UNE COM GALA: 40 YEARS OF UNE COM
“I want you to try and remember what it was like to have been very young. And particularly the days when you were first in love; when you were like a person sleepwalking, and you didn’t quite see the street you were in, and didn’t quite hear everything that was said to you. You’re just a little bit crazy. Will you remember that, please?”
― Thornton Wilder, Our Town
When I try to imagine what UNE COM was like at its inception in 1978, the play, Our Town, came to mind. Set in a rural New England town at the turn of the twentieth century, the play describes the ordinary people within it, how they lived, and the humdrum moments that in and of themselves were extraordinary. This is how I imagine UNE COM at the beginning: 36 first-year students taking classes in a white, New England-style house on the edge of the Saco River and the vast Atlantic Ocean. Were those first students aware of the legacy that was beginning, or were they just living their lives to the best of their abilities, a little love-struck for the pursuance of their newfound profession, and a little crazed for the sleep deprivation that probably ensued thereafter.
UNE COM’s first class graduated in 1982. That was the same year Michael Jackson’s Thriller album was released. It was the year that John Belushi died, Prince William was born, and Spielberg’s ET arrived in the theaters. COM’s most recent class of 2019 graduated 178 students. These students can’t remember a time without cell phones, chuckle when someone mistakenly refers to the popular internet company, ‘The Google,’ and listen to podcasts that don’t have anything to do with anatomy lab. 40 years of UNE COM was celebrated in June 2019 in the newly constructed Danielle Ripich Commons on the UNE Biddeford Campus. Alumni represented every decade since UNE COM's inception attended the event, along with current students, faculty and professional staff.
If you missed the festivities, enjoy these pictures from the event...
The Cawley Family (L-R: Katie Cawley, COM '23, Jackie Cawley, DO '89, and Robert Cawley, DO '88) at the 40th Gala Celebration