On Sept. 5, the Division of Student Life, the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Rising Tide Center held a panel in the Bangor Room addressing the controversial banners that were displayed by residents of College Avenue on Aug. 25.

The banners, which sported slogans such as “Mother & Daughter Drop Off” and “Honk if she’s 18,” sparked outrage and concern among members of the community. The individuals do not live at one of the university-affiliated fraternity houses, but farther down the road.

The panel consisted of Student Life Vice President Robert Dana; Charles Zachau, a student and member of a fraternity on College Ave.; Susan Gardner, director of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Rising Tide Center; Joshua L. Stanhope, assistant director of fraternity and sorority life; Dana Carver-Bialer, graduate teaching assistant in the Communication and Journalism department; and Sam Saucier, a UMaine student activist who first reported on the banners at Mainebeacon.com.

People will default to “boys will be boys,” Carver-Bialer explained. “We do live in a culture that excused violence against women… it’s a reflection of society.”

Dana and Stanhope spent much of their time talking about measures they have taken to prevent this kind of behavior.

“We spend a lot of time talking about value set,” Dana said, discussing the school’s behavioral work with athletes and members of Greek life.

In expressing their efforts to educate Greek life members and athletes on civility, the panel seemed to prompt a question from the crowd: The individuals who hung the banners were not athletes or members of Greek life, so how are they being educated?

“We can always do more” was echoed several times throughout the meeting, and two members seemed to discover a possible missing link.

“I see a lot of the same faces… it’s frustrating,” Kirstin Daley, president of the Black Student Union and PR chair for the Student Women’s Alliance and Student Alliance for Sexual Health, said. “There is a wealth of programming on this campus.”

“I agree,” Zachau said, “There’s not a lot of collaboration.” He explained that most of the outreach carried out by fraternities is philanthropic in nature and that he hopes they may begin to change the culture.

Daley called on all men to make an effort to influence other men positively.

“These people are going to joke with you. Don’t allow them that space,” Daley said, referring to misogynistically-minded individuals.

According to Dana, the students who hung the banners have met with the Community Standards Office. He also mentioned that while they have a right to freedom of expression, the message on the banner violated aspects of the community standards student conduct code.

Dana and other members of the panel described this as an opportunity to shed light on the issues of misogynistic society.

Stanhope also described his efforts to empower men to stand up for victims of misogyny and abuse. These efforts include mandatory bystander intervention for members of Greek life.

The event concluded without any major conflicts or disagreements.

Dave and Ryan Enmin’s new disc golf development off exit 191 is a story 20 years in the making. Dave Enmin’s roots in the sport began with golf, playing games with a plus five handicap. When he found disc golf, he liked how his golf skills transferred.

Not many of Dave Enmin’s friends played golf when he came back to Maine from a career in the Air Force, however, Maine is one of the biggest states for disc golf.

”And it hasn’t even cracked the bubble!” Dave Enmin said.

Two decades and three disc golf courses later Dave and Ryan Enmin are still in the business, and now they are expanding with their new Orono course. Ryan Enmin had to talk Dave Enmin out of retirement to start their Orrington course, DR Disc Golf, eight years ago.

In their time in the sport, Dave and Ryan Enmin have helped grow the community. They have seen equipment specialized, courses built and players progress. Dave Enmin attributes much of the growth in popularity to Maine’s numerous pay-for-play courses, allowing people who can’t afford memberships a chance to play.

Disc golf is a family business for the Enmins. Dave and Ryan Enmin’s nephew, Matt, competed at the 2017 Nantucket Disc Golf Open this weekend. Matt also holds the highest handicap at Dave and Ryan Enmin’s Orrington golf course.

The Orono site’s conditions have made construction difficult, but Dave Enmin is confident in his vision of the finished course. “I’ve cut out 10 courses now…and I’ve never seen stuff like this,” he said, describing the thorny vines engulfing the property.

Disc golf may get a reputation for being a fringe sport, but its popularity in Maine has skyrocketed in past years. Dave Enmin estimated there were about 50 disc golf players in the state when he began playing and now some courses are seeing up to 50,000 guests a year.

“You don’t make a lot of money, but you’re successful in the number of people you get playing,” Dave Enmin said.

