In response, fourth-year Latin and history student Jeremy Swist, with the help of faculty members, has circulated and submitted to administrators a 674-signature petition urging the university to “preserve a commitment to the liberal arts by maintaining full faculty positions in the Classics and courses in Latin and Greek grammar, literature and culture from the introductory to the 400-level.”

The petition features influential signees, including former UMaine President Peter Hoff, former Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, Yale University ancient history professor Donald Kagan, British classical scholar Peter Green and Irish classicist and philosopher John M. Dillon. It also features the signatures of a number of UMaine professors and students, as well as from individuals in Asia and Europe.

“Basically, it’s just a network of history professors, classics professors, [people from] various departments, well-wishers — a lot of connections,” Swist said.

On the petition, Dillon called the situation at UMaine “a sad descent into barbarism.”

Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Jeffrey Hecker said the wording of the petition could be somewhat misleading, directing signees to make untrue assumptions about the situation.

“There are some misconceptions there. We don’t have a department of classics,” Hecker said. “We have a single faculty member in our budget for teaching classics. We offer a Latin major and we offer courses in classics and offer classes in Greek.”

Hecker said the notable scholars on the list make him take the petition “very seriously,” but the misconceptions in the letter and the current budgetary situation override their pleas.

“I’m supportive of the spirit of the letter, but no university, at least I don’t think a university, would respond to a group of outsiders by making a commitment to whether people would be hired or not hired,” Hecker said. “That’s just not a reasonable way to run the place.”

Last semester, the faculty senate passed a resolution to support recommendations made by the four-person Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee to continue with Kennedy’s suggestions to suspend bachelor’s degree programs in theater, forest ecosystem science, wood science and technology, and aquaculture made in April 2010.

However, the PCRRC also supported a one-year delay of April’s final recommendations by Kennedy to suspend majors in German, Latin and women’s studies.

“Unfortunately, I cannot endorse the PCRRC recommendations with respect to the suspension proposals relative to German, Latin and women’s studies,” Kennedy wrote to Grillo. “I believe that the decision I reached last spring at the conclusion of the university’s inclusive, comprehensive review process, although painful, is the correct decision under our current circumstances.”

Those involved directly with the Latin and classics fields are wondering how a major with one administering faculty member, Associate Professor of Classical Language and Literature Tina Passman, and a mere six degree students would save enough money to warrant the axe.

“I just think it’s a utilitarian outlook that doesn’t see the immediate benefit of these academic languages — German and Latin,” Swist said. “It’s the point of view that these disciplines won’t earn you money upon graduation. You don’t go to college to earn money. You go to college to become a well-rounded citizen and develop your intellectual capacity.”

Hecker said the decision to eliminate the major was strictly based on low enrollment and student retention. There are currently six students majoring in Latin at UMaine. In the last six years, Hecker said, there have been anywhere from zero to six students seeking majors in that field.

Only one student in the last five years, he said, earned a Latin degree. Lower-level courses, he said, have “reasonable enrollment” and are viable options to be kept.

“In essence, by retaining the major, we are committing Dr. Passman’s time to do that in the future. When I looked at it, it’s very hard to justify that resource for such a small number of students,” Hecker said.

Passman, reached Friday, said she has been the only person teaching Latin on campus for 25 years, “except for an adjunct or two.”

She said she does not understand why Kennedy would move to suspend the major now, as she has tenure and will not be asked to stop teaching even upper-level Latin courses due to the retention of a Latin minor.

“Why doesn’t he just wait until I retire?” she said. “I’m tenured and I’m going to be teaching Latin until all the current students receive their degrees. … The minor will necessitate that many of the same courses be available for students.”

“There’s not one cent that is saved — not one cent — by eliminating the Latin major,” Passman continued.

Passman said Hecker has been very supportive throughout the process and that he does not want to burden her with teaching Latin, as she also teaches classics and will serve as the director of the minor in peace and reconciliation studies next semester.

“The short-term savings are very small,” Hecker said in response to cost-savings concerns. “In the long-term, though, if we in fact move toward suspending it now … professor Passman will at some point retire or take a position somewhere else and we can then make our hard decisions within that sort of framework.”

Jay Bregman, a professor of ancient, intellectual and jazz history, echoed Passman’s sentiments about cost-savings and was strong in opposition of Kennedy.

“There’s one professor here — Tina Passman. That’s the major. It costs nothing … as a major. [Kennedy] just basically wants to do it because he’s basically a perverse S.O.B. who seems to have a hang-up about it,” Bregman said. “This guy is bad news.”

In 2001, Bregman said, Kennedy wanted to eliminate German and Latin to much opposition from faculty. Phi Beta Kappa, the history honors society, threatened to leave because of a bylaw within its national guidelines at the time that said any university with a chapter had to have a Latin major, he said.

