USM is no stranger to talented baseball players. Over the years, the Huskies have even sent players to compete at the next level. This year is no different. Senior outfielder Anthony D’Alfonso (Westbrook) is looking to join the likes of Vinnie Degifico and Tip Fairchild as USM players to make a noise at the professional level.
From the studio to the street
The First Friday Art Walk is a cultural gem of Portland.
This past Friday on April 3 people flooded the drizzly streets to observe artwork that was vastly different at each exhibit. Depending on your energy level, you can get a small sampling of art and only go to a few places or you can be adventurous and try to visit over 60 locations participating in the art walk.
The F word: A Feminist Perspective
A lot has been accomplished in the past several decades regarding women’s rights, but there is still much to be done. In countries across the globe women struggle to be viewed as equals, and a recent event in Israel illustrates what we still have to overcome.
New president outlines plans for tenure
Maggie Guzman has big plans.
In May she will take over as student body president, a position currently held by Ben Taylor.
Besides establishing a cabinet, appointing committee members, improving advising and financial aid services for students, and performing the normal daily duties of the student body president, Guzman wants to pursue an ambitious sustainibility project that would retro-fit campus buildings to be more energy efficient.
Undersized, under experienced
The USM softball team has seen their fair share of struggles this season. Coming away with only one win during their annual spring outing in Florida and coming off of their 15th loss of the season against UNE, the team is striving to improve as quickly as possible.
Another way to keep Portland independent
Bull Moose began as a makeshift music store, carrying only a few discs. Started in Brunswick by Bowdoin College junior Brett Wickard in 1989, it is now the largest independent retailer of new and pre-owned music, movies, and video games in Maine and New Hampshire.
Thank God for C cups.
It has been quite some time since the creation of the World War II icon Rosie the Riveter. Rosie is one of the more well known ways that women started to gain independence from the ‘everyday normality.’ With her help, women began to become an increasing part of the work force.
Student Senate optimistic despite turnout
When the Vote USM 2009: Student Government election campaign came to a close at noon on March 19, the student senate found that roughly 5% of the entire student body actually voted, a slight increase over last year’s turnout.
“It is discouraging,” said Katherine Letourneau, current senate chair.
Hangin’ with Mr. Tardiff
The always slimy John Calipari slithered his way to another big deal last week when he left his post at the University of Memphis for the coveted position at the University of Kentucky.
With a huge contract – eight years and 34 million dollars – waiting for him in the Bluegrass State, Calipari left behind a core of talented players and the nation’s best recruiting class, which raises some precarious questions.
Letter from the editor
Last weekend’s short snap of spring weather was a godsend at my East End apartment. Just a couple blocks up from the waterfront, I’ve had the placed shuttered up pretty tight for the last five months to protect against the chilling winds that whip off the ocean.
We can work it out
Can people ever really agree to disagree about God?
Two forums at USM last month invited religious believers, atheists and everybody in-between to approach that question head-on.
The series, entitled “Religion and Secularism: Contrasting Worldviews” was billed as a group effort between the off-campus Portland Skeptics and Open House United Church of Christ, along with SMASH – the Southern Maine Association of Secular Humanists, who donated their usual meeting time and space at 327 Luther Bonney.
Husky Highlights
Lacrosse
Women’s LAX rallies, beats Western Conn.
Led by Jessica Martineau’s (Auburn) six second-half goals, the USM women’s lacrosse team rallied from five goals back to defeat Western Connecticut State University in their conference opener 16-14.
Maine filmmakers launch web series
Where do you find lesbian speed dating, two brothers living together as the odd couple and a kleptomaniac mother-daughter team?
Look no further than Willard Beach, Maine-or, more specifically, WillardBeach.tv.
Gitgo Productions, the creative vehicle of Maine filmmakers Kate Kaminski and Betsy Carson, have launched the premiere of their new ongoing comedic web series, “Willard Beach, The Real Story 2.
Faculty senate passes textbook resolution
Textbooks are a risky but necessary investment for students.
Each semester, the average USMer drops between two and three hundred dollars on their assigned textbooks – a significant stressor on any student’s typically thin wallet.
Ideally, most of these expenditures could be recouped through the textbooks buyback service offered by the USM bookstore.
“I’m on Percocet right now”
Over last winter break, I drove across the country with a girl I couldn’t stand. She had asked me to ride with her out to her new home in San Diego; my charge being to ward off potential rapists and thugs who might accost her and her smelly dog at rest stops and hotel parking lots.
News in Brief
‘Deficit continues to be a moving target’
In a post on her website on April 2, USM President Selma Botman said that next year’s $4.3 million deficit will continue to shift, pending enrollment, state appropriations, and “other variables that may increase our costs.
The Everyday Visuals
The Everyday Visuals are preparing for the release of their third self-titled album on April 14th. If you like bands such as Radiohead, Wilco, R.E.M., and Fleet Foxes, you will love this band. They play around in Portland once in a while, and they’re aiming to come back sometime in the summer.
Epicurean Epics
It’s time to start thinking about foraging for mushrooms on the forest floors, and to look forward to the bright green fiddlehead fronds that will poke through the ground around Mother’s Day. I began to think about mushrooms after I received a quart of dried Morels that were harvested in Idaho and sent to me in remembrance of my April Fool’s birthday last week.
Puzzle Answers
Sudoku & crossword puzzle answers for the April 6th issue of The Free Press
Huskies living up to expectations
Climbing as high as seventh in national polls before even playing a game, the USM baseball had high expectations. But through the first 14 games of the season, they’ve lived up to all the hype.
After sweeping their nine games in Arizona, the Huskies returned to the East Coast riding a ten-game winning streak as they took on the number one team in the country, Eastern Connecitcut for a double-header on Saturday.
Epicurean Epics
Majestic maples over seventy feet tall overlook Connemara Farm’s landscape, generously shading in the heat of summer, and providing homes to robins and Baltimore orioles, as well as resting places for crows, ravens, grackles, sparrows, and sharp-shinned hawks.
The arctic as art
Arctic exploration has always been a fascination in American culture. The Canadian poet F.R. Scott once wrote about the Arctic, “Hidden in wonder and snow, or sudden with summer, this land stares at the sun in a huge silence, endlessly repeating something we cannot hear.
Mainers patience with Nestle dries up
Do you know Nestle? Maine does. Nestle bought Poland Spring in 1980. Now municipalities across the state are struggling for sovereignty against this billion dollar foreign corporation that wants their water.
The town of Fryeburg has been defending itself through 43 months of legal appeals.
USM cuts arts, culture from CCE
Last week, USM announced plans to eliminate its non-credit, personal enrichment courses offered through The Center for Continuing Education.
These courses, which target non-matriculated students, usually attract around 1,100 community members, but had been operating at a loss of $30,000 per year.