With the 2014 election season underway, UMaine is ensuring that students are being provided with non-partisan voter registration and voter education resources that cater to a college lifestyle.

“We want everyone to vote, that’s our main thing and we want that to be achieved in a fair and nonpartisan way,” said Lauri Sidelko, director of the Student Wellness Resource Center.

UMaine UVote, a nonpartisan voter education program, functions in two parts, first as a voter registration campaign that sponsors registration drives across campus, and second as an education resource that provides students with the information necessary to make an educated decision on Election Day.

The program, which has been in operation for over 15 years, has been out in full force since the start of the semester, trying to get as many students registered to vote as possible before the Oct. 14 pre-registration cut off date.

UVote staff is also seeking to clear up any confusion surrounding the voter registration process.

“The whole goal in all of this is to try and make the process a little clearer and a little easier so that it will encourage students to vote,” Sidelko said.

While many students are registered to vote, if they have moved since the last time they registered, they must re-register with their new address. This is a common mistake made by college students who typically move from year to year.

“Our No. 2 question after ‘Are you registered to vote?’ is ‘Did you move this year?’” Sidelko said. “With the first time voters, the 18-year-olds that don’t live on campus, we want to make sure they know where to vote.

If students live on campus and have the University’s 04469 zip code, they may vote at the on-campus polling site. If students live off campus, UVote is recommending they check RocktheVote.com to find their respective polling locations.

From experience Sidelko said that it’s technicalities like specific polling locations that often discourage students to vote. In the campus world students live in, “navigating a busy Tuesday” can be a challenge all its own.

“It’s not that students are not engaged with [voting], it’s not a luxury that they can necessarily put at the top of their priority list at that moment, especially if they’ve never done it before,” Sidelko said.

This is why UVote seeks to provide students with all resources necessary to make the process as simple and effective as possible. Once voter registration cards can no longer be submitted, the voter education phase of UVote begins.

Though UVote seeks to provide educational resources to allow students to learn about the issues or candidates they will have to vote on, UVote does not create their own informational content in order to remain a nonpartisan program.

“If people want to find out about the issues we send them to the state website or the local government websites because we won’t put down one side of an issue without putting down information about both sides,” Sidelko said.

Instead, UVote will provide students a copy of the ballot, if possible, prior to Election Day so they are able to conduct their own research and form their own views before they actually have to vote.

“We want them to be able to see a ballot if at all possible before they get to the polls so they’re not confused when they get there and say ‘Oh, well I didn’t realize [I] had to vote for Town Council, what does that mean?’” Sidelko said.

UVote will be collecting voter registration cards until Oct. 10, at which point they will be sent to the Orono Town Office. While same day voter registration is available in Maine, Sidelko encourages students to register beforehand. Election Day is Nov. 4.

For more information on voter registration or voter education go to umaine.edu/studentlife/uvote.

The third year of the start-up business competition The Big Gig focused on building local networks between entrepreneurs and community members as well as business pitches from both a retired University of Maine professor and a recent UMaine graduate at its opening pitch-off on Sept. 23.

“We’re really here to encourage entrepreneurs and to remind them that they really can build a business in Maine,” said Paul Riechmann, member of the Orono Economic Development Committee.

Participants each presented a five-minute business pitch and received feedback from a panel of judges, but it was the audience that decided who would win the $250 prize. The event was held at the University Credit Union headquarters in downtown Orono and featured only two businesses; the third competitor was unable to attend due to illness.

The event is a collaboration between Orono, Old Town, the University of Maine and Husson University. The entrepreneurs at Tuesday night’s event were chosen by a panel of Big Gig staff from the “Little Gig,” a preliminary event open to the public held the previous week.

The winning pitch was presented by Emma Wilson on behalf of Zeomatrix, a startup out of Orono that engineers paper products for a cleaner environment. Wilson, who is the company’s business manager, graduated from UMaine with a dual degree in business management and marketing in the spring of 2014.

Zeomatrix recently began a Kickstarter campaign to raise the $10,000 they need to put their odor absorbing “ZeoLiter” bags into production.

