File Photo / Jim Neuger
Laurie Lachance is president of Thomas College, which said it plans an in-person graduation ceremony for May 15.
Updated: January 11, 2021
2021 Economic Forecast
2021 forecast for Maine's higher education field: Grooming resilient grads
Photo / Courtesy University of Maine System
UMaine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy, center (with tie)
No matter how the academic year ends for Maine’s colleges and universities, the widespread use of technology for remote instruction will long outlast the pandemic.
“If there is a silver lining to be found in the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is how our important work in this area will expand educational access and solve the attainment challenges we face in many of our rural Maine communities — especially if the anticipated investments in broadband materialize,” says University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy, Connecticut’s former governor.
Besides overseeing Maine’s largest educational enterprise made up of seven universities serving nearly 30,000 students, Malloy led a group that drafted last fall’s plan for safely reopening the state’s 38 institutions of higher learning.
Malloy notes that the UMaine System’s science-informed safe return to campus last fall was among the country’s best, and predicts that Maine’s public universities will also lead when it comes to deploying the vaccine.
At the same time, he is bracing for new challenges following pandemic-related disruptions to the college aspirations of last spring’s high school graduates.
“Public higher education has no more urgent task in 2021,” he says, “than to work with parents and mentors and local educators to keep students of all abilities and backgrounds on track and prepared for post-secondary educational and skill development opportunities.”
Malloy’s prediction about this year’s college grads: “They will be the most resilient and best-prepared class of 21st-century learners to ever earn a college degree. They will graduate … with not just knowledge and skills, but more importantly, the adaptability to be competitive in a post-pandemic, digital economy that has been thrust forward a decade or more by the need to overcome COVID-19 disruptions.”
Thomas College President Laurie Lachance is equally upbeat about higher education’s next chapter.
“Maine’s many colleges and universities have worked together closely since the pandemic began in March, and have modeled tenacity, ingenuity, hard work, collaboration and resiliency — the very attributes we work to impart on our students,” she says.
“Higher education in Maine has shown the nation how to provide a quality, in-person learning experience during a global pandemic, keeping the students we serve on track to completing their degrees and strengthening Maine’s economy.”
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