Category: News

It’s 8 a.m., and Eric Favreau glides silently into a chair. He smiles when I thank him for agreeing to meet me, and softly speaks a few polite words. He speaks them slowly, without rushing a single syllable, and then quickly falls quiet again, giving the impression that he hadn’t spoken at all.

Candidates for USM’s presidency began touring campus last Wednesday, meeting various factions of university government, including representatives from the various senates and departments across all three campuses.

Of the four candidates, two-Bob Smith and Selma Botman-visited last week, and two-David Belcher and Nancy Kleniewski-will be on campus this week.

A Falmouth woman was arrested outside the Sullivan Gym last Thursday afternoon after a Portland Police Department drug dog was called to the scene. Somayeh Kargar, 22, was arrested for having May 2007 tags on her license plates. Having tags older than 90 days is a misdemeanor, according to USM Police Lt.

In this day and age, green and renewable energy is not only for the wealthy or the eccentric: the potential for their use is becoming more prevalent and widely used.

USM, for instance, recently finished New Hall, a “green” dorm, making it possible for the campus and its students to be more energy efficient.

The beginning of the spring semester is a time when students can still, for the most part, enjoy a break from looming deadlines. One deadline, however, is fast approaching-one that many students are still unaware of.

Although next school year seems far away, this is the time to start preparing for next year’s financial aid package by filling out the 2008-2009 FAFSA.

January 24, 2008

TO: The USM Community

FROM: Joseph S. Wood, Interim President

In accordance with Part VI, Article III of the USM Governance Constitution, I petition formally for an amendment to the Governance Constitution, specifically the section

The Faculty Senate voted to approve a new core curriculum which will dramatically change general education at USM beginning in the fall of 2009. The approval process took most of last semester, and was marked by debate and tension as full and part-time faculty weighed the feasibility and practicality of changing the current curriculum.

After a long winter vacation, the mumps have ceased to be a hot button issue among the USM student body. The university is officially out of “outbreak” mode, and, as a resident director from Gorham puts it, the mumps is “certainly no longer the topic of conversation.

Open meetings with the USM presidential candidates will be held over the next two weeks. Students, faculty, and staff are all invited to meet the candidates, to ask questions and judge for themselves what each is all about. It is an opportunity too for the presidential hopefuls to meet the USM community and acquaint themselves with its constituents.

This university traditionally starts its semesters on Tuesdays. Monday is generally the most hated day of the week, so why not give the students and faculty an extra day to catch their breath before taking the plunge? Everyone knows it’s just better to start on Tuesday.

The election year is starting to heat up, and following the New Hampshire primaries that just took place next door, now is as good a time as any to take a look at our own state’s upcoming caucuses. The Maine Democratic and Republican contests will occur in a few weeks, and if Iowa and New Hampshire are any indication, younger voters will be out in greater numbers than ever before.

Every fall for the past few years the USM has hosted a “Learn to Lead” conference at USM. Planned by the Leadership Development Board, a committee of involved students and university staff, the conference is designed to bring together students and faculty for workshops and lectures focused on leadership and civic engagement.

When the United States penetrated Baghdad with its first bombing campaign of The War on Terror on March 19, 2003, Yanar Mohammed knew that her life as an architect was over. Something more important had come up.

Touting war slogans like, “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” and promising Iraq its liberation from Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical rule, President Bush ordered bombs to reign down on Baghdad.

For the fourth consecutive year USM is facing a budget deficit, pushing the university’s total fiscal shortage to approximately $12.4 million.

Joel C. Theriault

News Editor

Opportunity Maine campaigners returned to USM on Oct. 1 to unveil the Opportunity Maine tax credit card, a form of identification for recent college graduates enrolled in the newly established program and a physical reminder to sign up for the tax credit in January, when it becomes effective by law.

Bob Dylan fans that went to see him play Oct. 4 at the Cumberland Country Civic Center most likely left disappointed. Though opening acts Amos Lee and Elvis Costello had the crowd animated and lively, their efforts were diminished by a dismal performance by Bob Dylan himself.

A night of speed dating, sponsored by The Free Press and the Portland Events Board (PEB), was held at Portland’s Woodbury Campus Center on Oct. 5. The event was free for all students and included an award-winning locals DJ Shade, and hip-hop act Lab 7.

Jeff Farnham, a senior business major and PEB president, said the goal of the free event was “To get people interacting with each other and get people communicating more.

Oct. 22

Philosophy Symposium Meeting-Weekly meeting/ Philosophy House, 47 Exeter Street, Portland campus/ 3 p.m.-4 p.m.

Circle K Meeting-Weekly meeting of USM chapter/ Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham campus/ 8 p.m.-9 p.m./ Send an e-mail to Maria Zamboni at maria.

Oct. 14

Can’t you smell that smell 9:58 p.m.-Someone at the School of Law reported a strange odor.

Oct. 13

My drugs have been violated 11:20 p.m.-Police responded to a drug violation outside Dickey Wood Hall in Gorham. No one was at the scene on the officer’s arrival.

TOMBSTONE, Arizona-The story of one of history’s most famous Wild West gunfights is clouded with many rumors and differing accounts.

Wyatt Earp, formerly marshal of Kansas City, moved to the silver mine town in 1879 with his wife and brothers, Virgil, US Marshal and Morgan, to barkeep at the Alhambra saloon.

Barack Obama, the Democrat presidential candidate from Illinois, stirred the biggest crowd reaction in his speech at the Portland Expo last week, when he pledged affordable college education to all Americans.

“That’s our future right there,” he said, “and they shouldn’t be saddled with $50,000 or $70,000 worth of debt.

They want people’s signatures, they want people’s voices, but most of all they simply want people to be aware. Students of USM’s new MainePIRG chapter are working hard to change the world one step at a time.

Maine’s Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) is part of a national organization that links student chapters from across the nation.

More than forty women from all walks of life came together at the Portland Expo on Sept. 22. Their purpose? To kick some ass.

Dressed in brightly colored roller skates, tube socks, fishnets, booty shorts or skirts, matching team tank tops and jersey dresses, these women have enough energy to put most rock bands to shame.

Getting students involved with their community is what USM alumnus Marie Stolzenburg and Professor Robert Sanford are all about. Their work this past year bringing civic engagement to USM earned them both a Maine Campus Compact Award, presented during a ceremony held at the State House last April.