Many Flags --- Why Here/Why Now?

On the surface, the "Many Flags/One Campus" concept is all about establishing a new approach to delivering higher education, technical training, and high performing high school instruction in truly integrated community model.

But at a deeper level, "Many Flags" is much more than that – the "Many Flags" concept is “the” key component needed to foster the fundamental transformation of the economy of the Midcoast.

During the last decade (1990- 2000) the population of Midcoast Maine grew by 10%, at a time when population growth in the rest of the state of Maine was relatively stagnant. The Midcoast is clearly a beautiful coastal region that many people wish to call home. However, during that same ten year period, the Midcoast lost 29.3% of its 20 - 35 year olds. Simply put, the jobs and opportunities for those young adults were not present here -- they felt that they had to leave to meet their educational and economic needs. Maine now has the distinction of being the “oldest” state in the nation (average age = 40.2), and our Midcoast region is now the oldest part of the oldest state in the nation (average age in Midcoast = 42). Our economy is steadily shifting from manufacturing and resource extraction to one that will be predominately dependent upon tourism and providing services to retirees. In addition, our research indicates that, with the except of one community in the Midcoast (Camden/Rockport), the majority of our area has a post high school education attainment level that is below the State average, and further, the rate of family poverty in the Midcoast is higher than the State-wide average. This data dispels the myth that the Midcoast is the "Gold Coast." In fact, our fear is that we may be inadvertently creating a permanent "service class" economy -- a seasonal economy that will not provide the good jobs we need to sustain young families and re-build our middle class.

The economists tell us that the answer to this downward slide into a "service economy" is that we must transform the Midcoast into a "knowledge-based" economy. For that to happen, we must build the educational and research infrastructure that will support that new economic engine. In effect, we must transform the Midcoast by aggressively pursuing and securing a vital element that we currently do not have -- easy access to higher education, technical education naf ahoigh performing applied learning high school.

When we surveyed the employers in the Midcoast they told us that they struggle to find the skilled young workforce they need to maintain and expand their businesses. Likewise, when we surveyed the general populace of the Midcoast we found that they consistently said that the lack of easy access to higher education in the Midcoast was a significant impediment to their ability to stay and succeed in the Midcoast. When local business and community leaders reviewed the survey results that we collected they became aware that the higher education needs of both employers and the workforce they need, was not being met. Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield is responsible for Community College needs of our area. KVCC is a fine institution, but because it is over 90 minutes away, only a small portion of the KVCC student body comes from our greater Knox County region. Further, when asked if the programs provide by the University of Maine Center at Thomaston and the University of Maine Center at Belfast met their needs - once again, both employers and the general population said that while these two University of Maine centers are welcome additions to our area, they simply don't provide the level of concentrated higher education access that a more traditional 4 year college could provide.

In effect, the employers in our area, as well a wide range of citizens in the Midcoast, were telling us that a “higher education “critical mass” was missing in our region. In a resounding voice they all seemed to be saying -- "what we need here is a College."

The Business and Community leaders in the Midcoast heard that message loud and clear. But these leaders are very practical people - they know that the resources need to create a new College in our area simply are not available. Therefore, this group decided that to provide the higher education infrastructure that we need to fundamentally transform our economy we must seek to coordinate and improve the existing higher education resources that we already have.

And so the “Many Flags/One Campus" concept was conceived.

Simply put, rather than try to lure a college to our region - or build a new college ourselves -- our leaders decided to attempt to consolidate and coordinate the existing higher education resources that were serving our area. We already have fine higher education institutions represented in our area - our task was to combine them in such as way so as to create a new model -- a new "Campus" that will allow KVCC, U Maine Thomaston and U Maine Belfast Centers, and the Midcoast School of Technology to not only share a common space and resources, but to create a new integrated higher education system in the Midcoast that would provide seamless/non-duplicative education and administrative services for our Midcoast students, while allowing each educational participant to maintain their own institutional autonomy. Hence the name -- “Many Flags” (KVCC, U Maine Thomaston, U Maine Belfast, and MCST) – but all within “One Campus.” While there would be indeed be many flags at the entrance to the campus, once a student enters the facility, those ”flags” will fade into the background -- the identity of the participating institutions will become somewhat “transparent” to the student. In effect, that student will be attending a new “synthesized” institution that provides advanced technical training, Associate Degrees, Bachelor Degrees, even access to Graduate Degrees —all within the borders of one Midcoast campus.

With this concept in mind, a core group was assembled in January 2005. Leaders from KVCC; U Maine Hutchinson Center – Belfast; U Maine Center – Thomaston; Mid Coast School of Technology; U Maine Orono; U Maine Chancellor’s Office, and the Maine Community College Office. For nine months this group met and held “spirited” discussions about how a coordinated higher education “campus” could be established. Needless-to-say, there were differences of opinion and approaches – however, the core group shared a common commitment to meeting the higher education needs of the community and the students of the Midcoast. As a result of that commitment, the core group developed the following “Vision” for the “Many Flags/One Campus” concept:

“Many Flags/One Campus” is a unique technical and higher education concept for the Midcoast and it’s Island communities that promotes efficiency by combining into one virtual presence and physical location the programs, degrees, students, faculty, staff, classrooms, labs, technology infrastructure and administrative functions for the following institutions that provide vocational/technical training, associate degrees, baccalaureate degrees and graduate degrees: Midcoast School of Technology (MCST); Kennebec Valley Community College (KVCC); University of Maine Orono – Hutchison Center (UMO-H); and the University College at Thomaston (UCT).

But wait – there’s more.

During the same 9 month period that the core group was working to define the Many Flags vision, another area group was grappling with related educational planning issues. The SAD 50 “Future Options Taskforce” was formed to identify options for dealing with the steadily declining enrollments of the Georges Valley High School in Thomaston. The Many Flags core group was invited to address the SAD 50 Future Options Taskforce in the fall of 2005. As a result, the SAD 50 Future Options Taskforce decided to incorporate the Many Flags concept into the options they were considering for GVHS. The SAD 50 Taskforce ultimately recommended that SAD 50 Board should consider merging GVHS with another area high school and co-locating that regional high school with the other higher educational and Voc-tech institutions that will be on the Many Flags campus. By becoming a part of the integrated ”Many Flags” campus, the regional high school would truly become a high performing school that could providing its student with early college experiences and integrated technical and academic education that will enable all of its graduates to be fully prepared to move on to college, other post graduate technical training, or the workforce. It is safe to say that this “campus” approach to providing a robust learning environment for students in the Midcoast, from high school through college, has captured the imagination and enthusiasm of the SAD 50 Board. As of this writing (9/06), the SAD 5 Board has formed a Taskforce to consider possible high school merger talks with SAD 50. Further, it is clear that if GVHS and the Rockland Area High School do merger, the best chance for the success of those combined institutions may be as partner on the Many Flags campus.-

Bold idea? Indeed.

Challenging concept to implement? No doubt.

Achievable? With focus and dedication – we believe the answer is YES.