David E. Brown, a 18-year-old physics student, passed another vehicle on Route 9 and lost control of his 1994 Jeep Cherokee, according to the BDN. The vehicle slid and slammed into a utility pole on its driver’s side. The pole was snapped off. The road was closed for about an hour afterward.

According to Dean of Students Robert Dana, Brown was a Missouri native living with relatives in Unity.

“The UMaine community is stunned and saddened by David’s untimely death,” Dana wrote in a statement. “The loss of a student is a tragedy, which strikes at the core of our community.  Our thoughts and sympathies are with David’s family and friends during this terribly difficult time.”

According to a statement from Manager of News Operations for University Relations Ron Lisnet, a memorial service for Brown will be held tomorrow from 1-4 p.m. at his grandparents’ home at 515 Maple Ridge Road in Winslow.

Brown is the second UMaine student to perish in a car crash this semester. Erika Jolie, a first-year new media student, died in October following an accident on Interstate 295 in Falmouth.

Members of the UMaine community who wish to access professional assistance in dealing with David Brown’s death should call the Counseling Center at 581-1392  or the Employee Assistance Program at 581-4014.

According to Alan Stormann, UMaine’s assistant director for parking and transportation, six cars were moved to the College Avenue side of the parking lot between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m. at no cost to students or faculty.

“The water was up above their tires, so I had the wrecking crew go in and move them back,” Stormann said. “I don’t think there’s going to be much cost [of damage].”

A blanket message was sent by Dean of Students Robert Dana at 10 a.m. that urged members of the UMaine community to move vehicles “as soon as possible.” University spokesman Joe Carr said there was an “overwhelming” response to that message and most vehicles were moved by owners.

Stormann said the water level could rise another 8 to 10 inches before receding around 9 p.m. tonight. By 9 a.m. Thursday, he said the water level would likely be back to a relatively normal height. There is no impending danger of flooding in any other rows of parked cars at this point, but Stormann said he is taking “precaution.”

“We don’t know what 8 to 10 inches means,” he said. “I’ve lived here for years and have seen the Stillwater all the way up to College Avenue. Not much, but it has happened.”

Stormann said he would try to have all vehicles removed from the lot by tonight. Carr said vehicle owners would be contacted to move their vehicles as the day goes on. If vehicles are not moved in a timely fashion, he said “a small fee” for towing could be assessed to vehicle owners.

At 11:22 a.m., The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for the Penobscot River, saying the river, which is connected to the Stillwater, will fall continue to fall below flood stage this afternoon. Lowland flooding, however, is expected to continue from Greenbush to Orono. Flooding is also occurring on the Penobscot in West Enfield, which is approximately 27 miles north of Orono.

The list, released Monday, used CollegeProwler.com, the largest college student review database, as a starting point to examine “drug scene” grades, which indicate how available illegal drugs are on a certain campus.

From there, The Daily Beast examined recent data on illicit drug, marijuana and cocaine use in the state of the institution for 18 to 25-year-olds. An arrest-per-capita metric was also applied, weighing the number of drug-related arrests on campus against student population.

UMaine Director of Alcohol and Drug Education Programs Lauri Sidelko said she put little stock into the results of the list, but said the university always takes accusations like this seriously.

“This is the business that I work in and we’re nowhere near the biggest, ‘druggiest’ campus in the nation,” she said. “From what I’ve gathered, they’ve been looking at 18-24-year-old data in our state, which is much different than college students.”

According to the website, “The College Prowler grades were assigned a numerical value according to the letter grade assigned, which was weighted one-third of each school’s final score; the arrests-per-capita rank and drug use ranks were also ranked one-third of the final rank.”

On College Prowler, the University of Maine’s “drug scene” grade is a C.

“Most of the drugs pushed around on UMaine’s campus outside of marijuana are prescription medications,” the site reads. “The campus is very strict about drugs when they find them, and if you have enough drugs or enough people participating, the media attention you will get from that type of behavior will make you feel like a movie star.”

Sidelko said she does not typically see prescription drug users in her office — alcohol and marijuana offenses are, by far, the most common.

“In terms of prescription drug use, we do a lot of education,” she said. “I don’t see it as something that is a big problem on campus. … Our prescription numbers have never been beyond any kind of national standard nor have they been higher than any other school in our region.”

