The dissolution of the former department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures occurred at around the same time that the college it was a part of, the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, embarked on a path towards larger organizational change. “This is my final year as dean,” explained Lynn Kuzma, dean of…
Author: USM
Student senate finds less funds to allocate than anticipated
The Student Senate will be forced to turn away student proposals for funding soon, with funds running low and proposals running high. Student Senate vice-chair and senior economics major Will Gattis explained that when he was reviewing proposals for fund requests, he realized that the senate would not have enough funds to approve spending for…
Students to ask Board of Trustees to divest
Money won’t be the only topic of conversation that’s green at the upcoming University of Maine System’s Investment Committee meeting of the UMS Board of Trustees this Friday. For the second February in a row, the question of financial divestment of fossil fuels is on the agenda for the BoT meeting. This time, a group…
Direction Package pushes for metropolitan university identity
Members of the Direction Package Advisory Board largely agreed that USM’s future should be as Maine’s metropolitan university, as the group’s meetings come to a close this Friday. The board met for a preliminary roll-out of the work that had been done in the three sub-groups for the past two months last Friday. While each…
Film Review: American Hustle
David O’Russell is perhaps one of the most curious directors working in Hollywood. Hanging on the periphery of celebrity status since “Three Kings” in 1999, O’Russell sprang into the spotlight with “The Fighter”, a grim look into the violent life of a Lowell boxer. He returned to critical acclaim again two years later with “Silver…
USM athlete will donate kidney to save her father’s life
Demi Ruder, sophomore social work major and captain of the volleyball team, is the perfect match to save her father’s life. Her father, Michael Ruder, was diagnosed with kidney failure last May. “It was out of the blue. They called it an autoimmune disease, so no one knows why it happened or where it came…
First USM Career Week attended by few
Attendance at Husky Career Week events last week at USM was limited. Student Success and Student Life on the Portland and Gorham campuses teamed up to plan this first-time week of events in anticipation of this Wednesday’s job fair. Rodney Mondor, student success coordinator for the Portland campus, said Career Week is a response to…
Student government nominations go live
Nominations for this spring’s student government elections opened up last Monday, and the Student Government Association is waiting for student nominations to come rolling in. This year, the SGA is making promotion of the elections a top priority and focusing on making the process easier for students. “We want to get as many people nominated…
Senate pushes for Direction Package details
At the Faculty Senate meeting last Friday, faculty members expressed concern to President Theo Kalikow about the purpose and conclusions of the Direction Package committee. The committee is scheduled to present its findings to Kalikow on Feb. 28. Many at the meeting were frustrated, saying that Kalikow wasn’t giving enough details pertaining to the initiatives…
Scientific journal publishes student’s research
The work of an bioinformatics class offered at USM in spring 2013 will be published in Frontiers in Genetics, an online science journal, with USM undergraduate Jeffrey Thompson leading the co-authorship of the peer-reviewed paper. The article, entitled “Common features of microRNA target prediction tools” is in part the work of Thompson, a USM senior…
Students study overtime
While a lot of students like to spend Saturdays sleeping in, hanging out in their dorms and catching up with friends or binge watching entire seasons of whatever show their roommate claims to be the greatest show ever, some use the time to catch-up on their school work. And for some, it’s the only time…
Huskies fall to Colby
The USM men’s basketball team couldn’t follow the ladies’ example as they fell to the Colby College Mules 63-58, for their second straight loss—a tough one for USM. Colby was led offensively and defensively by sophomore center Chris Hudnut, who scored 20 points and had 11 rebounds. USM was led offensively by senior forward Conor…
Local Album Review: The Border
Successfully executing the traditionally untraditional, and predominantly disfavored, integration of punk and country genres, here’s one stampede of an album fresh out of Dirigimus, Portland’s very own DIY music cooperative. Seriously, listen up and listen well. The Coalsack in Crux released their second album, The Border, in January, and it’s by far one of the…
McConaughey’s perfomance may be career best: Film Review of Dallas Buyers Club
Sporting a bucket-sized cowboy hat and thinner than a cornstalk, Ron Woodruff is nevertheless a very familiar character to us. He’s a womanizing, alcoholic, rugged, obnoxious, insulting, son-of-a-gun. Loved in a certain cautious way by his friends, and appreciated for a compassionate heart under all the grime, Woodruff is still repulsive to us, as his…
The Folk Singer Who Kept Going
Pete Seeger, the quintessential agent of social change and an inspirational folk musician, passed away last week at 94. His legacy, however, is timeless. Born into a family of politically-progressive musicians, Seeger’s activism was nurtured at an early age. His father, a Harvard-educated musicologist, was removed from his professorship at the University of California at…
Taking it to heart
When you love someone, you don’t literally give them your heart (we hope), so what is this feeling that is as important to our emotional lives as the blood pumping through our bodies? What is love? In a highly informal poll taken in the Woodbury Campus Center cafeteria at lunch time, not a single student…
Finding love in the digital age
Can apps like Tinder spark an off screen romance? Whether we care to admit it or not, technology is changing every aspect of our 21st century world and, of course, dating and relationships are not exempt. Single people in the digital age have numerous tools at their disposal for finding love in the form of…
Olympics fans have good reason to worry about Sochi
By: Nick Rotondi With the start of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia on last Friday, there have already been various reports of terrorist threats and “hotel horrors,” leaving many wondering if Putin has been putting everyone on with his promise to provide a “really spectacular show.” For Mainers, the Winter Olympics are always popular…
You are Wrong: what I learned from the Superbowl
By: Thaddeus Moriarty I’m Thaddeus Moriarty, and you are wrong. Why? Because you thought that this year’s Super Bowl was as un-competitive as pile of soggy newspaper and that it was worth absolutely nothing to society at large. Well, I’m here to tell you that this Super Bowl was worth a lot. Yes, I agree;…
Restoring your body’s balance with natural medicine
I have been studying herbal medicine and the magic of wild plants and herbs for a couple of years now. I have found a distinct change in my immunity and strength during the change of seasons and among these cold winter months now that I support my body with herbs daily. I want to share…
Our Opinion: It’s okay to be single on Valentine’s Day
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…
Album Review: Along the Way
Mark McGuire has had a busy year. After splitting up with the electronic band Emeralds and signing on to the Dead Oceans label, McGuire has managed to keep up an impressive creative pace with the release of what may be his most ambitious work yet. His EP, entitled Along the Way features 14 tracks of…
Film Review: “August: Osage County”
By: Martin Conte It’s every movie buff’s guilty pleasure. It’s like getting wine tipsy, or treating yourself to dinner just before the rent is due. Putting some of the finest actors and actresses currently at work in the same dilapidated mansion, alongside the finest actress of any generation and shaking up the bottle with crisis…
Tar sands oil debate hits USM
The debate over tar sands landed on USM’s doorstep last Friday as hundreds gathered in the Hannaford Lecture Hall to discuss the transportation of the controversial resource. The event was sponsored by 350 Maine in partnership with the Natural Resource Council of Maine. 350 Maine is a grassroots organization dedicated to solving the crisis of…