Tensions flared and rumors were dispelled last Tuesday when University of Maine System Chancellor Joseph Westphal fielded questions from USM faculty, staff and students during a day-long series of meetings in the Glickman Library. Westphal was visiting to answer questions and gather input concerning the University of Maine System Strategic Plan, which was released last month in draft form. This visit was one of nine scheduled across each of the UMS campuses from April 13 to May 7. The UMS Board of Trustees will take information gathered at these meetings into account when they finalize the plan this summer, following the close of the public comment period on June 30.
The draft has been the subject of controversy across the state since its release. According to an editorial in The Bangor Daily News on April 21, system officials “have been met with insults and a vandalized car” while visiting campuses to discuss the plan. Although Tuesday’s meeting did not get out of hand, there was clearly friction between faculty and staff and those facing them on the other side of the room: Chancellor Joseph Westphal, Vice-Chancellor of Academic and Student Affairs Elsa Nunez and UMS Trustees Bill Johnson, Don McDowell and Victoria Murphy. USM President Richard Pattenaude led the meetings.
Each session reflected the specific concerns of its participants, but one common concern was that the process of implementing the plan was going too fast, and many members of the staff and faculty did not believe that their ideas were being taken into consideration.
Nunez stressed at least once during each session that “this was not a consensus based process. There was a conscious decision to move this plan along. We need an urgent response to this crisis.” Public universities around the country typically take years to implement their strategic plans, but the University of Maine System is going ahead as fast as it can because of the immediate financial struggles it faces. According to the plan, “projections indicate that the system will face a $50 million financial structural gap over the next two years, even with status quo operations”.
During the professional staff meeting, the library staff expressed concern over the allocation of library resources. Sheila Johnson, head of reference services, was upset that the plan called the USM library a branch library.
“We have never considered ourselves a branch library. This language implies that Orono will receive more funds. USM has scrimped and scraped and we need more equitable sharing of resources for libraries.” Much of the debate was about the language of the plan, which attendees agreed belittles the importance and value of USM in the system compared to University of Maine at Orono, which is referred to in the plan as “the flagship school.”
Nancy Gish, professor of english and women’s studies, raised her own concerns. “Universities are not corporations. They are places where people are hired because they are thinkers. We were the last people who were consulted about this plan,” she said, referring to the recent hiring freeze. She said the language in the plan “is a language of containment and a language of limitation.” Westphall replied that everyone in the UMaine system feels undervalued and under-invested-in. Pattenaude said there is no intention to suppress scholarship at USM.
At one meeting Westphall dispelled a rumor that there was a plan to share a common core curriculum throughout the entire system. “There was never any intent to have general education,” stressed Nunez. “That was just one conversation that the deans initiated. There is no truth to that.”
During the classified staff meeting, workers were concerned with infrastructure and increased workload due to the centralization of jobs. Jim Bradley, the chair of the classified staff senate, noted that there was no mention of wages at all for classified staff in the plan. Westphall insisted that it was a mistake in the proofing of the document and that the wage study to look into increasing wages for the professional staff had just been completed. He added that he was looking into a wage study for the classified staff next.
One representative from Facilities Management was so upset with the lack of support for his department that he turned red and shook his fingers at Pattenaude.
“Facilities Management is understaffed,” replied the Pattenaude, “but we have advertised new jobs. The problem is the salary range for this job market.” As if on cue, the electricity in the room went out for five seconds. When it flickered back on, the mechanized white projector screen lowered from the ceiling above the trustees, almost crushing Trustee McDowell and Vice-Chancellor Nunez. The tense atmosphere melted into applause.