Antonio Addessi

For The Maine Campus

This time last year was an epic time for Maine. Voters legalized same-sex marriage and appointed many of our current state and federal candidates to office. What many forget is that voting doesn’t happen only once every four years. We need to get to the ballot box this week! Most of the ballot questions directly affect young people and the University of Maine System.

I know what you are thinking — you’re getting out of Maine the second you get your diploma. Well, good for you. You should get out and see the big wide world outside of quaint Orono. What you need to realize is that many will stay and the bonds that are up for issue affect current and future students alike.

Education and investing in it is the key to solving Maine’s problems. We need to stop regarding education as a luxury and start looking at it as a need. It will help form fresh, innovative minds that are so desperately needed to rejuvenate Maine’s ailing workforce. We have a growing elderly population. Many people are retiring and few young people are staying in the state. By voting, we can foster changes to education and the job market that would benefit the state. We need to improve Maine’s economic resilience.

Building communities across that state that can grow together and are for the people, by the people, is important. We do not need large corporations coming into the state to gives us money and revenue. We have what we need here — intelligent people, motivated entrepreneurs and a generation of older Mainers that need our help to build an amazing place to live for future generations.

The problem we face as the next generation of Mainers is our student debt. That’s why people choose to leave our fair state. The money in Boston and New York is just too tempting to pass up. The older generations need us — well, we need them to help us through. If we helped pass laws to relieve students of their debt in exchange for staying and working in Maine after finishing their education, I’d be the first one on board. We could make breakthroughs here, people!

The price of education is only going to get higher and that means more debt on our shoulders. We shouldn’t have to worry about debt. They say that student loans are good debt — well then, why didn’t the baby boomers have any? They went to college for pennies on the dollar compared to students at UMaine. And you may not be thinking of those loans right now, but they are building.

If we can band together to turn our student loan debt into work by bartering with the state, we could stay and reap the benefits of what we sow. I say we need to vote for education and the improvement of our school systems and workforce while keeping the unique needs of our generation in mind.

We deserve the very best of what Maine has to offer. Oh, what the world would be like without debt. This is our chance! Write letters, sign petitions and let’s get motivated to change the status quo. If we live in the best democracy in the world, let’s prove it by providing the best for our people. Go and vote this week; let’s start small and work our way to the top.

On Oct. 31, Student Government held an election to elect the president and vice president of the student body. This was accompanied by a referendum on raising the student activity fee from $45 to $55 per semester.

This question was resoundingly defeated. Only 357 of 1,216 voters were in favor of the fee increase, meaning roughly 70% of students disapproved of the rise in cost, which demonstrates that the virulent anti-tax spirit that spurred the revolution of 1776 is still alive and well in American society.

And while it’s hardly surprising that an area with a heritage that includes the Boston Tea Party would oppose, on principle, an increase in fee, this attitude glosses over more important aspects of the issue.

The student activity fee goes to fund events sponsored by Student Entertainment and covers some of the costs of various student organizations.

Part of the disadvantage of this fee is its insulating effect on student awareness of operating costs for various university-sponsored functions.

Activities and events put on by recognized student organizations are frequently free or of little cost to those who wish to attend. That is because they are subsidized by money from Student Government, stemming from the revenue raised from the student activity fee.

So while students rarely see the cost of campus events come out of their pockets, organizations do. Though some money is budgeted to them from Student Government, they pay fair market value for the tools and goods necessary to put on campus-wide events. They have to combat inflation and price increases.

And without more resources at their disposal, this inevitably means that they will be forced to do less. This means fewer concerts, holiday celebrations and general events.

Considering how frequent the complaints over the dearth of on-campus activities offered are, it seems odd that the student body should be so united against an opportunity to increase the offerings.

Really, what’s $10? The equivalent of coffee for a week, espresso drinks for a few days, a six-pack of beer? In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that much to ask for all the convenience of student amenities.

The fee would have been a $20 increase per year per student. Multiplied by the roughly 8,700 undergraduates, that’s about an additional $174,000 a year to be distributed among student organizations.

Many activities, representing chances to meet new friends, gain important job skills or just relax, could have been funded with this money.