“He was stopped,” Bregman, a 35-year veteran of UMaine, said. “Then, he got to be president. Because, basically, what this character does is find ways to amass power.”

Bregman called Kennedy “by far the worst president I’ve ever seen at this university by a mile.” He also said the president has moved the university in the direction of a technical school.

In the petition, James Warhola, a professor of political science, wrote it is “simply not acceptable for a state university to lack courses in the classical languages of Greek and Latin. The University of Maine is just that — a university, not a technical-vocational school.”

Michael Palmer, also a professor of political science who teaches political philosophy, wrote that until now, he has “never seen liberal education held [in] such low repute” at UMaine.

Bregman said the effects of losing the Latin program at UMaine could have a devastating impact on state education.

“It has been an old prophecy that this was going to happen,” he said. “But when it happens in a state like Maine, the place can really get hurt. It’s a small school.”

Passman said there are approximately 60 high school Latin programs in the state. She said she would continue to work with these programs and deliver her classes online, a process made easier as she converted her curriculum into an electronic format in the late 1990s.

“Nothing has changed except for the fact that we won’t have a major at the flagship institution,” she said. “It also means that anyone who wants to be a Latin teacher in this state will have to go elsewhere.”

Kennedy, through UMaine spokesman Joe Carr, declined a request for comment, citing time constraints.

The contract, provided to The Maine Campus last week, dictates that Casella Waste Systems, a Vermont-based company that has operated the state-owned Juniper Ridge Landfill since 2004, will install and operate a pipeline from the Old Town site to the Steam Plant on the UMaine campus.

The deal includes a price cap for future landfill gas costs. UMaine will modify the Steam Plant to be able to burn landfill gas and Casella will reimburse the university up to $500,000 for construction.

But a quietly added “Phase Two” outlines an agreement to begin negotiations concerning the use of cogeneration — the use of an engine at a plant to produce both heat and electricity — is detailed about midway through the document.

Phase Two of the agreement states the university “may elect to participate in a subsequent project in which [Casella] proposes to build a combined heat and power plant that would burn substantially all of the Landfill Gas produced at the landfill to generate steam and electricity for sale.”

The agreement also stipulates that UMaine and Casella will begin “good faith negotiations for a Phase Two project” at the start of the December contract.

UMaine Vice President of Administration and Finance Janet Waldron and Casella Manager of Planning and Development Don Meagher both said the negotiations on Phase Two have barely started.

“At this point, we know that a co-gen facility is something that the university has been researching for as much as 10 years,” Meagher said. “All we really said in the contract was that we both have an interest in further discussion on that idea.”

John Banks of Indian Island, the director of the Penobscot Nation Department of Natural Resources and one of eight community members on a municipality-appointed landfill advisory committee, said the preliminary plans for Phase Two were not at all outlined to the committee.

The Juniper Ridge Landfill Advisory Committee was established by statute in 2004 to “act as a liaison between the public and parties involved with the operation of Juniper Ridge Landfill,” according to the city of Old Town’s website.

“We can’t do that if we’re not being kept informed, so to hear through the grapevine that this contract has been approved before we even have our very next meeting as a committee is really quite appalling to me,” Banks said. “It’s not a move to keep us in the dark, but that is certainly the result — that we are unable to carry out our statutory responsibility to keep the public informed.”

Banks said he only learned of the contract’s finalizing recently — from a member of the community.

“I was a little shocked to hear the contract had been awarded because, as a member of [the committee], at our last meeting [in November], we were told there was nothing in the works and that there was nothing to update us on,” Banks said.

The landfill has more than enough gas in it now to fulfill the initial contract at least twice over and the contract stipulates that the university only wants to purchase existing gas — two key provisions for the university, according to Waldron.

“We’re buying the existing gas that is there — they have a 50-year supply,” Waldron said Wednesday. “It’s the fact that they have the capacity to deliver this … . The gas is already there.”

Orono resident Paul Schroeder, an opponent of the Casella-operated facility since its inception, expressed concern that this deal would be a bargaining chip for a looming expansion of the landfill.

“Casella doesn’t really care about landfill gas. What they want is the sanction of their expansion,” he said. “They’re not in the energy business. They’re in the waste stream business.”

According to a Maine Department of Environmental Protection draft denial cited by the Bangor Daily News in January, Juniper Ridge was denied the opportunity to expand three times because “delaying the development of an expansion at the Juniper Ridge Landfill will not result in a gap in local, regional or state waste landfilling needs.”

In September, State Rep. Bob Duchesne, D-Hudson, told The Maine Campus another “expansion battle” is likely to happen within the next two years.

Meagher played down any possibility of the initial agreement affecting expansion plans because of all the existing gas, but said Phase Two may require the landfill to expand.

