Maine

College graduations begin in Maine as protests disrupt ceremonies in other states

Published

2 years ago

May 3, 2024

College graduations begin in Maine as protests disrupt ceremonies in other states

Student protesters camp near the entrance to Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. Early Tuesday, dozens of protesters took over Hamilton Hall, locking arms and carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building. Columbia responded by restricting access to campus. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool

Maine colleges and universities are preparing to graduate thousands of students in the coming weeks at the same time protests over Israel’s war in Gaza have disrupted commencements and other campus activities around the country.

School officials in Maine said they can’t share specific public safety planning details, but there’s no indication they expect problems at upcoming commencement ceremonies.

Students on Maine campuses have taken stands against the war, including by holding protests and calling on their schools to divest from defense funds. Events and efforts to speak out are ongoing and generating some tensions with administrators over the role of the institutions in calling for peace.

Around the country, college campuses have been upended the last few weeks by protests.

Police arrested nearly 300 people on two college campuses in New York City Tuesday — Columbia University and the City College of New York — though many of them were not affiliated with the schools, CNN reported.

The University of Southern California has cancelled its main graduation ceremony due to protests, and other campuses are implementing additional security measures in anticipation of potential disruptions.

UMAINE PREPARED WITH SECURITY

The current war in Gaza began Oct. 7, when Hamas militants crossed the border from Gaza into Israel and killed about 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostages in a surprise attack. Israel launched a counter offensive that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there.

Protests against Israel’s offensive have intensified on college campuses in recent weeks. Maine campuses haven’t experienced the same level of unrest as other places, though there has been some activity. A protest at the University of Southern Maine last week drew about 30 people for a peaceful demonstration that did not result in any arrests.

The University of Maine System begins holding commencements this weekend. It has 6,175 students who are eligible to receive their degrees or certificates from universities this month, though not all will participate in graduation.

The flagship campus in Orono, where undergraduate students will graduate Saturday, has 2,800 students eligible to graduate and 2,100 expected to participate in ceremonies. The University of Southern Maine, which will also hold commencement Saturday, has 1,635 students eligible to graduate and expects 1,063 to participate in the ceremony at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, the group Maine Students for Palestine is encouraging students and community members to participate in a rally and march to be held at 1 p.m. in Deering Oaks.

“We stand united in our call for international solidarity among all members of the global working class to help stop the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” Maine Students for Palestine said on Instagram. “Money for jobs and education, NOT for war and occupation!”

Dan Hartill, a spokesperson for USM, said in an email Friday that no problems are expected at Saturday’s graduation ceremony.

Samantha Warren, a spokesperson for the system, said she could not share specific public safety planning details but that given the size of graduations, university public safety officials always partner with local and state authorities to ensure the safety of graduates and attendees.

Warren said this weekend’s graduations mark an important milestone for graduates, most of whom missed the opportunity to have an in-person graduation at their high schools because of COVID-19 in 2020. “This weekend should be all about honoring our graduates,” she said.

Some University of Maine System students have also made calls for the system to divest from holdings in companies they say are involved in conflicts in the Middle East.

Warren said the system does not directly buy or sell securities, but works with professional advisors who assist the Board of Trustees’ Investment Committee in selecting appropriate fund managers.

She said the system and its advisors have identified the 12 companies students asked about at an April Board of Trustees meeting and they account for $1.6 million, or 0.22%, of the system’s $717 million total investment portfolio.

“The Board will continue to listen to and welcome student perspectives,” Warren said in an email. “As is its fiduciary responsibility, the Board’s Investment Committee routinely reviews the System’s portfolio to ensure assets are being invested and managed in a manner that maintains and grows principal and generates earnings that can be reinvested directly to benefit our students, employee pensions, and public university programs and campuses.”

COLBY, BATES, BOWDOIN SEE NO MASS PROTESTS

So far, no mass demonstrations or encampments have popped up at Maine’s top three private colleges, but students at Bowdoin and Colby are calling on their respective colleges to divest from funds that support Israel’s war in Gaza.

Bowdoin students are voting through Saturday afternoon on a referendum urging the college to speak out against “the Israeli government’s ongoing scholasticide in Gaza,” referring to the destruction of academic institutions and killings of students, educators and parents. The referendum is nonbinding, according to a college spokesperson.

Spearheaded by the Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine, the “Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum” also calls on the college to disclose its investments in arms manufacturers, halt future investments in the defense industry, and reinstate an independent committee of students, faculty and staff to oversee social responsibility in future investments.

