Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quote of the Day

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.  Nelson Mandela

Gotta love good stats

In the three-month period that ended this February, charitable giving rose 3% when compared with the same period last year. This represents the seventh consecutive period of increased giving, according to Chuck Longfield, Blackbaud’s chief scientist and creator of the Blackbaud Index.

100 thanks to 100 people who have given 100 dollars to COA this fiscal year!

This is my 100th post since starting the COA advancement blog.  How to mark this momentous achievement?  As Brianna Larsen would suggest, how about by saying thanks?

Here’s a “Hats Off” to 100 people who have given $100 to COA this year!

Acadia Corporation . Acadia Cottages .  Acadia Senior College .  Mr. Thomas Adelman .  Ms. Heather Albert-Knopp .  Ms. Jane Alexander . Ms. M. Bernadette Alie .  Mr. Victor Amarilla  . Mr. and Mrs. David Anderson .  Mrs. Diane Anderson .  Mr. Peter Anderson . Ms. Barbara Andrus .  Ms. Leslie Arnson .  Ms. Elizabeth Rousek Ayers . Ms. Sarah Baker .  Bar Harbor Lobster Bakes . .Dr. and Mrs. Robert Beekman . Mr. David Blittersdorf . Rev. Paul Boothby .  Ms. Virginia Brennan .  Mr. and Mrs. Charles Burton, II . Ms. Melinda Casey-Magleby .  Mr. Charles M. Chapin .  Mr. and Mrs. Elliot Cohen .  Bradley Coley .  Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Colson .  Mr. Douglas Coots . Dr. and Mrs. Melville Cote .  Mrs. Rose Cutler .  Ms. E. Nicole D’Avis .  Ms. Norah Davis .  Mr. Steve Demers  . Mr. Robert Dick .  Mr. Scott Dickerson .  Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Donnellon . Mr. Charles Donnelly . Mr. Millard Dority .  Mr. and Mrs. John Dreier .  Mr. George Ehrhardt, Jr.  .  Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Fernald .  Mr. Stephen Finucane .  Ms. Noelle Fischer .  Mr. Thomas Fisher .  Mrs. Margery Forbes .  Dr. and Mrs. Richard Fox .  Ms. Sarah Fraley .  Ms. Susan Freed .  Ms. Ardrianna French McLane .  Mr. Bernard Fuller  .  Furbush-Roberts Printing Co, Inc  .  Ms. Helen Geils . Dr. and Mrs. Donald Glotzer . Ms. Nina Goldman .  Mr. and Mrs. Robert Goodman .  Mr. and Mrs. John Gower .  Mr. and Mrs. Michael Gumpert . Mr. and Mrs. Charles Harwood .  Mr. Edward Haynsworth, III  . Ms. Barbara Hazard .  Ms. Mary Heffernon .  Mr. Eric Henry .  Dr. Josephine Todrank Heth  . Mr. and Mrs. David Hollenbeck .  Ms. Evelyn Mae Hurwich .  Mr. and Mrs. John Imhoff  . Ms. Susan Inches .  Ms. Stacy Jardine .  Ms. Catherine Johnson .   Jonesport Wood Co.  . Ms. Brianne Jordan  .  Ms. Constance Jordan .   Jordan-Fernald .   Ms. Esther Karkal  .  Mr. Nathaniel Keller .  Mrs. Jill Barlow – Kelley .  Mr. and Mrs. Steven Kiel .  Mr. and Mrs. Neil King .  Mr. and Mrs. Ted Koffman .  Dr. and Mrs. Leung Lee .  Ms. Elizabeth Leone Lockard .  Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Libby .  Ms. Jennifer Lief  . Ms. Abigail Littlefield .  Ms. Alice Long .  Dr. John Long, Jr. .  Mr. Hugh MacArthur .  Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Macko .  Mr. and Mrs. John Martin .  Ms. Kathleen Massimini .  Mr. and Mrs. William McDowell .  Dr. Clifton McPherson, III  . Ms. Jeanne McPherson .  Mr. James Merrill  . Mr. and Mrs. Keith Miller .  Mr. and Mrs. Henry Millon .  Mr. and Mrs. Robert Motzkin .  Mr. and Mrs. John Moyer . Ms. Anne Mulholland .  Dr. Victoria Murphy .  Mr. and Mrs. Robert Nathane, Jr.  . Mr. and Mrs. Rolando Negoita .  Janneke Seton Neilson .  Ms. Sarah Neilson .  Mr. W. Kent Olson  . Ms. Whitney Wing Oppersdorff  . Mr. Benoni Outerbridge  . Ms. Susan Parker .  Dr. and Mrs. Lewis Patrie .  Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Paul .  Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pennington .  Ms. Frances Pollitt .  Mr. Charles Provonchee .  Ms. Sheila Sonne Pulling .  Ms. Cathy Ramsdell .  .  Mr. and Mrs. L. Keith Reed Mr. and Mrs. John Repp .  Ms. Andrea Rhodes .  Ms. Sydney Roberts Rockefeller .  Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Rogers .  Mr. W. David Rosenmiller .  Alan Rosenquist .  Dr. and Mrs. Richard Rosenthal .  Dr. Stephen Ross .  Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rothstein .  Mr. Michael Rubin .  Mr. Robert Rubin .  Ms. Jodi Sargent .  Ms. Ellen Seh .  Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Sellers .  Ms. Rolanda Seymour-Sarkis .  Mr. and Mrs. James Shea .  Mr. Richard Simis .  Ms. Amy Sims .  Ms. Harriet Soares .  Sid and Katie Sowder .  Ms. Marie St. John .  Mr. Peter Stevick .  Ms. Dorie Stolley .  Dr. and Mrs. Sidney Strickland .  Mr. Don Taylor .  Mr. Craig TenBroeck .  Dr. and Mrs. T. Michael Toole .  Ms. Elena Tuhy-Walters .  Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Tynan .  Mr. David Van Houten .  Mrs. Wellington Vandeveer .  Mr. Martin Wallen .  Mr. Benjamin Walters .  Mrs. Constance Weeks .  Mr. Donald Weitzman .  Ms. Mary E. Welch .  Ms. Jane Whitney .   Williams Family Foundation .  Ms. Betsy Wisch .  Ms. Carol Woolman .  Mrs. George Young . Mrs. George Young.