“Where it’s likely to be more of a factor on whether something is feasible or not is going to be on Phase Two because there you’re getting into not only the thermal needs of the campus, but the power needs of the campus,” he said. “The demand for fuel is larger.”

Both Waldron and Associate Executive Director of Facilities Management Stewart Harvey said the ratification of a Phase Two agreement would require an entirely new contract.

“We have talked just briefly about what the project would be in scope,” Harvey said. “It’s premature for us to talk about what Phase Two might consist of because it would be conjecture on our part.”

He said a co-generation plant must be built no farther than a mile from the point of use, which would be the university.

According to the Bangor Daily News, the city of Old Town has planned a $7.1 million “Energy and Enterprise Park” between the Hilltop section of campus and the Old Town Fuel and Fiber mill on Penny Road. The city has already permitted the construction and expects to start building this year. Meagher expects that to be a likely site for Phase Two, if implemented.

“At that location, certainly sending both steam and power to the campus, from a location standpoint, I think that is workable,” he said. “Conversely, putting a facility on campus and delivering steam and electricity to the industrial park — that’s also an option.”

The university released figures in September saying the currently finalized contract would decrease UMaine’s carbon footprint by 30,000 metric tons and its emissions by more than 40 percent by reducing the amount of natural gas used as fuel on campus. The switch may save the university up to $17 million over the 20-year span of the contract, according to the figures.

At a November meeting of the landfill advisory committee, Meagher said the university compiled the figures, taking no responsibility for their accuracy. Now Schroeder believes the university to be ducking the public by not explaining the math behind the numbers. Waldron has remained adamant about the veracity of the cost-savings and carbon reduction claims.

“On a project like this, infrastructure is forever. They have a responsibility for bringing all of their analysis forward,” Schroeder said. “Until they bring that analysis forward, I can’t see how we can be really anything but skeptical about everything that lies behind this.”

The currently signed contract also outlines a proposed map of the pipeline, a rough timetable and permitting responsibilities.

The proposed route of the pipeline leads east out of the landfill and crosses Interstate 95, running south parallel to the highway until meeting Gilman Falls Road, and goes slightly southeast, crossing a bridge over the Stillwater River. Shortly thereafter, it would then take another turn south and follow most of the length of College Avenue extended from west Old Town to the Steam Plant.

Meagher said the proposed pipeline is between five and six miles long.

The route of the pipeline, Meagher said, is not yet finalized. The map pictured is one of two proposed options; however, the route will not differ tremendously, he said.

“The map you see there — [it is] illustrative,” Meagher said. “I think it is a real good indication of the direction we are going to go in, but in terms of us going internally through the process and actually saying ‘OK, we’ve reached the conclusion that this is the route we want to use’ — we have not completed that process.”

The pipeline will have to both cross Interstate 95 and the Stillwater River. If there is a site where a bridge cannot be used to traverse the water or roadway, Meagher said a process called “directional boring” is usually used.

Pipe crossings underneath United States rivers and roadways have been done in a similar manner since the early 1970s, according to a 1997 report by the Washington D.C.-based Transportation Research Board.

The process is a trenchless method of installing underground pipes using a surface-based drilling rig with which the drill bit can be steered and tracked. That creates a small arc of space through which piping can be fed.

According to the preliminary timetable in the contract, the project design is to be completed by April 2011 and construction is expected to begin between September 2011 and March 2012, depending on regulatory approval. The pipeline could begin running between February and September 2012.

Casella, according to an exhibit in the contract, is responsible for filing 12 of 17 permits, licenses or approvals — nine of which are with state agencies. The final three are split between the city of Old Town and the town of Orono’s planning board.

Under stipulations of the federal Clean Water Act, Casella must also file for a license with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers due to possible impacts on wetland areas.

UMaine is responsible for five permits, licenses or approvals, one of which has to do with air emission licensing with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Three other permits will be filed through MDEP and one with the Orono Planning Board.

Meagher said he hopes the permitting process is completed within the year, though the contract says June 2011 is the estimated timeframe.

“Once we submit the permits, we really lose control of the project’s time frame,” he said. “You put it in and we get to the end of it when we get to the end of it.”

In a Thursday news release, the Topeka, Kan.-based group announced they would be protesting a showing of “The Laramie Project,” a play about the life of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was tortured and murdered in Laramie, Wyo. in 1998. Wilde Stein and UMaine’s GLBTQ Services put on the play.

According to a response on Twitter late Saturday from Margie Phelps, the daughter of church founder Fred Phelps, seven or eight members of the church were expected to be in Orono Sunday afternoon “barring any changes.”

