The curtailment order for all state entities totaled more than $63 million dollars. The system’s cut of $5.97 million is the second-largest, representing 3.38 percent of its state appropriation; the Department of Health and Human Services received the largest cut of $11.15 million, representing 1.35 percent of its state appropriation.

The system was expecting a curtailment order of $7.5 million, according to Rebecca Wyke, vice chancellor for finance and administration. The smaller curtailment order is intended to reduce the impact on the system’s three smallest campuses and reduce the number of class sections eliminated, Wyke said.

“We were notified in mid-October that we would have a likely reduction of approximately $7.5 million. The governor’s announcement of his curtailment today actually reduces that to just under $6 million,” Wyke said.

The curtailment means the University of Maine at Machias could have to close its campus security office and work study at the University of Maine at Presque Isle could be severely impacted, according to Wyke.

The system received $174.9 million in fiscal year 2001, according to Wyke. This year’s initial appropriation was $176.4 million, which has since been reduced to $170.5 million.

“It has been fluctuating quite a bit over the past years,” Wyke said.

University President Robert Kennedy charged the work group in September with analyzing academic programs and units at UMaine to increase their efficiency and optimize them to fit the current economic and academic climate.

The eight criteria are programs’ scholarly productivity; their external funding; the student credit hours they offer; degrees awarded over the last five years; links with other programs; links outside the university; characteristics of students coming into the program; and the costs and revenue ratio of each program.

“This has been a difficult process, without question,” said professor Judy Kuhns-Hastings, president of the UMaine Faculty Senate.

Provost Susan Hunter said there are no benchmarks that will determine when the work group will recommend changing a program and that there likely never will be any. Kuhns-Hastings said the process will be more of a discussion than a systematic evaluation.

“It’s not that the group comes up with a score sheet with numbers on it and if you’re above the line, you’re safe and if you’re below — it’s never going to be that way,” Hunter said.

Kuhns-Hastings said she is concerned programs won’t be strong enough to appear beneficial to the work group because of the amount of budget cuts that have taken place recently.

“Departments and units have become so small — more than bare-bones — it is important to me that these decisions don’t get made because an important department has just gotten so many cuts that they can’t be strong, because they don’t have enough faculty to be strong,” Hastings said.

Hunter said the work group will meet Thursday to discuss the weight of the criteria — or which ones are more pressing than others. Kuhns-Hastings said it’s impossible to predict which ones may gain more weight than others.

“My concern is that, not just nursing students, but also all students continue to have a broad education. Because the students need to not only be grounded in their discipline, but they also need that broad liberal grounding,” Kuhns-Hasting said.

Much of the criteria are based on data the university collects every year.

“It’s been really important to us to not just put numbers on things that would also make that qualitative judgment,” Kuhns-Hastings said.

Hunter said in September the point of the work group is not to find programs to eliminate.

Professor Michael Grillo, president-elect of Faculty Senate, said one of the work group’s subcommittees has been focused on creating a system of metrics for measuring academic programs and units, which are being designed to be fair across all departments.

“One of the concerns — this being most worrisome — is that it is easy to collect data on some things and other things are a lot more slippery,” Grillo said. “To set up a series of indicators gives an automatic precedence to numerical data, and the committee has reiterated several times to itself and to others that these indicators and numerical sensibilities will be taken as part of a discussion. But I do have concerns that numbers carry weight.”

Grillo said he is concerned a focus on numerical data will dictate what programs get the most attention from the work group and the president. He said it’s difficult to quantify intangibles such as an “educated citizenry” or “the state’s responsibility to the state and to its people in terms of democratic action.”

“They are tangible in the sense that you can see where they would weigh out where an educated citizenry would act with certain foresight and responsibility, but they would be very hard to do a quick data collection on,” Grillo said.

Hunter stressed that the criteria released Monday is a draft and does not represent the final version.

“The ones we have on the sheet of paper tend to be very quantifiable — it doesn’t mean that there aren’t qualitative and subjective pieces of all of this,” Hunter said.

