By Jam Lewis, Contributor It was sabado gigante for the top spellers in the 2018 Maine State Spelling Bee held at USM Abromson Educational Center, Saturday March 24. Emerging as first place winner was Colin Aponte, a 13-year old Mainer attending Downeast Homeschool Cooperative in Hancock County. Aponte won when he correctly spelled the word…
By Cooper-John Trapp, Staff Writer Abraham Peck grew up a child of the Holocaust, having both parents narrowly escape the worst of Nazi Germany. Separated for 14 months, Peck’s mother and father finally found each other after fleeing bombings, roundups and the horrors of WWII occupied territory. It was May 1945, in the concentration camp of…
By Dionne Smith, Community Editor There was an overwhelming amount of excitement coming from both the crowd and the performers at the 18th Annual USM Royal Majesty Drag Show & Competition, held by the USM Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversities (CSGD) on March 23. Royal Majesty is the largest campus and community drag show in…
Dionne Smith, Community Editor Just the thought of classes could stress out a college student, and that stress rises with having to work, study, and as exams creep closer each week. However, USM is fortunate enough to have Yesplus on campus to aid with helping students lower their stress and gain more energy with the help…
Charlie Wheeler, Contributor Does a straw have two holes, or one? According to Professor Susan Feiner, it has two holes, one for each end. Feiner is a professor of Women and Gender Studies, as well as Economics. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has been a long time…
Dionne Smith, Community Editor Social justice is a very hard hitting, important, and sensitive topic to a lot of people. It can mean a lot of different things depending on the context, and has the potential to be limited, even though social justice can be done in many different ways. The second annual Social Justice…
River Plouffe Vogel, Sports Editor Finding community is not always easy, even in a small state like Maine and in a city the size of Portland. In fact, Maine can be a very isolating place, where community means to most people, the neighborhood someone lives in. However community is so much more than the…
James Fagan, Staff Photographer The Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity first opened its doors on September 1, 2000. The CSGD’s seeks to promote equality, knowledge, and acceptance for the LGBTQA+ community for students, staff, and faculty on the USM campuses. The Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity hosts events to promote acceptance and knowledge…
Azalea Buch, Staff Writer In order to welcome both new and previous students commencing into the second semester here at USM, the Student Activities Board presented a Live Comedy night by hosting renowned comedian Hailey Boyle as a part of the “Weeks of Welcome” student activities. The show took place on January 25th, in Lower…
James Fagan, Staff Photographer Peter Boie is a magician who was invited to perform here at the University of Southern Maine on Friday, January 26th. Boie’s magic tricks ranged from something as simple as a “Is this your card,” trick at the beginning of the show, to a grand finale of escaping a straitjacket. Although…
By: James Fagan, Photographer Professor Rikki Miller is a psychology professor here at USM who started teaching in 2016. Miller has been working at USM for a year and a half, and this is her third semester teaching here. Miller was happy to have been granted another one-year contract to work at USM. When her first…
By: Sarah Tewksbury, Editor-in-Chief “What is the history of racism outside the south?” Keynote speaker Dr. Brian Purnell posed this question to introduce his research. Spread out in Hannaford Hall Monday night, roughly a hundred students, staff, faculty and community members listened to the presentation. Organized by the Gloria S. Duclos Convocation committee as part of…
By: Liz Trudel, Staff Writer The halfway point of the semester has passed and these past two months have had their fair share of controversial events. So far there has been transphobic graffiti, Matthew Bourgault, the traveling preacher, arriving on campus to spread his hateful rhetoric, Glenn Cumming’s use of derogatory slang during the first…
By: Kate Rogers, Staff Writer Every spring, USM holds the Husky Day of Service, during which students and faculty participate in a myriad of community service projects. At the University of Maine in Orono, they do a similar event called Maine Day. In Orono, they host a concert on a weeknight and then have a community…
By: James Fagan, Staff Photographer Professor Michael Boudewyns has been teaching theater courses at USM since the Fall of 2016. He teaches classes that are both interesting and fun. Boudewyns likes to allow students to be creative, and playful in a way that makes his classes interesting. He loves to be able to give someone…
By: Kate Rogers, Staff Writer “I think when students leave home there’s a false sense of security that someone’s looking out for them, but that’s not the case…You’re on your own, you gotta make sure your smoke alarms work, your exits are not blocked,” said Carol Schiller of Portland. With the anniversary of a tragic…
By: Dionne Smith, Community Editor The USM Multicultural Center is home to many students that use the space as an area to meet people who are like them, socialize and connect with each other. USM is continuously growing more diverse. People of different characters and backgrounds are mixing on campus every day and it’s good…
By: Kate Rogers, Staff Writer Professor Leroy Rowe has been teaching African American history at USM since 2012. Not only does he bring important course topics to the table, but he is an active faculty member at USM, contributing greatly to USM’s journey towards reaching its full potential. Originally from Jamaica, Rowe came to Brooklyn, New…
By: Dionne Smith, Community Editor Glickman Library plans to lure in more students and offer some fun with board game nights on Mondays. The month-long pilot, beginning Oct. 23, will start with board game nights every Monday with raffles, food, and plenty of games to play. Osher Map Library will also be contributing with a…
By: Dionne Smith, Community Editor The Women and Gender Studies program has many interesting people, one of them being Catherine Barbarits, the coordinator of the Women and Gender Studies program, who started working at USM last September. Her job as the coordinator is making sure that the program is always running smoothly, doing a variety of…
By: Kate Rogers, Staff Writer Friday morning on the lawn in front of Payson Smith Hall, USM student Mariana Angelo led hundreds of audience members in a chant adopted and used by protestors across America, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other…
By: Dionne Smith, Community Editor Sodexo is fairly new to USM and has been integrating upgrades into multiple buildings throughout all three campuses. Last semester, there was a Starbucks booth set up on the first floor of the Glickman Library, which initially received a lot of criticism. Over the summer, upgrades were made to the…
By: Mary Ellen Aldrich, Arts and Culture Editor As a freshman, all of the offices, staff members and new faces can seem somewhat daunting. Knowing who to go to for whatever question or concern a student might have is not always an easy task. The abbreviations, titles and office names can become muddled together and…
By: Dionne Smith, Community Editor USM offers many ways to help students in need, such as through advising and tutoring. TRIO is one of the programs on campus that takes students in and offers them close guidance through their college career while supplying them with tools they can use to better themselves and have a…