The University of Maine System has seven campuses geographically distributed throughout the state. The state's rural population has driven the development of these campuses and encouraged the deployment of sophisticated telecommunications systems to deliver educational services to its citizens. Whether someone lives in Eagle Lake, by the Canadian border, or in Vinalhaven, a tiny island off the coast of Maine, one can access a postsecondary program. NETAC is working with the University of Maine System Network to broaden services for deaf and hard-of-hearing students wherever they might live in the state.

The University of Maine System Network and the NETAC staff are working collaboratively with the University of Southern Maine campus to increase support services for deaf and hard-of-hearing students on its campus by offering C-Print services for deaf students enrolled in a Marine Biology class. Lisa Sorenson, the C-Print captionist who received training this past summer at NTID, is providing this service along with scheduled C-Print demonstrations to administrative deans of postsecondary institutions in southern Maine.

The University of Maine System by Barbara Keefe This fall a career awareness program, Voyage to the Future, is planned with the Muskie School of Public Service on November 6 and 7 for 30 high school students and their parents. NETAC will host this exciting event at the Campus Center of the University of Southern Maine. A variety of successful deaf professionals, including a lobster fisherman, a lawyer, a computer programmer, a chef, an actress, and an undertaker, have been invited to participate in the Career Fair segment of this program. The response to date has been enthusiastic.

Each state in the Northeast has a unique contribution to make to improve services to deaf and hard-of-hearing students in their postsecondary institutions, and each state looks to its own future to see how it will design that contribution.

Maine's character is rural and its resources are limited. A state-of-the-art telecommunication system is being built in Maine. Accessibility to that technology infrastructure is critical for deaf and hard-of-hearing people to maximize their full potential in a global economy. NETAC's emphasis in Maine will be to support the creation of a replica model of telecommunications accessibility as we move into the millenium. As Maine goes, so goes the nation... we hope!

Northwestern Connecticut Community-Technical College (NCCC) and the Collegiate Education for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (CEDHH) program are proud to soon be celebrating 25 years of providing full support services to deaf and hard-of-hearing students throughout Connecticut and its neighboring states.

Nestled in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains, NCCC is a member of the New England Student Regional Program. This, combined with the fact that NCCC is the only postsecondary education program in Connecticut providing full support services to deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and one of few such institutions throughout New England, allows deaf and hard-of- hearing students throughout New England to attend NCCC at a much reduced tuition.

The 12 full-time and three part-time members of the CEDHH staff provide full support services to all deaf and hard-of-hearing students attending the college: interpreting, notetaking, C-Print captioning, tutoring, counseling, courses in remedial English and mathematics, academic preview (overview of class expectations prior to the beginning of the new semester), orientation regarding the use of support services, and extended orientation classes to assist with the transition to college.

Since 1974 more than 400 deaf and hard-of-hearing students have been served by the CEDHH staff. The average enrollment of deaf and hard-of-hearing students is approximately 30 students each semester. Combined with the more than 200 hearing students who are majoring in Deaf Studies and/or Interpreting for the Deaf, a very lively deaf community exists at NCCC.

With NCCC and the CEDHH program serving as a resource center for Connecticut regarding postsecondary education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students for more than 20 years, the NETAC grant has been a natural fit. NETAC events have been well attended, and calls for the technical assistance that we can provide to other postsecondary programs serving deaf and hard-of-hearing students are increasing steadily.

On our own campus, C-Print is rapidly growing in demand. We have grown from providing C-Print services in three academic classes during the 1997-98 academic year to providing C-Print services in seven classes for the fall 1998 semester. We have also initiated an interpreter referral service to provide interpreting services to postsecondary institutions across the state, and we're considering the establishment of a similar service to introduce more campuses statewide to C-Print technology while we simultaneously respond to requests we have already received for this service.

A major new project underway at this time is the development of a distance learning course to instruct English language skills to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. This will enable us to serve a much broader range of deaf and hard-of-hearing students across the entire geographical region, especially those students who live at great distance, work full time, and yet want to return to school. We are very excited about this project!