Category: News

With American prisoners of war being executed by Iraqis, American soldiers freaking out and blowing each other up while they sleep, and allied forces marching into Baghdad as more Mainers get picked off in helicopter accidents, it is hard not to be glued to the television or cnn.com every moment of the day, hoping for some good news, or at least some new news about the exact coordinates and minute-by-minute movements of our troops overseas.

Weekly news briefs

Prepare for voting in the upcoming Student Senate elections with this fact sheet with responses from the candidates

Report of the happenings in this past week’s Student Senate meeting

The President is about to speak. There is no movement, but hushed voices can be heard and what seems to be the loading of camera film and handling of microphones. He enters from stage right to great applause and the speech begins. The little red tab in the upper right hand corner of the screen reads “LIVE,” erasing all question that this may be a dream or a nightmare. It is real life. The country is at war.

The Department of Facilities Management (DFM) is scheduled to test an office March 10 in the Woodbury Campus Center for air quality following the hasty relocation of the office’s former occupant. Beth George, the attorney for Student Legal Services, relocated last Friday to space in the 11 Baxter Blvd., complaining that the air quality in her office made her sick.

Weekly news briefs

Reports of crime on campus, culled from the USM Police logs

USM has seen over $2.8 million in budget cuts this year. The state has withheld these funds in an effort to deal with its own $1 billion shortfall. Certain programs, however, are still being funded through newly received federal monies.

Sitting around their microphones in a cramped booth at WMPG, a group of local high school students wait nervously until they hit the airwaves. Hannah Champange, 16, from Portland High School, and Samantha Raymond, 17, from Gorham High School, are the engineers for the show. Hurriedly they make hand signals at the hosts through a sound proof window. “Use your headphones,” Champange points. As the seconds count down until Champagne and Raymond hit the promo, the group bustles around making sure microphones are on. The show is called Blunt, and since 1994 the group has brought local youths on air to discuss issues important to them.

The key to the jambalaya contest is to make the most. Even if you have the best jambalaya, if you don’t make enough then you might as well not have made any. The gumbo and jambalayas are judged by ballots of the tasters, essentially anyone who attends the Eighth WMPG Mardi Gras celebration Tuesday at Woodbury Campus Center rooms A, B, and C. It runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., so your secret recipe has to endure hundreds of people throughout the day.

Mary Cameron shed her name for the next six months to don the moniker “Lawn Ornament.” The sophomore anthropology and geology major began the 2,168.9 mile Appalachian Trail on Feb. 22, her twenty-first birthday, laden with sponsorships which she will donate to the Alzheimer’s Association’s Maine chapter.

The FREE PRESS Adviser Bonny Rodden will resign this year after four years working with the newspaper. She will stay on until the last paper of the semester is finished in April. Her replacement will be chosen by the beginning of August.

The FREE PRESS is projecting losses this year and is taking cost-cutting measures to remain solvent. The cost-cutting is aimed at preserving the reserve fund which is used to produce the first paper each year and can also serve as a buffer during financial crunches. Though The FREE PRESS lost money both this year and last, it is expected to meet the budget again by the end of the current fiscal year. The losses are due in large part to low advertising revenue and the addition of a new professional staff member.

Report of crime on campus, culled from the USM police logs.

Report of the happenings in this past week’s Board of Student Organizations meeting.

A report of the happenings in this past week’s Student Senate meeting.

February 15th, 2003 Portland, Maine: Activists climb and hang signs on the Our Lady of Victories, Statue, a statue that honors, To Her sons who died for the Union during the Civil War. The side of the statue bares the likeness of Joshua Chamberlain, the commander of the 20th Maine who though outnumbered at Gettysburg, and with no ammunition left, ordered his men to, fix Bayonets and charged the attacking Confederates.

“I’m kinda from everywhere.” Christopher Williams is 21 years old and today he lives in Portland. He just came from Boston, and a few weeks ago he was in Lewiston. But, everywhere he goes, he is homeless.

Some USM students dream of leaving the state to pursue more specialized fields or just to excape the cold weather. A new research program headed by Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences David Champlin and funded by the National Science Foundation is keeping some of that restless talent in-state. The program provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to get laboratory experience normally restricted to graduate students and professional researchers. The aim of the program is to study a phenomenon that takes place in cancer cells. The research is only being done at USM and could eventually bring royalty money to the University.

Weekly news briefs

A report of crime on campus culled from the USM police logs.

Last Monday the Muskie Student Organization (MSO) launched a four-part discussion panel series to a full house in Room 131 of the Law Building. The topic of this first panel was the effect of Maine’s Clean Elections Act on the nature of elections in Maine.

Students on the Gorham campus all have to venture into Bailey Hall for class, business, or just to hang out. A few may even go into its library to study. Being the largest building in the University of Maine system, Bailey Hall is hard to avoid.