Maine Law's temporary move clears hurdle as dean touts grad school collaboration
Photos / Peter Van Allen
The University of Maine School of Law, currently housed in this cylindrical building at 246 Deering Ave. (left), will temporarily relocate to an office building at 300 Fore St. in downtown Portland under a plan endorsed by a University of Maine System Board of Trustees committee on Wednesday.
A plan to move the University of Maine School of Law to temporary digs in downtown Portland got a green light Wednesday from a key committee before moving to a full vote by the UMaine System Board of Trustees on May 24.
Under a plan endorsed by members of the finance, facilities and technology committee, Maine Law would move to a leased space at 300 Fore St. until a new home goes up at the University of Southern Maine campus in Portland.
The same committee also approved the second reading of the University of Maine System's $572 million operating budget for the 2022 fiscal year, advancing the plan to the Board for final approval on May 24. The budget was balanced without a pandemic-related increase in student tuition or fees but includes an inflation-based adjustment across the System's universities. (Tuition at MaineLaw will be unchanged in the upcoming academic year for both in-state and out-of-state students.)
When Maine Law moves back to USM, it will be housed in a new building it will share with system's policy, public health and Maine MBA programs, though a construction timetable has not yet been set.
In the meantime, Maine Law will share space at 300 Fore. St. as it currently does with the UMaine Graduate and Professional Center.
The 63,841-square foot office building was formerly occupied by the Council on International Educational Exchange, which eliminated 248 jobs in Portland last year amid a global programming shutdown. A brochure by Malone Commercial Brokers lists a lease rate of $28 per square foot.
"We are grateful for the board's careful review of the proposed lease, which is just the first step in assuring that Maine is served by a law school that is able to meet the changing needs of students and the Maine economy," Maine Law Dean Leigh Saufley said in a statement emailed to Mainebiz on Thursday.
She added: "The Fore Street facility will allow greatly improved collaboration and cross-disciplinary courses, it will support expansion of the programs presented by the Graduate and Professional Center in collaboration with the law school, and it will provide students with a professional and technologically updated facility that will help us provide future access to legal education that is not place-bound."
Plans to construct a permanent home for the University of Maine Graduate and Professional Center on USM's Portland campus are projected to cost at least $70 million. University leaders and stakeholders will need to raise at least $30 million to match $40 million pledges by the Harold Alfond Foundation to the project, according to a spokesman for the system.
Autumn target
Ahead of the May 24 Board of Trustees vote on the temporary move, legal and facilities teams have already begun the work necessary for the law school to start using the new space by fall, a spokesman for the University of Maine System told Mainebiz.
He added that the leased location fast forwards university efforts, backed by the Harold Alfond Foundation and the business and professional community, to establish a modern, highly connected academic building in Portland to merge the two schools' programs as part of the Maine Center.
"The highly-connected and flexible space will accommodate collaboration and provide students and employers statewide with access to market-driven leadership and professional programs that integrate graduate business, law, policy, public health, engineering and computing and information sciences," he added.
Maine Law's move fits into a broader strategy to position Maine's public and only law school to meet the state's needs for 21st-century legal education and services.
That initiative began in February 2019 and has included making the law school a stand-alone unit within the University of Maine System and the hiring of Saufley as dean. She started in that role in April 2020 after two decades as chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
In an "On the Record" interview with Mainebiz during her first week on the job, she said she expected more programs that focus on innovation and incubation and much more focus on interdisciplinary work.
Editor's note: Story updated with details on budget and tuition.
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