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Last year, the College’s Democrats club had only three active members. Meetings were sparse, momentum was limited, and the club itself felt almost invisible on campus. Now, just a year later, the group has grown to almost 300 members and has already started to cement its hold on the College’s community. 

Jakob De Swaan Arons `26, the president of the Democrats club, Uma Graz `28, vice president, and Will Kaine `26, treasurer, came together to build up what had been forgotten. 

“The thing that motivated me to restart it was when I came back from abroad,” Arons said. “Trump got inaugurated, a flurry of things happened, and I was just really frustrated with the current situation. So I reached out to Will, who was abroad with me, and Uma was the only one who showed up to the first meeting. We needed three positions, and there we got three positions all of a sudden.” 

From there, the club slowly rebuilt itself. Last year was about brainstorming, but this year, the team of three came in with a plan. At the club fair alone, they signed more than 100 students, eventually reaching 280 on their mailing list. 

“Honestly, I wanted to hear about the issues that are most important to everyone,” Arons said. “I was surprised to hear a lot of people said immigration rights … another one is wealth in equality.” 

The leadership team commented on the fact that they have worked to set a different tone from past years. Previously, the club was said to be “more performative,” as Graz explained. Arons added, “We do want to maintain a lightheartedness … but the main thing that’ll separate us from things in the past is we’re trying to do concrete things. So whether that’s canvassing, letter writing, or poster making, everything we do is meant to generate support.” 

Earlier this month, members of the club had the opportunity to take that generation of support off campus. The club organized a canvassing trip in Waterville, where students went door-to-door. 

“I’ll be honest, I don’t think we really did prepare people that much, and I was really proud of seeing how they stepped up,” Arons said. “Two freshmen knocked on a door, spoke with an independent and a conservative, and still convinced them that they should vote no on Question One.” Question One is a referendum on the Maine ballot this November, which supports the change of election procedure law by requiring voters proof of photo identification, limiting the number of drop boxes per municipality to one, among other changes. 

The story about the Democrats club isn’t just about its growth in this semester. Arons pointed to the bigger, long-term picture: “As I mentioned, there was a complacency that came with the fact that we had a Democratic president…the Maine College Dems, which is a statewide organization, has completely fallen apart and is now rebuilding. We’ve reached out to other schools like Bates and Bowdoin, and I can only assume they’re facing similar issues that we did. Our vision for the future is ensuring that Uma and Grace and other really involved members are prepared to continue the legacy and make this a club that is a pillar of Colby once again.” 

Kaine echoed that point, emphasizing the importance of outside connections. “Passionate people are realizing that they can do something about it, and so building connections between Colby Dems, Maine Dems, and other organizations to keep this thing going. It’s all to make Colby’s students feel like there is a real pathway for them to get directly involved.” 

Those connections are already beginning to take shape. “Jared Gold’s campaign reached out to me today and asked for a campaign fellow,” Kaine added. “That kind of stuff would be really, really great. If we can get Senate candidates to come here and speak to students…getting this campus more politically active, that is another thing I hope lies into the general constitution.” 

From three students filling the required leadership positions, to hundreds of names on the mailing list, the College’s Democrats club has quickly established themselves on campus. This highlights not only its revival, but the importance of student groups as spaces for open dialogue and inquiry. Club leaders emphasize the necessity of creating a space where participation and open expression are welcomed in order to cultivate productive conversations that matter. Now, the Colby Democrats’ club focuses on sustaining these conversations and growth, but that depends on how deeply students continue to get involved.

~ Mia Dinunzio `28

Last week, Mónica Guzmán, author of the bestselling book I Never Thought of It That Way, addressed an audience in Page Commons, focusing on practical steps individuals can take to bridge the United States’ pronounced political divisions. As a Senior Fellow for Public Practice at the non-profit Braver Angels, Guzmán’s work centers on changing not how we view issues, but how we view one another. Her talk emphasized curiosity as a tool for de-escalation, beginning with an individual’s own biological responses.

