FARMINGTON — When Theodora J. Kalikow retires this summer after 18 years as president of University of Maine at Farmington, she wants to see the next generation find ways to keep giving everyone a chance to get a higher education.

That’s the dream Kalikow, 71, shared Monday on the small campus, delivering a speech known as a last lecture to reflect on her legacy and look forward to the future.

Many of the faculty members, students and community members who have grown to adore her over the years packed into the auditorium. They laughed often and gave a rousing standing ovation after listening to the diminutive president, who is known affectionately on campus simply as Theo.

She turned to a collection of 1950s science fiction novels she saved from the town dump to help describe breakthroughs in higher education during her tenure. Investments in public colleges and programs targeting improved access have helped erase science fiction dreams from the 1950s, where people envisioned a future without diversity, Kalikow said.

Today, college campuses are producing leaders who champion a civilization whose success is intertwined globally, promoting and celebrating diversity amid an increasing shrinking world, she said.

As the longest-serving president since the school became a four-year college in 1945, Kalikow praised her predecessors for shaping the institution into a model for reaching these goals.

She described the state college as educating students from humble backgrounds, rather than the elite social groups who once held a monopoly on the higher education. She said the students who graduated during her tenure have become the leaders of tomorrow, giving the next generation the same chances to seek the American dream.

None of this would have been possible, however, without public investments in higher learning, she said.

“We’re the benficiaries of this investment,” she said, challenging the crowd to protect these practices.

She encouraged the crowd to follow a few rules to protect her most cherished principles of higher education, which consist of widespread access and high quality educational models rooted in broad liberal arts subjects.

Kalikow told educators and students alike to champion public colleges and build their ties with communities. Most importantly, they should focus on building human relationships between students and educators, rather than just thinking about memorizing material and taking tests.

“It’s the part of teaching about the heart,” she said.

Kalikow’s speech was part of a trend among educators who have been inspired by “The Last Lecture,” a book written by Randy Pausch, a computer science professor and Jeffrey Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal writer.

Pausch gave a last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University after he was diagnosed with cancer. Zaslow, who attended and wrote a column it, leading to his collaboration with Pausch on the book. Pausch died in 2008.

Since the book came out, many professors have given lectures modeled after this idea of a last lecture, contemplating what matters most to them and what kind of legacy they want to leave behind, according to a UMF press release.

Kalikow’s last lecture was sponsored by Alpha Lambda Delta First-Year Honors Society, of which the outgoing president is an honorary member.

Her retirement begins on June 30, but she plans to keep working for the University of Maine system for the next two years, consulting on projects to improve access to higher education and promoting economic development initiatives statewide.

David F. Robinson – 861-9287

drobinson@centralmaine.com