Greetings USM Students! In order to keep all of you better informed about what’s going on with your student activity fee money and with what student government is doing to make your voice heard by the university administration we are going to be writing a press release every few weeks telling you what SGA has been up to.
We had our first meeting of the Semester on Jan. 22 on the 4th floor of the Glickman Library in Portland. We approved funding to allow a student delegation to go to Augusta to speak to lawmakers about USM and our place in the university system. We had no regular meeting on January 29 so that a few of our Senators and other interested students could attend the University Convocation at the Sullivan Recreation Complex in Portland. This day-long event was an important opportunity to interact with Staff and Faculty outside of the strictly professional context and find common ground on why we love USM. This past week we met in Portland at 3 p.m. in Payson-Smith Hall. We approved $3,750 for Portland Events Board to allow them to put on events throughout the rest of the semester and a referendum question about online classes that will be on the ballot for this semester’s elections.
Also at our meeting was the new chief operations officer for the university, Jim Shaffer. His position was created specifically to help USM with the implementation of the strategic plan. He had come to the meeting as a guest speaker to answer questions about the upcoming findings of the restructuring committee. Of particular note is his acknowledgment that one of the main contributing factors in USM’s deficit is that the percentage of state funding USM gets has remained the same since the 1970’s, despite a massive growth of the student population. He went on to say that the current political climate is not favorable to a change in the funding formula, however, and encouraged students to contact their representatives about this issue. He also stated that the restructuring plan will feature more “strategic cuts” of specific items or programs than it would across-the-board budget cuts. Another point made was that part of the plan will involve looking for ways – other than tuition increase – for the University to raise additional revenue. The findings of the committee are due out in late March and will be reviewed by the senate.
The senate will meet this week in Gorham on Feb. 12 at 3 p.m. in Bailey 101.
Please feel free to contact either the Public Relations ([email protected]) or Student Affairs ([email protected]) chairs with any questions.