Just for the record, any of you NOT see Deron's post? It said: From UM Today.. 0 President Hoff has sent a strongly worded letter to the Boston Globe, expressing concern about the numerous factual errors in Sunday's story about UMaine's approach to enhancing its image and its enrollment. Among the errors were references to incidents and problems at other University System institutions that were attributed to UMaine. BTW, between the years 1979 and 1996, the record between Maine/UNH is 34/19/3. Source 1996-97 UMaine Hockey Media Guide. Now (drum roll) here is the article that is raising all the worms from the wood: UMaine looks to restore lost stature By Kenneth Z. Chutchian, Globe Correspondent, 11/23/97 ORONO, Maine - It numbers horror novelist Stephen King and US Senator Olympia Snowe among its distinguished alumni. But in the last few years the University of Maine has been hit with a series of public relations disasters and watched its enrollment plummet by about 3,000 students. Administrators at the flagship campus here say they are working round the clock to restore the once-proud university's reputation. But its new president acknowledges the job will take some time. ''A lot of people lost us off their radar screen,'' said Peter Hoff, the former president of California State University System who was brought on board Aug. 1. ''In a lot of ways, we are a far bigger success story than enrollment would indicate.'' Administration, student, and faculty leaders say that UMaine-Orono has some ''world-class'' degree programs. The forestry program is ranked among the top five universities in the country ''ahead of Yale and Berkeley,'' Hoff notes, while the engineering school consistently develops graduates who are hired by the top private companies in the nation. And the downward trend at UMaine is not regional. The University of New Hampshire saw a slight decline in its enrollment - from 12,518 graduate and undergraduate students in 1994 to 12,209 in the fall of 1997. The University of Vermont has also seen a small decline since 1991, to 9,105 students this fall from about 9,600. But the University of Maine's flagship campus has been particularly hard hit; Orono's enrollment has slipped from about 12,500 undergraduate and graduate students in 1989 to fewer than 9,300 this fall. Administrators say that not all of the enrollment decline can be traced to the university's bad press, but that certainly accounts for some of it. The string of setbacks began in 1994, when an NCAA investigation uncovered numerous recruiting violations by its hockey coach, Shawn Walsh. UMaine eventually suspended Walsh for a year, but to avoid losing its 1993 Division I national hockey championship, the university had to lobby the NCAA and prove that corrective steps were being taken. During the same period, two professors fired from their jobs filed federal lawsuits against the school. One professor at UMaine-Fort Kent was awarded $805,000 in damages after a jury decided the school overreacted to a charge of sexual harassment. Another professor at UMaine-Augusta received a $180,000 out-of-court settlement over a dispute concerning credits he granted to a faculty member's son. An interactive television network that served UMaine and other schools within the statewide system was completely revamped after critics charged that its administration was bloated. And worst of all, the Maine Legislature consistently cut the university's appropriation in the 1990s, leading to yearly tuition hikes. Jennifer Nelson, 21, is a graduate of South Portland High School who chose UMaine for two reasons - its engineering program and its women's field hockey team, which periodically ranks in the nation's Top 20. Nelson was a member of the field hockey team as a freshman, but the university's many internal problems persuaded her to sacrifice athletics for politics. She is now president of UMaine's student government. Both Nelson and Hoff say there should be no underestimating the damage caused by Walsh's recruiting violations. Nelson is particularly blunt on the subject the men's hockey team. ''You had a Division I coach breaking the rules and getting away with it, and he's still here,'' said Nelson, noting that Walsh has been reinstated as head coach. ''That sends a message.'' Student government representatives drafted a resolution calling for the university to fire Walsh, but the proposal met strong opposition from the student body and was dropped. ''I think it probably did have a negative effect, in ways that don't make sense to a lot of people,'' said Hoff, referring to the NCAA findings. ''Students, faculty, and members of the community told us of their concerns about'' athletics being given a greater priority on campus than academics. Despite acrimony in recent years over teachers' contracts, some faculty leaders at UMaine are on board with Hoff's feel-good campaign to market the university's virtues. After 15 years of classroom teaching, UMaine engineering professor Dana Humphrey took on an additional job responsibility this year - high school student recruiter. ''If judged solely on the strength of its academic programs, UMaine would be considered a world-class institution,'' Humphrey said. ''You're not going to get a better value for the dollar at another comprehensive university.'' -------------- Cathy Hart President, Friends of Maine Hockey Proud Supporters of the Finest Program in the Nation