Robert Dana, vice president for student affairs and dean of students also disagreed with The Daily Beast’s findings, saying the rankings were unscientific and calling the whole thing a publicity stunt for the website.

“It’s tremendously irresponsible,” Dana said. “It bears no resemblance to science. It’s really a hellacious effort to pour gasoline on an issue and blow it up … to drive people to their website.”

Dana said the information compiled to come up with the rankings was incorrect. He said 67 marijuana violations were cited as a determining factor in ranking UMaine and were labeled as arrests. None of those 67 violations resulted in an arrest, Dana said. Rather, the violators were sent to Judicial Affairs on campus and no formal legal action was taken.

“You cannot paint a picture with these numbers,” said Dana.

“I think students will tell you that, sure, on every campus you’ll see some illicit behaviors, but it’s probably very, very obvious that you don’t have a lot of opiate-addicted individuals. You don’t have a lot of cocaine-dazed individuals,” Dana said. “What you have here is a campus community that takes very seriously the corrosive effects of drug abuse.”

Dana’s objections to the manner in which the information was compiled are shared by Guy Cousins, director of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse.

“When someone takes apples from one place, oranges from another and bananas from another, I’m not sure you can really come up with any sort of a conclusion,” Cousins said.

Cousins cited the vagueness of The Daily Beast’s definitions of drug use as a red flag. Combining unrelated information from three different sources led to ambiguity in the final product, he said.

“It talks about ‘percentage of 18-25 statewide using drugs regularly,’ so I have no idea what they’re talking about when they’re talking about ‘regularly,’” said Cousins. “Are they talking about daily, talking about four times a week, you know?”

Cousins discounted the idea that any one Maine college or university faces different issues regarding drugs and alcohol than another.

“I think Orono faces the same issues that other universities face,” he said. “We have a large population of people coming out of family situations where they’re now in a new environment, new people, less structure and supervised activities where they have to make some adult decisions.”

The University of New Hampshire was No. 1 on the list, followed in order by Northeastern University in Boston and Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I. The University of Vermont was ranked 18th.

The Black Bears improve to 8-4-4 on the season and 6-3-2 in Hockey East play while the Minutemen fall to 3-7-3 and 2-4-3 in HEC.

“Tonight we thought we played pretty well,” Black Bears head coach Tim Whitehead said. “UMass was outplaying us early. We were able to weather the storm and played our best in the third. We’re pleased.”

The Black Bears tallied the first offensive attempt of the game — a strike from junior forward Gustav Nyquist — that was gloved out of the air by senior captain Paul Dainton.

The Minutemen gained possession and maintained it for sometime in UMaine’s defensive end until play was stopped for the first power play of the game. Black Bear sophomore defender Mike Cornell upended a UMass player and spent the next two minutes in the penalty box for tripping.

Freshman goalie Dan Sullivan and the Black Bears were able to fend off the power play, keeping the scored knotted up.

The Black Bears continued to look sloppy, unable to mount any sort of consistent offensive pressure. The Minutemen, for large stretches at a time, once again controlled the puck in the Black Bear zone.

With a little more than five minutes remaining in the first period, the pestering by the Minutemen offense proved too much, as UMass broke the tie on a one-timer by senior forward Chase Langeraap for his first goal of the season. Freshman forward Conor Sheary and junior defender Michael Marcou assisted on the go-ahead goal.

“I think it was kind of a broken play,” Sullivan said. “At the last second [Langeraap] got a pass on the back door and I wasn’t able to get there in time. It was a good shot.”

The Black Bears had an opportunity to tie things up with a man advantage late in the period, but the power play proved fruitless for the 32nd consecutive time this season.

The Black Bears came out with more offense in the second period, getting their best opportunity thus far on a shot by Nyquist, who was stopped by a diving Dainton to maintain the lead.

Five minutes into the second period, the Black Bears found the net. Freshman defender Adam Phillips tried to cover up the free puck in the Minutemen zone, but it was poked away by Black Bear junior forward Brian Flynn. Flynn took a touch and fired the puck past Dainton for his seventh goal of the season.

“[Spencer Abbott] and Robby [Dee] were battling and trying to get the puck from him,” Flynn said. “I just stayed back hoping it would squirt out and it did. I just ripped it quick and I think it went five-hole.”