Hunter said the scholarly productivity of programs will be measured within the context of each discipline.

“In some fields, peer-reviewed publications, journal articles are the metric,” Hunter said. “Art is producing artwork and participating in juried exhibitions, music is producing creative works … in sciences it could be map-making. There is some level within a field where people recognize and agree upon what are the high indicators of scholarly productivity.”

The work group’s efforts will complement University of Maine System Chancellor Richard Pattenaude’s restructuring plan, which the board of trustees approved Monday.

Hunter said the review process will focus solely on UMaine. The work group will not compare UMaine to other universities or institutions to determine its recommendations to the president — who will make the final decisions concerning academic programs.

“None of these criteria are stand-alone as the make-or-break,” Hunter said. “They are meant to holistically analyze units, because units have varying strengths, units teach more or some units have greater scholarly output and lower teaching. I mean, it’s a composite image.”

The UMaine community will have a chance to provide input to the work group on Dec. 2 in DPC 100 and, from Jan. 8 to 28, the work group will collect further comment from the campus to analyze and include in their recommendations. Anyone can e-mail the work group at achieving.sustainability@umit.maine.edu. Its Web site is umaine.edu/achievingsustainability. Hunter will submit the work group’s findings to Kennedy on April 2.

The report states students can affect green initiatives on their campus by including more venues for student engagement; learning and teaching about green efforts; growing campus leadership networks; connecting with staff, faculty and administrators; and acknowledging and celebrating success of environmental efforts.

The report states, “Much has been gleaned from the experiences of students and others on campuses nationwide who have helped lead the way for sustainability. They have been pioneers in what will truly be a decades-long experiment to see if we can get this climate and clean energy revolution right.”

During a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Julian Keniry from the National Wildlife Federation said the “value of sustainability defines and unites the current generation,” and the federation’s report “demolishes” the stereotype of students apathetic to sustainability.

Jason Sanders, a graduate student from Texas State University who also spoke to reporters, said the best way for students to encourage green initiatives on campus is to create an environmental service committee on campus funded through tuition to organize student support and action.

Christina Erickson, a graduate student from the University of Vermont, said, “Fun is a major factor.” She said people often think of the environment as a negative, gloomy subject, and making campus projects enthusiastic and engaging will help encourage students to participate in them.

The report includes 160 schools from 46 states, including several University of Maine System campuses. It details campus projects from compositing to vehicles that run on cooking fat.

“We see a very large interest with our peers, our student body [for compositing],” said Sanders, who organized a composting project at Texas State.

Adam Yarnell, a student from Brown University, said sustainability has become a big issue for students.

“We feel like we have a social responsibility not to leave the next generation’s environment in a worse way than it is,” Yarnell said.

Erickson said it is important that people connect sustainability efforts to a variety of student interests if they hope to increase support for environmentally friendly initiatives.

“This is the language that they’re going to have to know about,” Erickson said.

Ayodele Akinpelu, a student from Wayne State University, told reporters it’s important for students to get in touch with their local community organizations and businesses and get hands-on with the “nitty-gritty” aspects of green initiatives.

“The main thing we need is … support from the administration,” Yarnell said.

Sanders said he doesn’t see the green movement as a passing fad.

“I don’t see this as being a movement in the ’60s,” said Sanders, who added the green movement will not die and come back.

Akinpelu said the green movement will last as long as the human impact continues to alter the environment.

“It’s definitely not a fad,” Akinpelu said. “It’s going to be a realization.”

Yarnell told university students it’s important to put in the initial effort into sustainability projects, because “once these initiatives get started, they just start snowballing.”

The UMaine Green Campus Initiative held a recycling event Oct. 24, designed to garner 350 bags of bottles. UMaine recycled nearly 4.2 million pounds of trash in 2008 — 4,052,378 pounds of it came from campus. Akinpelu said Wayne State’s newest engineering building is LEED-certified, meaning it meets energy efficiency standards higher than most buildings — standards defined by the U.S. Green Buildings Council. The Student Recreation and Fitness Center at UMaine, finished in 2007, is also LEED-certified.

