Category: News

“If I were a democrat, there would be two to three times the people,” gubernatorial candidate Les Otten said last Tuesday as he surveyed the 20 people assembled in Masterton Hall waiting to hear him speak. The next day, he was a more philosophical about the turnout.

A female student was assaulted and robbed near the intersection of School and Church Streets in Gorham in the early hours of Monday, Feb. 1 while returning to the Gorham campus, according to a campus safety alert sent out last Monday.

The faculty senate last Friday continued to push for their incorporation into USM’s restructuring process and presented alternate options to faculty retrenchment, passing a resolution requesting they be informed before any faculty are laid off.

Police made two arrests on Saturday, Jan. 30 on the Gorham campus.

USM Multicultural Student Affairs and high school students from around Portland will come together in celebration of Black History Month to spread the message of non-violence. Each year the MSA develops a new theme to honor Black History Month. This year the celebration is all about bringing the community together.

Roughly 500 people attended a day-long convocation at the Sullivan Fitness Complex on the Portland campus last Friday to discuss USM’s strengths and assets as administrators and faculty begin drafting a restructuring plan to guide the university toward fiscal sustainability.

A survey this week will give students a chance weigh in on the future of USM’s coffee offerings, as dining services seeks to switch to a local supplier in a push for a ‘greener’ bean.

President Selma Botman last Wednesday invited three faculty senators to serve on the restructuring committee, reversing her previous avowal that no faculty would be involved in drafting the plan to reorganize the university.

Someone once convinced Ben Skillings to improve his life and enroll at USM. He now repays the favor to anyone who approaches him, looking for help moving their life forward. Skillings, 28, is a communications major and the President of the Phoenix Network at USM, an organization consisting of a network of mentors and advocates…

While underage drinking has been a perennial problem on campus, USM Police recently increased their efforts to curb drinking with liquor patrols and undercover details on the Gorham campus. “We have been actively involved in extra details on liquor enforcement,” said Lieutenant Ronald Saindon.

Last Wednesday in San Francisco, Steve Jobs got onto a stage and revealed the iPad, Apple’s new tablet PC. With its 9-inch multi-touch screen, the iPad may just be a larger version of the iPhone-in fact, it’s running the iPhone operating system (OS) with access to all of the iPhone apps.

The Muskie dean steps down, Hughes named as director of development of USM, business school reaccreditted, Gubernatorial hopeful to speak at USM, and WMPG holding Fat Tuesday Celebration.

In an emergency Faculty Senate meeting marked by significant tension between faculty and administrators, professors voiced concerns about their involvement in USM’s restructuring plan and the plan’s timetable. USM President Selma Botman repeatedly told faculty they would only serve as advisers and would not help write the restructuring plan.

A female student was assaulted and robbed by a man near the intersection of School and Church Streets in Gorham at around 2 a.m. while returning to the Gorham campus, according to a campus safety alert Monday afternoon.

Haiti has had the world’s attention since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck on Jan. 12. Millions have turned to the television to watch the devastation caused by the quake and its subsequent aftershocks. Donations for relief have poured in from all over the world to aid the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

Police say a USM employee was found dead in her cubicle in Luther Bonney Hall at around midnight on Monday, Jan. 4 by a custodian on their evening rounds. Ann Brushwein, 59 of Portland, was a software support specialist for Computing Services. She had worked at USM since 1999.

Due to increasing options for acquiring textbooks, fewer students have used the USM Bookstore to buy their books. According to Nicki Piaget, Director of the USM Bookstore, sales peaked three years ago and have been slightly decreasing ever since. Much of this is attributed to the new market for textbooks online.

A group of professors concerned the administration isn’t taking student and professors’ concerns seriously formed a group at the end of last semester to act as a forum to discuss new ideas to restructure the university. Faculty in Support of Student’s Education was created as an ad-hoc committee of professors from the Faculty Senate and…

Government and trade officials are currently working on agreements that may affect your future Internet use. Some of the outcome may be good, some of it bad. Here’s a peek into some of these issues.

In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, massive amounts of donations have been funneling in to charity organizations.Text message-based donation have emerged as a fast, easy way of making a donation – during last week’s NFL playoffs alone, text donations came pouring in at a rate of $500,000 per hour, according to The Red…

According to the independent analysis conducted by accountant Howard Bunsis, both USM and the University of Maine System have positive revenue streams, healthy cash reserves and low levels of debt.

Police have not established Ann Brushwein’s cause of death and are awaiting results from the Medical Examiner’s office in Augusta. They are not classifying her death as suspicious.

A campaign to change the allocation of funding between schools of the University of Maine System may be gaining traction after the Faculty Senate voted unanimously on Friday to support the student-led resolution.

Six former USM employees say they lost their jobs because of age discrimination during the recent consolidation of student services.