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Unity College (Maine)
Encyclopedia
Unity College is a private
, liberal arts
college
in Unity
, Waldo County
, Maine
. It is located 35 miles (56.3 km) southwest of Bangor, Maine
and 25 miles (40.2 km) from the Maine coast. The college offers an undergraduate education that emphasizes the environment and natural resources throughout the academic program. In 2007 the school was ranked by U.S. News & World Report
as one of America's Best Colleges. In 2010 it was named to the Princeton Review list of the eighteen leading "green" colleges, having received the highest possible rating. In 2010, Unity College was named to the top 30 of the Washington Monthly college rankings, and was one of eighteen U.S. colleges and universities named to The Princeton Review’s Green Rating Honor Roll. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching also selected Unity College for its 2010 Community Engagement Classification. The college has a long-lived reputation for providing recruits to federal and state conservation
agencies, and, more recently, for placing students in graduate school for environmental science
research.
.
, and anemometric studies in support of community wind power
development in the state of Maine.
The majors of study are: Adventure Education Leadership; Adventure Therapy; Agriculture, Food and Sustainability; Aquaculture and Fisheries; Conservation Law Enforcement; Ecology; Environmental Analysis; Environmental Biology; Environmental Education; Environmental Policy; Environmental Humanities, Environmental Science, Environmental Writing, Forestry, General Studies; Landscape Horticulture; Liberal Studies; Marine Biology; Wildlife; Wildlife Biology; Captive Wildlife Care and Education; Wildlife Conservation; Parks, Recreation & Ecotourism; and Sustainability, Design and Technology.
The minor areas of study are: Adventure Therapy, Chemistry, English, Environmental Policy, Gender Studies, Geology, Horticulture, Human Ecology and Sustainable Development, Natural and Cultural Heritage Interpretation, Philosophy, Psychology, Studio Arts, Wildlife and Zoology.
The college is a leader in the movement towards sustainability
. The campus produces exceptionally low climate emissions of around 4,300 pounds per student per year, achieved through a program of energy audits and retrofits to buildings. All recent and new buildings are or will be low or zero carbon. The first of these is the so-called Unity House, designed and built by Bensonwood architects and timber frame builders of New Hampshire. All students take a required course in sustainability in their junior year, including several weeks on climate change
. The college recently began to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Sustainability Design and Technology, and, in conjunction with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener's Association, a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture, Food and Sustainability, both begun Fall 2008. Unity College will be graded in the College Sustainability Report Card 2010 edition.
There are five residence options on campus. The Eastview, Westview, and Wood Halls are designated for freshmen. Upperclassmen have the option of living in The Cottages, Maplewood, Cianchette Hall, or off campus. The residential community is vibrant and close knit resulting in over 60% of the student body living on-campus.
The Dorothy W. Quimby Library houses a collection of over 50,000 volumes to more than 400 scholarly and general-interest periodicals. The collection has been assembled primarily to support the college's curriculum, but additionally it serves as the public library for area towns; its holdings include a large collection of general fiction and children's books.
Gifted to the College in 2007, Unity also owns and operates the Unity College Centre for the Performing Arts and the Bert & Coral Clifford Field of Dreams. The Unity College Centre for the Performing Arts is located at 42 Depot Street in downtown Unity and boasts a year round performance schedule that brings outstanding music and theater to mid-Maine. The Field of Dreams is located on the shores of nearby Lake Winnecook and consists of baseball, softball, and soccer fields used by both the college and local recreational leagues. The Field also has a one-mile walking trail, playground and picnic facilities. Both the Unity College Centre for the Performing Arts and the Bert & Coral Clifford Field of Dreams were recognized in 2010 as destinations in the state of Maine by the Bangor Daily News.
Unity College strives to create a campus where college facilities can also serve as learning laboratories. The College completed Unity House, a net-zero home serving as the president's residence in 2009 and has recently broken ground for a student residence that will meet the strict PassivHaus standard for 2011, the first net-zero carbon college dormitory in the USA.