Chances are, this kind of analysis was not what sprang to mind when those few students who took the opportunity to voice their opinions cast their ballots.

And this raises another unsettling point — only roughly one eighth of the student body voted on an issue that affects each and every enrolled undergraduate. In essence, this means this impactful issue was decided by a tiny minority of the student body.

In and of itself, this is unsavory. Defeat by a simple majority, or plurality as the case may be, is one thing. But when opportunity to improve student life is squandered by pure apathy toward the health of the campus community and a willingness to relinquish one’s voice, the implications for other communal issues are alarming indeed.

Katherine Revello

Opinion Editor

In a world of speeches boiled down to 30-second clips run repeatedly by incensed talking heads, where stinging bits of intellectual drivel are condensed into 140-character quips and the essence of great literature is condensed into 90-minute generic scenes of sexualized gloss, it’s time to let the somber chime of bells mark the death of rhetoric.

And the tombstone reads, in the garbled, truncated grammar of text speak: #RIP the art of the argument, killed by srsly strong belief in conciseness.

The argument of brevity being the lifeblood of wisdom is wholly fallacious, and those who adhere to this doctrine confuse spartan straightforwardness for truth sans pretention. But the wispy garments of language are not some gaudy adornment worn for mere flash. Nor do they cloak its merits in bulky, confusing masses. Rather, they adorn and tantalizingly wrap the svelte figure of truth.

In a letter to a female acquaintance, Thomas Jefferson wrote a dialogue revolving around the dominions of the head and the heart: “Let the sublimated philosopher grasp visionary happiness while pursuing phantoms dressed in the garb of truth! Their supreme wisdom is supreme folly; and they mistake for happiness the mere absence of pain.”

This is something lovely and moving in the words wrapping up Jefferson’s sentiment that enhances, not detracts, from his wisdom. Wordiness is at times excessive, certainly. The roughly 500 words of this column ought to be sufficient to convey my point without being excessively dull. But, without overly belaboring my message, I must also embellish, tastefully — otherwise, this page would be more white than black.

A single bloom is a thing of beauty, but its beauty is enhanced when its setting is augmented by sprays of contrasting shapes and colors.

Noting the blazing hue of the fast-turning maple conjures up an image.

Or there is the image provided by describing the blazing scarlet regalia of leaves, hanging like a massive coat around its thickly knotted trunk, ramrod straight, like a soldier at attention.

How much more vivid are these details? How much crisper is the picture?

Language is such an extraordinary creature. Its myriad synonyms and wealth of adjectives are, like the minds that channel the words, individualist. The uniquely formed facets of the mind cannot be channeled into one all-encompassing utilitarian description.

Usage, exposure and impulse make different words leap to the tongue of different people.

Language is both nebulous and precise. Each word has a definite meaning. But that meaning is influenced by colloquialisms. In context, it changes yet more.

And the thoughts channeled by a mass of words become wonderfully unique in their order and structure. They all each possess necessity by themselves, and then as part of their collective. There is meaning within meaning, movement within movement, “mobilis in mobili” as Captain Nemo said in “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”

Strip away the clauses and the commas and what is left? A hulking, empty husk — a frame with rough form but no precision, no art.

The soul, the melting pot of reason and feeling, does not move in stiff jerks. It glides gracefully across the spiritual plane. And its silky layers insulate it from the terrible asphyxiating death of being laid bare in a cold, economical world.

Christopher Burns

For The Maine Campus

Christie Edwards

Attracting artists from around the world, the Maine coast and hinterland is a region that is geologically quiet today, yet once was witness to a violent past. Clues to this past live in the ragged coast and exposed rock faces along the interstate, each clue written in a secret language known and deciphered by a privileged few.

Dudley Zopp, an artist educated at the University of Louisville, fell in love with the Maine coast for this reason. As part of the Intermedia MFA Visiting Artist series, Zopp spoke to UMaine faculty and students about the intersection of painting, sculpture and installation, and art’s role in decoding the natural world.

The lecture was held in the Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center, Tuesday Oct. 29 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Her visit was sponsored by the Intermedia MFA Program, the Department of New Media, the University of Maine Cultural Affairs and Distinguished Lecture Series, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Correll Professorship in New Media.

