Success at UCB

When the late George Huskins arrived as facilities manager at what is now the University College at Bangor, it was more military base — its former life — than college. When he died of cancer last year after 25 years of service within the university system, it was a growing campus that had found its niche in Maine’s education market.

UCB will dedicate a new lounge in Eastport Hall to Mr. Huskins this week, where Tracy Gran, a dean of the college who also began his career there in 1972, cannot help but note the changes from the college’s uncertain position as conduit to the University of Maine to its freestanding role as an essential piece in Maine’s nascent community college program.

Just since its independence from UMaine in 1995, when many wondered whether the college would survive on its own, enrollment has increased 76 percent, the number of two-year programs is up from eight to 12, baccalaureate programs have gone from one to six and a certificate program has been added. Thanks in large part to the sale of property last year, UCB now has a building and maintenance endowment of $2 million, and a new classroom building and a technology center are in the planning stages.

The growth of UCB is important for Bangor. It is an economic asset, but far more importantly, a place where the region’s traditional and nontraditional students can enter college with lower stress and lower cost than is found at the typical liberal-arts institution. The state has on numerous occasions identified cost and culture as two of the major impediments to attracting Maine students to college; UCB lowers both barriers.

Mr. Huskins was known on campus for his ability to improvise — to take an insufficient budget, a lack of supplies and staff and turn out the projects needed to keep the school operating. Making something special out of not much is a rare talent, one that has allowed UCB to succeed in unexpected ways.