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University of Maine President Robert Kennedy on Tuesday morning outlined his recommendations to reduce the university’s budget by $12.2 million over the next three years.
Kennedy adopted many of the recommendations proposed by the Academic Program Prioritization Working Group, a committee charged with streamlining the university’s offerings.
“We care deeply about the University of Maine, its students, its impact and its future. Belt-tightening won’t suffice anymore,” Kennedy said, speaking in the Collins Center for the Arts.
The Department of Public Administration and aquaculture, wood science, forest operations and forest ecosystem science bachelor’s programs will be eliminated and undergraduate majors in Latin, German, women’s studies and theater will be suspended if the plan described by Kennedy is adopted by the University of Maine System board of trustees.
“I truly regret the human toll of the adjustments that are ahead of us, and the angst that these deliberations have already caused. I sincerely wish we were not in this situation,” Kennedy said.
In addition, Kennedy recommended the graduate concentration in women’s studies be suspended and instrumental conducting, choral conducting and collaborative piano graduate programs be cut.
Numerous departments will be downsized or consolidated along with the proposed suspensions and eliminations. Kennedy also reiterated the university’s commitment to “teach out” students currently enrolled in majors up for elimination or suspension.
The master of arts in teaching program and the Center for Research and Evaluation in the College of Education and Human Development will be reduced, while teaching responsibilities for classes in the Department of Mechanical Engineering will be distributed among faculty from the School of Engineering Technology.
He also unveiled an eight-point program called UMaine 150, a series of initiatives aimed at reducing costs while increasing revenue.
“We must rededicate ourselves to our core principles and timely priorities,” Kennedy said.
To be completed a few months before the university’s 150th anniversary, the plan calls for further integration of related fields of study. A cornerstone of “UMaine 150” calls for the creation of a Division of Health and Biomedical Sciences. Kennedy said the division would further “undergraduate education and research opportunities” while “addressing student interests and workforce needs and fostering partnerships with other institutions and businesses.”
“We must respond to these emerging and important opportunities. This is exactly what our state and our students need,” Kennedy said. “If it develops as a signature program, as I suspect it will, it could be a powerful draw for out-of-state students, while also helping our state retain more good students who currently leave for similar opportunities.”
The program will be created within the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture, he said.
“We all know that a university is, at its core, an academic institution, but if we are to survive and thrive in the future, and offer the opportunities that students really need, it will be as Maine’s only comprehensive, full-service university, and one that puts its students first,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said his recommendations will be reviewed by the board of trustees at their January meeting.
Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.
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