Unity College (Maine)
The college was founded in 1965 as the Unity Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences with a faculty of 15 and a student body of 39. The founders, a group of local business people, were looking for ways to counter economic decline in the adjacent town of Unity. Two years later, it changed its name to Unity College and in 1969 awarded degrees to its first graduating class of 24. Past presidents include Mitchell Thomashow, Wilson Hess, Stephen Mulkey and current President Melik Peter Khoury. Unity began offering online education in 2016. In 2020, the college claimed that online attendance had doubled annually. The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States forced the college to shift to an online-only model temporarily in 2020. The college brought students back for residential learning in August 2021. In Fall 2020, the college also recorded its highest number of students and had a record incoming class. The college plans to open the Technical Institute for Environmental Professions (TIEP) in 2022. It will be located on the Pineland Farms campus in New Gloucester, Maine. The institute will offer in-person and online instruction leading to associate degrees, certificates, and continuing professional education focused environmental engineering, veterinary technology, the solar industry, and other high-growth sectors. Unity (Me.) athletic teams were called the Rams. The college was a member of the Division II level of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA), primarily competing in the Yankee Small College Conference (YSCC) from 2008–09 to 2019–20. Unity (Me.) competed in nine intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports included basketball, cross country, soccer and track & field; while women's sports included basketball, cross country, soccer, track & field and volleyball. Additionally Unity College had a number of club sports: woodsmen's team, ice hockey, indoor soccer, lacrosse, martial arts and ultimate frisbee; plus intramural sports. The Unity College men's and women's cross-country teams both won the 1996 National Small College Athletic Association (NSCAA) National Championship meet held at Michigan Christian College in Rochester Hills, Michigan. These were Unity College's first-ever men's and women's national championship teams. The NSCAA was the predecessor of today's United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). In 1992 the Unity College women's cross country team won the NAIA Division 5 New England Championship meet held at Johnson State College, Vermont. Unity College is home to dozens of extra-curricular clubs and activities for students. "Unity Commons" is the student-run newspaper, consisting of locally focused journalism and student submissions of art, photography, poetry, and short fiction.
History
Initially founded as a residential school, Unity College expanded into online education in 2016 which grew both its enrollment and number of academic programs.