The University of Southern Maine has said it will eliminate at least 30 more positions, on top of the 59 positions already erased, as it attempts to minimize a multi-million-dollar deficit.
The next wave of cuts will come from restructuring academic programs, the ,i>Portland Press Herald reported Interim President Joe Wood as saying. Twenty-six degree programs are currently being reviewed. The positions to be cut will likely come from non-tenured faculty posts, professional employees and administrators, the paper reported.
The university has posted deficits in the past four years, and has borrowed $8.2 million from the University of Maine System to plug the gap in the meantime, on top of making cuts. It will start paying back the loan in 2010.