The play was shown on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Room 100 of the Donald P. Corbett Business Building. The scheduled Sunday protest, from 12:15 p.m. to the show’s start at 1 p.m., would have been met with opposition, as a counter-protest of approximately 15 people — mostly students — was organized and waiting for the church members in the lobby of the building.

Chastity Smith, a second-year psychology student, took a sign with her that read “Love is Love” to meet the protesters famous for signs with slogans such as “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Hates Fags.”

A group of friends said she organized the small protest through Facebook.

“Unfortunately, any media attention semi-promotes their cause,” she said. “But us being here shows that we are standing against them.”

Emily Farnham, a 2009 graduate of UMaine with a degree in English and theater, said the counter-protest would have showed “silence in the face of all their bulls—.”

“It’s only about media coverage,” she said. “They don’t even show up to their own protest.”

In the news release, the church called Shepard “a disobedient pervert” and announced three protests of showings of the play. UMaine was the first on the list. The others are at a Michigan high school and Washington State University, respectively.

“Matt Shepard has been in Hell now for twelve years, with eternity left to go on his sentence — without appeal, parole, or time off for good behavior. All else about Matt is trivial and irrelevant. Deal with it!” the release said.

“[The production] was to make sure that the people who were four years old at the time still realize that this happened,” Gavin Pickering, GLBTQ services coordinator and director of the play, told The Maine Campus Wednesday. “Students around here, they don’t really know about it — it’s not as familiar as it is with the older people. It wasn’t that long ago.”

“Right now, plagiarism is the most prevalent,” said David Fiacco, director of the UMaine Office of Community Standards, Right and Responsibilities. “We are seeing an upswing in cheating on exams, projects — whatever it might be.”

Violations of the university’s academic integrity policies are divided into three categories — plagiarism, cheating and fabrication of data. Fiacco rarely deals with first-time offenders, but his office serves as a resource for faculty.

“Many of the cases of academic integrity are addressed in the classroom directly by the faculty,” he said. “We are making a very conscientious effort to reach out to faculty members to let them know we can help them with that.”

The Center for Teaching Excellence will offer a workshop in February about strategies for minimizing cheating in the classroom. Fiacco cited a number of measures that have had varying degrees of success. These include distributing multiple versions of a test or using teaching assistants to observe exams.

Some students and faculty members may remember that UMaine once had a subscription to plagiarism screening service, Turnitin, which was discontinued due to budget cuts.

“The dynamic of the way classes are structured now just lends itself to that. You have very large classes, some online and some not,” Fiacco said. “It’s a lot to manage.”

English professor Dylan Dryer said that an open dialogue about the reasoning behind academic integrity can prevent “a needlessly adversarial climate” in the classroom.

“I think there is a lot of hysteria around the question of plagiarism in higher education,” Dryer said.

He said that plagiarism may be the result of misunderstanding among students. The accepted system of research and citation is cumbersome and unnatural, but a necessary part of academic pursuits.

When students are encouraged to build on the knowledge of others, the line between learning and misrepresenting can become blurred.

“Most of us, as teachers, do not pay as much attention as we should to the way we assign writing,” Dryer said.

When assigning an essay, Dryer tries to write prompts in a way that encourages students to think independently about a topic, as opposed to recycling thoughts of others.

“That diminishes the temptation [to plagiarize] by encouraging one to explore an idea rather than repeat back what you think I think,” he said.

Dryer said students and faculty should approach each other with good faith.

“There are going to be a handful of students who are lazy or knuckleheads, but they are few and far between and there is nothing I or anyone else can do for them,” Dryer said.

Fiacco agreed that students usually have good intentions.

“Generally, people are inherently good,” he said. “They don’t start the semester thinking, ‘I’m going to cheat on my final exam at the end of this semester.’”

The motivations behind an academic integrity violation do have an impact on the consequences, according to Fiacco.

“If someone said ‘I cheated because I felt like it,’ that is a little different than ‘My 14-year-old sister is pregnant and my parents have left home and I’m managing all of this,’” Fiacco said. “We’re human beings too so we want to help people out.”

When a professor suspects a student of cheating or falsifying work in their class, they have full discretion as to the student’s grade. They are required to find the student responsible by giving them notice and an opportunity to be heard.

“If they have [falsified work] then we will identify appropriate academic interventions,” Fiacco said.

A first-time offender will most always receive a deferred suspension. They do not have to leave the university, but any further violations will put them in danger of being “separated from the university,” according to Fiacco.

UMaine has recently contracted with academicintegrityseminars.com, a program founded by three faculty members at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County. The online program requires offenders to do readings and complete assignments that strengthen their ethical knowledge.

“The faculty tailors many of the readings, beyond the core readings, to the circumstance or profession the student is in,” Fiacco said.

