WATERVILLE – Colby College’s chapel bells will ring as the campus community pauses Thursday morning to remember Dawn Rossignol, a dean’s list student who was abducted and murdered one year ago.

The past year has been one of healing for the liberal arts school, whose students and staff were shaken by the killing of the 21-year-old student from Medway.

“The entire year at Colby, right up through graduation, I think it was solemn and subdued,” Colby spokesman Stephen Collins said Tuesday. While last September’s tragedy may never be forgotten, the college is trying to move on, he said.

“It’s a new year, and there’s sort of a different energy this year,” said Collins.

While its bells are rung in Rossignol’s memory, Lorimer Chapel will be open for reflection Thursday and a room to the side will be available for those who want to express their thoughts on the tragedy, Collins said.

The low-key observances mark a year to the day that Rossignol was last seen alive as she prepared to drive to Bangor for a doctor’s appointment on the morning of Sept. 16.

A day later, her body was found near a stream a mile from Colby in Oakland. The next week, police arrested Edward Hackett, a 47-year-old parolee from Utah who had been staying with his parents in Vassalboro. Hackett later pleaded guilty to the crime and is serving a life sentence in prison.

Rossignol, who majored in biology, was a model student who planned to pursue a career in pharmacology. The first in her family to attend college, she was a dean’s list student, an L.L. Bean Scholar and a member of the Colby Christian Fellowship.

People who knew her said Rossignol sought to bring happiness to people’s lives by sending random greeting cards and would give encouragement to those facing tough times. Friends said she even showed kindness to telemarketers who called the dormitory.

Immediately after the killing, students were urged to walk and jog in pairs, carry whistles and be alert for suspicious activity. Some students began locking their doors at night.

In the past year, Colby has sought to take more permanent steps to improve security on the 714-acre campus, where more than 1,700 students attend classes, said Collins.