PORTLAND, Maine — Various performing arts students at the University of Southern Maine (USM) seemed to have a spring in their step, as they walked across campus, to the building where they would now spend much of their college careers.

It was barely two weeks into the school year, and I observed a woodwind ensemble already showing signs of gelling their collective sound and an opera chorus beginning to digest their lyric sheets.

The "sheets" were displayed on new tablets, one for each student. It was the least impressive technology in the building.

They were the first classes to make use of the Crewe Center for the Arts—the first new academic building constructed on USM's Portland campus since the 1990s. It is a single-level structure, but its ceilings rise at least two stories. Its 43,

See Full Page