The president said the initiative would promote a healthy lifestyle.

“After we have talked to many students and many different groups I wanted to inform you that we will be implementing the Tobacco Free Campus Initiative effective Jan. 1, 2011,” Kennedy said.

The Tobacco Free Campus Initiative is a campus-wide, three-phase ban on tobacco use proposed by the Tobacco Free Committee — a twenty-member group composed of faculty, staff and students.

Daniel Belknap, head of the Faculty Senate’s University Environment Committee, said the initiative does not require anyone to stop smoking, but that they not smoke on campus.

The first phase of the initiative, dubbed “the informational phase,” — which consists of a plan to educate the community about the new policy — takes effect immediately, according to UMaine spokesman Joe Carr.

The second phase, in which the university will request voluntary compliance, will begin Jan. 1, 2011. Posted signs and materials will be obvious to anyone on campus, according to Carr.

The last phase, in which enforcement of the policy will begin, starts in 2012. Carr said he hopes that by 2012 education efforts will have been so successful that “enforcement won’t be much of a problem.”

There is currently no plan established to enforce the initiative. Carr said plans will be developed by Student Affairs and other departments by the time phase three begins.

“I think [the initiative] is a model of responsible conduct, good behavior and high standards,” Kennedy said.

In response to a Jan. 27 recommendation from the Faculty Senate University Environment Committee, the Tobacco Free Committee hosted open forum discussions to discuss consequences of a potentially tobacco-free campus. The environment committee’s report stressed issues with enforcement, and the effect the initiative would have on long-term smokers — especially employees who may have been smoking for years. Belknap said he still worries about these factors now that the initiative has been approved.

Belknap expressed disappointment at forum turnouts. He explained that many people who attended the first meeting, which was intended to be a place for dialogue between the university community and the committee, misinterpreted the format.

The confusion resulted a lack of conversation in the meeting, which Belknap described as an “information dump.” He said the second meeting, as described by Belknap, was more productive. Approximately 60 people attended the two open forum discussions.

Dana said Kennedy would have considered alternatives if  “major revelations” had arisen in research.

“The president was very open to receiving input,” Dana said.

Dana and Vice President of Financial Affairs Janet Waldron commissioned the Tobacco Free Campus Committee study in July 2007 on Kennedy’s behalf. Based on the committee’s June 2009 report, the Tobacco Free Campus Committee recommended the initiative to Waldron, Dana and Kennedy.

Kennedy acknowledged the initiative would cause lifestyle adjustment for smokers, but available resources would at least accommodate those trying to quit or adapt.

“We’re going to try to be a little bit more proactive with the educational and motivational aspect,” Kennedy said.

Dana said the tobacco-free nature of the university would be obvious in admission materials and that the initiative would appear on UMaine’s Web site.

The initiative will probably have an effect on employee health insurance, according to Dana, who said any change in cost will probably depend upon how many people request tobacco cessation services.

Dana and Kennedy were unable to say how much the initiative will cost, but Dana estimated the cost to be “very modest.” He explained many resources are already available on campus, such as the Alcohol and Drug Education Program, which he said would see increased use.

In other Faculty Senate news, The Academic Program Prioritization Working Group will host an open forum discussions March 29 in Wells Commons. Provost Susan Hunter said each degree granting college will be represented at the forum, where she will present initial findings to the group.

The senate passed a Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee motion to consider the adoption of a doctoral degree program in Anthropology and Environmental Policy.

UMaine board of trustees representative Bob Rice said two new trustees — Samuel Collins and Eastern Maine Healthcare CEO Michelle Hood — have been nominated to the board. Student Government Sen. Ben Goodman was nominated to the University of Maine System board of trustees by Gov. John Baldacci.

Once sharing the 190 Harlow St. address with Diversified Ink tattoo parlor and Diva’s Gentleman’s Club, Club Ice Jazz and Martini Bar seems to have disappeared, and so has owner Eddie Hunt.

“Last time I had heard, they had moved out,” a Diversified Ink employee said of Club Ice.

Club Ice opened in late September 2009. According to a Nov. 9 article in The Maine Campus, Hunt, 37, leased the venue from Patrick and Matt Brann, owners of former Club Gemini — Club Ice’s predecessor.

Modeled after nightclubs in large U.S. cities, the club had a curtained VIP area, jazz martini lounge and large dance floor. Hunt anticipated the club’s future success. Club Ice’s lounge was separated from the main floor by a soundproof door, a reminder of the former Club Gemini, which drew anger and noise complaints from area residents.

According to former Club Ice bartender Erica Savage, she “did not even know” the club had closed its doors to patrons until a co-worker told her. According to a rumor from employees, the club was moving and would begin serving food in order to fulfill Maine state liquor license requirements, which state a liquor-serving establishment must have a full kitchen and be able to serve hot and cold foods. Savage said no such plans appear to be in motion.

Savage had been working at the club for approximately one month, under the table, mostly serving beer and washing dishes. She was not the only one working this way.

On Jan. 9, the club was hit by a sting raid by Bangor Police Department Special Enforcement Team.

“Around 11 p.m., they came in and ID’d everyone,” Savage said.

“We check that they’re not serving [alcohol] to minors,” said Sgt. Brad Johnston, head of SET.

He explained the team checks area bars, convenience stores and restaurants “on a regular basis.”

A three-man operation that started in November 2009, SET is funded in part through a grant from the Bangor Health and Community Services Department, as stated in a Feb. 23 Bangor Daily News article.

Hunt’s girlfriend, 20-year-old Anastasia Dietze, received the brunt of the sting: three summonses for serving alcohol to a minor, according to Johnston. Two counts were for serving underage club patrons, with the third count for serving an off-duty and underage co-worker, Johnston said.

He said that Dietze did not know of her co-worker’s underage status.

After a successful New Year’s party, Club Ice faded from Bangor’s nightlife scene. On the club’s MySpace page, event postings halted abruptly after Jan. 10, the night after the SET sting. The club phone number, which had been identified as Hunt’s cell phone number in a previous interview for the Nov. 9 issue of The Maine Campus, is no longer connected to the subscriber, as stated by a phone service provider voice-over. In addition, the club’s Twitter page has been disabled.

Savage said Hunt, Dietze and their approximately 7-month-old baby are currently in Alabama, but Hunt could not be reached for comment.

Bangor’s ABM Mechanical Inc. is a full-service mechanical contracting firm contracted to do basic plumbing and heating installations. The firm wonders where Hunt is, according to ABM employee Elizabeth Rassi. Rassi cannot confirm nor deny whether Hunt, as the firm’s client, has an outstanding balance. She did confirm the club’s mechanical upgrade and installation took place in September and October of 2009, around the time the club opened.

“[The club is] the biggest venue in Bangor,” Hunt said in the Nov. 9 Maine Campus article. “It’s been a rocky, slow beginning, but it’s starting to pick up,” he added.

It looks as if the rocky beginning never smoothed over for Hunt and his club. Club Ice’s “Twisted Tuesdayz” regulars and “Sex on Tha Beach” fans are in discontent — it does not look like Club Ice will re-open its doors.

As a fresh transfer to the University of Maine last year, I was concerned. Originally from this area, I did not want to come back to the same university the majority of my high school attended. It was thousands of students smaller and the campus was acres larger than my old school. Fall snuck up after my summer working in Bar Harbor; UMaine was this giant, impending, gray obligation. I worried UMaine would be boring and culturally deprived — snobby, I know. After a few weeks into my first semester, my perception changed.

What I first noticed was the genuine desire to help — all my paperwork issues, financial aid questions and basic directional dilemmas were solved with ease and care. My next realization was how close UMaine students are, despite the undergraduate population of about 9,500.

The string of violence portrays a pattern of disregard for our camaraderie and safety that needs to stop. We need to reconnect with ourselves and fellow Orono residents to evaluate what is important. Homework, midterms and theses may command primary attention and dictate much of our semester-to-semester lives, but we must increase our scope of awareness of both self and others. We must sift through what matters. This is not a warm, coddling suggestion, but rather a call for introspection-based awareness.

Although the stale command’s message is in the right place, “Do what makes you happy” is a poor excuse for advice. People don’t do what makes them happy because they do not actually know how to do so. Many of our graduates this year will either be moon-eyed idealists plotting to change the world or stark realists, clinging to whichever job offer they may secure, disregarding personal fulfillment.

The solution lies in compromise, as it often does. In order to be realistic yet fulfilled, doing what makes you happy is the right idea, but the key is how to do it. You need to find out exactly what does make you happy and why. You need to discover who makes you happy and for what reasons. You need to displace yourself from anxiety and trivial concerns.

This winter in Orono, I have felt as if I were in some cursed land with cartoon storm clouds and thunderheads looming overhead, police car lights flashing, flames roaring and tears flowing. We have all been impacted. We naturally turn inward, thinking of ourselves and those we love most. Instead, we need to climb out of our “self-holes” and scrabble toward a higher order of awareness. Use the anxiety, sadness and confusion to confine the definition of what your most “importants” actually are.

These events sadly and indiscriminately strike places and people we don’t think about every day. Far-away tragedies are felt and sympathized with, but not on visceral, next-door levels. From the individual to the commercial, Orono has supported its fellow members in meaningful ways through these trying times.

A two-week reprieve is approaching. Some of us will not be able to remember this break upon returning, while others will watch it slip away, trying to get ahead in schoolwork. Some will travel, some will volunteer. Others will relax with friends and family.

Whatever it is you will do, I hope you do it well. Enjoy your spring break and come back safe and happy, ready to embrace your community and the rest of your semester.

Maddy Glover is a senior childhood development student.

“Every year’s a little bit different,” said event coordinator and Office of International Program study abroad advisor Sarah Joughin.

“This year has sort of been smooth sailing,” she laughed, pleased with the show’s efficiency and relaxed nature. Joughin explained that last year, she was nine months pregnant at showtime. The year before, the show was held at Bangor High School and commuting was time consuming and difficult to organize.

UMaine economics professor Aaron Hoshide acted as comedic master of ceremonies. The showcase was co-sponsored by the International Students Association. Additional funding came from Division of Student Affairs, Cultural Affairs, the Diversity Initiatives Program, as well as UMaine Student Government and Residents on Campus.

The show was dedicated to the people of Haiti. Donations, collected by the UMaine College Democrats, went to Konbit Sante, a nonprofit Maine organization dedicated to improving Haitian health care.

Group members pitched specific dances to organizers and did much of the coordinating, costume design and choreography on their own. They were supervised by Joughin, artistic director Forrest Dantzler and costume and choreography support groups. More than 100 people were involved with the production, both on stage and behind the scenes.

Joughin said despite appearances, virtually none of the performers are theater, music or vocal students. She described them as being “all across the board.” From engineers to history students, some of the performers have danced since childhood while others have experienced dance for the first time performing in the festival.

“There wasn’t a heck of a lot of pressure,” said Polish folk dancer Joe Pekol of the show’s relaxed atmosphere.

Pekol had no previous dance experience prior to this year’s show, but was urged to join by friend and veteran dancer Artur Palacz of Poland.

“We just watched YouTube videos of dancers,” Pekol said, explaining the origins of the group’s sophisticated choreography.

Culturally authentic costumes, fancy footwork and braided maidens’ hair characterized Pekol and Palacz’s dance, “Krakowiak and Zbojnicki.” One of the larger performances, the men danced with battle staffs, evoking days of Polish brigands in the foothills of the Tatras mountain range while the women twirled, cotton skirts fluttering.

Darshana Gayan-Ramkaloan performed the only solo act. Her Kathak dance, a traditional bard-like dance from northern India, started out slowly in prayer form and seamlessly transformed into an upbeat tempo with disciplined footwork and movement. Hoshide prefaced her performance by saying for Gayan-Ramkaloan, dancing is an extension of family and is important to her.

Visiting performers to this year’s showcase included College of the Atlantic dancers performing a South African “Gumboot” routine, as well as Bangor and John Bapst High School students Shavya Samala, Leila Musavia and Kimia Kashkooli dancing to the Punjabi song “Aaja Nachle.”

COA students traveled to Orono and stayed with UMaine IDF dancers Friday night, according to Joughin. The 10 dancers performed a neo-traditional South African form of expression, stomping their Wellington-style boots and singing to voice their message. Originally a form of subversive communication, “gumboot” dancing comes from South African gold mines, where wetness calls for “gumboots,” or rubber boots, and labor rights call for protest. The group’s synchronized, intricate sequences of stepping, clapping and chanting enthralled the audience.

Other acts ran the gamut from a traditional Vietnamese fan dance — one of Joughin’s favorite acts because of its beautiful simplicity — to a new-age hooping routine. This was the only dance where focus was shared between dancer and prop, set to ethereally remixed Gregorian chants. In between were steamy salsa numbers where dancers shimmied to “Sobrevivire” the Spanish counterpart of “I Will Survive” and crowd-wowing flips, pops and drops in D-Fusion’s street fusion sequence.

Countries represented spanned the globe from Saudi Arabia to the United States.

Joughin emphasized the appeal of the show — financial and cultural.  Organizers began the two-show format (matinee and evening performances) three years ago to attract a larger youth audience demographic. She stressed the value of a free admission.

“I think it’s important to keep [the festival] free because there are lots of shows at the CCA that are cost-prohibitive,” Joughin said. She added free admission makes the show “easily accessible” to students and community members who otherwise would not have the opportunity to sample rich international experiences in their rural Maine backyard.

“It’s a lot of fun. There’s such a wide range and it’s so much fun to participate, as well as to watch,” Joughin said of the varied performances, contemporary and traditional.

As evidence of how far the show has come in the past six years, Joughin pointed at the event poster. Five years ago, the dance fest’s first performance beckoned potential audience members with generic photos from the Internet.

“We were almost worried that it was false advertising,” Joughin said.

This year a photo depicting one of last year’s performers, taken by current performer Apollo Clark, convinced potential showgoers to attend.

“It’s just very moving,” Joughin said.

“Let’s just start with the word: vagina,” said cast members Keira Monahan, Kimble Rawcliffe and Karin Baard in the introduction.

“It sounds like an infection at best, maybe a medical instrument: ‘Hurry, nurse, bring me the vagina.’ … Doesn’t matter how many times you say it, it never sounds like a word you want to say,” Monahan said.

Directed by Aya Mares and Razhell Sutton and organized by SWA co-chair Emily Fortin, the UMaine “Vagina Monologues” is a V-Day Event, a global event to raise funds and awareness of violence against women and girls through benefit productions of Ensler’s works.

“It’s a great community of women … working for women,” Fortin said of SWA.

This year’s production benefits the City of Hope, a community program in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, designed to re-establish abused women in society through education and skills training. In addition to the City of Hope, proceeds from UMaine’s “Monologues” will benefit the Spruce Run Association, the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center, and Rape Response Services.

Fortin described the production as being “daunting” to some reluctant viewers, but stressed the importance of the show’s message.

“Men laugh the hardest,” she said matter-of-factly, explaining that much of the show’s subject matter does not reach men’s ears.

Co-director Sutton agreed there are people who refuse to attend the “Monologues” due to subject matter. She uses cause as persuasion rather than content, and focuses on beneficiaries when convincing the hesitant to enter. Rape (date, object and systemic), mutilation, menstruation, masturbation, sexuality and plain female genital candor may push the envelope for some.

“I haven’t been down there since 1953,” said cast member Brianna Monahan in a 72-year-old New York woman’s monologue. She has trouble getting “down there” due to arthritis and is reluctant to do so after an accidental, one-time “flood” in the front seat of her admirer’s brand new Chevrolet Bel-Air.

Viewers alternated between reverence, hysterics and uncomfortable silence as they focused on the stage, backdropped by a black tapestry and centralized by flesh-colored cloth strips- an unfurling fabric vaginal collage made by cast member Emma Thieme and co-director Mares.

“It’s a really good experience, all of these women getting together and creating [the Vagina Monologues],” said Sutton.

The audience, made up of all ages and both genders, eagerly crowded the auditorium as soon as seating opened. Ushers, “Bobs,” directed audience members to seats and handed out programs.

Monologue ushers are called “Bobs” as tribute to the Bob character of “Because He Liked to Look At It.” An average man, Bob just happens to be a “vagina connoisseur,” both surprising and empowering his lover, performed by Britney Carle.

“We’re just friendly faces,” said two-year Bob veteran Tyler Keniston.

Floor-bound auxiliary lighting added an intimate glow to those on stage, as the auditorium’s lighting did not meet the production’s demand. Puffy chairs and pillows in red, black and pink lined the stage, and cast members sat when not addressing the audience.

“I’m feeling very nostalgic,” said former SWA member and four-year “Monologues” cast member Melanie Rockefeller.

Rockefeller and former SWA co-chair Abbie Strout assisted the Bobs in greeting and directing audience members.

“It makes me proud. It’s nice to see generations of SWA women,” said Strout of this year’s performance.

“I think it’s really nice that they dedicated this to Jordyn,” said Strout, admiring cast members’ ability to deal with the loss of a friend and member while still being able to pull off the production.

As Johanne McKay reminded the audience in the monologue “I Was There in the Room,” “[the] vagina suddenly became a wide red pulsing heart,” capable of forgiveness, sacrifice and regeneration in its purest purpose — giving birth.

“[It’s] anything but a relic,” Director Marcia Douglas said. She explained that the 2009 revival was merely a continuation of the show’s original international success, having more than 35 tourings within its first decade.

“Sometimes you have to do a show like that, especially in a time like right now,” said UMaine student actor Justin Zang, “We’re in a time of a despair; we’re at war with different countries. It’s an eye opener, it really is.”

Zang acknowledged the mature thematic nature of the show, citing nudity and depictions of drug use.

Debuting in 1967, the show focuses on Claude — played by Zang — a college dropout who has just received his draft card for the Vietnam War.

“There’s that constant tearing going on,” said Zang of the decision his character must make, to follow the revolutionary youth ideology of the era and avoid conscription, or to conform to the wishes of his parents and traditional American patriotism.

The crux of the plot — Claude’s decision to join his “Age of Aquarius” friends in burning his draft card or to comply with his conservative parents’ beliefs — is truly told through the tribe, a group of 31 peers exemplifying the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the era.

“It’s loosely based on his decision at the time,” Zang said. “Everyone’s burning their draft card. [They’re] being called to the draft and not showing up.”

He explained that there was a five-year prison sentence, as well as the possibility of a fine for draft-dodging.

“The real main character is the tribe itself,” Zang said. “We all really work as a unit. It’s been the most interesting show for me.”

Zang said he enjoyed the lack of clichéd characters, like the bad guy or the unattainable girl, in comparison with past productions he’s performed in. “Hair” is Zang’s first UMaine production. A Wiscasset native, he performed with the Heartwood Regional Theater Company in high school and has always loved theater, despite being a music education major at UMaine.

The holistic feeling of the tribe pervades the entire production, winding between the cast, orchestra and audience — cast members prance down Hauck Auditorium aisles, pausing to jump on a chair, pelvic thrusting to the beat in front of the nearest audience member.

“Since I’ve been doing music direction, this is the show I’ve always wanted to do,” music director Danny Williams said. “I think it’s a great show for college students to both perform and to see.”

Williams is a big fan of the production himself, having seen the Broadway show twice — in March and September of last year. “Hair” won both a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, and a Drama Desk Award last year.

The “stupendous music,” as described by Williams, frames the brightly swirling lighting and era-appropriate costumes, transforming Hauck Auditorium into the tribe’s world, controversy and all. The tribe irreverently folds the American flag during the twangy “Don’t Put it Down” and lets loose during the ritualistic burning of draft cards to the “Hare Krishna” mantra. The UMaine production will even include the infamous nude scene at the end of act one.

Williams acknowledged the variability of the show, saying that the lack of structure and rigidity reflects the times.

“The orchestra is given the basics, and they make up the rest,” Williams said. “Really it’s up to the actor to breathe life into the characters. In some shows, that would be very inappropriate, but in this show, it is exactly what is required.”

According to Williams, approximately 85 percent of the musical is song. He stressed the importance of the ensemble performance, saying that the show is not a usual “book musical.”

“The music, score, singing really are the heart and soul of the piece,” Williams said. He feels the production was well-conceived and well-written, and that the music is the message.

“I love it, I really love it,” Douglas said. Hair “comes from a time period when I was growing up and turning into who I’ve become. It speaks to me because I’ve experienced what is in the play at the time it was actually going on.”

Douglas explained an unanticipated challenge she faced during preliminary rehearsals: a lack of cultural understanding. Realizing that none of the actors were alive during that era, she cultivated the necessary understanding by asking actors to interview family members over holiday break, who were alive during the late 1960s.

Actors reported their findings to the group when they returned a week early to UMaine for intensive trust-building and improvisational exercises, in addition to regularly scheduled rehearsals. Zang spoke of the chemistry between cast members, and the original hesitation between theater and music majors to commingle. This hesitation did not last long.

“I think that helped make it personal for them, hearing it from their own family members,” Douglas said. “If we’re ever going to grow up as a human race, [we need to understand that] there are different ways to deal with conflict. Violence is not the only way — that’s what this musical is about.”

“We’ve developed a kind of trust and a group ethos that is really at the heart of the show,” Douglas said.

“Hair” opens Friday in Hauck Auditorium and runs Feb. 12, 13, 14, 18, 19 and 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 14 and 21 at 2 p.m.

Originally from Moscow, Russia, violist and violinist Zaburdaeva teaches students of all abilities and ages. With experience as a soloist, orchestra and chamber musician, Zaburdaeva completed her master’s degree in violin performance at the University of Maine, under tutelage of Anatole Wieck, professor of music and UMaine Chamber Orchestra conductor.

Zaburdaeva has made the greater Bangor area her home while simultaneously becoming an integral part of the local musical community.

“She’s a very active musician in the area,” Wieck said, adding that Zaburdaeva has lived in the greater Bangor area for 10 years and is “very much rooted in the community.”

Wieck and Zaburdaeva first met on a mutual musician friend’s recommendation and have since become friends and colleagues. Zaburdaeva maintains that Wieck, a Julliard School alumnus, is completely responsible for her life and successes in Maine.

Now married to Rob Lormer, owner of RDL Strings on Center Street in Bangor, Zaburdaeva joked that “Lormer wanted to make sure I would stay in town.”

RDL Strings — a musical instrument sales and repair shop doubling as a lessons studio that serves the needs of approximately 45 students — is constantly expanding. Wieck facilitated the marriage between teacher and shop owner by recommending Zaburdaeva as a teacher to Lormer.

“Lormer’s never complained to me that I gave him the wrong recommendation,” shrugged a smirking Wieck.

According to Zaburdaeva, RDL Strings inspires young children to play musical instruments.

“Kids love being there, parents love being there. It has a community feel,” Zaburdaeva said.

As a child in Moscow, Zaburdaeva was musically “a late bloomer.” According to Zaburdaeva, she did not learn to play an instrument until she was 8.

Zaburdaeva began her career with various youth orchestras in Moscow, including Youth Talents of Moscow Chamber Orchestra and the Russian Youth Symphony Orchestra. She attended Moscow’s Gnesins Institute triple majoring in violin performance, orchestra and music pedagogy.

After graduating from Gnesins, Sascha moved to New York City and pursued her second violin performance bachelor’s degree at the Conservatory of Music in Brooklyn, studying with professors Masao Kawasaki and Itzhak Perlman.

In the United States she has been a member of the Mozart String Quartet and Kingsborough College Orchestra in Brooklyn, N.Y., as well as the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. Her teaching experiences range from the Acadia Summer Music Festival in Bar Harbor to the UMaine classroom — as a substitute for Wieck during times he has been abroad.

Zaburdaeva is a regularly featured musician in UMaine faculty recitals and has great involvement with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. She has been first violinist, an orchestra board member and a youth orchestra jury selector with the orchestra.

Wieck described Zaburdaeva as a “very successful teacher with a waiting list.” At UMaine’s Maine Summer Youth Music camp, children race to sit next to Zaburdaeva.

“They always want to sit with her, she has a great rapport with her students,” Wieck said. He added that Zaburdaeva gives the same specialized attention to a class as she does to one student.

Although Moscow and Orono are a world apart, Zaburdaeva tries to bridge the two, and all places in between, in her music lessons. She plans her lessons around a particular composer, their homeland, and focuses on tradition and dress in order to culturally enhance the experience.

“I’m connecting the music to the piece to the composer,” she said. “I want [my students] to experience something completely different, not just in Bangor.”

“Sascha really likes Maine,” Wieck said. Both Wieck and Zaburdaeva are avid kayakers and enjoy the Maine outdoors.

Zaburdaeva explained that, when she first moved to Maine, she thought of it as a “black hole,” but now understands that “life is actually boiling here once you find what you like to do.”

“You can get Boston and Julliard here with Wieck,” Zaburdaeva said. “You can enjoy nature and get a wonderful education here.”

Wanting to further global musical understanding in the state of Maine, Zaburdaeva’s dream is to sponsor a student.

“Moscow’s a great connector for me,” Zaburdaeva said. “It’s the best city to go visit, anytime of the year. There’s tremendous culture for every taste. The culture thrived through the good and bad times. It’s always there, and still going strong.”

“I want to become a little bit more rich and sponsor a kid at UMaine, like I was sponsored all those years. I’d like to be a good alumna, really … to be more connected with the university. I feel very grateful,” she said.

Dean of Student Affairs Robert Dana and Vice President of Financial Affairs Janet Waldron recommended Faculty Senate implement the policy. The initiative would ban all tobacco products on campus.

Daniel Belknap — chairman of faculty senate’s environmental committee, which issued a report of concerns regarding the initiative — spoke to senate about the problems the committee found with the proposed initiative.

“I’m very concerned about a prohibition, which would disproportionately impact a special class of users and, in particular, long-term staff members who are addicted. There are people who have been addicted for decades and would be severely impacted by [the initiative],” Belknap said.

The committee also identified the “additional burden” enforcement of the initiative would place on the university, and the negative impact the prohibition may have on recruitment and retention of students and staff. The committee also recognized that smoking is still legal in the United States, and outside public buildings in Maine.

Belknap stressed the importance of tobacco awareness and the discouragement of teen smoking, but explained that it would be unwise to adopt rules that could not be consistently enforced. He also noted that the problem of secondhand smoke on campus has already been addressed with the “20-foot rule,” and that the problem now is one of enforcement.

Sen. William Halteman argued that the current initiative passed, the university would be admitting students who smoke, and then prohibiting them from smoking once on campus.

“That seems to me to be unconscionable,” Halteman said.

In other business, the UMaine board of visitors attended the beginning of the meeting. James Goff, vice chairman of the BOV explained the board’s function, which is to position the university as an “essential, relevant and valuable resource,” according to the board’s Web site.

Sen. Kathryn Slott asked for clarification of the BOV’s position between the board of trustees and the university,

“Do you advocate for the campus to the board of trustees, or [do you] represent and enforce what the board of trustees wants on the campus?,” Slott asked. “Or is it a balancing act between the two?” she asked.

“We do report to the trustees,” Goff said. “We generally have the opportunity to meet with them once a year — that tends to be rather superficial, frankly — but our real role is to support this institution and establishment.”

Goff said every department at the university is “full of interesting stories,” and that the university should do more to get those stories to the students, the university and Maine.

Senators also questioned the educational quality and the relatively unregulated approval process for online courses. During the Fall 2009 semester, 277 online courses were offered at the university.

“I think the technology is changing very, very fast, at the current time,” Sen. Harlan Onsrud said. “I think ten years from now, that if we’re offering a course … we’ll be able to broadcast … I don’t think we have much of a choice and need to embrace it,” he said.

Sen. Craig Mason cautioned against a universal endorsement of online education.

UMaine President Robert Kennedy addressed concerns about online courses, saying the “mission and the quality of our courses are a distinctive hallmark of UMaine,” but that online education could be a source or revenue to help curtail budget shortfalls.

“Resonant Places,” by Chase, “Simple Complexity,” by Stecca, “Burnt Cove,” by Immonen and “Bio-Permutation,” by Isenhour show what the UMMA is known for — modern art.

George Kinghorn, director and curator of the UMMA, describes the museum’s reputation as being “able to fill that niche” — a Maine art museum with an emphasis on modern and contemporary art.

Kinghorn cited the Portland Museum of Art, Colby College Museum of Art and Bowdoin College Museum of Art as being cultural, artistic destinations. He wants the same for the UMMA.

“It really can be a destination,” Kinghorn said. “Our attendance has increased by over 50 percent.”

Kinghorn attributes last year’s attendance to the museum’s efforts — increasing visibility and better programming. All visitors to the museum enter at no cost courtesy of an ongoing three-year Machias Savings Bank gift.

“We have been really working on getting the museum’s name and our programs throughout New England,” Kinghorn said.

The UMMA has been an important part of the University of Maine for 64 years and was founded by Vincent Hartgen, an art faculty member, according to Kinghorn.

“The museum has been fully functional here in downtown for over six years,” he added of the location change from campus to downtown Bangor.

Kinghorn came to Maine after nine years as deputy director, director and chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, Fla.

“I’m really enjoying Maine and the university,” he said. “My area of expertise is art since 1945, which is wonderful because the bulk of the museum’s collection falls within that particular area.”

According to Kinghorn, the museum has many modern and contemporary works in paper and photography. They have some works that fall outside of that category, but the majority of the works are post-WWII era.

Venezuelan-born artist Stecca uses clothespins — or whatever scrap material he can buy off of the local recycling center. His works typify what the museum looks for.

Kinghorn and Stecca met in 2008 at the Art Basel Festival in Miami Beach, Fla. — sister festival to Switzerland’s prestigious Art Basel, a collection of international artistic highlights, including film, music, architectures and design.

“It was one of those things, being in the right place at the right time,” Stecca said.

Kinghorn said he spotted Stecca’s girlfriend sporting a tube dress and clutch made of clothespins. Each year, in the spirit of Art Basel Miami Beach, Stecca makes a dress and purse matching his girlfriend’s shoes.

“We were running around and having a good time,” said Stecca, describing his first meeting with Kinghorn.

Kinghorn and Stecca have been in contact ever since the dress encounter.

Originally a painter, Stecca ventured toward installation art in order to avoid boredom.

“Lucky for me it keeps me interested,” said Stecca, who has three works exhibited in Simple Complexity.

Boasting over 10,000 clothespins, Stecca’s “Stalagmites,” “Untitled” and “Mermaid’s Tails” command the viewer in an interactive manner.

Stecca described his works as constructed with a “different original kind of material, but larger and interactive so you can touch them and walk through them, so it’s part of the experience.”

“This work here, the artist says, makes kind of a reference to marine life,” Kinghorn said. “I really adore this piece. I love the way the work integrates with the wall, yet extends the wall onto the floor, so it has that interesting tension.”

Kinghorn enjoys the individualized associations visitors take away from Stecca’s work, sharing what one viewer described “Mermaid’s Tails” as a stylized deep sea diver, large flippers all but dripping onto the floor.

“Taking the everyday, commonplace object and just by the sheer scale, he brings all these things together, making it the monumental,” he said. He added that Stecca worked onsite, responding to the available space, as most installation artists do.

“I like working backwards,” Stecca said. “Once you show me a space, the ideas start pouring in.” Stecca said that he rarely knows what his exact finished project will look like.

“I don’t know how long it takes, I do them in sections,” he said of his sculptures. “They’re like Legos — I just make a bunch of stuff and I put them together. Sometimes they have a purpose … like in the case of the show, they all started randomly.”

Creative problem-solving is necessary with his trial-and-error approach. Sometimes Stecca will combine two or more pieces seemingly without purpose, in order to improve and further a combined piece.

He described a previous exhibit in Seattle where his stalactite-like installation hung from the gallery’s ceiling. Floppy and requiring both a support system as well as a building permit due to earthquake threats, the installation was in mild peril for the exhibit’s entirety. Stecca was inspired to transform his piece — pointing it in the opposite direction to his current installation.

“It helped me so much to fight gravity, which is not my friend,” said Stecca in regard to “Stalagmites.”

Stecca encourages tactile interaction with his works, describing his wire, clothespin and conduit constructions as fabric-like — soft, flexible and ever-changing.

What Stecca wants from his viewers is surprise.

“The honest truth is that I want to hear people say, ‘Oh, wow!’”

UMMA’s next move to attract community interest and the ‘Oh, wow!’ factor is to introduce special programming for UMaine students. According to Kinghorn, the museum is working closely with the UMaine art department in order to host two student nights. Tentative scheduling would include one event during each 2010 semester.

“Rhythm and Riot” is the 2009 senior capstone art exhibition. The show, open until Jan. 25 in Lord Hall Gallery, features 21 students fulfilling their capstone requirement. The Dec. 4 opening reception had approximately 200 people in attendance.

“We had a great turnout,” said James Linehan, University of Maine art professor.

Linehan, who completed his Master of Fine Arts degree at University of Wisconsin, Madison, teaches ART 499: Senior Seminar in Studio Art. According to Linehan, the class bridges the gap between an undergraduate student’s art experience and what happens next.

“It’s meant to serve as a reality check and to give [students] the tools they need,” said Linehan of his class.

He explained that the class focuses on studio professionalism and future prospects like gallery exhibitions, careers in the arts and graduate school.

He said students produced all works exhibited in other classes, while focusing on organizing the exhibit as their final project. Labelling, hanging, lighting, display orientation and curation responsibilites were all student considerations.

“Every single aspect was done by students,” Linehan said.

He explained that his role was to supervise the process, help and answer student questions.

“It was a good course,” said Eddie Scott, a Studio Art major at UMaine, adding that the lessons learned from the professional side of organizing an exhibit, from framing drawings to working with a gallery, were very helpful.

“Maybe I’ll go to grad school, maybe not,” said Scott, who said he will always have a sketchbook on hand, regardless.

Scott, a Brunswick High School graduate, has always loved to draw. The difference in this exhibit is that his drawings are on the wall—in the past, only Scott’s paintings have been featured in exhibits.

“I tend to do a lot of surrealist type drawings,” he said, “a lot of personal themes, negative and positive. I like contradictions—to see both sides of the coin.” Citing inspiration from magic, superstition, theater and astrology, Scott enjoys the dark humor evident in his pieces, of which there are five in “Rhythm and Riot.”

Scott’s works are mixed media and acrylic on canvas board. His drawing, “The Strangling Grip of Debt,” depicts a boy in a kitchen chair, head in hands, as the shackled tentacles of a giant octopus desperately grasp for him and his money. Each tentacle represents a typical expense a college student, wracked with debt, faces.

“I try to draw things that other people can relate to,” Scott said, “I hate anything serious.”

“It was really fun putting the show together,” said fellow student artist Samantha Jones, who is completing her Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts in studio art. “I learned a lot actually curating the show,” she said.

Jones’ interests lie in psychological tools of “time travel,” such as prayer, meditation, imagination and memory, according to her artist’s statement. Jones’ said her works are characterized by fiber and tensile materials and focus on non-permanence in the sense of momentary metaphor.

Three of her works were featured in the exhibit: “For Eva,” “What Was/What Is” and “System.”

“System” is a web-like structure of fiber constructed cocoons. The multicolored cocoons are nestled in fiber coated wires and the work is displayed in a corner of the gallery. Jones values fiber as a sculptural medium.

“‘System’ explores how to hold space,” she said.

Jones explained how the space inside of each cocoon is as important as the general structural space.

“We have a close connection with the fiber themselves,” Jones said of the metaphorical powers of fibers weaving lives together.

“What Was/What Is” is an examination of minimalism in the form of felted figures. Three felted human forms lay on the ground, to the left of “For Eva,” a graphite, steel wool and fiber silk hanging. “What Was/What Is” plays with abstract form and was originally produced for a nature drawing class. The three felted figures were inspired by hay bales in the distance for the class, according to Jones. She described the felting process as “intimate.” Originally each felt figure was a human covered in a woolen shell. The human occupying the shell started the felting process in the shower and, after the daylong event, stepped out.

“It’s a shape, not a human shape. They got out of the shell and looked at the shell,” she said.” “They had a lot to say.”

Jones explained that her exhibit installations themselves were the most difficult aspect of the project. Lighting and what story the figures tell are two considerations Jones kept in mind.

“With fiber, it feels like dealing with a real personality,” Jones said.

Jones grew up with Dorset Horned sheep and feels a sentimental connection to home when working with fiber.

“Artists … make a living in all different ways,” Linehan said. He explained that although Maine may be the hinterlands, there are different artistic dynamics and opportunities than in a city.

According to Linehan, Maine has more artists per capita than any state.

“Art is a very important part of the cultural value of Maine,” he said, adding that art’s economic value in Maine is significant.

“Fibers are like coming back home … wool brings me right back,” said Jones of her sentimental attachment to the medium and her home in Maine.