Media Coverage

Sandy Maisel, the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government, was quoted in the article "Calling all challengers" in Pine Tree Watch. As speculation on whether or not Susan Collins will be re-elected builds, pundits are weighing in. “I think there is more dissatisfaction than at any other time," Maisel told Pine Tree Watch. "Certainly from Progressives, especially women, but also from conservative Republicans who are angry about her votes on healthcare and the (immigration) emergency.”

An article by Assistant Professor of Government Lindsay Mayka and government and economics major Andrés Lovón '21 was published in the May 23 Washington Post. Titled "How one company’s deep web of corruption took down governments across Latin America," the article breaks down a large bribery scandal that played out across several Latin American countries, including Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico. "Prosecutors have investigated and/or charged hundreds of high-level public officials for receiving Odebrecht kickbacks," Mayka and Lovón wrote about the Brazilian construction company. "After investigating Odebrecht’s bribery payments funneled through Swiss and U.S. banks, the U.S. Department of Justice called it 'the largest foreign bribery case in history.'”

Julia Nelson '19 and Catherine Fraser '19, students in the class Environment and Human Health, had letters to the editor published in Waterville's Morning Sentinel. Both letters urged support for L.D. 1433, “An Act to Protect the Environment and Public Health by Further Reducing Toxic Chemicals in Packaging,” a bill currently before the Maine Legislature. Nelson's letter, printed May 20, wrote that the bill "aligns with Gov. Janet Mills’ commitment to a healthy environment and healthy people in Maine as it would ban the unnecessary addition of a variety of chemicals that are used in packaging materials and have understood human health impacts." Fraser's letter ran May 19 and pointed out that "Maine is a leader in creating safer chemicals policy, regulating BPA in 2011 and 2013 under the Kid-Safe Products Act and flame-retardant chemicals in 2017. We need to regulate PFAS chemicals to reduce the body burdens and adverse health impacts associated with these harmful chemicals."

In an article titled "Where the Buffs Roam" Down East magazine asked "10 art-world luminaries," including Sharon Corwin, director and chief curator of the Colby College Museum of Art, "to share the under-the-radar places where they find great Maine art." Corwin recommended the Langlais Sculpture Preserve in Cushing to see the wooden sculptures by Bernard Langlais. “To experience these sculptures in the gorgeous landscape where he made them is really special," she told Down East.

Facsimile Cabinet of Women Origin Stories, an exhibition by Theaster Gates at the Colby College Museum of Art, was reviewed in the Boston Globe May 9. The exhibition includes cabinets holding "3,000 photographs and page mockups from Ebony and Jet through the years, specifically of women," the Globe reports. "There’s something monumental about it: The cabinets emanate significance and authority, a purpose-built archive of Very Important Things that had always been there, and always would be."

The Los Angeles Times cited James R. Fleming, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, in an article titled "The real climate change controversy: Whether to engineer the planet in order to fix it." The article is very loosely based on Fleming's book, Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control. 

In a Mainebiz article titled "Maine’s colleges and universities find new, innovative areas for growth," Colby is highlighted for its investment in downtown Waterville. President David A. Greene told Mainebiz that "in order to remain relevant, Maine colleges must continue building open, collaborative relationships with their communities." Of note were four projects Colby has undertaken downtown, including the construction of the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons and a proposed downtown art gallery. “The cloistered walls of our academic institutions are beautiful,” Greene said, “but they have to be permeable.”    

Neil Gross, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology, reviewed Biased, a new book by Jennifer Eberhardt, in the Sunday New York Times. Gross called the book an "unexpectedly poignant overview of the research on cognitive biases and stereotypes, especially racial bias in criminal justice."

An essay by Assistant Professor of English Aaron Hanlon, titled "The University Is a Ticking Time Bomb" appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education April 19. The essay highlights the large number of adjunct professors at colleges and universities and what Hanlon calls "the cruelty of adjunctification," where professors work year-to-year without the prospect of tenure. "We need to fundamentally reconceptualize the battle against adjunctification, shifting away from pity or outrage and toward arguments that universities themselves deny at their own peril," he argued.

Colby's annual spring day of service, Colby Cares Day, was covered in the Morning Sentinel April 20. The article, "Colby students lend a hand at Waterville area organizations for Colby Cares Day," focused on just two of the numerous sites where Colby students lent a hand: the L.C. Bates Museum and the Waterville Public Library. "This is a day where it’s not about us. It’s about realizing how fortunate we are to be Colby students and all the advantages we have in the Maine community,” senior Kallie Hutchinson told the Sentinel.