{"id":4745,"date":"2017-03-24T09:49:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T13:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=4745"},"modified":"2025-08-16T17:49:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T21:49:29","slug":"umpi-goes-to-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2017\/03\/24\/umpi-goes-to-the-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"UMPI Goes to the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nUMPI has always been proud of its faculty and staff.\u00a0 They have done great things on and off campus.\u00a0 Now UMPI has one more person to be proud of.\u00a0 Linda Schott was UMPI\u2019s president from 2012 to 2016.\u00a0 She\u2019s taking her career to a new level.\u00a0 In just a few years, she will begin her campaign for U.S. president.<\/p>\n

Schott\u2019s decision to run for president was an easy one.\u00a0 She does not like the direction that the country is going.\u00a0 Political tensions are higher than ever.\u00a0 Nobody in Washington, D.C., wants to get along.\u00a0 And she blames it all on the new president, Donald Trump.\u00a0 But Schott feels great about her future campaign.\u00a0 Her goal: win the primaries in 2019 and take on Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I think I can beat him.\u00a0 In fact, I know I will,\u201d Schott said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to debating Trump and proving to everyone, including himself, that he is a very, very bad debater.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schott is the current president of Southern Oregon University.\u00a0 Recently, she held a press conference at the college.\u00a0 She announced her candidacy to an excited crowd.\u00a0 UMPI Interim President and Provost Ray Rice also attended the conference.\u00a0 Schott said that Rice will be her running mate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost didn\u2019t choose Ray.\u00a0 Back at UMPI, he used to be such a drama queen sometimes,\u201d Schott said.\u00a0 \u201cBut he\u2019s always been passionate about political issues, especially in regards to education.\u00a0 His background as a Shakespearean scholar should help too, as you have to understand both comedy and tragedy to run this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rice thanked Schott for choosing him as her vice president.\u00a0 He plans to make educational issues his top priority.\u00a0 He shared some good news as well.\u00a0 If he and Schott win, the White House will give him his own reality show.\u00a0 The show will be \u201cThe Rice House.\u201d\u00a0 It will follow Rice through the everyday challenges of being vice president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll admit that becoming vice president and possibly president makes me quite terrified.\u00a0 I really hope I don\u2019t screw up,\u201d Rice said.\u00a0 \u201cBut Linda and I always were a good team.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019ll let her appear on \u2018The Rice House\u2019 sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now Schott has no plan to quit her current job.\u00a0 But she feels that she can have more influence as U.S. president.\u00a0 After thinking it over for five minutes, she concluded \u201cWhy not?\u201d\u00a0 Schott\u2019s platform will be \u201cpretty much everything that Trump hates.\u201d\u00a0 This includes gender and racial equality and environmental rights.\u00a0 Schott also listed freedom of the press and immigration.\u00a0 She already has a comeback planned if Trump questions her qualifications.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my experiences as a college president for two different universities make me more than qualified.\u00a0 Trump was never a politician, but that didn\u2019t stop him,\u201d Schott said.\u00a0 \u201cI told Ray, \u2018If we can handle students, especially the students in northern Maine, we can handle the entire country.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

UMPI students will also benefit from Schott\u2019s candidacy.\u00a0 Schott will hire many students to work at her Maine campaign office.\u00a0 If she wins, those same students will head to Washington.\u00a0 Rice also plans to hire UMPI students.\u00a0 He said that there won\u2019t be conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see where that would be a problem.\u00a0 Besides, I think the past few months have proved that anyone can work in politics now,\u201d Rice said.\u00a0 \u201cTo be honest, I\u2019m mostly concerned about which actor they\u2019ll hire to play me on \u2018Saturday Night Live\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

People at UMPI have praised Schott\u2019s decision.\u00a0 Katharine Waldron is a political science student.\u00a0 She looks forward to possibly working for Schott.\u00a0 She has no doubt that Schott can become the next U.S. president.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Schott is an intelligent, thoughtful, confident leader.\u00a0 I know she\u2019ll be the president that makes American stronger again,\u201d Waldron said.<\/p>\n

Debbie Roark, executive director of university advancement, shares much of the same feelings.\u00a0 At Schott\u2019s press conference, she revealed great news for UMPI.\u00a0 Wieden Auditorium will be the location for one of the 2019 primary debates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll also serve as the debate moderator,\u201d Roark said.\u00a0 \u201cSo if Trump thinks that he can get away with talking over me or Linda, he\u2019s in for a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schott has few worries about Trump\u2019s sexism.\u00a0 Becoming the first female president is not the only reason for her campaign.\u00a0 But she has supported gender equality throughout her life.\u00a0 She hopes to inspire other women to run for political office.\u00a0 Schott even named her campaign slogan \u201cMake America Nice Again.\u201d \u00a0She wants to create more equality for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s definitely a goal of mine,\u201d Schott said.\u00a0 \u201cI was so ticked off and sad when Hillary lost.\u00a0 But at least now I have a chance to show women\u2014and men\u2014that women are capable of leading at the highest office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schott knows that running for president will be hard.\u00a0 But she also knows that her time at UMPI prepared her well.\u00a0 She\u2019s ready to take the advice she gives to students.\u00a0 Work hard and see where your wings will take you.\u00a0 If everything works out, Schott will become UMPI\u2019s first former president to lead the country.\u00a0 She\u2019ll strive to make sure everyone, including students, has a future to look forward to.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UMPI has always been proud of its faculty and staff.\u00a0 They have done great things on and off campus.\u00a0 Now UMPI has one more person to be proud of.\u00a0 Linda Schott was UMPI\u2019s president from 2012 to 2016.\u00a0 She\u2019s taking her career to a new level.\u00a0 In just a few years, she will begin her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8863,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4745\/revisions\/8863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}