Educated in painting and influenced by master painters like Picasso and Velazquez, Zopp approaches the media of painting from a sculptural perspective, allowing the canvas to become a new medium for engaging critically with sculptures.

For instance, the installation series “Sediments,” which engages with geologic phenomenon like slumps, used painted canvases as the base for her sculptures. Painted different colors, canvases were stacked on top of each other and allowed to shift and slump by natural inclination. A slump occurs when a sedimented, or consolidated, mass of earth shifts and slides down a slope.

Other sculptures, such as “Sediments 1” and “Biochemical Composition,” use stacked or arranged canvases to explore the nature of sedimentation and composition of the natural world. In these compositions, Zopp explores the “hidden landscapes and unseen tectonic forces that affect our lives.”

In her “Erratics” series, Zopp translates the coastal landscape. The Maine landscape has profoundly influenced her approach to shape-making. The coast, which at different times was subjected to continental rifts, earthquakes and volcanos, and the active, crafting hand of the ocean, contains a secret language, according to Zopp.

This has been essential to her sculptural explorations. Through epiphanic moments and the physical logic of sculpture, she uses art to decode the hidden language, and by decoding it, come to understand her experience of nature, the earth and the human relationship to the earth.

“Erratics,” which was featured at the Portland Museum of Art, Center for Maine Contemporary Art and the University of Southern Maine, invites viewers into another world and reality.

“People move through an installation as a landscape,” Zopp said.

For her, the installation generates questions and forces the viewer to engage on a different level with the hope they will depart with a new way of deciphering their experience of nature.

The installation is crafted from builder’s paper with paint and incorporated text. Over a period of days, she folds, bends, twists and molds the paper to fit her vision. The product is a large, free-flowing mass, resembling an abstraction of the coastline.

Underlying her large-scale installations is an Eastern perspective and philosophy. Zopp is an avid reader of not only geologic texts, but also texts on Eastern spirituality from Buddhism to the Hindu “Rig Veda.” Central to this thought is the illusion of permanence; that all things are subject to change. In focusing on natural landscapes, Zopp contemplates the forces at work molding and shaping the earth. Many of these forces, like sedimentation, operate on a larger time scale to our own and remains unseen; while others, like slumps, occur quickly and violently, removing the very ground beneath our feet.

At the end of the lecture, Zopp proposed that students consider, and explore in their art, the place of humans in the natural world and what it may resemble in 25, 50 or 100 years.

In the end, we do not know what the earth and the human presence on it will look like in 100 years. When asked about her vision of the future, Zopp steered the conversation away from politics and quoted a line from Roman poet Ovid: “Everything changes, nothing perishes.”

Next fall, Zopp will be featured in a solo show at the Lord Hall Gallery.

Courtesy photo via Brian Alkins

For many students, especially in this neck of the woods, college is the first opportunity to meet people from vastly different areas of the globe.

According to the University of Maine website, more than 400 international students and scholars from up to 75 countries around the world join the University every year. These students are leaving families, friends and pasts behind to experience studying at the University of Maine, which in some cases means a drastic change in their cultural environment.

On Saturday, Nov. 2, these students seized the opportunity to come together and share the history and culture of their homelands at the 26th annual International Culture Fest. The event was held in the New Balance Recreation Center due to the renovation project taking place at the Field House, where it had been held in past years. The event is put on every year through a collaboration between the Office of International Programs and the International Students Association.

Jessica Bishop, an academic resource specialist for the tutor program on campus, has been one of the primary coordinators of the International Culture Fest for the last three years, as well as a coordinator for the International Dance Festival for the last nine years.

“Everybody visiting today learns so much. It’s educational and it’s fun and people make new friends,” Bishop said. “The international student population on campus is growing, so we’re really excited […] more and more students can get involved so we can get more and more countries’ involvement from people we’ve never seen before or [who] have never been here.”

The event started at 11 a.m. and was open to the public. There were food tables that featured entrees and desserts from 16 different nations as well as 30 tables set up as exhibits for a variety of countries and international organizations on campus. Fifty flags were hung up along the track railing, one for each country represented by the international students in attendance.