He also stressed safety when playing disc golf. He has seen a trend in developers who built courses on walking trails getting sued for pedestrian injuries.

The Orono course, at 36 holes, will be slightly smaller than the 45-hole Orrington site. Dave Enmin expects the course to be finished sometime next year.

“Disc golf is being talked about now more than ever in Bangor… The best player in the world can play with the worst person in the world, they can still have fun… you don’t have to be no jock,” Dave Enmin said.

DR Disc Golf sees couples, tourist, locals and people of all ages attend the course and Dave Enmin is excited to expand that community in the Bangor area.

On Friday, Aug. 25, the service and maintenance workers of the University of Maine System(UMS) picketed under the leadership of their union, Teamsters local 340. The protest resulted from disagreements between the union and the UMS over the next two-year hourly wage contract.

Union representatives say there will be two more protests this semester if the UMS does not agree to the union’s most recent compromise.

Most service and Maintenance workers fall under the blanket of “facilities maintenance workers CL1” with 131 full time employee hours in 2016. These employees start at $10.71, more than two dollars under the 2016 Maine state median.

These are the workers whose job classification requires “climbing, balancing, stooping, kneeling, crouching…Lifting / exerting in excess of 100 pounds” and possible subjugation “to moving mechanical parts, vibrations, fumes, odors, dusts, poor ventilation, chemicals, oils, extreme temperatures, inadequate lighting, work space restrictions, intense noises and travel.”

According to Rod Watson, a building custodian, the Teamsters’ reason for protest is the school’s continuous aversion from the Hourly Employees Classification and Compensation Program (HECCP).

Talks of the HECCP began as early as in 2009 with a goal to “ensure internal equity and like SECCP [Salaried Employees Classification and Compensation Program], maintain a connection to the external market.” Watson said this was when the original system of biannual raises was altered from a system that took employees seven steps to reach maximum wages to 15 steps. An effort to re-categorize the Service and Maintenance employees across the UMS to fit into the new system of compensation began.

Although the new system potentially lengthens the amount of time it would take to reach maximum pay, the Union and the UMS jointly supported the effort in 2011. Union members say the UMS has deviated from that system several times since then, including in their most recent contract offer. According to Watson and several other sources within the department, the human resources department suggested that hourly employees would receive a step up on the wage schedule every two years and a 2 percent increase on top of the step.

Spencer Seekins is a service and maintenance employee who maintains the University of Maine keycard locks. Seekins states the Union’s desires simply: “we want them to stick to the steps.”

Seekins took a $5 an hour pay cut when he decided to come work at UMaine for the health benefits, but he says it hasn’t been fruitful as he expected.

“Our [health insurance] premiums keep creeping up… the pay has not,” Seekins said.

University of Maine Orono Human Resources employee James Clark seemed to think the biannual step increase was the norm for service and maintenance raises. However, the contract UMS is proposing for the next two years offers a 2 percent raise each year and a $750 one-time stipend.

The protests were originally planned to object to the half percent lost to the recent contract, but as with all protests people show up for different reasons. Sources outside and within the union mentioned rumors of employees fighting for a 5 percent raise each year of the new contract. Watson confirmed that Teamster’s President Lorne Smith was on board with a step increase and two percent raise over the next two years. Smith released this in a university statement:

“The University has offered 4% in wages over two years even though the Union has shown them that our people are far below the MEDIAN wage rates in Maine.  The Union had initially been looking for around 8% over two years to try and fill the gap.  This was rejected.  In an attempt to close the contact we modified our proposal to one step and 2% on scale which amounts to between 4.5 and 4.75 % depending where the employee sits on the wage scale.  To accept this lower wage increase we also asked for no Health care cap increase. The University is also trying to squeeze its employees on Healthcare by shifting cost to the employees or cutting benefits.”

Steve Helmke is a carpenter at UMaine who was formerly involved in the Teamsters union. Helmke has worked at the University for 28 years, but says he still hasn’t reached the maximum payment on the wage schedule.

“I’ll be retired before that happens,” Helmke says.  In his experience, the UMS has often offered two-year contracts that deviate from the biannual step pretense and has been reluctant to negotiate with the union. From 1989- 1996, the previous seven step program never moved up according to Helmke.

