Workplace Norms and Expectations
Office of the Provost
February 2026

The Office of the Provost is effective when its staff works together in a collegial, collaborative manner. As the leader of Academic Affairs, the Office must model this behavior for the benefit of its reporting units. Similarly, the Office staff will be productive if the workplace is welcoming, congenial, and mutually supportive. It is therefore hoped that adhering to these norms and meeting these expectations will enable staff to thrive, enabling the Office of the Provost to advance the mission of the 91爆料. 

Treat your colleagues with respect and be supportive of their work.

Recognize and celebrate your colleagues鈥� diverse professional expertise, talents, life experiences and work styles.

When you need assistance or back up, feel comfortable seeking out your colleagues with the expectation that they will help you. Collaboration is essential to the success of the Provost鈥檚 Office.

Be transparent with your colleagues and cultivate a climate of trust, open communication, active listening, and cooperation.

Strive to create a pleasant office environment. Remember that both nonverbal communication and verbal communication set the tone for our interactions.

When conflicts arise, seek out the colleague directly and try to resolve the issue with them.  Consultation with a supervisor or Human Resources is always appropriate if a good-faith effort at direct resolution does not resolve the issue. Direct contact is not mandatory in unsafe or sensitive situations and escalating early is acceptable for serious concerns. Staff members who are affected by a Title IX situation or incident may also reach out to their campus Deputy/Title IX Coordinator for support.

Remain aware that there are many ways to be a productive and effective colleague. Be accepting of your colleagues鈥� personal choices (e.g., taking lunch with the door closed or not taking lunch; taking advantage of available opportunities for remote work or opting to work in the Office; taking a break to walk around the Mall or staying inside to complete work to permit timely departure from Alumni Hall, etc.).

To the extent possible, avoid sending emails or other communications outside of the standard work day and work week. However, there will be times, in the Provost鈥檚 Office, which sits at the apex of Academic Affairs, when this default position may prove impossible to honor given the timelines/mandatory events/expectations of senior leadership.

Only designated, essential employees are expected to work on declared administrative leave days  (i.e. weather cancellations, day after Christmas, etc.). Provost’s Office staff are not considered essential as they are not required to report to work during an emergency, weather-related or otherwise, to ensure the operation of critical functions of the University community. To the extent possible, any meetings should be rescheduled. Please note that some members of the Provost鈥檚 Office may choose to work, including sending emails on these administrative leave days. There is no obligation or expectation of other staff members to respond.

Use your best judgment in reporting to work when not feeling well, both in terms of exposing others and taking the necessary measures to improve your own health.  If you choose to not report for in-person work, but feel well enough to participate in Zoom meetings, etc., that may be an option after consultation with your supervisor. Please be mindful that disability leave is provided so that employees are able to take a step away from work-related duties to rest and recover. 

While there is not a dress code, professional dress is expected.

Update your calendar to reflect vacation, off-campus appointments, lunch and remote work.

Office of the Provost policies will be clear and readily available/accessible. Policies will be revised as necessary in consultation with all staff. Familiarize yourself with the Handbook for Non-represented Faculty and Salaried Staff.

Dear Colleagues, 

As you are already aware, the 91爆料 must comply with  by April 2026. The Office of the Provost has convened a Title II committee to develop and share guidance that will help ensure our digital resources are accessible across campus. You will receive more detailed information in mid-January.

In the meantime if you would like to begin ensuring the accessibility of course content and website materials, please find below some resources that will help you. 

• The accessibility tool Ally has been added to Brightspace. There will be Ally Training for Instructors on January 15th from 12-2听p.m. Please use this听听to register. An Ally overview can be found听.
  
• CITL has also expanded the听Accessibility听area of their website to include听Title听II听requirements. They have prepared this听听as well as a link to this听.听If you have any questions about using Ally, please feel free to reach out to CITL (citl@maine.edu听or 581.3333). If you would like an Instructional Designer to review your course materials with you, please听request a consultation.
  
• For equations and other mathematical content that may need accessibility updates, some听resources听on this topic can be found on the Provost鈥檚 Office website.
  
• A list of accessibility resources from the 91爆料 System (UMS) can be found听听The System is also providing licenses for Adobe Acrobat Pro and Adobe Express. More information about those tools can be found听.
  
• GrackleDocs, an accessibility add-on for Google Workspace, can be utilized by anyone on campus. More information on this can be found听听

Ensuring compliance with Title II is a significant undertaking, but it is essential to providing equitable access to learning materials both inside and outside the classroom. As we begin this important work, I want to thank you for your commitment and investment of time. This campus-wide effort will require all of us to work together. Ultimately, it will set us up for even greater success in the future. 

