Category: News

On Friday Oct. 31, members from the seven campuses that make up the University of Maine System (UMS) met in Portland to discuss what is being called the Strategic Planning Process. This process sets out to improve the economic opportunities for Maine citizens by examining and possibly changing the UMaine System.

Oct. 22

There was a drug violation on the third floor of Dickey Hall. Someone smelled marijuana.

Oct. 23

Criminal Mischief: There was graffiti on the room doors on the third floor of Anderson Hall. The shower curtains were also damaged.

Oct. 23

There was a case of harassment reported on the Portland campus.

On November 4 registered voters in Maine will be asked to decide three citizen initiated statewide referendum questions. In addition, voters in Portland and Gorham will be asked to approve statewide and local bond issues, decide town and city council elections, approve the creation of a new Cumberland Country Charter, and fill school committee seats.

Tyler Stanley

Contributing Writer

An ad-hoc committee formed by the Student Senate in recent weeks has been looking for a way to raise USM’s student activity fee. Ultimately, this will require a vote by the student body next spring. The committee is made up of Student Senators and other students involved in groups that are currently funded by the student activity fee.

Monday

Open mic poetry reading

The Cafe Review literary journal present their monthly open poetry reading at the Center for Cultural Exchange, Longfellow Square, Portland. Signup is from 7:30 to 8 p.m., and the reading starts at 8. There is a $3 cover charge.

Two times per year, for one week in mid-October and another week in mid-April, WMPG hosts its pledge drive, called Begathon. This year’s fall Begathon was held from October 20 to the 26. John Joyce, WMPG office manager, who has been working for the station for seven years, said it has been at least 10 years since WMPG started holding the Begathon.

On October 17, University of Southern Maine President Richard Pattenaude and Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) President James Ortiz signed an agreement that guarantees admission at USM to SMCC students with associate’s degrees. The ceremony, held at SMCC’s McKernan Center, made official the first of several identical agreements that USM intends to form with York County (YCCC) and Central Maine Community Colleges (CMCC).

Shortly after midnight on Friday, October 17, 2003, at the conclusion of Game 7 of the American League Championship, disappointed Red Sox fans on the Gorham Campus filled the area between Philippi Hall and the Towers. There is debate over whether they proceeded to riot or if they were an ordinary crowd of unhappy sports fans.

Chris Jovenelli is a senior at USM, and hopes to someday become an executive producer for large scale video productions and produce his own documentaries. He will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in media studies, which in most states would be enough to launch a promising video production career.

“It was entirely possible that one song could destroy your life. Yes, musical doom could fall on a lone human form and crush it like a bug. The song, that song, was sent from somewhere else to find you, to pick the scab of your whole existence. The song was your personal shitty fate, manifest as a throb of pop floating out of radios everywhere.

Oct. 17

Matthew J. O’Brien, age 20 of Gorham was arrested obstructing a public way after blocking an emergency vehicle near Philippi Hall.

Oct. 17

Michael Hamilton, age 19 was arrested near Wood Hall for failure to comply with a request from USM Police to disperse.

The Annnual Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest is open to all full-time college Juniors and Seniors and offers rewards of up to $5000. The deadline for submission is Dec. 5, 2003 and winners will be announced in Apr. 2004. Author Elie Wiesel is on the panel judging the contest.

Monday

Spoken word

“Soapbox Monday” gives everyone a chance to get up on stage and speak their pieces for up to three minutes. It’s held every Monday from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Acoustic Coffee, 32 Danforth Street in Portland. For more information call 774-0404.

Are you free on Mondays and have your own vehicle? If you answered yes you could be in the running for The Free Press circulation manager position. For more info, call, write, or stop by The Free Press at 92 Bedford St., 780-4084×1, [email protected].

Dimitra Toothaker, a lively little woman with bright blue eyes, asks one of the students in her Modern Greek class to read a paragraph out of the textbook. Somehow, he renders meaning from the alien script, slowly translating sentence after sentence.

“Neh,” Toothaker says, which is “yes” in Greek.

Have you ever wondered what it is like to beat a Guinness World Record of 23, 727 jack-o-lanterns lit at once? The record is held by Keene, NH and this Saturday the Life is Good Pumpkin Festival will attempt to break the record. The USM Student Nurse Organization (SNO) is a sponsor of this event and has reserved space for pumpkin carving in Woodbury Campus Center in Portland from 9 a.

The 2003 Jewish High Holiday season will pass unnoticed by the vast majority of USM students. The High Holidays began on September 26th and will end on October 6th; it is a time for Jews to reaffirm their faith and bond with their religious community.

Interim Dean Luiza Deprez has asked the Communication and Media Studies (MES) programs to evaluate their majors and consider merging. The Geosciences and Environmental Science and Policy (ESP) programs are also being targeted for a merger. With over $450,000 cut last spring from the academic affairs budget and $200,000 of it from CAS colleges within the University have had to make concessions to meet shrinking budgets The faculty of these programs are in the initial stages of brainstorming what these mergers could look like.

Maine’s entry to the Miss America Pageant was a USM student this year. Elizabeth Edgecomb, a 20-year-old music major won a talent award for her passionate rendition of Chopin’s “Fantasie Impromptu,” but did not advance to the semi-finals. Edgecomb has been playing piano for 17 years.

Dudley Greeley says he doesn’t mind doing laundry. He and his wife do not have a drier, preferring instead to sun-dry their clothes in the wooded backyard of their 19th century home in Cumberland. Hanging the laundry in the sun is just fine with Greeley.

In response to a rash of sexual assaults in the area last week, USM officials have issued two safety alerts to the USM community. According to university officials the safety alerts, known as “timely notices,” were released to make students aware of threats to their safety and provide them with information they need to stay safe.

State Police announced at a press conference on Tuesday in the Alfond Athletic Center that the man responsible for the murder of Dawn Rossignol ’04 last week has been arrested on parole violations. Lt. Timothy Doyle of the State Police said that he expects the Attorney General to charge Hackett with murder within the week.

Seth Therrien doesn’t know exactly how he got a broken nose, jaw and a concussion on the evening of Sept. 13. His first clear memory is of waking up a hospital bed in the Maine Medical Center the next morning. All anyone knows for sure is that Therrien was found bleeding in one of the bathrooms on the 7th floor of Dickey hall, at the end of a trail of blood that started with a large pool on the landing between the 7th and 8th floors.

The Student Senate’s first public forum of the year had a disappointing turnout, with one student attending, but the conversation was animated and the senators expressed enthusiasm over the discussion. Jennifer Trowbridge, a senior Economics major, spent an hour with most of the senate’s executive board talking about a range of topics, most of which concerned the senate’s continuing efforts to increase its visibility on campus and to get students involved in groups.