Your name not here? This is the $100 list. If you gave more – thank you so much!  If you gave less – thank you so much, every gift counts! If you haven’t given – there’s still time in this fiscal year: www.coa.edu/support.

Quote of the Day

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.  ~Alvin Toffler

Quote of the Day

It’s surprising how much you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.  – credited to Lincoln, Truman, and Reagan

Cast Away

Abe and Esther are flying to Australia for a two-week vacation to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

Suddenly, over the public address system, the Captain announces, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am afraid I have some very bad news. Our engines have ceased functioning and we will attempt an emergency landing.  Luckily, I see an uncharted island below us and we should be able to land on the beach. However, the odds are that we may never be rescued and will have to live on the island for the rest of our lives.”

Thanks to the skill of the flight crew, the plane lands safely on the island…

An hour later Abe turns to his wife and asks, “Esther, did we pay our charity pledge check to Beth Shalom Synagogue yet?”

“No, sweetheart,” she responds.

Abe, still shaken from the crash landing then asks, “Esther, did we pay our United Jewish Appeal pledge?”

“Oh, no! I’m sorry. I forgot to send the check,” she says.

“One last thing, Esther. Did you remember to send a check for the Synagogue Building Fund this month?,”  he asks.

“Forgive me, Abie,” begged Esther. “I didn’t send that one, either.”

Abe grabs her and gives her the biggest hug and kiss in 40 years.

Esther pulls away and asks him, ” Abe! What’s gotten into you!?”

Abe answers, “They’ll find us!”

- Sent to us from our friend, Joel Epstein

Drinking the Kool Aid

Hi. My name is Lynn and I am a COA staff member. I have been here for 3 years, 11 months, and 25 days.

And the reason that I start my remarks as if I were at recovery meeting is because I have drunk the Kool Aid. I am a convert. I am a true believer. I am sold on COA. I believe this College is one of the most student-centered, progressive, effective institutions of higher learning that exists in America.

But – and I am speaking now to the parents when I ask this: What were you thinking?

Your most precious belongings – your bright, beautiful, special, children – were searching for a college. And they came to you and said: I want to apply to a school off the coast of Maine with a faculty of 30 and a student body of 300.

And you let them!

OK, you were hesitant. You asked “Are you sure?” so many times that they started rolling their eyes before you opened your mouth. You spoke about back up schools and that nice place in New Hampshire or Vermont or Virginia.  Remember the one? It had a soccer pitch and a pool. The one with a cafeteria that served soft serve ice cream and two kinds of meat. The one with your sorority or fraternity! The one with more than one major. Majors you had heard of before.

