Media Coverage

Amanda Stent’s appointment as the inaugural director for the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence continued to generate media attention. A story by the Associated Press was picked up by U.S. News & World Report, Spectrum News, as well as Design & Development, and Maine Public Radio also did a segment on the news.

The Maine Beacon ran an article covering the Maine-based initiative Freedom & Captivity, launched this month. Included was an interview with Professor of Anthropology Catherine Besteman, who is leading the project. "I want a lot more Mainers caring about this issue, about hyper incarceration and the impact of mass incarceration,” she said. “I want a lot more Mainers to feel personally implicated and personally responsible for the system as it exists now, and I want a lot more Mainers to have clearer directions on how they can participate in bringing this system to an end."

The appointment of Amanda Stent as Colby’s inaugural director of the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence was noticed by a variety of influencers and outlets, including the Portland Press Herald. “She is in the midst of a distinguished career overseeing large teams of scientists and developing new technologies,” but is a “teacher and researcher at heart,” commented President Greene in the article.

The Wall Street Journal published a review of Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948-1960, which originated at the Colby Museum of Art. In addition to describing the exhibition as "vivid" and "refreshing," the critique noted the “superb catalogue” by Elizabeth Finch, co-organizer of the show and Lunder Chief Curator at the Colby Museum.

In an article by the Portland Press Herald discussing vaccination rates at college campuses around Maine, Douglas Terp, vice president and chief financial officer at Colby, reported that for the upcoming semester Colby "requires vaccines for both students and employees [and] is expecting to have a 98-percent vaccination rate among students upon arrival and a similar rate for employees."

Neil Gross, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology, was quoted in a story by Northeast Public Radio about police reform and arrest alternatives. Gross, who has researched racial disparities in vehicle stops, said, "This isn’t a single city problem. It’s a national problem. You know, being pulled over on a really frequent basis for no real reason at all is frustrating, maddening, terrifying and conveys that one doesn’t have the full protection, the full rights, under the law. So this is a huge problem."

The exhibition currently on view at the Colby College Museum of Art, Bob Thompson: This House is Mine, received a substantial review in the Boston Globe. Art critic Murray Whyte said the artist's first major retrospective in more than 30 years is "captivating, complex, and undeniably great. It’s also testament to how easily even powerful work can end up tucked away in history’s back pages."

Bixby Chocolate will open an artisan café in the forthcoming Paul J. Schupf Art Center in downtown Waterville, the Morning Sentinel reported. "Having a presence there is a golden opportunity for our company, and we’re truly looking forward to serving the visitors of this inspiring forum for enjoying the arts,” Bixby's CEO Kate McAleer told the Sentinel.

Religion News Services quoted Cheryl Townsend Gilkes as saying that the election of the Rev. Gina Stewart as the first woman president of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society is "absolutely historic." It's also a big development for the role of African American female religious leaders and "represents the reaching of very high ground in the struggle for equity, justice, and inclusion for Baptist women,” said Gilkes, Colby's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of African American Studies and Sociology.

A segment by ABC affiliate WMTW featured a tour of the Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center and interviews of staff, including Associate Director of Athletics Pat Ratke, who said that a rival athletics director called the new facility the "Disneyworld for college athletics."