Opinion: The death of the Unity College dream

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 6, 2020

The coronavirus has affected colleges since spring 2020. It’s curious why Unity College, in such a short time, has opted to go fully online, lay off faculty, potentially sell its campus and significantly take from the community that built it. How did Unity use its $822,158 allocation from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act? Online education has not lived up to its potential. Why has Unity opted for a model that dismisses the importance and positive effects of socialization and experiential learning? This was not the dream of the Unity founders. As founding students, this is not our Unity. ~ Mark Alter, the first graduate of Unity College in 1969, is a professor of educational psychology at New York University. Michael Allen is president and CEO of Maine-ly Red Wing Inc. Richard Saltzberg is president and CEO of Charles River Publishing. Both graduated from Unity College in 1970.