A University of Maine data breach has the potential to expose the personal information of more than 900 past and present UMaine students, the university announced Wednesday. The breach was discovered when a faculty laptop and media card were reported stolen.

According to UMaine spokeswoman Margaret Nagle, the laptop and media card were stolen from the checked bag of a faculty member traveling from Seattle to Boston on Feb. 10. When the faculty member discovered the laptop was missing, the theft was immediately reported to the airline and Massachusetts State Police.

Students potentially affected by the breach were all enrolled in physics courses at UMaine dating back to 1999.

In total, the student records of 941 students were on the laptop and media card, containing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, course information and grade data. Six hundred and four of these records contained the Social Security numbers (SSNs) of students enrolled from 1999 to 2007, when the university was still using SSNs as student identification numbers, Nagle said. The remaining 337 records did not contain SSNs.

As required by Maine’s “Notice of Risk to Personal Data Act,” The University of Maine System General Counsel has notified the state’s attorney general’s office of the data breach.

As Feb. 18 there has been no indication that the information has been used.

UMaine officials are working with the information security company Experian Information Solutions to control the breach. Students whose SSNs were exposed will be offered one free year of identity protection from Experian, including credit monitoring, alerts regarding credit changes and identity theft insurance.

Nagle says that affected students will be notified by Experian within the next two weeks.

2/7

1:20 a.m. – Face down, man down

The University of Maine Police Department (UMPD) received a Resident Assistant (RA) complaint of two intoxicated males in the lobby of Somerset Hall. When officers arrived, they found first-year student Nathan Silsby, 19, face down outside of his dorm room, being assisted by another male first-year student. The University of Maine Ambulance Corps transported Silsby to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Silsby’s helper was referred to Judicial Affairs.

2:54 p.m. – Return visit

On Feb. 6, Ethan Shrestha, a resident of South Portland, was arrested for violating the conditions of release from a prior incident by possessing alcohol and possessing alcohol as a minor. Due to his non-student status, Shrestha was barred from coming back onto the UMaine campus. The next day, UMPD received notice that Shrestha was in Androscoggin Hall and Shrestha received a criminal trespass notice and was escorted off campus.

2/8

12:31 a.m. – Partying the hardest

UMPD received an RA complaint of possible underage drinking in Somerset Hall. When officers arrived the RA led them to a room on the second floor. The officers made contact with room resident, Tyler Stimpson, 19, and were concerned because he was the most intoxicated of the group. Stimpson denied drinking when the officers questioned him, but then admitted he had been drinking an hour and a half earlier. He was summonsed for illegal possession of alcohol by consumption.

6:04 p.m. – What a meth

UMPD officers dispatched to University Park after receiving a call that a man was walking around the neighborhood knocking on doors. When they arrived they found Michael Donahue, 32, of Houlton, wandering Connecticut Avenue carrying a pile of mail. Donahue approached the officers and asked what was going on. Officers observed that Donahue was “clearly impaired”, but exhibited no signs of intoxication. They ran his name through the system and found that he was on probation and was violating the conditions of his release by being in his impaired state. Donahue was transported to Penobscot County Jail in Bangor where additional drug and alcohol tests were run on Donahue. He tested positive for methamphetamine.

Jan. 29

4:19 a.m. – Profanities in the wind

An officer from the University of Maine Police Department (UMPD) was traveling south on Munson Road when he saw a passenger lean out of a moving car and yell “F— you, a——!” The officer turned his cruiser around and conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle, and asked the passenger why he yelled vulgarities out the window. The passenger said he was not yelling at anyone in particular, but admitted to being intoxicated. The student was referred to Judicial Affairs.

Feb. 1

12:31 a.m. – Who put that snow there?

UMPD officers responded to the Belgrade Road Spur after receiving a report that there was a student who was having “a hard time negotiating a snow bank.” Upon arrival the officers witnessed that the student was also having trouble walking. He told officers that he had recently torn his ACL and his leg was hurting. Officers could smell liquor on his breath, and the student confessed to have taken four shots of alcohol, though he “did not know what type.” The student was referred to Judicial Affairs.

