U.S. News considers schools ranked between 134 through a tie at 190 to be third-tier universities. It does not rank schools within that tier.

UMaine’s ranking is “virtually unchanged over recent years,” said university spokesman Joe Carr.

“Other rankings — such as Princeton Review — place a heavy emphasis on student appraisals.  That publication has ranked UMaine among the top universities in the country for six years in a row.  We were also pleased to see UMaine recognized for excellence in the Fiske Guide to Colleges earlier this summer,” Carr said.

When calculating rankings, U.S. News takes into account peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving and graduation rate performance when ranking schools.

The University of Vermont tied with seven other schools for 88th place on the list. The University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of New Hamphsire were ranked 106 and 110, respectively.

Bowdoin, Bates and Colby colleges were ranked at six, 22 and 25, respectively, on the best liberal arts colleges list.

Demolition began at 8 a.m. and ran until shortly before 1 p.m. Crews used a giant excavator to knock the building down, while firefighters sprayed water to keep dust down. At one point a hose broke on the excavator, and the crew needed to repair it. The repair took about 15 minutes.

The streets were closed in downtown Orono but crowds gathered; they were ushered off Main Street later on.