Akinpelu said the main barriers for environmental initiatives are university administrations, funding and student support — or lack thereof.

“People care about it, but there’s not enough people to come out and do the work,” Akinpelu said.

Keniry said she has been impressed by the diverse amount of support from students across the nation.

Erickson said people need to adopt a more dynamic, systematic way of thinking about green efforts because it is critical to helping sustainable projects get more interconnected and succeed.

Scott Carlson, from the Chronicle of Higher Education, moderated the phone conference. He said the United States ranks behind 21 other nations in preparing high school students for environmental programs in college.

“Only a minority of colleges and universities are teaching about natural ecosystems,” said Keniry, who added even fewer are teaching about the human impact on such ecosystems.

“If we don’t get sustainability right,” Keniry said, “we won’t get a lot of other issues right.”

Alan Kezis, chair of the Graduation Rate and Retention Improvement Team, said two years ago first-years were mixed with upperclassmen in campus dorms. As part of the effort to increase the first-year retention rate to more than 80 percent and the graduation rate to more than 59 percent, first-year students now live in the Hilltop region on campus. Kezis said this makes a difference in rates because students feel happier and have others to work with while learning how to become a college student.

“Upperclassmen and freshmen were mixed. It’s a fairly large change over the last couple of years, since we’ve put all the freshmen together and tried to concentrate all the efforts on them right there,” Kezis said. “I think we’ve learned over the years that being engaged makes you happier. It gives you a peer group to work with, helps you set the goals and learn how to become a college student. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.”

Kezis said the university moved the new students into the dorms a few days early at the beginning of the academic year to engage them in the first-year program, which continues throughout the year.

“Here at this college, we run a number of programs with our freshmen where we take them away for a number of days before school starts to basically get them indoctrinated with the academics,” Kezis said. “System campus-wide, we’re also running the Academic Recovery Program. … It’s basically putting our staff around them to find out what the issues are. Grades are bluntly a signal, and more often than not it’s [bad grades.] Not because they don’t have the academic capability, it’s because something else is going on that’s a major problem. So basically they just meet once a week. We make sure they go to classes, we find tutoring for them and all those kinds of things. Persistent rates increased dramatically this year by doing that.”

AnneMarie Reed, associate director of Residence Life, said there are a wide range of first-year programs the university runs to increase first-year student involvement on campus.

“For example, if there are issues on a particular floor that students are facing, like somebody’s done some vandalism along the way, we would then provide training opportunities and information to the students about that, what that involves when there’s clean up costs and so forth. So we spend a lot of time providing information in that way to our students,” Reed said.

Residence Life offers academic support along with dorm-wide programs, according to Reed.

“We also coordinate and run the academic study tables, which are five nights a week in the Hilltop commons. Students can go there for some individual tutoring. We already have a list of roughly 100 students who have attended study tables this semester,” Reed said.

All the programs incorporated into the first-year experience are part of a much larger plan the board of trustees approved Nov. 16, called the “New Challenges, New Directions Initiative.”

The plan has three main goals: to measure up to the changing education needs of the public, businesses and organizations; to keep the cost of baccalaureate and graduate education low for students by moderating tuition increases; and to bring spending in line with available resources.

Some of the sub-goals in the plan aimed at retention and graduation rates at the University of Maine system include allowing students to obtain their baccalaureate degree in three years rather than four, doubling the number of students enrolled in online degree programs and increasing the number of allied health profession programs graduates by 20 percent.

Kezis sees the outline of the plan in more basic terms.

“It is a major plan system wide, basically, to try to bring [retention and graduation rates] in line with the reality of what our budgets are,” Kezis said.

The Kennebec Journal recently compared the university to private institutions, two of which were Harvard and Yale. Kezis said this is an unfair comparison. Because UMaine is a public university, it has a better chance to bring in students with issues outside of education.

“This is a public institution where we are providing [public] access, so we have much more diverse population in terms of all kinds of different things,” Kezis said. “If you took our students who match up to the students at the private [institutions] academically, you will find that our retention rates are just as good. So it’s not a rational comparison.”