11:19 a.m. – ‘Myotis lucifugus’… not on the list

Officers responded to the Chi Omega house on College Avenue after receiving a call from the sorority that there was a “myotis lucifugus” inside of the house. All members of the house wanted the bat removed and understood that to do so would result in the destruction of the bat. Officers were able to remove the bat from the house.

9:13 p.m. – Two’s a party, 14’s a crowd

UMPD received a Resident Assistant (RA) complaint of a strong odor of marijuana on the second floor of Knox Hall. The RA directed the officers to the room the odor was emitting from, upon making contact with the room inhabitants the officers discovered that there were 14 people inside of the room. After asking several times, the room residents stepped forward. The residents denied possessing marijuana and stated that the odor was most likely coming from another room. The room residents were referred to Judicial Affairs.

10:07 p.m. – Jameson quartet

Officers responded to a RA report of underage drinking on the fourth floor of Oxford Hall. When officers made contact with the room residents, officers immediately observed a half-empty bottle of Jameson whiskey sitting on the table. The four male students in question all admitted to consuming alcohol and were referred to Judicial Affairs.

In an effort to develop a partnership between the City of Old Town and The University of Maine, a resolution passed by the General Student Senate (GSS) last month led to Tuesday’s creation and election of a GSS liaison to Old Town City Council. Both ends of the partnership are hopeful that Old Town will be able to serve the UMaine population in ways that Orono cannot.

“I think that Old Town has the potential to rival Orono, I just think it has kind of underutilized the resources it may have,” said Trey Stewart, president of GSS. “The good news is Old Town is much more receptive to increasing the student population there and kind of bumping up the vibe some, and there is no reason they cannot do it.”

The liaison, Sen. Shaun McDonald, will attend Old Town City Council meetings as a representative of UMaine’s undergraduate population. His position will serve as an opportunity for the town and the University to collaborate with each other to better serve the needs of the University’s students.

“The City of Old Town wants to meet the needs of and provide services to many demographics. Being close to the University of Maine suggests we should collaborate and partner with the UMaine and the students who attend the institution,” said EJ Roach, member of Old Town City Council.

At the end of the 2014 spring semester, GSS created a liaison position to the Town of Orono and elected Sen. Andrew Bracy to fill the role. According to Stewart, Bracey has gone above and beyond GSS expectations by attending nearly every Orono Committee or Council meeting in a given week, sitting at the table in those meetings representing the undergraduate population to the town.

After hearing concern from town residents about the encroachment of off-campus student housing in residential neighborhoods, the Orono town council contemplated putting in place a six-month housing moratorium to stop the conversion of family homes into student housing.

“We kind of experimented with [the liaison position] in Orono and had great results in making Orono a better college town — making sure that the largest demographic of Orono is being represented,” Stewart said. “I truly do not think that the student housing moratorium would have been halted if [the GSS liaison] has not happened.”

Though the moratorium was struck down last month, many students feel the conversation surrounding the moratorium drove a wedge between them and the residents of Orono.

“Old Town has been more low key, as of late, than Orono has; particularly surrounding the issue of the moratorium. I think that is why Old Town has been put on the back burner. It doesn’t need as much help as Orono does right now,” Stewart said.

Stewart believes that the hostility surrounding the student population in Orono will cause more students to consider Old Town when looking for housing options next year.

However, attracting college students to Old Town is going to take a lot more than a just a low key attitude towards students, Stewart said. As compared to Orono, Old Town has a much less developed downtown area and has decentralized areas of interest. Whereas Orono’s downtown area contains centralized amenities that a college demographic is drawn to.

“Old Town has gotten put on the back burner in terms of how can it be revamped, and how it can attract college students to make it competitive with Orono,” Stewart said.

In order for Old Town to gather student interest, the city needs to focus on bringing amenities to it’s downtown that students are attracted to. Stewart says these amenities can range from small apparel shops, to coffee shops, to restaurants as well as bars for the 21-and-older college crowd.

Both Old Town and GSS are hopeful that the creation of the liaison position will allow for student-minded input to be brought to the table when planning for future development.

“As we look to revitalize our downtown area we want to consider the needs of UMaine students and encourage them to have a voice in what types of services, businesses, housing options, etc. that should be considered,” Roach said.

