Just before campus cleared out for vacation, the USM Board of Visitors presented a report on the future of the university. The report, called the "Southern Maine Imperative II," calls on the local community to make a substantial investment in the university, which they think is in the best interests of both the region and the school.
It all began on a boat, while Louraine Rudolph was cruising around one of Maine's numerous bays. "I was sitting there on the boat and looking at one of the most beautiful places in the world and knew we have to save this," said Rudolph, a sophomore theater major. That idea spurred a dream that is now becoming a reality. Rudolph is now the executive director of "One Blue Pearl," a non-profit organization looking to save the world one person at a time. "Our mission is to educate people about offsetting their carbon output," said Rudolph. The organization is still in developmental stages but was officially incorporated in Maine on January 3 of this year.
"My name is Daniel Pearl. I am a Jewish-American from Encino, California." In his last moments, Daniel Pearl could not escape the horror he had spent the better part of his journalistic career spotlighting. Following those forced final words, Pearl would be slain by his captors, a group of Islamic militants inside Pakistan.
In the final days of March, Portland's snowfall total topped 100 inches for the season - that's 30 above the yearly average, and a marked departure from last year's mild winter. So far, this has been the 14th snowiest in the city's history, and USM has experienced plenty of delays, cancellations and annoyances.
Monday April 7 Free Press Budget Meeting- Want to write? Want to tell us what we should be writing? All are welcome./ 92 Bedford Street, Portland Campus/ 5pm-6pm/ For more information email Sarah Trent at sarah.trent@yahoo.com. Mock Interviewing with Employer Representatives- Students will meet with employers individually to practice their interviewing skills.
On March 23, seventeen USM students took off on a weeklong spring vacation down south. Instead of going the typical tanning-on-the-beach-in-Cancun route, these students worked with Habitat for Humanity International and ventured on an Alternative Spring Break (ASB) trip to Slidell, La.
While many students took the MTV route and spent their spring break stumbling through the sand at such seaside destination as Cancun and Daytona Beach, others donated their time to build houses. Seventeen USM students and one advisor traveled to Slidell, La.
Experience paid off for sophomore Ben Taylor. The current vice chair of the USM Student Senate won the recent SGA Presidential race carrying a commanding 44 percent of the vote. Taylor's term as president will officially begin at the end of the semester, at the same time that next year's 12 elected senators are officially seated so that they can approve the budgeted allocation of the Student Activity Fee.
The University of Southern Maine's sustainability program is being brought to the next level: USM has been selected as one of about 90 colleges nationwide to participate in the pilot stage of a new rating system. This Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) is being developed as a means to measure and compare sustainability progress throughout college campuses nationwide.
On Wednesday, March 19th, a group of USM students, staff and faculty traveled from the Portland campus to Lewiston-Auburn College (LAC) to participate in a discussion titled "The Place of Ideology in the Classroom." A part of the Gloria S. Duclos 2008 Convocation on Academic Freedom, this was uniquely a student-led event.
On an evening before the spring vacation, students and faculty filled the seventh floor of the Glickman Library to hear the first annual Student Government Association's "State of the University Address." Student Body President AJ Chalifour spoke about the university in both a critical and approving manner as he outlined the faults and triumphs of the cash-strapped school.
At these prices? April. 3 - 6:22 p.m. A vehicle was seen leaking gasoline in the parking garage. Portland Fire Dept and AAA notified. Cut-rate room & board April. 3 - 10: 37 a.m. Littering: A mattress had been dumped on the third level of the parking garage.
