On the morning of Wednesday, April 12, 12 cars in the Hilltop parking lot were vandalized with spray paint. There was substantial damage done to all cars. UMPD encourages anyone with information to call (207) 581 4040. There is a reward in place for any information that leads to charges, an arrest or a conviction.

April 5

Sky high

12:15 a.m. – University of Maine Police Department (UMPD) officers on foot detected a strong odor of marijuana on the second floor of York Hall. Upon arrival, officers knocked on the door and first-year student Skylar Yopp answered the door. Officers noted the odor was stronger once inside the room. Yopp handed over a mason jar of marijuana and a glass pipe. She was summoned for possession of a usable amount of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia.

April 6

When smoke hits the fan

11:06 p.m. UMPD officers on foot detected an odor of marijuana on the second floor of Gannett Hall. Officers knocked on the door and were invited in by Jani Johnston and one other student. The window in the room was open, there was a fan and a rolled up towel placed in front of the door. Johnston admitted to smoking and voluntarily handed over a plastic bag with marijuana residue, a small orange glass pipe with marijuana residue, a bong and Orloff Vodka. She was extremely cooperative. Johnston was summoned for possession of a usable amount of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia.

April 9

Time to throw in the towel

9:43 p.m. UMPD officers responded to a Resident Assistant (RA) complaint of marijuana. Officers went to the third floor and knocked on the door of Michael Rogers. In plain view there was a large glass bong, a grinder with 0.22 oz of marijuana and a towel placed in front of the door. He had no medical marijuana card and was extremely cooperative. He was summoned for possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia.

Real eyes realize real lies

11:53 p.m. – UMPD officers responded to an anonymous report on Campus Eyes to an odor of marijuana in York Hall on the third floor. Upon arrival, officers knocked on the door of Jacob Ryan. He answered the door and had bloodshot eyes. There was a mason jar, a glass pipe and a bag of marijuana in plain view. He was summoned for possession of drug paraphernalia.

April 11

A close-shave with the law
11:05 p.m. – UMPD officers approached a non-student in York for drinking beer in the common room. Russell Pakos, a New Jersey Native, was ID’d and served a trespass notice. Officers drove him to the All Town gas station across from campus. Forty-five minutes later, officers spotted Pakos again in the York common room shaving his head. Officers removed the subject, who reported that he was shaving his head so that “officers wouldn’t recognize him.” He was transported to Penobscot County Jail.

New Senators and Officer Appointments

Melody Cropley had her observation this week.

Club Maintenance

A group came requesting preliminary recognition for a club centered around Spikeball, a modified version of 2v2 volleyball centered around a small trampoline. The group will focus on learning the sport in a recreational and competitive setting. Granted.

Club Presentations

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) thanked the senate for funding their trip to their AIChE Regional Conference.

Executive Reports

President Kevin Bois was under the weather this week and his report was given by Vice President Jared Dumas. Bois used his executive funds to give $200 to the South Asian Association of Maine (SAAM) for their Holi event on March 25.

Vice President for Financial Affairs Robert Begin reported $91,998.63 in unallocated.

Vice President for Student Organizations Jacob Johnson is still tweaking the student organization database and gave a shout out to SOC for meeting with clubs as part of the student government outreach initiative.

Vice President for Student Entertainment Isaiah Mansour reported that the Maine Day concert planning is moving “slowly but surely,” having reached the contractual negotiations phase.

Periodic Reports

The Board of Trustees’ next meeting will be on May 16. “There will be no Board of Trustees reports for the rest of the year,” Representative Samuel Borer said. “You’re welcome.”

The Chair of the Fair Election Practices Committee Alex Rahman announced that the votes had been counted and Senator Floreani was elected as President of the General Student Senate, and Senator Aromando was elected as Vice President. The inauguration will be held on May 2.

Legal Services finalized their budget last meeting.

Director of Communications Cody Rubner announced that a job posting has been lined up, with four positions open. He hopes to reach out to appropriate groups on campus to broaden the application pool. He has also been attempting to fulfill requests for new Snapchat filters, but all have been denied thus far. He speculated that this was due to him sending them as independent submissions, but organization submissions have a hefty bill attached to them. Updates in upcoming weeks.

The Provost Council has been working with new and old executives to break down the UMaine budget, and figure out what’s being spent where. More to come.

Reports of Standing Committees

To improve the campus climate, Political Activism has begun planning a collaboration with Americans For Informed Democracy.