“We’re seeing babies up to elderly citizens that are coming over and talking to people they’ve never known before. They’re talking to each other, sitting down, watching capoeira or eating Sri Lankan food,” Bishop said. “You can’t just go to downtown Bangor and get a lot of that.”

Bishop is very excited to be a part of organizing the event and has a passion for experiencing the various cultures on hand.

“I grew up in a high school where there was no culture,” Bishop said. “Coming to the university as an undergrad, I didn’t realize or take advantage of things that other cultures were offering […] There’s so much out there, there’s so much that the international students and staff bring to the table.”

All of the cultural exhibits and food tables are set up by students who hope to educate others about their culture as well as learn about the cultures of others.

Nafeesah Chaudhry is an exchange student from Birmingham, U.K. who is studying childhood education. Chaudhry just arrived at the University of Maine in August and assisted with the creation of the U.K. exhibit.

“We have a map of the U.K. We want to show everyone that there are four distinct countries [in the U.K.],” Chaudhry said. “I’ve brought some Harry Potter memorabilia and Dr. Who [memorabilia]. We collectively brought things that we had […] We brought things to show people where we’re from.”

Chaudhry relished the opportunity to educate her peers about her home country.

“I’m enjoying it,” Chaudhry said. “I want to tell more people about the U.K. I’m also encouraging people to study abroad because it’s worthwhile. It can be hard at times, but you can enjoy a culture you’re not used to. It’s important to do that.”

A style show was held at the end of the event, with participants from various countries displaying the historical clothing of their cultures in a fashion show-style setting.

“When everybody’s here, [they’re wearing] jeans and t-shirts. We don’t have any type of traditional wear, but in other cultures, they do,” Bishop said. “This is an opportunity for them to show what they wear.

“[The world is] a lot bigger than Maine,” Bishop said. “Everyone has something to give to it.”

Liam Nee

Asst. News Editor

In one-way street fashion, former UMSG Inc. Former Vice President Aaron Ortiz and GSS Sen. Jake Dumas won the offices of Student Body president and vice president, respectively, unopposed, after a campus-wide election held Oct. 31.

Ortiz and Dumas were the only candidates running for the two positions, taking 86 and 91 percent of votes, respectively. The other votes were taken by various write-in candidates.

Ortiz, a third-year mechanical engineering student, will replace Kimberly Dao, a fourth-year biology and pre-med studies student who is expected to graduate this spring, as the new figurehead of the university’s unique, not-for-profit student government corporation.

Ortiz was pleased with the turnout for the election, writing in an email the he is “hoping during [his] term to try and keep that number increasing.”

He expressed disappointment, however, that the referendum that would have increased the student activity fee from $45 to $55 per semester was not passed, with 70 percent of students voting no.

“Unfortunately the referendum did not get the support we were hoping for and I will be working on a new strategy to continue to tackle this issue,” Ortiz wrote.

Dumas will replace Ortiz as vice president, assuming the role of presiding officer over the GSS. As Ortiz has done over the past three semesters, Dumas will keep order, facilitate all discussion, appoint officers when necessary and hold the powers of calling to order an adjournment during each meeting.

Dumas is a second-year political science and legal studies student.

“I’m honored and very excited about being elected vice president of UMSG,” Dumas said during a statement on Sunday. “I would also like to congratulate Aaron Ortiz on being elected president, as well as all of the new senators sworn in [on Tuesday].

“I look forward to taking on the role as [vice president] and working with the rest of UMSG to achieve our goals,” Dumas said. “Thank you to all those who supported me, and go Black Bears!”

Bartley Kelliher, chair of the Fair Elections Practices Commission, was satisfied with the lack of any major issues with the election.

“I felt that the election went extremely well,” Kelliher wrote in an email. “There were no instances of improper campaigning or multiple attempts to vote, which are the two areas as FEPC chair that I am most concerned with. Only one student contacted me with difficulties concerning FirstClass, but we were able to discern the problem that the student was having and find a way to make their vote heard.”