“The UMS really loves the percentage raise I guess,” Helmke said.      

Watson mentioned that many of the Union workers were reluctant to protest because they didn’t want to upset the student body, who he says is their top priority and a major source of joy for service and maintenance workers.

“They care about these kids big time,” Watson said.

The second annual UMaine Student Symposium was held at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Monday, April 24. Scholars from a variety of disciplines displayed posters and gave presentations on their research.

The event was open to the public and began with an opening ceremony at 9 a.m. Over 1,000 graduate and undergraduate students participated, nearly double the number that attended last year’s symposium.

Students studying arts, engineering and information sciences, biomedicine and physical sciences unveiled their work.

Sebastian Ventrone, a UMaine electrical engineering alumnus, gave a keystone speech during the Fellowship Luncheon Ceremony at noon. Ventrone has worked as a microprocessor designer, won the Francis Crowe Distinguished Engineering Award in 2015 and holds over 200 patents.

The symposium included a photo contest and a scavenger hunt, where answers to the questions could be found throughout the event. Winners of both contests received prizes after the student presentations. Attendees posted photos of the presentations on Twitter with the hashtag #umss17 and answers to the scavenger hunt with #umss_hunt.

Presentations were judged by a panel based on the topic of the research, its real world applications, the presenter’s depth of knowledge on the topic and his/her ability to relate the research findings to the project’s question.

Among the presentations at the symposium were international business students presenting the tourism projects they have been working on all semester. Each group focused on a country and created a booth that showcased that country’s culture and other information relevant for tourists.

Jesse MacDonald, a third-year marketing student, was assigned to the group studying Chile. “We were kind of serving as a tourism department for them [Chile] to try to get people to learn about the country…we did a lot of research into what it’s like now, what it’s like to live there, if you want to go there what are the requirements…it was cool to have so much information about so many different countries,” MacDonald said.

Abby Durrah, a second-year management and marketing double major, was part of the international business group studying Honduras. Their table offered authentic Honduran coffee, chocolates and sopas de frijoles, or “bean soup.”

“We have been researching, collecting decorative garb and food for our booth, so to finally get the chance to see it all come together was awesome and so rewarding,” Durrah said.

The Honduras booth also featured a virtual reality headset that gave attendees the chance to see Honduras without ever boarding a flight.

“We gave them the chance to step inside of the ancient Mayan ruins…the countryside and a mountainous area. Honduras is 80 percent mountainous so that experience was very representative of what you would see,” Durrah said.

Presentations began at 9:15 a.m. and went until 2:15 p.m. with a one-hour lunch break at noon. After a short break, the symposium featured workshops which were followed by a reception, awards ceremony and poster cleanup.

MacDonald offered one final piece of advice. “Go on an empty stomach, because one or two laps around the international section, you’ll have about a five-course meal,” he said.

University of Maine alumnus Jeff Johnson gave a lecture titled “From UMaine to a Global Law Practice: Funding Opportunity in a Changing World” on April 28 at the Foster Center for Student Innovation. Johnson gave advice on understanding business law relevant to startup companies, a field in which he has over 19 years of experience.

Johnson is a partner at WilmerHale in Boston, a law firm with over 1,000 lawyers and 12 offices worldwide. He graduated from the University of Maine with a bachelor’s in surveying engineering and a master’s in spatial information science and engineering. He then went on to receive his J.D. from Stanford Law.

Johnson specializes in legal matters regarding intellectual property, development, software, data, financial and manufacturing and distribution of hardware. He has represented corporations such as Alcatel-Lucent, Oxford Instruments and Benu Networks.

After graduating from Stanford Law School in 1998, Johnson went to work at a firm in New York City. Johnson soon found that many of his co-workers there were not excited about the companies they were representing, leading him to move on to Boston.

Now that he is at WilmerHale, Johnson describes the work he does with several of his clients as “fun.” His educational background in surveying engineering gave him insight into technology startups that many lawyers do not have.

