A report outlining sweeping changes to the structure of the University of Maine System sets unrealistic expectations of enrollment for USM, says the president of USM and the chair of the Faculty Senate.
The University of Maine System and the Future of Maine, the final report in a series under UMS Chancellor Richard Pattenaude’s New Challenges, New Directions Initiative, is the culmination of three reports penned this year by three task forces composed of faculty, staff, administration and members of the general public.
Pattenaude launched the initiative last winter in the hopes of shoring up a structural budget deficit expected to reach $42.8 million by 2013. The final report was presented to the UMS Board of Trustees on Sept. 15.
The plan proposes changes to the structure of the seven campus system, including streamlining services and changing where certain degrees are offered.
?To be successful we must work together as a system rather than as a collection of seven separate universities,? the plan states. One of the strategies it outlines is setting target enrollment at each campus.
But USM President Selma Botman says the target enrollment is set too high.
“I’m a supporter of the UMS plan. What I disagree with are the enrollment targets that have been identified with each campus,” she said last Friday.
The report’s authors set USM’s target enrollment at 11,089 students — the same number enrolled in the fall of 2004, and the highest enrollment in the past six years. Current enrollment estimates put the total head count at around ten thousand USM students. The final number is expected to be different when the official enrollment figures are released on Oct. 15.
Botman said she told Pattenaude the target was unrealistic.
?While I like targets, I only like targets that are reasonable,? she said. ?This [target] is not reasonable given the decrease in the number of high school students graduating from Maine schools.?
Jerry Lasala, chair of the Physics Department and the Faculty Senate agreed it is unrealistic to expect USM to increase enrollment by a thousand students.
“I think impossible is a good word to describe it,” he said. “He’s got enrollment expectations for the Universtity that seem entirely unrealistic.?
“I think that there are some interesting points, but there are some weaknesses, too,” he said of the report.
LaSala said creating a budget based on peak enrollment figures could ultimately result in the school being “in the hole again.”
Eileen Eagan, associate professor of history, says the Chancellor’s plan to streamline services may result in a centralization of power.?
“It does tend to give more power to the chancellors and take more away from the presidents of the individual universities,” she said.
Botman disagreed that USM would be granted less autonomy under the proposed changes. ?Instead of looking at individual solutions to problems, it is encouraging collective solutions to problems,? she said. ?But this will not supercede campus-based work,? she said in reference to USM’s Strategic Plan and Deans’ White Paper Reports, both of which were penned to address USM’s specific budget, enrollment and retention problems.?
The first task force report — which is centered on Administrative, Student and Financial Services — recommends UMS ?contain the cost of compensation and benefits at current levels over the next two year period or reduce staffing by 200 [full time employees].? It also says future compensation and benefit increases should be tied to ?the availability of ongoing revenue.? Eagan says this circumvents Maine law, which requires unions and university officials enter into collective bargaining before changes are made to compensation and benefits packages.
“What these guys are saying, outside of negotiations, is their goal is to not pay anyone anymore or to decrease benefits,” she said. “My point of view is that is something that’s supposed to be up to collective bargaining.”
The plan calls for evaluating the classes offered at each campus, and cutting those that routinely enroll fewer than 12 students. It also recommends changing where majors are offered, and cutting majors that have graduated fewer than 5 students per year in the past three years. ?
Botman said classes and majors will not be unilaterally cut based on numbers alone. ?There maybe a reason why we need a major with a small number of student graduates,? she said. ?I think the task is to recognize some classes must be small. You can only have a certain amount of students in a laboratory, because there are only a certain amount of microscopes or places for them to work.?
But Lasala says this could cause campuses to work against each other to keep programs and classes.
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Chancellor Pattenaude will visit USM on Oct. 21 to hear from the campus community on his final plan.