“We have three weeks left, and we have to raise $9,500,” Wilson said. “The $250 will help us get that much closer to our kickstarter campaign goal.”

Wilson is confident that her company’s cat-waste bags will not only solve the odor associated with cat waste disposal, but also eliminate the harmful effects that plastic waste bags have on the environment.

“We’re trying to change the world one smelly cat at a time,” Wilson said.

Renee Kelly, director for Economic Development and the Foster Center for Student Innovation at UMaine, believes that local companies like Zeomatrix gain a lot more than just a cash prize by participating in the Big Gig.

“What we’re really trying to do through events like this is to connect students to the community and also help them not only meet other people in the community but help them understand what kind of resources there are to help support them when they graduate,” Kelly said.

In recent years, the state of Maine has been trying to address the trend of students gaining their education in-state and then moving elsewhere after graduation.

According to Kelly, networking opportunities like the Big Gig allow students to make business connections within the community and discover what resources are actually available to business startups within the state of Maine.

“Maine is a very small state, so if you know a few people in the entrepreneur and startup network, they have the ability to introduce you to everyone,” Wilson said, adding that she does want to travel out of Maine and explore opportunities in a city like Boston. “But I have made a plan that in five to 10 years, I am going to move back to Maine and start a business.”

Ed Brazee, a retired education professor at UMaine, pitched on behalf of his business BoomerTech Adventures — a program that educates people of the “Baby Boomer” generation on how to better use technological devices such as laptops and cell phones through weekend workshops and retreats.

While the business is already up and running with a workshop scheduled for Sept. 28, Brazee is looking to get his company the exposure an event like the Big Gig can provide.

“We’re doing all of the social media stuff like everyone else, but I still think there is a lot of use for person-to-person contact,” Brazee said. “The Big Gig really pulls people together to give us some human contact — I think that’s important.”

The next Big Gig will be held in Old Town on Nov. 18, followed by a third Big Gig in February.  Winners from each of the three events will compete in April for the $1,500 grand prize.

The early months of 2014 are witnessing the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act and its effort to expand health care coverage throughout the U.S. However, the coverage mandate that the ACA carries is forcing college students to address the question “Am I covered?” and if not, “How am I going to get covered?”

University of Maine student Brittney Marshall faced this question when she turned 21 in February, making her ineligible for the MaineCare insurance policy she had been covered under. This termination of coverage left the third-year marketing student with only one month to find new health insurance before ACA health care exchanges reached the end of their March 31 enrollment period.

Marshall called multiple state agencies and insurance companies to try and understand how she was supposed to gain coverage, but no one could explain to her exactly what her options were.

“I spent most of my spring break, during the weekdays when I wasn’t working, calling around and trying to figure out how this all worked; no one could help me,” Marshall said. “I’m 21 years old. I’m in school there should be something for me.”

Under the ACA, college students have essentially three options for getting covered: the student may remain a dependent on their parent’s insurance policy if they are 26 and under, the student may enroll in their university’s student health plan, or they may enroll in a private plan through the health care exchanges established by the ACA.

“I was doing out the math for every single option, I had it all listed out so I could compare,” Marshall said. “It was just one of those things where I need health insurance; not having it wasn’t an option.”

Remaining under her parents’ insurance plan was not a possibility for Marshall so she turned to the health care exchanges.

In states that chose to expand Medicaid coverage under the ACA, students in Marshall’s position could qualify for Medicaid subsidies that would help pay for health insurance coverage obtained through the exchanges. However, “in Maine, if your income is too low, if you’re under 100 percent of the poverty level, then you’re not eligible for Medicaid because the state has not expanded it yet,” said Amy Fried, professor of political science at the University of Maine.

This is why when Marshall sought insurance coverage through the health care exchanges she could only qualify for plans that had monthly premiums of upwards of $300 per month, substantially more than she could afford to pay out of pocket.

“Because LePage did not pass Medicaid expansion you actually have to make a minimum of $11,490 per year to get any assistance, and I was only putting in [$10,000],” Marshall said.

After voicing her struggle for coverage to a friend who works at a doctor’s office, the friend put Marshall in touch with the office’s health care liaison who explained to Marshall what her options for coverage were.

Because Marshall’s yearly income was close to the $11,490 minimum for tax-credit assistance, the liaison advised her to enroll in a Maine Community Health Options plan available on the healthcare exchange and try to increase her yearly income for 2014 to the assistance minimum.

“Which just means now I am going to have to work more,” said Marshall, who balances working part-time at JCPenney while maintaining a full-time student status.

Through this coverage route, Marshall’s monthly premium will be about $37. If Marshall fails to make the minimum income she will owe the state however much she received in the tax credits that helped to subsidize her health care costs.

University of Maine political science professor Mark Brewer explains this type of confusion is to be expected with large new federal legislation.

“[The ACA] is all so new that a lot of it is figuring it out as we go along, as is often to case with any major policy change,” Brewer said.

Aside from the ACA’s infancy, the complexity of the Act is also making it less user-friendly than desired.

“It’s a complicated law because there are multiple ways people can get health care, its not something where if everybody was covered with the same thing it would be much easier to understand,” Fried said.

Instead of a “universal health care” system that would seek to streamline all health care options through a public governmental system, the ACA sought to increase the access individuals had to both public and private insurance programs.

”There are people getting [insurance] through their employer, there are elderly people getting [insurance] through Medicare, there are people getting veteran’s insurance, and then if you’re talking about everybody else they can get private insurance plans through the insurance exchange,” Fried said.

The University of Maine also offers undergraduates with 9 or more credits and graduate students with 6 or more credits access to a student health insurance plan that, for the 2013-2014 school year costs about $2,900 annually.

“I looked into the school plan it and it was way, way more than I would have had to pay even with the health insurance plans that were not giving me any tax credits on the marketplace,” Marshall said.

The University of Maine System is implementing a new policy for the 2014-2015 school year that would require students to provide proof upon enrollment of adequate health care coverage.

This change in policy is due in part to the ACA coverage mandate, as well as a resolution that was passed by GSS last year which called for the university to restructure its expensive student health plan.

After March 31, uncovered individual are subject to a federal “tax” if they do not have health insurance coverage in line with the minimum requirements of the ACA.

The “tax” for the lowest income level, which most students would fall in is $95 for a year without coverage.

Marshall said that if not having health insurance was an option for her personally she would have just paid the $95 dollar fine and gone without coverage.

“The cheapest option would be paying the fine, but that might not be the smartest option,” Brewer said. “When you look at some of the activities [college students] engage in, they’re far more likely to take risks, they’re far more likely to engage in recreational activities that are more likely to result in injury. If you have one bad injury and no coverage, not even a catastrophic plan, that could be a serious problem.”

Coastal “resiliency” was the buzzword around presentations of new and ongoing research projects at the Maine Sea Grant Research Symposium. Project investigators discussed how their findings could be and have been applied to Maine’s coastal resiliency problems.

“We think that what resiliency means is helping people who live and work on our coast to understand their vulnerabilities related to climate change and other structures. And then once they understand those vulnerabilities we can help them with science to analyze that risk and turn that vulnerability into an opportunity,” said Paul Anderson, director and Marine Extension Team leader of the Maine Sea Grant College Program.

The biennial event was held Thursday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Buchanan Alumni House. The research projects presented at the symposium were funded in part by the federal Sea Grant program, which gives about $1 million dollars each year to the University of Maine for research regarding coastal issues.

Nine research projects were presented at the event, with five involving research that had been conducted over the past two years and four regarding research projects that just started in February.

“[The purpose] is to bring together people who have been sponsored by Sea Grant to conduct research, as well as some of they key stakeholders and partners who benefit from the research, and get them to come together and get an update on what’s been happening over the last two years,” Anderson said. “But also [to] talk about the new investments we’ve made and what we hope will happen in the next two years.”

