Media Coverage

Provost and Dean of Faculty Margaret McFadden was quoted in the NPR story "How Colleges Are Grading Students During Coronavirus," which discusses strategies that colleges are using during the coronavirus pandemic. "Our goal was to give students as much flexibility and choice as possible," McFadden told NPR, "and allow our students to focus on learning and doing their best work knowing that they have control over how they are evaluated." Colby is allowing students to choose to receive regular letter grades for all courses or designate some or all of their courses satisfactory/unsatisfactory.

Duncan Coles '19, a biology and environmental science double major, was included as a team member on a recently published paper in the journal Nature Methods titled "Genetic tool development in marine protists: emerging model organisms for experimental cell biology." One of the paper's lead authors, José A. Fernández Robledo, is a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, which partners with Colby on providing opportunities for Colby students to collaborate with scientists at the lab. Coles worked with Fernández Robledo on an independent research project during a Colby Semester at Bigelow, and Coles tried several ways to deliver plasmids and labeled DNA into the microalgae Crypthecodinium cohnii. They used both regular electroporation and electroporation using microfluidics, and they went down to the MIT to run the microfluidics experiments. The success was limited, still, in the paper, they provided all the set of conditions they tried for another scientist interested in further pursuing the transfection in this microalgae.

Rabbi Rachel Isaacs was a guest on Maine Public's April 7 call-in show "Maine Calling." Isaacs joined five other faith leaders from around the state for the episode, titled "Faith Communities Adapt to COVID-19: How Different Religious Groups Are Reacting To the Crisis."

Professor of History Paul Josephson was a guest on the podcast The Red Line in an April 5 episode titled "War in the Arctic," which focused on Russia's hypersonic missile program. "Russia is rolling out Arctic divisions, new bases and groundbreaking new missiles, which threaten the US naval dominance across the world's oceans," the podcast's intro states. "Are these new missiles going to make carriers obsolete or are they just the next step in the rapidly changing landscape?"

In the weeks after leaving campus due to the coronavirus, Meghan Hurley '20 wrote an essay titled "Physical, social or emotional distancing?" for the Concord Monitor. "In our small Colby community, we had our own shared experiences. Physical closeness was such a habitual part of that. While we don’t need to be together to know what each other is experiencing, it does help," Hurley wrote from her home in New Hampshire. "The transfer of that relationship to the virtual world changes it, but doesn’t necessarily weaken it. I’ve been lucky enough to have rich virtual conversations, where the mutual fear of drifting apart has pulled me closer to people." 

Joseph Reisert, Colby's Harriet S. Wiswell and George C. Wiswell Jr. Associate Professor of American Constitutional Law, was quoted in a Bangor Daily News article titled "Janet Mills says she will order out-of-staters to quarantine for 2 weeks while visiting Maine." Reisert was tapped to comment on the legality of closing the Maine-New Hampshire border, something that "could be challenged under the 14th Amendment, which says states cannot 'abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States,'” Reisert said.  

Writer and outdoor adventurer Blair Braverman '11 was a contestant on the reality show "Naked and Afraid," and she wrote about her experience for Outdoor magazine. Titled "Everything on 'Naked and Afraid' Is Real—and I Lived It," the piece is rich with Braverman's descriptions about her experience in South Africa. "When the Discovery Channel invited me to audition for its popular survival-challenge reality show, I knew it was going to be rough," she wrote. "What followed was one of the most intense experiences of my life."

Associate Professor of Government Walter Hatch wrote an op-ed titled "With the coronavirus surging, compassion is more important than ever" that appeared in the Seattle Times March 20. The piece recounts the moment when students in Hatch's class learned the College would be moving to remote learning and sending students home three days hence. In the midst of the emotions in the classroom, a student inquired about Hatch's plans, knowing Hatch splits his time between Seattle and Maine. Hatch was deeply touched by the student's concern. "It was an emotional reminder that, especially in this moment of 'social distancing,' we cannot live without compassion," Hatch wrote. "Sure, we can stock up on food, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and face masks. But what we really need is community, a thick web of connections to one another across the social distance." 

Professor of Economics Michael Donihue was tapped to comment on a March 20 Bangor Daily News article titled "Restaurant staff divvy up food, help each other file for unemployment, as they enter ‘panic mode’" that reported on the importance of seasonal business to Maine's economy. “We have a really vulnerable population, not just because we’re the oldest state but because we don’t have that much disposable income and people depend a lot on seasonal work,” Donihue told the BDN. “If we don’t have the season, it’s hard for them to make it.”

The Boston Globe ran a Q&A with senior basketball guard Sam Jefferson '20 in their "College Angle" series. Jefferson, who averaged 18.7 points per game this year and earned first-team all-NESCAC honors, talks about his academics at Colby, scoring 1,000 college points, and the possibility of going pro. "Right now I expect it to be just a couple years," Jefferson said about going pro, "and hopefully come back and maybe go to grad school, find out what I really want to do for a long-term career."