Bowdoin President Safa Zaki sent an email to students opposing the referendum, expressing concerns about the college taking sides in the controversy and how the proposed investment restrictions could negatively impact the college’s endowment.

“My belief, which I have shared previously, is that institutional statements often divide communities, harden divisions, and interfere with the free exchange of ideas central to an academic community,” Zaki said in the letter posted to the school’s website.

Members of the faculty, meanwhile, wrote a letter published by the Bowdoin Orient in support of students’ rights to protest and condemned actions by other campuses to suppress demonstrations through arrests and suspensions.

“We affirm the university as a space of freedom of association and assembly, freedom of thought and expression and a site of dissent,” stated the letter, signed by more than 80 faculty. “We note, with appreciation, that Bowdoin has not pursued these tactics against Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organizers and supporters.”

Bowdoin spokesperson Doug Cook said in an email the college has not seen any public demonstrations on campus and is not worried about any disruptions at its May 25 graduation or other year-end events.

A similar call to action was issued to Colby College.

On Monday, a group calling itself “Colby Action for Palestine” called on the college to cut ties with Israel, including opportunities to study abroad, and divest from any interests that benefit Israel’s occupation of Gaza.

The group demanded that Colby “end its complicity in the present and long-term oppression and genocide alike of the Palestinian people at the hands of the State of Israel.”

However, school officials noted that the email was sent from an address from outside the college, so it’s not clear whether it came from students or not.

Colby President David Greene said in a letter to the community that the college has “no intention of simply acquiescing to threats and arbitrary deadlines from an anonymous group.” He said the college will continue to support students’ rights to peacefully protest but would not tolerate hate speech or harassment.

Colby spokesperson George Sopko echoed that position when asked whether officials were worried about possible disruptions at the college’s graduation ceremony on May 26.

“The members of the Colby community have the right to engage in peaceful protest and awareness raising as long as those events comport with our policies and do not interfere with the academic or operational activities of the College,” Sopko said.

And at Bates College, spokesperson Mary Pols said no protests or encampments have popped up on campus.

“Bates recognizes and supports the right of individuals or groups on our campus to protest peacefully, without disrupting the normal operations of the college,” Pols said. “Bates retains the right, recognized by law, to regulate the time, place, and manner of protests.”

ENCAMPMENT AT COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC

At the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, students set up an encampment on Sunday with about 30 tents to express support for the people of Palestine and for staff and students at other universities who are encountering violence for their stance on the war.

Student organizers declined a request for an interview Friday, but shared a statement from the COA Palestine Solidarity Encampment.

The group said it is asking the college to publicly denounce the genocide of the Palestinian people, disclose its investments and prioritize divestment from all weapons manufacturing, surveillance and technology and construction companies that are profiting from the killing of Palestinian people.

“As students at an educational institution in the U.S. we feel the responsibility to protest the bombing and demolition of schools and colleges in Gaza,” the statement said. “Access to a demilitarized education is a human right for all.”

College of the Atlantic President Darron Collins said in a statement that the administration supports students’ rights to engage in protest and free speech though the university has asked students to prioritize safety and cleanliness of the encampment and said that any form of hate speech will not be tolerated.

Regarding divestment, Collins said that questions about investments are ultimately decided by the school’s Board of Trustees. Students taking part in the encampment met last week with the school’s chief financial officer to discuss the topic and have also been invited to join the trustees’ Investment Committee meeting next week, he said.

Because the college runs on trimesters, its graduation is not until June 8. Rob Levin, director of communications, said it’s too early to say if the encampment will impact graduation plans but said the college is trying to work with the students who are involved.

“We support our students’ rights to express their free speech and their political expressions,” he said. “We’re trying to take that collaborative approach.”

Invalid username/password.

Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you’ve submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

« Previous

Graduate workers’ union bemoans pace of negotiations with UMaine System

Maine

A remote Maine town is ready to close its 5-student school

Published

4 hours ago

April 20, 2026

Press Room

A remote Maine town is ready to close its 5-student school

TOPSFIELD, Maine — Jenna Stoddard is not sure where her son will spend his days when he starts preschool next fall.

Sending him to East Range II School would be convenient and continue a legacy. Stoddard lives just down the street and her husband graduated eighth grade there in 2007, one in a class of three. Topsfield’s population has dropped since then. The school now has five students, two teachers, few extracurricular activities and nobody trained to teach music, art, gym or health.