(YSCC) which is a division II member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association
(USCAA). The men's varsity sports are: Basketball
, Cross-Country
, and Soccer. The women's varsity sports are: Basketball
, Cross-Country
, Soccer and Volleyball
. Additionally Unity College has a number of club sports (Woodsmen, ice hockey
, Indoor Soccer
and Ultimate Frisbee
) and intramural sports
.
44°36′14.05"N 69°19′50.90"W
Private university
Private universities are universities not operated by governments, although many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. Private universities are...
, liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
in Unity
Unity, Maine
Unity is a town in Waldo County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,889 at the 2000 census. The town is the service center for the northern portion of Waldo County...
, Waldo County
Waldo County, Maine
Waldo County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maine. As of 2010, the population was 38,786. Its county seat is Belfast.Waldo County was founded on 7 February 1827 from a portion of Hancock County...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. It is located 35 miles (56.3 km) southwest of Bangor, Maine
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
and 25 miles (40.2 km) from the Maine coast. The college offers an undergraduate education that emphasizes the environment and natural resources throughout the academic program. In 2007 the school was ranked by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
as one of America's Best Colleges. In 2010 it was named to the Princeton Review list of the eighteen leading "green" colleges, having received the highest possible rating. In 2010, Unity College was named to the top 30 of the Washington Monthly college rankings, and was one of eighteen U.S. colleges and universities named to The Princeton Review’s Green Rating Honor Roll. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching also selected Unity College for its 2010 Community Engagement Classification. The college has a long-lived reputation for providing recruits to federal and state conservation
Conservation movement
The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
agencies, and, more recently, for placing students in graduate school for environmental science
Environmental science
Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical and biological sciences, to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems...
research.
History
The college was founded in 1965 as the Unity Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences with a faculty of 15 and a student body of 39. The founders, a group of local business people, were looking for ways to counter economic decline in the adjacent town of Unity. Two years later it changed its name to Unity College and in 1969 awarded degrees to its first graduating class of 24. The school has continued to grow and has today one of the broadest environmental and natural resources programs in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Academic program
The academic program comprises a broad environmental curriculum with 24 different majors and 13 minors. All of the degrees offered focus in environmental or natural resource studies. The college has a reputation for hands-on and outdoor study, and for providing students a gateway to outdoor careers. Alumni go on to careers in environmental policy, renewable energy management, biological research, state park & wildlife refuge management, natural sciences education, and wilderness recreation organization. Placements to graduate schools, particularly in environmental science research, policy, and law, have increased considerably in the last decade. Faculty credit this success to small class sizes and the very high likelihood that students will have participated in research teams, led by faculty, conducting various research projects, many of which are for the state or federal government. Current examples include examination of the effects of rockweed harvesting on the nearby Maine coast, a study of the spread of the hemlock wooly aldelgid, a major parasite on this important forest tree, a study of Maine lake sediments to help trace the Younger DryasYounger Dryas
The Younger Dryas stadial, also referred to as the Big Freeze, was a geologically brief period of cold climatic conditions and drought between approximately 12.8 and 11.5 ka BP, or 12,800 and 11,500 years before present...
, and anemometric studies in support of community wind power
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
development in the state of Maine.
The majors of study are: Adventure Education Leadership; Adventure Therapy; Agriculture, Food and Sustainability; Aquaculture and Fisheries; Conservation Law Enforcement; Ecology; Environmental Analysis; Environmental Biology; Environmental Education; Environmental Policy; Environmental Humanities, Environmental Science, Environmental Writing, Forestry, General Studies; Landscape Horticulture; Liberal Studies; Marine Biology; Wildlife; Wildlife Biology; Captive Wildlife Care and Education; Wildlife Conservation; Parks, Recreation & Ecotourism; and Sustainability, Design and Technology.
The minor areas of study are: Adventure Therapy, Chemistry, English, Environmental Policy, Gender Studies, Geology, Horticulture, Human Ecology and Sustainable Development, Natural and Cultural Heritage Interpretation, Philosophy, Psychology, Studio Arts, Wildlife and Zoology.
