September 2010 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 7. Waterfront News M A I N E M A R I T I M E A C A D E M Y N E W S
MMA WELCOMES THE CLASS OF 2014 CASTINE – Maine Maritime Academy fac- ulty, staff, and students began welcoming new students to campus yesterday for the first session of annual orientation. Following a new orientation programming format that was successfully piloted last year at the col- lege, the college will host three separate ori- entation sessions for students in the Class of 2014. All new students must attend a session. According to organizers, the new format, focused on small group discussions and ac- tivities, enables orientation staff and student leaders to provide a more welcoming environ- ment for new students. The orientation pro- grams, scheduled for Aug. 16-18, Aug. 20-22, and Aug. 24-26 utilize workshops, lectures, recreational activities, and team-building events to help introduce many aspects of the college, including academic policies, the judi- cial system, student services, and co-curricu- lar activities. Particular sessions have been timed to coordinate with the start of fall ath- letic team practices to enable new student- athletes to report to the start of their season. Regimental Preparatory Training (RPT), a series of training and team-building exer- cises designed to introduce incoming stu- dents to membership in the college’s Regi- ment of Midshipmen, is coordinated with the three orientation sessions. The program, a requirement for those incoming students in- tending to become a third mate or third assis- tant engineer upon graduation, is open to all students on a voluntary basis. It emphasizes traditions of the MMA Regiment of Midship- men, military drill, and aquatic training. The program includes an extensive introduction to the training ship State of Maine, and stu- dents live aboard ship, participate in tours and familiarization exercises, and complete safety-related drills. RPT will be conducted from the evening of Sun., Aug. 22, to the afternoon of Sun., Aug. 29, 2010. According to Capt. Jeff Loustaunau, MMA commandant of midshipmen, particu- lar RPT activities may be noticeable to the public. Student marching units will utilize public routes linking the waterfront and main college campuses. Daily tours of the Town of Castine will be conducted each evening from 4-5 p.m., and will focus on familiarizing stu- dents with community resources, municipal offices and services, and local businesses. RPT includes an athletic field day, en- couraging friendly competition between the 4 student companies. Activities include relay races, tug of war, and strength competitions. The field day, scheduled for Sat., Aug. 28, at 1-3:30 p.m., will take place on Ritchie Field, the college’s all-weather in-filled synthetic turf field. In the event of rain, the field day will be held in the college’s fieldhouse. Spectators are welcome and encouraged to attend. All new students will convene on the evening of Fri., Aug 27, to begin a series of weekend-long class unification and orienta- tion activities. Continuing an MMA seafar- ing tradition, new students will join together in a confidence jump from the side of the training ship, State of Maine. The jump, born out of practical training needs for students entering seagoing careers, also serves as a class unification activity and is symbolic of a willingness to embrace the numerous adven-
tures and challenges typical of a Maine Mari- time Academy education. This year’s jump is scheduled to take place on Sun., Aug. 29, from 8-11 a.m. Community spectators are encouraged to attend and offer their support to new students. Returning students are expected to ar- rive on campus on Sun., Aug. 29, with classes beginning Mon., Aug. 30. Fall semester high- lights will include Homecoming Weekend, Oct. 1-3, and Family & Friends Weekend, Oct. 8-10.
MMA NAMED A TOP U.S. COLLEGE IN THE NORTH
Maine Maritime Academy (MMA) has been listed in the rankings of the nation’s top baccalaureate colleges for the northern re- gion in the 2011 edition of “Best Colleges” by U.S. News & World Report. The college was also ranked among the nation’s top 50 engi- neering colleges in the category of “Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs.” Based solely on a survey of engineering deans and senior faculty conducted during the spring of 2010, Maine Maritime Academy was ranked 42nd in the undergraduate engi- neering category. Maine Maritime Academy was ranked for the fourth consecutive year in the section titled, “Best Baccalaureate Colleges (By Re- gion)”. MMA was placed as 9th overall in the listing of public and private colleges located in the north, a region defined in the publica- tion as spanning from Maine to Maryland. In the last two editions, MMA was placed at 10th, and the previous year as 14th within the overall regional category.
In all four editions, MMA has held on to the third position within the regional list as a top public college within its regional category. Placing behind two federally run academies, Maine Maritime Academy was the first state- funded college to appear on that list in each of the four most recent editions. The college was also listed in a number of sub-categories for the region: a 7th place ranking in the category “Economic Diversity Among Top-Ranked Schools: Baccalaureate Colleges (North)”, and a 7th place ranking in the category titled, “Average Freshmen Re- tention Rates: Baccalaureate Colleges (North)” based on an 83% first-year student retention rate. For the second year, MMA was ranked as number 10 among its northern baccalaureate counterparts in the category “Highest Graduation Rate”.
MMA was founded in 1941 by an act of the 90th Maine Legislature and has no manda- tory service obligations for any of its gradu- ates. The college will begin the 2010-2011
academic year on Monday, August 30, with maximum enrollment.
According to U.S. News & World Report, the category in which Maine Maritime Academy was evaluated, was defined as institutions that “…focus almost entirely on the under- graduate education experience and offer a broad range of degree programs in the liberal arts (which account for fewer than half of all bachelor’s degrees granted), and in fields such as business, nursing, and education.” U.S. News & World Report reported that there were 319 baccalaureate colleges within the four regions that they considered nation- wide.
Publishers noted that the new list, marking the 27th edition of the publication, measures up to 16 indicators of academic performance for each college and university. Each indica- tor is assigned a weight (expressed as a percentage) based on their judgments about which measures of quality matter most. The colleges are ranked based on their composite weighted score. The numeric rank of roughly the top three-fourths of schools in each of the 10 categories are published; the remaining lowest ranked schools in each category are placed into the Second Tier, listed alphabeti- cally, based on their overall score in their category. To be included in the rankings, a college or university must be regionally ac- credited and have a total enrollment of at least 200 students.
Each year, the ranking methodology is reas- sessed to stay current with developments in higher education. For example, this year U.S. News has changed the category names to make the rankings more understandable and to reduce confusion, more schools have been ranked, and graduation rate performance is more heavily weighted. The results, along with a complete summary of the methodology used to rank each school, are online at http:/
colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/ best-colleges
MAINE MARITIME ACADEMY TO HOLD STUDENT INVOLEMENT FAIR, TO WELCOME COMMUNITY GROUPS TO CAMPUS
The Maine Maritime Academy Depart- ment of Residential Life will sponsor a com- munity involvement fair on campus this fall in
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an effort to encourage student volunteerism in the community. The Third Annual Student Involvement Fair will be held on campus in early September to encourage interaction between students attending the college and community organizations seeking volun- teers and members. Scheduled for Thurs., Sept, 9, from 5-6:30 p.m., in the college’s student center, the Fair is designed to pro- vide information to students on the variety of community activities available in the local area, provide an on-campus setting for stu- dents to feel welcomed and encouraged to join local groups, and provide an opportunity for civic leaders to extend an invitation to students to join their outreach efforts. The Fair will also allow on-campus student clubs and organizations to showcase their work and recruit members.
Lauren Garrett, director of residential life and student services at the college, invites repre- sentatives from community agencies, non- profit organizations, service or volunteer corps, and faith-based agencies to join in this year’s Fair. Garrett said that the ultimate goal of the event is to provide students with an accelerated way to become involved in and beyond the MMA campus community. She welcomes all community groups looking to provide healthy opportunities for personal growth through volunteerism and commu- nity fellowship to attend participate in the event. Groups are encouraged to send at least one representative to enable students to ask questions of a participating agency in order to get an idea of the expectations of the group and to discover ways in which their talents,
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