“Once they scored the goal we started to think a bit more about the situation and stopped skating and stopped playing,” Minutemen head coach Don Cahoon said.

The Black Bears came close to adding a second goal two minutes later, but the two-on-one between Nyquist and senior center Tanner House was pushed wide by the captain House.

Another chance opened for Nyquist and the Black Bears, but the Swede rocketed the puck over the goal entirely.

Each team had power play opportunities late in the period, but all were squandered without much threat.

The Black Bears out-shot the Minutemen 11-7 in the second period.

The third period started off with a penalty early on, as Marcou was booked for interference.

The Black Bears broke the tie with their first power play goal in six games. Flynn grabbed his second of the game off assists from Nyquist and sophomore defender Nick Pryor.

“It was kind of a broken play,” Flynn said. “I know it hit the post on the short side and went it.”

“From a mental standpoint it’s always good to capitalize with a man advantage,” Whitehead said. “In this case it was the game winner and certainly a big goal.”

After another successful penalty kill by UMaine, the Black Bears added a third, after a shot by freshman defender Brice O’Connor was deflected in by sophomore forward Adam Shemansky.

The Black Bears sealed their eighth win of the season with two minutes remaining, as Flynn rounded off the hat trick, scoring the fourth UMaine goal of the day. Senior center Robby Dee grabbed his second assist of the day and Diamond chimed in with an assist.

Dainton played well, corralling 28 saves, but picked up his fourth loss of the season.

“It’s disappointing, it really is,” Dainton said. “We really wanted to be .500 in Hockey East going into the break and tonight we would have clinched that. But it’s a minor setback and there’s always things to improve.”

Sullivan grabbed the fifth win of his career, saving 21 shots in the process.

Both teams have an extended break, with the Minutemen traveling to Madison, Wisc. for a two-game series against the University of Wisconsin on Dec. 30 and 31, while the Black Bears travel to Estero, Fla. for a showdown with Miami University and St. Cloud State.

Too bad not many were there to see it.

In an ill-timed event the day before the start of finals week, an estimated 700 fans watched the Black Bears devoured Norfolk State University, beating the Spartans 74-54 Sunday afternoon in the spacious gym in Orono.

“Just really good team defense, all around,” Black Bears head coach Ted Woodward said. “Our guys really bought in to some of the things we have to do.”

Senior guard Terrance Mitchell led the Black Bears with 22 points in just 14 minutes, including a minute-and-a-half stretch in the second half when he ran off 10 straight Black Bear points. Junior guard Gerald McLemore was the only other Black Bear in double figures, scoring 12 points on 4-10 from three-point range.

“I knew my role was to come in and have a lot of energy,” Mitchell said. “I hit one and as soon as I saw it go through the net I felt like everything I shot was good — except from the free throw line.”

Mitchell did miss more free throws than threes, going 5-7 from beyond the arc but just 3-6 from the charity stripe.

The Black Bears started the game with a 7-0 run, aided by five quick points by sophomore forward Murphy Burnatowski. The Spartans managed to tie the game at 14 all, but the Black Bears soon pulled ahead by 12.

The half ended with UMaine up 14 while shooting 62.5 percent from the field. The Black Bears continued to pile it on at the beginning of the second half, with Mitchell’s streak extending the lead to an insurmountable 27.

The Black Bears stepped up their stingy defensive play, keeping the Spartans to 29.6 percent shooting in the second half, and 34.6 for the game. The Black Bears were able to connect on half of their attempts from the field, going 27-50 from two-point range and 10-22 from beyond the arc.

When asked if there was more emotion with the game held in “The Pit,” Woodward and the players were quick to respond.

“No question,” Woodward said. “I get into the locker room and kids ask me if we can play every game in here. It’s fun.”

“It feels good because we practice there every day,” McLemore said. “But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter where we play, you got to perform.”

The Black Bears were able to revenge a last-second loss to the Spartans from a year earlier, when Kyle O’Quinn won it in the closing minutes of a game that saw the Black Bears up by 14 in the second half.

“It gave us more motivation to go out in the second half and finish off the game,” McLemore said of the previous meeting between the teams. “We knew we couldn’t get on our heels and let them come back.”