Johnson likes working with startups for several reasons. For one, startups often do not have an in-house lawyer, allowing him to fill that role. Johnson says that startups allow him to extend his client base because of their strong networking base, which is less common in the competitive nature of law firms

Large law firms may have more flexibility with startups that do not have the capital to pay for their legal services, according to Johnson. He reasoned that the large firms can afford to take risks, such as deferring a startup’s legal fees until the company can afford it.

Johnson highlighted both common mistakes and the successful business practices of startups he has worked with. He did not shy away from his own mistakes, which he believes have helped him learn along the way.

Several problems can arise in startups with multiple founders, according to Johnson’s lecture, such as the possibility of founders dropping out of the project. The best way to combat concerns over founders dropping out is to be careful whom one chooses as a partner in a startup venture.

An issue Johnson stressed was intellectual property and the possibility of consultants or former founders claiming the rights to certain ideas. He said it is easier to deal with what ideas came from who at the beginning of the process, because if the startup is a success, it is likely that anyone involved will claim intellectual property rights. He also mentioned that anything that comes from university staff can be considered to be owned by the university, prompting the question, “How am I using my university resources?”

Consultation of one’s teammates and lawyers was also a major talking point of Johnson’s lecture. Every word of a document is crucial, according to Johnson and consultation with lawyers can save a company from disaster. He mentioned one instance in which a CEO signed a document without consulting his counsel. The document had a clause that sunk the company.

Johnson cited an MIT media article that suggested ways to find opportunities, stating that he had often observed these qualities in other lawyers who were having success. One of these suggestions involved the niches lawyers can fill; if a lot of people are doing the same kind of work it will be harder to find opportunities in those niches, according to Johnson.   

Johnson then suggested not just networking, but contributing to that network, stating that more people will be willing to help you if you are doing a good job helping them. On top of that he suggested professionals be geographically flexible and polite to their staff.

University of Maine Students and Orono residents marched around campus on Saturday for the March For Science. The event is part of the nation-wide March for Science event that took place in cities and at universities across the country on Earth Day.

The goal of the March is to “defend the vital role science plays in our health, safety, economies, and governments… ” the March for Science’s website stated.

The main rally was in Washington, D.C., where marchers demanded scientific evidence based policy. There were over 600 satellite marches around the world. Thousands turned out for marches in Boston, New York and Los Angeles.

UMaine’s chapter of the march “was spurred by recent changes in national discourse that have led to the devaluation of science and critical thinking. However, it is not a protest against any individual or political party,” UMaine’s March for Science site stated.

Students, faculty and citizens gathered on the Mall in front of Fogler Library for a rally in which professional scientists shared their experiences on how science is important today.

Dr. Tom Keller, Executive Director of the Maine STEM Council, drew cheers from the crowd when he asked, “Is anyone else here worried about the National Science Foundation?” referring to the government agency which would face budget cuts under the Trump administration’s 2018 budget.

After the rally, students and local residents marched in 40 degree temperatures and light rains, down the Mall, east on Long Road, south on Gannett Road and then west on Belgrade Road, making a loop back to the union.

Marchers held signs with clever phrases in support of STEM. Although the rally is officially nonpartisan, “Make America Smart Again” and other signs poking fun at the current administration were common.

Amber Hathaway, an astronomy and physics doctoral candidate, was one of the organizers of the event.

“We’ve seen so many advances particularly in medical technology in the past hundred years…it has so much potential to make our future even better. Unfortunately, if we don’t fund science and don’t take it seriously, then we can’t make improvements in our society and we might even lose some of the progress we’ve made,” Hathaway said.

The rally kicks off a “Week of Action,” which March for Science has planned for April 23-29. The plan suggests science related activities, such as Sunday’s podcast hosted by the taste of science festival at Carnegie Institute, registering for the Environmental Voter Pledge and attending the people’s climate march.

Hannah Townsend, a high school student from Bangor, attended the March for Science rally to encourage people to get involved in STEM, especially women who currently only comprise 29 percent of STEM jobs, according to the National Girls Collaborative Project.

“It’s good to empower women to get involved in STEM, research and science, because it’s great to have more equality. I think it’s great to encourage more science for everybody,” Townsend said.

The march ended on the Memorial Union steps at the end of Belgrade Road. where the marchers celebrated with cheering and posing for photos.

“Give me an E” echoed a voice, to which the crowd obliged.

