BELFAST – Since it opened its doors eight years ago the University of Maine Hutchinson Center has provided the community with much-needed educational opportunities.

That was the message delivered by educators and fund-raisers during Monday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the Hutchinson Center’s planned $4 million expansion. When finished, the new wing will represent a doubling of the center’s classroom space and lead to an increase the number of its course offerings.

“The Hutchinson Center has simply allowed people from this region to gain access to what they need, and to what they deserve. The educational and related programs that open doors to a brighter future,” University of Maine President Robert A. Kennedy told the gathering. “The success stories are many, and we are all proud of the individual and collective achievements of the students who are part of UMaine and part of the Hutchinson Center.”

The expansion will include high-tech space to allow students to participate in one of the university’s most popular academic programs, New Media. The new facility also will include two science labs and space for art classes. Fully equipped laboratories will allow the center to offer nursing programs and will enable undergraduate science requirements, such as pre-med and pre-engineering.

Kennedy said the popularity of the center had “exceeded our expectations in every way over the past eight years.” He described the expansion as a “watershed day for the University of Maine and for the people of the Greater Belfast region.”

Center director Sue McCullough said the center registered 1,200 students last semester and that more than 15,000 people had passed through its doors to attend conferences and programs offered by Senior College in the past year.

“We desperately need this space,” McCullough said.

The 15,000-square-foot addition is being funded through a $2 million contribution from the university in the form of a revenue bond and from the $2 million capital campaign. Judy Stein, co-chair of the Aspirations, Access and Achievement Campaign, said the local community already had received pledges of $1.3 million. She thanked the community for its support and urged residents to continue their support of the program.

“We don’t live in a well-to-do area, but we do know what’s important and what’s required to meet those needs,” Stein said.

Former UMaine President Fred Hutchinson, for whom the center is named, recalled giving a talk in Belfast a number of years ago and how he remarked to a companion that the area needed an educational facility. He said Charles Cawley and MBNA, the firm he founded, deserved the credit for filling that need and building the center.

“I don’t know if Charlie Cawley heard me say that or not. There was an obvious need and it’s been born out by the fact that it has been so successful,” Hutchinson said. “MBNA and Charlie Cawley made it happen, it’s as simple as that.”

When Bank of America purchased MBNA, it donated the center to the university. The expansion was announced a year later.

wgriffin@bangordailynews.net

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