University of New England

Gifts at Work

The continuing generosity of our alumni and friends will assure that University of New England becomes a national leader in higher education.

With past support over the last 15 years, UNE has achieved a number of major steps toward this vision, including:

• Improvements to and revitalization of the Westbrook College Campus, increasing the student body from fewer than 300 students a decade ago to more than 900 students today.
• Construction of a unique Marine Science Education and Research Center at the University Campus, providing students and researchers with one of the best facilities in the world.
• Construction of the Alfond Center for the Health Sciences, a state-of-the-art laboratory and educational facility, that has placed the University at the national forefront of health and life sciences education.
• Financial assistance to our students: from academic year 1998-99 to 2007-08, we have had 1,407 students (from all programs) receive a total of $3,933,986 from the Annual Fund and endowed scholarships.

Here's a look at the
specifics of these projects:

Revitilization of the
Westbrook College Campus

As part of its UNEqualed Vision for the Future capital campaign, the University of New England during the first years of this decade embarked on a bold initiative of renovations and construction to consolidate the College of Health Professions and implement a new model of health professions education on the Westbrook College Campus in Portland.

This plan to make the Westbrook College Campus a center of national excellence in health professions education has created, once again, a thriving campus community of learners and future professionals ensuring the future of the Westbrook College Campus's proud history and traditions. The success of this initiative provided the foundation for increasing the student body from fewer than 300 students in 1995 to more than 900 students today.

The capital campaign enabled the University to complete more than $6.5 million in improvements on the Westbrook College Campus. These improvements include:

• Hersey Hall was completely renovated into new office, classroom and research space. Although the upper three floors of Hersey had been closed for more than a decade because of fire codes, all four floors of Hersey the past five years have been bustling with life.
• The Parker Pavilion, built to connect an electronic classroom with Blewett and Proctor Halls, provides formal and informal gathering space. 
• Blewett Science Center renovations included new practice laboratories for nursing and other health professions programs, a new computer lab, new windows, ADA-compliant bathrooms, and new wiring. These renovations allowed the creation of the Clinical Simulation Program and have been particularly important today in light of the nationwide nursing shortage that has reached crisis proportions.
• The Josephine S. Abplanalp '45 Library underwent extensive improvements to meet the needs of a larger, year-round student body and to protect the valuable library collection and artifacts so important to the campus's liberal arts tradition. These improvements included the installation of a full heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system, as well as mold mitigation and renovations to the basement. 
• The new 125-seat Interactive Classroom, a separate building that links Blewett and Proctor Halls, provides space for integrated, interdisciplinary education for students on campus and connects the Westbrook College Campus electronically with the medical school in Biddeford and with external clinical sites. 
• Other renovations include full federal disability compliance in all buildings and the refurbishment of classroom and office space in Proctor Hall.

The Marine Science Center

As part of its UNEqualed Vision Capital Campaign, the University of New England built a $7.8 million, state-of-the-art Marine Science Education and Research Center, which opened its doors in fall 2001.

This new facility is designed to meet the educational needs of life sciences students, support the research goals of faculty, attract top faculty and students to the University, and fill a critical void in marine mammal rehabilitation and recovery services along the vast reaches of the Maine coast. One wing houses the marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation clinic; the other wing includes a wet lab research area, teaching laboratories and classroom spaces.

The research and education that this new building facilitate is leading to important new knowledge in areas as diverse as treatment techniques for rehabilitating injured and sick marine animals, equipment and techniques for commercial fishing and aquaculture, the development of new medicines from the sea, and the conservation and preservation of biodiversity in the Gulf of Maine. It is benefitting University of New England students and the local economy, and preparing a cadre of young men and women for jobs in the marine enterprise sector.

The Harold Alfond Center
for the Health Sciences

This $20 million facility openned in 1996 with support from the Harold Alfond Foundation and hundreds of other alumni and friends.

The Harold Alfond Center for Health Sciences is a state-of-the-art laboratory and educational facility. Located at the center of University Campus in Biddeford, this three-story building, housing laboratories and lecture halls, places the University at the national forefront of health and life sciences education.

The Center's well-designed instructional and research lab for organic chemistry is unequaled as an undergraduate teaching facility. Its gross anatomy lab is used by medical, health professions and athletic training students, and its fresh tissue lab is one of the most advanced facilities in the world.

Financial Aid/ Scholarships

The University of New England has the goal of creating a University that all students can afford to attend and, when they graduate, choose to practice their professions unencumbered by financial considerations of exceptionally high debt.

This vision also includes increasing student diversity dramatically by making sure that the University of New England is affordable for bright, hard-working students from all economic levels and every social stratum, whether they come from the inner-city, the suburbs or the country.

Through generous support of the Annual Fund by alumni and friends and through the creation of endowed scholarships, 1,407 students (from all programs) received a total of $3,933,986 from the Annual Fund and endowed scholarships from 1998-99 to 2007-08.