Guzmán opened the conversation by addressing the initial, involuntary, physical reactions that surface during heated political disagreements. When facing a challenging statement, she noted that the unqualified answer to controlling the first emotional impulse is, you don’t. Instead, she stressed the importance of awareness, urging people to build the practice of listening to their body for signals like a pounding heart or quickened blood. This physical response is often a manifestation of a “fight, flight, freeze, fawn” trauma response, signifying fear. Guzmán stated clearly that “curiosity and fear can’t really work together.” Once one is aware of the emotion, they gain agency, allowing them to take a break or, crucially, “name the emotion to this other person,” turning it into “data in your conversation.”

This strategy of contained, deliberate engagement extends to the setting of political discussions. She maintained that the most effective conversations are held where people are mutually free to explore more honestly without fallouts. In group dynamics, individuals often fall into unhelpful roles; the “sniper” who puts in a “little poke” or the “gladiator” looking for a fight. Guzmán advised that the role to take on is the “engager,” who asks a curious question to bring the temperature down and let the other person know they’re in a place where they can be heard.

The discussion eventually turned to student questions. Winnie Ulland `28, a sophomore art history and English major, asked for “one everyday question you would encourage people to bring into their daily practice to build bridges and reinforce curiosity.” Guzmán offered a precise linguistic recommendation: “How did you come to believe what you believe?” She explicitly cautioned the audience against asking, “why do you believe what you believe?” Guzmán explained that in contexts of disagreement or suspicion, the word ‘why’ can be very charged and sound more like an accusation, causing the listener to feel defensive. Instead of plumbing their own depths, they will think about the reasons they have heard others give that sounded strong and confident to get the person off their case, ultimately closing the door to genuine dialogue.

Guzmán also addressed the pervasive influence of media, noting its polarizing force in an ecosystem where people tend to find outlets that reinforce their own sentiments about the world. This environment feeds the “perception gap,” where people hold big misperceptions that we have about each other. She explained that news media often fails by providing “misinformation about what’s in people’s hearts,” instead appealing to emotion and giving readers “ammo against the other side.”

For individuals unwilling to engage directly with an opponent, Guzmán offered a mental challenge for consuming opposing media. When reading an article from the other side, she urged the reader to ask two private questions, not reading the article “for ammo.” The questions are: “what are the honest concerns that are informing this person’s point of view?” and “what is the strongest argument for their side?” These allow one to wrestle with the ideas privately and leave a little more room for what they might be missing, she said.

During a follow-up, another student asked how one can balance curiosity with vulnerability to ensure that asking too many questions does not feel like “interviewing them.” Guzmán, drawing on her experience as a journalist, stated she would try very hard not to interview people, but to have a conversation with them. The crucial technique is to open up first, making it easier for the other person. She suggested sharing a personal experience, such as, “this thing happened to me once, and then I felt this way. And you know, this happened to you. How did that feel for you?” By establishing that you and I are not that different, one creates a sense of safety, encouraging the other person to be themselves.

Guzmán concluded by acknowledging that humans are “wired to divide in some ways” through the dynamics of sorting, othering, and siloing. However, she provided hope by reminding the audience that people are also fundamentally “wired to connect.” This natural desire for connection, she suggested, is the powerful mechanism that makes it possible to bridge divides.

~ Stephen Owusu Badu `27

Emerald ash borers (EAB) are small beetles, each less than an inch long. Adults have shiny green outer shells; larvae are white. They are diurnal creatures, preferring warm, sunny days. And when there’s signs of them in your area, you can rest assured that they will eat through every ash tree they come across. 

The EAB is one of thousands of invasive species existing across the United States. As defined by the National Wildlife Federation, an invasive species is “any kind of living organism that is not native to an ecosystem and causes harm.” EABs have spread across Europe and North America despite being native to Asia. Everywhere they travel, they decimate the ash tree population, and Maine was recently added to their hit list. 