“What does that equal?” replied the voice.

“MC squared,” replied the mass, before the voices broke into laughter.

Afghanistan

On April 13, the U.S. dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), the biggest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal. The target was a system of tunnels in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan that the U.S. said was being used by ISIS fighters. Afghan troops on the ground said no civilian casualties were found. Up to 96 ISIS militants were killed according to Afghan officials said. This is the first time the United States has used the MOAB.

The U.S. air force dropped the bomb after fighting between U.S. and Afghan troops and ISIS militants had intensified in the area, according to Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States. ISIS militants had mined the area around the tunnel complex, making it dangerous for U.S. and Afghan troops to clear the tunnels on foot.

Korea

The North Korean Foreign Ministry warned that they will “hold the U.S. wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions,” referring to Cmdr. Dave Benham’s announcement on April 8 that the USS Carl Vinson was headed to the western Pacific.

Defense News first reported on the ship’s deployment and seemed to imply that the ship’s movement was in response to North Korea’s April 5 scud missile launch.

On Sunday, April 16, North Korea celebrated its biggest holiday, Day of the Sun, by parading missiles from its military arsenal through the city of Pyongyang. The North Korean military has displayed shows of force on the Day of the Sun in the past.

On Sunday, April 16, North Korea failed at an attempt to test a missile when the projectile fell into the sea of Japan shortly after being launched. Vice President Mike Pence was on a flight to  Seoul, South Korea during the test. Upon arrival, Pence issued a warning to North Korea “not to test his [Trump’s] resolve”.

On Saturday, April 15, The Navy reported the USS Carl Vinson was in the Sundra Strait. The Strait is between the two main islands of Singapore 3,500 miles away from North Korea, contrary to what the president and Admiral Harry Harris announced.

“Buy American, Hire American”

On Tuesday, April 18, Trump signed a new executive order telling agencies of the Executive branch to begin developing policies to increase the use of American-made products by the government itself and those receiving federal grants.

The order also calls for the reform of the H1-B visa lottery. The H1-B program awards 85,000 visas to foreigners annually. Senior administration officials said that the majority of workers brought in on H1-B visas are paid below their field’s average wage. Trump has criticized the program, claiming it allows companies to replace American workers with underpaid foreigners.

The order asks the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Homeland Security to suggest reforms for the H1-B program. The order also asks all executive agencies to assess their ability to “buy American.”

Moves such as the “Buy American” reviews have caused some to worry about Trump’s move towards protectionism. The financial leaders at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank held spring meetings on Thursday continuing to discourage Trump’s policies of decreased U.S. imports and increased tariffs.

Maine

Gov. Paul Lepage issued a new bill this week as part of his EMBRACE initiative that aims to consolidate school districts and reduce superintendents. The initiative included seven grants, totaling $2.7 million given to schools earlier in the month to increase efficiencies.

LePage attended his first public forum in Portland since 2015 on Tuesday. The forum, held at University of Southern Maine’s Portland Campus, was organized by the student group “Young Americans for Freedom.” Lepage discussed his EMBRACE initiative goals and opposition to Medicaid expansion.

So far, five candidates have filed to run in the 2018 primaries for governor of Maine. Adam Cote, Democrat, filed this week joining Democrat Patrick Eisenhart, Republican Deril Stubenrod and Libertarian Richard Light.

Luke Holden, CEO of Luke’s Lobsters and a native of Cape Elizabeth, spoke at the Fosters Center for Student Innovation on Wednesday, April 12 about his restaurant chain’s success in bringing authentic Maine lobster rolls to eight other states.

Holden sits on the Lobster Institute Board, which was celebrating its 30-year anniversary at the lecture. The Lobster Institute was founded in 1987 as a co-op between the University of Maine and Fishermen with a Mission to Sustain Lobster Stock.

Holden began his professional career working for a mergers and acquisitions firm on Wall Street, but eventually realized he lacked the passion that he had working in Maine. That’s when he began his unsuccessful search for an authentic lobster roll in New York.

At the time of the restaurant’s conception, most Maine lobster sold outside the state had passed through dealers, processors, distributors and wholesale companies before it reached the retail market. The extra steps between the fishermen and the restaurant result in more expensive and less-fresh lobster.