Fiacco said there are various degrees of academic integrity violations that must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

“I look at academic integrity violations on a continuum,” Fiacco said. “At one end you have the first-year student who just does a horrible job of citing their work, mostly for a lack of knowing how to.”

For these students, Fiacco will arrange for academic integrity seminars and tutors at the UMaine Writing Center.

“Then at the other end, there’s the [doctoral] student who may cut and paste, whole cloth, two or three chapters for their dissertation — clearly very different circumstances,” he said. “A graduate student will see more significant outcomes than the first student.”

Few violators progress to this point, either reforming their behavior or choosing to leave the university. Fiacco said that in the past year 18 students were referred to his office for academic integrity violations, and only one was for a second offense.

UMaine differs from other academic institutions because it does not indicate an academic integrity violation on a transcript. If a student receives a failing grade in a course, they can choose to retake it for a better grade and leave the indiscretion behind them.

“I’m not sure how I feel about [changing transcripts]. I would be OK with it and it more accurately reflects the indiscretion, but people do make mistakes,” Fiacco said. “I don’t want to permanently damage someone’s opportunities.”

In most cases, plagiarism is not well planned and is easily detected by a professor. Fiacco shared stories of one student who stole an assignment from a cluster computer after a previous user forgot to log off, and another that stole paragraphs from a textbook authored by their own instructor.

English department chair Naomi Jacobs said that especially blatant plagiarism can be a breach of trust.

“People put a lot of time into grading papers and the thought that someone would hand us something they spent a minute on and expect us to slave over it — it is an insult,” Jacobs said.

Cheating and plagiarism are also detected by one’s peers. Fiacco has seen a few cases of a student reporting a classmate in the past few years. It is a new phenomenon, but remains uncommon.

“If students don’t help identify and acknowledge those students that are cheating, they are contributing to the devaluation of their own education. What good is your UMaine degree if generally the community thinks half the people here cheated their way through?” Fiacco said. “We want students to know they have a stake in this.”

The amount and variety of information available online has changed the face of plagiarism. Jacobs, who has been teaching since 1975, said academic dishonesty, especially what she called “stupid plagiarizing,” has become more common.

“With the Internet, it’s just so easy to cut and paste,” Jacobs said.

Fiacco has seen the effects of the information age as well.

“Clearly it’s so easy. If you had a 20-page paper due tomorrow, could you crank something out? Yes,” Fiacco said. “You could simply pluck things from all these different sources, piece them together and try to identify some kind of flow.”

The demands of full-time employment or a long commute can cause a student to cheat or plagiarize out of desperation, especially during midterm or finals weeks, according to Fiacco.

“There is usually an underlying cause that has caused them to mismanage their time — stress,” he said. “We know that our students are managing more than they ever have in the past.”

Jacobs admitted that students must handle personal stress in addition to academic requirements, but points to some of her students who have families and demanding lives who would never resort to plagiarism.

“No matter how stressed they are, there are students who find a way to succeed without deceiving others,” Jacobs said.



Coordinated by the Institute for College Access and Success, the Project on Student Debt is intended to improve college students’ financial literacy. According to projectonstudentdebt.org, “the Project’s goal is to identify cost-effective solutions that expand educational opportunity, protect family financial security and advance economic competitiveness” of college graduates.

The project obtained its data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey, which is conducted every four years by the U.S. Department of Education. The most recent survey, conducted in 2008, showed that 67 percent of graduates from four-year institutions carried student loan debt. The graduates had an average debt of $23,200.

The website reports 65 percent of Maine college graduates carry student debt after graduating from a four-year institution, which averages to a debt of $29,143 per person. This level of student loan debt is 18 percent higher than the national average.

Maine ranks third for the highest average debt, just behind New Hampshire, where 72 percent of graduates have student loan debt that averages to $29,443; and Washington, D.C., where 51 percent of graduates have student loan debt that averages to $30,033.

Maine’s high debt follows a trend in the Northeast, with four states in New England ranking in the top ten for average debt. While all New England states are above the national average, Massachusetts ranked closest to the national average with an average debt of $24,484 per person after graduation. In addition, student debt for 2009 grads increased by 6 percent over the previous year.

The Project on Student Debt cites the high cost of universities in the Northeast and the large percentage of students attending private colleges there as possible reasons for the region’s high average debt.
The University of Maine is ranked among the highest for public universities in terms of average debt. According to data obtained by the project, 77 percent of UMaine grads graduated with debt in 2009. Those graduates had an average debt burden of $30,824, almost 22 percent higher than the national average.

The high average debt in the Northeast is coupled with some of the lowest Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in the nation, with Maine ranking 43rd in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Vermont, which ranked just behind Maine in terms of student debt, has the lowest GDP in the nation.

Elizabeth Bordowitz, CEO of the Finance Authority of Maine, feels lower-than-average state aid coupled with high school costs is a large factor in Maine’s high student debt.