The Black Bears have a week until their next game, when they host Colgate University on Dec. 19.

Wildcat freshman center Jeff Silengo scored two goals on the night, including the game-winner in the extra period.

“I’m very disappointed in the result, disappointed in our team,” UMaine head coach Tim Whitehead said. “We had a chance to make it 4-1, we had them 3-1, we had chances to finish it off and we didn’t get it done.”

“We’ve done this a couple times this season,” Wildcat head coach Dick Umile said. “They knew they could do it and I told them to stay with it. I’m really pleased with the way the guys stayed with it. It was a great college hockey game — two good teams, great atmosphere.”

Alfond Arena was taking all the noise it could handle, with a sold-out crowd of 5,445 on hand to watch the border war.

The first period began with UNH controlling the opening face off and the offensive play for the first three minutes. 20 seconds into the contest, senior forward Mike Sislo got the first shot off, which was deflected by Black Bear freshman goalie Martin Ouellette.

The Black Bears recorded the first penalty four minutes into the game, when sophomore forward Joey Diamond got booked for charging. He leads the Black Bears in penalty minutes this season.

The man-advantage proved costly for UMaine, as Wildcat leading scorer, senior forward Phil Thompson scored the first goal of the game. Senior center Phil DeSimone and junior defender Blake Kessel assisted the goal.

It didn’t take long for the Black Bears to respond and inject some life into the packed Alfond, as senior center Robby Dee, shortly thereafter, scored his sixth goal of the season to tie things up.

Dee gained possession of the puck in the neutral zone, weaved his way through the Wildcat defense and flicked the shot past junior goalie Matt DiGirolamo’s left shoulder.

The back-and-forth play continued for each squad, as Ouellette and DiGirolamo took turns keeping the score tied up. First, Ouellette stopped freshman forward Nick Sorkin on a breakaway, then DiGirolamo barely slowed down a five-hole attempt by UMaine junior defender Ryan Hegarty. DiGirolamo followed that up by swiping junior forward Bobby Flynn’s shot out of the air.

The Black Bears got hit with another penalty with three minutes remaining in the period, but were able to kill off the potent UNH attack.

The second period saw the opposite of the first, with the Black Bears taking control early on. It took little more than a minute for UMaine to break the tie, as a shot by senior defender Josh Van Dyk was deflected by Nyquist directly to junior forward Brian Flynn’s stick, who slapped it in for the go-ahead goal.

“I just came off the bench and the puck came right out,” Flynn said. “I had some time and held onto it and ripped it.”

A mere four minutes passed until the Black Bears found the net again — this time, assistant captain Nyquist squeaked through on a breakaway before beating DiGirolamo over his right shoulder for the third UMaine goal of the game.

Ouellette continued to shine on the big stage, diving across the crease to stop an open goal a quarter into the period.

The Black Bears’ penalty kill was put to the test seven minutes in, when freshman forward Mark Anthoine was sent off for a questionable hitting from behind penalty and a game misconduct, booting him from the game and pitting the Black Bears a man down for five minutes.

UMaine was able to hold off the formidable Wildcat power play, keeping a two-goal cushion into the third period.

The Black Bears played more conservatively with their two-goal cushion in the third period, with Ouellette making it easier by deflecting Wildcat shots attempt after attempt.

Midway through the third period, the Wildcats came within one, with Silengo’s first goal of the season.

UNH continued to apply pressure throughout the period. The Black Bears were able to regain control of play when DeSimone entered the penalty box with a holding call. Another penalty with four minutes remaining on Sislo gave the Black Bears more time to kill, as the third period came towards a close.

The Wildcats went empty net with over a minute to go, and with 18 seconds remaining in regulation, they tied things up as sophomore forward Dalton Speelman scored the third UNH goal of the game.

The extra stanza lasted just a minute and a half, as Silengo struck again, this time to win it, 4-3.

“I followed up the play, I saw John [Henrion] was going to the net,” Silengo said, “I just anticipated a shot by him and rebound came right to me.”

The two goals were the first two of his collegiate career, and just his second and third points.

“I didn’t know a goal would come today,” Silengo said. “It’s a great environment to play in and I’m just fortunate enough that I got some nice passes from my teammates and I was able to finish.”

“I told the team just wait for our opportunity, play good defense and wait for that turnover,” Umile said.