The college is a leader in the movement towards sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
. The campus produces exceptionally low climate emissions of around 4,300 pounds per student per year, achieved through a program of energy audits and retrofits to buildings. All recent and new buildings are or will be low or zero carbon. The first of these is the so-called Unity House, designed and built by Bensonwood architects and timber frame builders of New Hampshire. All students take a required course in sustainability in their junior year, including several weeks on climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
. The college recently began to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in Sustainability Design and Technology, and, in conjunction with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener's Association, a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture, Food and Sustainability, both begun Fall 2008. Unity College will be graded in the College Sustainability Report Card 2010 edition.
Campus
The campus is located on 240 acre (0.9712464 km²) overlooking Unity and nearby Unity Pond. The original section of the campus consisted of a farm with several of the farm buildings serving as residence halls, classrooms and administrative offices. The original farmhouse now is home to the College Development, Public Safety, and Sustainability offices. Agriculture has returned to the campus through the Agriculture, Food, and Sustainability degree program, a partnership with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener's Association, and the extensive gardens run by the "Veggies for All" program, which provided 15,000 pounds of food to the Unity Area Food Pantry in 2010.There are five residence options on campus. The Eastview, Westview, and Wood Halls are designated for freshmen. Upperclassmen have the option of living in The Cottages, Maplewood, Cianchette Hall, or off campus. The residential community is vibrant and close knit resulting in over 60% of the student body living on-campus.
The Dorothy W. Quimby Library houses a collection of over 50,000 volumes to more than 400 scholarly and general-interest periodicals. The collection has been assembled primarily to support the college's curriculum, but additionally it serves as the public library for area towns; its holdings include a large collection of general fiction and children's books.
Gifted to the College in 2007, Unity also owns and operates the Unity College Centre for the Performing Arts and the Bert & Coral Clifford Field of Dreams. The Unity College Centre for the Performing Arts is located at 42 Depot Street in downtown Unity and boasts a year round performance schedule that brings outstanding music and theater to mid-Maine. The Field of Dreams is located on the shores of nearby Lake Winnecook and consists of baseball, softball, and soccer fields used by both the college and local recreational leagues. The Field also has a one-mile walking trail, playground and picnic facilities. Both the Unity College Centre for the Performing Arts and the Bert & Coral Clifford Field of Dreams were recognized in 2010 as destinations in the state of Maine by the Bangor Daily News.
Unity College strives to create a campus where college facilities can also serve as learning laboratories. The College completed Unity House, a net-zero home serving as the president's residence in 2009 and has recently broken ground for a student residence that will meet the strict PassivHaus standard for 2011, the first net-zero carbon college dormitory in the USA.
Sports
Unity College (mascot the "Rams") competes in the of the Yankee Small College ConferenceYankee Small College Conference
Yankee Small College Conference is a division II conference in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. The conference consists of two-year and four-year schools from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont...
(YSCC) which is a division II member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association
United States Collegiate Athletic Association
The United States Collegiate Athletic Association is a national organization in the USA for the intercollegiate athletic programs of less than 100 small colleges, community collegs and junior colleges. It holds 11 "National Championship" tournaments in seven sports...
(USCAA). The men's varsity sports are: Basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, Cross-Country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, and Soccer. The women's varsity sports are: Basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, Cross-Country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, Soccer and Volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
. Additionally Unity College has a number of club sports (Woodsmen, ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
, Indoor Soccer
Indoor soccer
Indoor soccer or arena soccer, or six-a-side football in the United Kingdom, is a game derived from association football adapted for play in an indoor arena such as a turf-covered hockey arena or skating rink. The most important difference in play is that the indoor field is surrounded by a wall...
and Ultimate Frisbee
Ultimate (sport)
Ultimate is a sport played with a 175 gram flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end zone in American football or rugby...
) and intramural sports
Intramural sports
Intramural sports or intramurals are recreational sports organized within a set geographic area. The term derives from the Latin words intra muros meaning "within walls", and was used to indicate sports matches and contests that took place among teams from "within the walls" of an ancient city...
.
External links
44°36′14.05"N 69°19′50.90"W