Senator Collins Meets with UMPI President and Director of Competency-Based Education Programs

Click HERE for a high-resolution photo of Senator Collins and Kashif Asdi, Carolyn Dorsey, and Ray Rice

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins met with Ray Rice, President of the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI), and Carolyn Dorsey, Director of Competency-Based Education (CBE) programs at UMPI, in her Washington, D.C., office.  They are visiting our nation’s capital for the Competency Based Education Network (CBEN) Conference.

“As the first public university in New England to offer a CBE Bachelor of Business Administration degree, UMPI is successfully reaching an older population and giving them the skills that they need to pursue higher education,” said Senator Collins.  “I had a great discussion with Ray and Carolyn about the opportunities offered by the university, including its CBE program.”

In the fall of 2017, UMPI began offering a CBE Bachelor of Business Administration degree. UMPI is the first public university in New England to offer that kind of CBE degree program. The goal of this program is to give individuals with some college experience and credit a pathway to complete their degree. Fifty-three percent of the students who have enrolled in this online competency-based program are between the ages of 40 and 65.

At a Senate Education Committee hearing last year, Senator Collins, a member of the Committee, praised UMPI for its successful CBE Bachelor of Business Administration degree program.

Senator Collins has continuously worked to ensure the TRIO programs at UMPI are funded, such as the Upward Bound program that helps low-income, first-generation, and other students from disadvantaged backgrounds pursue higher education.  In 2017, Senator Collins announced that UMPI was awarded $639,257 in grant funding through the U.S. Department of Education’s Upward Bound Program, which will help nearly 1,000 students over the next five years.