AUGUSTA, Maine - At a confirmation hearing next week, state lawmakers are likely to spend time probing the views of one of Gov. Paul LePage's recent appointments to the University of Maine board of trustees. Susan Dench heads the Informed Women's Network, a Falmouth-based group that encourages women to join together and advocate for conservative ideals. Dench is also a former blogger for the Bangor Daily News, and it's a column she wrote on the influence of feminism in schools that's generating controversy.
That column, titled "The Irony of Feminizing Schools," was published in the BDN back in May. In it, Dench wrote, "But in our quest to build girls up, we’ve also feminized our schools, making them more sensitive, less competitive, more cooperative places that mitigate risk-taking and failure. We’ve given out medals for just showing up. And instead of encouraging boys and girls to achieve at a higher level, we’ve lowered the bar to the lowest common denominator, so we don’t hurt the feelings of those who don’t achieve."
Susan Dench referred all questions about her past writing to Gov. Paul LePage's office, which did not return a request for comment by air time.
"Most appointees to the board of trustees are not particularly well known," says Amy Fried, a political science professor at UMaine-Orono. Fried says the Dench selection is different. "In this case, Gov. LePage has picked someone who has a very strong public profile, certainly among readers of the Bangor Daily News who remember Dench's columns, and as such, I'd say there is a political dimension there."
In choosing Dench, Fried says LePage is merely sticking with the well-established, political approach that has defined his first four years in office. "Gov. LePage has kept a pattern of really appealing to his base, which has been very solid and very much with him, while being polarizing with other voters, frequently."
The Dench selection has already rubbed at least one Democratic lawmaker the wrong way. In the Bangor Daily News last week, Rep. Matty Daughtry, a Brunswick Democrat, raised questions about Dench's views of gender paradigms. Daughtry serves on the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, which will conduct Dench's confirmation hearing.
Democratic state Sen. Rebecca Millet, a co-chair of the committee, says she hopes to learn more about Dench's thinking. "Well, I do think that what someone has done or said in the past, if it's relevant to higher education, should be considered and certainly should be discussed," she says.
Millet says she wants to know what sort of experience Dench has had with institutions that have the kind of complex structural and financial challenges that the UMaine system faces. Millet's Republican colleague on the committee, state Sen. Brian Langley, says he's approaching the hearing with an open mind.
"I believe in the process," he says. "I've been through it quite a number of times. And so, for me, I really hold the judgment out until I've gone through the process. So we'll read the biography. And then we'll read any testimony and listen to testimony. And then we'll have any kind of debate."
Langley says it's extremely rare for a trustee appointment to make the newspaper or trigger a divided vote on the committee. Susan Dench's confirmation hearing is scheduled for Sept. 26.
Editors Note: Susan Dench's husband, Bryan Dench, is the treasurer for Gov. Paul LePage's 2014 re-election campaign.