For institutions of higher education in the Whitest state in the country, handling changing demographics is a work in progress.
Keeping Maine’s colleges and universities thriving requires new approaches, including embracing diversity and addressing cultural understanding. While the institutional intent is clear, everyday realities don’t always live up to it.
In April 2015, Dr. David Greene, president of Colby College, addressed several hundred people gathered on campus to denounce racism. He was acting in response to racist comments that appeared on Yik Yak, a social media application that allows users to post anonymously. The comments had been posted after Colby students did what thousands of others throughout the United States were doing — demonstrating to protest racial injustice and the shooting deaths of unarmed Black men.
Greene and faculty members condemned the racist comments and called for discussions on campus around racial issues. Last September, Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, was invited to campus and addressed an audience of more than 200, encouraging students and faculty to be meaningfully engaged. In October, Colby and Thomas College joined together to discuss racial identity in Central Maine.
The discussions are meaningful and sincere, but issues run deep.
Telling numbers
According to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau last December, Maine’s population decreased by 928 people from July 2014 to July 2015. An influx of immigrants from Somalia has kept numbers from dropping significantly lower.
