Textbooks are a risky but necessary investment for students.
Each semester, the average USMer drops between two and three hundred dollars on their assigned textbooks – a significant stressor on any student’s typically thin wallet.
Ideally, most of these expenditures could be recouped through the textbooks buyback service offered by the USM bookstore.
‘Deficit continues to be a moving target’
In a post on her website on April 2, USM President Selma Botman said that next year’s $4.3 million deficit will continue to shift, pending enrollment, state appropriations, and “other variables that may increase our costs.
Last week, USM announced plans to eliminate its non-credit, personal enrichment courses offered through The Center for Continuing Education.
These courses, which target non-matriculated students, usually attract around 1,100 community members, but had been operating at a loss of $30,000 per year.
On April 6, Meg Weston will take over the position of Vice President of Advancement, USM President Selma Botman announced last week.
The VP of Advancement is one of seven vice presidents operating under the president of USM. The position is responsible for finding donors to help with large-scale projects and endowments for scholarships and academic programs.
Taoism urges its followers to consider the gains and losses of a neighbor as their own.
The Samyutta Nikaya, a Buddhist scripture, asks how we could inflict a state that’s not “pleasing or delightful” onto somebody else.
And as Jesus of Nazareth has been quoted saying, often in red print: “Just as you want men to treat you, treat them in the same way.
With a new website and snazzy new buses, USM’s most recent marketing campaign has been hard to miss.
These efforts – and others – are part of a recent marketing campaign which includes television commercials, online ads, cinema spots, and increased recruiting efforts at high schools.
Good news for WMPG fans: USM’s campus and community radio station is working towards increasing their signal strength further into Maine, widening the station’s broadcast coverage area to reach more listeners.
“We want to be able to reach listeners beyond our current coverage area,” said station manager, Jim Rand, “to places where USM has campuses, like Lewiston, Saco and Bath.
The spring ’09 election results are in. Maggie Guzman has been elected student body president with 148 votes (98 commuter, 50 resident). Runners up, Norman Miller received 113 votes (52 commuter, 61 resident), Brendan Morse received 96 votes (26 commuter, 70 resident), Thomas Lapierre got 42 votes (28 commuter, 14 resident), while Gerald Shannon got only 4 votes (3 commuter, 1 resident).
At last Tuesday’s “Town Meeting” held in Gorham, USM President Selma Botman announced that the university’s budget for 2010 is already projected to be $4.3 million in the red.
This deficit may end up being larger if tuition from this year’s summer session doesn’t bring in $3.
Last Friday morning, a group of eighteen USM students set out on a ten hour road trip toward Washington D.C. to attend the second annual Power Shift conference.
Upon arrival, they received ID lanyards labeled with ‘Leader’ status before joining almost 12,000 other leaders at the conference, which organizers say is the largest youth summit on climate change in history.
According to last year’s Pew Research poll on the country’s religious landscape, 71 percent of those surveyed expressed absolute certainty in the existence of a God. An additional 17 percent weren’t without doubts, but counted themselves as believers nonetheless.
The bold vision outlined in USM’s second draft of the strategic plan aims to focus the university’s effort and organization in a time of tightening economic conditions.
Released on Feb 12th, “Preparing USM for the future: 2009-2014,” identifies some of the key structural and organizational problems at USM, and suggests plans of action for addressing them.
Last Wednesday, Governor John Baldacci released the details of a state bond package that would provide $6.4 million to USM for building upgrades and repairs.
Baldacci bills the $306 million bond package as an “investment strategy,” which would supplement the estimated $900 million in federal stimulus money.
According to Governor John Baldacci’s proposed budget for 2010-2011, the University of Maine System may not be able to maintain all seven campuses due to projected budget shortfalls over the next two years.
“Ultimately, the ability to maintain seven separate viable universities offering higher education could be at risk,” the bill states.
At last Tuesday’s “Town Meeting” held in Gorham, USM President Selma Botman announced that the university’s budget for 2010 is already projected to be $4.3 million in the red.
The second draft of USM’s strategic planning plan, “Preparing USM for the Future 2009-2014” was released on Feb 12.
The plan is a culmination of input from USM faculty, staff, and students, which lays out a vision of massive reorganization of the university’s mission, and organization.
July marks the one year anniversary of Selma Botman taking over as President of USM. And just two months before that, the university will finally get around to inaugurating her.
Citing a desire to beat the cold, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Saturday, April 25 as the day that students, faculty, and administration can join former USM president and UMS chancellor Richard Pattenaude to welcome Botman to the job she has held – some might say weathered, since last summer.
On Feb 26, USM President Selma Botman announced on her blog “The 21st Century USM” that she will recommend two candidates for deans positions at Lewiston-Auburn College (LAC) and the College of Nursing and Health Professions (CNHP). This announcement contrasts with her previous decision to leave the positions unfilled.
It’s been a rough year for libraries.
While Glickman got a brand new facade this spring, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony to boot, it was still only a facade – the University’s budget problems have sapped its acquisition and technology funds for the foreseeable future.
Following in the tradition of Charles Darwin 150 years ago with his groundbreaking theory of evolution, USM grad student Erik Pietrowicz is embarking on a year-long project along with scientists from around the world to promote evolutionary sciences. The results will be posted on a blog to be set up in the near future.
In an update posted on her website on Feb 4, USM President Selma Botman announced that the University will shut down its Child and Family Centers on August 14.
The school’s childcare program employs 24 staff members and serves 88 children from infancy to age 5.
“We’ve had plenty of parents approach us that if this place closes, they won’t continue to take classes here,” says Jane Dean.
At last Fridays monthly meeting, the USM Faculty Senate voted to reinstate the Entry Year Experience (EYE) requirement for next year’s crop of incoming freshmen. This reverses the decision made by the senate during its Dec 5th meeting, when they agreed to postpone the requirement until 2010.
“Text books have always been expensive,” says USM student JJ Brewer outside the Portland branch of the USM Bookstore.Coping with the cost has been made easier recently by his professors who have chose more affordable texts, he said.
“I just bought this one for seventeen bucks, so I’m not complaining,” Brewer said.