USM to shut down day care

Posted on February 09, 2009 by Dan MacLeod in News

In an update posted on her website on Feb 4, USM President Selma Botman announced that the University will shut down its Child and Family Centers on August 14.

The school’s childcare program employs 24 staff members and serves 88 children from infancy to age 5.

USM scholarship deadline Feb 27

Posted on February 09, 2009 by Matt Dodge in Perspectives

The average student working fast food might be able to pull down $8 an hour. Add a couple bucks to that pay rate if you are toiling away in retail at the Mall. Waiters might make off with some hefty tips, but there is an easier way to dent that USM tuition bill than flipping burgers, folding clothes, or balancing trays.

Out with the old, in with the crew

Posted on February 09, 2009 by Jenna Howard in Arts & Culture

The opening reception was crowded with old friends, students and colleagues. As Portland’s Channel Six attempted to get a few words with Juris Ubans, aglow in suit and tie and standing taller than the camera man, he kept interrupting the interview, surprised as another familiar face brushed by,

“Oh Hello!” Juris belted, ignoring the camera and energetically shaking hands with a former student who had returned to USM for the art show, a retrospective exhibit of the work and history of Juris over his long career.

Seek the peak

Posted on February 09, 2009 by Ben Slagle & Brian King in Sports

Take next week’s break from class and study hard on the slopes. Check out the rankings below for Maine and New England’s best skiing options.

We set up three different classes:

Casual Skier – you love a nice day at the mountain but you just don’t have the time

Moderately Serious Skier – a regular day tripper, good for 20 days a year

Full-On Chargers – you can’t count your days per year, you’ll chase any snow storm anywhere, you know who you are.

Parents push for reprieve on daycare closing

Posted on February 09, 2009 by David O'Donnell in News

“We’ve had plenty of parents approach us that if this place closes, they won’t continue to take classes here,” says Jane Dean.

USM Community Arts Gala

Posted on February 09, 2009 by Alicia Sampson in Perspectives

AmeriCorps Service Leader Rachel Church is wielding the power of creative expression as a tool for community work.

This year, she has launched the USM Community Arts Initiative (CAI). The CAI mobilizes students of the arts to take on community issues of Greater Portland with their paintbrushes, cameras, voices, choreography and other media.

Not taken for Grant-ed

Posted on February 09, 2009 by Katie Wilber in Arts & Culture

Travis Grant, a costume designer and theater major at USM, has created many of the wardrobes seen on the Russell Theater stage. It was Grant’s ten designs for last spring’s play, “Last Easter,” that got the attention of a Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) respondent.

Ice fishing: a Maine landscape

Posted on February 09, 2009 by Michael Tardiff in Sports

Drive by any lake or pond this time of year and you’re likely to find a hamlet of ice shacks spotting the pristine white surface of the water. Bustling from shanty to shanty, people swap stories, venison and overall good times.

Last weekend I had the chance to head back home (Bangor) and throw some traps in a local pond.