Members of the University of Maine community gathered in the cold on Friday, Feb. 1, on the steps of the Raymond H. Fogler Library to witness the raising of the Black Lives Matter flag, an event which marked the beginning of Black History Month, also known as African American History Month, on campus.

Black History Month is celebrated around the nation during the entire month of February. UMaine held its first flag raising to commemorate the event in the spring of 2017.

The flag raising was followed by a gathering in the Memorial Union where members from the Black Student Union and UMaine’s Office of Multicultural Student Life spoke alongside Assistant Vice President and Senior Associate Dean of Students Kenda Scheele.

“This event represents bringing light to injustices surrounding the black community, particularly the injustices that are inflicted [by] the police,” Black Student Union President Taylor Bass said. “It is about unifying our campus in saying that we won’t stand for oppression of the black community, and that the University of Maine cares about their campus being a safe space for the black students that attend.”

Bass touched on the indifference and fears students of color experience every day on and off campus.

“[The event] recognized what has been done not only during Black History Month but instead the majority of the progress we have made outside February. It is to celebrate progress but also recognize the work left to be done,” Bass said to those in attendance.

Kirsten Daley, the previous president of the Black Student Union and a fourth-year anthropology student at UMaine, also recognized the significance of the flag.

“How disappointing would it be to look at a flag like this and think we are done,” Daley said.

Desiree Vargas, a student administrative aid for the Office of Multicultural Student Life, also spoke at the event and had a similar view on the importance of the raising of the Black Lives Matter flag.

“Raising the Black Lives Matter flag on campus today represents how much we still need freedom and justice for all black lives, including women and black LGBTQUIA folks who are often overlooked when celebrating Black History Month,” Vargas said.

Leila Rollins, the vice president of the Black Student Union and a second-year social work student at UMaine, said she is excited for the upcoming events at UMaine to celebrate Black History Month.

“I think Black History Month is a good time for not just reflection into our past but what we need to do moving forward,” Rollins said. “It’s always really encouraging to see how many students come out for it. It’s kinda cool to see how many people are there supporting you, supporting your cause, and celebrating a fun month.”

Amanda Laverdiere, a fourth-year psychology student has many friends involved in the Black Student Union and came to the flag raising to show her support.

“I think for UMaine specifically, we’re a very white-dominated campus and that really silences the voices of many people of color,” Laverdiere said. “And this allows them to show their history and show what should be happening when moving forward, and really gives them a greater voice to show their platform.”

Other students, such as Brianna Neely, a first-year mechanical engineering technology student, came to show support as well as for an opportunity to meet new people around campus.

“There [were] a lot of people there and I was very happy to see the crowd,” Neely said. “It just felt like a great community. Everyone was there for a great purpose.”

Black History Month will be celebrated at UMaine with 13 campus-wide events ranging from workshops, pop up panels, a soul food festival and trivia night.

On Dec. 7, the University of Maine Psychology Department’s Diversity Committee hosted the event “Truth, Healing, and Change in Dawnland.” Focusing on the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), this presentation aimed to offer attendees an understanding of relationships between native and non-native people in Maine.

Barbara Kates was the main speaker at this event. Kates is the lead consultant for her company, Barbara Kates Consulting, and works with the Maine Wabanaki Reconciliation Engagement Advocacy Change Healing (REACH) program.

REACH focuses on advancing and strengthening the well-being of Wabanaki people and providing education on their history and relationship with Maine.

Kates has presented for REACH at the University of Maine in the past, as well as at UMaine Presque Isle, UMaine Machias, UMaine Augusta, Bowdoin College, Bates College, Unity College, Colby College and the College of the Atlantic.

Kates discussed the TRC and how people can learn from the Commission’s work with a particular focus on colonization and decolonization. She shared the history of the Wabanaki culture in Maine and how and why TRC came to be the first reconciliation commission in Maine.

She emphasized that it is important to gain awareness about the relationship between Wabanaki and non-native people in Maine.

Kates discussed recent events and issues in Wabanaki-Maine relations, such as the conflict between the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Maine regarding subsistence fishing requirements and the continuing blocks to the Maliseet casino.

“There’s lots of different issues,” Kates said. “Amongst all the issues is the issue of what happens in the child welfare system.”

