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“Our operating costs have increased at a faster rate than both our State appropriation and tuition”
The University of Maine is making plans for faculty and staff layoffs as it seeks to eliminate a $19 million deficit. President Joan Ferrini-Mundy and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Gabriel Paquette announced the plan in a Sept. 17“Our operating costs have increased at a faster rate than both our State appropriation and tuition,” the letter explains.
“Due to demographic and other enrollment pressures, tuition revenue has been flat or down. Recent federal changes have affected research funding, financial aid, and learner access to our institution, particularly among international students. ” The letter notes that the university has attempted to implement temporary solutions to combat the deficit, but that it must now “seek permanent, structural solutions both by increasing revenues and reducing expenditures.
” “After considering a multitude of approaches and solutions, we have concluded that strategic staff layoffs and faculty retrenchments will be necessary to reduce the university’s expenses on an ongoing basis,” the letter states. The school says that Academic Affairs will reduce its base expenses by $10 million, and estimates that the department will save an additional $2.1 million by eliminating approximately 20 percent of vacant positions, consolidating course sections, and cutting back on additional faculty compensation, among other measures.
The department will also be charged with increasing enrollment among certain groups of students, such as first-years and transfers, as well as student retention, by 1 percent. The university anticipates this will generate an additional $2.2 million.
The letter states that the remaining $5.7 million shortfall “could be partially closed by changing the assumptions embedded in short-term measures,” such as eliminating an increased number of vacant positions, but concedes that if such strategies do not work, more staff layoffs and retrenchments are likely to ensue.
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