On Tuesday, Feb. 13, the Rainbow Resource Center held their biweekly “LGBTea Time.” This week’s topic of discussion was centered around white feminism and connecting it to race and gender as part of Black History Month.

The group gathered in their office, and approximately 15 people were in attendance, including members from Maine TransNet. This organization offers resources for those transitioning with the most accurate information and support groups as well as partnered organizations. More information can be found through their website and at the Rainbow Resource Center.

Before the discussion began, ground rules were laid out by Bella DiCaro and Aviana Coco, who led the meeting. Upon entering the room, each person was asked their name and what pronouns were preferred. The rules were simple: let everyone speak, respect the differing opinions and let the personal stories shared remain in the room and not tell them outside of the meeting.

The meeting began with an open discussion on white feminism and why it is problematic. “I think that white feminism is an extension of second and third wave feminism, where you call yourself a feminist, but do not support lesbians, black women, etc., and only fight for what you want but not the several identities of women in America,” Skylar Rungren said. “If you are identifying as a feminist, you should support all women, not just your type of women.”

There was also a quick discussion about non-intersectional feminism, which is where someone only believes in the woman part of feminism, but does not necessarily care about the fact that there might be other issues that people might face.

Further into the conversation, the Women’s March was brought onto the platform. While parts of the Women’s March are valid and appropriate to some, many find parts of it incredibly problematic. First, wearing the famous “pussyhats” is now frowned upon as they are not an inclusive symbol for all types of women.

The transgender community has faced backlash for decades. A big part of the discussion was talking about the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, which happened in August of 1966 in San Francisco. The Compton’s Cafeteria that, at the time, was one of the few places where transgender people could hang out in public as they were not welcome at gay bars and cross dressing was illegal. Over the decade, the police began to receive phone calls from the staff regarding the transgender visitors, then made arrests, which launched a picket of Compton’s Cafeteria by the transgender community. While this protest was not successful, the riot broke out when an officer responded to a call regarding a trans woman who was accused of being rowdy. A great number of the police officers during this time were known for mistreating the trans community, so when the officer attempted to arrest this woman, she threw her coffee in the officer’s face, which started the riot.

After personal stories were shared, Coco and DiCaro began discussing the times in which these issues have happened in the media, beginning with the talk about an issue that occured during a book signing with Rose McGowan. McGowan identifies herself as a feminist, but her anti-trans bias leads many to believe that she fits more into the white feminist category. At one of her book signings, a trans woman accused McGowan of not doing enough for trans women, as McGowan said the following in 2015 regarding Caitlyn Jenner’s transition: “You want to be a woman and stand with us — well learn us. We are more than deciding what to wear. We are more than the stereotypes foisted upon us by people like you. You’re a woman now? Well f—ing learn that we have had a VERY different experience than your life of male privilege.” The woman was escorted out of the event and McGowan then canceled the rest of her book tour.

After a while, the discussion on feminism and how you can be an active member of the community was brought to the table. As an example, Coco described the situation that happened between Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain. The two were filming a movie together, both making far less than their male colleagues. Throughout this discussion between the two actresses, Chastain found out that Spencer had struggled even more as a black woman. Chastain empathized with Spencer, and eventually, the two fought together for a more appropriate wage, and ended up getting paid five times more than what they were originally asking for. This, Coco explained, is part of what feminism is and how to avoid white feminism.

The next LGBTea time will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 27 from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Rainbow Resource Center in the Memorial Union.

University of Maine history professor Liam Riordan gave this week’s lecture as part of The Socialist and Marxist Studies Series, which has happened almost every week at UMaine since 1988. The series is also coached by Maine Peace Action Committee, which is mainly a student group through the Division of Student Affairs, and also receives support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Riordan teaches in the history department at UMaine  with a specialization in American history and Revolutionary history from 1760-1830. Riordan’s lecture was titled, “The ‘Problem’ of Blackness in the Revolutionary United States.”

“Liam [Riordan] is the strongest promoter of humanity on campus and throughout the community,” Doug Allen, a professor of philosophy, said. This specific lecture is co-sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Life and the Black Student Union as part of Black History Month.

Riordan began his lecture by explaining the quotations around the word “Blackness” in the title of his opening slide.

“There has long been a convention of historical scholarship in wake of publications by David Brion Davis to recognize that slavery became a problem in the western world in the age of the Atlantic revolutions through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,” he said. “And then there is also a second and more troubling meaning. We also have to focus on the problem that presence of free african americans in revolution had created for Republicans.”

He then began talking about popular sovereignty, which is what the United States is based on. “This means that power comes from the people, so then, if there were African Americans that were free, it raises the question as to what their status as citizens were in this revolutionary United States?”

Riordan also gave a talk recently at the Portland Museum of Art titled, “Model Citizens: Art and Identity in the US 1770-1830.”

“This exhibit opened up our thinking of what the place of being a citizen and family identity was and how it relates to the New United States by striking absence in the curator exhibit. All images in this exhibit were white people, and we wanted to call attention to this,” Riordan said.

Riordan then turned this into a conversation with the audience, asking them what they thought about the most widespread images of people of African descent in early America. Many contributed their thoughts, but the overall consensus from the group was that the images displayed them almost always as slaves, servants or in slave advertisements in newspapers.

As the talk went on, Riordan spoke about a woman named Flora, who died in 1796. Her silhouette is on display at the Stratford Historical Society in Connecticut. Riordan talked about how the silhouette was the cutting edge of a new style of visual presentations in its time, as it defined people more than a normal painting would have. He also showed silhouettes of a white family, and then showed Flora’s image. “This silhouette of Flora also records centrality of slavery to African Americans’ experience, which was created to accompany Flora’s bill of sale from one Connecticut family to another Connecticut family.”

Later on in the discussion, Riordan brought back the discussion of Flora when he was discussing Gradual Emancipation. “It [Gradual Emancipation] did not free a single person on the day that it became a law. It said that children born to enslaved parents after that date would be free after they turn 21.”

The talk wrapped up with the discussion about the American Revolution and what it meant for slavery.

“We know that this broad era during the 18th century began to raise issues that questioned the validity of such radical human inequality. The 18th century was a period of accelerated capitalistic development and discussions on whether or not slavery could be a modern and efficient way to run society,” Riordan said.

Riordan’s talk was eloquent, informative and very fitting for the events and topics throughout Black History Month. The next talk titled, “Better Dead Than Red: The History of Red-Baiting in the United States” by Nathan Godfried, a professor of history, will take place on Feb. 22.

As University of Maine students return from winter break, several changes are apparent around campus. One of the most prominent changes is the increase in printing prices for the first time in 15 years.

Previously, a black-and-white single sheet of paper cost 4 cents. Since the change, it now costs 10 cents. For double-sided sheets, the cost went from 7 cents to 15 cents. The changes came after a preliminary assessment of the printing usage and costs throughout the IT computer clusters and print kiosks around campus.

When considering the increase in prices, the university looked into factors such as vendor changes to IT (for printer leases and usage), the cost of printer paper and the $16 printing credit that is funded by the IT department for students, faculty and staff each semester.

During the first two weeks of the semester, the IT department had assessed printing usage and has since decided that a smaller increase in prices could offset the printing cost. As of Feb. 2, it will now cost 5 cents per single-sided page, and 8 cents for a double-sided page, making it only an increase of 1 cent for black and white documents. Color will remain the same. On top of this, the $16 printing credit will be reset for all students, faculty and staff.

Going forward, IT will regularly assess its printing services and associated costs to ensure it continues to provide services to UMaine students, faculty and staff in an efficient, sustainable and affordable manner.

Many students and faculty have been affected by the increase, including in the Communication and Journalism and English departments. Many professors in these departments have printed syllabuses and assignments for students, but have since turned digital to save their funds.

On Wednesday, Oct. 25, an open meeting for the Maine Business School (MBS) Reorganization Proposal was held in Jenness Hall. MBS faculty were in attendance as well as UMaine Provost Jeff Hecker.

The reorganization proposal offers that the undergraduate and graduate schools would be split up and that each school would have its own dean. On top of this, there would now be a location for each school: undergraduate located online and on the Orono campus, and the graduate school located on the Orono and Portland campuses and online.

