For the fourth consecutive year USM is facing a budget deficit, pushing the university’s total fiscal shortage to approximately $12.4 million.
While the final numbers are not expected until November, the estimated shortfall for 2007 is projected to surpass $4.5 million. USM’s contingency fund has covered the deficit for the past few years, but this year the university will have to borrow money from the UMaine System. Officials estimate five to 10 years before the budget can be balanced and the loan payed back.
USM’s budget woes can be traced back to the start of the Maine community college system in 2003. Since then USM’s enrollment has decreased from 11,382 students in 2002 to the current figure of 9,851. Chief Financial Officer Dick Campbell said in an e-mail interview that tuition rates are significantly lower at community colleges, providing a more attractive option to students. In-state tuition is $215 per credit hour at USM versus $96 at Southern Maine Community College.
Campbell also said USM has not seen the anticipated influx of third-year transfers from community colleges because many graduates from those schools choose to enter the workforce after two years.
This year’s tuition increases of 7.8 percent for undergraduates and 8.3 percent for graduate students were an attempt to balance the loss in revenue. However, USM has forged farther into debt and will undergo some drastic restructuring measures in the coming months.
Interim president Joseph Wood outlined steps toward correcting the problem in an e-mail interview. His proposals include: realigning academic departments, including possibly eliminating 3 dean positions; augmenting efforts to attract students; and raising the retention rate from 68 percent to 75 percent.
Wood also said the hiring freeze instituted last year would continue, as well as the purchase of any new equipment for all departments until 2009. In all, said Wood, USM will seek to cut 90 jobs, 30 at the faculty level. These measures are an effort to spend $5.5 million dollars less annually.
Other efforts to conserve money include redesigning many academic departments. The Muskie School of Public Policy school will either absorb other academic and research programs or be eliminated and redistributed to other departments. Other possible mergers include combining departments within the College of Arts and Sciences, where nearly half of USM’s faculty work.
Combining the College of Education and Human Development with the College of Nursing and Health Professions is being considered as well, as is the School of Business with the School of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology.
“Strong programs will be stronger,” said Wood of the department mergings, “and weak programs may disappear.”
“We need to have a thorough discussion about what strong and weak means,” Wood continued. “Is it just enrollments, or is it also academic centrality, for instance?”
Wood said he remains confident that USM will emerge as an improved institution.
“In the long run,” he said, “USM will be a stronger, higher-quality university, and students will benefit from that accomplishment.”