You may have driven them here for an interview and depending on what month it was, say July or September, you were thinking, “OK, I can see this.” But if it were March, and snow blocked the entrance of the island, and the sky, land and bay were battleship gray, you might have been thinking: “This isn’t going to fly.” But you humored your child and let her come to that realization on her own.

But she did not come to that realization. She wanted to come here!

And what can a parent do, really?

So, you drove your child to orientation and dropped him off early September.

College is the great training wheels of adulthood. What a strange age it is – old enough to vote, but too young to have a glass of wine with dinner. Legally. Old enough to go to war and drive tanks and fighter jets, but young enough for you to be charged extra for car insurance. It’s an in between age. You hold your breath and let them go. You drive out on Eden Street heading home wondering “How did this happen!?” as you look in the rearview mirror which is now a misty mess. But you told yourself that they were in the hands now of caring professionals: health care staff and student life staff and advisees and faculty and RAs.

And then of course we immediately try to drown them.

Yes, the Bar Island Swim is one of COA’s quirky traditions. All members of the community are peer pressured into going into 55 degree sea water with sometimes a rather healthy chop. They stand on their peer in thin bathing suits in September in Maine which can be Indian Summer or the true start of Fall. They dive in and are expected to swim to an island. There are safety vessels and counts, and checks – don’t worry! But if there is a better metaphor for diving in and starting a new life I am not sure what it is. The Bar Island Swim is the baptism of the new year. It’s refreshing and renewing and rewarding and really, really cold.

It’s not just students who participate. It’s the development staff member and the environmental law professor, the registrar and the admissions counselor, the professor of philosophy and the b and g crew. It’s the whole community, afloat.

In fact, most of what we do here at COA is the whole community afloat. From governance to search committees to personnel committee to this gathering, COA community works together to create an environment that is personal, intense, rigorous, caring, and mission-driven.

Our out-going President David Hales described COA as one of the only intentionally designed college in the US. COA was founded at an era in history when there was no such thing as an environmental protection agency. The word interdisciplinary was not yet well-known, much less used and far less understood. Perhaps you yourself were a bit unsure what that meant – or even how it would be useful in the “real world”.

But as your child came home for Thanksgiving break and summers talking about her course on the economics, and history and literature of the Yucatan – in the Yucatan – something might have clicked. Or when he told you that he was studying local organic food production and its effect on the environment, maybe things were beginning to be clear. Or perhaps when you heard about the class in philosophy that was co-taught by the graphics design teacher and the poetry professor. Your child who thought she was going to be a photojournalist was now also knee-deep in botany, or birds, or blubber and baleen.

I can say without hesitation that we are the best Interdisciplinary college in the world. We have a capacity for innovation at the creative edge between the traditional disciplines. We are really good at what we do – and what we do is an important distinctive approach in higher ed. The purpose of the College is to continually find ways to make higher education relevant to the world. Everyone knows that the issues of the world are complex. How do we educate students to think creatively and critically and be motivated to tackle those issues? The challenge, promise and success of a COA education has been to create leadership opportunities for each new generation of young men and women who are facing extraordinary challenges and opportunities as they step into their new lives.

We are proud of our students, your children, your young men and women now. We have faith in them and believe they will make a difference in the world. Thank you for sharing them with us. It has been our very great pleasure. I hope it has been yours too.

Postcard from Campus

At ACM, the doors are open. It’s warm in Gates. It was supposed to rain all day, but now it’s sunny, perfect. Students are sitting on the red bricks with open books and laptops. A sea-salted breeze buffers the daffodils outside TAB. The dogwood by the gallery blooms; its waxy white blossoms look like handmade Hollywood, not real Maine May. The trees by Blair Tyson look fake too. Tiny pink crepe paper flowers appear placed there by a kindergarten class that got bored half way through. A delicate, crumpled beauty. Students, here until June, see all this – eat lunch on the grass, dive off the pier before ice is out on Long Pond, rake the first mow, weed the gardens, sit on the rock walls in the sun. It’s not all pretty. The Shrine crumbles. The gazebo melts. The walls of the Beatrix Farrand Gardens are having a hard conversation with gravity. But the bones of the Seaside garden gleam. The copper beech outside Turrets opens its leave to offer pools the color of old pennies. And the sea breeze keeps the black flies at bay.