Stoddard’s son is too young for her to worry about that now. But the school may not be open by the time he is ready to go. Topsfield, a town of just 175 residents, will vote on whether to close the school on April 30. If it closes, the boy would likely be sent to preschool up to 30 minutes away in Princeton or Baileyville.

“That’s a pretty fair distance for a kid, a 4-year-old, who is now on a bus all by himself,” she said. “[If] school starts at [7:45 a.m.], what time is the bus picking 4-year-olds up here? And what time is he going to get home at?”

Topsfield is an extreme example of how an aging, shrinking population and rising property taxes are forcing Maine towns to make difficult choices about their community institutions. Just over a dozen people came to a Wednesday hearing on the idea of closing the school. The crowd was mostly in favor of it.

East Range has four classrooms, two of which are not used for regular instruction. Credit: Daniel O’Connor / BDN

“It is emotional to close the school in a town,” Superintendent Amanda Belanger of the sprawling Eastern Maine Area School System said then. “But we do feel it’s in the best interest of the students in the town.”

Teacher Paula Johnson walked a reporter through the building, which is small by Maine standards but cavernous for its five students. It has four classrooms, a small library, and a gymnasium. There is also a cook and a custodian for the tiny school.

A hallway trophy case serves as a reminder of when the school was big enough to field basketball teams. Topsfield’s student population has never been large, but the school’s population has dropped dramatically over the past few years. It had 25 students in 2023, with many coming from nearby Vanceboro, which closed its own school in 2015.

As the student population dwindled, the cost of sending students to Topsfield climbed. With fewer students to defray the costs, Vanceboro officials realized they would be paying $23,000 per student by the last school year. So they opted to direct students to nearby Danforth, where tuition was only $11,000 per student.

East Range lost seven students from Vanceboro, bringing its enrollment below 10. Under Maine law, that means the district may offer students the option to go elsewhere. Parents of the remaining students in grades 5 through 8 took the option and sent their kids to Baileyville. This school began the year with eight students; three have since pulled out.

In Topsfield, Johnson teaches four of the remaining five, holding lessons for pre-K through second grade in one classroom. Another one down the short hallway is home base for the other teacher. She focuses on the school’s lone fourth grader and occasionally teaches one of Johnson’s first graders, who is learning at an advanced level.

The other teacher, who holds a special education certificate despite having no students with those needs, plans to leave at the end of the school year. If the school stays open, that will leave Johnson responsible for educating Topsfield’s youngest students, though the school will need to budget for a part-time special education teacher just in case.

If the school stays open next year, it will need to replace its departing special education teacher, though it’s unclear if there will be any special education students. Credit: Daniel O’Connor / BDN

After 11 years at the school, Johnson is not sure what she will do if voters shut it down.

“We’ll see what happens here,” she said.

Topsfield’s school board, which operates as a part of the Eastern Maine Area School System, is offering its residents a choice: continue funding the school only for students between preschool and second grade at an estimated cost of $434,000 next year or send all students elsewhere, which would cost less than $200,000.

At Wednesday’s hearing, the attendees leaned heavily toward the latter option. Deborah Mello said she moved from Rhode Island to Topsfield years ago to escape high taxes.

“It’s not feasible for the town of Topsfield,” she said. “We cannot afford it and it’s not like the children don’t have a school to go to.”

Others bemoaned the burden of legal requirements for the small district, including the need to provide special education teachers even if they don’t need one. Board members also mentioned that in 2028, the district will become responsible for educating 3-year-olds under a new state law. That adds another layer of uncertainty to future budgeting.

More than a dozen Topsfield residents showed up to a public hearing about the school’s future on Wednesday. Most favored shutting the school down. Credit: Daniel O’Connor / BDN

“It sounds like we’ve been burdened something severely by this program and that program by the Department of Education, to the point where a small school can’t even exist,” resident Alan Harriman said.

“And that’s been happening for a long time,” East Range board chair Peggy White responded.

Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.

Source link

Maine

Wet, cooler today; rain & snow impacts across Maine

Published

16 hours ago

April 19, 2026

Press Room

Wet, cooler today; rain & snow impacts across Maine

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – Good morning and Happy Sunday everyone. Skies are cloudy with fog across much of Maine this morning. Rain has entered locations along the interstate and to the northwest. Temperatures vary from the upper 30s to mid 40s. Winds are out of the SE between about 5-15 mph.