The goal of this proposal is to build the MBS faculty and “bring more minds to the table,” according to Hecker, as well as collaborate with the Law School and Muskie School in Portland. Ultimately, it was argued that this could put UMaine in a position of leadership with the respect to graduate education within the University of Maine System.

The problem with this, however, is that the MBS faculty is in almost complete opposition to the proposal. This would cause a loss of faculty as the proposal would force a few to make the move to the Portland campus and threaten higher education.

Richard Borgman, a finance professor at the university, presented his concerns with the proposal by listing off the facts. The document, which is referred to as the MOU, was signed in January, heard in February and shown to faculty at the end of April. Approval for the document was requested in February, but was not given as faculty had not seen the document.

Throughout the spring and summer, meetings were held with extraordinary participation from the faculty. Their concerns were focused around the limitations put in place on faculty control of the curriculum and tenure process and the potential “Gutting of the Undergraduate Program” by having a faculty transfer.

Currently in the MBS, the faculty teach both undergraduate and graduate level courses. The program is “bursting at the seams,” according to Borgman. “I had 95 students in an upper-level finance class last year.”

Nory Jones, a MIS professor, expressed her concerns. Jones has worked for the university since 2001, and has “lived through the trenches of the MBA program,” as she explained. “I feel like what the foundation is trying to do is fatally flawed,” she began. “Employees want a solid core education/foundation of knowledge. We already have a residential program, and we already have a presence in Portland.”

Hecker spoke in between each faculty member, ensuring that their concerns were being heard and that he is doing his absolute best to push back and amend this document to meet the requests of the department.

The last faculty member to speak was Martha Broderick, who is a senior lecturer of business and commercial law. Her main concerns with this proposal were that she felt as though the faculty were under attack and did not like the way it was created.

“You have just heard from the most respected members of our faculty. These people have put in decades to make our school as strong as it is and to deliver services to the state of Maine,” she began. “We do like and want to work with all parts of the state. We do and have worked with USM, we have worked with Machias. We are not isolated. The current MBA that we have is really good. It’s accredited, it’s nationally recognized. It receives awards all the time. Our graduates from the program lead business all around the country and all around the world. We have a program that works, what my concern is is more hidden. The proposal is insulting.”

Hecker will be reporting this information up and the hopes are that this MOU document will offer room for changes to meet the needs of the MBS staff.

The University of Maine recently named first-year student Chris Ferguson as the 2017 starting quarterback on the football team during summer training, which came as a surprise of many. The position opened up as their previous quarterback, Dan Collins, graduated. The team is coached by Joe Harasymiak.

Ferguson, a Fort Washington, Pa, native, stands at 6 feet 4 inches tall and 220 pounds. He was up against third-year Drew Belcher, fourth-year Max Staver and first-year Isaiah Robinson for the position. Ferguson is a redshirt freshman, meaning that he is considered a second-year academically and a first-year athletically.

While football is one of the main reasons that Ferguson chose UMaine, he added, “The weather is great, and the campus is cool. The atmosphere at the games is awesome. It’s a good place for me, and it’s nice to get away from home. I have relatives nearby in Bar Harbor, so I’ve visited Maine before.”

During summer training, Ferguson showed that he had both the athleticism and the leadership abilities to confidently represent the team as their starting quarterback. In an article published by the Portland Press Herald (PPH), Liam Coen, Maine’s offensive coordinator, said, “The biggest thing about Ferg is that he’s always been a leader, he always has the attention of the team. I’m excited about things moving forward.”

“Summer training was good,” Ferguson said. “I’ve been up here for most of the summer. It got a little lonely, but it was a great time bonding with the other football guys between lifting, throwing and conditioning.”

Ferguson talked more about his thoughts receiving the position. “I was excited to hear the news that I got the job. That was definitely my goal. At that moment, I was ready to go and prepare for that next game.” His teammates also responded well to the news. “Everyone was excited for me, both as a friend and as a player. I have their back and they have mine.”

Being the youngest of 11 children, Ferguson has been known to “act like an older guy,” according to previous teammates.