Kelliher did express disappointment in the voter turnout, writing, “I am a little disappointed in the low voter turnout (only 1,216 out of 8,000-plus [University of Maine students]), but the candidates, constituents and election personnel acted in a manner that reflects the educational and professional atmosphere that the University of Maine creates through both the academic and developmental opportunities available.”

Derrick Rossignol

Editor in Chief

Thank goodness “Gangnam Style” is over, right? Psy and his signature hit did teach the world two things, though: we as a people can only take so much of a dancing Korean man, and perhaps Asian entertainment is more than YouTube clips of people on strange and potentially very dangerous game shows.

It’s doubtful that another Asian artist will make as big of an American splash as Psy did, but do we really want that? That whole thing was kind of a drag. It was funny when it was just a random YouTube clip but was heavily worn out by the time Psy was performing on “American Idol.” It’s fantastic that other countries have their own pop culture because it presents the opportunity to step outside of the American comfort zone and see what the tastes of an entire nation are like.

It’s tough to get immersed in another country’s musical consciousness without actually observing their trends firsthand and seeing what people are listening to, so the best thing for an outsider to do could be to check the weekly charts for Japan on last.fm, a site that keeps track of every song its users listen to and uses that data to provide streaming radio, music recommendations and site-wide chart data. For the week ending on Oct. 27, 2013, the week’s most loved track in Japan was by Capsule, an electronic duo who have pumped out 14 albums since 2001.

Their latest is “CAPS LOCK,” which is part experimental video game music, part pop and part alternative indie music. Another perk of listening to foreign music is that the artists who produced it aren’t always exposed to the same influences as our countrymen, so they’re painting with a different set of colors and ending up with an unfamiliar kind of art.

That said, opening track is reminiscent to “Intro,” the first song from Alt-J’s 2012 album “An Awesome Wave,” in sound, structure and function. They’re both rightfully short, piano-led numbers that set up the rest of the album by giving a taste of what’s to come, not by being the median track of the rest of the record, but by creating a heightened sense of anticipation through its driving but brief time.

Then things get started with “CONTROL,” for which the duo released a music video. After a click-clacking keyboard beginning, a head-bobbing synth riff makes way for bassier sections and chopped-up vocals from Toshiko Koshijima, the singing half of the group.

Throughout the album, Koshijima’s voice, while fitting and pleasant, is little more than another rifle in producer Yasutaka Nakata’s arsenal. The mix is crisp, precise and clean, giving each electronic element room to breathe and contribute to the greater good.

Capsule has been characterized by change throughout their time, starting as a jazzier group part of the Japanese Shibuya-kei movement until they began incorporating more electronic influences into their work, coming to the point now to where they are almost exclusively an electronic group.

“DELETE” is a sweet dose of electronic dance music, incorporating house influences that admittedly leaves the song coming off the same as many other EDM tracks, but in the context of its parent album, it fits perfectly and provides nice variety in pacing.

Experimentation inevitably leads to bands trying strange things, so the vintage looped “ahh-OOO-gah” sound that runs through most of “12345678” is almost enough to drive you up the wall, but the rest of the building track comes in soon enough and buries it in the mix. One big beautiful crescendo is enough to make up for the misuse of sound effects, and after repeat listens, the “ahh-OOO-gah” is almost charming.

What’s wonderful about this record is that no two tracks are alike, but they congeal into one cohesive unit. Its relatively short 35-minute running time plays in the album’s favor; not because you don’t want it to go on any longer, but because this collection of tracks has perfect pacing and wouldn’t be necessary to go on any longer. “CAPS LOCK” is a record that leaves you wanting more, which is great because your new favorite Japanese electronic duo has 13 other albums you can dive into.

Grade: A-

Christopher Burns

For The Maine Campus

For the next 30 days, many UMaine students are going to discover something new about themselves. Students and community members sign-up and take on a challenge, like no soda, exercise more, drink more water, or meditate. Then, for 30 days, from Nov. 1 to Dec. 1, they try to stick to the challenge.

The UMaine 30-Day Challenge was created by Shelby Saucier of the Student Wellness Resource Center in the Memorial Union. She hopes that the 30-Day Challenge will be her legacy.