“It’s a tough loss. Losing when you’re up 3-1 going into the third at home is inexcusable,” Flynn said. “You have to move on. We have a game Sunday. We’ll see how we feel when we wake up but this is a tough one to let go.”

Around 9 a.m., the 63-year-old man, whose name was not released, sent the student into the air and destroyed the bicycle’s back wheel with his 2002 Dodge pickup truck.

The newspaper reported that the student, whose identity is unknown at this time, was unhurt. The truck incurred approximately $1,000 in damage.

The driver completely severed the fire hydrant from the ground and took siding and front steps off of the house. He “barely missed” hitting other items on the roadside, according to the BDN.

The man, because of the diabetic shock, was taken by ambulance to Eastern Maine Medical Center, according to police. His name is not available because he is not charged with a crime.

Though the concentration of incidents was highest toward the end of November, similar occurrences have happened intermittently throughout the semester.

According to Sgt. Bob Norman of the UMaine Police Department, “a cluster” of bikes in high places plagued Facilities Management during the weekends of Nov. 20 and 27.

One weekend, miscreants hung “three or four” bikes off of Fogler Library’s wrought-iron balcony facing the mall. Just after that, another was spotted on an Oak Hall awning.

The weekend before, a tree near Gannett Hall was targeted, among other places.

Associate Executive Director of Facilities Management Geremy Chubbuck said the library exploit was exceptionally daring, though he has no idea how it happened.

“Your guess is as good as mine. I’m guessing they climb the side of the building to get up there. Of course, nobody knows,” he said.

The average off-hour callback, Chubbuck said, costs approximately $189 because of a three-hour minimum paid for on-call workers from the UMaine Grounds Shop. Assignments during regular business hours cost substantially less, he said.

The Oak Hall incident happened the same night and was discovered just after the Fogler misdeed.

“You can’t leave that, so that’s a whole other $189 I have to pay,” he said. “The university just incurred almost 400 bucks out of somebody’s foolishness. That’s getting to be real money.”

When calls to retrieve bikes come in, he said, two workers are usually called in because of the risky nature of retrieving bikes from high places. In the Gannett Hall incident, the height of the velocipede demanded a private roofing contractor be hired to bring in a mobile crane.

“I don’t even know how the hell they got [the bike] up there,” Chubbuck said. “We didn’t even have a ladder that reached that high.”

He said there were only two or three such incidents total last year and said he believes multiple people have participated in the recent rash of mischief, calling it a potential copycat situation.

“With these budget times, we’re watching every single penny very closely. This is totally unwanted vandalism that we just plain can’t afford,” Chubbuck said. “Let’s find something that’s fun to do — just make sure I don’t have to pay for it.”

Chubbuck said Facilities Management is working closely with UMPD, who are currently investigating the string of crimes as criminal mischief.

“Unfortunately, we have no idea about how many people are involved in that or exactly the motive behind it,” Norman said. “We have increased patrols in the area — random patrols — and I will say we have some extra eyes and ears out.”

Norman said assessing restitution for crimes that cost the university is a common practice for UMPD in instances when damage can be assigned to an apprehended person.

He also said UMPD is asking for help from the UMaine community in solving the case. If you have any tips, call UMPD at 581-4040.

Dane Bolding, a fourth-year English student, intended to slaughter the rabbit as his final presentation for the Camden International Film Festival course. His final assignment was to develop a presentation in the spirit of a documentary, but a film was not a requirement. Bolding said his intention was to share an aspect of his personal culture: the importance of knowing the origins of his dinner.

“I get anything as fresh as I can get it as often as I can,” Bolding said in an e-mail. “I was going to show them a skill and a tradition that is little practiced or seen communally.”

The students who were Bolding’s assumed audience, however, objected to his unusual final project. After returning to Barrows Hall from a lunch break in Tuesday’s presentations, the students saw Bolding setting up a tarp on the table and saw a rabbit in a box. One student said she left the room as soon as she realized what he was going to do.

The student, who asked to remain anonymous, said the idea was “mind-blowing.”

“It was a weird event, definitely,” she said. “Initially, I heard he was going to make a documentary about how he kills rabbits and eats them and uses their hides.”

