Woman sexually assaulted
On Nov. 2, a woman reported to USM police a male acquaintance sexually assaulted her.
The detective on the case, Jim Daniels could not go into details because the case is still pending investigation.
Daniels did say, “This isn’t a case of an unknown rapist on campus. It’s not the type of case where you have to be careful walking to your car at night.”
According to Daniels, if a case of sexual assault were reported to a city police department, they would not be obligated to investigate it. However, under federal law, when a sexual assault is reported on a college campus, that school’s police department must investigate it.
The first step taken when a case of sexual assault is reported is to find out if it is recent and then to determine if the assailant is a threat to the community. According to Daniels, the case did not happen recently and the assailant is not a threat to the USM community.
President publishes update
President Richard Pattenaude released his monthly update on November 10 about the changes and developments happening at the USM campus. This update includes the USM/UMA realignments, corporate donations to different parts of the USM campus, calls for convocation themes and other “going ons” on campus.
To read the complete update, go to http://www.usm.maine.edu/pres.
Greeks write letters for charity
Various fraternites and sororities sponsored a letter writing party to raise money for St. Jude’s Children Hospital. According to Donna Ciccolella, from Kappa Iota, 2,248 form letters were addressed to friends, family and business, with personalized messages. Those at the event expect to bring in over $3,000 for the hospital.
Egalitarian establishment earns encomiums
A representative of the Maine Tobacco-Free College Network will present the University of Southern Maine with an award for “Leadership in Tobacco Control.” The ceremony will take place at 1 p.m., Thursday, November 18, at Philippi Hall on USM’s Gorham campus.
Receiving the award for USM will be Joe Austin, dean of Student Life, Andrew Bossie, vice-chair of the Student Senate, Jane Coolidge, director of University Health Services, and Rebecca DeSantis, president of the Residence Hall Association.
The award presentations at USM and 22 other colleges in Maine are being held in conjunction with the 28th Annual American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout.
USM’s policy does not allow smoking in any campus facility, including residence halls, and limits outside smoking to designated areas only.
Sports section introduces new column
Aaron Venskus, a staff writer for The Free Press, begins a new column in this week’s sports section. “It’s very in-depth,” said Sports Editor Joe Bilencieri, “it has a lot of things you’re not going to hear on any sports channel, or sports talk radio.”