Ray Rice
There is an important question on the ballot Nov. 6. Question four decides whether the University of Maine System will get a $49 million bond to help expand campus resources and facilities. Voting yes on this question would give UMPI $4.5 million that would help expand our programs and campus productivity.
For UMPI, this money would mean many things, such as expanding the nursing, physical therapy assistant and exercise science programs and allowing more students to enroll each year. Hopefully enrollment will be able to be doubled after investments into these programs are made. After all, this bond’s intention is to help develop and meet our nation’s workforce needs. “We would be able to do more graduates in, say, health fields for example, that go into jobs that are opening up in the community. We would be able to produce those graduates that then support the rest of the community,” UMPI President Ray Rice said when asked how expanding our programs is a statewide benefit.
Physical classrooms have been a struggle for UMPI, especially since the new nursing program requires classrooms to be taken out of rotation for other classes in order for them to be set up for the hands-on class exercises. With this money, UMPI would add classrooms and make the fishbowl a more effective learning space by making the large, hard-to-use area into a more realistic learning environment that can be used more frequently. Wieden would also see improvements: specifically, it would get needed maintenance done on its roof.
The other University of Maine schools will also benefit from this bond, each receiving their own share of the bond based on their size and need to help improve their individual campuses. Rice stresses the importance of understanding the benefits of the bond “Even though the money is going toward higher education, it’s really about jobs, careers. So it’s really about everyone, it’s not about the University of Maine System per se. It’s about making sure we have the facilities and the ability to prepare Mainers with careers that are going to be available to them and necessary for all the rest of us.”
