News

Legendary student organization disbands

Posted on March 29, 2010, at 1:52 a.m.

The Progressive Student Alliance, once one of the University of Maine’s most visible political student organizations, officially lost status as a Student Government-recognized organization at a Feb. 23 meeting.

The group had nearly 50 members at its peak in February 2004, according to documents provided to The Maine Campus by Vice President of Student Organizations Samantha Shulman. The group’s last annual update, required by Student Government for recognition, was filed on Oct. 27, 2008. The update indicated the group then had 10 members — the minimum number for official recognition.

The group was founded in 2004 by UMaine students Sarah Bigney and Tracy Allen on the principles of encouraging accountable government, young adult participation and political awareness, and progressive ideals, according to a 2004 update.

“PSA could do anything,” said alumnus Jeffrey Hake, former staff writer for The Maine Campus, president of PSA from 2006 to 2007 and a member from 2005 to 2008. “I remember being amazed by the passion about the issues. You could feel it when you walked into the room.”

The group took up a number of causes on campus during its time as an organization, including the push for the 2008 switch by Dining Services to eating utensils and takeout containers made from biodegradable plastics. The group engineered a 2006 campaign to include more Fair Trade coffee — a method of purchasing coffee through which farmers receive more money — on campus.

PSA also organized a month-long boycott in 2005 of the Taco Bell formerly housed in the Memorial Union Marketplace, protesting the food chain parent company’s policies toward the workers’ pay.

“I would suggest they were the most active organization [on campus],” said former UMaine Associate Dean of Students Angel Loredo, who advised the group from 2005 to 2009.

When Hake took over as president in 2006, the group had 13 members, down from 29 the previous year. He said that was because of a lack of leadership, the fact that isn’t as progressive as some might think and bureaucracy on the part of university administration.

“It was just a matter of there being too many people in administration. I’m not trying to blame administration for the downfall of PSA, but that was part of it,” Hake said. “There were some lows with leadership, including myself.”

Loredo said Hake was a good leader, but PSA was rendered unnecessary by competing groups with specialty issues.

“I think that as the bigger issues developed, they got involved in other things,” Loredo said.

Marcienne Scofield, a fourth-year ecology and environmental sciences student and treasurer of the unrecognized organization in fall 2009, agreed. She cited the Student Women’s Association and the Green Team as examples of groups that drew members away from PSA.

“I don’t think there was ever a problem with leadership,” Scofield wrote in an e-mail. “It seems like some people that were interested in PSA managed to find another more niche group tailored to their interests.”

At the beginning of 2008, Scofield wrote, there were only four members who regularly came to meetings. In 2009, there were two — Scofield and Tyler Keniston, who briefly served as president of the unrecognized organization.

“I think the problem began two years ago when a significant number of the members graduated and there were very few undergraduate students left to continue the group,” wrote Scofield.

If PSA can ever obtain enough interest to secure compliance with student government regulations, they will be starting with $955.12 of leftover grant money from 2006. Justin Labonte, UMaine vice president for financial affairs said the original grant was worth $1,701.29 and was spent to its current balance between 2006 and 2007. Labonte said Student Government must hold the money for PSA as long as it is inactive.

The grant was secured by former PSA treasurer Gabrielle Berube, Labonte said. The origin of the grant is unknown and Berube, former copy editor and writer for The Maine Campus, could not be reached by press time.

The group came together in 2003, Bigney said, as UMaine Students for Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont and a Democratic presidential candidate in the 2004 primaries.

When Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts beat Dean in the primary, the group decided they wanted to stay together to work on nonpartisan issues, according to co-founder Bigney, a 2007 graduate of UMaine.

Bigney said UMaine may be too politically apathetic to support such an organization, but is not alone nationwide.

“It’s a problem lots of colleges are having — lack of skill [with organization], lack of knowledge, apathy,” Bigney said.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010, 1:52 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.