UMaine System OKs budget, shortfall looms

The University of Maine System Board of Trustees, which determines spending for the state's seven universities, approved a $529 million budget for next year that cuts 157 positions and uses most of the system's $15 million in emergency reserves.

The Bangor Daily News reported the cuts and spending of $11.4 million in emergency funds is the UMaine System board's attempt to plug a $36 million shortfall from this year. But as the Portland Press Herald reported, the UMaine system is expecting a larger, $46 million deficit next year that has yet to be fully addressed.

The University of Maine at Presque Isle was the only campus to not eliminate positions as part of UMaine System’s attempt to fill the $36 million shortfall. The Maine Public Broadcasting Network noted the cuts across the six other campuses represents nearly $23 million in savings.

Of the emergency funds used, $6.9 million will go to the University of Southern Maine, which had to address a $14 million shortfall. The university helped address that deficit by eliminating five programs. but it still has to find an additional $2.5 million in cuts. The eliminated programs include three undergraduate programs in elementary education, applied technology education and technology education and two graduate programs in school psychology and classroom teaching.

USM President Theodore Kalikow had proposed laying off 12 professors, but that was taken off the table after faculty members said they wanted to find another way to plug the budget gap.

Of UMaine System’s remaining emergency funds, UMaine Presque Isle will receive $1 million, UMaine at Fort Kent $1.3 million, UMaine’s Orono campus $900,000, UMaine at Machias $800,000 and UMaine at Farmington $500,000.

University officials have attributed the UMaine system’s deficit to flat funding, declining enrollment and frozen tuition rates that were put in place in exchange for the state agreeing to maintain its current level of appropriations for the university system.

Rebecca Wyke, UMaine System’s vice chancellor for administration and finance. said at the board’s Monday meeting that “this level of deficit spending is not sustainable and is stark evidence that the current operating model is broken,” according to the Bangor Daily News.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the number and names of USM programs eliminated in next year's budget. It was a reporting error.