UMS trustees meet amid faculty protests
The University of Maine System Board of Trustees approved a handful of measures yesterday, including creating a new architecture program in Augusta. Meanwhile, UMS faculty members protested outside the meeting over ongoing contract negotiations.
The bachelor of architecture degree at the University of Maine at Augusta will be the first five-year degree in Maine, according to a press release from UMS. But during the meeting at the University of Southern Maine campus, members of the Associated Faculties of the University of Maine System protested outside before addressing the board during the public portion of the meeting, the Bangor Daily News reported. Faculty members have been working without a contract for five months, with current negotiations sticking over wages. Faculty members have worked the last three years without raises and opposed the administration's latest offer of 0.5% raises in each of the next two years. Finance administrators argued, however, that potential budget shortfalls leave the system unable to promise raises in the future. Members of the system's professional staff association are also without a contract.
The board also approved a $14 million renovation of UMaine's field house and gym, with work to make it ADA compliant, enhance ventilation and remediate hazardous materials. The trustees approved issuing revenue bonds to refinance $30 million of debt due in March 2012, as well as finance $7 million for the field house renovations.
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