Kezis said regardless of the numbers, there are outside factors UMaine needs to consider before it can compare its retention and graduation rates to a private institution’s.

“If you take a look at retention rates and graduation rates, they are distinctly different based on the student’s academic profile, income of the family, all those types of things. If you compare our students to comparable students, they actually do better here than other peers,” Kezis said.

Dean of Students Robert Dana said that while the university has not seen an increase in retention rates, 20 percent of first-year students used to leave the dorms by the end of the year. Now first-year students are more likely to remain in the dorms because of first-year programs.

First-year student Kevin Dube said his experience is going well, but believes — despite the programs — a student’s decision to leave will be made on their own terms.

“I feel like UMaine has a bunch of great programs and has a very welcoming community. Freshmen like myself typically find it easy to find friends and things to do most nights, but the classes are in the hands of the individual, and if they choose to transfer or drop out due to the classes, that is out of the hands of the school.” Dube said.

Kezis believes there is no reason retention and graduation rates have to take the back seat to nonacademic issues.

“We are always seeing what we can do to help retain students and help them to graduate. Our rates right now are above what you would expect with our student profile, but that doesn’t mean we still aren’t trying to improve it. We’re always trying to see what works and what works better,” Kezis said.

Loiselle Goodwin and James Hinds, two guest speakers at the meeting, presented an audit of Student Government, required by law, which showed Student Government has $184,066 in assets, $7,799 in liabilities and total unrestricted net assets of $97,460 for fiscal year 2010. The report is from June 30. Hinds praised Student Government’s proper financial reporting practices and cited minimal deficiencies. According to Hinds, a deficiency is a lack of financial record-keeping that prevents the audit from being completed in a timely fashion.

Student Government’s No. 1 significant deficiency was not recording the financial activity in their University Foundation account, according to Hinds.

“When the audit came around, we had to get the information elsewhere,” Hinds said.

Auditors need the figures on an annual basis to adjust their report findings concerning Student Government’s investment growth in the Foundation.

“You have less deficiencies than last year’s, so you’re on the right track, and even less than the year before that,” Hinds said.

The addition of a mission statement to the Student Government constitution passed after revision. President Owen McCarthy was pleased the senate reached a compromise and said an explanation of Student Government’s purpose and progress were the main goals of the mission statement.

Large club allocations during the meeting included $2,300 to the Nordic Ski Club for transportation and entry fees and $2,961 to the UM Flying Club for improved safety measures on the club’s second plane. Planned improvements included a new preheater, a push-to-talk switch intercom system and shoulder harnesses in the club’s more recently purchased plane.

Sen. Zachary Jackman explained that the Flying Club was requesting funding for improvements. Sen. Ben Goodman disagreed and said the club should have considered the safety issues before the plane’s purchase and included them in its cost. He said with knowledge of the plane’s history, these improvements should have been anticipated.

“Nothing they’re requesting is necessary for the plane’s flight,” Jackman said.

Sen. Ryan Gavin weighed in.

“I support it on the grounds of improvement rather than helping them out,” Gavin said in reference to specific repairs rather than fixed funding.

Fair Election Practices Commission Chair Skye Landry reported 2,435 students voted in last week’s Student Government election. The inauguration is set for Dec. 9. Landry expressed desire for better FEPC guidelines in the future, after last week’s election when six ballots under question caused unclear results. In addition, several of the FEPC guidelines are outdated and contradictory. She asked senators to assist in the improvement of new guidelines.

Jackman agreed.

“I look forward to taking a good, long, hard look … at what happened last week,” Jackman said.

Dyer reported the New Challenges, New Directions Initiative revisions from the University of Maine System board of trustees meeting Nov. 15 and 16 included the interest in a University of Maine System front-end portal that would link a customized version of each student’s organizations, services, schedules and communication.

“It will be expensive,” said Dyer, who repeated the trustee’s estimated cost of $20 per student per semester for the service. Dyer explained the board hopes the portal will increase ease of use and thereby increase retention rates in the system due to a better understanding of UMS workings. University of Maine at Farmington already has a version of the portal, as do other state universities.

In response to feedback from public sessions, the UMS Strategic Investment Fund — a pool of money proposed to be set aside for the system to strategically invest in certain areas, and part of the restructuring plan — was reduced. It was decreased from a $5.4 million disbursement to $1 million over the next year, with $500,000 coming from the campus itself and $500,000 coming from the system office.

In recognition of Associate Dean of Students Angel Loredo’s recent layoff, Wilde Steine President Zachary Knox and Sen. Alex Ortiz organized petitions in appreciation of Loredo’s influence and support in Multi-cultural Affairs and Wilde Steine. Knox and Ortiz urged senators to sign them.

Goodman motioned to allocate $120 to Sophomore Eagles Honor Society for a children’s holiday party at Acadia Hospital in Bangor. The allocation originally failed in the Executive Budgetary Committee because the party was going to be a closed event, open only to UMaine Eagles and hospital participants. Although not policy, senators in committee felt the event should be open to the UMaine community and not just the society. After confirmation that the event would be open to all interested UMaine students, senators passed the motion.

Sen. Joseph Nabozny motioned to allocate $110 to Student Labor Action Project for guest speaker costs in the upcoming film showing and discussion of “Battle in Seattle.” UMaine alumnus Sarah Bigney, an organizer at the Maine Fair Trade Campaign, will be leading discussion following the film.

$1,150 was allocated to Life Support’s office budget, screening license and speaker fees; $900 to Men’s Volleyball Club; $600 to Tappi Paper Industry Management Association Student Summit; $506 to Campus Crusade; and $200 to the UM Flying Club for its office budget.

“With discussing any vision, the elephant in the room certainly is the economy and the challenges that we have as an institution, financial and otherwise. We’re not alone; institutions across the country are faced with this,” said UMaine President Robert Kennedy.

While faculty is working to soften the blow budget cuts are having on the university, the cuts are necessary for moving forward, Kennedy said. Janet Waldron, vice president for administration and finance, predicted at least a 5 percent increase in tuition and fees during the next four years.

These challenges have also led to cuts in faculty positions. Professor Tina Passman questioned the recent elimination of Angel Loredo’s position as Associate Dean of Students.

“We’ve had to cut one-third of staff and Student Affairs,” Dean of Students Robert Dana said. “One-third of our front line has been laid off, including Dean Loredo. This was one of the first noticeable blows to the student body, as far as budget cuts go.”

“We can’t survive without change. The challenge that we have is making some changes, but inevitably there will be some cuts that will negatively affect the institution,” Kennedy said.

Student Government Rep. Nate Wildes presented the General Student Senate’s research into the adoption of a new software portal at the university — an aspect of the chancellor’s restructuring plan, which the board of trustees approved Monday.

“It would cost $20 per student, per semester,” Wildes said.

Student Government is still gathering information regarding the implementation of the program.

“As current students at the University of Maine, our job is to consider what we think is a benefit for our current enrollment at the university, and I see it as a benefit,” Wildes said, concerning the Government’s position.

Some faculty are unsupportive of the proposition.

“The cost of this is completely ridiculous,” Sen. Craig Mason said. “Is it worth it to students to take away hundreds of scholarships from students each year? We need to consider the fact that these expenses add up and make a huge difference in the long run. Those of us with finance experience can see this.”

Mason went on to express that the adoption of a new software portal was not in the best interests of the university, and that students should re-think their opinion.

“Our intentions are to help the faculty and administration make this decision from the student’s point of view. We’re looking at what the decision-makers have on the table and are doing our best to give the public a student’s point of view about it,” Wildes said.

UMaine is the state’s only land-grant university and is also one of the top 100 research universities in the nation. Kennedy cited the need for unrivaled recognition for the university across the state to encourage public support.

“What this is about is the public perception of the University of Maine, and over the past five to 10 years, that has changed drastically. Our support has been declining,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said a major goal for UMaine is to earn a place in the top 50 universities in the country.

