Just after 3:00 p.m. on Friday, President Theo Kalikow sent out an email officially announcing that 12 faculty members from nine departments have been laid-off over the course of the day. A group of students, numbering as many as one hundred at parts of the day, occupied the seventh floor of the Law Building, where…
Author: USM
Linebaugh: Stop the cutting now
This is a letter was written by USM alumni Wade Linebaugh. Dear Provost Stevenson, If the news has it right, you’re either currently meeting–or about to meet–with as many as 10 (or more?) faculty members in order to terminate them. If this is indeed true, this action is unconscionable. The path I see USM going…
More than 100 gather in law building to protest faculty cuts
A group of more than 100 students have gathered on the 7th floor of the law building this morning to protest termination of faculty. More than 10 faculty members are set to have one-on-one meetings with Provost Michael Stevenson this morning and some think it will end in notification of their terminations. “I’m here because…
Provost calls meetings for the morning, lay-offs of 11 to 12 faculty could follow
Tomorrow morning more than 10 USM faculty members will climb to the seventh floor office of the provost for back-to-back meetings that, some think, will end in notification of their terminations. Word spread quickly through social networks and between colleagues and students today that the provost called the meetings for tomorrow morning to lay-off additional…
Shelley: Corporate language on USM’s “changes” strange and depressing
This article was contributed by USM graduate Phil Shelley. Last week, I received a mass email from the USM Graduate Admissions office regarding the current “changes” USM is undergoing. I found the email strange and depressing because it was written in corporate marketing language and seemed to me to be the kind of pre-emptive “don’t…
Rood: ‘new direction’ doesn’t mean the same direction as before
Dear USM, I am shocked and appalled at the level of disrespect you have shown your students and the fine educators of this institution, without whom you would not have a school. I have stayed at USM because the faculty have always shown nothing but support and compassion to me and my peers and now…
Students and faculty concerned about cuts, not vision
University President Theodora Kalikow hosted an all-campus meeting yesterday morning to discuss the future of the university within the University of Maine System, but students and faculty in attendance were set on discussing recent proposals to cut programs and faculty. Last week Kalikow announced proposed elimination of programs including American and New England Studies, Recreation…
Our Opinion: Vote Erin Carlson for student body president
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…
The three-way race for Student Body President
The debate is over, the campaigns are wrapping up and the first ballots are coming in. It’s a three-way race between the all-student-senator ticket Kyle Frazier and Rebecca Tanous, commuter students Jordan Miles and Luther Vigneualt and Erin Carlson, who at press time did not have a running mate. The single presidential debate was held…
Pleau: Stonecoast is special and sustainable
I’m a student in the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing. I also graduated in 2012 with a BA in Media Studies from USM. I thought about comparing all of the ways that being at Stonecoast is different and special but I only have so many words and I have to get a packet to my…
Four programs don’t make the cut in newest proposal
At a packed informational session of the Faculty Senate Friday, President Kalikow proposed cutting two undergraduate majors, one graduate program and the arts and humanities major on the Lewiston-Auburn campus. Kalikow proposed cutting the American and New England studies graduate program and undergraduate programs in recreation and leisure studies and geoscience. Geoscience is chaired by…
Arts & Culture Recommends: USM Theatre presents The Mystery of Edwin Drood
By: Matthew Donovan The USM Theatre department is letting the audience decide “whodunit” with the premiere of the Tony Award-winning murder mystery musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The Mystery of Edwin Drood is shaping to be a musical that narrows the distance between audience and player interaction, where the ending of the story is…
Ceramist Shawn O’Connor shares historical method
Last week USM hosted a special guest, alumnus and ceramist Shawn O’Connor. O’Connor teamed up with the USM Art Department to finish a project with students, the construction and lighting of a one time use paper kiln. The paper kiln was lit Thursday with Brandon Lutterman a professor of ceramics and several USM students in…
Campbell brothers shoot for big screens
Siblings Thomas and Peter Campbell, emerging filmmakers and theatre and music majors at USM, are ready to see their work on national and international screens, after winning several awards, including “Best Film,” during Portland’s 48 Hour Film Project last year . The brothers made their winning eight-minute film as part of the 48 Hour Film…
Community Spotlight: Go Zen with mindful meditation
The Mindfulness Group offers students a way to unwind and reflect through meditation. Each Tuesday, the Mindfulness Group assembles from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Sullivan Recreation and Fitness Complex in the Multipurpose Room. The group was started by the USM Health and Counseling Services’ suicide prevention initiative USM CARES with the meditation and…
Majority of faculty declare provost “very ineffective”
The immediate importance of the faculty survey evaluating the job performance of Provost Michael Stevenson is, as with so many things at USM lately, tied up in the Direction Package. In mid-December, the Faculty Senate exercised its right and responsibility as detailed in the governance documents to evaluate the performance of top administrators, sending out…
Dunham addresses the state of the university
In the State of the University Address last Wednesday, Student Body President Kelsea Dunham encouraged students to learn more about the changes happening at USM and to get involved. “Change is coming, kids. It is what it is,” said Dunham. “If it doesn’t happen, I can’t confidently say that this institution will continue to exist.”…
Direction Package data needs clarification
The Feb. 28 presentation of the Direction Package Advisory Board explored ways to think about the future of the university in an abstract sense, but as the president’s presentation of recommendations for the university’s next step grows nearer, the question of ‘what’s going to get cut?’ is looming. Early commentary on the Direction Package after…
Student senate works through budget crisis
Due to low enrollment this year, the amount of student activity fee funds expected to be dispersed this spring will be much less than expected, and in the past week, the Student Government Association has had to revise its budget and cut the budgets of its entities to adjust. In the past, the student activity…
From small town life to the international games: Ben Towne shares Olympic experience
The opportunity of a lifetime was years in the making for Ben Towne, lecturer and clinic coordinator of athletic training at USM, who returned to Maine just last week after traveling with the U.S. Olympic teams to Sochi, Russia. Towne was chosen to be one of 17 athletic trainers to travel to the 2014 Winter…
Sustainability & ME: Climate neutrality means a brighter future
By: Shaun Carland A USM committee generated the University’s Climate Action Plan, entitled “USM’s Guide to a Climate Neutral Education,” in 2010, under former president Selma Botman. In 2008, USM signed the American College & University President’s Climate Commitment, which publicly declared the USM’s commitment to achieving climate neutrality by 2040. But what exactly is…
You are wrong: History’s not history, yet
I’m Thaddeus Moriarty, and you are wrong. Why? Because you’re not studying history. You’re here at USM studying business, or physical therapy, or nutrition, or underwater basket-weaving — but you’re not studying history. And why not? It’s common knowledge that history majors and professors are the most clever, interesting and beautiful people in academia. Seriously,…
Our Opinion: Boosting involvement a two-way street
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…
Lady Huskies win two but lose in the final game
By: David Sanok In what was a back-and-forth game throughout most of the night, the second-seeded USM Huskies women’s basketball team eventually pulled away with a 53-45 victory over the seventh-seeded UMass Boston Beacons on Tuesday, Feb. 25. Although the Huskies went on to lose in the final game, they had a great run this…