Category: Perspectives

Elizabeth Mann, a student senator, recently asked if we could provide opportunities for students to learn how they might lead more environmentally sustainable lives on a student budget. There apparently is a widely held view that leading more organic, more benign, and less wasteful lives is simply too expensive, too difficult or not enough fun.

Name: Adam Belmore

Year: Junior

Major: Music Education: Jazz Concentration

Answer: I definitely feel it would be a complete invasion of privacy to have cameras anywhere on campus. Our tuition collars would be better spent by upgrading the educational quality of this institution.

In his article on the completion of the top floors of the Portland campus library (The Free Press 35, no.1, 8 Sep. 2003), John Bronson wrote:

“… as swarthy construction workers leered from the

dark recesses of the unfinished development.”

This utterly egregious attempt at journalistic ‘color’ comes in the middle of an otherwise straightforward interview with Barbara Smith, acting director of university libraries.

In our first issue this year the Free Press wrote a story about the new logo, which included negative comments from an employee of the president’s office. Exercising her first amendments rights, this person, also a student, commented on her disapproval of the new logo.

Before September 11, 2001, George Bush Jr. was not a man with much credibility. Campaigning for president in 2000, he was notable mostly for being George Bush’s son, being extraordinarily vague, and raising a record $100 million from political donors. His double talk during the campaign was so weak and unconvincing that I often wondered how he could be the front runner for the Republican nomination.

The names used here are real names of real people. The story is only slightly embellished as seemed useful to the writer. Global warming is real.

The dorm room was a double. Even before Dana plugged in her “Energy Star” lap top and high-tech, low-wattage reading light, the room was furnished with 500 watts of incandescent lights and a small fridge.

Name: Heidi Carlson

Year: Senior

Major: Social Work

Answer: Yes, slightly. Airline security procedures have certainly changed. Also, 9-11 has changed the way I think about George W.

Name: Julie Rotolo

Year: Junior

Major: Media Studies

Answer: Yes.

At what point did I become a maggot?

The transformation first came to my attention after a series of obscure phone calls last January. I was working as copy editor of The Free Press. In the middle of the night, I received six frenetic voicemails asking, what does it feel like to be a maggot.

Bush Bashing already

Dear Editor,

Is this entire year going to be nothing but Bush Bashing? Let’s look at a few things.

The Patriot Act. A nice law that keeps criminals and terrorists from carrying out acts that could harm the civilian population.

Though I’m not a Bush fan and I disagree with his tactics for propelling a war in Iraq I do believe he had the right idea (or at least claimed to) when he began implementing programs to secure this nation from danger after the 9/11 tragedy. He began spending money to insure that what we have invested our time and sweat into building wouldn’t be torn down because of our own negligence and somebody else’s hate.

Masters of multi-tasking, students juggle jobs, commutes, spouses, children, significant others, pets and housework along with their commitment to education. Managing any one of these tasks, certainly juggling spouses, can seem utterly overwhelming at times.

I visited a friend in Gorham last year and returned to the Cafeteria at the Brooks Student Center for the first time since since my freshman year, when I lived in Anderson Hall. After I collected my food, I found my friends seated on the left side of the cafeteria.

Greg Safranski

2nd Year

Nursing major.

“I found the old one better than the new one. ?I would have designed a new logo for 1 million dollars, and there by saved the University money.

Andre David

3rd year

English major

“It looks worse. ?It was fine before.

What Do You Know About Smoking on Campus?

To the editor:

Over the past few years in Maine there has been heated discussion and new legislation regarding smoking in public places. As many of us are aware, smoking was recently banned in restaurants and will soon be banned in bars and pool-halls.

This is the last issue of the year, and oh so bittersweet. I am glad that I will be moving on, away from this job that has sucked a decade from my life like the machine in the pit of despair in The Princess Bride. However, there is quite a bit of sadness as I break up with The Free Press. I know that it was an unhealthy, codependent relationship, and ultimately, we can still be friends, but there is still a lingering feeling of a heavy heart as I begin to take things off the walls of my office.

My brilliant computer technician friend Ben had emailed me from his hub in oh so trendy Boston complaining about his lack of vision and goals. He had just completed the Boston marathon after recovering from a bout of gangrenous appendix. Just two months prior to running he was treated for his ailment on the operating table. With the completion of the race he was at a loss for his next grand adventure.

This week’s letters to the editor responded to ongoing war talk and critique the Free Press’s coverage of Greek and Gorham life

Domestic violence within the GLBT community is an important yet closeted issue because of the lack of tangible resources and the onslaught of the power and control these relationships may have.

We covered sports teams making the playoffs, countless plays and concerts and art shows. We shot telling photos to document the construction of the parking garage, teach-ins, and all the various people who make up this diverse university.

Delirious from lack of food and rest, I have been wandering around Portland the last few weeks in an odd mood. I have been attempting to balance the closing of the school year with a new love, my financial problems, and my sister’s wedding in May. These things when listed together seem ominous to me, and as every day passes I become more and more anal about keeping track.

I know that many of you have heard Jerry Falwell and others speak of the “Homosexual Agenda” and the “Homosexual Lifestyle.” But no one has ever seen a copy of it. Well, I have finally obtained a copy directly from the Head Homosexual. It follows below.

This week’s letters to the editor critique professors’ civil disobedience and the administration surrounding them for neglecting the canon

This week Executive Editor Elise talks about the elusive spring and changes in life in general as well as other philosophical stuff

This week’s staffer talking is News Editor John Bronson, who “brings up” a story from the past to help us deal with the inevitable stress of crunch time