Media Coverage

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."

Dominick Leskiw '21, an English and environmental studies double major, wrote and illustrated an article titled "Holding Fast, or Failing?" that was printed in Earth Island Journal about his experiences on a "600-mile road trip up the California coast from La Jolla to just north of Bolinas, tracking down abalone devotees from all walks of life." Leskiw took the trip with Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Ben Neal to trace the history of the marine snail and to chart recovery efforts. "Every long-vacant, ear-shaped abalone shell rings with an opalescent plea, begging us to listen to, and learn from, the plight of these shellfish," Leskiw writes at the end of his article. "Abalone will almost certainly fail to see any significant recovery without human intervention. What ends up happening to these sea snails will reveal our capacity to reinstate and nurture the ecological and cultural complexity of our world that we continue to destroy."  

In 2012 Herb Wilson, the Leslie Brainerd Arey Professor of Biosciences, Emeritus, wrote a blog post explaining how loons propel themselves, and that blog post, still relevant, was cited in a recent Carnegie Museum of Natural History Tumblr page. "When a loon is first diving from the surface, it breaks the surface by alternating strokes with the left and right leg," Wilson's post includes. "Once underwater, the legs beat synchronously."

Colby's 2020 Jan Plan in Salamanca was led by Dean Allbritton, associate professor of Spanish, and the experience was documented as a featured blog by Omprakash, an organization that provides a model, called EdGE, for ethical and educational global engagement. The blog post, "Language, Power, and Identity in Spain: Reflections from Colby College Students," translated Colby students' blog posts and synthesized the work that students did. "Building from the reflection and dialogue that took place within this pre-departure classroom, students created a series of ‘Historias’ (stories) during their month in Salamanca. These posts creatively illustrate a variety of perspectives that students encountered while staying with local families, taking part in activities inside the city, and exploring other historic sites in Spain," the post said. Colby's DavisConnects and Off-Campus Study Department use Omprakash EdGE for their study abroad students as part of the College's efforts at thinking about Colby's connection to 'the global' on a much more engaged level that doesn't repeat problematic assumptions about the world beyond the United States.  

The Public News Service article titled "Experts Weigh In: Why Did Biden Win Maine?" included thoughts by Sandy Maisel, the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government, who thought it was Maine's switch from caucuses to primaries that made a difference. "We know in caucuses the most active, most concerned, most ideological people are who turn out to vote," he pointed out. "It should surprise nobody that a candidate like Sen. Sanders would do better in caucuses than he would do in primary states."

The New York Times visited Waterville to see how Colby's commitment to downtown is creating extraordinary progress in our community and is a model for how colleges and their cities are working together for prosperity.