“If there are fewer resources available to students, they look to the ones that are available,” she said. “And the ones that are available are loans.”

FAME offers a set of tips to keep college costs as low as possible to try to avoid massive debt. Martha Johnston of FAME urges students to examine their expenses to keep costs at a minimum.

“The thing I would encourage students to do is examine the expenses that they have,” she said. “It’s important to keep the expenses that you can control down.”
The Project on Student Debt contains possible solutions for the heavy burden on the shoulders of college graduates. It suggests increasing the amount of aid awarded through Pell Grants, which are determined on a basis of need; simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is used to determine a student’s financial situation; and offering incentives for low-income students to either enroll in college or to graduate.

The project says offering incentives, such as increased financial aid in forms other than student loans, may encourage more people to further their education and to subsequently enter the workforce in a strong financial position.

A donation made by the family of the late Matthew Simmons will create the Matthew R. Simmons Ocean Energy Initiative Fund at the University of Maine’s AEWC Advanced Structures and Composites Center to further its research and development in deepwater offshore wind technology.

The donation includes furnishing for UMaine’s new offshore wind laboratory and the library of works related to renewable energy that Simmons collected as founder and chair of the Rockland-based Ocean Energy Institute. The library of works includes notes and presentations as well as reports produced by OEI. The Simmons family also made a substantial cash donation to help fund the effort.

Established by Simmons in 2007, the Ocean Energy Institute will officially cease operations today in the wake of its founder’s August 2010 death.

“The initiative’s goal is to continue to further our common vision of responsibly harnessing the vast energy our oceans embody,” said Habib Dagher, director of UMaine’s AEWC Advanced Structures and Composites Center and principal investigator for the DeepCwind Consortium. “The development office will work with the Advanced Structures and Composites Center to raise an endowment to promote ocean energy activities.”

Dagher added that the OEI and UMaine have worked on many things together in the past, including their involvement as key players in the DeepCwind Consortium.

“We collaborated on research and development leading to the deployment of deepwater floating wind turbines between 20 and 50 miles offshore,” Dagher said. “Matt and OEI were integral in developing the vision of harnessing deepwater offshore wind resources to reduce our reliance of fossil fuels and create thousands of Maine jobs.”

The donations will help the AEWC to “intensify” its efforts in research and development specifically, but will also help the program to further educate the public on the topic of offshore energy, Dagher said. Meanwhile, the presentations and notes will be used to conduct symposiums and conferences explaining the importance of offshore energy.

“With additional resources provided by OEI, UMaine will continue to forge ahead,” Dagher said. “Even faster with engineering work, policy work and public education initiatives related to ocean energy.”

Simmons founded the OEI as a think-tank and venture capital fund aiming to address the challenge of renewable offshore energy within the United States. According to its website, oceanenergy.org, the original OEI approached research and development from a comprehensive standpoint, viewing the generation, transmission and usage of offshore energy as a whole system rather than compartmentalized areas.

The website states that the program’s mission is “working to coordinate the diverse factors that will help make ocean energy a reality” including “energy system architecture, offshore wind technology, environmental interests, stakeholder concerns, industrial partners, academic research, financial firepower and political factors.”

According to an Aug. 9, 2010, article in the Kennebec Journal, Simmons passed suddenly from a heart attack at his home in North Haven, leaving his family, friends and co-workers stunned. The hope of this donation is to keep his vision and goals alive.

“Matt was a wonderful friend, a visionary leader and a leading businessman,” Dagher said. “We are thankful to Mrs. Simmons and her family and accept this donation with great responsibility and a sense of purpose to carry on Matt’s vision of energy independence and job creation.”

In a university press release, OEI Managing Director Robert West agreed that the new fund would be an appropriate way to continue Simmons’ work posthumously.

“Matt was an internationally known visionary leader, and a major supporter of renewable energy efforts,” West wrote. “This collaboration with UMaine will serve as a fitting tribute and will provide useful ways for OEI and its advocates to support UMaine’s internationally recognized ocean energy research initiatives.”

A University of Maine Police Department officer responded to a report of the smell of marijuana on the second floor of Oak Hall at 11:14 p.m. Jan. 26. According to UMPD, the resident of the room, Corey Broniarczyk, 23, was uncooperative and did not allow the officer to search his room. After learning Broniarczyk was on bail from charges brought in Cumberland County, the officer returned to Oak Hall and informed him that due to his bail conditions, he could not refuse a search. The officer searched Broniarczyk’s room and found 10 unopened cans of beer and evidence of the use of marijuana, which violated his bail conditions. Broniarczyk was arrested for violating the conditions of his release and was transported to Penobscot County Jail.

