In an update posted on her website on Feb 4, USM President Selma Botman announced that the University will shut down its Child and Family Centers on August 14.
The school’s childcare program employs 24 staff members and serves 88 children from infancy to age 5.
54 are the children of USM students, the rest are children of university employees, alumni, and members of the general public.
In Botman’s newsletter, “The 21st-century USM,” she called the decision “excruciating” but necessary.
“We have provided a $400,000 annual subsidy to the child care program, a subsidy we regrettably can no longer afford,” Botman stated in the newsletter.
This is the second program the university has cut in six days.
On Jan 31, Botman revealed that the school would close down the Lifeline Fitness Center, the 33 year old community fitness program which operates out of the school’s Sullivan Fitness Complex. The absence of this program will save $200,000 a year, she said.
Both cuts are the result of university efforts to account for this years state budget curtailment of $2.7 million.
According to Craig Hutchinson, vice president of student life, the USM childcare centers had already cut $300,000 from their budget last year.
“There was simply no way to cut the cost of the center any further, which necessitated the decision to close the center,” he said.
Before last week, the school had accounted for all but $900,000 of the state curtailment.
“We’re about there,” Botman said last Thursday.
“We’re checking the numbers, but we think we’re getting closer and closer.”
She does caution, however, that the school’s budgetary woes are far from over.
“The moment we seal [fiscal year] 2009, we have to build the fiscal year 2010 budget, and that includes another cut by the state,” she said.
“There will be other areas that we expect to close down that are not core to the teaching and learning of this university.”
Botman denies that the past week’s decisions are connected to the UMaine system’s strategic restructuring plan proposed by Chancellor Richard Pattenaude on Jan 11.
A first draft of the plan was recently released to 100 student, faculty and staff representatives who participated in initial discussions of topics that the strategic plans should address.
“Writing a strategic plan is an iterative process, you don’t get all the pieces right from the start,” Botman said.
In the meantime, the university is trying to keep costs down while faced with an uncertain future.
Although some patrons and employees of the childcare centers are currently debating the merits of alternate sources of funding, Botman says that there is no chance of keeping the program running at USM.
Hutchinson agreed that it would take a miracle for the university to keep the childcare centers open.
“At this point, the centers are planned to be closed, and the employees have been notified. I would find it highly unlikely that the decision be reversed.”