To the Editor:

After years of declining enrollment, I am writing to share the great news that the number of students who will converge on the University of Maine at Farmington’s historic campus next month represents a significant increase over last fall.

There are more first-year students, more undergraduate students and many more transfer and graduate students. Importantly, credit hours – which drive revenue – are also up slightly.

UMF’s turnaround has been ably led by Joe McDonnell, who I appointed as interim president in 2022 and was honored to recently make permanent.

So far during President McDonnell’s tenure and with the full support of the University of Maine System, UMF has signed dozens of articulation agreements that allow community college graduates to easily transfer into UMF to earn door-opening bachelor’s degrees, launched new academic programs and made strategic investments to improve infrastructure and reduce operating costs and energy usage.

In the face of New England’s demographic challenges, these actions are leveraging UMF’s incredible strengths – which include talented faculty, a well-deserved reputation for educational excellence and an unmatched location amid western Maine’s lakes and mountains – to bring more students and revenue back to the campus and the community.

UMF is essential to the growth and success of Franklin County, our public university system and the state. Continued innovation and investment are needed to realize its full potential.

In the meantime, I hope you join me in being bullish about UMF’s increasingly bright future and giving its nearly 1,600 students a warm Farmington welcome in September.

Dannel Malloy

Chancellor

University of Maine System 

Bangor