Today will be a wet and impactful day with rain and even snow anticipated as a large cold front passes through Maine. Skies will be cloudy with plenty of fog lasting through the morning. Rain will expand across the interstate by the late morning hours, reaching Downeast locations by midday/the early afternoon.

By the early to midafternoon, temperatures will start to drop across northwestern locations as the cold front passes through Maine. This will result in rain turning over to mixed precipitation and eventually snow across the Western Mountains, Moosehead region, and Northern Maine. Rain will continue steadily and at times heavily across the foothills, Interstate, Coast, and Downeast. A few thunderstorms are even possible closer to the coast.

Snow will expand across areas to the northwest of the interstate this evening, reaching all the way down to Interior Midcoast communities, the Bangor region, and Interior Downeast areas by sunset and into the start of the night. Precipitation will taper off across Western Maine shortly after sunset, before exiting the entire state around midnight tonight. High temps today will vary from the low 40s to low 50s with SSE to NW gusts reaching 20-25 mph.

WABI Weather 4/19/26 AM(WABI)

Snowfall totals will vary under 2 inches across Western, Northern, and Interior Downeast locations. However, a few pockets of 2-4 inches are possible, mostly in higher elevations across the mountains. Rainfall totals will accumulate around a half inch to three quarters of an inch when all is said and done.

Precipitation will be out of Maine by midnight tonight, with cloudy conditions giving way to mostly clear skies by sunrise. Lows overnight will dip back below freezing across much of the state, from the low 20s to mid 30s tonight, so cover up any plants or flowers outside. WNW gusts will reach 20-25 mph. A Small Craft Advisory is expected offshore.

Skies will be partly to mostly sunny across the interstate and coast on Monday morning. However, by the late morning to midday hours, clouds will build with a few scattered rain and snow showers in spots. Conditions will remain on the cloudier side in the afternoon before clearing up around sunset into the start of Monday night. Highs will be chilly on Monday, from the low 30s to upper 40s. WNW to SW gusts will be a bit breezy, reaching 20-25 mph, which will add to the wind chill factor.

High pressure will build on Monday night, remaining overhead on Tuesday. Skies will be sunny in the morning, becoming partly to mostly sunny in the afternoon. Highs will remain cool, in the 40s across the board with North to SW gusts only reaching 15-20 mph.

A weaker low-pressure system could bring showers across Maine on Wednesday and Thursday. There is a bit of model uncertainty on exactly when it will impact Maine. The GFS has impacts on Wednesday, while the EURO, GRAF, and GDPS models have most of the impacts on Thursday. We will continue to monitor this system and potential impacts. All it looks to provide as of now are cloudier skies and rain showers, with some snow shower chances farther to the North.

By Friday and Saturday, conditions are trending on the drier side with sunshine and average temperatures returning to the forecast.

SUNDAY: Highs from low 40s to low 50s. Cloudy with AM fog. Rain becoming widespread throughout the day, turning over to snow to the north & west during PM. SSE to NW gusts reach 20-25 mph.

MONDAY: Highs from low 30s to upper 40s. Partly to mostly sunny early. Developing clouds with scattered rain/snow showers by midday/afternoon. WNW to SW gusts reach 20-25 mph.

TUESDAY: Highs throughout the 40s. Sunnier AM. Partly to mostly sunny PM. North to SW gusts reach 15-20 mph.

WEDNESDAY: Highs from low 40s to low 50s. Mostly cloudy with a few rain showers. Few AM snow showers possible North. SSE to SSW gusts reach 20-25 mph.

THURSDAY: Highs from mid 40s to mid 50s. Cloudier skies with rain showers possible. Some AM snow showers possible North. NW gusts reach 20-25 mph.

FRIDAY: Highs from upper 40s to mid 50s. Partly cloudy. NNW gusts reach 20 mph.

Source link

Maine

18 jaw-dropping views from Katahdin to help you plan for warmer weather

Published

1 day ago

April 19, 2026

Press Room

18 jaw-dropping views from Katahdin to help you plan for warmer weather

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in September 2022.

When it comes to Maine hiking, summiting Katahdin is the ultimate achievement.

Maine’s tallest mountain stands at 5,269 feet, and there are a number of different trails hikers can take to get up and down Katahdin. And while some are harder than others, none are easy.

But the views are incredible.

Whether it’s the rugged terrain of the Knife Edge or the vast landscape of the 200,000 acres that compose Baxter State Park below, here’s a look at what it’s like to climb Katahdin.