Andro-smoggin Hall

A UMPD officer investigated the smell of marijuana coming from a second-floor room in Androscoggin Hall at 11:09 p.m. Jan. 27 and found four people there. John Bishop, 19, was issued a summons for possession of drug paraphernalia and was referred to Judicial Affairs. The officer seized a container of whiskey from Nicholas Golden, 20. Golden was issued a summons for possession of alcohol by a minor and was referred to Judicial Affairs.

Colt 45 and too much noise

Three underage students partying in a second-floor room in Androscoggin Hall at 11:13 p.m. Jan. 27 were referred to Judicial Affairs. An officer investigating an unrelated call heard excessive noise coming from the room, which was occupied by one resident and two guests. All three admitted to consuming alcohol and turned over three empty containers and one full container of Colt 45 to the officer.

Smoke detector

A UMPD officer conducting a follow-up interview with a fourth-floor resident of Kennebec Hall detected the smell of marijuana coming from his room at 6:25 p.m. Jan. 27. The officer had knocked on the room’s door at 10:45 p.m. Jan. 25 to investigate the smell of marijuana, but no one answered. The resident answered the door on Jan. 27 but was uncooperative and was referred to Judicial Affairs.

Pot patch

UMPD officers investigated a report of the smell of marijuana coming from a second-floor apartment in Patch Hall at 9:12 p.m. Jan. 27. A resident of the apartment was uncooperative with the officers and would not consent to a search of her room. Two other females and one male were also present. All four individuals were referred to Judicial Affairs.

The program, the National Genomics Research Initiative, is part of the Science Education Alliance and is run by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The Science Education Alliance was founded in 2007 and “seeks to enhance scientific education and increase the numbers of scientists produced in the United States by serving as a national resource for the development and distribution of new materials and methods to the education community while supporting networks of educators working on similar projects,” according to hhmi.org.

The HHMI was chartered in Dec. 17, 1953. According to the institute’s charter, Hughes provided for its establishment in order to support “the promotion of human knowledge within the field of basic sciences — principally the field of medical research and medical education — and the effective application thereof for the benefit of mankind.”

The year-long program will be housed by the Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, located in Hitchner Hall. Students will use an electron microscope to identify bacteriophages they find in the dirt.

UMaine owns one scanning electron microscope and two transmission electron microscopes. Both types use light beneath a sample to provide researchers with bright, crisp images of their bacteriophages.

Microscopic images of bacteriophages reveal a variety of structures. Some are angular and elongated with multiple appendages, reminiscent of the Martian tripods in H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds.” Others are simpler, such as those that are rod-shaped or spherical.

Bacteriophages adhere to the outer walls of bacterial cells as parasites. Their DNA is replicated using the bacterial cell’s energy stores, allowing for the replication of the bacteriophages.

“The National Genomics Research Initiative is a tremendously exciting opportunity for our first-year students to engage in authentic scientific research, perfecting in keeping with the Honors College mission of igniting a passion for learning,” Charlie Slavin, dean of the Honors College, was quoted as saying in a university press release Jan. 28. “UMaine students and faculty members will collaborate across campus and across the country in an enterprise with local and global impact.”

In the first semester of the project, students will identify bacteriophages and their characteristics. While the students are on break between semesters, the bacteriophages’ DNA will be sequenced by an outside lab. In the second semester, students will use the genomes they receive to conduct studies of their bacteriophages. By the end of the year, students will have analyzed their phages and will present their research at a national conference.

“UMaine has an enormous opportunity to provide outreach to the other institutions because we have the needed infrastructure, starting with having the facilities to support a microbiology degree program,” Keith Hutchison, professor of biochemistry and microbiology, said in the press release. “I believe that this program can serve as a model for establishing both teaching and research collaborations between the educational institutions, including those within the UMaine System and beyond.”

Students at 25 other institutions, including Brown University and Providence College, will conduct the same research program. The University of Maine System campuses in Fort Kent and Machias were also selected to participate in the program. All three University of Maine System campuses were selected to be associate members of the program, meaning they will only receive partial funding from the HHMI whereas full members receive full funding.

It is unclear how many students will be able to participate in the program at UMaine or if there are any degree or program requirements for interested students.

But when they failed to follow through with their warped crusade against the “fag propaganda” of the world by avoiding the University of Maine’s production of “Laramie” Sunday, the church fulfilled and reinforced a very different prophecy — that the actions and words of the WBC shall never stand for a thing.

Matthew Shepard’s life concluded in October of 1998 at the unjust hands of violence and hate when he was targeted by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyo. for being gay.

Shepard’s murder has now become a catalyst for advancing hate crime legislation and is the basis for “The Laramie Project,” an artistic commentary aimed at battling homophobia.

