Media Coverage

In a Fox News article titled "Dozens of colleges drop SAT/ACT requirements for 2021, some consider permanent change," Colby's test-option policy was highlighted as a benefit to the College because of the strength of students who are accepted. “The Class of 2024 applicant pool was the largest and most competitive in Colby’s history, and our admitted students represent a remarkable array of talents, backgrounds, perspectives, and interests," Randi Arsenault, Colby's assistant vice president of admissions and financial aid, told Fox News. 

The Nature Conservancy published an article about a new Jan Plan course, Design Thinking and Product Innovation, in which the author, who was also the course instructor, recounts her experience with 18 Colby students in her class. "I wanted to create a journey for the students," Nina Naylor wrote, "and show them that sometimes you need to pull things apart to see new patterns. Design thinking is all about challenging your mindset, pushing away assumptions and having empathy for whomever you’re working to help."

The Portland Press Herald tapped the expertise of Professor of Economics Michael Donihue to comment in the article "New Maine unemployment claims fall, but another surge expected." The article discusses the Federal Protection Program, which was suspended when the lending cap was met, and rules and deadlines made it hard for some of Maine's small business owners to rehire workers. “It overwhelmed everybody and there was a lot of uncertainty about how it would work,” Donihue said. “I’m not sure we’ve seen the impact of the program yet because it took awhile to get up to snuff.”

President David Greene was quoted in the April 15 New York Times article titled "After Coronavirus, Colleges Worry: Will Students Come Back?" in which he expressed a desire to have students back on campus this fall. "Like other administrators, Mr. Greene is hoping to reopen with classes on campus, rather than online, even if it means deferring the start of the fall semester. 'Our whole model of education and all of its power comes from close human interaction,'” the Times reported.

Sandy Maisel, the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government, was tapped for comment in the Washington Examiner article titled "Socialists refuse to back Biden," in which Maisel defends Biden's strategy of taking steps to heal the Democratic Party. "Will he get support from everyone? I doubt it. In 2016, according to YouGov polling, about 18% of Sanders supporters did not vote for Hillary Clinton; most of those did not vote at all. I expect those numbers to be much lower in this year's election, but there will be some holdouts," he told the Washington Examiner, reflecting Biden's higher favorability ratings compared to Clinton's.

Personality research by Associate Professor of Sociology Christopher Soto was featured in an April 11 Forbes article titled "Extroverts Are More Likely To Be Romantically Satisfied — That Is, Unless You Are A Woman." Analyzing more than 6,000 personality tests, Soto and a team of psychologists identified differences among men and women extroverts. "New research appearing in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science identifies two such differences — female extroverts are less likely to experience romantic satisfaction and they are less likely to exhibit a high degree of occupational commitment," Forbes reported.

An article about Colby's resolve to "keep the learning going" appeared in the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal. “We’re not asking the faculty to create an online class, just to keep the learning going,” said Carol Hurney, Colby's associate provost and director of Colby’s Center for Teaching and Learning. “And that’s a different thing entirely. We said, ‘Think this through, prioritize the learning you want to happen and use tools you are already comfortable with.'” The article also checked in with Louisa Goldman '20 from her home in St. Louis. “It’s definitely been a big transition,” she said. “What’s been weird is I’m still writing my thesis on Maine, Question 1 on the ballot, and it feels a little bit disconnected. They extended spring break as part of online learning and so I kind of fell behind on my proposed schedule. But the good thing is, I’m now adding in a coronavirus section.”

The Wall Street Journal reached out to President David A. Greene for their April 13 article titled "The Coronavirus Economic Reopening Will Be Fragile, Partial and Slow." President Greene added to the discussion with his thoughts on possible scenarios for having students return to campus this fall. “Do we thin the number of people on campus? Does it mean more online instruction? We’re planning for any and all of those, including a very different type of year next year,” he told the WSJ.

Eliza Dean '22 penned an op-ed that appeared in the Morning Sentinel titled "No time to say goodbye: COVID-19 means an abrupt pause in the relationship between Colby mentor and her second-grade mentee." Dean writes, "One of the first thoughts I had after I received the news that I would have to leave Colby College in the middle of the semester wasn’t how I would get home to San Francisco. It wasn’t where to store a dorm room full of stuff, or that I was leaving my friends. My first thought was, I need to say goodbye to my Colby Cares About Kids mentee."

Professor of Economics Michael Donihue was one of three experts tapped for a Bangor Daily News article titled "Economists paint ‘dire’ picture for Maine in potentially long coronavirus recession."If you think about Maine’s economy, we do have a healthy manufacturing sector, but it’s nowhere near what it was historically, and it certainly isn’t the most important driver," Donihue said. "And as we look to the summer months, as normally we get that boom in tourism that many businesses depend on for the entire year. It’s unlikely we’re going to have the same traffic to Maine. So the outlook for the economy in Maine is pretty dire, I would say."