Luke’s Lobsters, which Holden said employs roughly 500 people and makes about $50 million of profits worldwide, was founded in 2009 with about $30,000. The restaurant has grown to 22 locations in the U.S. and five in Japan. The chain is now ranked in the top 50 rapidly growing restaurants by restaurantbusinessonline.com.

The chain’s success came in several steps. One of the most important ones was establishing vertical integration between the restaurant and the fishermen. Through a partnership with his father, who Luke said held Maine’s first lobster processing license, he was able to reach Maine’s fishing community, allowing him to deal directly with them.

In 2012, Luke’s Lobsters purchased a processing plant in Saco, Maine allowing them to cut out another middleman. Holden mentioned that the expense of the plant meant it was not an immediately profitable investment, but allowed them to control profit margins over time.

In 2016, the Company purchased a wharf that was struggling to operate with profits from the 200,000 to 300,000 pounds of lobster they were buying from fishermen annually.

Holden said the company wanted them to buy the wharf because they were from Maine and otherwise would have had to sell it to a Canadian company, but the business model had to be changed. The solution was the Tenants Harbor Fisherman’s co-op. It created competition that gave the fishermen and opportunity to increase their profit margin, allowing Luke’s Lobsters to cut another link out of the horizontally integrated company and increase the fisherman’s wages and catch.

The company’s influence in the market came at a crucial time for many fishermen: The price of lobster dropped $2 from Aug. 2005 to Aug. 2009.

Holden described the company’s drive for increasing sustainability and how cutting out the middleman may help that. He said the customer is getting smarter and demanding more transparency in food production. The attention to detail leads Luke’s Lobsters to focus on the traceability of their food, which has been made feasible through the products vertical integration.

The sustainability attempts go beyond just the food extending the restaurant’s source of electricity, lighting and building supplies some of which are recycled from old barns in Maine. Holden also highlighted restaurants he thinks are working towards sustainability such as “&pizza” and “Bareburger.”

Holden believes that customers’ emerging desire for transparency is making our food system better. He said “great people and great service” are what drive’s Luke’s Lobsters forward.

SmartAsset recently released its third annual “Best Value Colleges Study” for the state of Maine. SmartAsset is a website that offers interactive tools which provide financial advice.

The study ranks the University of Maine Orono at first place, followed by Colby College, Bates College, UMaine at Augusta, UMaine at Farmington, University of New England and the University of Southern Maine. UMaine finished second behind Colby College in the previous two studies.

The study ranks the “best” schools in each state based on five factors: average scholarship and grant money per recipient, average starting salary of graduates, college tuition, student living costs and student retention rates. The study weighs the factors so that starting salary has the most influence over the results.

The numbers given are sourced from the “2015 National Center for Educational Statistics, 2014 College InSight and 2017 Payscale.” The former two are databases for university information and the latter is a paid access “salary profile database.”

The data for tuition was picked from the “National Center for Educational Statistics and College InSight” and is frequently at odds with the tuition prices listed in the Schools’ catalogs and common data sets from corresponding years. The study mostly sticks to data from the 2014-2015 school year.

SmartAsset’s number for UMaine’s tuition is $10,606, the same as NCES 2014-2015 number. The UMaine Common Data Set from 2013 to 2014 lists tuition as $8,370.

The University of New England’s tuition is listed as $34,080 in the study. The number matches the NCES tuition data, but the UNE 2014 – 2015 catalog listed tuition at $33,880 and the 2013 – 2014 catalog had tuition at $31,980.

Tuition for USM was listed at $7,796, which matches the “National Center for Educational Statistics” numbers for the academic years 2013 through 2016. The USM common data sets list the tuition at $7,590.

Bates offered a comprehensive fee of $62,770  that covered tuition and cost of living,  according to the 2014 – 2015 common data set. The number listed on SmartAsset’s Student living costs for Bates College are equivalent to College InSight’s cost of living data, a 2013-2014 statistic. The SmartAsset tuition number is equivalent to The National Center for Educational Statistics 2014 to 2015 tuition data. The use of two different years for the data may explain why the sum of the study’s tuition and cost of living figures does not match the comprehensive fee listed in the data set.

