Media Coverage

Following the announcement of Colby's bold initiative, Pay in Northward, President Greene was interviewed on NPR's Marketplace Morning Report program to discuss the College's plan to find postgraduate opportunities for members of the Class of 2020. The show's host, David Brancaccio, asked about what types of jobs Colby hopes to secure for its graduates. "It’s important that they end up with a great job," President Greene responded. "I’ll tell you, really interesting studies that have been done on what happens to graduates and recessionary jobs, and their wages are often depressed for 15 years or more when they come out in a substandard job. One of the ways that they often catch up is by job-hopping. So if we can avoid that for this graduating class, and I think we can, then it’ll make a huge difference for them."

Neil Gross, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology, was a guest on New Hampshire Public Radio's show Lifelines discussing collective trauma in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. When asked what can help heal collective trauma, Gross responded, "I think a big part of it has to do with leadership and what people, from politicians, to faith leaders, to writers and others, what kinds of stories they can tell, what kinds of things they can say to help people put things in perspective and get a better sense on what's happened and how they can move forward and find meaning in moving forward."

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the shootings at Kent State, Down East magazine released the article "The Moment That Presaged a Maine Senator’s Downfall," which recalls a May 10, 1970, event with the senator at Colby, six days after Kent State. "Shocked by the horror of it all, Colby junior and student government president Stephen Orlov had spent the previous week contacting his fellow student representatives at colleges across Maine, convincing 16 of them to endorse a telegram inviting the state’s two senators to an all-Maine student event. Its wording was more command than invitation: 'Return home and address yourself to the people whom you represent.'”

Associate Professor of Psychology Christopher Soto, an expert on personality psychology, was quoted in an April 30 article in Forbes to help explain the counterintuitive notion that extroverts are less affected by the quarantine than are introverts. "Compared with introverts, extroverts tend to experience more frequent and intense positive emotions,” Soto told Forbes. “This makes it easier for them to maintain a positive mood in everyday life. It also helps them stay optimistic in the face of difficult circumstances, like the current crisis.”

In an April 28 Maine Public story titled "Maine Colleges Wrestle With How To Reopen In The Fall As Coronavirus Ravages Budgets," President David Greene shares his thoughts on reopening campus this fall, expressing his preference for a delayed opening. "We’re really trying to focus on those two things, on how we have that great classroom environment, but how we have that full experience that enriches that environment and allows our students to really thrive. And we would rather wait to allow that to happen than to be in a position where we’re offering online courses for an extended period of time,” he told Maine Public. This story was also picked up and run by Bangor Daily News.

The Morning Sentinel provided a roundup of the postponement of in-person graduation ceremonies for Central Maine colleges. President David Greene was quoted from his note to seniors telling them commencement ceremonies would not be held as scheduled: “I want you to know that I am not going to let your commencement be anything but the celebration you have earned,” President David Greene told seniors. “I can’t do as much as I would like about the state of the world right now or the need to postpone your graduation exercises, but I can make sure that we’ll find an exciting way forward and that when we reconvene we’ll make the most of it.”

The Colby Museum of Art's new online program Museum @ Home was the lead item in a Portland Press Herald article titled "From puzzles to podcasts, Maine museums are finding ways to engage online." The article highlighted activities the Colby Museum has made available online, including a digital puzzle of famous paintings from the collection and the Artful Movement video yoga series. "Creating online content allows us to reach audiences around the world, around the country, and around Maine," Director Sharon Corwin told the Press Herald. "Art matters more than ever now."

Professor of Government Dan Shea was tapped to comment on the potential for COVID-19 to be a political issue in an April 26 Portland Press Herald article titled "As coronavirus upends political campaigns, it also emerges as an issue." As the pandemic stretches on, many see it as an issue that will affect the November election. “The appropriate response to the pandemic will be on voters’ minds,” s Shea told the Press Herald. “For some voters it will be, ‘The government is not doing enough,’ while for others it might be, ‘It’s doing too much.'”

Colby's Maine general election poll, conducted in February, continues to generate some attention, including being referenced in the Washington Post story "Which Senate seats are most likely to flip in November?"

Playwright Bess Welden, a teaching artist and visiting assistant professor of theater and dance at Colby, was featured in a Q&A on the website Jewish Boston regarding her play Refuge Malja ملجأ, which is one of seven finalists in the Jewish Play Project playwriting contest. The play contains Arabic, and when asked to talk about her decision to use it, Welden replied: "There is Arabic in the title. From the start, people will understand that there will be something a bit different about how language will work in this play. Language is a huge barrier for these characters. They have to find a way to empathize without words. They don’t have a direct line to language in order to be clear with one other."