Chancellor appoints sustainability task force
This story was updated on Thurs., Jan. 29, 2009.
Richard Pattenaude, chancellor of the University of Maine System, on Wednesday named the former CEO of Central Maine Power to lead the new task force that will review and recommend operational and structural changes that will save nearly $43 million to cut from the state's 45,000-student university system. Meanwhile, the UMaine faculty senate has condemned portions of the sustainability plan Pattenaude unveiled earlier this month.
The 12-member task force is part of a major financial sustainability plan Pattenaude presented to university system trustees at their recent meeting at the University of Southern Maine. The task force will be chaired by David T. Flanagan of Manchester, the former president and CEO of Central Maine Power Co., according to a release from the university.
The task force will make recommendations regarding the size and role of the chancellor's office; the structure, funding and oversight of system-wide services; and funding levels, missions, and relationships among universities in order to reduce overall expenses by $42.8 million over the next four fiscal years, according to a press release from UMS. The task force will deliver its recommendations to Pattenaude in June.
The members of the task force are: Current UMS trustees Norman L. Fournier and Marjorie M. Medd; Sandra Featherman, former president of the University of New England; Michelle Hood, president and CEO of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems; Allyson Hughes Handley, president of the University of Maine at Augusta; Susan A. Gendron, commissioner of the Maine Department of Education and Cultural Affairs; Bertram H. Jacobs and Robert W. Rice, current faculty representatives to the UMS Board of Trustees representing the University of Maine at Farmington and the University of Maine at Orono, respectively; Charles Weiss, an undergraduate student at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and his school's representative at committee meetings of the UMS Board of Trustees; James F. Bradley, a staff member at the University of Southern Maine and president of the Associated C.O.L.T. Staff of the Universities of Maine; Ronald A. Mosley, a faculty member at the University of Maine at Machias and president of the Associated Faculties of the University of Maine System. In addition, James H. Breece, vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Rebecca M. Wyke, vice chancellor for finance and administration, will serve on the task force as non-voting, ex officio members.
Meanwhile, the University of Maine faculty senate on Wednesday voted unanimously to condemn sections of Pattenaude's sustainability plan that support centralizing more system-wide services at the UMS offices in Bangor, according to the Bangor Daily News. The 37-faculty senate says the plan would not provide proper oversight of the central office, will not save money in the long run and will ultimately weaken the identity of the individual campuses, the paper reported. "This is not acceptable," Dianne Hoff, an education professor and faculty senate president, told the paper. "We really want to be part of the solution, and we don't feel like we're being included."
Hoff says the senate is not opposed to centralizing services, but suggested that different universities could take the lead on functions they perform well.
Read Pattenaude's full report, "New Challenges, New Directions: Achieving Long-Term Financial Sustainability."
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