Grass Punks, released by Tom Brosseau, questions the imperatives of American folk, yet it is still able to pay dear respect to the timeless genre. Folk music has always been an elusive term––world music played by lower socioeconomic classes, artists from the ‘60s folk revival (e.g., Bob Dylan, Joan Baez), and more recently, bands like…
Author: USM
Direction Package board nears next phase
USM announced the rollout of its new Direction Package in late September and the formation of the Direction Package Advisory Board in October, and as January draws to a close, the scheduled Advisory Board meetings are nearing an end. The advisory board has met 12 times since its creation, and has five more scheduled meetings,…
Officials discuss active shooter policies
The USM community has been thinking more about safety than usual in the aftermath of the armed standoff in Gorham on Wednesday, Jan. 22. The number of school shootings has been on the rise throughout the U.S., with approximately 10 incidents recorded in 2012 and 28 in 2013. A school shooting is an act of…
Students to urge board to go green
Students have come together with the help of the Office of Sustainability at USM and support from the Student Senate to bring the issue of Divestment to the floor at the Board of Trustees meeting on February 27. In March of 2013, the Student Senate approved a resolution to express the student body’s desire to…
National Album Review: “The Age of Reason” by Gramatik
The Age of Reason defies standards in electronic music albums featuring 15 dynamic tracks that are rich in innovation and variety. The Slovenian born DJ Gramatik, whose real name is Denis Jasarevic, has been busy creating his own record label Lowtemp and crafting this gem of an album that’s been released after much anticipation. The…
A&C Recommends: USM Theatre presents “Doubt”
This week four USM students will take on the Portland Stage in a production of Doubt, the 1960s drama set in St. Nicholas’, a New York catholic school. A Pulitizer-prize winning stage play written by John Shanley will be under the direction of USM professor of theatre William Steele. Amidst the aftermath of Kennedy’s assassination,…
Solidarity through literary arts: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts on display in London, Cairo and USM
Seven years after a car bomb exploded in Iraq, killing 30 people, wounding over 100 and destroying the entire perimeter of Al-Mutanabbi street the cultural epicenter of Baghdad, a powerful art exhibition has arrived at USM entitled Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here that displays the significance of what happened on that day through visually impressive pieces…
Sustainability & ME: breaking new grounds
By: Shaun Carland Anyone who has spent significant time at USM knows that coffee is a way of life. It fuels our last minute study sessions and is a perfect way to meet up with new friends. We all know where our coffee comes from–Coffee by Design, but where does it go? Historically, the university…
Op-ed: Vote Cutler in 2014 for a better Maine
By: Marpheen Chann My name is Marpheen Chann, and I am the student body vice-president at USM and a college democrat. It took me a lot of thinking and some time to finally say what I have to say–that, as a democrat, I am voting for Eliot Cutler in 2014. Don’t get me wrong, I…
Op-ed: USM benefits from Greek Life
By: Kelsea Dunham My name is Kelsea Dunham, and I am your student body president. I want to start this little piece of writing with the statement that I am not actively involved with Greek Life at USM. I still strongly believe that Greek Life is good for USM, as a whole. When I ran…
The Pickle Jar: Can the U.S. handle its nukes?
It’s no surprise that the United States remains at the top when it comes to its nuclear arsenal. That arsenal ballooned over the course of the Cold War, and despite the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States still maintains over 7,000 nuclear missiles, enough to blow up the whole world–a few times. Probably…
Our Opinion: Policy is the problem
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…
Student profile: Katie Belgard, at your service
Katie Belgard hadn’t planned on being the president of the Board of Student Organizations when she first joined. She’s one of those students everyone seems to know. Spending a lot of time in the Woodbury Campus Center, she can often be found calling to and greeting passersby with a smile. A women and gender studies…
Involvement spotlight: USM junior Bryn Gallagher does it all
Bryn Gallagher does it all–well, practically. She’s involved in a number of on and off-campus activities and organizations. A junior sociology major and criminology minor at USM, Gallagher became the new president of the Sociology Club in the fall of 2013. “It has been a transitional semester,” Gallagher said. “It’s been hard to figure out…
Students stand in solidarity against pipeline
TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline is drawing objections from a range of USM students, staff and faculty, perhaps most dramatically when a handful of students were involved in a protest recently that culminated in two arrests. Last Wednesday, a group of between 12 and 24 people, at different points in time, stood at the entrance to…
Lab supplies combust, igniting in an empty room
Even with the multitude students coming in and out of the Science building during the school week, the most explosive thing to happen in the building last Friday took place in an empty classroom. A little after 1:00 on Friday, in the bottom corner of a shelving unit in the unused combination lab and classroom…
USM hires new associate provost
Samantha Langley-Turnbaugh, who is no stranger to USM, has recently been appointed as the associate provost for graduate studies and research, scholarship and creative activity. Her role in this position entails overseeing research for the university as well as graduate admissions and programs, with a special emphasis on connections to and within the local community….
Study finds link between student income and achievement
A report released January 9th by the Maine Education Policy Research Institute at USM on the impact of poverty on student achievement in Maine shows a clear correlation between poverty rates and how well students perform in the classroom. One key finding was that as poverty levels increase, student performance decreases. Although this research didn’t…
Arts & Culture Recommends: the Portland Comedy Showcase
A Wednesday night at Bull Feeney’s on Fore street helps you realize that Portland has more to offer than just its restaurants, breweries and music events. It also has a thriving comedy scene. Some of the most successful comedians from all over New England gather at the Irish pub every Wednesday for the Portland Comedy…
USM athletes bridge community gap and mentor youth basketball
The Athletics Department has been engaging with the town of Gorham to improve relations and build community as a whole. The Second Annual ‘Town of Gorham Night’ took place at the men and women’s basketball games on Tuesday, Jan. 21 at the Warren Hill Gymnasium. Cheered on by the crowd, third and fourth grade students…
A&C Album Review–Gunther Brown
Good Night for Daydreams, released by Portland-based band Gunther Brown, shows expert songwriting matched with classic Americana styling. The regular hard-strummed acoustic guitar is an excellent compliment to vocals that are deep and gritty, but not muddy. The drums sit on top of the beat, giving rhythms that bounce, and hard thumping and simple bass…
The Pickle Jar: Obama’s NSA speech fails to inspire
President Obama spoke on Jan. 17 to quell the country’s fears of domestic spying and internet surveillance brought on by Edward Snowden and his National Security Agency revelations, but in the end, he inspired little faith that he would take power back from the top-heavy, national security state. His remarks were broad, and his policy…
Our Opinion: Ensuring student safety
USM has seen more than its fair share of breaking news this week.From the arrest of a former USM student body president for arson on Monday and a Gorham standoff between police and an armed student Wednesday night, to an incident of spontaneous combustion in the science building on Friday. Two of these events have…
University oversight of fraternities questioned after Gorham standoff
Last Wednesday’s Gorham standoff between local police and an armed USM student, Alan-Michael Santos, has raised a lot of questions about the university’s policies and procedures during emergency situations. Santos, 23, of Winchester, Mass., a junior business marketing major, surrendered to authorities after a four-hour standoff with police, in which he barricaded himself in the…