News |

UMaine wrestles with ’09 – ’10 budget

By Jennifer Vincent

Posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009, 2:00 am

E-mail

Tell us what you think!
Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.

After sweeping budget reductions and restructuring academic programs, the University of Maine administration has balanced the budget for the current 2010 fiscal year.

A financial presentation in March anticipated UMaine would need approximately $8.8 million in budget cuts to balance its budget. In June, additional state curtailments of funds and a reduction in expected credit hours raised that number to $11 million.

“After we did that public presentation in March, enrollment was still down for this coming fall, and we readjusted our budget down due to the expectation that we would have a smaller incoming class,” said Vice President for Administration and Finance Janet Waldron.

What is generally referred to as the university’s budget is actually its educational and general fund budget — made of funds that support academic programs and department costs. Revenue from tuition, fees, sales and services and state appropriations make up this budget. Waldron attributes the budget gap to a combination of falling enrollment, less state funding and the economy.

“Sales and service revenues have definitely been depressed by economic activity,” Waldron said.

The University of Maine is not the only state school facing a budget crisis. Each of the campuses in the University of Maine System has its share of state appropriations, and all of them have seen reductions. UMaine may be in a better position than other universities.

“Some universities have been able to build up some funds to fall back on, and the University of Maine is one of them,” said Rebecca Wyke, vice chancellor for finance and administration and treasurer for the system.

The University of Maine community will continue to see budget reductions and restructuring of colleges in coming years.

“The economic outlook for the state and nation is not good,” Wyke said. “We shouldn’t be expecting our two main sources of revenue — appropriations and tuition — to grow.”

UMaine is taking steps to ensure the success of the university, according to Waldron.

“An academic priority planning committee has been established to look at long-term answers,” Waldron said. This committee includes representatives from each college and members of the Faculty Senate.

While the faculty and administration plan for the university’s future, students in different colleges can expect to see budget reductions. Third-year mass communication student Shaina Dennis learned this firsthand when the mass communication and journalism department cut the advertising sequence from the journalism major.

“I found out two days before classes started that the advertising concentration was being phased out,” Dennis said.

She had to choose another major because she had recently switched into advertising and did not have enough credits in the program to graduate with her journalism degree.

“I feel like if you’re coming into the school and are interested in advertising outside of journalism, you won’t have those opportunities anymore,” Dennis said.

Dennis had bought all her books for her classes when she was informed of the change.

“I think they could have handled the situation a lot better,” she said.

Some factors that affect whether a class or concentration will be phased out are class size and the number of graduates it is producing.

“Reductions haven’t been arbitrary; they have been as thoughtful as possible, given the circumstances,” Waldron said.

According to Wyke, it is difficult to predict how the economy will continue to affect UMaine and the classes it is able to offer, but the long-term solution will be a compromise between academic quality and fiscal responsibility.

“We are in the business of helping people attain a higher education, not making it more difficult,” Wyke said.