Learn about the role of Attorney General

Tierney seated infront of a bookshelf at Colvin Hall

James Tierney is a prominent University of Maine Law School alumni who served as the Maine Attorney General (AG) from 1980 to 1990. Since then, he Directed the National State General Attorney’s Program at Columbia Law and remained in said position for 16 years. Tierney is currently a lecturer on law at Harvard.

The AG is chief lawyer for the state, responsible for the case study of all homicide prosecutions and overseeing 110 lawyers state-wide.

“Your job as attorney general is to tell the truth because people inside the state government will disagree… It’s the attorney general’s job to call it straight,” said Tierney.

Tierney considers one of the greatest accomplishments of his career to be the terrific staff that he assembled as the AG, which had members from both in and out of state. He specified that it is problematic to hire based on friendship, politics or personal preferences.

Like many government positions, the role of attorney general comes with sleepless nights and notable struggles. Tierney described the need to assess one’s values as a lawyer to discern what is right from what is wrong in the pursuit of effective truth-telling. Since he has left office, Tierney has committed significant time to counseling others involved in similar practices.

For example, throughout the months following the George Floyd homicide, he served as a confidant to the AG of Minnesota, who had to address upwards of 25,000 heartbroken members of the community outside of his office.

“Be curious. The life of law is experience, it’s not what’s written down in the books. You need the books, you need the structure, but it’s the human experience… all these other facts go into the determination and those aren’t legal facts, they’re human facts. They’re the human experience. The lawyer’s job is to extrapolate the real human experience and put it into a sense of justice,” Tierney said.

Custodians, the unsung heroes of UMaine

Landscape of Dunn Hall

Cheryl St. Louis has been a member of the janitorial staff at UMaine for 16 years. She is responsible for upkeep in the entirety of Dunn Hall (photographed above), which consists of five floors.

St. Louis has been married for 13 years and currently resides in the town of MIlford. Throughout her adolescence, she attended Old Town schools in the area. Her job title is Custodian. Some of St. Louis’ main responsibilities include sanitizing all five floors in Dunn Hall. She was assigned responsibility for the whole building six years ago.

St. Louis arrives on campus around 4p.m. She starts by collecting trash and recycling from every single classroom. Then, she starts cleaning, keeping track of each room that needs to be tended to using a white board. St. Louis is required to wipe down all of them.

She compared it to cleaning a large house. It is necessary to ensure that windows and doors are all locked before she leaves for the night. Some of St. Louis’ other tasks include vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, and mopping.

St. Louis unfortunately does not receive appropriate compensation in accordance with her nightly efforts. She was previously assigned three out of the five floors and was provided with assistance in cleaning the remaining two.

Juanita Prescot, who is Custodian of BLANK, used to help out with the first floor and basement of Dunn Hall, but is currently no longer able to do so with her own workload. The University of Maine System lacks proper funding to hire a second employee that could assist St. Louis. She has also not received any increase of pay since taking on those extra duties.

“We’re so short staffed. I don’t know how people are getting by, nobody wants to work nowadays. I did have some help a while ago,” St. Louis said.

Regardless, St. Louis did express an appreciation for the building itself and those who visit. She considers it to be the most rewarding aspect of her job,

“I do like this building, I like the people in this building. Like I said, I’ve been here 16 years, there’s new ones that come and go. The students are all really great so I do like it over here,” said St. Louis.

She described her relations with the people in Dunn as having an open line of communication. Professors frequently reach out to her when they have a problem, as she is capable of either solving it or steering them in the right direction.

“Judith Rosenbaum she teaches on Wednesday night. Sometimes I’ll bring in something on a Wednesday night or I’ll just bring it in, put it in the lunchroom and say ‘Help yourself -Cheryl’,” St. Louis said.

With a large portion of Dunn Hall being devoted to the nursing program, St. Louis is expected to effectively sanitize all of the classrooms as if it were a hospital. It mainly consists of tiled and hardwood floors.

The building is open 12 hours, meaning that her window of cleaning without interruption is very small, especially without help. This was supposed to be a temporary inconvenience until the University found somebody to soften the load. However, six years later, the responsibility still falls on St. Louis and St. Louis alone.

“I like cleaning because it keeps me busy and time goes by. I had the fourth floor, third floor and second floor. I could keep up, I had everything done”

Custodians at UMaine also receive graded evaluations. St. Louis explained that she and Juanita received very high scores when working together, even in the midst of wintertime when there was the issue of salt, snow and muddy boots coming in and out. A person visits to inspect the building and then provide feedback based on their findings. It is very tedious as they will even check the windowsills for dust.

