Category: Our Opinion

The ghost in the machine at USM has a name, and I think we all know what it is. Provost Stevenson has always been pretty ghostly, but since President Kalikow backpedaled on his least popular decision without bothering to let him know ahead of time, he’s been downright incorporeal –– we have a heck of…

The polls are open for the student elections for another day of voting, and it’s not too late to cast your ballot in favor of candidate Erin Carlson. Events this year have shown that USM’s student body president needs to be more committed and involved than ever as students face a transforming university, endless budget…

Student elections are right around the corner, and you may be thinking to yourself, “So what?” The majority of senate seats are going to be uncontested, voting on the referendum questions doesn’t necessarily mean anything will come of them and with only a week until polls open, we’re not entirely sure what specific issues any…

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, singles everywhere are rolling their eyes and looking for an excuse to be single. What’s our opinion? Valentine’s Day can be great, but it’s also an overrated monument to commercialism that’s only saving glory is that it gives us an excuse to dine out and eat a lot…

In our editorial last week, we brought up concerns about the safety of students in off-campus housing and university policy regarding them. Information that we found about the university’s policy regarding its fraternities specifically was unclear. Many readers were offended that we singled out this group of students, who otherwise have often been noted for…

Last Thursday’s announcement that the physics department will be cut due to low enrollment maybe shouldn’t have come as such a surprise, especially after President Kalikow’s statement to the Free Press last week about how the faculty should be scared.         Last week’s article touched on the issue of drastic cuts to faculty research, travel…

Even though in recent months USM has lost manpower and some serious cash,  welcome events showed that the fun will go on. Everyone at USM could take a lesson from Student Life. They may have had to work a little harder to make Welcome Week a success, but they set an example in hard times…

There is only one week until finals, the weather is better than it has been in months and it’s becoming more and more difficult to concentrate on schoolwork, but guess what, we made it. We know, we know – it’s cheesy, but it’s true. Looking at the front of the paper this week, you’ll see…

After the Boston bombing last week, we had coverage streaming in the newsroom nonstop, but we noticed something –– every major broadcast outlet had serious issues, such as misinformation or late reporting, with their coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. CNN, in particular, seemed to be arguing with themselves over what information proved true at…

We’ve been arguing a lot here at The Free Press lately over, you guessed it, the recent budget cuts at USM. Trying to decide exactly what to write this editorial about, we decided that we couldn’t actually agree or come to a conclusion on any argument that related to the cuts. That pesky $5 million…

It’s rare that the country gets too worked up about voting in Maine. Though sometimes referred to as a “battleground state,” it’s mostly an honorary title: we’ve gone Democratic in every presidential election since 1992; our party caucuses are too late and light on delegates to interest anybody besides Ron Paul. But in 2009, we…

Republican ascendancy has already recalled a nice Chris Rock routine — good relationships may be boring, but then the only exciting relationships are bad ones. You never know what’s going to come up any given day in a bad relationship – “hey, you gave me crabs!” Or, “hey, let’s redefine ‘rape.’” All right, that’s not…