WHEREAS,  the University of Maine, now celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding, was established in 1865 as the Maine College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts under the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1862, and opened on September 21, 1868 with 12 students and 2 faculty members; and

WHEREAS,  in 1897 the original name of the land-grant school was changed to the University of Maine, and through the years the curricula expanded with the establishment of the School of Education in 1930 and the School of Business Administration in 1958 and the conferring of the first master's degree in 1881 and the first doctorate in 1960; and

WHEREAS,  in 1980 the Federal Government designated the University of Maine as a Sea Grant college under a program conducted with the University of New Hampshire, and in 2004 the University of Maine received that designation for its own program; and

WHEREAS,  the University of Maine has a statewide mission of teaching, research and public service as well as educating the leaders of the future, helping to drive Maine's economic development, conducting internationally recognized research and providing outreach to every county in the State; and

WHEREAS,  for 150 years, the University of Maine has had a major leadership role in the State, serving as an educational and cultural center in Maine, with a world-class faculty and with more than 105,000 alumni around the world; now, therefore, be it