According to the report of the TRC, Wabanaki children in Maine entered foster care at a rate 5.1 times that of non-Native children between 2002 and 2013.

The Diversity Committee is a student-training group on campus that works to prepare “psychologists who are competent to serve a diverse public,” according to the organization’s website. The group coordinates “multicultural competency training experiences,” which include the annual Stanley Sue Distinguished Diversity Lecture Series.

Natalie Holbrook, a sixth-year graduate student in the Developmental-Clinical Track of the doctoral program in clinical psychology, is the chairperson of the committee that organized this event.

“Our mission,” Holbrook said, “is to learn as much as we can about the culture — as we seek to gain knowledge about and exposure to as many areas of diversity as possible.”

This event was part of the department-wide colloquium. It was structured as an opportunity for students and members at the event to ask questions and, specifically, for psychology students to ask about implications of the subject on their clinical work.

To learn more about this event and the Maine-Wabanaki REACH program you can go to mainewabanakireach.org or contact Thane Fremouw at thane.fremouw@maine.edu.

Throughout the nation, people observe Transgender Awareness Week annually from Nov. 12-19. Part of this week is reserved for Transgender Day of Remembrance, a time to gather and remember those lost due to transphobic hate crimes. The University of Maine’s Transgender Day of Remembrance was held on Friday, Nov. 30, on the university Mall.

The Wilde Stein: Queer Straight Alliance group, a student organization aimed to spread awareness and acceptance of sexuality, gender, and the LGBTQ community across campus, originally organized the Day of Remembrance for Nov. 16 but had to postpone due to inclement weather.

“The whole idea of [the day] is to … bring not only the trans community together but also the campus in general, to show that we don’t support hate here and no matter your identities, you are welcome here and protected by us,” Aiden Ciaffaglione, the president of Wilde Stein and organizer of this event, said.

In all, the event hosted 12 guest speakers — more than any previous year — to share their thoughts. This was followed by a candlelight vigil.

Assistant Vice President and Senior Associate Dean of Students Kenda Scheele was first to speak, followed by Silvestre Guzmán, the director of the Office of Multicultural Student Life and the Rainbow Resource Center. After Guzman, several other representatives from the Rainbow Resource Center and the Office of Multicultural Student Life spoke.

“It shows that not only is it happening here but it is also happening on a global scales,” Ciaffaglione said. “We . . .  have a responsibility to almost everyone to make sure that this issue is being addressed.”

Ciaffaglione also noted that UMaine administration has been extremely helpful and supportive in the planning of this event.

Kierst Finsand, a pre-doctoral intern at the UMaine Counseling Center, and Jessica Browne, a licensed clinical social worker and co-coordinator of outreach at the Mind Spa, were among the speakers at the event.

“The burden of increasing awareness cannot fall on the trans community . . .  it’s our job as individuals but also as a counseling center community to help co-create the spaces where safety can be cultivated and in turn, support can be cultivated,” Finsand said.

Browne also commented on the role of the Counseling Center in supporting UMaine’s transgender community.

“We’re always trying to meet with the oppressed, the underrepresented. We try to identify the risk factors and the barriers to getting help and we recognize with counseling, in general, there is a lot of stigmas and there is already a barrier to walking through our door,” Browne said.

The UMaine Office of Equal Opportunity’s nondiscrimination notice states: “The University of Maine System is an EEO/AA employer, and does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, including transgender status and gender expression, national origin citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information or veteran’s status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities.”

According to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) organization, the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is also widely known as the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, has been observed since 1999 and was originally organized as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998.

This year, the day honored 24 people who had lost their lives between the years of 2016 and 2017 due to transphobic hate crimes in the United States. Wilde Stein noted that there are over 300 other people from various countries that were not listed or identified.

You can find more information about Wilde Stein by contacting Aiden Ciaffaglione at aiden.ciaffaglione@maine.edu.

On Nov. 19 in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union, Sherri Mitchell of the Penobscot Indian Reservation (Penawahpskek) gave a talk called “Decolonizing Our Hearts and Minds.” Mitchell used the forum as a platform to share creation stories of the Penobscot Nation and her thoughts on decolonization.

This event was one in a series celebrating Native American Heritage Month, which is held during the month of November. On campus, events are presented by the University of Maine Wabanaki Center and the Office of Multicultural Student Life in collaboration with American Indian Student Organization.

