At last Tuesday’s biennial “State of the University” address, UMaine system Chancellor Richard Pattenaude said that the University of Maine will likely layoff more employees to balance the projected four year budget deficit of $42.8 million.
“More than 150 postitions have or will be eliminated during this fiscal year though layoff notices, attrition and position eliminations,” he said in his address before a joint session of the Maine state legislature.
“I regret to say that many more will occur over the next year and beyond.”
“More tough decisions are coming,” he said. “Some of these decisions will be noisy; you will hear from some of your constituents about some of these. Please be confident that no decisions are being made casually or callously.”
Pattenaude asked for the continuing support of Maine lawmakers, but emphasised that, “we may have reached the tipping point – the point at which Maine has to decide whether it’s willing and able to make the commitment to higher education,” that many lawmakers have advocated.
Bob Caswell, USM’s executive director of public affairs says that USM does not plan to eliminate any positions this fiscal year – a pronouncement first made by President Selma Botman when she announced USM’s 2010 budget deficit in February.
“What Selma said still holds true,” Caswell said. “There will be no more layoffs for the rest of fiscal year 2009.” USM’s fiscal year 2009 ends on June 31.
The university administration is currently in the process of identifying exactly where to make cuts, or boost revenues – a difficult task given that some necessary information is not yet available.
“The state budget hasn’t been finalized, we don’t have our enrollment figures, we don’t know what the tuition increase will be,” Caswell said.
“Based on the best information available right now, we’re projecting that USM’s expenses [for fiscal year 2010] are exceeding revenues by more than $4 million. People ought to bear in mind that that’s a projected figure. It’s going to change several times before all is said and done,” he said.
College deans, program directors, vice presidents and other budget managers are currently examining their own programs to identify areas that can either yield more revenue, or sustain budgetary cuts.
“Those proposals are going to.start to be evaluated in a few days to make sure that they will be able to produce the needed savings for 2010,” Caswell says. Some of these proposals may be modified or rejected.
The final results of this process will be shared with the community in early May, around the same time that the UMaine system requires all 7 colleges to present their balanced budgets for fiscal year 2010.
Caswell admits that slashing $4 million from a budget that has already sustained significant cuts is a daunting task – especially since it must be done in less than a month. He says that a deficit of this magnitude requires bolder action than simply trimming department budgets.
“Clearly, $4 million in cuts will necessitate renewed efforts to balance the size of the workforce within the constraints of the budget,” he said.
“The question that is on everybody’s mind is, how many positions are we going to have to eliminate? The short answer is: we don’t know yet.”