University College of Bangor dean steps down

BANGOR – Tracy Gran, dean of the University College of Bangor since 1999, is stepping down, ending a 33-year career at the campus.

“It’s time for me to move on and get some fresh blood in here,” Gran, 65, said Thursday – his last day on the job.

He has been succeeded by Gillian Jordan, a UCB English professor.

Sitting in the office that he has been steadily cleaning out over the past few weeks, Gran pointed to the empty bookshelves and the bare walls dotted with nails where pictures and plaques once hung.

“So much accumulates over the decades,” he said, vowing to spend the winter going over the piles of lecture notes and papers now stored in the garage of his Winterport home.

After joining UCB in 1972 as a part-time professor of sociology, Gran earned tenure in 1978 and began teaching full time.

Over the years, he assumed a number of administrative positions including associate dean, assistant dean, assistant to the dean, and coordinator of advising. Up until 2000 he taught at least one sociology course each semester.

“Today’s my last hurrah,” he said Thursday.

A retirement dinner was held in his honor in May.

“It turned into a three-hour roast,” he recalled. “I never enjoyed anything so much in my life.” He learned at the party that the ballroom at the college center would be renamed the Tracy R. Gran Ballroom.

“I thought that was very nice,” he said.

Looking back on his six-year stint as dean, Gran said he is particularly proud of the role he played refurbishing the campus. Several old dormitories were torn down and one was converted into a new science-veterinary technology building called Camden Hall.

In addition, Bangor Hall was modernized and now includes a refurbished admissions office and distance learning center.

Also remodeled were the campus fitness center and student center. A new road – University Drive – provides easy access to the campus.

“It was a hard place to find before,” Gran said.

Reminiscing over how far UCB had come over the years, Gran said that in 1972 there were 300 students enrolled and three associate degree programs offered. Currently there are 1,100 students involved in 34 programs that also offer bachelor’s degrees.

The learning atmosphere has changed as well, according to Gran. In the 1970s, most students were at UCB because they didn’t qualify for admission to the Orono campus.

“The first question at orientation was, ‘How can I get out of here?'” Gran recalled.

Now UCB students enroll because they want to – attracted by the friendly ambience, the large number of classes taught by tenured professors and the wide variety of programs, including mental health and human services, business, dental health, computer services and criminal justice.

“There’s an altogether different attitude and a different motivational level,” he said. “It’s all positive.”

The vast majority of UCB students are nontraditional, with no family history of college. They often have a low self-image and are worried they won’t stack up academically to the 18-year-olds right out of high school, Gran said.

In fact, “Once they get here they find they have better study habits and time management skills,” he said. “They blossom.”

Often called the “illegitimate sister” of the flagship Orono campus, UCB has been known by various names since 1968 when the University of Maine System was created.

Now part of the University of Maine at Augusta, UCB was titled the South Campus of the University of Maine, Penobscot Valley Community College, University of Maine at Bangor, Bangor Community College, and University College of the University of Maine at Orono.

The latest proposal, according to the University of Maine System’s strategic plan, is to have UCB administered by UM and to make it part of a higher education park, sharing space with Eastern Maine Community College.

But Gran says UCB should remain unchanged.

“Leave us alone,” he said. “Let us do what we’ve done so well over the last 30 years.”