UMM Diversity Policy
The University of Maine at Machias will seek a campus community that includes--and an environment that values--differences in race, ethnicity, ability/disability, gender, sexual orientation, geography, religion, income, age, and ideology. The campus community includes the people who live, work, and/or take classes, and provide services to the campus.
Vision Statement on the Role of Diversity in Higher Education
Our vision of diversity is that of a resource that invigorates the learning process and energizes the campus community being mindful that it can be a source of misunderstandings and wasted potential. Diversity is the tie that binds, linking together the curricular and the extra-curricular, the individual and the collective, and one group to another. Diversity also underscores the need to examine, reaffirm, and cultivate certain individual and institutional values. Experience has shown that diversity initiatives are most like to succeed in environments characterized by strongly shared values, including: the value of academic excellence, civic responsibility, self-respect, and good will towards members of the campus community. Diversity invigorates the two major types of learning that take place in the university: academic learning that occurs in the classroom and interpersonal learning that takes place outside the classroom in sites like residence halls and the library.
Academic Learning:
The respect for diversity entails a set of values, outlooks, and social practices that are indispensable for academic excellence. Open-mindedness, for example, is a hallmark both of academics and multi-culturalism. The recognition of human differences and nuances of belief and behavior within all groups bypasses the tendency to think in gross generalizations and over-simplifications. Individuals from different backgrounds teach others to interpret ideas or written works in new and unexpected ways. Differences between and within groups fuel academic dialog. Without difference and even disagreement in perspective, a dialog is impossible! Through collaborative exchange and interaction comes the release of creative energies. Through variety, learning can mix with the pleasure of discovery and experimentation.
Interpersonal Learning:
The respect for diversity also provides the basis for interpersonal learning that takes place outside the classroom. Attending college opens up unique opportunities of cultural exposure. In the university setting students regularly interact interpersonally with individuals from diverse backgrounds, which can shatter barriers that separate groups and which can energize even mundane social interactions, making them exciting opportunities to broaden a student's horizons. Students also come to recognize differences and disagreements within communities--a recognition that breaks down misconceptions that stereotype groups. Exposure to diversity outside the classroom teaches students to reexamine their own underlying assumptions and values, which can lead to a reaffirmation or transformation of those norms.
UMM Diversity Committee Members 2008-09
Lois-Ann Kuntz, Arts and Letters Faculty lkuntz@maine.edu
Carlos Roldan, Environmental & Biological Sciences Faculty croldan@maine.edu
Daniel Qualls, Professional Studies Faculty dqualls@maine.edu
Prabh Jot (PJ) Singh, Admissions AAI psingh@maine.edu
Amanda Norbie, Student amanda.norbie@maine.edu
Derik Lee, Student derik-lee@hotmail.com
Jim Thompson, Board of Visitors twojaysthompson@verizon.net
Betty Kelley, Assistant to the President bkelley@maine.edu
Diversity-Awareness Sites of Interest
Learn about Maine's Passamaquoddy Tribe, with locations at Princeton and Indian Township.
Would you like to know more about UMM's student organization, the 100% Society? They advocate awareness and acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and other groups' issues.
At FreeRice you can play games that build knowlege while earning food for those in need! FreeRice is a sister site of Poverty.com and partners with Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the United Nations World Food Program. Their two goals are to provide education to everyone for free and to help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.
Campus Pride's site, Stop the Hate, promotes safer college environments for LGBT college students.
Southern Poverty Law Center provides a site where you can Sign a Petition to stand against hate.
Learn about hate groups in your area by using the Hate Map at a Southern Poverty Law Center site.
Southern Poverty Law Center provides publications that teach you ways to fight hate at 10 Ways to Fight Hate and to respond to everyday bigotry at Speak Up!
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals, and protects civil liberties.
Diversity-Related Campus Events
2-4-09 "Paper Clips" Documentary Film Showing - 7 pm, Science 102:
Paper Clips is a project that began at a middle school in a rural, mostly white and protestant, tiny town in Tennessee. Students began collecting paper clips, each of which represented a human life lost in the Nazis' systematic slaughter of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, those with physical or mental disorders, dissidents, those of various religious faiths, and others. In researching their project, the students discovered that paper clips were worn by Norwegians as a protest during World War II. This inspirational project resulted in what is now known as the Children's Holocaust Memorial in Whitwell, Tennessee.
3-15-09 International Student Presentation - 6 pm, Portside:
UMM student from Scotland, Greg Dawson, will give a presentation on his country. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
PRIDE WEEK EVENTS - Sponsored by UMM's 100% Society:
4-7-09 "Milk", film about the life and times of the first openly gay elected official - 7 pm, Portside.
4-8-09 "Chicks With Picks", musical event including the local band, Hurricane Bertha, whose members include Jenny Garguillo, Loie Mellerup, Nichole Cote, and Amy Dolloff, as well as Bangor singer-songwriter, Jessi Mallory - 7 pm, Portside.
4-9-09 "UMM's Bad Little Drag Show" - 8 pm, Portside.
4-10-09 West Coast Comedienne, Sabrina Matthews - 8 pm, Portside.
4-11-09 "Rainbow Ball", an outreach event to all Maine high school students that are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or allies to attend a prom with the person they would like to. The event is free to high school students and there will be weekend events for them. The Rainbow Ball is open to all others for an admission charge of $20 per couple, or $15 for individuals, and will have a Cabaret theme. Time TBA.