Bolding did not view his presentation with a scandalized mindset with which it was received. He warned students his presentation could turn some stomachs and invited squeamish spectators to leave. According to the Bangor Daily News (“UM students horrified by bunny butchering stunt,” Dec. 7, 2010), Mike Scott, a new media professor, instructed Bolding to stop.

He complied without complaint.

“I didn’t know where the lines are. I don’t think most students do,” he said. “No student would be able to recite the university codes on ethics.”

The UMaine Student Handbook does contain a clause titled “Humane Care of Animals.” The passage addresses “the use of live vertebrate animals for research, teaching or testing.”

The handbook stipulates that any use of vertebrates in instruction first be approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, that the “research or teaching purposes be conducted in a human, compassionate manner” and that “there must be reasonable expectation that such usage will contribute to the advancement of knowledge which may eventually benefit humankind and / or animals.”

Initial uproar over the incident seems to have dissipated; however, Bolding said he will meet with Kenda Scheele, UMaine’s senior associate dean for students, today to discuss his actions. While his presentation was not approved by the IACUC, Bolding said he approached it expecting to have a positive effect on his classmates by displaying an aspect of life that has been pushed into the shadows.

“There is no doubt in my mind that this has become personal and I’m the target,” Bolding wrote.

“I’m an omnivore and an honest human being toward others and myself,” he continued, explaining how his planned actions did not violate his own personal ethics.

Bolding said he now understands that the main objection of his fellow students and the university is in response to the time and place of his presentation. He said he would not try something like this again, but he contends that preparing one’s own food in this way is natural and should not be viewed as extreme.

He taught himself how to butcher animals “with no instruction,” he wrote.

“It just seems clear to me,” he wrote. “I mean, if [cavemen] could figure it out … .”

“The average American has wiped their hands and souls clean of the ugly truth about our nature and history, rather than admitting to it and working through the difficult discourses this reality presents to our consciences,” Bolding wrote.

Jamie Wren, a third-year anthropology student, said he sees the merit behind Bolding’s presentation but understands the university’s objections.

“I think it was an irresponsible thing to do, but there’s nothing wrong with butchering and knowing where his food comes from,” Wren said. “He should have filmed himself butchering the rabbit. There’s nothing wrong with butchering. Where do you think most of our food comes from?”

Wren is a student research assistant in the anthropology department. He said his job entails the processing of “animal remains to extract their skeletal material, but they come to me already deceased. I certainly wouldn’t slaughter an animal and immediately process it.”

Although his research subjects come pre-slaughtered, Wren was curious about the process and sought out a friend who could show him the process first-hand. Similar to Bolding, Wren cited a background with close ties to the land and mentioned family members who butcher their own meat. He found himself on a farm early one morning prepared to observe the process for slaughtering pigs and was unexpectedly surprised by the experience.

“I wasn’t quite prepared for how empathetic I was going to be with the pigs, but that’s part of the reason why I went,” Wren said.

Despite his personal experience with butchering, Wren maintains that the project was out of place in a Barrows Hall classroom.

“This is a university, one of the top research institutions in the region,” said Wren. “There should be no reason we’re butchering animals in class.”

Some students objected much more vehemently to Bolding’s presentation.

After Scott barred Bolding from butchering the rabbit, the BDN reports, some female students bought the rabbit and have adopted it as a pet.

The rabbit, a chocolate-colored Havana, now lives in the apartment of Erin Dostie. She said the whole apartment has adopted it for now, but they are trying to find it a permanent home. The rabbit currently goes by the name “Luna Lovegood,” but Dostie and her roommates are still searching for the perfect name, saying they want to get to know the critter before they name it.

Christopher Crosby contributed to this report.

LikeaLittle.com has more than 13,000 fans on Facebook and has spread to more than 100 campuses worldwide. Evan Reas, a 2009 graduate of the Stanford Business School and CEO of LikeaLittle.com, founded the company with two friends from India.

The website was inspired by the many social interactions, romantic and otherwise, that college students face every day.

“One of the things that interested us was, ‘How do you connect people around a certain location?’” Reas said. “It can be awkward to talk to people or meet people around you because you fear rejection.”

More 50 messages have been posted to UMaine’s page, referencing familiar locations like residence halls, classrooms, fraternity houses, the Memorial Union and Orono House of Pizza. Comments range from harmless to provocative, and students seem emboldened by the anonymity the website provides.

