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Layoffs will be used in an attempt to close this year’s $8.6 million budget gap, announced the chancellor of the University of Maine System and the University of Maine President Robert Kennedy.
“We avoid layoffs as much as we can, and we minimize them as much as we can. Universities all across the country, including Harvard, are now engaged in layoffs,” said Chancellor Richard Pattenaude after the General Student Senate meeting he spoke at Tuesday.
“We try to minimize it, but with 70 percent of the costs [being] salary and wages and benefits, then at some point you have to take a look at how to control that. We try to use vacant positions, we try to get rid of temporary positions if we can, but then when you’re pushed real hard, you turn to layoffs,” Pattenaude said.
Where the layoffs come from will be up to each university’s president. Kennedy will hold two meetings next week to discuss it.
Kennedy spoke about the effect the budget cuts will have on education at UMaine.
“I think there will be some effect on academic programs, because certainly there are driven to be vacancies that we can’t fill. There may be a small number or layoffs, so it will affect personnel and our associate with academic programs, and student life and the other services we provide,” Kennedy said. He added that financial aid is currently the hardest hit.
When asked why students should be expected to pay more in tuition for fewer academic programs and a potential decrease in educational quality, Kennedy said, “There are a lot of things right now that aren’t fair, and that’s not a good answer, but these are unprecedented times, and it is affecting different people differentially – unfair in and of itself.” He discussed how UMaine “took $2 [million] or $3 million off the top to protect the academics” by cutting energy costs and outsourcing Cutler Health Center.
The chancellor said that the stimulus package passed by Congress will be divided in the near future. “The University of Maine will get its fair share, we’re working on a model for it right now,” Pattenaude said. He estimated that a plan will be laid out in the next week.
A great deal depends on what happens with the stimulus and tax revenues, Pattenaude said. “If it gets worse, then things will get tougher. If it gets better then we will have a little bailout. But we’ve got to change. We need structural change. We need long-term change to ensure that we have balanced budgets in the future.”
Owen McCarthy, the president of Student Government, discussed how the economic downturn hurts students via financial aid and raising tuition.
“It would be unfortunate for the quality of education to drop as well, essentially creating a ‘perfect storm’ for students,” McCarthy said.
“Sacrifice is inevitable, but we need to be careful not to sacrifice what is at the core of the educational experience, education,” McCarthy said.
Watch mainecampus.com for updates and live-streaming video from the meetings. Can’t be there, but want to get info as it comes? Follow TheMaineCampus on Twitter for instant updates.
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