Researchers who had already conducted their studies presented first in a panel format giving an overview of their Sea Grant project and presenting any primary findings.

Research Assistant Professor in the School of Marine Sciences Gayle Zydlewski discussed how her project “Fish distribution in relation to tidal hydropower in Downeast Maine” is helping the new tidal-power industry adapt to the environment it is entering.

“Our ultimate goal is to better understand what the environmental effects of these [tidal turbines] are, that everyone from fisherman, policy makers, the industry themselves and community members can live with in 15 to a hundred years from now,” Zydlewski said.

About half of the fish studied went by the device without coming in contact with it. However 99 percent of the fish were found to swim through the device. Zydlewski said that further research must be conducted to determine what happens to these fish that swim through the device.

The state of Maine’s fisheries was the topic of Richard Wahle’s presentation: “Maximizing the American Lobster Settlement Index Database.” Wahle’s project is centered on a monitoring system that tracks lobster settlement over a 25-year range.

“We built the monitoring program on the premise that if we keep our finger on the pulse of baby lobsters settling to these nursery habitats from year to year, we might have an early warning for down-turns or up-turns in the fishery,” said Wahle, a research partner with the University of Maine.

Other completed projects at the symposium were “The Seafood Links Project: Promoting sustainable seafood in Maine’s inland areas,” presented by Laura Lindenfeld; ”General circulation and exchange between isolated regions in Casco Bay,” presented by Brian Dzwonski; and “Spatial and temporal variation in the growth of the soft-shell clam along the coast of Maine,” presented by Will Ambrose.

The event ended with slideshow presentations outlining the upcoming research projects followed by a question-and-answer session.

The newer research projects presented were “Coastal flooding and erosion from severe storms in a changing climate,” presented by Qingping Zou; “Variation in habitat use of juvenile life stages of river herring,” presented by Karen Wilson; “Evaluating performance of length-structured models for assessment of northern and Atlantic herring in the Gulf of Maine,” presented by Yong Chen; and “Supporting sea vegetable aquaculture in Maine,” by Susan Brawley.

Federal funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association supports a system of 34 Sea Grant colleges across the nation.

“Maine is a relatively small Sea Grant program in the network and we get about $1 million per year from NOAA; we match that against other resources and run about a $1.8 million program per year,” Anderson said.

The event was followed by a seafood dinner reception and poster display summarizing the presented projects.

The University of Maine is one of 17 organizations that will be receiving part of a $16 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue funding research related to capturing tidal energy.

The UMaine project is being conducted in relation with the School of Marine Sciences under the Fish Assessment Study Team of the Maine Tidal Power Initiative. The research has and will be focused on the effect tidal turbines have on the surrounding environment.

The $500,000 project received $400,000 from the DOE grant. Portland-based Ocean Renewable Power Company, who is engineering the “marine hydrokinetic” turbine that the UMaine project is based on, matched the remaining $100,000. ORPC received another part of the DOE grant to build this device.

Marine hydrokinetic turbines are intended to capture energy from the flow of water, in the case of this study, that means the movement of tidal waters. While it has the potential to be a significant addition to our nation’s energy portfolio, no research has been done on the effect it will have on the surrounding environment.

“Our project is to study how fish will be, or may be, affected by the device which captures energy from the tides,” said Gayle Zydlewski, associate professor of Marine Sciences and head of the Fish Assessment Study Team.

The big question, Zydlewski said, is “how do we make devices to capture energy, and then how does that affect the environment?”

According to an Aug. 29 press release from the Department of Energy: “As this nascent energy industry grows, these projects will help ensure that potential environmental impacts are addressed proactively and that projects can be developed efficiently and responsibly.”

The Maine Tidal Power Initiative and Fish Assessment Study Team has been receiving funding from the DOE since 2009, when research on this project started. “In order to understand any effects you have to know what things were like ahead of time,” Zydlewski said.

The research is being done in Eastport, Maine, at the turbine location site. The turbine is currently out of the water for maintenance repairs, but it is hoped to be back in and working by late spring.