In 2022, the state of Maine received its first report of definitive signs of EAB on the edge of the College’s campus. Since then, the relentless insects have overtaken the entire ash population within the Perkins Arboretum. According to Colby Senior Laboratory Instructor Abby Pearson, the person responsible for making the report, “everywhere that [she’s seen] ash on campus, [there has been] some indication of EAB, and anywhere that there’s EAB, the general understanding is that just about all the ash trees will be dead within ten years.”

This is a grim prophecy. Ash trees are a crucial part of the Arboretum’s ecosystem (and many other ecosystems across Europe and North America). They play an essential role in the life cycles of a wide variety of species. In some patches of the arboretum, ash are among the most common trees. And with these patches of ash trees dying out so suddenly, invasive plant species biding time underneath the canopy will take these openings as an opportunity to flourish. 

Not only are ash trees important to Maine ecosystems, they are also very culturally significant for members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, a confederation made up of the four most prominent indigenous tribes in Maine. Basketmaking is a longstanding cultural tradition, a method of economic empowerment, and an outlet for artistic expression for Wabanaki peoples, and the brown ash is the main material used in this practice. For the Wabanaki, losing ash trees means losing part of their cultural identity.

Although the EAB is a worthy opponent, all hope is not lost. Shared interest in preserving ash trees has brought Wabanaki basketmakers, environmental conservationists, and the government together to form the Brown Ash Task Force. This group works to monitor ash population counts throughout Maine and harvest seeds from remaining ash trees to replenish the population and make sure they are not wiped out completely. 

In the past, a major strategy employed to combat invasive species issues harming trees, such as chestnut blight and dutch elm disease, was to get ahead of the invasive species and cut down vulnerable trees, preventing the issue from spreading further. 

The strategy the Brown Ash Task Force employs is the opposite. The hope, as explained by Pearson, is that “even though most will die, there will likely be a few that don’t, and those will be the resistant ones. Those are the genes that you want to propagate.” Collecting seeds from the trees that seem to be surviving the EAB influx will allow for the propagation of new trees that might be resistant.

Additionally, various research groups are utilizing the College’s arboretum to test other methods of protecting ash trees. A study currently being conducted by the Maine Forest Service and the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Waponahkik is centered around insecticide. Researchers have treated 200 ash trees on campus by drilling small holes in the bark and injecting the insecticide into the wood, where it is then carried up through the trunk by the tree’s vascular tissue and consumed by any EABs that attempt to feed on the tree. The results of the ten-year study will provide valuable insight into how the war against the EAB can be waged. 

Another project, also led by the Maine Forest Service, focuses on introducing the EAB’s natural predator into the environment. Pearson has a hands-on role in this project, receiving shipments of tiny parasitoid wasps which feed on EAB larvae and releasing them into the arboretum weekly. These wasps pose no threat to humans and, though Pearson says there are “always questions about introducing new species,” she adds that “it should be that these parasitoid wasps are incredibly host-specific… and that’s what they’ve been shown to be so far.”

EABs are not the only invasive species to disturb the arboretum. Most recently, a nematode has brought a beech leaf disease to campus beech trees, which were already struggling due to a bark disease caused by a different invasive species. Various other species, such as the spruce budworm, whose population here waxes and wanes over time, and the spongy moth, a caterpillar that particularly likes apple trees and oaks, have come to call the College home. An especially unfortunate addition to the list is the browntailed moth which, in addition to doing a number on oak and fruit trees, causes an itchy rash on human skin. 

Pearson predicts that the hemlock trees are next. The hemlock wooly adelgid, an insect native to Japan that feeds on hemlock sap, has made its way up the east coast from Virginia to Maine. It is only a matter of time before it reaches the College. 

