Media Coverage

Mainebiz covered this week's announcement that Verna's All Day will be opening in downtown Waterville later this year. Their article, "Colby completes 'food triangle' with lease to Portland restaurant owners," reports not only that Briana and Andrew Volk plan to open a chop house as well as a food market at the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons, but that Colby had been searching for the right tenant. "Colby was looking for a 'high-level, quality destination' tenant to fill the space," Brian Clark, vice president of planning, told Mainebiz, "and people in the area had made it clear they wanted a Maine business, not a chain." The article also updates readers on other Colby initiatives downtown: a recent gift to the planned Paul J. Schupf Art Center, on-schedule progress on the Lockwood Hotel, and "exciting news" expected soon on plans for the space at 14-20 Main St. Mainebiz also reports on the athletic center under construction on campus and that the College has "filed a notice of intent with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to begin work on a new performing arts center that it's been planning for several years. Work on the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts is expected to begin this summer, and the center will open in 2022," Clark said.

A new book by Lindsay Mayka, assistant professor of government, was the topic of an episode of the podcast New Books in Political Science. Mayka spoke with host Lilly Goren about her book, Building Participatory Institutions in Latin America: Reform Coalitions and Institutional Change (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which "examines the idea and implementation of participatory institutions, asking the question about when they actually work, and when they do not work, and why this is the case, especially in Latin America," New Books reported.

The Portland Press Herald reached out to Sandy Maisel, the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government, for an article titled "Sen. Collins in a ‘uniquely difficult’ position, impeachment observers say." Maisel believes that the impeachment vote "will test her. ... She may vote to allow witnesses and then vote not to (convict). She has to think about whether splitting that vote will alienate people or please people.”

Colby senior Tori Paquette '20 created the course "Faith, Class and Community," which paired students with Waterville faith-based organizations to study poverty relief efforts, and the Morning Sentinel reported on the results of the class. The nine students in the class "not only volunteered with the organizations, they also learned about how faith-based organizations in Waterville help people in need with food, clothing, fuel, personal essentials and other necessities," the Sentinel reported. "Students wrote profiles about the pastors, volunteers and others who work in those organizations. The profiles are available on the course website, web.colby.edu/faithinwaterville."

The Central Maine Growth Council has been selected to join the 2020 Rural Innovation Initiative, "which helps rural communities create digital economy jobs with an innovation hub strategy," Mainebiz reports. Colby will partner the council as another component of its ongoing relationship with the city. "We’re eager to continue partnering with the Growth Council and others to advance strategies that further the region’s innovation economy and drives job creation," said Brian Clark, Colby's vice president of planning. The council was just one of 10 organizations nationwide asked to join the program.

Professor of Government Anthony Corrado was quoted in a Jan. 12 Los Angeles Times op-ed titled "Ten years on, Citizens United ruling has changed U.S. politics — but not in the way many feared." The author, David Shribman, writes that "the notion that the Citizens United decision opened the donation floodgates to 21st-century corporations is a myth." Corrado, an expert on campaign finance reform, says the ruling was a "horrible decision," but "the point is that the effect that the Supreme Court seemed to create has been less, and different, than often claimed.” Other media outlets that have run a similar version include: The Press Democrat, Jan. 19, 2020 uexpress, Jan. 18, 2020 The Standard Journal, Jan. 18, 2020 The Facts, Jan. 18, 2020 Gloucester Daily Times, Jan. 17, 2020 The Salem News, Jan. 17, 2020

A recent episode of the popular Something You Should Know podcast features an interview with Associate Professor of Psychology Christopher Soto. In the interview, Soto discusses the latest research on personality: what it is, where it comes from, and how it changes across the lifespan. The episode is available on iTunes, podcast apps, and online.

"Construction of a $26-million, 53-room hotel on Main Street in downtown Waterville is on schedule," the Morning Sentinel reported Jan. 5. The building is currently being covered with permanent sheathing, after which trade workers can begin to work inside, the Sentinel reports. “It’s going well,” said Paul Ureneck, director of commercial real estate for Elm City, LLC., an affiliate of Colby College. “November was a little bit of a setback for us, temperature-wise. November was the coldest on record in Maine. But, all in all, the project’s on schedule.”

The Los Angles Times quoted Steve Simon, professor of the practice of international relations, in an article titled "U.S. officials vow to increase security after airstrike kills Iranian general." If Iran retaliates for the Jan. 3 killing of Qassem Suleimani , it won't strike the United States directly, Simon said. "A repeat of 9/11 seems quite unlikely," he told the Times. "There are many Americans in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Arab side of the Gulf who could be targeted if Iran chose to go in this direction.”

Matt Proto, vice president for enrollment and communications, commented on a Maine Public piece about Maine colleges' admissions policies after the March "Operation Varsity Blues" scandal, which rocked college admissions offices across the country. While Proto said that "all of the things that happened in the scandal are not a part of the process at Colby,” the scandal gave him pause. To ease parents' concerns and to promote accountability, Colby "performed random audits of individual applications," Proto told Maine Public. “We’ve partnered with college counselors and school counselors in doing that, through the use of technology.”