"One of the major original purposes of this land-grant campus was to prepare the sons and later the daughters of working people for productive careers and productive lives," says Dean O'Brien. "In those days, that meant mainly agricultural lifestyles. Today many of the descendants of those same working people are going into business. Just as in those days they had to be familiar with every aspect of agriculture, today's students need to be familiar with the whole psychology and history and reality of business in a sophisticated economy that descends directly from the simpler times of the 1860s."

Harold Alfond has given gifts to the University of Maine (Orono) for its Alfond Arena and Alfond Sports Stadium, to Colby College and its Harold Alfond Athletic Center, to a public recreation center in Waterville, Maine, and to the Harold and Ted Alfond Sports Center complex at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. He is also a leading supporter of services and scholarships for shoe-industry workers in Maine, for the University of Maine's Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy, and is the major donor to the Harold Alfond Center for Health Sciences at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine.

In that context, the Alfond Management Center will provide a home for the research, teaching, and outreach that is such an essential part of the University's history and mission. Dean O'Brien says, "We view this new wing as a symbol for better service to the University, the community, and our students, who need to be as well prepared as possible to run the future economy."