As Glenn Cummings winds up eventful tenure, search begins for new USM president

A national search is underway for a successor to the outgoing president of the University of Southern Maine, Glenn Cummings, whose tenure has been marked by challenges like the pandemic — as well as a string of fundraising and growth successes.

Cummings, who began as president in June 2015, will step down July 1 to return to a faculty position within USM.

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Glenn Cummings, president of the University of Southern Maine, will lead two foundations and the Glickman Family Office.

The University of Maine System's board of trustees has formed a 17-member committee representing students, faculty, staff, alumni and other USM constituencies. The USM presidential search committee is chaired by UMaine System trustee James Erwin. Thirteen members of the committee were selected by the USM constituencies they represent.

The committee is developing a list of preferred candidate characteristics that will be made public over the next several weeks, Erwin said.

“We’re very interested in hearing from our constituents. We’ll take all of the input and the search committee will develop a synthesized version. The board will take a look at that. At the end of the day, the board will have the final say. The buck stops there, if you will,” Erwin told Mainebiz.

The committee will work with Academic Search, a Washington, D.C.–based consulting firm, to identify the candidate to lead USM through its many initiatives, including transformational infrastructure projects and unprecedented fundraising efforts. Its first of several meetings is expected to be held in mid-December.

“Our search process will be thorough, inclusive, equitable and orderly, with multiple opportunities for input,” Erwin says.

The committee anticipates interviewing finalists in early March. The new president will be determined by April.

“It’s an ambitious time frame, but this is hiring season in the academic world. Ideally, we may have started maybe one month earlier. But we can catch up now and get to market with this,” Erwin said.

Cummings notified the board in early October of his intention to step down and return to a faculty position with tenure at the end of June 2022. The board accepted his resignation and began working to form the search committee that will be charged with finding his replacement on Oct. 27.

Cummings is leaving behind big shoes to fill.

He has led USM to record-high out-of-state enrollment growth and helped raise almost $9 million for a program assisting first-generation college students.

USM recently started on its largest-ever construction project and laid the foundation for a new arts center in Portland that will include a music school. The University of Southern Maine Foundation said on Tuesday it received an additional $1 million from the Crewe Foundation to support construction of the new Center for the Arts. The gift will support a second rehearsal hall for the music programs, allowing the center to better serve USM students and faculty, as well as local youth ensembles.

The biggest challenges facing the new president will be issues faced by other higher education centers in the Northeast, such as demographic declines of younger people that affect enrollment and the cost of higher education outpacing inflation, Erwin said.

“Maine is not a wealthy state. It’s harder and harder for people to afford higher education,” he said.

Also, the new president of USM must work within the collaborative University of Maine System.

“The next leader is going to be part of a collaborative team. The idea of the college president being at the top of the pyramid is gone. That person will be part of a collaborative effort,” Erwin said.

In 2020, the University of Maine System became the first and only statewide enterprise of public higher education in the country to transition to a unified accreditation for the system. Different from a merger or consolidation, unified accreditation is a new operating model. It removes the primary barrier to inter-institutional collaboration, UMS officials have said.

Established in 1968, the University of Maine System unites seven public universities, comprising 10 campuses and numerous centers. It serves more than 30,000 students annually and is supported by more than 2,000 full-time and part-time faculty, more than 3,000 regular full-time and part-time staff, as well as part-time temporary faculty.