Category: News

Racial problems at USM are not new. Many of the faculty, staff, community members and students who attended last week’s forum to discuss racial issues at USM said they’ve been aware of the issue for some time. Most of the people of color who attended the forum expressed their frustration – and sometimes their outrage – that the University hasn’t done more to address their concerns.

Last year in a public speaking class a professor assigned a list of vocabulary words to be memorized.

One of the terms was “bete noire,” a French derived phrase the professor defined as “object of hatred.”

Because he knows French, Jesse Cooper, one of two African-American students in the class, asked the professor if he knew that the literal translation of the word meant “black beast.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We asked two of Associate Professor of Psychology John Broida’s former students to share their experience in his classroom. Broida was recently accused of making racist and homophobic remarks on videotaped lectures circulated to students. A University spokesperson said Broida intentionally tries to provoke students as part of his teaching style.

In last week’s Student Senate meeting Commuter Sen. Benjamin Hoffman made a motion to withhold the stipend paychecks of The Free Press executive board members, accusing them of various policy violations committed during the Senate elections of three weeks ago.

The University of Southern Maine may receive $9 million jointly with University of Maine for an initiative program that will strengthen technology-based businesses throughout Maine.

Last Tuesday, the Appropriations Committee of the Legislature approved a series of four bond issues, including one worth $34,970,000.

Imagine a machine that could generate enough information from analyzing mud from car tires to tell where the car had previously been. Imagine a machine that could help researchers figure out when and where ancient pottery and ceramics were produced.

USM is now the home of just such a machine.

This spring in Maine has been beautiful, the perfect spring to celebrate. April usually brings a host of good things, including USM’s annual Earth Day celebration, which is on-going this week.

All students are invited to this year’s Earth Day Picnic, taking place on April 22 on the Gorham campus.

The print fee is a reality. Students who print at any of USM’s computer labs and libraries will have to pay to print beginning this August.

The cost will not exceed 5 cents per page, but some students and faculty members say it may affect the way they utilize University resources.

Poison Ivy

Poison ivy allergy is an acquired trait which can only develop after contacting the oleoresin of poison ivy. This problem can affect 70% of the population of the U.S. After initial exposure it takes 4 – 10 days to develop an allergy, but once a person is allergic to poison ivy it takes only 24 – 48 hours after contact to break out in a rash.

Baseball

4/13 @ Plymouth State – W 2-0

4/14 v. UMass Boston – W 2-1

4/16 v. Endicott – W 9-4

4/17 v. St. Joeseph’s postponed until Apr. 22 at 5 p.m. due to thunderstorms

4/18 v. Salem State – W 9-1

Women’s Lacrosse

4/13 v. Western Connecticut

L 10-7

4/15 v.

Maine finally has a professional sport, and it is women’s football.

The Maine Freeze is in the Eastern Division of the NWFL (National Women’s Football League). The league was formed in August 2000, but this is the first season for the Maine Freeze.

USM is represented on the team by three students, an alumna, and a professor.

A measure to increase the Student Activity Fee is shot down

By Stuart Koretsky

Staff Writer

The Student Senate proposal to raise the Activity Fee by as much as 50 percent was defeated when the issue went to referendum vote in last week’s Student Senate elections.

University officials are investigating allegations that a psychology professor used racist and homophobic comments in videotaped lectures.

A committee has been formed to review the videotaped lectures of Associate Professor of Psychology John Broida which were distributed to 70 students in a Web-based introductory psychology class.

“In Africa a woman with AIDS is often thrown out of her marriage and abandoned by her family,” said Shalome Odokara of Portland’s Women in Need, Inc.

Last Tuesday, Odokara spoke about the AIDS epidemic’s effect on women in Africa and the United States. She addressed the complex roles that poverty, discrimination, gender roles, stigma and warfare play in the disease as well as what her organization does to support women suffering from the AIDS crisis.

It started out a day like any other for Gustav Niebuhr. He got on the express train near his home in New Jersey as usual. But as the train approached the famous and beautiful New York City skyline, Niebuhr saw smoke rising from the north tower of the World Trade Center.

Name?

Julie Smith

Age?

23

Year and Major?

Senior, philosophy

Did you attend the Lecture on “Women in Need” by Shalome Odokara?

“Yes.”

Did you enjoy it?

“Yes, very much. I thought it was really incredible because of the knowledge that she possessed and in the power of her presentation, with all of her supporting facts.

Too much sun exposure can lead to skin cancer, including malignant melanoma – the most serious form of skin cancer. It’s not just a beach thing. Sun exposure adds up day after day, whatever your skin color. These true/false questions will test your knowledge of sun safety:

1.

By Elise Adams

Alive Editor

The Lady Huskies’ new scoreboard won’t show you the three steals the team had against Rhode Island College on April 6.

The Lady Huskies had at least one extra base hit nearly every game in the last week. There have been several close games, but that is still not a check in the win column.

A letter from the executive editor explaining the ins and outs of a proposal that could give the Student Senate direct financial control of campus media entities. Also see news story by Erin Zwirn.

On Tuesday and Wednesday the student body will make an important decision for two of their campus media outlets, The Free Press and WMPG.

The Senate election ballot will have a referendum question asking students if they want to “discharge” the Student Communication Board.

Question #1:

Student Activity Fee increase

On April 9 and 10 USM students on the Portland and Gorham campuses will be asked to vote on three referendum questions during the annual Student Senate elections.

In addition to questions about smoking on campus and the removal of the Student Communication Board, students will have to decide whether or not they support an increase in their student activity fee by approximately 50 percent.

The 15-year-old Amer Kamal was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint after a night out with his friends. He was trying to get from the West Bank to his home in Jerusalem.

A guard asked him to present an identification card, something required of all Palestinians over the age of 16.

Next fall USM students will be charged five cents per page when printing items from computer labs or libraries.

The new fee has already been budgeted, said Judy Ryan, executive assistant to the President.

“The plan is to begin to do that (charge for printing) in the fall semester,” Ryan said.

Construction of the $11.2 million Bioscience addition to the Science Building on Falmouth Street in Portland began two weeks ago after almost two years of planning.

Completion is scheduled for April 2003.

Although the center will offer a great deal for the study and research of science, the construction is taking a big chunk of parking spaces from the existing faculty/staff lot that was nestled between the Science Building and Sullivan Gym.