UM hosts final public budget session

ORONO, Maine — Members of the University of Maine community sought Wednesday to defend the state system’s flagship university against impending cuts to academic budgets, while Chancellor Richard L. Pattenaude and some of the system’s board of trustees took questions and heard suggestions about the system’s financial future.

Four board members, including chairman Lyndel “Joe” Wishcamper, were part of a panel along with Pattenaude seeking information from students, faculty, staff and alumni as the board gets ready to consider Pattenaude’s evaluation of the New Challenges, New Directions Initiative, which the chancellor instituted earlier this year.

“We are trying to do the right thing,” Wishcamper told an audience of about 300 at the Collins Center for the Arts. “We see [UMaine] as the flagship university in our system and our interest is in supporting the University of Maine.”

No new budget or personnel cuts were announced Wednesday — those may come in the next few months as UMaine seeks to cut $7.5 million from its base budget for fiscal year 2011 — but the chancellor and board members told the audience that the system’s economic outlook demands cuts be made. The current fiscal year budget is $224 million.

The chancellor’s office estimated earlier this year a systemwide $42.8 million shortfall for the next four fiscal years.

UMaine President Robert Kennedy recently announced an effort to cut up to $28 million from the Orono campus’s academic affairs base budget by 2014, a budget target which UM Vice President for Finance and Administration Janet Waldron said after Wednesday’s session is an estimate that could change depending on factors such as state appropriations and the national economy.An academic affairs working group is reviewing the university’s academic programs.

One audience member told the panel the projected academic budget cuts work out to job losses for up to one-third of faculty. There now are 549 full-time faculty positions at UMaine.

“What will also [happen] in terms of student losses?” said Michael Grillo, an art history professor and the vice president of UMaine’s faculty senate. “If you cut a substantial number of faculty I think you will also lose a substantial number of students, which may benefit the neighboring states and provinces but will really plummet us into a rather dangerous cycle.”

Wishcamper cautioned against making assumptions about projections of how budget and faculty cuts will happen.

“That is ridiculous,” he said of the estimates. “People are scared of change and disinformation flies around like wildfire. This is a smart, intelligent group of people. Don’t be gullible about disinformation. We don’t know where the structural gap will lead.”

Former UMaine President Peter Hoff, now a UMaine System professor, asked that the board of trustees carefully consider the fate of small programs that don’t often receive a lot of large grants or attention but benefit students.

“Simply counting the beans and counting the numbers doesn’t always tell you what’s going on or where the power is or why a program needs to be sustained,” he said. “Much as I appreciate the work we’re doing [in the sciences] there are all these other programs that are part and parcel of a great university be it anthropology or music or whatever.”

Judy Kuhns-Hastings, the president of the Faculty Senate and a member of the nursing faculty, told the trustees to examine the structure and the expenses incurred by the system’s central office, which is located in downtown Bangor.

Pattenaude reminded the audience earlier in the session that the system office lost $1 million in the last round of cuts and has taken no federal economic stimulus money.

“We’re making sure that administrative cost reductions are done first,” he said.

Some graduate students told the panel that funding for graduate research and faculty should not be considered in budget cuts because graduate studies bring economic development to the state and generate grant money.

Several audience members asked the board of trustees to take a closer look at the timing of an item in the chancellor’s proposal that would set up a $5.6 million investment in a strategic investment fund, the returns on which Pattenaude said would go directly to the campuses.

Wishcamper said the board of trustees may re-examine that item, considering comments against the fund the board has heard from every campus.

“I believe it is the sentiment of the trustees to do something to recognize that the timing of instituting the strategic investment fund is not good,” he said.

After the public session ended, Kuhns-Hastings said she hoped the panel listened to the faculty senate’s job-loss projections.

“One of the things that was really obvious was that the trustees do not understand the cuts we are facing,” she said. “I hope the board took a step back.”

Pattenaude said after the session he doesn’t think the projected budget cuts will play out with huge cuts in faculty.

“I follow the [faculty senate’s] analysis, but you look at it and say, that’s a conclusion that’s not supportable if you want to continue to have a quality land-grant university,” Pattenaude said. “It’s an outcome that is not part of anyone’s planning.”

The panel took questions and comments for about an hour and 45 minutes and heard from 24 audience members.

“We will do everything we can to keep [UMaine] strong,” said Trustee Ellie Baker, a UMaine graduate. “We’re not here to cut you down to size. We’re here to support you. That’s our job and we will do it to the best of our ability.”

Wednesday’s event, similar to sessions held at the six other system campuses, was the final public comment session before Pattenaude’s final report and implementation plan are presented to the board at its next meeting, which comes Nov. 16 at the system office in Bangor.

The board will continue to take comment on the proposal until Oct. 30. To read the proposal and make comments, go to www.maine.edu/chancellor/NCND.php. The e-mail address for comments is ncnd@maine.edu. The mailing address is NCND, c/o Board of Trustees Office, University of Maine System, 16 Central St., Bangor 04401

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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