“Ever since Ferg got here, even though he was a young kid, when he’s on the field he acts and carries himself as if he’s a senior quarterback. He has a lot of maturity. He controls the huddle, he manages the offense,” Jamil Demby, a fourth-year left tackle on the team, told the PPH. “Ferguson works hard and constantly looks for ways to improve on the field.”

The season officially kicked off last week on Aug. 31 where the Black Bears took on the University of New Hampshire on the rival turf. The team lost to the Wildcats with a 23-24 final score. The season opener brought in a crowd of over 15,000 spectators and the game kept everyone on their feet until the final seconds.

“It was a tough game,” Ferguson said. “We played well and showed that we are a good team. Hopefully at our next game, we will be able to show that.”

The next UMaine football game will be on Saturday, Sept. 9, at the Harold Alfond Sports Stadium at 3:30 p.m. against Bryant University.

“This season is going to be really good, we’re gonna be special. It is going to be a very special year,” Ferguson said.

On Monday, April 10, Jay Leach, the associate head coach of the UMaine men’s hockey team, resigned from his position. Leach has been coaching collegiate hockey teams for over twenty-four years.

“Everything changes,” Red Gendron, the head coach of the men’s hockey team, said. “I am delighted that he will have time to spend with family and friends. The demands of coaching in college haven’t been easy. The coaching staff has to be scouting, recruiting, signing players, coaching the players, and helping the players develop. The tempo is really high.”

Leach has had decades of experience in coaching. “He is a terrific coach,” Gendron began, “he helped recruit and coach some of the teams that really put Maine hockey on the map at Division 1 level in the late 1980’s.”

Leach’s coaching career began in 1983, as an assistant coach at Merrimack College. After a year, he became the associate head coach at UMaine, where he spent four seasons and helped bring the team to the NCAA Final Four in 1988, according to his profile on the UMaine athletics site.

“I’m surprised,” Eric Schurhamer, a fourth-year on the hockey team, said. “I had always thought that he would stick around a little while longer. At the same time, he has been coaching for so long. He has given this game and this program so much.”

“It is sad to see a coach step down and retire. He will be missed, he is very well-liked and well-respected. Coach Leach was great to me over my four years. He’s been around the game forever and has so much knowledge and experience,” Blaine Byron, another fourth-year on the team, said.

Leach will be missed by many, including Gendron. The two have been working together for over thirty years. “We go way back,” Gendron said, “He has a great relationship with the players, and he is a tremendous recruiter and a tremendous teacher. He makes everybody that he comes in contact with feel good, and he has done a great job as a coach.”

In terms of the future, Gendron remains optimistic. As always, the team’s goal is to make it to championships. “We have some terrific players in the program,” he said, “And another class coming in that will be outstanding. I am very excited about the talent level and the future.”

Leach will be remembered for being dedicated and devoted to his players. “I can remember a skills session where me and Coach Leach stayed out on the ice for twenty minutes after it was done and just talked about the ins and outs of hockey, while he shared his endless knowledge of the game with me,” Schurhamer said.

“All we can do is hope for the best,” Byron said. “I feel very fortunate and happy to have spent four years with a great coach. He (Leach) was a great influence on me.”

While there has not been any official statement made regarding who will be replacing Coach Leach, many speculate that Alfie Michaud, the volunteer goal-tending coach, will fill the position. Michaud has been coaching the team since March 2016.

On Tuesday, April 11, the University of Maine at Augusta president James Conneely announced his resignation after serving for less than two years. This is the fourth president to leave the University since September of 2014.

“Regrettably, I must inform you that I have tendered my resignation as President of UMA effective June 30, 2017,” Conneely said in his resignation, “I wish UMA much success in serving Maine and its people.”

James Page, the University of Maine System Chancellor, visited UMA on Thursday and offered possible leadership options to a group of campus employees that were concerned about the future and stability of the university.

Many fear that the system will launch an expedited search to hire a new president to take over after Conneely and hire from a limited pool of applicants, potentially missing out on a perfect fit. Another option that the University has is to bring in a temporary leader for a one-to-two year term in order to have enough time to find a permanent replacement.