Reports of Special Committees

UMS / Student Government Association Conference Planning Committee Representative Samuel Borer begged the other senators: “Please. Register. We’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time on it, it’s going to be awesome. I’ll post the registration one more time on the Facebook group.”

Representative Board Reports

The Honors College Student Advisory Board has been preparing for the Maine Day meal packing event at the Field House. With a planned 100,000 meals, it would be the largest meal pack in Maine history, and beat the record currently held by Harvard. And yes, this will be televised.

The Student-Athlete Advisory kickball tournament has been rescheduled for Monday, April 10. The first round begins at 4 p.m.

Community Association Reports

The Student Health Awareness Council’s biggest and final event, the Multicultural Mosaic, will be held in the Memorial Union on April 7.

Student Women’s Association is preparing for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and will be hosting a Clothesline Project in the North Pod this Thursday. Beautiful Week will be held on the week of the 17th. A petition boasting 11,000 signatures regarding an on-campus pregnancy resource center has been sent to Dean Dana, with no response yet.

Allocations

The Men’s Ultimate Frisbee team returned the senate’s funding for a now cancelled tournament. They decided to reschedule for a tournament being held this weekend. The request was originally listed as $645, due to a miscommunication with the team treasurer. The team requested $800 for five rooms for two nights and $160 for bid, for a grand total of $960. The motion was amended and passed.

New Business

3D Printing requested $3,113.69 for three new printers. Their current 3D printers are owned by the Mechanical Engineering department. The club allows interested individuals to request commissions at a price of $0.05 per gram. This financial request does not include material, because it’s cheap and the cost is included in the commission price. Motion passed.

The Maine Peace Action Committee requested $640 for their fall and spring newsletter. Passed.

Class of 2017 Council requested $1,815 for buses, social media ads, printing and rental of a trampoline park for Senior Week. Historically, about 500 students attend. Passed.

An act from Policy and Procedure to amend Part II of the financial policies was on the table. Specifically, Section 1, Subsection C, to give the President and Vice President of UMSG, Inc, an executive fund of $2,000 each, rather than $1,000. The President and Vice President use this as emergency funding for certain organizations or events. Financial Affairs estimated that Bois has “about $200 left,” and Dumas has “about $500.” Motion passed. “It’s the same amount of money in different places,” Dumas commented.

Services discussed a number of “little things”: There are plans for a pilot test for takeout swipes next semester, requiring a $5 deposit on reusable takeout containers. $3 million will be put towards renovations to the Bear’s Den, including the café and pub and the dining area surrounding it. Charging stations are up and Services may start advertising them. The only women’s restroom to have a working and well stocked feminine hygiene product dispenser is in the Bookstore and there are plans to fix that by placing more across the campus next semester.

Finally, discussions were held regarding an Inauguration Dinner. The event will serve as a final goodbye to executives and senior senators, as well as invite past executives to meet with new senators. No concrete details at this time.

On April 6, President Donald J. Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping for a series of meetings that Trump described as “tremendous.”

About halfway through Jinping’s visit, President Trump had announced that he ordered a missile strike in Syria on an airfield, as a way to retaliate for the chemical attack suspected to be a product of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime earlier this week. The attack killed at least 72 people on Tuesday, including 20 children.

The missile strike, which President Trump ordered on Thursday, launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the same place that housed the warplanes that delivered the chemical attacks. This is the first time that the U.S. military has taken action against Assad.  Six people were killed.

“It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons,” President Trump said on Thursday. “There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council. Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically.”

In a press conference on April 7, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announced that the U.S. is “prepared to do more” in Syria. “The United States took a very measured step last night. We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary.”

It is still in question as to whether or not Russia was involved in the chemical attack that prompted President Trump to take action.

There has been a history of tension between President Trump and China. During the 2016 presidential election, Trump referred to China as a “currency manipulator” and said, “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country, and that’s what they’re doing. It’s the greatest theft in the history of the world.”

On April 7, the Senate confirmed Neil Gorsuch in a 54-45 vote. Maine Senators Susan Collins and Angus King split their votes, with Collins voting in favor of Gorsuch and King against. Gorsuch will fill the ninth seat that has been vacant since February 2016, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. In the vote, three Democrats crossed party lines in support of Gorsuch, who is currently an appeals court justice.

While many Republicans are pleased with the future Supreme Court Justice, Democrats are still unimpressed. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, said that there will be “less faith in the Supreme Court” when Gorsuch takes his seat.

Republicans, however, argue that the Democratic party has been unfair to Gorsuch, saying that he is qualified for the nomination and that he has been unfairly represented. Part of their argument is rooted in the fact that Gorsuch is experienced and shares many of the same ideologies that Scalia possessed during his time on the Supreme Court.

