Alumni Internet connection
Joseph Kayne was 12 miles away from the Pentagon in Fairfax, Virginia, at the time of the attack on the United States two weeks ago.
When the USM alumnus heard what happened, he turned his car around and fought the suddenly heavy traffic toward his son’s daycare center.
“My wife works in close proximity to the Pentagon and heard the explosion,” Kayne said.
With his family safe, Kayne turned his attention to an e-mail he received from a college friend. The e-mail asked all USM alumni to send a reply and let other class members know they were safe.
Amy J. Barnes of the USM Office of Publications and Marketing has been collecting the replies and posting them on a Web site.
“It’s a nice vehicle to give people to express their views,” she said.
By Wednesday, Kayne was one of three of the 400 alumni given the message who responded, and his message was posted on the alumni Web site.
The Office of Publications and Marketing based the Web site on other universities who used it as a way for alumni to contact each other with the news of their safety. The Web site can be found at www.usm.maine.edu/alumni/news.html
USM elevators are safe
University dorms, such as the eight-story Towers in Gorham, are hard places to keep elevator inspection stickers.
“Those elevators get a lot of intense use,” said Dave Early, executive director of Facilities Management.
A lot of times inspection stickers are stolen from elevators, he said, so copies are kept to replace them when it happens.
All 41 elevators on the three USM campuses have current inspection stickers, according to the State Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. The department has two inspectors, and oversees about 13 private inspectors statewide.
The stickers were issued to USM between February and June, said Merle Chaplain, Life Safety assistant.
Elevators here are inspected once a month by Stanley Elevator Service, a company contracted by the University, and about $250,000 was put into upgrading dorm elevators in Gorham. Most of the funds went toward the Towers, Early said.
Stanley Elevator is also on call for emergencies, which do happen from time to time.
“We’ve had people stuck in elevators for various reasons,” said Early.
What’s happening at the Science Building?
The expansion project that is in the works for the Science Building on the Portland campus is still in the permit stages, according to Facilities Management.
The project, which will include a three-story addition to the current building, is slated for groundbreaking sometime in November.
According to Dave Early, executive director of Facilities Management, the addition will extend into the parking lot located between the Science Building and the Sullivan Gymnasium. The project will put an extra strain on the parking situation on campus. But once construction is completed, a parking lot is planned for the grassy area behind Payson Smith Hall.
The addition is supposed to increase research and development within Maine, Early said. It should also help generate more high-tech job opportunities and help attract grant funding.
This week, the bathrooms in the three-story tower wing will be taken out of service from 7 a.m. Monday to Tuesday to make changes in the sanitary drain line.
Money raised for Red Cross
The University raised over $560 in three hours on Thursday, Sept. 13 during its ribbon-making program. The money will be donated to the American Red Cross, to assist in disaster relief efforts, said Denise Nelson, assistant director of Gorham Student Life.
About $373 was raised in Portland, and $190 in Gorham between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Donations were placed in a large jar next to another one full of purple and white ribbons, Nelson said. Nearly 35 people helped make the ribbons, the colors of which represent both sympathy for victims and peace.
Enough material was brought to construct over 1,000 ribbons, all of which were doled out.
“And people are still wearing them today,” Nelson said Friday.