Calais to UMS: Preserve Unobskey School

CALAIS – A dozen invited panelists and a dozen community members took turns Friday afternoon telling the University of Maine System chancellor how lives would be changed if the Unobskey School downtown was closed as part of the UMS proposed strategic plan.

Chancellor Joseph Westphal listened for 90 minutes, then took another 20 minutes explaining the UMS position on the airwaves of Calais radio station WQDY.

To applause from the 50 passionate people attending the public forum at the Unobskey facility, Westphal said that the school, formally called the University College at Calais, would not be closed, just altered.

“The word ‘closing’ is too abrupt,” Westphal told them. “Our intention is to continue providing educational opportunities here, maybe by partnering with the Washington County Community College and the University of Maine at Machias.”

But Unobskey’s students, faculty and community members pressed that the school needs to continue developing on its own because it serves needs and a population different than either WCCC, on the city outskirts, or UMM, 50 miles south.

“Kids look at campuses with big, brick buildings that are always on a hill, and it’s intimidating,” said Gail Wahl, a Calais resident active across several community groups.

“This building here is a profitable center with a vital community function.”

The Unobskey School on Main Street downtown sits within sight of the border with St. Stephen, New Brunswick. With affiliated sites for distance-learning in Eastport and Woodland, Unobskey served 198 students last year.

There were 16 bachelor’s degrees awarded at its spring graduation, four master’s degrees and one associate’s degree. Twenty of the 21 degrees were in programs not offered by WCCC.

Unobskey students and supporters alike described the one-building center as a “nurturing” place that makes higher education for Washington County residents a reality.

“People who don’t see a future for themselves come to the Unobskey School,” said Calais resident Bob Moholland. “Then they can see a future.”

Eighty percent of students this year were women, and 12.6 percent were Indians from the two nearby Passamaquoddy reservations.

“We are the largest tribe in the state,” said Dana Altrator, a panelist who represented the Passamaquoddy. “We, too, are interested in the education and future of our people.”

Jim Thompson, a retired publisher and Calais resident, moderated the meeting. Kevin Raye of Perry provided the closing summary on behalf of Unobskey supporters.

Close to 600 pieces of paper were delivered to Westphal, each with a signature and comment on why Unobskey School should stay open. Those were collected in the last two months by WQDY radio.

Two others from the university system supplemented Westphal’s responses: Jean Flahive, a Calais educator who joined the UMS board of trustees in May, and Charles Lyons, the University of Maine at Augusta president who has been a taxpayer in Cooper for 30 years.

The other panelists who provided perspectives included three non-traditional students, two faculty members and two Calais businessmen.

Frank O’Hara sat in as a representative of Sidney Unobskey, the Calais business leader whose ongoing patronage gives the center its name.

“Sidney Unobskey’s grandmother came to Calais 100 years ago from Russia and pushed a cart on Main Street,” O’Hara said. “His father had a store here, and Sidney went on to build shopping centers internationally.

“This community has always meant opportunities to the Unobskeys. This is a special place for Sidney. He wants to work on different ways of thinking about the Unobskey School with you [Westphal],” O’Hara said.

Westphal took a question on how UMM will be affected by the proposed realignment of the university system.

From the audience, Alayne Willard, a Machias selectman, brought forward petitions circulated in Machias signed by nearly 2,000. They asked that the chancellor and trustees reconsider their intentions for UMM under the proposed strategic plan.

Most of all, the petitions made it clear that the signers don’t want the Machias campus to assume the name University of Northern Maine.

That won’t happen Westphal assured the room to more applause.