“We are connected to that mother whale, who carried her baby around for 17 days to show us what we were doing to them, in her grief over the loss of her child,” Mitchell said. “And once I understood the depth of those connections and how much has happened to separate us from that truth, I began to understand the immensity of the work that was involved in truly decolonizing our hearts and minds. That we have to be willing to look at all of the things that have led us to believe that we are something other than that.”

The UMaine campus sits on the ancestral territory of the Penobscot Nation, a fact which was acknowledged by former UMaine President Susan Hunter and Chief Kirk Francis last May in a Memorandum of Understanding.

“Do we want to preserve our humanity? Do we want to preserve our compassion and awareness? Do we want to preserve our connection to the rest of life?” Mitchell asked the audience. “Those are the questions that we need to ask ourselves.”

Mitchell is the author of “Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change,” the founding director of the Land Peace Foundation and an organizer of the annual Healing Turtle Island gathering at Nibezun, Passadumkeag.

She regularly speaks and teaches on issues of indigenous rights, environmental justice and spiritual change around the world.

Mitchell was born and raised on the Penobscot Indian reservation. She earned her Juris Doctor and a certificate in Indigenous People’s Law and Policy from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law. She has been involved with indigenous rights and environmental justice work from over 25 years and received the Mahoney Dunn International Human Rights and Humanitarian Award in 2010 for her research in human rights violations against indigenous peoples.

This event was sponsored by the UMaine Communication and Journalism Department, the College of Liberal Arts and Science, Decolonizing UMaine, Clement and Linda McGillicuddy, the Humanities Center as well as a grant from the Cultural Affairs and Distinguished Lecture Series.

There will be two more events in this series celebrating Native American Heritage Month.

Nov. 28 there will be a Lunch & Learn in the Multicultural Center in the Memorial Union from 12-1 p.m. The final event, an American Indian Student Organization Social, will be held on Nov. 30 from 1-2 p.m. in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union. These events are free and open the public.

On Nov. 15, the Wells Conference Center hosted an open forum called “Strategic Vision and Values: Defining Tomorrow at the University of Maine,” with President Joan Ferrini-Mundy and Provost Jeffrey Hecker. The purpose of the forum was to discuss the University of Maine’s development and strategic direction.

The talk was structured to be open and inclusive, with the goal of creating a space for free-flowing dialogue. Attendees were requested to submit questions or comments which were then filtered and analyzed so they could be addressed in-depth at the end of the event.

This was the first in a series of open forums that President Ferrini-Mundy and Provost Hecker will host this year.

The new strategic vision for UMaine will largely pull ideas and values from the five-year “Blue Sky Initiative,” which started in 2012 and finished last year.

This plan was led by former President Paul W. Ferguson, who served UMaine from 2011 to 2014, and was designed around the axiom that “the University of Maine aspires to be the most distinctively student centered and community engaged of the American Research Universities,” according to a 2012 project update.

This new plan will aim to address UMaine’s role in supplying labor for a growing number of professions in the state. It will also focus on UMaine’s role as a land-grant university and Maine’s declining demographics in regards to the decrease of high school graduates in the state.

As a research university with a national and international presence, UMaine has a dual responsibility in having both of those factors play a role in the forming of this new plan.

From Nov. 15 to Jan. 30, the team working on this plan will articulate strategic values and create a strategic vision. From Feb. 1 to April 30, they will articulate goals and strategies and create a dashboard of key indicators before presenting the plan to the University of Maine System Board of Trustees in May.

A leadership retreat was recently held where the president’s cabinet gathered to discuss ideas for the new plan. They decided it needed to build on the Blue Sky outcomes, recognize and integrate existing initiatives and inspire new ones, as well as align incentives and resources with goals.

Partnering with other public and private schools in Maine and engaging the community but utilizing existing organizational structures will play a large role in the development of this plan.

Numerous groups will be consulted on the project, including the Faculty Senate, Student Government, the Alumni Association, the UMaine Foundation and the Board of Visitors.

The plan for this draft is based on three strategic values: Fostering learner successes, creating and innovating for Maine and beyond, and growing and stewarding partnerships.

“Fostering Learner Successes” is described in the draft proposal as a way for the university to create rich learning opportunities in the classroom, laboratory, studio, field and community. UMaine’s faculty and staff are also considered life-long learners, and the University is committed to their professional development over the span of their careers.

“Creating and Innovating for Maine and Beyond” is based on creating knowledge that impacts the social, cultural and economic well-being of the state based on UMaine’s status as a land and sea grant university.

“Growing and Stewarding Partnerships” will largely focus on partnering with other entities in fulfilling mutual goals in teaching, research and outreach missions. The draft proposal states, “These partnerships leverage the university’s and its collaborators’ assets to advance the cultural, economic, and civil interest of Maine communities even when a direct impact on the university’s mission is not obvious.”

Engaging stakeholders is one of the first steps in the formation of this project. Target groups include students, faculty, staff and administration, as well as state business and industry professionals, community members and the Maine government.

Project leaders are reaching out to these groups for their input, ideas, questions and comments regarding the process.

Provost Hecker said he believes that this plan needs to be inclusive, timely and guided by strategic values.

There will be three more forums this semester on UMaine’s strategic vision held at the Wells Conference Center.

The next forum will take place on Nov. 29 from 1-2:30 p.m. and is called “Fostering Learner Success.” After that will be “Creating and Innovating for Maine and Beyond” on Dec. 6 before the last forum on Dec. 10. called “Growing and Stewarding Partnerships.”

To participate or view recordings of the forums and access the powerpoint slides, visit umaine.edu/strategic-visioning.

On Oct. 22, students and faculty gathered in classroom 1 of the Raymond H. Fogler Library to discuss news literacy for the upcoming midterm elections. The event was hosted by Judith Rosenbaum, assistant professor in the communication and journalism department, and Jen Bonnet, the social sciences and humanities librarian.

Bonnet began the event by discussing news reception and bias. She emphasized how susceptible people are to quick and easy headlines rather than real, vetted news sources. After this introduction, Bonnet had members participate in an exercise to practice spotting fake headlines from real ones.

Attendees also discussed where people got their news from and what they believed the term “fake news” meant.

Rosenbaum herself believes that although “fake news” is a relatively new phrase, it isn’t exactly a new concept.

“It’s always been important,” Rosenbaum said.

“I think now with the polarized political climate that we have, people are more aware of the terms like fake news and misinformation,” Bonnet said. “But, I mean, that has always been around. It’s just more at the front of people’s minds and amplified by the internet, the rapid pace of which you share information.”

This workshop has been offered twice before in the spring semester of 2018. Although the event is already semi-regular, Rosenbaum and Bonnet said they had a special reason to host this event now.

“We wanted to provide an outlet for students to think through issues of fake news because it’s been so prevalent from the administration all the way down to local news,” Bonnet said. “It was very successful in the spring but also the midterm elections are in 15 days and so we wanted to equip people with some skills they could use to think through information they might be finding.”

The Fogler Library website states that misinformation can be published for many reasons, including political gain, advertising revenue, for commentary on politics or culture or even as a joke or prank. The website offers in-depth information on these topics as well as resources to learn how to more efficiently interpret information in the era of fake news.

“I think we take a lot of what we see and hear through the media for granted, without thinking about it, without giving it critical thought,” Rosenbaum said. “Any form of media literacy for me is vital because a lot of people don’t realize that what we see in the media is a production; its a construction.”

A water security summit was held in the University of Maine’s Buchanan Alumni House Saturday, Sept. 29, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The forum discussed grassroots action on water rights and security in Maine.

Summit attendees entering the Alumni House were met near the entrance by a woman offering to engage them in an indigenous ceremony known as “smudging,” which consists of burning sacred herbs and is used in some situations for spiritual cleansing or blessing.

Tara Houska of the Couchiching First Nation in Ontario, Canada, is a tribal attorney and environmental activist based in Washington D.C. She fights for indigenous rights and justice, serves as the national campaign director of Honor the Earth — a non-profit organization that supports environmental justice connected to indigenous groups — was an advisor on indigenous communities affairs to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and was one of the first people to speak at this forum.

“Maine is one of those examples, as an attorney, that it’s a completely different world when it comes to indigenous rights and when it comes to indigenous peoples and their relationship to the state,” Houska said. “We’re here to talk about water as life. We’re here to talk about the impacts and shared struggle that we have for water. Indigenous peoples are the current holders of 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.”

