UMPI poets to participate in Terry Plunkett Festival
The University of Maine at Augusta’s Fifth Annual Terry Plunkett Poetry Festival will be taking place this year on Friday evening, April 13, from 6 to 8 p.m., and on Saturday, April 14, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The largest poetry festival in the state, the event will be held in the Katz Library on UMA’s Augusta campus.
This year the Terry Plunkett Festival is introducing a new feature called uniVERSity, where faculty and students from all seven campuses of the University of Maine System will be reciting their poetry Friday evening and throughout the day on Saturday. University of Maine at Presque Isle poets Melissa Crowe, Victoria Osgood and Noel Slagle will read from 9:35 to 10:05 a.m. on Saturday.
Other key features of this year’s festival, named for a longtime UMA professor who passed away a few years ago, include:
• An enhanced musical element, with pieces performed by the UMA Café Ensemble, Marcia Gallagher and the UMA Vocal Quartet, and Voices, an a capella group;
• An open microphone for accomplished and aspiring Maine poets;
• Awarding of prizes for a Student Poetry Contest; and
• A special panel discussion on poetry and immigration (as part of UMA’s year-long campus theme on immigration).
There is no admission charge to attend all or part of the Plunkett Festival, and the event is open to the public. Food and refreshments are provided.
For a complete schedule on this year’s festival, go to www.uma.edu/plunkettfestival07.html. Questions can be directed to Ellen Taylor, UMA associate professor of English, at 621-3114 or ellent@maine.edu.
Peace Corps reps on campus
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Peace Corps representative Josh Strauss will be in the Campus Center at the University of Maine at Presque Isle campus on Tuesday, April 10, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for anyone wanting information on the Peace Corps. He will also show a couple of slide presentations at 4 and 5 p.m. in the Allagash Room for anybody interested in getting additional information. Students, faculty, staff and community members are welcome to attend.
For more information contact Bonnie Devaney at 768-9750 or e-mail at devaney@umpi.maine.edu.
Achieve graduate degree
‘closer to home’
University of Maine System Chancellor Terry MacTaggart recently announced the creation of a new academic outreach program intended to help school teachers in rural parts of Maine earn a master’s degree.
The degree program, a master’s of science in education (M.S.Ed.), will be available through three of Maine’s seven universities: Fort Kent, Machias and Presque Isle. The actual degree initially will be granted by the University of Southern Maine, which, along with the University of Maine, currently offers the only graduate programs within the state university system.
Classes will begin in the fall and will be offered through a combination of face-to-face classes, online instruction and videoconferencing.
“The new master’s program is structured and scheduled to meet the needs and convenience of classroom teachers in Downeast Maine and Aroostook County,” MacTaggart explained. “Until now, classroom teachers seeking an advanced degree through our universities had to travel nights and weekends to Orono or the Portland area to do so. The lengthy travel was time-consuming, costly and often dangerous when the weather was bad.
“This new opportunity brings the master’s program closer to home,” he added. “Teachers enrolled in the master’s program will work as a team or cohort. They will conduct some of their course work in classroom settings on their local campus. Other aspects of their coursework will be conducted over the Internet and through videoconferencing.”
The M.S.Ed. program requires 36 course credit hours of study to earn the degree. Courses will be offered through a specially designed schedule to accommodate working teachers: three 10-week terms will be held over the course of a calendar year.
Outreach and orientation sessions are planned for Wednesday, April 11, in Presque Isle. An additional orientation session will be held in Fort Kent, though no date has yet been set. For more information, call 780-5007 or write to Richard Barnes at richardb@usm.maine.edu.
