University of Maine

19th century Brick Hall, constructed in 1871 and later renamed Oak Hall, burned in 1936 The University of Maine was founded in 1862 as a function of the Morrill Land-Grant Acts . Established in 1865 as the Maine State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, the college opened on September 21, 1868, and changed its name to the University of Maine in 1897. [ 9 ] By 1871, curricula had been organized in Agriculture, Engineering, and electives. The Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station was founded as a division of the university in 1887. Gradually the university developed the Colleges of Life Sciences and Agriculture, later including the School of Forest Resources and the School of Human Development, Engineering and Science, and Arts and Sciences. Near the end of the 19th century, the university expanded its curriculum to place greater emphasis on liberal arts . As a result of this shift, faculty hired during the early 20th century included Caroline Colvin , chair of the history department and the nation's first woman to head a major university department. [ 10 ]

Stevens Hall in 2006 In 1912, the Maine Cooperative Extension, which offers field educational programs for both adults and youths, was initiated. The School of Education was established in 1930 and received college status in 1958. The School of Business Administration was formed in 1958 and was granted college status in 1965. Women have been admitted into all curricula since 1872. The first master's degree was conferred in 1881; the first doctor's degree in 1960. Since 1923 there has been a separate graduate school. [ 11 ] In 1906, The Senior Skull Honor Society was founded to "publicly recognize, formally reward, and continually promote outstanding leadership and scholarship, and exemplary citizenship within the University of Maine community." [ 12 ] On April 16, 1925, 80 women met in Balentine Hall — faculty, alumnae, and undergraduate representatives — to plan a pledging of members to an inaugural honorary organization. This organization was called "The All Maine Women" because only those women closely connected with the University of Maine were elected as members. On April 22, 1925, the new members were inducted into the honor society. [ 13 ] In 1968, when the University of Maine System was incorporated, the school was renamed by the legislature over the objections of the faculty to the University of Maine at Orono, known informally as U.M.O. Its name was restored to the University of Maine in 1986, and the U.M.O. moniker was also abandoned and replaced officially with "UMaine" as the informal title with which to reference the Orono campus. [ 14 ]

Further information: University of Maine System The University of Maine is the flagship of the University of Maine System . [ 7 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ] [ 17 ] The president of the university is Joan Ferrini-Mundy , who was appointed in 2018. [ 18 ] The senior administration governs cooperatively with the chancellor of the University of Maine system, Dannel Malloy , and the sixteen members of the University of Maine Board of Trustees (of which fifteen are appointed by the governor of Maine and one is the current Maine state commissioner of education). The Board of Trustees has full legal responsibility and authority for the university system. It appoints the chancellor and each university president, approves the establishment and elimination of academic programs, confers tenure on faculty members, and sets tuition rates and operating budgets. [ 19 ] UMaine is also one of a handful of colleges in the United States whose student government, which was established in 1978, is incorporated. [ 20 ] It was incorporated in 1987 and is classified as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation. [ 21 ]

A tree-lined path through the Lyle E. Littlefield Ornamental Gardens in 2005 Situated on Marsh Island , between the Penobscot and Stillwater rivers, the University of Maine is the nation's only land grant university (other than the University of Hawaiʻi ) on an island. [ 22 ] The university occupies the small city of Orono, with a population ~9,500, [ 23 ] maintaining a 660-acre (2.7 km 2 ) campus. [ 23 ] It has an enrollment of 11,989 students, inclusive of both undergraduate and graduate students, as of 2024. [ 24 ] [ 25 ] The campus has 37 academic buildings, thirty administrative buildings, eighteen residence halls, eighteen specific laboratory facilities, fourteen Greek life houses, ten sports facilities, five museums, [ 26 ] two dining facilities, two convenience stores, a student union, a cafe, a pub, [ 27 ] an 87,000-square-foot (8,100 m 2 ) state of the art recreation and fitness center, [ 28 ] and a 200'x200' air supported athletic/recreational dome. [ 29 ] In 1867, the university rejected a campus plan by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted , who designed Central Park in New York City and the White House grounds in Washington, D.C. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] The plan's broad concepts, including the Front Lawn, were nevertheless adopted during the school's first fifty years, and were oriented toward the Stillwater River. A second master plan was produced in 1932 by Carl Rust Parker of the Olmsted Brothers firm, which reoriented the campus center to the Mall, an open grassy area between the Raymond H. Fogler Library and the Memorial Gym. [ 32 ] The Mall is further bordered by one residence and five academic halls. The campus is essentially divided into three sections: northern, southern, and hilltop. [ 33 ] Each is located near or borders the mall.