Editorial: UMS should cut consultant costs first

Posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009, 12:00 am

Recently, the University of Maine and the University of Maine System have been dragging in new perspectives. In the midst of an $8.9 million budget gap for UMaine, the university is seeking outside consultants to help fix the broken mess of a budget.

The problem with outside consultants is that UMaine officials do not seem to be taking the advice seriously. This may be because the outside consultants are from away and frankly do not understand our system’s structure.

So far the system has brought in Huron Consulting Group to discuss where to cut costs. The consultants said to cut Computer Connection. UMaine is investigating this and has said it probably won’t happen.

This shows that the university does not necessarily take outside advice seriously, but the other side is that the suggestions are pretty stupid. Computer Connection does not cost the university – it takes in more than it spends and puts the extra revenue into a “just in case” fund.

This week the chancellor’s task force brought in an expert who specializes in restructuring universities. This “expert” told the system to “disentangle” itself from community colleges. Because the system does not currently partner with any community colleges, the expert obviously does not know what he’s talking about.

So is the university stubborn and unwilling to change? Or is it that these outside experts are a little too outside?

Either way, these costly “experts” are not helping move the university or the system forward, and maybe instead of trying to cut costs by hiring outside help, we should cut costs by cutting these seemingly useless consultants.