Category: News

In an effort to cut costs and keep students from dropping out after their first year, the University this summer folded the Advising Services, Career Services and Professional Life Development departments into three Student Success Centers located at each USM campus.

USM attracted fewer students this year than expected.

According to preliminary enrollment figures, as of Aug. 30, 9,222 students were enrolled in courses: a 1.21 percent drop from last fall’s total headcount of 9,335.

“Bottom line, we’re moving toward an enrollment equal with 2008, which is what we budgeted for, but we are not there yet,” Bob Caswell, executive director of Public Affairs wrote in an e-mail.

Although no USM students have contracted the H1N1 flu virus, the school is urging the campus community to be prepared.

In a mass e-mail to students, faculty and staff last Monday, Dr. Kristine Bertini, director of University Health and Counseling, reiterated the importance of cleanliness and precaution in battling the H1N1 – or Swine Flu – virus.

Free Press: So I’m told you yo-yo and you do it competitively. When did that start?

Brandon Baines: I started yo-yoing in 1997 when I was nine years old. It was a big craze at my school so naturally I picked it up like every other kid on the playground, and I just took it from there, and after everyone else quit I just kept going.

Ian Jones is building a TV station from the ground up.

The new General Manager of Gorham TV, USM’s student-run television station is trying to get the station running again. But he’s dealing with broken or antiquated equipment and is currently the only employee.

Nearly one year after becoming USM’s president, Selma Botman is finally sworn in at a formal ceremony attended by roughly 300

Muskie school student tries once more to break into public service, this time as part of an effort to change the face of Portland politics.

It all began with an art exhibit.

In 2006, Marie Follayttar participated in a controversial art show called “Can’t Jail the Spirit,” that was shut down by the university. She went to a Student Senate meeting to get approval to be a student voice on a subsequent panel called “Controversy in the public university: who decides?”

“I saw a senate poster, walked in.

On Wednesday April 22, over 3,000 people packed in to the Augusta Civic Center for a public hearing on two new bills on gay marriage in Maine. The event, which originally was to be held at Cony High School, was moved to the larger venue to accommodate the expected crowd.

This summer, all students within the UMaine System will have their Horde e-mail accounts transferred to Google Apps, in an effort to make the university’s e-mail system more user friendly. Those who already use this service know that the step from Horde to Gmail is like trading in Zach Morris’ cell phone from Saved By The Bell for a new Blackberry.

With spring semester coming to an end, Alicia Pyle, a junior social work major, began registering for her fall semester classes when she noticed an increase in online courses. “I went to sign up for my fall semester classes, and every class I wanted to take was an online course.”

Ishmael Beah spent his early years playing soccer, listening to hip-hop and attending school in his village of Mogbwemo, Sierra Leone. But by the age of 13, he was fighting alongside other children in a bloody civil war that would claim the lives of thousands.

On tax-day last week, several hundred people holding signs on the Maine State Pier watched as Fred Staples opened a box wrapped with brown paper and string.

“This is the federal stimulus package,” he said, as he reached into the box and pulled out a length of rusty chain, the crowd erupting in approval

“This is the ‘chains’ you can believe in.

At last Tuesday’s biennial “State of the University” address, UMaine system Chancellor Richard Pattenaude said that the University of Maine will likely layoff more employees to balance the projected four year budget deficit of $42.8 million.

“More than 150 postitions have or will be eliminated during this fiscal year though layoff notices, attrition and position eliminations,” he said in his address before a joint session of the Maine state legislature.

Peter Donovan and Elijah Ocean of Portland’s power-pop outfit All the Real Girls performed an acoustic set downstairs at the Empire last Tuesday night. The seven-song set covered the bulk of their recent debut, “My Friends Are Going to be Strangers,” in a stripped-down and overall quiet manner.

Student athletes have priority registration for the Fall ’09 semester, as part of a pilot program initiated this spring.

The program allows student athletes to register for classes in advance of regular appointed scheduling so that they will have more time to focus on their studies and sports.

Last Wednesday, the problem of health care coverage in the U.S. was debated at the Woodbury Campus Center by USM graduate nursing students as part of National Public Health Week. Nursing and non-nursing students, professors, health care providers and members of the public were all in attendance.

If you were on the Gorham campus last Wednesday night, you might have seen and heard roughly fifty people marching around campus, shouting chants like Survivors unite! Take back the night! This event, called Take Back the Night (TBTN), is a national march aimed at raising awareness of violence against women.

The final version of next year’s budget proposal passed through the Student Senate on Friday night with a heated debate over the future of GTV, the student run television station located on the Gorham campus.

“Will we be leaving them out to dry if we take away their funding?” Senate Treasurer Christopher Hopkins asked.

The only thing that nearly stopped Josh Grennie from getting the USM College Republicans group off the ground was the fact that he was the only member.

In the weeks leading up to last November’s national elections, the USM College Democrats were in full force around campus, bolstered by the hugely successful grass roots Obama campaign.

“We have an ant on Mr. Spiky” Mayleen Farrington says to her daughter as she carefully pushes aside a leaf on the barbed plant to give Maya a better looks at the insect crawling over the four-foot-tall, prickly looking plant.

As greenhouse manager, a work-study position the 40-year-old biology senior has held for two years, Farrington looks over one of the most unique and least-known spaces on the Portland campus.

Maggie Guzman has big plans.

In May she will take over as student body president, a position currently held by Ben Taylor.

Besides establishing a cabinet, appointing committee members, improving advising and financial aid services for students, and performing the normal daily duties of the student body president, Guzman wants to pursue an ambitious sustainibility project that would retro-fit campus buildings to be more energy efficient.

When the Vote USM 2009: Student Government election campaign came to a close at noon on March 19, the student senate found that roughly 5% of the entire student body actually voted, a slight increase over last year’s turnout.

“It is discouraging,” said Katherine Letourneau, current senate chair.

Can people ever really agree to disagree about God?

Two forums at USM last month invited religious believers, atheists and everybody in-between to approach that question head-on.

The series, entitled “Religion and Secularism: Contrasting Worldviews” was billed as a group effort between the off-campus Portland Skeptics and Open House United Church of Christ, along with SMASH – the Southern Maine Association of Secular Humanists, who donated their usual meeting time and space at 327 Luther Bonney.