While the loss comes as a shock to many, some faculty members were not all that upset. Many said that they felt that Conneely was not a “good fit” as a leader and that their mission and finances had suffered throughout his term.

It has been suggested by some faculty at UMA that Rebecca Wyke, the system’s vice chancellor for finance and administration could fill this position. In 2015, Wyke led UMA while the university searched for the position that Conneely eventually filled.

Conneely has had previous experience working as the President at Notre Dame of Maryland University of Baltimore as well as an Associate Provost and Vice President of Student Affairs at Eastern Kentucky University and Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at the University of Arkansas. The University of Maine at Augusta is different from many of these universities as there are no living options available on campus.

Brenda McAleer, the associate provost at UMA, has concerns about a potential partnership deal with the Augusta campus with another UMS campus, referring to the recent partnership between the University of Maine in Orono and Machias. McAleer’s concern is that a “nontraditional” situation could damage UMA.

Page is looking for a solution that would work and mentioned that each campus has their own individual mission and issues that could make potential partnerships less than ideal. In May, there will be a UMS Board of Trustees meeting where Page hopes to have a leadership plan in place in order to propose an interim leader before Conneely leaves in June.

As for now, the University of Maine in Augusta is focused on stability and hoping for a future leader that will bring positive change to the community. Conneely will leave his position on June 30.

On April 6, Rhonda Y. Williams visited the University of Maine to present this week’s discussion at the Socialist and Marxist Studies Series (Controversy Series) in the Bangor Room in the Memorial Union.

Williams, an activist scholar, a professor of history and the founder and director of the Social Justice Institute at Case Western Reserve University, presented a speech followed by an open discussion with the guests in attendance.

Williams introduced her own title “Democracy for Whom? The Imperative of Social Justice Education.” Her talk was split into four acts, followed by her slideshow, which explained how she teaches these lessons to her students.

Act one of her presentation discussed “The Promise of American Democracy; channeling James Baldwin.” Baldwin was a writer that served as a witness to truth. He spoke into being the unspoken about the “everyday mess of race-based humiliation.”

“Baldwin examined how black people were constructed,” Williams began, “and how these constructions of black people perceived as servile, as less than, as criminal, as economic burdens of the nation impacts their treatment in the United States.”

Williams continued with the act, explaining that the violence that built the United states remains “woven into the fabric of the ‘democratic’ nation.”

Act two was titled “Radical, Democratic Humanism.” Williams spoke about Ella Baker, a civil rights and humans rights activist who had a career that lasted for more than five decades. Baker, who explained how marginalization and exploitation work “does this by diagnosing not only what everyday people suffer as individuals, but how they are in relationship with the system of power, that they are driven by perceptions.”

The act was closed with an introduction to the “I Am” model: “Who I am, who you perceive me to be, how you see yourself or not in the ‘I am’ exposes not only the evidence of things not seen, the evidence of things not said, but also amplifies the evidence of things done,” she said.

Act three was titled “The Forming Mirror of Truth.” Williams talked about the three lessons that people must learn: participation, compromise and tolerance. She also spoke about Nathan Huggins, a leading scholar in African-American studies and his ideas of “a deforming mirror of truth: a conspiracy of myth, history and chauvinism.”

In the final act, Williams spoke to the audience about education and began to answer the “Democracy for Whom?” question. It is important to analyze how people understand industry, how they define their political community and how they excavate in order to identify the narratives by which people make sense of their condition and interpret the common life they share, “or do not share,” Williams added.

After her 30-minute presentation, she opened the floor to questions from the audience. She ended her talk with a message to the audience, “Words are not enough. We need actions. We can’t lose our optimism.”

On Thursday, March 30, the University of Maine welcomed two reporters from The Washington Post to speak at the “Alan Miller: Excellence in Journalism” public talk at the Wells Conference Center. Jessica Contrera and Katie Mettler traveled to UMaine from Washington D.C. to visit various journalism classes and talk to students about the importance of reporting and how it changes lives.

Both women prepared a presentation titled “Clickbait, Fake News, And The Fourth Estate: Why Journalism Is More Vital Than Ever.” The presentation included discussion about why the idea that “journalism is dead” is far from the truth, as well as how to find out if a source is credible or not. After the talk, they answered questions regarding diversity in journalism and discussed sexism that they have witnessed in the field. They also shared stories of their personal experiences with guests.

