Not cabin fever
To the Editor:
Upon reading the latest Free Press, I was shocked but unfortunately not surprised to read that there had been a sexual assault on Sunday April 14 on an off-campus location.
What did surprise me was that right after that statement, Sgt. Ron Saindon of the Gorham Police Department attributed rises in assault and criminal mischief to the weather.
Saindon’s words were “Kids have been cooped up all winter long.”
I bet the victim of the assault would love to know that the police think that she was violated and humiliated because the offender had “cabin fever”. Making a statement like that absolves the offender of any responsibility. Sexual assault is not the result of some kids who have been cooped up, it is aimed at dominance, power and forces the victim to surrender to humiliation.
Please honor the victim. Do not ridicule her by saying that her torture was due to the weather. This victim’s experience was explained away in a “boys will be boys” fashion. This sort of non-existent empathy will certainly continue to deter women from reporting abuse.
Rachel Sackowitz
criminology major, junior
Surprise meters
To the Editor:
As I drove up Falmouth Street to find parking for class, I noticed a whole new set of parking meters. These new meters angered not only me but also many of my fellow classmates at USM.
How ridiculous for the city to put in meters for two-hour parking when the opposite side of the street is all two-hour parking for free. The majority of the people who park along this street is students at USM, which is primarily a commuter school.
As is, there are hardly any parking spaces and now the city is against us too. When there are classes that range from one-hour and fifteen minutes to two-hour and thirty minutes, it’s asinine to pay for minutes not used or to have to leave class to move your car to avoid a ticket.
The mere fact that there was no notice as to the new meters being put in says how sneaky Portland city officials are. Then to be welcomed by those beautiful shiny new meters that line the whole street on a Monday morning was such a wonderful experience.
So I ask why? Is it to make the poor college kids or hard-working parents lives more miserable while they are trying to make their future better by obtaining a higher education?
You would think the city would be more supportive of the future contributors of Portland. What’s next, meters at the grocery store or Wal-Mart? Give us a break, in the name of education.
Misty Starbuck
junior, psychology
Lost faith long ago
To the Editor:
I’d like to respond to Joshua Dolby’s letter “Losing faith, think again” that appeared in last week’s edition.
Listen Mr. More-Holier-Than-Thou, I have seen a few of the bands that are playing the MTV Campus Invasion and they’re not the usual NSuck crap. They’re Canadians which means they still know what rock and roll is.
If you don’t think concerts are intelligent enough for you, that’s just great. Clearly the theory of “to each his own” hasn’t been taught yet in class. But some of us brain-dead laymen couldn’t care less about Socrates, a guy who wouldn’t even exist without Plato, who would not exist without Socrates and so on and so forth.
Some of us are evil belligerent hedonists, and not in the Epicurean sense. We just want as much sex, drugs and rock’n’roll as possible.
Truthfully, it’s a shame. There are actually a lot of talented bands in Portland, many of them containing alumni. It would be great if they could play a venue for people under 21. USM could allow this situation to happen.
Of course you probably agree with Plato, some music should be made illegal because it could encourage the wrong ideas, so we shouldn’t allow people to listen to the bassist from Crushworthy because some times he goes off on these crazy scat tantrums that just drive you nutz.
Second of all, this school doesn’t need a new parking lot. What it needs is highly intelligent beings such as you to lower yourselves for a few moments to learn a new concept:
It consists of standing up, placing one foot in front of the other, and alternating repeatedly until you reach a destination. The theory is called walking. There is parking all around the school. The problem is you’re too lazy to use it.
Sean Kraft
senior, business
We need Leadership
To the Editor:
I agree wholeheartedly with last issue’s letter that there is a communication gap between senators and those that they serve.
For the general student, the easier form of information flow has been from The Free Press which has had a hit and miss with fair coverage of the Senate.
The Student Senate does not even have a Web page or e-mail address list for students to contact their Senate. They would do well to spend some work study money to hire a computer science major to put up a Web site that would at the minimum print the minutes, the e-mail addresses of every senator, and a phone number to that haunted-looking house that houses the Student Senate.
I hope that next year there is one senator with the courage to stand up and say, “We have too many fees and we misspend the money that we do have.”
Then push for reform and responsible spending, especially at Student Activity Fee-welfare entities like WMPG, and then push for a referendum to lower the Student Activity Fee.
Encourage the college administration to end the endless increases in additional fees. A little bit of leadership can go a long way and create an atmosphere that is more financially friendly to students and create more conductive campus community (with more student/campus activities).
And to the author (Joshua Dolby) who wishes to ban MTV concerts because he doesn’t personally like MTV, go join the Student Senate and join those senators that oppose reform in the SCB and think for themselves rather than what is good for all students.
Erik Reynolds
former USM student
EDITOR’S NOTE: Joshua Dolby will serve on next year’s Student Senate.
Advice from wrong place
To the Editor:
In regards to the story “Senate tries to withhold Free Press pay,” I feel the need to comment on the advisement from Coordinator of Student Senate Operations, Kathleen Pease who said it could put the Senate “in a liability issue that could be astronomical.”
Maybe a Senator can comment on when exactly did Pease earn her law degree?
Does it say anywhere in her contract with the Student Senate that part of her job was to influence the Senate in political items which do not agree with her own special interest? And how much of the Student Activity Fee does she earn as salary? How does it compare with Coordinator of Student Senate Operations at colleges such as Colby or University of Maine, Orono?
They don’t have Coordinators of Student Senate Operations. They have faculty who advise their Senates. How odd!
For her salary, would we be able to finance maybe more student concerts, more money for the Gorham Events Board, a campus radio station, or even more money for The Free Press?
Interesting questions? They are ones that need to be asked by those whose concerns are with students and not with friendships formed by the close working relationship formed in Senate House on Haunted Hill.
Am I bitter? You bet I am. Mad as hell. I have seen votes changed by “advice” from counsel several times. The USM administration has done a great service by giving the power of control of the Student Activity Fee to the Student Senate.
It makes for great politics and it is better than any classroom in teaching students democracy. I hate to see it corrupted by someone that isn’t a student and who makes her living from the Student Activity Fee.
Erik Reynolds
former student senator/Free Press staff member
Too silent?
To the Editor:
According to Heather Jackson Dilios, the staff of the USM Libraries needs to go to the playground, making me wonder if she is the lost member of “Another Bad Creation.”
If we were all chillin’ at the playground how would people’s questions get answered? The Glickman Library, like other University centers, has its share of noise. But it is nothing compared to other areas on campus.
The Woodbury Campus Center and computer lab in Portland are two of the other popular study areas which many people use but where they find little silence. The comings and goings of people, ringing of cell phones and conversations are much louder in those areas than in any place found in either the Portland or Gorham libraries.
If one goes into the stacks on the second, third and fourth floors, or in one of the study rooms on the second floor of the Glickman Library, they will find total peace and quiet.
Sadly, total pristine quiet isn’t achievable in the public areas such as the circulation desk, reference and serials during a busy academic week.
Noise near the reference desk and around computer terminals is not an uncommon thing during the week or at the end of the semester when people are trying to start or finish their research papers.
Many times a single reference person will have to help two or three people at once, which leads to some noise.
The third floor is a very quiet place to study at night or on the weekends. I know this because I worked there for two years. Unfortunately, it can be a bit noisy from time to time due to patrons asking questions, the elevators opening and microfilm machines being used.
The type of silence Dilios wants is complete silence. Total silence. A metaphysical state of silence, if you will.
She wants the sort of silence that has confounded philosophers for centuries with the unanswered question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it still make a sound?”
Please whisper your answer.
Peter McCarthy
Gorham Library staff member