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This semester, the University of Maine joined the university system in finding new ways to cut costs and attempt to balance the budget. The newest scheme to cut costs takes the form of President Kennedy’s Academic Program Prioritization Group.
The group’s goal is to rank and evaluate academic programs on how they measure up to several criteria. The goal is to restructure programs to make sure they better suit the university. Provost Susan Hunter says the work group’s primary focus is academic, but that financial matters will also be considered.
We recognize the serious budget problem at UMaine, and agree with Hunter’s view that we have a “non-sustainable structure.”
But after several semesters of increased tuition and cut programs, it seems likely that that the group simply exists to find more programs to eliminate, to the detriment of the students involved in those programs.
Hunter says the university needs to be updated the way that we periodically update our wardrobe — but far too often, we can be swept up in that process and get rid of a lot of perfectly good clothing: clothes that can still be worn, and have nothing wrong with them.
We’re happy to hear the committee is slated to work with University Relations Director Joe Carr to ensure public input on the evaluations and decisions of the committee. We hope students show up to these sessions to make their will known, and that the committee pays attention.
If in the course of events, programs are deemed cut-worthy, we hope it’s because of thoughtful, meaningful evaluation — not simply because another committee decided it was time to throw away some clothes.
Bangor Daily News