Category: Perspectives

Senate Update

Sept. 11 has changed our lives. The Ad Council played an ad Sept. 11 that showed a row of houses in an average neighborhood, and the voice over explained, “On Sept. 11 terrorists tried to change America forever.” The screen fades, then comes back up, each house bedecked with at least a couple of American flags each. “Well, they succeeded.” This ad may have made us feel patriotic on that first Patriot Day, but, is that distracting from the real ways we all have changed?

It never crossed my mind that I wasn’t a Mainer, until I’m told that I look like I’m from New Jersey.

The 31st Student Senate held their first official meeting since a meeting mid-summer Friday, Sept. 6.

Dear Mr. Damon, I hope you jerks do go on strike so I don’t have to watch you bums lose the rest of the season. Sincerely, your biggest fan, Elise.

When I first came to USM a year ago, I saw seven or eight flags billowing at the Flag Center going west on Route 25 and didn’t take much notice. Nothing specific came to mind except, “Wow, that middle flag is huuuge!” One year later, flags are strewn across campus, as well as all over our nation and they symbolize much more than I had ever actually realized.

Two weeks into the academic year the world changed forever.

Terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners the morning of Sept. 11, guiding them into both towers of the World Trade Center and into the Pentagon. Thousands died in what was the worst terrorist attack against the United States ever.

To the Editor:

Upon reading the latest Free Press, I was shocked but unfortunately not surprised to read that there had been a sexual assault on Sunday April 14 on an off-campus location.

What did surprise me was that right after that statement, Sgt. Ron Saindon of the Gorham Police Department attributed rises in assault and criminal mischief to the weather.

To the Editor:

As a two-year Executive Editor of the Free Press from 1989 to 1991, I viewed the Student Senate as adversarial and petty. As the Student Senate Chair from 1991 to 1992 I viewed petty wars with stupid people closer than I would ever have chosen to be to them.

Elections for executive board

Elections for the executive board of next year’s Student Senate were held at Friday’s meeting. The executive board members of the 31st Student Senate are as follows: Leah Wentworth, chair; Tyler Stanley, vice-chair; Jessica Roy, parliamentarian; Gretchen Chesley, secretary; and Mike Norton, treasurer.

An African-American student was recently walking down the street when a young boy yelled “nigger” out the window of a passing bus.

Graduate student Lori Jenkins sat in class looking through her textbook when she read that blacks and Hispanics were the push for welfare.

It was recently announced that it is going to cost students 5 cents per page for printouts in the computer lab. Though I am sympathetic to the rising costs of maintaining a computer lab for students, I believe there is a better way to proceed.

In her recent letter to the editor, Carol Sobczak reports that “USM spends over $70,000/year for paper and toner for the computer labs and libraries.

Communication breakdown

To the Editor:

In the past two weeks I have heard students stating that we should be more active. That we should get involved. And most importantly, that we should vote.

I have also heard that there is a race for the Student Senate taking place.

I like reporting on politics, not being part of them.

But that’s exactly what happened last week during the Student Senate elections when the freedom of the press at USM was challenged. Some members of the Student Senate didn’t think there was anything wrong with asking students to vote on a proposal to dissolve the Student Communication Board, the governing body of The Free Press and WMPG.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A student who recently travelled to Florida on an Alternative Spring Break trip shares her experience.

Often when people hear the words, “spring break,” what they think is stumbling drunk kids, baring it all. That’s no myth. But there is another side to tell, and it’s about some of us who chose to do some common good through USM’s Alternative Spring Break program.

To The Editor:

When I first came to USM, I thought that it was a pretty decent place. Sure it had its little problems, but what place doesn’t. Now that my freshman year is almost complete, I honestly don’t think I want to return next year.

It all started with the parking fee hike.

To the Editor:

Your story titled “New policy: students will pay to print” quotes a student who has the impression that the box that pops up when one prints in the computer labs or libraries is a survey. It is NOT a survey.

It is intended to inform students that a charge will be instituted by the fall semester and to get them to ask themselves if they really need that printout.

To the Editor:

It is my responsibility to address issues related to the computer labs and classrooms. The Printing Charges Frequently Asked Questions sheet distributed in the labs (quoted by Ms. Pitcairn) was to try to answer the most pertinent anticipated questions.

By Lindsay Quinn

Staff Writer

Welcome newcomers

All newly elected senators attended the meeting last Friday although they could not vote. The meeting, according to Chair Marcy Muller, was to familiarize the new senators with the format of the meeting.

Concerns

Senator Janine Gorham brought up the Perspective on Education meeting, which is about bigotry on the part of students and professors and “what is going on between ethnic groups on campus,” she commented.

Dear USM Community:

This past Friday the USM Student Senate voted to pass a referendum question on to the USM Student Body. The question asks whether the USM Student Communications Board (SCB) should be discharged as a student group. A student referendum and 2/3 vote of the USM Student Senate is one way to accomplish this.

To the Editor:

I am writing this to talk about the question concerning a possible increase in the Student Activities Fee for 2002-03. The USM students will be voting on a decision to pass this motion at the Student Senate elections on April 9 and 10.

I am in favor of this increase for many reasons.

To the Editor:

I hope the latest fee initiative by the university prompts students here at USM to become less passive and start giving a damn!

A small icon appears on the computer screens when the print command is activated, disclosing the impending purchase price of printing our schoolwork.

To the Editor:

I feel that at this time a compromise needs to be made between the students that use facilities (i.e., gym, skating rink, etc.), students that participate in activities that are sponsored by the fee money, and students that can’t or don’t participate or use facilities.

I used to be a smoker. I loved it.

I loved the “after dinner” cigarette. The “break from work” cigarette. The “after class” cigarette. The “in the car” cigarette. The “I’m stressed out” cigarette. The “celebration” cigarette. The “after sex” cigarette. The “I’m bored and have nothing else to do” cigarette.