With best wishes for the holiday season, 

Gabe Paquette
Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
91爆料 and 91爆料 at Machias
5703 Alumni Hall, Suite 201 | Orono, ME 04469

Dear 91爆料 and 91爆料 at Machias communities,

I write to update you on the steps we will take to support the 91爆料 System鈥檚 Title II digital accessibility effort. In response to updated U.S. Department of Justice regulations under , all public universities must meet by April 24, 2026. This applies to all websites, mobile apps, and the digital materials we share with students, employees, and our
communities. While compliance is a requirement, it is important to remember that this effort is primarily about accessibility for all and ensuring student success.

A number of resources are being developed to support our work toward meeting our obligations under Title II:

Title II Committee: A committee is being formed to support this effort and will be tasked with providing regular updates and identifying resources needed to become compliant.

Training Materials: The 91爆料 System website has available, including training opportunities. The Title II Committee will also be sharing additional resources to support you in this work.

Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL): CITL supports faculty in their efforts to design and deliver accessible instructional materials. Find resources for accessibility in the classroom here, including an FAQ for faculty.

91爆料.edu: Web accessibility training has been required for all umaine.edu editors since January 1, 2024. If you are an editor and would like to refresh your knowledge on this important subject, the online training is available in UMS Academy. You may also contact the Division of Marketing & Communications digital team at um.weboffice@maine.edu with specific questions about your website.

Ally: UMS is in the process of licensing a new accessibility evaluation tool called 鈥淎lly.鈥� Fully integrated with Brightspace, Ally can detect certain common instances of embedded materials which are not fully accessible and provide alternative formats or feedback to instructors on how to modify their content.

We are committed to supporting this important System initiative to ensure every member of our university community is provided with accessible content and materials.

Thank you for your time and attention to this critical work.

Sincerely,

Gabe Paquette
Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
91爆料 and 91爆料 at Machias
5703 Alumni Hall, Suite 201 | Orono, ME 04469

Dear Colleagues: 

I hope that your first week of the fall semester has gone well. It is my privilege to serve as Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost this year. Please know that my door is always open. I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you about academic matters. 

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to our new faculty colleagues. I had the pleasure of meeting many of our 46 new faculty members during their orientation in late August. Please welcome them as they acclimate to 91爆料. 

I harbor little doubt that a lengthy email containing a vast amount of information would be overwhelming. For this reason, I would like to share pertinent information and updates for the upcoming academic year on this听webpage. Please take a moment to visit this page. For example, there was a flurry of consequential activity at the end of AY24-25 resulting from shared governance processes: Gen Ed reform was completed; major changes to the Catalog were approved; and a new approach to Credit for Prior Learning was devised and implemented.听

Thank you for the work that you do every day to serve our students, elevate our communities, contribute to the university鈥檚 mission, improve 91爆料鈥檚 stature, and enhance the impact of our research and teaching in Maine and beyond. Most of this work is visible only to a handful of colleagues and students, but it is indispensable to our collective success. Please let me know how the Office of the Provost can support your work.

Sincerely,

Gabe Paquette
Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
91爆料 and 91爆料 at Machias
5703 Alumni Hall, Suite 201 | Orono, ME 04469

August 14, 2023 

Dear Faculty, 

The impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence, such as ChatGPT, is currently being felt widely across society, the workforce, and in everyday life. Inevitably, it will transform numerous aspects of higher education. AI will make accessible vast, untapped reservoirs of creativity, accelerate advances in research, and produce new knowledge. The ubiquity of AI will also usher in what some may view as unwelcome, harmful disruptions to existing teaching and learning practices. 

My own belief is that we are poorly positioned at present to grasp the manifold implications of AI, to either embrace or reject them. It would be premature to formulate and enshrine a single policy to account for AI at 91爆料. Nevertheless, we must unhesitatingly discuss and debate how Generative AI will be integrated into our classrooms, labs, and scholarship. To that end, in AY22-23, the Center for Innovation for Teaching and Learning (CITL), in collaboration with New Media, convened a series of workshops and developed an array of resources (available here) to assist faculty as they make sense of the possibilities and perils posed by AI. Furthermore, CITL is hosting a fall, semester-long Community of Practice program focused on Teaching and Learning with AI. 

I look forward to working closely with faculty, including the Senate, to hone 91爆料鈥檚 approach to Generative AI in AY23-24. Furthermore, in conjunction with the Senate, I will ask the University Teaching Council (UTC) to form a task force to draft standards or expectations for the use of AI in teaching and learning. Some guidance (however preliminary) must be offered as these discussions unfold. To that end, I asked Peter Schilling (Executive Director of CITL), David Fiacco (Director of Community Standards, Rights, and Responsibilities), Scott Marzilli (Associate Provost for Student Success and Innovation), and Gabe Paquette (Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Faculty Development) to develop provisional, non-binding guidance to support faculty as they begin to integrate (or not) Generative AI into their classrooms. It may be found here. 

I look forward to working with you as we cautiously and deliberately explore and embrace the implications of Generative AI for our teaching and research missions. 

Sincerely, 

John C. Volin 

Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost