The debate will be broken into three 30-minute sessions; one on foreign policy, one on domestic issues and a third in a town hall format, in which audience members will ask questions of the participants. Each group will have three representatives on the debate panel. Neither side knows exactly what topics will be covered in the debate, but students from both sides said they wouldn’t be surprised if health care, the recent jobs bill passed in the U.S. Senate, national debt and same-sex marriage were on the agenda.

“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first debate like this. It’s at least the first one since I’ve been here,” said Mark Brewer, professor of political science, who received funding for the debate through Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science undergraduate honor society. Funding secured the preparation for the debate, which will include a lunch for attendees.

College Democrats President Danielle Chrissman said her group is studying past and new legislation in preparation for the debate. She said it’s looking to the Democratic Party platform for guidance.

“We stick very close to the party,” said Margaret Payne, vice president of College Democrats, who will be part of their debate team. “We support health care and the jobs bill. There’s not going to be any conflict between the College Democrats and the national platform.”

The Republicans have a different plan for representing their party, according to College Republicans President Zachary Jackman.

“It could end up that College Democrats are just representatives of their party,” Jackman said. “But we’re going to offer what we think our party should say, not necessarily what our party thinks we should say.”

Jackman, who will be part of the Republican’s debate panel, said the reason for the differing approach is the soul searching taking place at all levels in the Republican Party.

“The Republican Party is reorganizing right now at a record pace, and at a record level. We lost huge in 2008, and while more people are jumping on board, it’s coalition building,” Jackman said that coalition building necessarily brings people with different ideas together, but he is hopeful a stronger party will emerge from the process.

“We’re organizing and getting our priorities straight. But that’s why we’re going to start winning again.”

Ben Goodman — president of the Maine Federation of College Democrats, which has chapters at UMaine, Colby, Bates and Bowdoin colleges, the University of Maine at Farmington, College of the Atlantic and Husson University — said the students on the Democrat’s side don’t represent themselves, but represent “the party that stands for what we believe in.” He said the College Republicans won’t follow their party’s stated platform because the Republican Party as a whole is “out of good ideas.”

“They’ve run out of solutions. They’ve run out of any type of will to try and fix the problems that are facing the country,” Goodman said. “When we look at the internal debate in the Republican Party, we see that the party structure is about as weak as their ideas.”

“The Republican Party needs to figure out what they’re about,” he said. “What we see in the debate will be a small part of that.”

While this will be the first formal debate between the College Democrats and Republicans, the panelists are no strangers to one another. Jackman, Goodman and Payne are all friends. The two men work together on a morning radio show on WMEB 91.9 FM, the university’s college radio station.

Jackman said he knows the members of College Democrats well, and their friendship will be good for the debate.

“The fact that we’re all good friends is part of the college atmosphere. I’d have dinner with them any day of the week,” Jackman said. “We’re going to be able to get up there and talk about the issues as friends, just like normal people would, not like politicians normally do.”

Goodman said he thought the amity between the panelists will make them less cautious.

“I know where Zach stands, he knows where I stand. We won’t be afraid to go after each other because we know that at the end of the day, policy is something separate from our friendship,” Goodman said. “It’s going to be no-holds-barred.”

Regardless of whether the partisans follow the letter of their parties’ stated positions, or if the aisle-crossing friendships between individuals suffer as a result of a debate, both sides said the opportunity for students to debate will benefit the student body.

“Obviously, political issues are heated right now,” Jackman said. “It will be interesting to hear from an organized student perspective, instead of from Washington or Augusta.”

“This debate will give students a chance to see what both sides say on the issues they care about and help them make an informed decision,” said Ben Kelleher, a  junior political science student who will join Jackman at the Republican’s table.

“These issues being discussed nationally will affect us all,” Payne said. “This debate will give students an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the issues at hand.”

Goodman is a student senator in UMaine Student Government and president of the Maine Federation of College Democrats. He is also the co-host of “Drive Time” on WMEB 91.9 FM, UMaine’s radio station.

According to the statement, Goodman was appointed to serve on the Maine Legislative Youth Advisory Council from 2006-2008. He was the elected co-chairman of the council in 2007.

The nominations will be reviewed by the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs and confirmed by the state Senate. Goodman said he expects to go before the committee sometime next month.

If confirmed, Goodman said his No. 1 priority would be making sure education in the system stays affordable.

“We’ve got to look big-picture,” Goodman said. “I’ll do everything in my power to keep tuition prices down.”

“I’m from Maine, and I really believe a strong university system is crucial to the state,” Goodman said. “The only way to ensure students have access to higher education is to keep it affordable. There are already too many people who can’t afford to go to school.”

Goodman said the process of his nomination began last year, when then-SG President Owen McCarthy sought nominees for the position. After UMaine President Robert Kennedy went over the list, Goodman moved on as the only nominee presented to General Student Senate, who approved the initial nomination.

Each of the seven universities in the system is allotted one representative to the board of trustees, but only one representative is a voting member of the board. If Goodman is confirmed, his vote will speak not only for students at UMaine, but also all the other schools in the system.

“Ben is a balanced, level-headed person who loves the University of Maine,” said Dean of Students Robert Dana. “He fully understands the needs of students here at UMaine and all across the state. We believe he’ll represent students with a passion, and a perspective informed by his peers and college here at the university.”

Dana said he hopes to see a confirmation by the state senate no later than two months from now.

Gregory Edwards, Green Team president, spoke to senate in support of the recycling system at the Feb. 2 GSS meeting.

“I’ve talked with Greg Edwards,” Grant said. “We had some points we agreed with, and some we didn’t.”

After Edwards’ presentation earlier this month, some senators had concerns about how campus jobs would be affected if single-stream were implemented.

Grant said he couldn’t guess what jobs, if any, would be affected if the system were implemented, but that it would most likely affect the 10-12 part-time student jobs.

“That’s why we’re fighting it,” Grant said.

“Facilities Management has always done the recycling program,” Grant said. “We’ve been in business for 20 years. Recently, Properties Management started their own program, and have gone in a different direction than we’re going.”

Gordon Nelson, who heads the department of Properties Management, was scheduled to speak at senate as well but did not attend. Edwards said he had been working with Properties Management to establish the single-stream pilot program that will be implemented in the Hilltop complex during spring break.

In other GSS business:

• Senate Parliamentarian Ryan Gavin gave a presentation on parliamentary procedure and the rules and structure of Student Government Inc. “If we don’t follow the rules, employees can sue us. We could lose university funding, and then everything we work for is gone. So it’s important to follow the rules,” Gavin said.

• Sen. Caleb Rosser moved to allocate $1,610 to Nordic Ski Team. The motion passed without objection.

• Sen. Ben Goodman moved to instruct Vice President Nyssa Gatcombe to purchase an American flag for display during senate meetings. Sen. Zachary Knox amended the motion to instruct Gatcombe also to purchase a Maine state flag. Sen. Gavin amended the motion to include gold tassels on the Maine flag. The amended motion passed without objection.

• After a recess for parliamentary inquiry, Sen. Christopher Knoblock introduced a motion to allocate $720 to Alpine Ski club for race fees. The motion passed without objection.

Obviously, people loved “Avatar.” The mind-blowing special effects (in 3-D, no less) made the film a visual treat. But criticism is about more than the gut impact a film has on its audience — critique cuts  deeper. It should ask, “What does the movie say?” In a very real — yet very nuanced — way, “Avatar” gives audiences an opportunity to denounce Europe’s and America’s imperial past while rewriting the historical narrative to turn the oppressor into the hero.

The basic plotline goes like this: Humans have depleted Earth’s natural resources. Military forces move in on Pandora, the resource-rich home of the Na’vi, essentially a catchall stereotype of all colonized people throughout history. The film’s protagonist, Jake Sully, is a handicapped Marine whose brain is wired into a lab-created Na’vi body to infiltrate the tribe who lives above a giant deposit of “unobtanium,” the mineral earthlings are crazy to get their hands on. He’s supposed to learn the Na’vi’s way of life and facilitate the removal from their homeland. One thing leads to another, Sully switches sides, and eventually saves the Na’vi from the horrible military-imperial power who would seek to destroy them.

“Avatar” is a white guilt movie in the sense that the entire premise makes white people uncomfortable with their past. The film is a clear analogy of the ways people, mostly white people, have historically oppressed indigenous groups for economic or racist reasons.

On its face, this isn’t a bad thing. All people, white or not, should come to terms with the history of imperialism and conquest that created the world today. This is where it gets nuanced.

Although the military might of the conquerors is portrayed as the villain, and the indigenous Na’vi as the “good guys,” the movie allows white viewers to feel OK because “one of us” is the hero.

Though the Na’vi are powerful, skilled warriors, it takes Sully to tame the Toruk, unite the Na’vi tribes and defeat the enemy. By putting white Sully in a blue Na’vi body, “Avatar” tells the audience that white people can “go native” and live the life of oppressed people without ever having to actually be oppressed.

After all, Sully gets to go back to being a Marine until he decides to switch sides and by then, he’s no longer just a Na’vi — he’s a Na’vi leader. Not only that, but he gets the indigenous princess and in the end, the Na’vi embrace their former oppressor as one of their own.

“Avatar” gives American audiences the best of both worlds by allowing us to judge our imperialist history while never having to examine the impact it had on indigenous cultures, and that’s the key to understanding the effect the movie has on viewers. Should “Avatar” have told the story of European and American imperialism as it actually happened, audiences would’ve left the theater sad, outraged or some confused mental state in between.

It would be easy to say the filmmakers rewrote history to make the film more enjoyable, and that probably was the conscious motive. After all, who would have wanted to see “Gandhi” if the oppressed Indians didn’t win their independence in the end?

But that isn’t the point. By allowing audiences to become comfortable with imperialism between humans and Na’vi, the filmmakers allow audiences to become comfortable with imperialism in general.

Besides, if there’s any reason not to give “Avatar” any non-technical awards, it should be that it’s just a shallow rewrite of “Dances with Wolves,” “The Last Samurai,” “Pocahontas,” and “Fern Gully.”

Mario Moretto is news editor for The Maine Campus.

But it seems beards can also be grown in protest.

Workers at Androscoggin Country Jail in Auburn are growing beards to protest the prolonged fruitless negotiations between their employer and their union that has left them working without a labor contract for more than a year, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal.

As county workers, the newly bearded dispatcher, jail guards and patrol officers are not permitted to strike. According to the Sun Journal, “the job action was called to vent some frustration.” Workers who cannot grow beards are rebelling by wearing jeans and polo shirts in place of their uniforms.

I am torn. On the one hand, I firmly believe that beards should be grown only for the purest of reasons: for the embrace of the masculine mystique, or as a commitment to the natural male condition.

On the other hand, whether the protest is just or not, the airing of grievances is one of the cornerstones of our representative democracy. In this case, the traditional last-resort method of protest — the strike — is unavailable. The workers’ beard growth and casual dress may not stop work altogether, but do disrupt the normal aesthetic of punching in and working.

The fact that under normal circumstances these workers are prohibited from growing beards also precludes these particular men from my normal practice of shunning the less savory motivations for growing a beard. After all, maybe Androscoggin County workers would always have liked to sport a goatee or Van Dyke. Maybe this is their first opportunity to do so.

Acting in concert is one of the more impressive and commendable aspects of the human condition. Seeing men (and women) act in unison out of mutual respect and solidarity gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling. I say that if beard growth is a way to keep these county workers together in expressing their employment angst, more power to them.

I am left, then, with a question: Which beard-growing motivations pass muster and which do not? I still hold that beards grown for vanity out of competition are unacceptable. I also still maintain that beards that are grown in the spirit of irony, that subtly mock true beardies everywhere, are similarly reprehensible.

That’s not to say all facial hair growth must be born of a higher purpose. There’s nothing wrong with a man growing a beard simply because it looks good on him, or to experiment with new looks.

One thing is for certain: the stubble displayed on the faces of the Androscoggin County Jail workers can be ranked among the most respectable beards recently covered by the Maine press corps.

The provost’s office awaits reports from deans at two of the university’s five colleges, who have been assessing academic units on “straightforward metrics” such as undergraduate credit hours, degrees awarded and enrollment. Hunter said the process would pause over spring break, but that her office anticipates carrying forward initial recommendations based on the deans’ findings to the full Academic Program Prioritization Working Group (APPWG) membership after spring break.

The committee was charged by UMaine President Robert Kennedy in fall 2009 to prioritize programs and make recommendations on how to support the highest priority programs funded by a reduction in those ranked at a lower priority.

“This is very serious, very detailed work,” Hunter said Tuesday. She said the initial overview of academic units being conducted by her office and the deans will help APPWG “figure out which programs should be looked at in more detail.”

“I’m not saying they’re weaker programs,” Hunter said of units that will be identified for closer examination. “But in some way they don’t score as high as other programs.”

Hunter said it was too early in the process to say which units will be put under heavier scrutiny.

Sen. Nate Wildes questioned the provost on how students will be involved in decisions that he said are sure to affect their education.

Hunter told senate that student input would be an important part of any decision made. She said public input, especially questions and comments from students, would be sought at as many as three open forums. She told Wildes and the rest of senate that no final decision would be made before receiving public input.

•••

At the senate meeting, Residents On Campus President Joseph Moran discussed the origin of $13,512 dollars to ROC’s General Assembly fund, which is used to finance events that benefit on-campus residents.

Roughly $9,000 of the cash comes from a half-dollar increase in the amount received by ROC from each student that came into effect a few years ago, Moran said. The ROC administration that oversaw the increase, from $6 to $6.50, did not account for the extra money in ROC’s financial policies.

“We’ve known the extra money was there all year,” Moran said. He said ROC had been waiting to allocate the money until the end of the semester, when it was clear how it could best be used.

The remainder of the $13,512 moved to General Assembly stems from a computer crash that occurred in ROC’s office three years ago. Moran said before the crash, ROC officers did not back up financial information. In the shuffle of compiling uncleared checks, outstanding bills and receipts, the roughly $5,000 was lost in the bookkeeping shuffle.

Despite the mix-up, Moran said no one was harmed through the “minor oversight,” and “no money was ever lost and no extra money was ever seen.”

“We’ve never turned down a funding request or run out of money,” Moran said.

ROC’s financial policies were updated last semester to accurately reflect the current fee received from each student.

State troopers didn’t have any specifics on what the debris was or whether it was connected with the apparent hit-and-run police say killed Jordyn Bakley, 20, of Camden, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine State Police.

A resident of Middle Street, who declined to be identified, spotted the small piece of plastic while pointing out the location he said the body was found to reporters for The Maine Campus.

“If you look right there, you can see part of a grill,” he said. He quickly called the debris in to the Orono Police Department. The resident said the item probably became visible because snow has melted since police originally combed the area for evidence.

Capt. Josh Ewing and Sgt. Scott Lajoie responded to the call and bagged the debris. They raked the surrounding area, breaking up the snow in search of anything else that may have surfaced.

Sgt. Lajoie said police had identified the type of vehicle they believe was involved in the accident, a 2003-2007 Chevrolet Avalanche or Silverado, based on “evidence found at the scene.”

McCausland said investigators have received “a few leads” they are pursuing, and that if anyone has “concrete, firsthand information,” to call the Orono Police Department at 866-4451.

Following the strict letter of the rules for direct-funded organizations, of which Student Government is one, and its own employment policies, Gatcombe said she meets the requirements necessary to hold office and be paid: A cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher and a GPA of 2.0 or higher for the semester before her appointment, spring 2009.

But according to Vice President of Financial Affairs Justin Labonte, the strict letter of the rule was not followed. Instead of examining Gatcombe’s grades for the spring 2009 semester, in which Gatcombe met the requirement, Labonte followed a precedent that examined the fall 2009 semester.

Gatcombe’s GPA for the fall semester of 2009 is currently incomplete while she awaits the approval of a medical withdrawal from at least one class. Because a final GPA that met the requirement could not be confirmed for Gatcombe, Labonte believed he was unable to pay her, per employment policy of Student Government.

“We never, ever issue a paycheck without getting all the information. We can’t issue it without a W-4, we can’t issue it without a GPA,” Labonte said.

Labonte was given cause to more closely examine the policies regarding GPA requirements after Senate Parliamentarian Ryan Gavin introduced a main motion to General Student Senate last week to change the way executives reviewed senators’ GPAs. After realizing the discrepancy between the rules as written and the precedent being practiced, Gatcombe was compensated for the time she had worked.

“The only reason we didn’t issue a paycheck is because that policy said not to,” Labonte said. “That will not continue to be the policy.” He said, “As of today, I’m going to take a literal interpretation of these policies and not on the precedent as used in the past.”

Jeremiah Rancourt, legal advisor to Student Government, would not comment as to whether the withholding of pay was illegal, but instructed executives on how to change SG policies to be in accordance with both university policy and Maine law after meeting with Labonte last week.

“We found out what the law was and we have fixed everything,” said President of Student Government Brian Harris Thursday, Feb. 4. “We’re all in bounds now.”

A member of Student Government, speaking on condition of anonymity, said executives told the General Student Senate during an executive session Tuesday that Rancourt said certain employment changes had to be made in order to comply with state laws.     

Another member of Student Government, who also asked to remain anonymous, said that while they were not lawyers, “one would assume witholding pay is against the law.”

Dean of Students Robert Dana, who met with SG executive last week on this matter, said Student Government understands that individuals who work must be paid, but that people make mistakes.

“I know they sought consultation and advice,” Dana said. He added that to executives, withholding pay “appeared to be a solution that they could use. They realized that they can’t.”

“I know all the people in Student Government. I know the executives. I know that they would’ve only done something thinking it was the right thing to do,” Dana said. “This happens all the time. We do what we believe is correct, and we figure out that it is or it isn’t. That’s when true leaders say, ‘Well, we made a mistake.’ To make a mistake is perfectly legitimate. It’s what we do.”

Harris, who did not know about this situation until he was informed sometime early in the week of Feb. 1, said that this “misinterpretation” of the rules is a result of the high turnover rate that necessarily affects any college organization.

“Officers and executives come through here all the time, and we’re trained by our predecessors,” Harris said Feb. 4. “None of us have ever even heard of this situation coming up.”

Vice President of Student Organizations Samantha Shulman said it’s important not to be too critical of any oversight that may have happened in the VPFA office.

“I understand it’s super important to read documents and be careful,” she said. “But the rules could easily be misunderstood.”

“Honestly, you can chalk it up to the fact that the policies suck,” Sen. Gavin said. “They’ve been jumbled throughout the years, they’re not written properly, and we’re going to fix them.”

With Hairy Maine, Hackenmiller chronicled the best in facial hair in and around Portland while she attended USM for the fall 2009 semester. But this blog queen is more than just a beard reporter. She’s a tried-and-true pogonophile — a lover of beards.

Psychologists at Northumbria University in Newcastle, U.K., conducted a study in which women rated men. In the end, the results showed that women preferred men with stubble as romantic partners, either for a casual fling or a serious relationship.

Hackenmiller — who has returned to the University of Alaska at Anchorage and started a new blog, AKmoostache.tumblr.com — said she can’t pinpoint exactly when she realized she loves beards more than most, but she went public around two years ago.

“I just started telling people, ‘God, I love your beard,’” she said. “I was proud to be able to tell people I appreciated their beards.”

Though she doesn’t love all hairy faces (she detests a poorly-grown mustache), Hackenmiller readily admits her weakness for men who embrace the inevitable growth of all things beard, and would encourage any man she meets to give their facial hair a shot.

“If it looks gross, persevere,” she said. “Perseverance is key. I’ve learned through interviews that it’s really hard to start one off. It’s frustrating at first. It’s like training. I hear the first two weeks are always bad, and then you get the glorious, luscious beard.”

As many men know, not all women love beards. Hackenmiller said most of the women she knows don’t like beards; they think facial hair is gross, or they can’t get over the initial scratchiness of a man’s stubble.

But women who will love your beard as much as you do are out there, she said. She recounted standing outside the bar Empire in Portland, smoking and chatting with the people outside. She met a woman named Claire, who had recently returned from Scotland and was telling stories of her five years in Europe. Suddenly, she commented that men in Scotland had the best mustaches she’d ever seen.

“Sometimes I meet that rare girl that’s outgoing and loves mustaches and beards as much as I do,” Hackenmiller said. “I’ll never forget Claire for that.”

Hackenmiller’s affinity for beards takes many forms: She throws mustache parties. She invents new words to add to her facial hair lexicon (an “a-beard-inable snowman” is a man with snow in his beard. A woman who can’t see past a man’s facial hair is wearing “beard goggles”). She learns weird beard facts, like how the French words for both beards and mustaches are feminine. She attends the World Beard and Mustache Championship in Anchorage. And of course, she writes on her blog.

It would be easy to write off Hackenmiller’s pogonophilia as a passing phase or even a joke. But she said it’s more than that.

“Beards are something that withstands time and culture. They’re part of the body. They’ve been there forever,” she said. “You have the opportunity to appreciate it or not, but it’s there not matter what you say. Facial hair is there, and it’s beautiful.”

“We could bring the same bill back again with the new legislature,” Bellows said in an interview Wednesday. “Alternatively, we could bring a civil unions bill or we could bring a bill that provided additional protections but fell short of civil unions or marriage.”

Bellows spoke to students and faculty in the Bangor Room of Memorial Union Wednesday as part of the Women in the Curriculum and Women’s Studies Program lunch series. Charlotte Warren, associate director for Maine Women’s Lobby and Susan Farnsworth, a private practice attorney from Hollowell also spoke on the topic “Gay Marriage in Maine: What’s Next?”

Maine, which could have become the fifth state to grant same-sex couples the right to marriage (New Hampshire went on to take that distinction), voted the measure down in November. Bellows sat on the steering committee of the Maine Freedom to Marry Coalition, which also included Equality Maine and Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders.

A court battle to overturn Proposition 8 — which reversed California’s same-sex marriage law — could end up in the Supreme Court. If the court overturns Propostion 8, it could lead to marriage equality in all 50 states, Bellows said. But she cautioned against proponents of same-sex marriage waiting for the Supreme Court.

“The court is nine human beings, and some are very conservative,” Bellows said.

Bellows also said it could potentially be dangerous to pursue a constitutional path to same-sex marriage, as was done in Iowa, where the supreme court ruled a ban on gay marriage unconstitutional.

“There’s some concern that a case brought at this time would not be successful because there’s a lack of precedent around a liberal interpretation of the equal protection clause [in Maine],” Bellows said. “It would be a disaster to bring a case too soon and lose because that would set us back in the legislature and in the court of public opinion.”

According to Bellows, proponents of same-sex marriage are working to support candidates who voted for the marriage equality bill in the upcoming elections. The MCLU is also working to establish “ambassadors” in rural communities who will talk with friends, family and community members about same-sex marriage. All three panelists stressed the need for proponents of same-sex marriage to keep talking.

“We need to focus on persuasion,” Bellows said.

“Speaking with people makes change last,” Farnsworth said. “It makes change make sense, makes it real.”

Warren, who was elected mayor of Hallowell the night same-sex marriage was defeated in Maine, said it was important for supporters to keep the conversation going by looking for “teachable moments” with the people they interact with everyday.

Bellows said the pro-same-sex marriage movement needed to make up about 80,000 votes to ensure victory at the polls again. She urged supporters to fill out blue postcards distributed by Equality Maine, telling their representatives where they stand on the marriage issue.

Despite the defeat at the polls last year, the three panelists were optimistic. Farnsworth and Bellows both noted the immense sea change in Maine since the time voters approved anti-discrimination legislation in 2005 to when they nearly approved same-sex marriage in 2009.

“For us to come this close to marriage equality in a single year is remarkable,” Bellows said.