Whereas most of America celebrates Matthew Shepard, the Westboro Baptist Church dubs him a “disobedient pervert” and his mother, Judy Shepard, an enabler of evil. Thus, their believers traverse the country, supposedly over hell and high water, to protest “The Laramie Project” and the debauchery it allegedly breeds.

Yet, when high noon came to pass yesterday, WBC left UMaine high and dry when it promised otherwise. For a group that slings damnations and crass language around with the trajectory of a 10-foot rosary, it’s typical to find that not only do they have nothing to stand for, they don’t even bother standing at all.

Actions speak louder than words, but inaction is downright deafening. By failing to defend its promise of protest, the church is admitting fault in its own credence.

While this can be seen as a success for the civil-minded, it cannot be the only victory against such a sadistic bracket.

Naturally, the WBC probably won’t attend locations where resistance is guaranteed, such as a college campus. After all, bullies prefer to prey upon the defenseless — their moronic principles travel farther when the recipients aren’t fully prepared to bat them down. Therefore, you’re more apt to find the WBC picketing on the hallowed ground of fallen soldiers, aiming their incredulousness at people who can hardly look up from their grief, let alone defend it, or high schools, where the fear of speaking up is nothing compared to the daily terror of fitting in.

On March 4th, the WBC plans to boycott “The Laramie Project” at Gunderson High School in San Jose, Cali, and on March 23, they will do the same at Howell High School in Mississippi. Any type of support for the opposition during those two days, whether through letters encouraging the “Laramie” performers or contributions to the LGBTQ organizations in those areas, could help silence the WBC for good.

The WBC may not have brought the fight to us, but we can certainly send our reinforcement to the places where they are sure to assemble.

The Maine Campus regrets to inform readers that instances of plagiarism have been identified in several political columns written by Pardis Delijani. Thirteen of her 15 columns contained varying amounts of lifting from national and international news sources. The writer declared these instances to be unintentional.  

A reader brought to the newspaper’s attention one occasion of plagiarism in a Delijani article published in February 2011, and an investigation by staff members of The Maine Campus revealed others.

Delijani has been removed from her paid columnist position but plans to contribute to our opinion pages on state and local issues. Senior political science student Ben Goodman will replace her in the Monday political columnist spot.

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My note-taking strategy during the State of the Union address was to focus on quotes Congress stood up and applauded for. However, this strategy soon began to crumble.

Regardless of party, cheers were given when President Barack Obama stated, “Celebrate not only winning the Super Bowl but winning the science fair”; that we should stop the health insurance industry from exploiting patients; that 100,000 Americans can leave Iraq with their heads held high; and that there is “not a person here who would exchange places with any other country on earth.” This is all well and good, but I would have rather heard a speech that tackled the “pressing issues,” such as the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than motivational commentary.

President Obama dodged around the controversial questions, which was, of course, deliberate. The president was too polite and cheated the American people of his specific vision for the future of the country. It was evident he wanted this meeting with the new Congress and its Republican newcomers to be no more of an unpleasant experience than necessary, despite the fact the president encouraged debate and stated it is a valuable asset for Americans to freely state their opinions.

There were many things missing from the president’s address and every American can take his or her pick as to which was the most significant. I was completely bewildered as to how he barely discussed Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan when we are fighting at least three bitter “wars of choice.” No matter what he does, the harmful poison of these wars will linger in the minds of Americans.

These are the hopeless conflicts that will eat American blood, morality and wealth alive, in which American presence only serves as increased propaganda to create more al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists. Then again, American citizens themselves care so little about these wars, it should be no surprise that congressmen and women would either.

President Obama’s rhetoric regarding the elections in Sudan and his support for democracy in Tunisia, as well as around the world did not sound so different from that of former President George W. Bush’s goal during his two terms of presidency.

What is most upsetting is President Obama’s skewed definition of democracy: “The United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia and supports the democratic aspirations of all people.” But Egyptian protestors are unsupported by the United States due to the fact this country is in alliance with the dictatorship nation.

Then there is the citing of a “deficit of trust” in government by the American people, in which President Obama’s address urged Congress to diminish the influence of special interests and work together to confront the nation’s most pressing problems.

The president offered a plea to end the partisan stalemate in Washington and work for the common good. Americans “don’t understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn’t. Or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems,” Obama stated. “They are tired of the partisanship and the shouting and the pettiness. They know we can’t afford it. Not now.”

Ten years after 9/11 destroyed our idea that America was protected in the world and about three years after the 2008 financial collapse that destroyed many Americans’ faith in the governmental system, Americans are trying to figure out what is wrong and what is right. The president may not have covered everything to the extent that it should have been covered, but he is trying hard to start with the issues both parties can undertake together.

Pardis Delijani is a third-year international affairs student. Her columns will appear every Monday.