Media Coverage

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.”

Jim Ryan 14, who raced for Colby as a student, has appeared in Warren Miller films in the past. Now, he's convinced the filmmaker to turn his lens on Ryan's hometown ski area, Killington. The Mountain Times explains Ryan's role in a Dec. 18 story titled "Killington skier Jim Ryan helps bring Warren Miller film crew home."

In an unusual pairing, James Fleming, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, was interviewed for the Denver Art Museum's podcast on Claude Monet. In the episode, titled "Beyond Monet: You Can Smell it in the Paintings," Fleming "closely examines Monet's paintings of snowy landscapes and talks about how the artist captured the humid haze of Venice and the 'pea soup' smog of London.

Colby's announcement that chocolatier Bixby & Co. will be opening a store and café in Waterville was covered by the Morning Sentinel Dec. 17.  "Bixby & Co., the Rockland-based chocolate maker, is set to open an artisan chocolate cafe and store this spring on Main Street in downtown Waterville, but the company is looking to bring more than sweets to town," reporter Molly Shelly wrote. "It also seeks to provide vision, a commitment to Maine entrepreneurship and a desire to grow in a thriving setting." Other media outlets covering the story include: Mainebiz, Dec. 17 Bangor Daily News, Dec. 17 92 Moose Radio, Dec. 17

Multiple news sources are running stories about where personalities come from and why they're all so different. The articles cite Associate Professor of Psychology Christopher Soto, who studies the "Big Five" personality traits. "Every personality trait is a continuous dimension. You can be very high or very low, and most people fall somewhere in between," Soto said. These sources have run stories: Live Science, Dec. 15, 2019 Medical Daily, Dec. 16, 2019

Recently released findings by Robert Gastaldo, the Whipple-Coddington Professor of Geology, were covered at Phys.org, as provided by the National Science Foundation. "New research led by Colby College geologist Robert Gastaldo has revealed the most definitive proof to date that the extinctions did not occur at the same time. The findings, published in the journal PALAIOS, have implications for the impact of a possible future biodiversity crisis driven by climate change and a warming planet," Phys.org said. Archeology News Network also covered the story in a Dec. 11, 2019, blog post. GeologyPage.com covered the story Dec. 15, 2019.

In an essay in Guernica titled "Anatomy of a Successful Campus Talk," Assistant Professor of English Aaron Hanlon discusses a recent campus visit by former Maine Governor Paul LePage and ways that campuses can make the most of a "less than admirable speaker." Hanlon issue isn't with bringing conservative speakers to campus, but rather with a format that doesn't allow for a true exchange of ideas. "This format favors the unidirectional expressions of visiting speakers, who get to orchestrate a speech performance while everyone else remains silent upon pain of punishment. This way of doing things doesn’t suit the putative purpose of campus talks—to inform and engage—much less the limited value of bringing a high-profile bigot or demagogue to subject their views to scrutiny," he wrote.

Maine Public's podcast The Pulse featured Professor of Government Anthony Corrado for a segment titled "Who Is Paying For All Those Political Ads?" In the Nov. 29 episode, Corrado, a campaign finance expert, gave a primer on dark money groups, their tactics, and how they're operating in Maine.

The Nov. 25 topping off ceremony for Waterville's Lockwood Hotel was covered by these outlets: Mainebiz, Nov. 25 Morning Sentinel, Nov. 25 WFVX-TV22 Bangor, Nov. 25 WABI-TV5 Bangor, Nov. 25