In the meantime, the research team will be able to use the DOE grant to purchase new software that will allow them to reanalyze data collected in the past five years and look at the different fish species that inhibit the turbine site.

In March, the team will go back into the field to collect additional data on the fish environment at the location site. Once, the turbine is in the water, data collection will be multiplying what they were doing previously by three.

Aside from the national and international implications that this project is hoped to have, Zydlewski is excited for the educational opportunities it will bring to her students and the University. “It’s nice to be able to show them firsthand what is happening in their backyard and the future for renewable energy,” said Zydlewski. “There is no study like this being done elsewhere.”

Haley Viehman, a doctorate student and part of the Fish Assessment Study Team, said that when she heard about the project as a graduate student it was “just exactly what I wanted to do.”

”Hopefully we can start harvesting our own energy resources responsibly instead of depending on everyone else,” Viehman said. “It can make a big difference if we can get stuff like this or offshore wind off the ground, and environmental assessment is definitely important for that.”

With the start of classes last Tuesday, the halls of the newly renovated Stewart Commons building were bustling with student and faculty excitement. The former dining hall is now home to the Department of Art’s Wyeth Family Studio Art Center and the New Media Department’s Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center.

While both departments still reside in their respective halls, with art in Lord Hall and new media in Chadbourne, the renovations to Stewart Commons will provide a state-of-the-art facility in which both disciplines can operate.

The Wyeth Center, which inhabits the original skeleton of the building, will be home to the Department of Art’s two-dimensional mediums: drawing, painting, traditional photography, 3-D design and printmaking.

Included in the center are studios for drawing and painting, a non-toxic printmaking studio, and labs for traditional photography and for 3-D design. These centers will serve as “a cultural hub for the state, at least, and for the campus, absolutely,” according to Art Department Chair Michael Grillo.

The IMRCC was added as a 15,000 square foot addition to the original Stewart Commons. Included in the addition are state-of-the-art fabrication studios, and computer labs.

“We pretty much have every tool and technology in the new media/media production tool box that you might want: state of the art, top of the line,” said Owen Smith, director of the IMRCC.

The IMRCC was brought to life in part by a $3.69 million grant from the Maine Technical Asset Fund, which allocates grants to projects that have the potential to help the Maine economy.

Its primary purpose is to serve the students and faculty of the university; however, it is also “intended to support private business owners and individuals interested in working in various media or new media tools and technology,” according to Smith. Maine as a whole may be served by the center’s efforts to reach non-students as well, through avenues such as workshops in the Wyeth Center and business contracting in the IMRCC.

The New Media Department has already been successful with students that are looking to branch out. More than 30 students have taken to the entrepreneurial spirit by using their new media education to start their own businesses. Smith believes that with the new facility more and more students will be encouraged to do the same.

Though the two departments function separately, both the New Media Department and the Department of Art can see they will benefit from sharing a building.

“Art has never been an isolated thing,” Grillo said. “Visionaries are visionaries.”

What the two departments can mutually celebrate is the opportunity to provide Art and New Media students with a cutting edge learning experience.

“We want to create for our students the opportunity to be working at the professional level from day one, to be plugged into an international professional level, and you need the facilities to do that,” Grillo said.

Interdisciplinary programs will also thrive in the renovated Commons, “whether it’s Honors or the Foster Innovation Center, whether it’s across the humanities or the social sciences, we have it connected very well,” Grillo said.

The future of the renovated Commons is what seems most intriguing to anyone who steps inside the new space. Intermedia graduate student Sean George, who was involved in the building process of the IMRCC, claimed the future of the building to be his favorite part.

It’s the idea of the “coming together of great minds, sharing ideas,” George said.

Printmaking professor Susan Gross spoke with great enthusiasm about the new Wyeth Center and the opportunities its facilities will bring. The new center allows her to teach students “new ways of doing things that couldn’t be done before.”

The Wyeth Family Studio Art Center will hold an official opening gala on Sept. 29 and the IMRCC is planning a separate opening ceremony for later in the fall.