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Schools

John Bapst Memorial High School

BANGOR – An ethics program that began more than a year ago has continued to develop at John Bapst Memorial High School.

Two summers ago 11 faculty and staff members from the independent high school in Bangor attended Ethical Fitness Seminars at the Institute for Global Ethics’ United States headquarters in Camden.

Last year, using the same basic model provided by the institute, similar sessions were conducted with the balance of John Bapst’s faculty and staff as well as the board of trustees.

In addition, 50 John Bapst students trained as facilitators in the program. They, in turn, led the student body in ethics-related discussions and workshops to identify the school community’s shared values and to provide students with skills to approach the often difficult decisions that face young people.

Earlier this fall, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins spoke to the John Bapst student body, sharing her thoughts about ethics and ethical behavior and informally introducing the program to the school’s ninth-graders.

On Oct. 27, John Bapst student ethics facilitators led a day of workshops with the ninth-graders.

Head of School Landis Green, one of the workshop leaders, said, “Our students are very, very fortunate to be able to choose to be in a school where everyone shares similar academic goals. So often, however, teenagers – and adults – are faced with difficult decisions that can get in the way of learning.

“The ethics work we’ve begun isn’t in any way meant to teach students right from wrong, but rather to help them develop an individual and shared framework for deciding how to make ethically charged decisions,” he said.

“One of the natural outcomes of the process, of course, is that our students will be able to see even more clearly that many of the values that we as individuals hold dear are values that are shared by those with whom we attend school,” Green said. “The skills and habits of mind our students are developing will serve all of our students here well. Most importantly, however, I think it’s a critical part of preparing them for college and beyond, which is our ultimate goal.”

The Institute for Global Ethics is an independent, nonsectarian and nonpolitical organization dedicated to elevating public awareness and promoting the discussion of ethics in a global context.

A nonprofit think tank, it is an international, membership-based organization focusing on ethical activities for corporations, educators, professionals and communities.

John Bapst is one of a growing number of public and private schools turning to the Institute for Global Ethics for guidance in preparing students for an increasingly complicated and truly global world.

Colleges

New England School of Communications

BANGOR – The New England School of Communications board of directors has approved the acquisition of a digital mobile production unit to train students in the production of telecasts from remote venues. The school is owned by Husson College.

The unit, which will be housed in a 30-foot-long trailer, is being constructed by Harvey Trailer Sales in Bangor and should be ready in four to six weeks, according to the school dean, Ben Haskell.

The mobile unit will be used to produce live telecasts of a variety of athletic contests, theater productions, concerts, plays and recitals, and will provide a learning tool for both audio and video students at NESCom.

Rod Verrill, executive director for video, said the trailer will be divided into four main compartments comprising an audio control room, a video production control center, an engineering section, and a camera shader and tape replay control area. It will allow 30 to 40 students from nine or 10 different classes to work on any single event, Verrill said. Nine instructors will be available to supervise each use of the unit.

New equipment will be installed in the unit, including seven cameras, a self-contained character separator, graphics system, multiple computer-based replay units, 32-channel audio board and a computerized editing system for highlights display.

According to Verrill, the unit will be used for community events and will visit a number of high schools as a recruiting tool for NESCom.

Outlets for the productions by the mobile unit may include the Husson campus cable network, Maine Public Broadcasting, The CW network and Time Warner Channel 9, Verrill said.

The acquisition of the mobile unit has been in the planning stages for several years. Its value was demonstrated recently when students televised a Husson College football game with Alfred University using a mobile unit loaned by MPBN.

University of Maine

ORONO – The Bureau of Labor Education at the University of Maine has received a $120,000 Susan Harwood Training Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to create a series of safety programs for Maine construction workers.

In construction work, both employers and employees on many different types of building sites face on-the-job hazards. Risks are multiplied still further when construction contractors and employees work in hazardous manufacturing sites.

Through this grant, funded jointly by OSHA and the University of Maine, the Bureau of Labor Education will use a consortium approach to construction site safety. Working with the Maine Building and Construction Trades Council and a joint labor-management leadership committee known as LEAD of Maine, the bureau will deliver safety and health programs to at least 300 LEAD workers and employers at their job sites.

LEAD stands for Labor Education and Development and includes signatory small-business contractors, construction trade unions and the university. Project programs will focus on recognizing and preventing construction safety and health hazards involving falls, caught-in, struck-by, and electrocution situations.

Participants in the safety programs will receive a construction safety handbook under development by the Bureau of Labor Education. The plan for the one-year project calls for the research, development and production of the handbook to be accomplished during the first three months, and the implementation of the project programs during the next nine months.

The Bureau of Labor Education, created by the state legislature and trustees of the University of Maine System in 1966, provides educational programs and conducts research on labor and labor-related issues of interest for workers, students, educators, members and officers of union organizations, and public policy makers.

The bureau can be reached by telephone at 581-4124.