ORONO – On Tuesday, Sept. 15, the University of Maine’s General Student Senate met for the start of the 2021 fall semester after a year of being fully remote. 

GSS is one of the many clubs that was forced to resort to zoom meetings throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but they are excited to be back in the Memorial Union this semester. 

“Remote learning took so much away from what makes Student Government important, and that’s interacting with the student body,” said GSS President Zachary Wyles. 

The 1477th meeting of the General Student Senate opened with the appointment of six new senators: Matthew Fishbein, Paige Allen, Sydney Lorom, Patrick Neusch, Meredith Mitchell and Tessa Solomon. 

Many of these Senators received chair positions as well. Fourth-year student Senator Matt Fishbein was elected as representative to the University of Maine ROTC. 

“Serving as the representative for the ROTC would be a major honor, I have considered the army and the ROTC program as a great step for Americans serving our country,” said Fishbein.

Senator Tessa Solomon was elected as the Student Legal Services Liaison. Solomon is a third-year political science student and was among the list of newly appointed senators Tuesday night. 

President Wyles clarified that exhibition members are also allowed to receive nominations for chair positions, which was important for Representative Samuel Ransley as he seemed very passionate about his nomination for chair of the Student Mental Health Committee.

“Mental health activism is extremely important to me,” said Ransley, a fourth-year political science student at UMaine. Ransley briefly discussed in his speech that he has been involved in several research projects tied to mental health. 

“It would be an honor if you elected me to this position, perhaps the most important thing that I could do,” said Representative Ransley. He was voted as the chair of the Student Mental Health Committee over Senator Hogg. 

It was also a big night for many campus clubs that came to the meeting in hopes of receiving funding for the semester. 

Representatives from the Mountain Bike Club asked for $2,100. “Mountain biking is often a solitary activity, so our aim is to break that mold and bring everybody together to not only learn the trails, but learn from each other,” said Peter Rheil, their club speaker.

Frank Kelly, GSS Vice President of Financial Affairs, also spoke on this matter. “Mountain Biking Club is a really cool organization. The students who are in it spend a lot of their own money, especially on the equipment. Mountain bikes, if you’re not aware, cost thousands of dollars and are pretty specific in terms of their size and function, so these are really passionate students who are looking for support,” said Kelly.  

Their goal was to receive funding for group rides and their attendance in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference. After a brief period of debate, their funding was approved. 

The women’s ice hockey team was also looking to receive funding. Their speaker, Kyla Gallup highlighted that hockey is a very expensive sport and they asked for $4000, which is the maximum amount of funding that the senate can provide recreational sports clubs. 

Their speaker highlighted that the goal of the women’s ice hockey team is to get lots of girls interested in playing since female ice hockey players from the central Maine area often don’t get a lot of opportunities to play. Their funding was approved. 

Clubs including the equestrian team, Fly Fishing Club, and the International Student Association (ISA) were also present during Tuesday night’s meeting. 

 President Wyles seemed very happy with how the meeting went. He touched upon some of the goals of the senate this year. 

“My Vice President, Elizabeth Davis, and I are working on quite a few things this year. On top of ensuring a smooth transition to in-person learning, our initiatives include the advancement of mental health services on campus and making the academic experience as convenient as it can be for the students,” said Wyles. 

President Wyles also noted that it is not too late for people to join GSS. “We still haven’t hit our senator cap, and for gathering just a few signatures from their peers any student can represent UMaine undergrad students and vote on our resolutions,” said Wyles. 

The General Student Senate holds their public meetings on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. and are located in the Bangor room of the Memorial Union. 

On Thursday, Sept. 2, an incident of assault took place at the University of Maine and was reported to the UMPD. The event took place on the University Mall around 5 p.m. The campus issued an emergency alert to notify the student body of the incident and asked for assistance in locating the perpetrator.

The attacker was described as a tall brunette male. In a later email, the crime was revealed to be an act of violence perpetrated against an LGBTQ+ member of the UMaine student body.

“An unknown male subject grabbed a female from behind, briefly choked her, yelled a slur at her for wearing a pride shirt and ran off,” read the UMPD crime alert. As of now, the suspect has still not been located.

In the aftermath of this event, UMPD also reissued a number of crime prevention tips. They advised that students travel together if they are going out at night, as well as keeping an eye out for potential danger at all times.

This message was not entirely comforting to all UMaine students. Camryn Chick, a fifth-year animal and veterinary sciences student, spoke about her discomfort regarding UMPD’s reaction to the situation.

“They shouldn’t have told us not to walk alone when this attack happened at 5 p.m. on the busiest part of campus,” Chick said in response to UMPD’s safety tips. She then elaborated on what she felt was the real root of the issue: “Don’t accept these kinds of people into this school. Don’t let the [violent] tall white men with brown hair described in this email walk free.”

Chick was not the only one disheartened by the event, or the aftermath that followed the UMPD announcement.

Rob Jackson from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion also released a statement in response to the act. Jackson begins by addressing the larger question of how to move forward from an event like this, citing the usual increase in pride flags or Safe Zone training, as not being sufficient in combating the issue.

“They do not speak to the root issue. The reality is, acts like this happen because we as a community allow them to. We say things like ‘this is not who we are’ or ‘hate is not one of our values,’ but those words ring hollow if they aren’t combined with active, consistent efforts to create and maintain a culture that does not tolerate discrimination,” Jackson wrote in a newsletter to the student body.

Later in the newsletter, Jackson makes suggestions on how to accomplish this active support of the LGBTQ+ community on campus.

“First, speak up when you see or hear people engaging in homophobic or transphobic behavior,” Jackson suggests. “Check in with your LGBTQ+ friends and ask how you can support them… Donate your time and money to organizations that provide support and advocacy for LGBTQ+ folks here in Maine and elsewhere. “Most importantly,” Jackson concludes, “do SOMETHING. Silence and inaction allow prejudice and hate to fester and grow, and we cannot afford to stay quiet.”

Jordan Bessette, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and a member of the LGBTQ+ community here on campus, shared her reaction to the situation a week after the event occurred.

“I definitely still feel that presenting as anything other than straight is dangerous for me,” Bessette said. “I fear that, not just that man, but other people would be capable of carrying out something like that. You don’t know who else on campus shares those ideals, and could have been emboldened by his actions.”

Bessette went on to describe what she felt about the safety tips provided by UMPD.

“I just want justice to be served,” Bessette said about the campus safety issues. “It’s disheartening, because it kind of places the blame on those who were attacked rather than the man who perpetrated a hate crime. The question shouldn’t be ‘what can we do to be safe?’ it should be ‘how do we prevent this from happening again?’”

As of now, UMPD has not found the perpetrator. Any tips can be submitted at the UMPD contact page, or through the UMPD non-emergency dispatch.

For other resources pertaining to LGBTQ+ services, visit the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion.