Media Coverage

Assistant Professor of English Aaron Hanlon discussed political correctness and police accountability with Jennifer Rooks on Maine Public July 2. Hanlon's main argument is that "political correctness shields police and police departments from public accountability and public scrutiny."  Protecting police, soldiers, and first responders in discourse is a form of right-leaning political correctness, Hanlon said. "There is this feeling that it's kind of distasteful to criticize people who are in a really dangerous or stressful situation if you yourself have never been in that situation. The problem with that thinking is it can end up letting people off the hook in situations where they owe the public better conduct," he concluded.

An essay by Assistant Professor of English Aaron Hanlon appeared in the June 19 Chronicle of Higher Education. Titled "Higher Ed Is Not a Zero-Sum Game," the op-ed discusses alternatives to the competition for budget dollars and faculty positions that often plaque institutions of higher ed. "Academics tend to bristle at systems that reduce our lofty objectives to just another form of cutthroat competition. But cutthroat competition provides much of the structure of our professional lives," writes Hanlon, noting that public fund reductions for higher education, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, create a "survivalist mentality that filters down through departments, faculty members, and students, nudging all of us to do more and to do it better for the sake of showcasing our value in a zero-sum competitive system." Hanlon suggests that "the way forward is to cooperate across divisions. And we can’t do that without making budgeting more transparent and collaborative," he writes. "Faculty members don’t like being told something just is what it is without an evidence-based explanation. Opacity undermines trust. Administrators don’t like it when faculty members make unreasonable demands or carp about things that administrators are in no position to change. Being transparent about the budget addresses both of these problems. It’s also the beginning of a more collaborative process, one in which the faculty, among the most important of what we now call 'stakeholders,' might actually hold some of the stakes."

"Colby College announces plan to bring students back to campus in August" reads the headline on a June 30 story in the Morning Sentinel. The article goes on to detail specifics of the plan for bringing students back to campus and ensure their health and safety, as well as that of the greater community. “We care about the people of Waterville, we care about the Colby community and we want to make sure that we’re doing the very best by everyone,” President Greene told the Sentinel. The Bangor Daily News also ran a similar article, available here.    

Colby's plans for reopening campus and COVID-19 testing was included in a June 30 Maine Public story titled "COVID-19 Tests Planned For Thousands Of Students Heading Back To Maine College Campuses In The Fall." President Greene said that in addition to requiring face coverings, social distancing, and other safety measures, Colby will test students and employees before they return to campus and retest three times during the first few weeks of school. "Every week thereafter we will test them at least twice. We’re going to do 85,000 tests in the first semester alone, which is pretty close to what the entire state has done for over 1.3 million people since the beginning of this pandemic, and we’re going to do that our population of only 3,000 over the fall semester,” President Greene told Maine Public.

A Huffington Post story titled "Democrats Are Making Mitch McConnell The Star Of Senate Race Advertising" referenced a poll conducted by Professor of Government Dan Shea.  "A Colby College poll of Maine conducted in February showed that Trump was more popular in the state than McConnell," the Huff Post reported on its story reporting that "Democratic and liberal groups in three states with vulnerable Republican senators are running television and digital ads linking them to Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the GOP’s increasingly unpopular leader in the Senate." This story was also picked up by Yahoo! News.

The Portland Press Herald featured two startups founded by Colby students in its June 28 article "Waterville-based tech startups mark milestones in their development:" Easy Eats, founded by Christian Krohg '22 and Katharine Dougherty '22, and Sklaza, founded by Josh Kim '22.   Both tech-based businesses competed in the Greenlight Maine Collegiate Challenge pitch competition, "a statewide collaboration of entrepreneurial catalysts and corporate leaders that promotes and mentors the development and growth of business in the state," the Press Herald reported. Easy Eats, an app-based food-delivery service platform that delivers to college dormitory doors, is a finalist in the competition, while Sklaza, an online marketplace devoted to college students that "tackles overconsumption, encourages recycling, and environmental sustainability," was a semi-finalist. “Technology and innovation is a key area of growth for downtown Waterville, and the mid-Maine region, and the success of Easy Eats and Sklaza is both a testament to their founders’ hard work and to the support of incredibly dynamic partners including MTI, Bricks Coworking & Innovation Space, and Colby College,” said Garvan Donegan, director of planning and economic development at Central Maine Growth Council.  

For the most recent installation in its series "Ask Me," the Portland Press Herald reached out to Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies, for her thoughts on the question: When will life get back to normal? Gilkes believes that "Normal, as we once knew it, will never be the same." Because of the coronavirus pandemic and the racial unrest spurred from the George Floyd murder, there's a new level of consciousness. "The new normal, I think, will be a higher level of self-education, and a higher level of consciousness about race and racism, especially among white people in America."

A commentary in Fortune titled "Universities should support their most vulnerable students to champion education equity" mentioned Colby's new initiative, Pay it Northward, as an example of colleges taking care of their students during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Smaller institutions, too, illustrate how it is possible to make transformative commitments to equity, even with finite resources," the authors wrote. "Colby College, with its Pay It Northward initiative, has deployed its full alumni and professional network to connect each and every graduating senior with a postgraduate opportunity."

Assistant Professor of Biology Chris Moore was tapped to comment on a Portland Press Herald article titled "Widely cited health institute keeps missing the mark on Maine death projections." Models often get a bad rap, Moore said, because they're not perfect and numerically imprecise. "That is just the nature of dealing with complex systems," he told the Press Herald.  "Moore liked one of his student’s comparisons of infectious disease modeling to using a smartphone for driving directions. Your phone’s GPS should be able to predict with some precision when you will arrive in, say, nearby Fairfield from Waterville. But your ETA in Boston from Waterville depends on traffic, accidents and other factors," the article said. “When you are watching your phone and traveling, it is dynamically updating and taking into account all of these variables,” Moore said.

Maine colleges, including Colby, are releasing details for reopening their campuses, recounted in this June 15 Portland Press Herald article. "Colby College in Waterville will likely start in-person classes earlier than normal and look to complete the semester by Thanksgiving, though the planning process is ongoing and more detailed plans are expected next month, the college said in a statement," the article reports.