The concept originated from a TED Talk by Matt Cutts, an engineer at Google. Cutt’s inspiration for the challenge was “the American philosopher Morgan Spurlock.” The idea was find a small challenge, something different, that will enrich your life.

“Think about something you’ve always wanted to add to your life and add it,” Cutts said.

For Cutts, a successful challenge is a “small sustainable change.” Keeping this in mind helps to ensure that you do not overdo it and push yourself into an unwinnable situation. Most New Year’s resolutions fail for this reason. What is remarkable, according to Cutts, is by the end of 30 days, your confidence, is boosted, as is your happiness, and with each successive challenge, the months do not go by unnoticed nor forgotten easily.

So far nearly 50 students have signed up for the event. New students are encouraged to sign-up at any point during November. Many of the challenges are centered around improving health and wellness, drinking eight glasses of water a day and getting more exercise. Other students have opted for more creative options.

For instance, Julia Emily Hathaway, a UMaine alumna and op-ed contributor for the Bangor Daily News, will spend the next 30 days doing something to make another person’s day better.

Hathaway entered the challenge with great enthusiasm. In fact, she said she began the challenge a week before the kickoff on Friday. “I am very much enjoying it and finding there are so many ways to achieve this,” Hathaway said. “My activities have ranged from giving out free book coupons at the Orono library book sale to helping kids decorate cookies to giving homework help.”

Her idea was to take on a simple challenge to optimize success.

For more information about the 30-Day Challenge, email Shelby Saucier at shelby.saucier@umit.maine.edu, or check out the UMaine Student Wellness Resource Center page on Facebook or check it out on Twitter at @SWRC2, or stop by the Student Wellness Resource Center in the Memorial Union.

To watch the full TED Talk, go to www.ted.com/talks/matt_cutts_try_something_new_for_30_days.

By Liam Nee

Homecoming Weekend at the University of Maine generally brings along reminiscing talks between reunited alums, absolute mayhem for parking on campus and several plays of Rudy Vallee’s ‘Maine Stein Song’ — no matter the setting.

But, perhaps the most prevalent feeling common for all parties involved is a sense of pride. And undoubtedly, there’s nothing that brings out this pride more than athletic events.

In preparation for UMaine’s four games being played this past weekend — women’s ice hockey’s hosting of Quinnipiac University at 7 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday, football’s hosting of William & Mary College at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and men’s ice hockey’s hosting of Bentley University at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday — Campus Activities and Student Engagement put together a pep rally and bonfire in the Satellite Parking Lot in between Alfond Stadium and the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house.

The pep rally and bonfire featured the complete Black Bear Marching Band, the UMaine Cheerleading team and speeches from football head coach Jack Cosgrove and men’s ice hockey’s first-year head coach Red Gendron.

About 60 to 70 students were in attendance, not including the athletic-association groups and teams that were there. CASE provide free nachos, popcorn, stuffed black bears, pens and other refreshments for attendees.

Brian Woodbury, a fourth-year psychology, sociology and legal studies student, says the spirit at UMaine is great, for the most part.

“Support is there, especially at bigger sporting events that attract large crowds,” Woodbury says. “With UMaine athletics’ current success rate, it’s not surprising to see an increase excitement … it even looks as if we’re attracting more non-student fans too from around the community.”

Woodbury, a member of UMaine’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams, says the extensive collection of Maine fans in attendance, from all different backgrounds, has led to a dynamic perspective for the event itself.

“I like the fact that student-athletes, university officials and the school’s biggest sports fan students are able to get together, in one spot, supporting one an other, for one common cause … we’re here to support each other and get fired up.”

Woodbury’s teammate, Travis Hutchins — also a fourth-year student — says “the atmosphere is pretty good here.”

“The best part about being a student-athlete is being able experience the act of cheering on other sports while also benefitting from motivation to excel in your own sport too,” Hutchins said. “So, it’s the best of both worlds.”

Michael Tudor, a second-year engineering student who’s one of 11 trumpet players in the Black Bear Marching Band, says the attitude of the event is just what the teams need.

“This is a great opportunity for spirit building,” Tudor said. “Especially for UMaine in preparation for the Homecoming games.”

This is Tudor’s first year with the Black Bear Marching Band, and he’s glad he made the decision to join.