Gorsuch will be sworn in on Monday, April 10.

March 29

No more table tennis for you

3:45 a.m. – University of Maine Police Department (UMPD) officers on foot patrol were doing rounds through York Hall Wednesday night when they came across three students, a female resident and two males, playing table tennis. Officers did not recognize either of the males and asked for identification. The males were identified as Antoine Pratt, 24 and Terrance Thomas, 23. Both were non-students and listed their home address as the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter. One week prior, Thomas was issued a trespassing notice for the university. When officers ran Pratt’s name, there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest and he was transported to Penobscot County Jail (PCJ). Both were reissued a one-year trespassing notice.

Give us the lettuce

9:02 p.m. – UMPD officers noticed a strong odor of marijuana on the third floor of Cumberland Wednesday evening. Officers knocked on the door of first-year student Austin Davis who admitted to smoking. He had no medical marijuana card. He voluntarily handed over a small plastic bag of marijuana. He was summoned for possession of marijuana.

March 31

I swear to drunk I’m not God, officer

11:00 p.m. – UMPD officers responded to a Resident Assistant (RA) call in Somerset Hall for noise. Officers were directed to a room on the second floor for a “loud party.” Upon arrival, one of the residents of the room opened the door and officers looked inside. They observed “nervous” and intoxicated students in the room and a beer can by a student’s foot. When asked who’s beer it was, first-year student Jack Panneton, 18, admitted the beer was his by holding it up and saying, “Oh, you mean this beer?” He was summoned for illegal possession of alcohol.

April 2

Fight Club
3:55 a.m. UMPD officers on foot patrol heard a loud commotion in York Hall Sunday evening. They discovered the source of noise to be two students, Devon Ross and Chad Leasore, engaging in a “fight club.” The two had no intentions of hurting one another. UVAC was called and checked both students out with no transport. Both students were summoned for disorderly conduct.

The University of Maine is seeing a rise in out-of-state students committing to the Orono campus following the “Match Program” initiated in 2015. Several years ago, UMaine started its Flagship Match scholarship program, giving out-of-state students the opportunity to attend the Orono campus for the same tuition price they would pay to attend their own state’s flagship public school. This program includes Massachusetts and eight other states.

Jeff Hecker, UMaine’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, explained that gaining out-of-state students will help push people to stay in Maine. “It’s a good thing for the university, and it’s also a good thing for our state. The more we can bring young people to Maine, some of them are going to stay.”

The program was started to target two issues. Maine currently has the oldest median age in the country and continuously fewer students graduating high school each year. Although Maine student’s potential pool of applicants to the Orono campus has been shrinking, the Board of Trustees has halted a tuition increase for five consecutive years.

The program began to encourage the neighboring New England states of Maine to apply and attend school in Orono and has since expanded to include California, Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Hecker commented that Maine has been assertive in recruiting out-of-staters. For example, there has been billboards placed in Massachusetts advertising that students can attend UMaine for the same price as UMass Amherst.

Massachusetts students who meet the grade point average and test score requirements are awarded approximately $14,527, give or take based on tuition adjustments, from UMaine to bring their cost in line with UMass tuition.

Tuition and mandatory fees at UMaine add up to $10,628 for in-state students and $29,498 for out-of-state students. At UMass Amherst, tuition and fees are $15,345 for in-state students and $33,492 for out-of-state students.

According to UMaine, 430 students in the fall 2016 class were from Massachusetts, 327 of whom were given the flagship match scholarship. Since 2015, UMaine has seen a 41 percent increase in applications from students in Massachusetts. They have also seen a 56 percent increase from Connecticut, 26 percent from Rhode Island and a four percent increase from New Hampshire.

Hecker added that one of the goals at UMaine is to have a higher mix of out-of-state students. About seven years ago, the school had about 15 percent of out-of-state students, compared to 40 percent in the fall 2016 class. “That’s about our goal,” Hecker said. “We’d love to be right around there.”

March 24

Solo stoner

8:08 p.m. – University of Maine Police Department (UMPD) officers on foot patrol smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from a room on the fourth floor of Knox Hall. Officers knocked on the door and first-year student Aiden Florio answered the door, alone. Florio admitted he did not have a medical marijuana card and was extremely cooperative with the officers. He handed over a small bag of marijuana and a glass pipe. He was summonsed for possession of a usable amount of marijuana.

Ciroc ‘n’ roll

11:29 p.m. – UMPD officers responded to a Resident Assistant (RA) call for intoxication. Officers responded to a room on the second floor of Penobscot Hall. Officers knocked on the door and first-year student Lucas Snyder opened the door. UVAC was called and checked him out, with no transport. He admitted to drinking Ciroc vodka. He was summonsed for possession of alcohol.

March 25

Because you’re mine, I walk the line

11:54 p.m. – UMPD officers responded to a call of an intoxicated individual walking near Stodder Hall. First-year student Zachary Brostek was unsteadily walking while being held up by two females on either side of him. He had a backpack with a liter of Southern Comfort in it and a small amount of marijuana. He had no medical card. UVAC was called and he was transported to the hospital. He was summonsed for possession of alcohol and possession of a usable amount of marijuana.

March 26

Frat fight

12:59 a.m. – UMPD officers responded to a disorderly complaint at 111 College Ave., Delta Tau Delta fraternity house. Members were reportedly yelling at members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, their neighbors, across the lawn. The two have had “beef” for years. Officers separated the parties.

Tristan Degen, a third-year marine science student, was proven a hero over spring break while living at home in Bangor, Maine. What started as a small pop in the circuit of the dryer in his home turned into a smoke-filled room that Tristan was able to quickly contain before it spread through the home.

Degen said he and his father heard a noise in the laundry room around 8:00 a.m one Sunday morning and rushed to see what the problem was. Upon arrival, there was a slight glow behind the knob on the dryer and Tristan’s father pulled the plug, releasing smoke that filled the entire room. Degen retrieved the fire extinguisher from the garage and contained the smoke before firefighters could arrive. The fire was contained to only the laundry room, but smoke spread throughout the house.

The Bangor fire department pried apart the dryer that had turned black from the flames and was burnt out. There were wooden cabinets above the dryer that were also damaged in the fire.

Degen said he had a clear, calm head during the “ridiculously smoky” ordeal. He explained that his younger brother was asleep upstairs and upon being woken by his mother, he left the house. His mother left as well with their dog. Degen and his father then had to air the house out “in zero-degree weather to get rid of the plasticy smell” that engulfed the house. Degen had a headache for several days following the event.

Degen is a student employee at the University of Maine New Balance Recreation Center and has been for almost a year. He currently works at the front desk and acts as a manager. “He’s one of the best employees we’ve ever had,” Eric Swett, Operations Coordinator at the recreation center said. “He has a great attitude, he’s extremely humble, he’s polite, friendly, you name it. He’s what you want.”

“He’s an excellent young man,” Arthur “Dodge” Tucker, Graduate Assistant for Operations & Intramural Sports added. “He showed up that same day to work and we didn’t know what had happened.” Upon being told this information, Tucker pulled Degen aside and asked how his weekend had gone to which Degen replied, “I hung out, didn’t do much.” Tucker laughed and explained that was the type of person Degen was — not one to bring attention to himself.

Degen works long hours at the recreation center and is one of the most liked student employees. “He’s wonderful,” Kristie Deschesne, Assistant Director for Programming commented. She added that Degen’s mother contacted her to tell her of the incident several hours after it occurred. “She is very proud and thankful for what Tristan did and wanted to share it, as he’s not the kind of guy to bring attention to himself. I actually saw him that morning before I knew about it and he never mentioned it!”

Degen currently lives at home in Bangor and plans to move to the Orono area for the upcoming 2017-2018 school year.

March 19

No green card? No green

9:51 p.m. – University of Maine Police Department (UMPD) officers responded to a Resident Assistant (RA) complaint of marijuana in Kennebec Hall. Upon arrival, UMPD detected a strong odor of marijuana coming from a room on the second floor. Officers knocked on the door and found Ryan Conway to be in possession of marijuana. He had no medical marijuana card. He voluntarily handed over a grinder with a small amount of marijuana inside. He was summonsed for illegal possession of paraphernalia.

Schnurr fires again

11:48 p.m. – A UMPD officer stopped a vehicle near DTAV after the radar caught the student driving 15 miles over the posted speed limit. Driving the car was first-year student Jacob Schnurr, a student living in Oxford Hall. Upon the stop, the officer detected a strong odor of marijuana and noticed a visible amount of marijuana sitting in Schnurr’s lap. The officer then called for backup from another UMPD officer. Upon arrival, the driver and passenger were told to exit the vehicle while the officers searched it. There was residue of marijuana found in the cup holders, on the seats and on the floor mats. The search also turned up a grinder and a glass pipe. Neither student had a medical marijuana card. Schnurr was summonsed for illegal possession of paraphernalia and marijuana.