While the position is still in its infancy, as soon as GSS receives an invitation from the City Council collaboration will begin. Stewart also suggests that Old Town should reach out to public policy students at UMaine to further develop ways the city can serve its existing and future student population.

“The person that we have for this position is a really good fit, and I know that if the invitation is outreached from the city council there. They will be more than receptive with it and hopefully they can develop the same relationship [as with Orono],” Stewart said.

Orono’s annual Light up the Night ceremony filled the streets of Downtown Orono with holiday cheer Monday night. Orono residents and families gathered at the plaza in front of the University Credit Union to light up the businesses and streets of downtown for this year’s holiday season.

The event, put on by the Orono Village Association and the Town of Orono, featured the UMaine Renaissance Women leading carolers in song, while Santa mingled with the crowd asking those in attendance what they wanted for the holidays.

Hot chocolate and cookies were provided inside of the UCU building, providing warm relief on a cold night.

The event culminated with Santa leading event goers across the bridge to The University Inn where the Orono High School choir sang as the inn’s tree was lit.

11/21

12:02 a.m. – Wrong place, wrong time

The University of Maine Police Department (UMPD) received a Resident Assistant complaint of an intoxicated female in the women’s bathroom on the third floor of Gannett Hall. When police arrived, they found the 18-year-old intoxicated female student and had her medically cleared by emergency services before referring her to Judicial Affairs. Upon finding the female, officers came in contact with a clearly intoxicated nonstudent, Cody Davis, who was standing outside of the women’s bathroom. Davis admitted to consuming alcohol earlier in the evening and was summonsed for illegal possession of alcohol by a minor.

11/23

12:32 a.m. – Have nausea, will travel

UMPD received a complaint from the Late Night Local driving service of an intoxicated male vomiting while inside of their van. The “free-ride” service then dropped off the student, along with his two friends, on College Avenue. The three students began walking towards York Hall and were gone before officers arrived. Flash-forward to 1:10 a.m., when a RA called UMPD in regards to the same male student vomiting outside of Androscoggin Hall. Before police arrived at the residence hall the student had moved to his dorm in Androscoggin Hall with the assistance of his friends. The officers were able to locate the student’s dorm and had him medically cleared by emergency services. The student was referred to Judicial Affairs.

12/01

9:19 p.m. – Best buds

After receiving a complaint of an odor of marijuana on the second floor of Oxford Hall, UMPD found that the source was coming from the dorm of Ian Delaney, 18, and Benjamin Still, 18. When officers made contact with the room residents, both admitted to smoking marijuana inside of the room earlier and gave UMPD permission to enter the room. Delaney handed the officers the marijuana pipe they had used and was summonsed for possession of drug paraphernalia. Still gave the officers his small bag of marijuana and was summonsed for possession of a useable amount of marijuana.

PSA from UMPD:

A string of counterfeit $20bills have been turning up in the Greater Bangor Area. The bills have been found in Brewer, Orrington, Bangor, Orono, as well as on the UMaine campus. The bills are an eighth of an inch smaller than a real $20bill and do not have a watermark. UMPD has gotten confirmation from the U.S. Secret Service that these bills are counterfeit and are asking students who believe they have found a counterfeit bill to contact UMPD at 207–581-4040.

A group of citizens concerned with the water quality and management of the Orono-Veazie Water District brought forth a public petition to the Orono Town Council at their Oct. 20 meeting. The Council is going to discuss this matter further at a special community development meeting on Nov. 3 at 5:30 p.m.

“Our community is deeply concerned about how our water is managed … High levels of carcinogenic compounds have existed in our water for at least a decade, and we need a comprehensive public plan,” said Tim Warring, an Orono resident who spoke to the Council on behalf of the 270 community members who signed the petition.

The carcinogen, trihalomethane (THM), is a disinfection byproduct that results from organic matter in water mixing with the chlorine treatment that makes the water safe to drink. Exposure to high levels of this carcinogen can have detrimental health effects, however levels of this nature would never be found in drinking water. However, long-term exposure to any levels of carcinogens can increase the risk of cancer, especially among children, pregnant women and the elderly.

