The donation from the family of a UMaine engineering graduate who wishes to remain anonymous is the largest gift ever to the Orono campus from a living donor.
Noel K. Gallagher
Noel Gallagher covers K-12 and higher education issues statewide. Her stories are a mix of breaking news and trend stories. In recent years, they’ve ranged from why college costs so much, the launch of the state’s first charter schools, how a school welcomed a transgender student and why Maine schools have a hard time finding teachers. She’s enough of a news nerd to enjoy sitting through legislative education committee meetings and hours-long school board meetings so you don’t have to.
The Maine Press Association has honored Noel’s work, but she says she writes for the readers, in the firm belief that an informed citizenry is key to a healthy democracy.
Noel is a California native who has worked at wire services, online websites and newspapers across the country. She was in Washington D.C. during the early Clinton years, covering AIDS activism in 1990s San Francisco, documenting the business of wine in Sonoma County and riding out the boom and bust cycle of the early Internet era in early 2000s Silicon Valley. She arrived in Maine at the beginning of the recession and wrote quite a bit about the downturn here.
In her free time, Noel writes the occasional cookbook review, spends an inordinate amount of time at the Portland Public Library and hangs out with her three fabulous kids and wonderful husband. She is not a former member of the band Oasis.
Trustees approve policy limiting political speech tied to Maine’s university system
It puts no restrictions on individual political activity done on a person’s own time, but some students and faculty members still fear the policy will muzzle them.
Waterboro man arrested after head-butting one deputy, biting another, sheriff says
Nicholas Morin, 29, was charged on Friday with assault on an officer and was taken to the York County Jail.
High winds down trees, power lines in Raymond and Windham
Some roads are closed and 1,875 customers are without power in Cumberland County.
Student walkouts continue, drawing hundreds to protest gun violence
Walkouts that were rescheduled because of Wednesday’s storm were held across the state Thursday, including a large protest at Portland City Hall.
‘If we do nothing, more will die’: Maine students join gun protest
The snowstorm didn’t stop hundreds of students from joining the national walkout with rallies in downtown Portland and at schools across the state. More protests are planned for today.
Storm forces some Maine students to postpone gun violence protests
Most student organizers have plans to hold protests on another day.
Foundation donates historic hunting lodge and acreage to Unity College
The gift of property in Somerset County from the Couri Foundation includes Sky Lodge, built in 1929, 150 acres of land and rental cabins.
Body of Greenville man recovered from Moosehead Lake
Matthew Dubien had left a restaurant the night before on his snowmobile.
Bills to better serve Mainers with disabilities move forward on party-line votes
A committee of lawmakers narrowly approves two bills to improve oversight of services for adults with intellectual disabilities by the Department of Health and Human Services.