Unnecessary student censorship of the week Three weeks ago, art students Lydia Brown and Sarah McCullough received an administrative complaint about their mural that was displayed on the top floor of the New Science Building’s Ci2 lab in Portland, a complaint that resulted in the removal of the mural. The mural depicts a bare-breasted woman…
Author: USM
Rwandan recounts genocide in own country
In April 1994, violence quietly spread through a small little-known African nation, quickly transforming it into a massive graveyard. Nearly two decades later, the Rwandan Genocide is recognized as one of the most horrific tragedies in human history. Held on Thursday night in Hannaford Lecture Hall, the third instalment of the Paving the Way to…
Student playwright Sarah Kennedy thrilled for debut
For their spring performance, Student Performing Artists will be producing their first full-length student-written work in the group’s 16-year history, written by their very own sophomore theatre major Sarah Kennedy. SPA has been producing prominent plays at USM since 1977. From Shakespeare to Edward Albee, with Sam Shepard, David Ives and Christopher Durrang in between,…
National Album Review: Cardboard Castles by Watsky
Cardboard Castles is a gem. Rapper George Watsky masterfully blends the wisdom from his spoken word poetry with a collection of colorful instrumentals, balancing his roles as poet and rapper and adding a unique brand of comedy to each track. The self-proclaimed “pale kid that raps fast” has often been pegged as more of a…
University of Southern Maine Student Senate supports fossil fuel divestment
At its last meeting, the Student Senate approved a resolution to express the student body’s desire to divest the University of Maine System endowment from any of the top two hundred publicly traded fossil fuel companies. The proposal called for an immediate stoppage to new investments in fossil fuel companies as well as a complete…
Provost searches to fill new staff position
USM will be due for a new associate provost position in the coming academic year, although the position isn’t really that “new” at all, considering that it is a consolidation two pre-existing senior administrative seats into one. The incoming administrator will act as dean of the graduate studies program and associate vice president of the…
The University of Southern Maine scrambles to make budget cuts
Last month the University of Southern Maine community was surprised when university Chief Financial Officer Dick Campbell announced that USM had to cut over $5 million for the next fiscal year. Now administrators and faculty are scrambling to make the cuts by the April 5 deadline. Administrators and faculty were at work over break, meeting…
University of Southern Maine student elections showdown: voter turnout higher than in recent years
Though turnout for the student elections this year was about four times greater than last year’s, Student Senate Chair Chris Camire believes that it could have been better. Those students who did vote elected a new president and senate and also gave approval for all but one of the referendum questions. Of the 21 senate…
Who will defend academic values?
Last month I attended a public symposium on the future of the humanities at USM, where I asked President Kalikow what responsibility the academy has to hold the line against the encroachment of purely economic values on what was previously protected cultural space. Kalikow rolled her eyes at me as if to say, ‘Oh lord,…
Arts & Culture Recommends: USM Chamber Singers spring concert
Fresh off the bus from a three-day concert tour of Northern New England, the USM Chamber Singers are back at the university and are ready for their annual spring concert. The musicians of the USM Chamber Singers are chosen through a careful audition process and represent some of the most outstanding singers at USM. The…
Anti-abortion protesters need increased limits
A tunnel of protesters spew biblical rhetoric; stoney-faced children hold graphic signs of severed fetuses; a woman silently holds a plastic fetus. For the last several months, anti-abortion protester activity outside of the Portland Planned Parenthood of Northern New England health center has increased to an unprecedented level. The increase in protesters outside of the…
Should USM students vote for the “common hour”?
While some students and faculty at USM may be all for the creation of a common hour, others are concerned that it might be more of a hassle than a good thing for university as a whole. The goal of the common hour is to set aside time during the school day when classes would…
The University of Maine System will make transferring between Maine universities easier than ever
The University of Maine board of trustees met in January to discuss, among other things, the implementation of an intra-system credit transfer project that was originally approved at the board’s November meeting last year. According to James Page, University of Maine System chancellor, the project’s goal is to improve the college credit transfer process so…
Letters & Comments: USM professor asks ‘What will your degree be worth?’
To the Editors of the Free Press: Although I did not attend the forum sponsored by the Philosophy Department on the future of education, I was taken aback to see that, when asked what responsibilities the academy has “to hold the line in defense of non-economic values,” Interim President Kalikow replied what was described as…
Things of the Week: President Kalikow’s blog and an important medical breakthrough
Vague blog of the week USM President Theo Kalikow has started a bi-weekly online blog that she has titled “Theo’s Rants” where she sounds off on a question that “I sense is out there,” as she states in the introduction to her first post from Feb. 26. The bravely worded first question? –– “What the…
The Poets and the Assassin: An untold story
In celebration of Women’s History Month, we often highlight contributions made to the U.S. by renowned women in our society. We talk about about our writers, our scientists, our politicians and our activists who have made great strides for women everywhere. Here at USM, Coordinator for the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs Reza Jalali is…
Students engage community on sustainability
The Students for Environmental Awareness and Sustainability are eagerly awaiting the presentation of their long-planned event: CarbonFEST, a day of “edu-tainment” aimed at engaging and informing students, faculty and the community on climate change, divestment and other environmental issues this Wednesday. Starting a dialogue Shaun Carland, junior math and computer science major and president of…
“A difficult period ahead”: USM officials expect over $5 million in cuts for 2014
Members of faculty and the administration met on Friday to hear Chief Financial Officer Dick Campbell give his annual financial update. This year he not only reported that USM would face more than $5 million in cuts in fiscal year 2014, but he also showed those gathered a four-year projection of the cuts that he…
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Kelsea Dunham, candidate for student body president at the University of Southern Maine
Kelsea Dunham is former vice president of the Gender Studies Student Organization and also organized the protest against the Genocide Awareness Project’s display. Students may remember GAP for their exhibition of violent images of aborted fetuses on the walking paths between Payson Smith Hall and Luther Bonney Hall last year. Dunham explained that her experience…
Isaac Misiuk aims for student body president at University of Southern Maine
Misiuk is the current president of the USM College Republicans, having revived the formerly defunct group last year to represent the conservative presence on campus during election season. “Hopefully I will be stepping down soon to take up the position of student body president,” he said. He did, however, say that he would like to…
So, what is a MOOC, anyway?
“A threat and an opportunity,” USM Professor of Linguistics Wayne Cowart said of MOOCs. Though it sounds a bit like a cuddly science fiction creature, what Cowart was referring to is actually a hot topic in higher education lately –massive, open, online courses or MOOCs. For some, the idea of giving away university-created content in…
Chancellor Page addresses the state legislature
Chancellor James Page addressed the state legislature Thursday with the “State of the University,” reflecting on his first year as system chancellor and giving his thoughts on the present state of higher education in Maine and the future of the University of Maine System. Page, a Maine native, said that he was hired by the…
USM site of One Billion Rising rally
This Valentine’s Day the Woodbury Campus Student Center in Portland was packed with poets, writers, musicians, women activists and students as one of the sites for the global One Billion Rising rally that aimed to fight violence against women. One Billion Rising is a worldwide protest to end the staggeringly high rates of violence against…
Students attend Washington rally
Glen Brand, director of the Maine branch of the Sierra Club, said the message the nearly 50,000 protestors at 350.org’s Forward On Climate rally in Washington D.C. this Presidents Day were hoping to send to the president “was to let him know we have his back.” The Feb. 17 rally was attended by protesters from…