“If we continue to do what we’ve been doing, I’m confident that we will achieve that. Many would argue that we are as good as or better than the universities on that list,” Kennedy said.

The senate discussed options for raising awareness about educational benefits for potential UMaine students. Passman suggested the university create an ad hoc response group to come up with new ideas to get the public involved, which would involve targeting high school students to generate interest in the university and offer information about the educational opportunities within the state.

“Is there some way of getting in the schools and getting data from kids? That’s our audience; that’s our market,” Mason said.

Sen. Janet Fairman suggested more data be presented to the public outlining the benefits of a UMaine education.

“Do we have objective data on what distinguishes the quality of our programs, such as graduate rates and other indicators we could use to differentiate the quality of our education?” Fairman asked. “There’s great data, but the public isn’t informed of it.”

UMaine faculty is working to create an image for the university that presents its benefit in comparison to other universities in the state, without portraying a competitive or conceited atmosphere.

“We need to talk about the quality that we have. Our quality is there, and we speak to it, but it has to be the quality that we project as in institution, not trying to say that we are better than the other institutions. That will not work in this state,” said Provost Sue Hunter.

Faculty also addressed the issue of Maine residents leaving the state to find education elsewhere.

“If programs aren’t here but they’re offered elsewhere, students will just go to the other University of Maine campuses, such as Machias or Fort Kent, or to Massachusetts or New Hampshire, where those programs are offered,” Mason said. “We need to provide data that students will leave the state of Maine to get education elsewhere.”

At the close of the meeting, the senate announced the New Challenges, New Directions, a program aimed at achieving long-term financial sustainability has been approved, and Hunter has been re-approved as Provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.

The University of Maine marching band was practicing on Lengyel Field when a male wearing nothing but a wig and glasses ran by at 4:28 p.m. Nov. 13. The director of the marching band reported the naked man, and police responded but were unable to locate him. His identity remains a mystery.

Early morning Oxford Orloff

An Oxford Hall resident assistant observed an intoxicated female entering a second-floor room and heard people opening cans inside at 2:53 a.m. Nov. 15. Police responded and knocked on the door to investigate underage drinking. When the door opened, the officer saw people in the room, three of whom had not been drinking. Resident Erik Thayer, 19, and Kelly Bradbury, 18, were both intoxicated. Police found three cans of Bud Light and a half-gallon bottle of Orloff vodka inside the room. Thayer and Bradbury were issued summonses for possession of alcohol by a minor.

Bronco burglary

A student parked his 1994 Ford Bronco in the Student Recreation and Fitness Center Parking Lot at 8 p.m. Nov. 15 and returned 24 hours later to find his Garmin 1300T GPS and 120-gigabyte iPod had been stolen from the vehicle. He found the vehicle unlocked and was unsure if he locked it. The GPS and iPod each have an estimated value of $250.

Marching on Mazdas

A student returned to her parked 2004 Mazda in the Knox Hall Parking Lot at 5 p.m. Nov. 16 and claimed someone walked over the vehicle, leaving dents and scratches which amounted to an estimated damage of $200. The time frame of the incident is unknown. The case is under investigation.

Chasing thieves — that’s what friends are for

A student walking home from the gym said he saw a male stranger rifling through his friend’s 1998 Ford Taurus parked in the Corbett Parking Lot at 7:43 p.m. Nov. 16. The student yelled at him and the stranger immediately ran off, dropping the vehicle owner’s cell phone on the ground. The student described the stranger as approximately 6 feet 3 inches tall, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt. Police remind people not to leave valuables in visible locations inside vehicles. They also ask for anyone with information on the case to contact Public Safety.

Sometimes friends are too late

A student walking through the Hilltop Parking Lot saw her friend’s 2004 Volkswagen Beetle with a smashed-out rear window at 2:17 p.m. Nov. 14. The repair cost is undetermined. Nothing was stolen, and it appears to be an act of vandalism, according to the police. The case is under investigation.

