The University of Maine at Machias (UMaine Machias or UMM) is a

satellite campus A satellite campus, branch campus or regional campus is a campus of a university or college that is physically at a distance from the original university or college area. This branch campus may be located in a different city, state, or country, ...

Machias, Maine Machias is a New England town, town in and the county seat of Washington County, Maine, Washington County in Down East Maine, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town population was 2,060. It is home to the Univ ...

. It is part of the

University of Maine System A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

, and it is the only regional degree-granting campus of

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

. The institution was founded in 1909 as a normal school for educating teachers. Enrollment is 293 students.

History

The original name of school was the Washington State Normal School. It was later renamed to the University of Maine at Machias. The prior name is still evident in several locations on campus most prominently on Powers Hall. In April 2016, the institution announced that it would enter into a partnership with the much larger

in Orono. The agreement included the sharing of administrators between the institutions.

Academics

The University of Maine at Machias offers nine undergraduate majors.

Campus

The University of Maine at Machias is part of the

. The university was founded in 1909. The campus occupies in rural downeast coastal

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

on the

Machias River The Machias River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed 2011-06-22 river in Maine, USA. It flows through Washington County in the eastern part of the state, from Fift ...

Student life

Activities

All student organizations are run independently through an elected process with oversight by a Student Senate. Students are responsible for meetings, financial organization, and group meetings and outings. Additionally, there are a great deal of unofficial activities on campus, ranging from hallway sports to movie nights in the lounge. UMM offers a wide variety of activities for all manner of students.

Greek organizations

There are seven Greek organizations on campus, four

fraternities A fraternity (; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men but also women associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity in the Western conce ...

and three

sororities In North America, fraternities and sororities ( and ) are social clubs at colleges and universities. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life or Greek-letter organizations, as well as collegiate fraternities or collegiate sorori ...

. Some organizations are nationally affiliated, while others are local and exist solely at the University of Maine at Machias. All groups are run independently and jointly form Greek Council, which oversees Greek life as a whole. The recognized Greek fraternities on campus are Psi Delta (a local chapter of the Alpha Delta), Kappa Mu Alpha, Sigma Chi Lambda, and Omicron Delta Pi (a co-ed fraternal organization). The sororities located on campus are

Epsilon Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Alpha International () is an International community and collegiate coeducational service organization. Established in 1929, Epsilon Sigma Alpha is a network of an estimated 10,000 members in over 1,000 community-based chapters, wit ...

, Kappa Alpha Kappa, and Phi Tau Phi.

Sunrise Senior College

The University of Maine at Machias is the home of Sunrise Senior College, which is one of 16 enrichment experience institutions in Maine for people 50 and over and their partners of any age. Founded in 2002 as part of the Maine Senior College Network, Sunrise Senior College offers most of its classes on the UMM campus. SSC has fall and spring semesters, and all SSC courses are shorter. The courses are not for credit, are taught by volunteers with expertise in their areas, and no one needs to be a college (or even high school) graduate to attend.

Maine Blackfly Breeders Association Annual Convention

The University of Maine at Machias has for many years been host to the annual Maine Blackfly Breeders Association convention in March. Convention-goers are asked to bring limericks, jokes, stories and songs for annual contests. Exhibits, art, crafts and other items also are sought. Special guests in March 2009 were members of the UMM Ukulele Club. Bloody Merry, an 8-foot-long black fly who made her debut at the 2007 convention, was in attendance, gently flapping her wings and posing for admirers. Breeders also heard the latest buzz on the association’s attempts at establishing a blackfly farm in Washington County, first discussed at last year’s event. (The blackfly farm would harness the power of

black flies A black fly or blackfly (sometimes called a buffalo gnat, turkey gnat, or white socks) is any member of the family Simuliidae of the Culicomorpha infraorder. It is related to the Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, and Thaumaleidae. Over 2,200 speci ...

to provide

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

Athletics

The Maine-Machias (UMM) athletic teams were called the Clippers. The university campus-based college was a member of the

United States Collegiate Athletic Association The United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) is a national organization for the intercollegiate athletic programs of 72 mostly small colleges, including community/junior colleges, across the United States. The USCAA holds 15 national ...

(USCAA), primarily competing in the

Yankee Small College Conference Yankee Small College Conference is a Division II conference in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). The conference consists of two-year and four-year schools from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York State. The confe ...

(YSCC) from 2011–12 to 2019–20. The Clippers previously participated in the

Sunrise Athletic Conference The Sunrise Athletic Conference was a college athletic conference founded in 2002 and affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Its member institutions were in Maine, Massachusetts, New York (state), New York, a ...

of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for higher education, colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic schola ...

(NAIA) from 2002–03 to 2010–11. UMM competed in five intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports included basketball and soccer; while women's sports included basketball, soccer and volleyball. On July 21, 2020, Machias suspended all sports due to financial losses and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Clubs/intramurals

The university also offers several club and

intramural sports Intramural sports are recreational sports organized within a particular institution, usually an educational institution, for the purpose of fun and exercise. The term, which is chiefly North American, derives from the Latin words ''intra muros'' m ...

References

External links

Official website

Official athletics website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Machias Universities and colleges established in 1909 Machias, Maine University of Maine System

University of Maine at Machias The University of Maine at Machias (UMaine Machias or UMM) is a satellite campus in Machias, Maine. It is part of the University of Maine System, and it is the only regional degree-granting campus of University of Maine. The institution was f ...

Universities and colleges in Washington County, Maine USCAA member institutions 1909 establishments in Maine University of Maine Machias