In 2005 the Environmental Protection Agency began regulating the levels of THM in public water supplies the size of the Orono-Veazie Water District. The regulation is based on a running annual average of a maximum containment level of 80 micrograms per liter. Currently, the Orono-Veazie water supply has THM levels of 70 micrograms per liter.

The Orono-Veazie Water District was found to be out of compliance with EPA THM standards in Nov. 2011. The district was given a remedial time period to get the levels back in compliance, which it did by May 2013.

“[The running average system] has made it possible for the district to remain technically compliant in recent years. Nevertheless, the fact is that 40-percent of time test results since 2011 have exceed concentrations that the EPA considers safe for the public health via long term exposure,” Warring said.

According to Dr. Jean McRae, an associate professor of environmental engineering at The University of Maine, the infrastructure of the Orono-Veazie Water District contributes to the fluctuating levels of THMs found in the water supply.

McRae said that the problem is two-fold. First, the size of the water supply infrastructure is relatively large for the number of people it serves, leaving water sitting in the pipes for an extended period of time. And secondly, the structure of the water supply system doesn’t allow for a continuous flow to keep the water moving.

“Generally a water distribution system has a lot of loops in it so that the water can get to your house by a number of different roots and because most of our population runs along Route 2 there will be a lot of places where its not looped up so there’s water coming up from only one direction and basically that means water sometimes sits for a long time in the system, not moving along, and increases the likelihood of THM formation,” McRae said.

However, McRae acknowledges that this will be a difficult problem to fix because anytime there is organic matter in water and the water is chlorinated some THMs will be formed. The water supply infrastructure also has to be large enough to provide water in case of a fire emergency and to sustain The University of Maine population during the academic year.

“If all we were doing was putting in an infrastructure to provide water for domestic use, homes and businesses and things like that, then you don’t need that larger pipe,” said Dennis Cross, superintendent of the Orono-Veazie Water District.

Cross said that he and his board operate the water district based on “facts and federal regulations,” and because the district is currently in compliance he wants residents to be aware that if they desire to place a higher standard on water quality than federally required it will come with a price tag.

“The question is does everybody in the community and at the University want to pay more for water and more for taxes, and that’s a question that needs to be answered by the multitude not just a group of people,” Cross said.

While overhauling the way in which the district monitors THM levels and finding a way to limit exposure to this carcinogen would be costly, Warring points out the Orono and Veazie has the second cheapest water supply in Maine.

“We do not want cheap, low-quality water; we want healthy, high-quality water,” Warring said.

McRae stated that there are many treatment options, which vary in cost and how long they would take to implement.

“Basically, what we need is a long term plan to make sure the water doesn’t stay in the pipes for too long and overtime fix up the system so that the distribution system is better connected and maybe look into a couple options to clean up how the water gets stored,” McRae said.

The Orono-Veazie Water District is a non-profit organization made up of superintendent Dennis Cross and five residents from Orono and Veazie who serve as a board of trustees. The Maine Public Utilities Commission governs the district.

In an effort to spur economic development and bring new jobs to the community, the Orono Town Council gave the go ahead for a fiber optics development project that would establish infrastructure for high-speed Internet access at the Maine Technology Industrial Park.

The project came about when Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems expressed interest in establishing satellite offices in the Godfrey Dr. park but needed access to dark-fiber to have intranet connection to its headquarters in Bangor. As part of what the Town Council views as a long-term investment, Orono will fund half of the project along with EMHS.

“This particular effort in the Maine technology park is opportunistic,” said Jeffrey Letourneau of Information Technologies at the University of Maine. “Orono really wants to have those buildings filled with employees … [the development] makes the park itself more attractive for future businesses because they have access to the fiber optic infrastructure.”

The EMHS satellite offices have the potential to produce between 120 and 195 jobs in the community and $25,000 annually for the town in property taxes. The project, which is being installed by Maine Fiber Company, would cost Orono $25,000. The Council is considering investing an additional $12,000 in the project to extend the dark-fiber infrastructure along all of Godfrey Drive so other businesses in the Park would be able to have access. Dark fiber is fiber optics infrastructure that has not yet been activated by technologies at either end of the network.

“If the town puts in a little money they can make sure it’s done in a way that it has value to the other lots in the park,” Letourneau said.