The arguments over Question 1 in Maine and federal funding of abortion in the House health care bill seemed to be more a clash of ideologies than a practical disagreement over the merits of either option. In both cases, one side was apparently motivated largely by religious convictions, and many are rightly considering whether this breaches the separation of church and state.

The American public sphere has become increasingly secular since 1947, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that allowing state funds to be used for transportation to religious schools violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The principle of the separation of church and state has been the primary support for the secularization movement, but some may be surprised this phrase is not anywhere in our Constitution.

Instead, it comes from an 1802 letter by President Thomas Jefferson, responding to a Baptist congregation in Connecticut, which feared the dominance of the Congregationalist church in their area would limit others’ religious freedoms. Jefferson assured them the First Amendment had built a “wall of separation between Church and State” that would protect their religious expression. He elaborated on his views later, in an 1808 letter to the Virginia Baptists, saying, “We have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving everyone to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.”

Secularists are using Jefferson’s idea in a distinctly different manner these days, arguing that religious beliefs should have no part in shaping governmental policies, even in voting. I understand their position, but the fact is that everyone, religious or not, makes their decisions based on personal ideologies. The presumption is that viewpoints based off anything other then religion is inherently better than ones that are. What makes a person “bigoted” if their philosophy comes from faith in a sacred text, and “objective” if their philosophy comes from culture and personal preference?

There is no doubt few Founding Fathers would have asked the same question. Frank Lambert, who wrote a book in 2003 about their beliefs, found that more than 70 percent adhered to formal religions, mostly Protestant. And many of the greatest causes in our nation’s history, from most civil rights movements to the American Revolution itself, were largely motivated by religious figures and ideals. I doubt today’s outspoken secularists would be yelling for religious people to shut up if we were still fighting for women’s suffrage or the abolition of slavery.

We are a far cry from seeing those just causes today, as so many religious advocates are choosing to crusade for moral issues instead of social justice. There is good wisdom behind the separation of church and state — spiritual decisions were meant to be a personal choice. Even if a faith-based viewpoint on morality is the right one, it should not be forced on an unwilling people through legislation. If someone truly believes in their way, their aim should be to win the hearts and minds of the general population, not Congress.

Earlier believers excelled at this, but today’s religious representatives instead are resorting increasingly to subversive and deceptive campaigns to gain support for their agendas. In many cases, it is not the ideas religious people promote, but the methods they use to spread these ideas, that opponents find so disagreeable and offensive.

Valuable insight can be gained from religion, and it would be damaging to push for these views to be excluded from the public forum. However, for their part, religious people in the political arena should be as principled in their campaigns as God would have them be, and seek the support of the people in championing policies they truly believe will make the country better.

Tyler Francke thinks there is still too much injustice in the world for churches to pick homosexuals who want to get married as their main opponent.

I propose we reschedule school and work calendars to include holidays for this sort of natural event. In many ways, these days are better than celebrating people who may or may not have killed other people or holy days that not all of us partake in. There are no exclusions and no bad feelings associated with a natural phenomenon. There is no glorified violence. Isn’t this what indigenous people the world over did before we stole their holidays and relabeled them with religious names they had never heard of?

What if the university gave out free coffee because they knew everyone had been up late the night before, like they do during finals week? What if it were an official holiday every time it snowed for the first time, or every time a solstice rolled around?

I invited friends, but only one was willing to give up sleep. Another friend said he’d wake up at 2 a.m. and look out the window. I told him it doesn’t quite work like that. For a meteor shower, you have to be committed. You have to be prepared to see the best show of your life or just a few shooting stars here and there. It takes patience.

If I had been impatient or had valued sleep over experiencing natural phenomena in 2001, I would have missed one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life: sky-length meteors, sometimes two or three at a time, fireballs that exploded and left lasting colored streaks in the sky. I don’t remember what classes I was too tired for in the morning or what homework I was avoiding. You don’t remember the little things when a major event like that happens.