Throughout the day, members from various organizations came and went, giving their opinion on the issues, leading discussions and raising questions about water security. All events were bound by a common theme: connection to Maine.

Michelle Sanborn is the president of the New Hampshire Community Rights Network and is also the New Hampshire community organizer for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). She gave a presentation on the “Grassroots Movement for Community Rights and Rights of Nature” which focused on protecting people, communities and the environment.

Sherri Mitchell, a Native American rights attorney, teacher and activist was born and raised on the Penobscot Reservation on Indian Island in Old Town, Maine. She was the final guest speaker of the afternoon, giving a talk on what it means to be Penawahpskek. Mitchell is an activist and author of the book “Sacred Instruction: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change.” Mitchell is also the executive director of the Land Peace Foundation, an organization dedicated to the protection of indigenous land and water.

“Maine is blessed with a plentiful supply of water, but there are growing threats to the quality and quantity of our precious resource,” the Water Security Summit’s website stated. “To effectively address those threats, it’s imperative that concerned citizens and groups addressing water issues share information and coordinate efforts toward protecting our water resources.”

The afternoon offered opportunities for guests to break into small groups for “table talk” on the topic of water security, and provided a space for activists to share their ideas, information and accomplishments. An hour was also scheduled for lightning talks on broader water challenges in Maine, including discussions on topics such as the Juniper Ridge Landfill in Alton, Maine, led by Ed Spencer, and fish passage on Maine rivers, led by Landis Hudson.

You can find more information and sign up for email updates on the event’s website: mainewaternibi.wixsite.com/securitysummit2018.

By the third week of the semester, many students are settling into a rhythm. First-year students are getting the hang of advanced coursework, upperclassmen have shifted into school mode after a long summer. For one subgroup of the student population, the annual chaos of the beginning of the semester has just died down. Sorority formal recruitment ended last week, and with it, some kind of normalcy has returned to the lives of the Greek life members.

“Recruitment is always an exciting time for the College Panhellenic as we get to share with those interested in membership what makes our community special and each chapter unique,” Morgan Outing, a senior marketing and management student and the president of the Maine Alpha chapter of Pi Beta Phi said.

With nine active sororities on campus, the recruitment process is active and lengthy. It begins with orientation, a two-night process where potential new members can come to learn about the process, what they have to do and specific events that they will have to attend. This usually takes place on a Monday and Tuesday to kick of the week of recruitment.

The “sisterhood round,” for everyone who is registered as a potential member, follows with a full two nights in the Memorial Union of each potential new member (PNM) having the opportunity to see and talk to every organization. After the second night of the sisterhood round, PNM’s have the chance to rank each organization by order of preference. The individual sororities, in turn, rank their top selections of PNM’s.

This process is supposed to be individualized and based on matching values between new members and organizations.

The next landmark in the process is philanthropy night, when each PNM can learn about each sorority’s philanthropic activities. More group activities follow on Saturday before the whole process comes to an end on the last Sunday of formal recruitment, when sororities hand out offers of membership (known as bids) to potential new members.

This fall semester, recruitment took place the week of Sept. 10.  

Joshua Stanhope, the assistant director of fraternity and sorority life and Mariah Vanevenhoven, the graduate assistant for fraternity and sorority affairs, are busy in the lead up to and during formal recruitment to make sure the week runs smoothly.

“My role in the sorority recruitment process is to provide support and guidance for the Panhellenic Council and Rho Gammas (also known as recruitment guides, these women dissociate from their sororities and help potential new members navigate the recruitment process),” said Vanevenhoven.

“The Panhellenic president, vice president of recruitment and Rho Gammas are truly the ones running the show and creating the scheduling for recruitment week,” Vanevenhoven said. “Myself and Josh Stanhope are there throughout the week to help chapters troubleshoot any issues with their rooms/equipment, maintain the ICS system (a website where are PNM information is kept and, ultimately, where bid matching occurs), and help PNMs rank their top chapters at the end of the week before bid day.”

Stanhope also gives credit to these individuals for the successful week.

“Their messaging out to potential new members was very strong and there was a lot of communication between those folks,” Stanhope said. He believes PNMs are drawn to sororities, in part, because they want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.”

There is also the notion of “sisterhood” and empowerment. Stanhope believes these are attractive qualities and serve to get people excited about joining Greek life.

