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Last updated: Thursday, May 24, 11:59 a.m.
News |

University of Maine lays off Dean Loredo

By William P. Davis
Posted on Nov. 12, 2009, at 11:51 a.m.
The Maine Campus | The Maine Campus

The position of associate dean of students, held by Ángel Loredo, has been eliminated, according to Dean of Students Robert Dana.

Loredo, who headed UVote, multicultural services, judicial affairs and GLBT Services, among other programs, joined the UMaine community as associate dean in June 1999. He previously served as director of multicultural services at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. His responsibilities will be absorbed by Dana and Senior Associate Dean of Students Kenda Scheele.

The decision to cut the position was made by Dana, in consultation with several other people who Dana declined to identify.

“We’ve cut 25 percent of the budget in the last four-plus years, and I had cut 12 positions leading up to this,” Dana said Friday afternoon. Most of the positions that have been cut so far were characterized by Dana as “front-line” positions, but Dana said he had cut those positions as much as he could afford.

“To provide excellent service to students, I cannot cut on the front lines,” Dana said. Previous cuts have affected campus recreation, campus activities and administrative support, but Dana said the cuts have not dramatically impacted students.

“Student Affairs personnel are willing to do what needs to be done to help people,” Dana said.

Dana told Loredo of the decision on Tuesday.

Loredo would like to stay in the academic arena, but was unable to comment on whether he would be able to stay at UMaine due to contractual limitations.

“My passion has always been working with students,” Loredo said.

Scheele called the cut “a horrible thing,” but said budget cuts dictated the action.

“At the end of the day, we have to make the money work,” Scheele said.

Zachary Knox, president of Wilde Stein, UMaine’s GLBT alliance, said Loredo would be “sincerely missed.” Knox said Loredo was the community’s “source of influence and support” in the administration.

Scheele said Student Affairs has suffered other personnel cuts in recent years, including losing an administrative assistant last year. The elimination of an associate dean position is the biggest cut of a single job UMaine has seen since the recession began.

Dana said the university compensates for position cuts by allocating additional jobs to other people. He said when he first joined the university, there was a vice president for student affairs, a dean of students and three associate deans. With the elimination of Loredo’s job, just Dana, as vice president and dean, and Scheele, as associate dean, remain.

“We haven’t been unfairly treated; we’ve been proportionally treated,” Dana said. He expects $200,000 of Student Affairs’ $2.9 million budget to be cut next year.

Public Safety will come under the purview of Student Affairs, effective Jan. 1. The department was previously under the direction of Vice President for Administration and Finance Janet Waldron, according to Dana.

Loredo’s salary and benefits totaled just under $101,000 last year, according to MaineOpenGov.org.

Campus Currents: ,

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009, 11:51 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.

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  • Joe

    Does there really need to be a Dean of Students, an Associate Dean of Students and a Senior Associate Dean of Students? What do these people actually DO for their generous benefits and pay package? Interesting that he was pictured at a coffee hour in the picture. Keep in mind that it is Adjunct Professors (who make a fraction of the pay of these positions) who are at the forefront of affordable education in the Maine system. They actually TEACH the students who attend the state’s Universities and colleges. They only get paid for time in the classroom and they get NO benefits.
    I think that most educational organizations are WAY too top heavy and need to start making changes that will prevent them from becoming irrelevant in the new digital age.

  • Angie

    How about cutting nearly all of athletics except for hockey and the “small” sports that are lifetime activities? The talk is that 25% of professors will be let go. A lot of majors would have to go, too. Teaching is more important than atheltics.

  • Mark Dupree

    This action really makes me question UMaine’s commitment to diversity. Dean Loredo was probably the most seniored administrator of color at UMaine and that alone should have caused pause in the consideration of eliminating his position. You cannot put a price tag on what his presense on the UMaine campus must have meant for the institution, but in particular for students to have a senior administrator of color. You only need to look at the senior staff of the institution to see the lack of racial/ethnic diversity within the senior administration though the gender balance is not bad.

    This makes no sense and will only set UMaine back.

    MD

  • Kelly Denoncour

    It’s actually a bit revolting if you look into how many assistants, assistants to the assistants and other various pointless positions that are still a major theme of the administration offices of U Maine. Not only that, but has anyone ever taken a look at their schedules? Most of them come into work after 11 and you can bet they are outta there by 4:30 every day. Knowing this, and seeing the saddest looking dark room I have ever seen for an Art Dept at a University just makes me sick. I am pretty much throwing my money into the river with it all going to the unnecessarily top-heavy administration.

  • Robert Dickey

    Is that a box of generic Crayola crayons? Must have been a pretty hi-tech position worth at least the $101,000. I hope he stayed within the lines.

  • Niel

    People should not be employed simply because they are a minority. It is my opinion that thinking like this has helped plunge the United States into next to last place among developed nations in so many different areas of life. People should be employed because they are good at what they do and needed, that is the only reason. Of course the world is not ideal.

    I don’t see a need for any of the Deans of Students. The position is largely ceremonial and not nearly as important as a teacher or athletics.

    Of all of the employed deans at the university, however, Dean Loredo is the only one I know of in my four years there who ever made a continuous effort to reach out to students and try to get them involved in managing their own university experience. I know of many students who were positively affected by Dean Loredo’s presence, both emotionally and financially, and I cannot say the same for Dean Dana or the others.

    As much as people should not be hired for their race, they shouldn’t be terminated for that reason either. While I don’t value the deans as a whole, Dean Loredo is the last person I would have let go from that office.

    If the university was truly focused on finances (and students) it would have let Dean Dana go and replaced him with Dean Loredo, who would have done twice the work at 3/4 the cost. You can be sure that something smart like that will never happen in Orono simply because the most important thing in life is, of course, who you know.

    And after all, I’m sure the departing dean will be happier in a different location and as long as enrollment keeps climbing then no one will disturb the old white men raking in the cash on the second floor of the memorial union.

    Everyone’s happy, right?

    Good Luck Laredo!
    I’m sure you will bounce back, hopefully in a warmer climate.