college and a state leader in teacher education. UMF is pursuing a number of academic innovations to better prepare students for Maine’s workforce need including:

• Undergraduate certificates in GIS, Alpine operations, English language learners, and addiction rehabilitation to enhance career credentials;

• New graduate-level certificates in special education K-8 and 6-12, special education administration (Pre-K-12), and K-12 math interventionist to prepare teachers to identify and address the needs of students who need assistance in mathematics; and

• A proposal for a new Master’s degree in special education is in the final stages of review, with the goal of preparing more certified special education teachers and special education administrators to meet workforce demand.

UMF is helping lead Maine’s commitment to public higher education affordability and reduce student debt. The Financial Literacy Peer Education Program is funded by a grant from the office of then-Attorney General Janet Mills and provides comprehensive personal financial education for students to help improve financial well being and reduce debt. The program will be expanded to all UMS institutions.

Additional progress in affordability includes a 16% increase in institutional aid in UMF’s Fiscal Year 20 budget and a new $1.25 million progressively increasing Persistence Scholarship program that incentivizes student success and progress toward graduation. Increases in financial aid resources made it possible for 518 Maine students to attend UMF free of tuition and fee expenses in the spring of 2019.

The new Farmington Forward partnership with the University of Maine at Augusta delivers academic programming and support services to students who need additional preparation to succeed in college.  Other examples of collaboration include:

• 3+2 Pathway to a Masters in Counseling and Social Work with USM;

• Maine Engineering Pathways Program with UMaine;

• 3+3 Pathway with the Maine School of Law;

• Delivery of an off campus Early Childhood Education Program in partnership with SMCC; and,

• Discussing the development of a concentration in Outdoor Recreation Management with the UMaine Graduate School of Business.

Malloy brings 22 years of public service and executive leadership to the University of Maine System. A former Connecticut Governor, he is the current Rappaport Distinguished Visiting
Professor at Boston College Law School and taught undergraduate political science for twelve semesters as an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut. He holds a B.A. in Political Science, Sociology from Boston College and is a graduate of Boston College Law School.

In 2016 Dan Malloy was honored as the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award recipient for defending the U.S. resettlement of Syrian refugees amid security concerns following the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris and personally welcoming a family of Syrian refugees to New Haven, Connecticut. Other recipients include U.S. Presidents Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush, and Gerald Ford.

In 1982, he married his wife, Cathy, whom he met while they were students at Boston College. They have three sons, Dannel, Ben, and Sam.