I am not a sports person, but when the 76ers made it to the NBA finals, I walked my dog in the evening and could hear shouts erupt from each house every time our team scored a goal. People invited each other over to watch the game, rooted for their team and cheered at every shot. Even I was excited, and I knew nothing about basketball. They say shared events are what make a community strong. I think Mother Nature could use a few more fans cheering for her.

There was a bit of a sporting event feel early Tuesday morning. From the field where we were watching the sky, my friend and I could hear people in the parking lot, exclaiming when they had seen one or cursing at what they had missed. I immediately felt a bond to them. We had something in common: We were rooting for the same team. Later, when I walked down the street alone, looking to the sky for a few extra sightings, I ran into two other people who were doing the same thing. We chatted. We stood in silence. We ooh-ed and ah-ed together. With such a great excuse to build community, we only wished more people could have been outside with us.

I wanted to be able to tell all my sleeping friends how many meteors they had missed, but I lost count the second I decided to keep track. We must have seen a good 50 or so in two hours. One even lit up the sky and left a trail, like Mother Nature’s homemade fireworks. People shouldn’t miss events like this. If enough of us get out there next year, we can show the university the day after the Leonids meteor shower should be declared an official holiday. I’d be all for exchanging it for Columbus Day, if that’s what it came to.

Anya Rose is a graduate ecology and environmental student.

I acknowledge the military can provide a place of belonging and purpose in life as well as some money, skills and training. But if you sign up for service in a time of war, odds are pretty high you’ll go to war. Remember, the ultimate purpose of the military is to fight wars, not to promise you college money, job training or leadership roles.

It might be nice to find a place of belonging and purpose elsewhere.

The reality of war is that you may be ordered — forced — to kill people you do not know. You may be killed or maimed. As a surviving combat veteran, you may experience emotional wounds that could interfere with relationships and employment, while also leading to a sense of isolation.

“I think [ROTC is] a good opportunity for students to experience what it’s like to be in the armed forces, plus it gives them an opportunity to become leaders,” said Thomas Conley, a junior here at the University of Maine, in Breau’s article.

Life in the military will take away your personal freedoms. Your superiors will take control of most aspects of your daily life. They will not only tell you when to eat, sleep and use the toilet, they will restrict your ability to form and maintain intimate relationships and take away most, and sometimes all, of your decision-making power.

Among the pro-war crowd, you’ll find an assortment of politicians, generals and corporate executives. The reasons they give for war have been democracy, freedom, justice and peace. In reality it is for contracts, market access, natural resources and power. After all, there’s no business like war business.

Think you won’t go to war? Others have thought that too. Since World War II, the military has been to Korea, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Lebanon, Grenada, Libya, Panama and, of course, Iraq and Afghanistan, with no end in sight and the possibility of more war elsewhere.

Our military is known to have invaded foreign countries to crush rebellions and help prop up pro-American regimes, often helping future dictators like Saddam Hussein, who collaborated with the CIA in 1963. The United States even sold weapons to Saddam in the ’80s in his campaign against Iran, only to later wage war against him.

In war it is hard to know the truth of it, and morality always ends where a gun begins.

If you’ve heard all this before and are still considering the military, do not make a hasty decision by enlisting the first time you see a recruiter. Get the facts. They are salesmen, and some have admitted to lying. Take a witness with you for help and to back you up. Talk with veterans. Consider your moral feelings about going to war and killing. Be sure to get any promises in writing, especially the enlistment agreement. Finally, explore all alternative options.

Until there is a U.S. Department of Peace, some alternatives are AmeriCorps and Peace Corps. Visit career centers as well as colleges where they will help you find aid.

In addition to all of this, one sure way to end wars is to stop supporting the system that allows them to continue. This means people have got to stop enlisting.

To current and prospective soldiers I ask you to not give yourselves to wars and violence or to superiors who tell you what to think and what to feel, who drill you, treat you like cattle and use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural conflicts. If you have, become a conscientious objector. Don’t be another statistic serving war profiteers. Look elsewhere for a better path in life.

Michael W. Gibson is a member of Maine Peace Action Committee.