This is Stanhope’s fourth year in this position and although he says he still learns new things about the complicated process every year, he was pleased that this year almost every sorority hit their quota of 20 new members, which is up from last year’s quota of 15.

“The ultimate goal at the end is for them to all meet [membership] quota,” Stanhope said.

Katie Raffier, an ecology and environmental science and economics student, is the president of the Alpha Upsilon chapter of Delta Zeta. She thinks recruitment during the first weeks of this fall semester went pretty well overall.

“There can always be improvements in organization and pre planning but our Panhellenic Council works hard to make sure we get what we need as fast as possible,” Raffier said.

“For me, joining Delta Zeta gave me a sense of home because coming to Orono, Maine from Jacksonville, Florida at the age of 18 was terrifying. It is so important that women today have other women they can look to and aspire to be like. I think sororities give you that opportunity,” Raffier said.

The University of Maine has a long history with sororities. Alpha Omicron Pi is the oldest at the University, with a founding date of April 16, 1908, and is still in operation. The history of Greek life as a whole at UMaine dates as far back as 1874, and the culture of that tradition is still strong, according to Vanevenhoven.

“Recruitment evolves and progresses each year under the guidance of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) and with the help of undergraduate students, advisors, and UMaine staff,” Vanevenhoven said. “I believe the history is extensive and strong considering the moderately small size of our community.”

The next recruitment process will take place next fall and is open to all. To inquire more about the process you can stop in to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs in the Memorial Union.

Construction has finished on the roundabout at the intersection of Park Street and Rangeley Road. A notorious location for traffic accidents, the Park Street intersection has been a topic of discussion recently for many University of Maine students and members of the community.

As part of the state’s responsibility to assess locations with high amounts of accident reports, local officials decided a roundabout would adequately address safety issues, both for pedestrians and vehicles.

Jeff Aceto, the assistant director of capital planning and project management at UMaine, is responsible for managing capital construction on campus and has played an important role in the roundabout project.

“A project challenge for this intersection was the high volumes of traffic at peak times both in the morning and afternoon. Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) modeling showed that a signalized intersection would not be successful at this location due to significant stacking and delays during the peak traffic hours” said Aceto. “The roundabout was determined to be the best solution for this situation for minimizing delays, enhancing safety and accommodating future increases in traffic.”

Other factors are at play when planning a project like this. Due to the oversized load vehicles that transport wind blades to the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, project coordinators required the roundabout to be surrounded by a raised island to allow for the movement of large trucks.

A traditional roundabout is intended to create a safer and more efficient traffic pattern by eliminating the need for vehicles to cross directly through traffic, frequently resulting in more dangerous head-on accidents. In roundabouts, vehicles must yield to other drivers, which removes the need to cross traffic and keeps traffic moving in one direction.

For nearly three years, the Town of Orono has collaborated with the MDOT to plan and develop the project. Aceto noted that UMaine is also a primary stakeholder and donated over three acres of land for the project, which had an estimated cost of $2.5 million.

The University of Maine Police Department (UMPD) is one of the first responders to any traffic accident in the intersection.

“It appears to be going well,” said Sergeant Scott Curtis, suggesting that only a week into the semester conditions have rapidly improved.

Both UMPD and the Orono Police Department (OPD) have jurisdiction at the intersection and respond to accidents there, which, they said, have been minimal this year. However, not everyone has given the roundabout such a glowing endorsement.

Dylan Cunningham, a senior marine biology student and resident of Massachusetts, felt that a traffic light would have been a better alternative.

“Cape Cod, where I’m from, has many much larger versions of roundabouts called rotaries,” Cunningham said. “They have multiple lanes and much higher speed limits, resulting in a chaotic whirlwind of traffic.”

Cailin Darling, a senior biology student who was involved in a car accident in the intersection last fall, knows firsthand the necessity of new traffic safety measures, but agrees a roundabout may not be the best solution.

Darling’s main concern is the lack of experience some drivers in the area have with roundabouts and the danger that could potentially pose.

“I think once students figure out how to use [the roundabout], and the construction is finished, it will improve the situation,” she said.

Facilities Management is planning to relocate the UMaine granite sign that once rested near the intersection to an alternative location on Rangeley Road.

The official date of completion for the project was Sept. 30, and the intersection is now in full use.