Members of Midcoast Senior College have elected new officers and appointed new board members for 2022-2023. The new president of MSC is Jay Kuder. Karen Williams is Vice-president, Leona Dufour is Secretary and Erv Snyder is Treasurer.

Kuder is a former university educator. He received his Ed.D. degree from Boston University and spent most of his career teaching in the Department of Interdisciplinary and Inclusive Education at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. He has published widely on the subject of the education of autistic and other developmentally challenged students. He and his wife live in Topsham.

The four new board members are Rufus E. Brown, Kevin Hart, David Vogt and Susan F. Goran.

Brown is a graduate of the University of Maine Orono and Georgetown University Law School. He spent his career practicing law in Portland and also held positions in the State of Maine’s attorney general’s office. He and his wife live in Georgetown.

Goran has held a variety of nursing positions throughout Maine and New England for many years. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at the New England School of Nursing and Population Health in Portland and lives with her husband in Freeport.

Hart is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and holds a law degree from Syracuse University. He practiced law in Pennsylvania for many years and then earned Ph.D. in Health Economics and Policy at the University of Rochester, where he taught both undergraduate and graduate students.

He has been a resident of Brunswick since retiring here with his late wife in 2009.

Vogt is a graduate of Colby College and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Vogt has had a varied career: he spent 12 years teaching film-making and curriculum development and 28 years in technical and general management positions in the international semi-conductor industry. He and his wife live in Falmouth.

In the wake of pandemic restrictions, Midcoast Senior College spent most of the past year offering classes exclusively on Zoom.

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“We learned that there is a significant number of Midcoast students who prefer that classes be held via Zoom,” College Executive Director Donna Marshall said. “These are people who find it difficult to travel to the classroom and prefer learning at home.”

While the college will continue to hold classes on Zoom, it is beginning now to re-instate in-person classes and other MSC activities.

The college will use different area venues in Brunswick for future in-person classes including University of Maine Augusta at Brunswick Landing, Curtis Memorial Library, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and Midcoast Senior College Administrative office. This spring, the college experimented with a hybrid class that included both students in a UM Augusta classroom at Brunswick Landing that is called a “smart room,” which means it can connect with students on Zoom as well as accommodate students in the classroom.

“We learned a lot about how to combine both types of students,” Marshall said.

Other activities sponsored by the college are becoming in-person again. The college has re-instated live events such as committee meetings, faculty lunches, and a spring celebration for Zoom co-hosts. This year’s Annual Summer Excursion on Merrymeeting Bay in July is already sold out, with 50 participants signed up.

The college has also recruited several new teachers who will bring fresh approaches to the college’s teaching team. The board is now working on new initiatives that offer even more engagement of Midcoast Senior College members in ongoing activities.

The college is now seeking more volunteers to act as co-hosts for its Zoom classes. The co-host assists the instructor in the more technical aspects of online classes. Marshall stated that co-host volunteers need not be professional computer experts.

“Co-hosts need to be proficient in computer functions, but they do not need to be tech experts. Also, co-hosts are members of the class, too, and get the benefit of learning something new as they help facilitate the Zoom classes,” Marshall said.

Co-hosts do not pay tuition for the course they co-host.

If you are interested in co-hosting, contact Marshall at midcoastseniorcollege.org.