When a post or reply is made, the author is provided a random fruit name to keep their identity a secret. Page moderators delete any posts that include real names.

“This gives people an outlet to say things they wouldn’t say if their name were attached to it,” Reas said. “Everyone has those kinds of thoughts.”

Respect, privacy and safety are important issues for college forum websites. Some may recall the controversy over popular gossip website JuicyCampus.com in 2009. The website made waves at UMaine and other college campuses with cases of harassment, and eventually shut down due to financial difficulty.

According to an article titled “Juice on the loose” in the Feb. 2, 2009 edition of The Maine Campus, “In a survey of 200 UMaine students, 175 felt the site could severely harm someone’s integrity and character. The other 25 agreed with Juicy Campus, stating that everything posted should be taken with a large grain of salt.”

Reas and his business partners hope to create a different reputation for LikeaLittle.com in order to avoid being linked with gossip websites.

“We really want to be the opposite of what Juicy Campus turned into,” he said. “This is about compliments and being positive toward the people around you.”

LikeaLittle.com filters certain words and phrases that Reas and his colleagues have deemed too negative for the site. They also aim to recruit at least five moderators from each university to monitor their campus’s page and delete inappropriate posts.

The feature that best separates LikeaLittle.com from more infamous forums is the ability to delete posts you find offensive. Any student with a university issued e-mail address can use it to delete a post from their campus’s page.

“If you confirm that you are a part of the community, you have the power to delete anything you want,” Reas said.

Reas attributes the success of the website to its positive and social nature.

“Mostly we hope people will form relationships with those around them, romantic or just finding something in common,” Reas said. “The way we see it, Facebook allows you to connect with people you already know. We want to be the place you can meet new people.”

The site’s founders knew the website would appeal to college students more than any other demographic.

“Flirting and dynamics of how people interact is something that all college students are interested in,” Reas said. “You always hear people say, ‘Oh, I like this girl’ or ‘I like this guy and I don’t know what to say.’”

The makers of LikeaLittle.com launched the website as a side venture they programmed in less than 24 hours. Since then, the site has taken off with surprising speed and they are able to work full-time improving and expanding it.

“The initial site we did took less than a day to actually program,” Reas said. “Since then we’ve been adding new features as we hear what people like.”

He expects to add chat features to the website, which will allow users to have live conversations with others nearby. Location-based games, like playing truth or dare with a random user in your residence hall, are also in the works for the website’s future.

Reas emphasized that he is focused on improving the website and making it more user-friendly.

“One of our principles is being transparent and open to feedback and questions,” he said. “If anybody has any ideas to make the site better or if they have concerns, I would love if they e-mail me.”

LikeaLittle.com also offers opportunities for students interested in marketing or programming to get involved.

“We are always looking for people who are really excited about what we’re trying to do,” Reas said.

The flirting website has expanded solely through word-of-mouth. Students can establish their campus’s page and become a moderator, which helps the site spread to new universities.

“One of the biggest things we push for is to have good moderators to make sure things stay positive,” Reas said. “We don’t like negative posts. We don’t like sexist posts. If people are interested in being moderators — we’d definitely like that.”

Fourth-year business marketing student Josh O’Donald is the founder and sole moderator for UMaine’s new LikeaLittle.com page. O’Donald first learned of LikeaLittle.com through another social media website and signed up to found UMaine’s page. He is still learning how to moderate the page and edit posts, but has high hopes for the website and is sharing it with his friends.

“I think it’s cool that it’s really taken off and springs up on college campuses,” O’Donald said. “It’s good that there are people at each campus moderating the page so it’s not a national thing — it’s personalized for each school.”

O’Donald is familiar with gossip websites like JuicyCampus.com and CollegeACB.com, but said LikeaLittle.com has a different message for students.

“It could have the potential to be like that, but as long as there are moderators, we can keep that stuff down,” he said. “It will stay a fun, flirty, silly website.”

O’Donald said there will be students who will use the website negatively, but he thinks most students will use it in the way it is intended.

“I was looking at it today and since just a week ago there have been quite a few posts,” he said. “I think it’s very much a word-of-mouth website, and I think it will be used in a positive way.”