“It’s an interesting experience,” Tudor says. “[During] freshman year, I didn’t take part in the band, but I decided to pick up my trumpet late in the year and I joined a bunch of great people this fall.”

During his speech, “Coach Cos” thanked everyone for coming and gave special shout outs. The first was to the Black Bear Marching Band.

“We really, really look forward to the Stein Song at the end of the game,” Cosgrove said. “That’s been great the past few home games.”

Cosgrove also thanked the cheerleading team and men’s ice hockey team, who showed up to stand behind Coach Gendron during his speech.

The football team was unable to attend because of an already scheduled meeting in Little Hall to go over last second assignments before Saturday’s game.

Cosgrove ended his speech by reminding the fans that attendance in the student section is crucial.

“Something that really excites our players is seeing all the students across the field in the student section,” Cosgrove said. “We know you guys give [opposing teams] a hard time, cause that happens to us when we go on the road. So, please, plan on doing that tomorrow. Give them a hard time.”

Coach Gendron echoed Cosgrove’s comments, thanking the band, dance team and cheerleaders while also telling fans to “jampack [Alfond Stadium] tomorrow to support coach [Gosgrove] and his players.”

“I’ve had the good fortune to watch them play, and they’re exciting,” Gendron said. “It’s really exciting football.”

Gendron, who coached Maine as an assistant from 1990 to 1993, says his return to Alfond was remarkable.

“My first game back, we played an exhibition game against Dalhousie [University] [on Oct. 6] … I gotta tell yah, it sent chills down my spine when our guys came onto the ice and I followed them over to the bench listening to the Stein Song,” Gendron said.

He hopes to see Alfond Arena packed this season.

“It’s truly one of the great advantages in college hockey,” Gendron said. “When that place is rocking, and you guys are all there, it’s one of the toughest places in college hockey to play … our guys really, really appreciate it.”

As for the somewhat low numbers at the pep rally, Gendron sees improvement down the road.

“I guess this is the first time we’ve attempted to have an event like this,” Gendron said. “I know, that in the future, its going to be a heck of a lot better.”

By Antonio Addessi

Taking a look back, this time last year was a turning point in our state’s history. When equality for marriage came to Maine, we had freedom. The impact that vote had on us as a society was a positive one that, to me, seemed just and necessary. I can’t believe that it has already been a year! But, where do we go from here? Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was overturned and now military personnel are allowed to marry, but why not the entire country?

The last year has been nothing but successful for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning community. Delaware, Minnesota and Rhode Island all legalized gay marriage this year and on Monday, Oct. 21 New Jersey will officially recognize same-sex unions. California’s Proposition 8 was overturned by the Supreme Court this summer along with Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act. But what about Section 2?

Section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act essentially gives power to states and territories to deny recognition of same-sex marriages. The law in 35 states is only valid because of this section of DOMA. But, how can we have the right to marry whom we please in Maine while our brothers and sisters in states like Ohio and Oregon cannot? It is mesmerizing to me that more than half the country’s people are essentially second-class citizens. To me, this is why celebrating this year’s victories is not fair. As a country, we have come so far,  and yet we are still so backward in our ways. Although federally recognized same-sex unions are not a reality yet we can say that we have come a long way and we couldn’t have done it alone.

The Wilde-Stein Alliance for Sexual Diversity is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The huge impact that it has had on the lives of so many students during its existence is breathtaking. The early years of the alliance were very controversial due to the state and church resistance to the group, but now they are an important part of the University of Maine community. They have an important week coming up, which interestingly enough, coincides with the first same-sex marriages in New Jersey on Monday. The flag raising for Coming Out Week will be Monday at noon on the mall and then different events throughout the week.

The coming together of students and faculty for these events is important in shaping our community. You don’t have to be openly gay or have any want to be; the point of celebrations like these are to bring people together. When people embrace their own sexuality and begin to truly love themselves they, form closer bonds with one another. I think that RuPaul says it best: “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you gonna love somebody else?”

I think that we should take this week to celebrate loving ourselves and the people around us and push forward together to form a better world that we can all live in. I think that it is possible for everyone to live equally together, caring and respecting one another.