On its 10th anniversary, I want to add the thanks of the University of Maine’s women’s studies program to that of Dean Leffler (BDN, March 5) for the generous gift from Tabitha and Stephen King to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. We were just joining the college that year as a program that offered only an academic minor. After the faculty lines were funded, we received the last $9000 of the gift to increase our course offerings in women’s studies. That increased support led to our success in building a women’s studies major, approved by the University of Maine System board of trustees in January 1998.

At first their numbers were small, but by the end of 2006 we had graduated 62 women’s studies majors. They are a group of graduates to be proud of. Their combined grade point average is 3.29 (out of 4.0), and two of them have been selected the outstanding graduating senior in Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Their post-college lives are varied and exciting. Because they are such a young group as a whole, a lot of them are in graduate school – in law, social work, medicine, communication, education, journalism, and library science, to name a few. Others are working to improve life in Maine and beyond, in domestic violence projects stretching from Bangor to Atlanta, in kindergarten through grade 12 schools and community colleges, at the Discovery Museum, and in businesses throughout Maine and New England.

Thank you again, Stephen and Tabitha, for investing in our students. We hope you share our delight in their achievements.

Ann Schonberger

University of Maine

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