The Council is proposing that the estimated $37,000 budget come from the Maine Technology Park Omnibus Municipal Tax Increment Financing District. At the Council’s Oct. 16 special meeting to discuss entering into the agreement, Town Manager Sophie Wilson expressed that the Orono’s involvement in the project would be contingent on having to access to this funding.

This push for fiber-development within the town of Orono is in line with University goals to create a higher level of interconnectivity throughout the community to benefit students and surrounding towns.

“We see [the lack of fiber] as a hurdle for some of what we’re trying to do as far as online learning and promoting innovation with any research that’s done on campus,” Letourneau said.

In terms of integrating student innovation into the surrounding community, Letourneau says that when students spin off and create a small company outside of the University they lose a level of connectivity that they had on campus, often resulting in steep costs to maintain efficient high-speed access.

For a town such as Orono that is more suited to home satellite offices as opposed to company headquarters the need for access to ultra-high speed internet is apparent. Currently, the Town does not own any amount of dark-fiber, through projects like the Godfrey Drive development Orono has the opportunity to make itself more attractive for incoming businesses.

According to Orono Town Planner Evan Richert, this “emerging field” of fiber optics infrastructure is how “rural areas can put themselves on a national map.”

Currently there is an existing stretch of “lit” fiber along Godfrey Dr. that is owned by Fairpoint Communications. Fairpoint, as a retail provider, leases use of its fiber and was concerned that this new development through Maine Fiber would create conflicting competition.

As a municipal government “[Orono] does not want to get in between business transactions,” Richert said. After speaking with EMHS and Fairpoint the town “became satisfied that that is not what is happening here.”

By having access to dark-fiber not owned by a retail provider, EMHS will have a hyper-speed internet access that will have a large enough capacity to handle the extensive communications the satellite office must maintain with its Bangor headquarters.

Dark fiber, such as what could be established through this project and others like it can provide business with an intranet service at the same or lesser cost than a retail provider with 100 times the speed.

Recent developments between the University and Orono have established about two miles of University owned fiber running from the UMaine campus to the Target Technology Center on Godfrey Dr. However, this line of lit fiber does not allow for any business or entity along its route to have access to it.

While the agreement between the Town of Orono, EMHS and Maine Fiber is not finalized the go ahead given by the Council at Thursday’s meeting will allow Maine Fiber to begin planning and have the project started by the end of the year. Wilson is continuing to research whether or not the funding will be available.

It has been confirmed that the University of Maine’s vice president of enrollment management is no longer working with the University. However, the circumstances regarding his departure remain unclear.

Vice president Jimmy Jung was hired by the university in 2012 to address the issue of declining enrollment through what Jung coined as the “Blue Sky Plan.” The five-year plan aims to increase enrollment and revenue by drawing more out-of-state students to the university.

A statement issued by the university last week confirmed that Jung is no longer working for the university, but did not specify why.

“Jimmy Jung is not working in his capacity as University of Maine vice president for enrollment management,” spokesperson Margaret Nagle said in the official university statement. Nagle added that “the University of Maine does not comment on personnel matters.”

In the last year, the vice presidents of administration and finance have also left their posts at the university. However, their departures were announced in press releases applauding the work they had done for the school.

Amidst a system wide budget crisis, Jung was hired when the University of Maine was faced with having to cut $9.7 million from its budget. Due to the implementation of the Blue Sky Plan, enrollment gains were seen within the first year. This enrollment increase allowed the University to stay afloat without having to cut any positions.

According to the university’s enrollment report, the fall of 2013 saw a 3.2 percent increase in enrollment from the prior year, resulting in a student population of 11,247 as compared to 10,901 in 2012. The freshman class of 2013 was also the largest in the University’s history.

Jung was able to achieve this success by aggressively aiming to recruit out-of-state and international students who generally pay full tuition at the university. This fall, the university enrolled 2,919 out-of state students, nearly 400 more students than last year. However, the total student body population declined slightly with only 11,205 students enrolling.

In general, out-of-state students pay $41,000 per year for tuition, compared to the $23,100 that in-state students pay per year for their education. As a public university, out-of-state students provide more revenue for UMaine because their tuition is subject to a slight increase every year whereas in-state tuition remains flat.