While efforts are being made to check the EAB population and protect our ash trees, there is no question that they have already made their mark. The scale of the damage will be measured this spring, in the Forest Ecosystems class, led by Professor Justin Bechnell, the Associate Professor of Environmental Studies. Each year, the class does an ash monitoring project, which includes revisiting permanent plots in the arboretum and collecting information on ash population and signs of EABs. The class wasn’t offered this past year, but it was for several years in a row before, and for those classes the ash project was primarily theoretical, predicting how the ecosystem would be changed when EABs eventually overtook it. Now that the ruthless little beetles have made a noticeable impact, the project will undoubtedly look very different. 

Walking the trails, it is easy to spot dead ash trees with the EAB’s signature markings: serpentine tunnels underneath the bark where the larvae feast and small, D-shaped holes from which adult beetles emerge. For most of the year, while most of the trees are leafy and green, the barren, dead ash create a jarring contrast. Pearson left me with a haunting description of her view as she walked through the arboretum this past spring: 

“It’s really obvious to me that…there’s a lot of dead trees, and their branches are just so stark and obvious. They have these big, thick branches because they have to hold up these big, compound leaves—their leaves are a foot long, and heavy. So they have these big, thick twigs, and they just look so stark against the sky.”

~ Anna Izquierdo `29

Colby students are about to have a new way to get their campus news. The Colby Echo and WMHB, Colby’s independent FM radio station, have launched a partnership that brings student journalism to the airwaves. After a lively launch party last week, the two organizations officially kicked off a weekly talk-and-music show that highlights stories from the Echo and shares them with listeners across Waterville and beyond.

Mia Dinunzio `28, the News Section Editor at the Echo and a member of WMHB, described her new role as “bridging the gap between the Echo and the radio station.” She explained that the radio will highlight articles from the Echo’s most recent issue, giving listeners a quick rundown of what’s happening on campus. Rather than relying solely on print or online editions, the radio show offers a fresh platform for sharing campus news. The goal is to make Echo coverage more accessible, whether students are tuning in from a dining hall or members of the greater Waterville community are listening off-campus.

The show, which debuts this Friday from 9–10 a.m., will feature a roundup of this week’s stories and, starting next week, interviews with Echo writers and other campus voices. “I’m going to start doing interviews as well for certain topics that are being discussed—faculty, reporters, maybe even other Colby students,” Dinunzio said. She added that the station also plans to run promos to cast a spotlight on arts events at Colby. “We’ll be highlighting the Arts and Entertainment section, but also highlighting events happening at the Gordon Center, in case any Waterville residents want to come.”

Dinunzio noted that there had been a previous attempt at a news hour on WMHB by Christian Gobo, `26, WMHB station manager and president, but not in collaboration with the Echo. “I think a little over a year ago, Christian had tried a news hour. However, I don’t think it was affiliated with the Echo, it was just him finding general national [and] Waterville news,” she says. “This is directly correlated to [the Echo], so it’s trying to amplify the articles and the pieces that are already talked about.”

Gobo confirmed that the new show is building on past efforts. “We tried to do something like this two years ago, when I say we, I mean mostly me,” he said. “It was very elaborate, a lot of moving parts to it. We had reporters, a team of student reporters that were out getting audio stories and editing them. And then after a while, I was just like, commitment—it’s hard to pump something like that out every single week of that quality, of that complexity. So after a semester, we brushed it under the rug.” But I’ve always had in the back of my head that I wanted to do something like that again, until Mia came along, and I figured that would be a good opportunity.”

The experience gives Gobo perspective on what makes this new effort different, he says, and why it feels more sustainable. With Mia helping to connect the two organizations, he sees this as a chance to bring his original idea to life in a more realistic way.

That excitement carried into the launch party, which Gobo described as “perfectly presented chaos.” He gestured at the scene: stacked pizza boxes, people running around setting up equipment, and students chatting over music. “That’s radio,” he said. “People are running all over the place, the adrenaline is flowing.
 But the audience doesn’t know that, right? All that they get is sort of the perfected polished version of that. That’s a testament to, you know, the skills of the DJs here, the collaboration, everybody has a different, specialized role.”

~ Sophia Ikiri `29