Courtesy/University of New England
UNE President James Herbert in the Makerspace, a student laboratory for creation and building.
Updated: August 30, 2019
With $1.3M gift, UNE plans to become 'regional leader' in business education
Courtesy / University of New England
University of New England President James Herbert said a $1.3 million gift from the P.D. Merrill Charitable Trust "will allow us to establish our business department as a regional leader."
The University of New England plans to use a $1.3 million donation from the P.D. Merrill Charitable Trust to expand its business and innovation programs, starting with the creation of an endowed business department chair.
"UNE has historically been known for our health sciences programs," and for having Maine's only medical and dental schools, UNE President James Herbert told Mainebiz Thursday. "Part of what I've been doing, without losing sight of our core business, is to really expand into other areas."
Herbert succeeded 11-year-veteran Danielle N. Ripich, the 2016 Mainebiz Nonprofit Business Leader of the Year, as UNE president in July 2017.
After expanding UNE's marine programs over the past couple of years including adding a marine affairs program, Herbert has several goals in mind for the $1.3 million gift.
This fall, UNE will launch a nationwide search for the first P.D. Merrill Endowed Chair of Business.
Herbert said he aims to have someone in place by the 2020-21 academic year, or as early as January if the person hired wants to start then.
"An endowed named chair is a big deal," Herbert said in a phone interview. "Simply having that name is an important recruiting tool."
As the school searches for a new business department leader, the current department head, Tami Gower, will move into a new role to build UNE's accounting program. Herbert praised Gower for her "great work" at UNE, including helping launch its Makerspace, a center of student innovation.
He said business enrollment is one of the fastest areas of growth at UNE, which currently has 100 business majors.
"What we're really looking to do is create more opportunities not just for business majors but also for business minors and certificate programs," he said. "We want every student at UNE who wishes to get a foundation in business, entrepreneurship and innovation to be able to do that," he said, "even students who aren't business majors."
In an interview with Mainebiz earlier this year at UNE's Biddeford campus, Herbert spoke of UNE as a "combination of this very vibrant and entrepeneurial kind of place" in a beautiful setting. "Usually you don't find those two things in the same place," he said, "but here we've managed to foster both of those and it creates this really interesting community."
Adding to the Makerspace
UNE will also use a portion of the $1.3 million gift to provide new resources for the Makerspace, which opened in the spring of 2016.
Herbert said that while a lot of colleges have maker spaces open only to engineering or design students, the "cool thing" about UNE's is that it is open to students across the university.
They use it to come up with mechanical or digital solutions to real-life problems, and they work in interdisciplinary teams "so they can develop a business plan along with developing the prototype solution."
Herbert said UNE will use the new funds to create a position at the Makerspace focused on digital applications.
It will also bring in visiting faculty and post-doctoral researchers to work with students on projects, building on a pilot program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that Herbert said has had great results.
"It's a lot cheaper to bring in experts from MIT," he said, "than it is to hire full-time engineering and computer scientists ourselves."
The Makerspace will be named for P.D. Merrill.
P.D. Merrill's legacy
P.D. (Paul Douglas) Merrill, a prominent Portland community business leader who died in 2007, chaired Merrill Industries and established Merrill's Marine Terminal in Portland with his father.
He joined UNE's Board of Trustees in 1984, serving as chair from 1995-2000 when Westbrook College became part of UNE.
Cianbro Corp. Chairman and former CEO Peter Vigue, a trustee of the P.D. Merrill Charitable Trust, said in a statement that "not only did I consider P.D. a friend, but a man of outstanding principles and integrity that were unmatched."
John Achatz, a trustee of the P.D. Merrill Charitable Trust, added that Merrill cared a lot about UNE and more generally about business leadership in Maine.
"He did not like putting his name on things, but he would be quietly pleased that the university has chosen to honor him in this way," Achatz said. "We are glad to support UNE in enhancing educational resources for future business leaders."
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments