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Early last week, Terrence MacTaggart, chancellor of the Board of Directors for the University of Maine System, circulated an e-mail to all UMS employees informing them of a series of administrative budget cuts. The cuts, totaling $2.7 million, all came from the administration budget for the system, rather than from any of the individual campuses. These cuts included getting rid of five full-time positions and five part-time positions. The move has garnered applause from some members of the UMaine faculty and staff, but with some reservations.
“The chancellor made the cuts himself to his existing budget,” said John Diamond, treasurer for the UMS Board of Trustees. “There were some other initiatives that had been established and when Chancellor MacTaggart arrived this summer. One of the things he wanted to do was look at the ways where we could prioritize and save money at the system office level without hurting the individual universities.”
In the past several years, there has been a prevalent perception among UMS employees that the system was spending more money on its own administrative budget and, consequently, reducing the amount of money available to the individual campuses.
“Faculty numbers have been decreasing since the ’90s due to state budget cuts,” said James McClymer, vice president of the faculty union. “The recent cost savings validates what AFUM has been saying for years; the system has been growing at the expense of the campuses, where all the meaningful work is done.”
Under its previous chancellor, Joseph Westphal, there was a concerted effort at the system level to centralize administration. “Over the last few years, there have been some projects that have been adopted at the system level to benefit all of the universities of the system,” Diamond said. He cited PeopleSoft as an example of a centralized project that benefited all of the UM campuses. “The decision was made to centralize . . . because it would be more cost-effective in the long run.”
McClymer disagreed with these motives. “Some board members want to centralize many things, ostensibly to save money, but I believe to gain greater control,” he said. He also criticized the end result of that centralization.
“The centralization movement ended up being more expensive than its proponents realized, less responsive and less able to deal with the nuances of how each campus responds to its students and their needs.”
According to McClymer, MacTaggart appears to agree. “MacTaggert believed in decentralization and allowing each campus to be the best it could be. I congratulate Chancellor MacTaggart and the Board for having the courage and ability to make these changes.”
MacTaggart’s budget cuts will not substantially impact the UMaine campus, but they could end up giving UMaine access to more budget funds for campus projects. In theory, the money saved by cutting the administrative budget will be re-invested into the individual campuses in the system.
“I fear, however, that the money will just get swallowed up in a series of ongoing UM budget cuts,” McCylmer said. McClymer voiced some concerns about the ongoing budget problems at UMaine which have led to cutting faculty positions.
“I think investing in people is key. It is the faculty that teach, advise and mentor, do the research/scholarship and interact with the greater community,” he said. “Restoring many of the positions is necessary if UM is to remain a quality university.”
Bangor Daily News