MMA seeks funding> Campaign focused on schoolwide improvements

Maine Maritime Academy said Tuesday it wants $21 million to revamp buildings, endow professorships and boost scholarships at the Castine college.

MMA President Leonard Tyler, in back-to-back news conferences in Bangor and Portland, said the campaign is called “Enhancing a Legacy of Excellence: The Campaign for Maine Maritime Academy.”

It will try to do five things:

. Improve campus buildings.

. Buy and update technology.

. Increase scholarship endowments.

. Establish faculty chairs and professorships.

. Pay for the academy’s small vessel program.

More than half of the campaign goal has been earmarked for improvements to existing buildings, with $4 million targeting Dismukes Hall, the academy’s primary classroom building, and $6 million toward improvements at Curtis Hall, the main student residential hall.

Tyler pointed out Curtis Hall, when it was built in the early 1970s, was designed for a very different type of student population than today’s.

“That building was designed for 600 male students who were all part of the regiment,” he said. “We now have more than 100 women enrolled and many students who are not part of the regiment. We need to make changes to accommodate them.”

The work at Dismukes Hall will include major interior renovations, while maintaining the exterior of the century-plus old building, located in Castine’s historic district.

Three million dollars of the campaign goal will be allocated toward new technology, including $1 million for computers and other technology for the State of Maine, the academy’s training vessel, and $2 million for upgrading and buying simulators for the academy’s labs.

“Through this campaign we plan to ensure a bright future for Maine Maritime Academy,” Tyler said. “This is the most extensive campaign ever attempted by this type of institution.”

Tyler was joined at the Bangor news conference by William Haggett, former president of Bath Iron Works and now the chairman of the academy’s board of trustees, and the two volunteer co-chairs for the campaign, Parker Laite of Camden, an MMA graduate and co- owner of Wayfarer Marine, and Doris Russell of Castine, a parent of an MMA alumnus.

Haggett pointed to a 10-year-old navigation simulator used at Castine. When the academy bought it, it was state-of-the art technology, he said. “Today, it is outdated.”

The campaign also focuses on faculty and students, earmarking $1 million to create an endowed chair in the engineering department and $2.5 million for three named professorships in the departments of marine transportation, ocean studies and international business and logistics.

It also hopes to raise $2.5 million for student scholarships to benefit all students at MMA, including regimental students, those training to become licensed officers in the U.S. merchant marine, as well as nonregimental students in a variety of non-seagoing majors.

“Those students who receive aid from Maine Maritime Academy leave with an average debt of around $20,000; some have a debt of $40,000,” Haggett said. “That’s a lot of debt for a 21-year-old. We want to keep Maine Maritime affordable for young people, and within the reach of middle- and low-income students, particularly for those from this state.”

The campaign already has commitments for almost half its goal, with promises of between $9.5 million and $10 million. A portion of that comes from the state, which has promised $4 million toward the campaign. Haggett said the campaign has requested an additional $4 million commitment from the state and will approach the new Legislature when it is seated.

“This campaign offers a prime example of a public-private initiative,” Haggett said. “The Legislature made a substantial commitment, and that high level of support is being echoed in the private sector. We believe that is how public colleges should try to accomplish their funding needs in today’s world.”

He said private commitments now include $500,000 for a regimental scholarship from alumnus Robert Walker of Virginia Beach, Va.; $1 million from an anonymous donor in Maine for an endowed chair; $500,000 for scholarships; $1 million for scholarships from the Libra Foundation of Portland; $1 million in navigational and training equipment from Raytheon Co.; and $500,000 for support of small vessels from an anonymous donor in Castine.

The campaign is slated to run for five years, but Haggett said officials hope it will reach its goals long before that time. Most of the capital improvements are expected to be completed within three years, he said.