The event brought nearly 200 people of all ages and backgrounds. The talk began with an introduction from Lauren Abbate, a 2015 graduate from the University of Maine. She first introduced Katie Mettler, a general assignment reporter from The Post. Mettler is a member of the Morning Mix, meaning that she goes to work when many are going to bed and works through the night with her team to have stories ready to read when people are waking up in the morning.

Next, Abbate introduced Jessica Contrera, a staff writer from The Post. Contrera is also a general assignments reporter and is currently completing a fellowship on the National Enterprises Team. She has written about teenagers in a middle school, programs to keep children out of the foster care system and other issues, including health care. Recently, she completed a series with a colleague on how technology is changing the way that kids are growing up and seeing the world. Metter and Contrera met each other during their undergraduate years at Indiana University, where they both received their degrees in 2014.

“Our democracy cannot survive without the news,” Mettler said. “The most important impact that we can make in journalism is just coming to work every day, sitting down and doing one small story and as they accumulate, they build and they inform our readers. They help us understand each other more.” Contrera followed, saying, “Journalism is always changing and we are looking more and more like the readers.”

Journalism has evolved in the last decade and faced several challenges. “It’s important to remember that the business model is struggling,” Mettler began, “but in journalism, we have more ways to tell stories and interact with readers than we ever have before. It’s important to not look at the internet as something that has killed journalism, but has given us more opportunities to do our jobs better.”

In a world where reporters are constantly under fire and being accused of reporting “fake news,” it is difficult to find out what is accurate and what is not, according to the two. Both reporters reminded the audience to be skeptical and ask questions when they read stories that seem off. As the talk came to a close, Mettler and Contrera left the crowd with one piece of advice, “Advocate for yourselves, it is the only way that things will change.”

Since University of Maine students have been gone, newly inaugurated President Donald J. Trump has made a number of allegations that the Obama administration has been spying on him since the 2016 election. There have also been conversations regarding the American Health Care Act, as well as fervent debates about whether the bill should be passed, amended, or scrapped.

Earlier in the month, President Donald J. Trump posted a series of tweets accusing former president Barack Obama of wiretapping him during the 2016 election, even comparing it to the Nixon/Watergate scandal. Following these tweets, Sean Spicer, the current White House Press Secretary, announced that no one from the White House (including the president) will comment on the story.

As the days went on, Spicer added that, “There is no question something happened. The question is, is it surveillance, is it a wiretap, or whatever.” Days later, Spicer began to backtrack on his previous statements, saying that in President Trump’s original tweet, he put the word “wiretap” in quotes, as he intended to infer a more broad surveillance and other activities that are not strictly limited to wiretapping.

He continued, “there is no question that the Obama administration, that there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election.”

On March 15, President Trump made an appearance on Fox’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” where he was asked about what brought his attention to the wiretapping allegations. Trump referred to an article that was posted by the “New York Times” regarding intelligence investigations into some of Trump’s associates. The article never mentions Barack Obama ordering a wiretap on the Trump administration. Toward the end of his appearance, Trump adds, “I think you’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next few weeks.”

On Friday, March 24, members of the House also began to debate on a bill that will replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Obamacare.” The bill, which is called the American Health Care Act (AHCA), differs from the ACA as it will be putting an aged-based tax credit system to purchase health insurance, which could potentially save the government billions of dollars and also cut taxes.

But, Democrats argue, the program will add an additional 24 million citizens to the list of Americans that do not have health care.

It became clear throughout the day that there was not enough support for the bill in the Republican party to pass it, as both the Freedom caucus and more moderate Republican members peeled away their support, despite threats from the Trump administration that a failed bill would result in a red light from the White House on further attempts to restructure health care.

As the afternoon played out, President Trump asked Paul Ryan, the current Speaker of the House, to pull the proposed repeal. Moments after this was announced, Ryan encouraged Republicans to move on. There are debates on whether or not it was Trump or Ryan that ultimately made the call to pull the bill.