By Max Lorber, Arts and Culture Editor A petition demanding USM student’s tuition be partially refunded for the Spring Semester has been circulating online this week. Since the petition was created on March 28 over 700 students and family members of students have signed in support. USM and UMaine administration officials have stated they do…
Author: USM Free Press
Most Common Challenges Students Face in College
As liberating and exciting as college can be, it also comes with its fair share of trials that students need to learn how to navigate. From classes and schoolwork to extracurriculars and relationships, the average person’s college career is a large balancing act between preparing for their futures and enjoying their newfound independence. As a…
Adventures in Europe
By: Zoe Bernardi, Columnist Ciao! Welcome to the last reflection from Italy. By this time I have been sitting in my bedroom in New York for 12 days in quarantine. But, before this, I was soaking up my last few days in Florence. This is what happened. The first step was to create a bucket…
Faces of US: Ashley Watters
By: Lillian Lema, Staff Writer From a young age, student Ashley Watters knew that she wanted to go into the nursing field. Growing up in a low income family, Watters witnessed the hardships her family faced with the lack of motivation and skill to advocate for their health concerns and therefore, not seek to…
MovieTalk: Blow the Man Down
By: Ryan Farrell, Staff Writer Amazon Prime recently released “Blow the Man Down” as an exclusive film. This film from Bridget Cole and Danielle Crudy is meant to be a dark comedy, set in a fictional coastal town in Maine. While it takes advantage of the environment to differentiate it from other crime mysteries, its…
Quarantined at home? Ratchet up your anxiety with these pandemic films
By: Cormac Riordan, Staff Panic in the Streets This 1950 feature from Elia Kazan is a grimy, paranoid, unconventional noir filled with gangsters, cops, and of course, disease. Ironically, the bulk of the film is about trying to contain the titular panic, mostly done so by the lead, Richard Windmark, playing against type as the…
Pass/Fail option now offered to students
By: Max Lorber, Arts and Culture Editor USM is now offering a pass/fail option for all undergraduate and graduate courses for the Spring semester. This unusual policy decision was reached this past week in response to the social and economic upheaval caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. All core courses changed to pass/fail will now count…
Student quarantined following class trip to New York
UPDATE: As confirmed by Bensler, she tested negative for the COVID-19 coronavirus and is allowed out of self-isolation from her home. Kayla Bensler, a freshman music major, developed pneumonia after a class trip to Rochester, New York last week. Following her visit to health services this morning at 9:30 am, she was put into quarantine…
Classes moved online as University of Maine System closes after spring break
According to a report on WMTW.com, the University of Maine System announced that classes will move to remote online classes following Spring Break due to concerns over the coronavirus. The classes will convert to online by March 23, the end of Spring Break for the seven universities in the system. For students living on campus, they…
USM Spring Sports Preview
By: Cullen McIntyre, Sports Editor Baseball Head Coach Ed Flaherty heads into his 34th season in charge of Men’s Baseball for the Huskies coming off a 37-9 record in 2019. The Huskies are ranked sixth overall in the nation by d3baseball.com’s Preseason Top 25. The team lost in the Little Eastern Conference (LEC) Championship last…
Husky Hero of the Week: Rylie Binette
By: Connor Blake, Staff Writer Rylie Binette, a junior health sciences major out of Milan, New Hampshire, pushed the Women’s Ice Hockey team to greater lengths this year as they won their first playoff game in six years. Over Binnette’s three years at USM, she has accumulated 35 career collegiate hockey points, scored 18 goals…
Cullen’s Column: It’s Tatum Time
By: Cullen McIntyre, Sports Editor Jayson Tatum earned Eastern Conference Player of the Month for February averaging 30.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. The 22-year-old forward for the Boston Celtics is one of five Celtics in franchise history to manage 30+ points-per-game in a month, joining Larry Bird,…
Adventures in Europe
By: Zoe Bernardi, Columnist Ciao! Another week, another big change in my life. Last week Italy was in a level two stated by CDC, and overnight it was pushed to a level three. To which UMaine and the risk management team held many meetings to decide what to do. UMaine chose to pull all programs…
Faces of US: Jillian Fisher
By: Lillian Lema, Staff Writer Finding a place that makes you feel at home is special and not easily forgotten. During a high school trip to Europe, student Jillian Fisher found her special place; Florence, Italy. After her trip was over Fisher was eager to return back. When the opportunity to study abroad at Florence…
Panel debates effects of public school policing
By: Amelia Bodge, Staff Writer On March 5th USM held a Panel Discussion titled “The End of School Policing?” The Panel was cosponsored by the Sociology and Criminology departments at USM. The main speaker was Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing. He came to speak to the city of Portland and the State…
MovieTalk: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
By: Ryan Farrell, Staff Writer While “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” was originally released in Europe last year, it has finally started showing in the United States. This international hit was created by French director Céline Sciamma. While this film takes place in eighteenth-century France, its cinematography, acting, and artistic direction make it feel…
USM before it was USM
By: Amelia Bodge, Staff Writer While Gorham Normal School was now up and running, Portland decided to get into the business of higher education. Portland University was incorporated in August 1921 by local businessman, Earl H. Cunningham. Cunningham believed Maine had a lack of training programs for accountants. According to Joyce K. Bibber, author of…
Local Music Review: “That Shadow”
By: Cormac Riordan, Contributor “Mount Sharp writes songs about science and bad decisions”. This quote, from the band’s bandcamp page, sums up the dueling yet often beautifully aligned themes and ideas at play on this group’s debut LP, “That Shadow”. The record is a hazy, spaced-out love letter to both science and relationships past. Frontwoman/guitarist…
A Notable Career Comes to a Close
By: Max Lorber, Arts and Culture Editor Before serving as the Director of the USM Art Gallery, Carolyn Eyler was in the South bucking the confinements of conservative philosophy. As a curator for the William King Regional Art Center in Abington, Virginia, the last show she put together was titled “Bestial Angels”. The exhibit was…
Theater review: Dear Edwina
By: Dakota Tibbetts, Design Director A one-act musical theater show meant for children with a cast full of college-aged students sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. For the University of Southern Maine’s Department of Theater and School of Music though, it was a recipe for greatness. Their musical offering for the 2019-2020 season was…
NENPA offers student journalism scholarship
By: Emma J. Walsh, Staff Writer An opportunity is available for USM students interested in pursuing a career in journalism. The New England Newspaper and Press Association (NENPA) announced that the Journalism Education Foundation of New England is awarding up to ten scholarships to high school seniors and college students in the New England region…
Muskie School reduces out-of-state tuition
By: Max Lorber, Arts and Culture Editor The Muskie School of Public Service announced a reduction in out-of-state tuition for students enrolling in graduate programs. Tuition for students without Maine residency seeking master’s degrees in Public Health (MPH) and Policy, Planning, and Management (MPPM) will be lowered from $1,141 to $695 per credit hour. The…
Letter From the Editor: Young Voter Turnout
By: Dionne Smith, Editor-in-Chief Once again, as history has shown time and time again, the young voter turnout in Maine on Super Tuesday was lower than all other age groups. As someone who is in the age group, I can’t help but feel a lot of disappointment, and confusion. According to the Washington Post, voters…
Why It’s Important to Study Insects
Have you ever tried to explain a paper, class, or even your overall major to someone who just doesn’t get it? It can be hard trying to tell people why you’re so interested in a subject—especially if that subject happens to be creepy-crawly insects. Yet the study of insects, also known as entomology, is crucial…