When I first learned about the concept of feminism, I was pretty doe-eyed about the idea of a “sisterhood.” It was inspirational to imagine women across the globe united in a collective consciousness, a struggle for equal rights, with all of us supporting each other like an extended family.
Author: USM
Our Opinion: A-pathetic Turnout
To employ the PR-speak that accompanies all action within a public institution, one could say that USM is currently “in a period of great transition.”
But such flowery descriptions are just an effort to mask the truth of the matter. We are broke, confused and anxious about the future of the university.
Student body president candidate Charles Silsby
Charles Silsby planned on helping Ashley Willems-Phaneuff with her campaign for student body president. Now he’s running against her.
Silsby, a junior political science major, said he had talked with his friends about running for SBB earlier but didn’t decide to run until last Wednesday when he found out Willems-Phaneuf was only one candidate.
Book Review: The Sea
The 2005 winner of the Man Booker prize – a yearly award given to the best novel published by an author native to any territory of the former British Empire -“The Sea” by John Banville is exactly the kind of novel that seems to win the award. Banville’s prose is elegant, erudite, subdued and focuses on the power and frailty of memory in the void left by death.
GEB holds USM’s Got Talent in Gorham
The Gorham Events Board last Wednesday held the second semi-annual USM’s Got Talent competition. The variety show and competition was organized by Dominque Hilton who also served as a judge along with two other students.
Contestants competed for prizes such as a basket of nick knacks for third place, sweat shirt and sweatpants for second place, and for first place, an IPod Shuffle.
Grad students gauge interest in starting student government
Each day, graduate student Heather Anne Wright follows the same routine: she drives an hour to school, works in the biology lab for 10 to 12 hours, then drives the hour back home to Richmond.
But amid the commuting and research, Wright says something is missing from her graduate school experience: a community.
Assistant Athletic Director receives award
From Staff Reports
USM Assistant Director for Athletics Meredith Bickford was recently presented with the Emerging Athletic Administrator Award at the NCAA National Convention. Bickford, a former USM Student-Athlete, serves as an assistant athletic director at USM for Student-Development and is the department’s senior woman administrator.
Plan proposes merging colleges to save
The committee in charge of redesigning the academic structure of USM released the first draft of their plan last Monday, calling for reducing the number of colleges from eight to five – eliminating three deans’ positions and eight department heads in the process.
Some faculty senators uneasy about proposal
Bob Heiser set the tone at last Friday’s faculty senate meeting with his introduction: “Bob Heiser, school of business and who knows what else.”
UMaine bans tobacco, will USM follow?
The effectiveness of the tobacco policy here at USM is being questioned after University of Maine Orono adopted a Tobacco-Free Campus Policy last week.
Students, employees take part in protest
Over 150 students, faculty and staff packed the Woodbury Campus Center Amphitheatre on Thursday for a teach-in, where two panels of speakers expounded on the crisis of funding public universities.
Oakhurst in, Hood out in Gorham
Residents in Gorham will now be filling their cups and cereal bowls with Oakhurst milk instead of Hood. USM’s food service provider, Aramark, decided to switch milk to Oakhurst Dairy in their effort to be more environmentally conscious. Retail locations on the Portland and Gorham campuses already sell Oakhurst Dairy products.
Coffee By Design wins “overwhelmingly”
Coffee By Design beat out Wicked Joe and the current – and much maligned – Pura Vida in two taste tests during the last week of January.
Students fight for voting rights
Nybol Bol moved to the US from Sudan in 1994. Now she’s a shift manager at McDonald’s, where each week the state and federal government deduct taxes from her pay.
But because Bol isn’t a citizen, she can’t vote.
Letter from the editor
Last week, amid the flurry of gathering last-minute quotes for stories, rushing to get photos and tracking down local politicians, I formed a band with four musicians with whom I had never played and wrote and performed a live set of original music.
Our Opinion: We didn’t log on for this
The University of Maine System continues to eye online courses as a cost-saving, accessible way to pursue a degree, with the Board of Trustees having expressed it’s aim of eventually moving 1,000 programs online, system-wide.
With advances in technology and the Maine’s high-speed internet infrastructure, the computer can now viably stand in place of the classroom as our primary venue of higher education.
The “F” word: A Feminist Perspective
Up until the age of about six years old, I didn’t understand the concept of being a “girl.” I hated dresses and the color pink, but I loved playing in the yard and collecting bugs with my best friend, Jonathan.
The Demise of USM’s College of Education and Human Development
The Reorganization Design Team has proposed to dismantle the College of Education. Not merge it or transform it. Get rid of it.
On March 4, I attended the teach-in in support of the Nationwide Day of Protest in Defense of Public Universities organized by our Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Freedom.
The Leftovers Take Europe: Part II
October 19. Dublin. Originally this was supposed to be a day off. Who needs those? We were only on day 3 and didn’t quite need one yet, especially when a day off usually just becomes an excuse to not take it easy. Plus, we would be taking an overnight ferry from Liverpool (the home of The Beatles) to Dublin, Ireland, a place I have always wanted to see.
Album Review: Broken Bells
Around the USM campus you have probably seen ads for the new collaborative band Broken Bells. This highly advertised band is a techno/indie collaboration between the Shins’ James Mercer and award winning producer and self proclaimed auteur musician Danger Mouse, of Gnarls Barkley.
DIY Punk Night at Hastings
Last Friday night at the bottom of Hastings Hall, something unusual and loud occurred from 7 pm to almost midnight. You’d think an RA would serve a warning, or even a fee for all the noise complaints from above, but they knew better than to mess with the young punks putting on a rock show in Hastings Formal Lounge.
Book Review: Little Bee
“Little Bee,” by Chris Cleave, is the “story of two women,” as it says on the back cover, and how their “lives collide” at two points, two years apart. The back cover implores the reader not to spoil the book for others because “the magic is in how the story unfolds.
Movie Review: From Paris, With Love
From Paris, With Love follows James Reece , played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers(August Rush), an employee at the U.S embassy who dreams of one day becoming a Bond-like secret agent. He is given the opportunity to show his worth by being partnered with Charlie Wax, John Travolta(Taking of Pelham 123), an eccentric American spy with an unorthodox approach to his job.
The Extra Point
Six years ago when the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years, the team didn’t have any flashy, over-paid players who cared only about themselves. They had a group of hard-nosed guys who would crash through a wall to make a catch, or lay down a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the ninth; as long as it was going to help their team a win.