“I don’t think it’s fair that somebody goes around and inspects the building when you’ve got the whole building and you can’t get it all,” St. Louis said.

She has many interests outside of work, but does not have ample time to pursue those passions as there are very high expectations of her at UMaine.

“I like to garden, grow vegetables. I did a lot of canning, ice fishing, camping, baking, I love to bake,” said St. Louis.

She is still expected to work while students and staff are on winter, spring and summer breaks. It proves to be the only time she can clean without any interruptions. Her vacation days are accumulated over time. UMS needs to do their part in order to allocate funding so that St. Louis and her colleagues are not left to take on an excessive amount of labor.

Madison Veilleux on what's offered at the UMaine Wellness Center

Veilleux seated at front desk of the Wellness Center in the Memorial Union

Student Admin Aide Madison Veilleux is an ecology in environmental science major with a concentration in environmental history. She has been an employee at the Student Resource Wellness Center since her freshman year at the University of Maine and is also a mandated reporter.

The Wellness Center, located in room 149 of the Memorial Union, is a hidden gem on campus, with an abundance of resources that should be taken advantage of by more students. Inside, you will be greeted by a friendly face at the front desk and beside them, couches, snacks, crafts and games to help ease the stresses of higher education.

According to Veilleux, some of her main responsibilities include but are not limited to, pointing visitors in the right direction, preparation/ upkeep of the office, restocking supplies and most importantly, providing support to anyone in need of help. The items available in the center range from food and drink to reduction supplies such as condoms and fentanyl test strips.

There are plenty of benefits to paying a visit to the Wellness Center. For instance, its convenient location at the heart of UMaine’s campus makes it the perfect spot to pass time in between classes. It is often advantageous to stop at the Union and do homework in the meantime rather than return home, especially if it is cold outside.

It’s also a great place to obtain free health materials such as deodorant, tampons, shampoo, travel toothbrushes etc. Those employed at the Wellness Center are more than willing to listen to students speak about personal or school-related problems, though there is not a trained professional therapist on the job. If need be, they will help you make an appointment with counseling services or other appropriate outreach programs accordingly.

“The Wellness Center is the perfect place to sit down and either relax, take a nap, drink coffee or do homework before your next class. We also give advice, but if we are unable to, we can point them in the right direction,” said Veilleux.

Veilleux described the working environment as phenomenal and specifically stated that her employer, Kevin Hudson is “very thoughtful”, as he makes sure to spend a portion of the budget on the needs of his staff. She and her coworkers have been provided with mugs for the office as well as t-shirts, and he takes into consideration their snack requests.

“The workspace is the most healthy workspace I’ve ever worked in my whole life, and I’ve had 10-15 jobs. Our boss, Kevin, always tells us that we’re students first and then we’re workers. No matter what we have going on, if we have schoolwork or are upset, they want us to take a break and stay healthy,” Veilleux said.

One thing that is important to keep in mind is the fact that the Wellness Center is a no-judgment zone and the staff are willing to answer uncomfortable questions relating to sexual health.

“As of this year, we actually did something different. We signed HIPAA contracts, which basically state that everything said in the office is confidential. It'd be a violation of contract for us to tell anyone about what is discussed in here,” Veilleux said.

The most rewarding part of Veilleux’s job, by far, is when there is substantial student engagement. She explained that a high attendance rate in a program or event makes the entire team feel happy. Their primary objective is to serve the on-campus community by providing a safe space for everyone.

“Day-to-day in the Wellness Center isn’t really that crazy… a student admin aide like myself walks in, sits at the desk and answers questions for anyone that comes through. Just making small-talk with people that come in, which might be the only friendly interaction they have that day,” said Veilleux.

In recent months, the organization has been keeping track of how many people come into the office each day and is looking to increase that amount through poster advertisements. They also hold bi-weekly staff meetings to discuss potential improvements within the center and plan events, such as the upcoming Wellness Fair.

On Oct. 19, a Wellness Fair will be held on the Mall from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. There are multiple activities for students to participate in, all while learning about the eight-dimensional resources for building and maintaining wellness. Prizes will be awarded to those in attendance alongside a distribution of “mock-tails” to enhance understanding of safe alcohol consumption. This annual fair is as focused on interaction as it is on education.