The NCES 2014-2015 stats broke the comprehensive fee down into tuition and cost of living, but when added up the numbers still reflected the comprehensive fees listed in the school’s official data set.

A similar problem arises in the difference between colleges that charge by semester and those that charge by credit hour. The tuition prices listed on SmartAsset’s study would have bought more credits at some schools and less at others.

UMA charges by credit hour. The UMA common data set for 2013-2014 says the cost per credit hour that year was $217. UMA tuition is listed in SmartAsset’s study as $7,500 a year, reflecting the College InSight 2013 to 2014 data. That $7,500 would have bought a student 34 credits.

The study stuck to NCES 2014 to 2015 numbers for the cost of living component with the exception of one school. The University of Maine Augusta cost of living is $1,200 in the study. UMA’s catalog says “The estimated cost for books and supplies…is approximately $2,500.” This is likely because UMA is a commuter school. However, the NCES provides an off-campus estimate at $12,000 for the 2013 to 2014 year.

On Wednesday, April 5, Nicole Cappiello, a doctoral intern at the counseling center, gave her presentation, titled “Stress and Procrastination,” in the Bumps Room of the Memorial Union.

The presentation was a casual discussion between Cappiello and spectators. They shared experiences and found common ground in the inevitable woes of academic stress.

As part of the “Feel Better Fast” series being planned by the counseling center, Cappiello covered common reasons for stress, positive and negative reactions to stress and healthy techniques for avoiding it all together.

“Feel Better Fast” is holding lectures through April. There are three left in the special topic series, including “Social Anxiety and Introversion,” “Diversity and Inclusion” and “Intro to Mindfulness.” The lectures will be held every Wednesday this month at 12:00 p.m. in the Bumps Room.

The word stress has various definitions, depending on the academic or professional field it is being used in. A biologist might focus on the neurotransmitter imbalances in the brain to understand the issue, but sociologists focus on society’s role in creating stress.

One surprising fact, Cappiello said, is that some stress is healthy. Stress has helped keep humans alive by triggering the “fight or flight” response in life threatening situations. Carolyn Aldwin suggested that the heightened emotions experienced during stress may enhance memory in her book “Stress, Coping, and Development: An Integrative Perspective.”

For college students, however, stress is an unpleasant gnawing sensation that seems to imprison one’s mind especially approaching deadlines and finals week. As suffocating as the weight of academics can feel, there is still hope.

Cappiello listed a few of the common reactions students have when faced with stress, such as doubting one’s confidence or experiencing depleted energy. She also mentioned how important it is to stay positive. “We forget that this is going to teach us valuable things for our future.”

One way to manage the stress is to avoid procrastination. A popular, but detrimental, coping mechanism is completely abandoning the effort, according to Cappiello. Students might also procrastinate by doing other daily life tasks such as laundry or cleaning. Cappiello suggested students ask themselves “what are the facts that it’s better to put it off? Can I make a small dent now?”

Cappiello also emphasized the effectiveness of “mindfulness,” a mental state achieved through focusing on the present time and place one finds oneself in. Mindfulness is often reached through daily practice and meditation.

In addition to their scheduled counseling meetings, the counseling center has provided a “do it yourself” page dedicated to stress reduction techniques. From this page, one can download stress relieving MP3s or read about several “stress reduction ideas.” The page says focusing on the way one breathes can help to reduce stress. When one is stressed their breathing is often constricted, leading to increased anxiety and muscle tension.

The page also suggests resting; either lying down, eyes closed, for two minutes to block out extra sensory stimuli, or taking a 20-30 minute power nap. Unfortunately, many adults struggle with sleep because of stress and then have worse stress because of lack of sleep, according to the American Psychological Association in what is referred to as the “sleep-stress cycle.” Approximately 43 percent of adults say stress has kept them awake at night, according to APA surveys.

One of the links on the counseling center website’s stress page suggests engaging in exercise or recreation. When one engages in exercise the brain’s stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, are reduced, according to a Harvard Health publication.

These tips and many other resources, including the Mind Spa and UMaine Active Minds, are available to UMaine students. It’s often difficult to seek out help, but with end-of-semester pressures approaching, the counseling center urges students to do so.