BRUNSWICK — Topsham resident Lynn Lockwood has been elected president of the Board of Midcoast Senior College.
Freda Bernotavicz, Leona Dufour, Bruce Hauptli, Jay Kuder, Craig Snapp and Bill Vanderwolk were also elected to the Board of Directors. The new board members were confirmed by online voting by MSC members.
Lockwood has been a member of the Midcoast Senior College Board of Directors for five years; she was also secretary and a member of the executive committee.
Midcoast Senior College faced a major problem with the onset of the pandemic. Its classes until that time had been held in classrooms, which would exacerbate the contagion of the coronavirus. And while some of the college’s faculty were familiar with online teaching, others were not.
“The past year has been an incredible year for the college,” Lockwood said. “We decided early in the pandemic to move all classes to Zoom, but it took a lot of training and adjustments to get there. But we succeeded because our executive director, Donna Marshall, was willing to take on the challenge, and our faculty members were flexible and willing to make the change.”
She said Zoom is very popular with students. “We enlarged our student body with people who had problems getting to the in-person classes,” Lockwood said. “Zoom also brought us students from other parts of Maine and across the country.”
The college plans to go back to in-person classes because of their socialization value – “there is a chemistry in live classes,” Lockwood said, but will also continue to offer online classes on Zoom.
Lockwood would also like to see the college create a long-term plan that refines how courses will be presented to students, more comprehensive communication to the community and the feasibility of a college digital library.
Lockwood also highlighted the on-going success of its annual fund drive. Last year, individual donors gave substantially more than the college had estimated it would raise. “The College offers something to retirees that no one else does,” Lockwood said. “Classes are stimulating and popular: our courses sell out very often. Een in this difficult year, people came through for the College. Even when they did not know when in-person classes would return, they supported us. We are so grateful.”
Midcoast Senior College offers a range of courses in history, literature, and science, as well as the early history of coastal Maine, nature and gardening courses. For information, visit midcoastseniorcollege.org.