Other campuses throughout the University of Maine system have not fared as well as the flagship university. The University of Southern Maine, whose enrollment has dropped 30 percent in the last five years, is faced with having to cut 50 faculty position along with two academic programs in an effort to save $6 million. This first step is only one part of the three-step plan that will ultimately aim to downsize the campus, according to USM President David Flanagan, who announced the cuts last week.

The entire UMS system is seeing faculty and administrators leave their positions, including former president Paul Ferguson who left UMaine to take a position at Indiana’s Ball State University

While there has been no formal press release by the University, it is suspected that Jung is seeking a position at the University of Hawaii, where he is a finalist for vice president of students. Attempts to contact Jung in the last week went unanswered.

The University of Maine has not specified who will take over Jung’s position or how the Blue Sky Plan will continue despite his absence.

While students become more disenchanted about the availability of parking on campus, Parking Services is confident there is plenty of adequate campus parking to meet student demand, and that commuters may have to adjust their daily routines to find it.

“I really believe we have all kinds of parking,” said Alan Stormann, assistant director for Security, Parking and Transportation at the University of Maine. “Now let me define that by saying probably what I run short of is convenient parking.”

Parking concerns ranked high with students last year, however, this was due partially to the fact that nearly 160 parking spaces were unavailable because of campus construction. With these spots back in commission, as well as 150 new commuter spots added to the Hilltop lot, commuter students are having a hard time giving up the parking hunt in the Collins Center for the Arts and Belgrade lots, the largest and most central commuter lots on campus.

“Those lots could be full at 10 o’clock, but there’s other lots around them that aren’t,” Stormann said. “I’ll say 80 percent of the time, I have over 100 available parking spaces during any given day.”

At UMaine any student, commuter or resident, is allowed to buy a campus parking permit. As of now, there is no cap on how many parking permits are issued for an academic year. This year parking services issued 3,978 commuter permits and 1,491 residential permits as of Sept. 30.

Currently, there are 2,318 commuter parking spots spanning 13 designated areas across campus, as well as 1,608 spots reserved for residential students and 1,812 reserved for faculty and staff.

While students might not find commuter sections of the Hilltop or Steam Plant lots as convenient as the CCA or Belgrade lots, Stormann argues they are all relatively an equal distance from main points of campus.

“If you take the library and you look at the Collins Center lot, and you take the library and you look at the Steam Plant lot, the Steam Plant is actually closer to the library than the end of the Collins Center,” Stormann said.

Julie Clifford, a fourth-year commuter student, shares the same morning routine that many UMaine students do. At 9:40 a.m. Monday through Friday, Clifford drives onto campus and starts the hunt for an available parking spot in the CCA lot.

“I drive around the CCA for 20 minutes,” Clifford said. “My thought is that people will be leaving class, so it’s likely that I’ll be able to find a spot. The other lots are far away from my classes and sometimes I just don’t have the time.”

This creature-of-habit behavior is what Stormann urges students not to do.

“When you get here and the sign tells you that the lot is full and where there is alternate parking, go to the alternate parking. Don’t hunt, don’t drive around the lot looking for a parking spot, hoping somebody is going to back out,” Stormann said.

Despite a growing increase in the size of freshmen classes, Parking Services doesn’t believe it is necessary to rethink the University’s policy that allows students to bring their cars to campus freshman year — a relatively uncommon trait among public universities.

Stormann said that parking is “reevaluated annually” and if he needed to change any residential parking areas to commuter areas he could, but “all of the information that I’ve gathered thus far is that we’re not even close as to what we can park on this campus.”

Still, if students are unable to find parking, Parking Services suggests that students call 207-581-INFO or 207-581-4636, and an automated message will specify what lots have availability at that given time.

“We strongly encourage people to call the parking office and find out where there is parking. As soon as you’re on campus and the CCA and Belgrade are full, call [207-581-INFO] and we’ll tell you the closest place that you could possibly park,” said Marcella Cheviot, a Student Parking Enforcement Officer.

Even if there is no available commuter parking, Cheviot said that if students reach out to Parking Services, they would be able to park in residential lots if necessary.