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When University of Maine President Robert Kennedy was inaugurated in 2005, he was excited about his opportunity to lead where he believed he could make a difference.
When Kennedy steps down on July 1 from his role as president after seven years, he will do so believing he has furthered the advancement of the university and the state of Maine and hoping his accomplishments will maintain a positive environment here after his departure.
“I feel very satisfied with the things that we have done over the past seven years,” Kennedy said in an interview Friday. “There were a lot of really good things that happened.”
Kennedy said one of his biggest goals during his tenure was to create what he calls the “new model land-grant university.”
“The University of Maine is perceived by the public at large as something that is relevant to the state because of our students and the jobs they get which contribute to the economy of Maine,” Kennedy said. “That’s what to me the new model land-grant university is, and I think we have definitely achieved it.”
During his tenure, the face of the campus has changed with the addition of the Student Fitness and Recreation Center, the renovation of the Collins Center for the Arts and the refurbishment of the Wells and Hilltop dining locations.
“The biggest impact [of] the Rec Center — as important as it would be on recreation and wellness for our students — is going to be on our academic programs,” Kennedy said. “It is going to help recruit people to our campus, and it has.”
Along with campus upgrades, Kennedy has exerted himself to find other means to help financially support UMaine.
Kennedy’s fundraising efforts while president are unsurpassed. He ran Campaign Maine, the largest private fundraising campaign in the history of the university. The current figures on Campaign Maine show the total raised is approximately $152 million.
“We set the goal of having this fundraiser principally about our academic programs,” Kennedy said. “This was a comprehensive campaign and we set the goals for scholarships, to support student activities, to support faculty excellence.”
He said roughly 80 percent of the money has been used to support academics, both directly and indirectly.
“It is certainly not all about money, but it was very important to finish the job,” he said. “There is sort of a clean table now. We finished it, and it allows [incoming president Paul] Ferguson to come in and set his own goals as to where the university needs to go.”
Not all of Kennedy’s decisions while in office were easy. Due to a projected budget gap, he was forced to consider cuts in 2010 that involved eliminating programs and faculty positions. The Academic Program Prioritization Working Group was designed to help with this process.
“[Seventy-five] or 80 percent of my time was spent on personnel choices and they are very tough decisions,” Kennedy said. “It may be a tenure decision that affects a person’s career, it may be a hiring decision or eliminating positions in a limited economy — those have been very, very tough choices, and you take them seriously.”
Kennedy said the human aspect of making cuts as well as outcry from the campus community affected him most leading up to the APPWG recommendations.
“I remember a group of 30 to 40 University Singers coming up to me in Wells Commons and pleading the case for not cutting as many of the music programs as were on the table at the time,” Kennedy said, adding that several engineering students pled for funding for non-engineering programs. “It really gave me an appreciation of how one major isn’t just for students in that major.”
He added that universities nationwide that did not address the financial issue are dealing with it now and are worse off because they did not tackle the problem earlier.
“That was a very difficult time,” Kennedy said. “It isn’t easy. It wasn’t fun, and I wish we didn’t need to do it, but it was in a planned manner.”
Kennedy will remain a member of the UMaine faculty and will be taking a six-month sabbatical funded by the university. He will not be filling a full-time role within the University of Maine System, despite rumors swirling around the community.
“I will still be a UMaine faculty member working from a home base on campus,” said Kennedy. “The system may reimburse the campus for some of my time to work on alternative energy and other things that have a broader systemwide and statewide potential. In my mind, I am not working for the system.”
Kennedy also discussed issues Ferguson will face.
“He is a lucky man to be stepping into a position that will probably be one of the best — if not the best — of his career professionally and personally,” Kennedy said. “I think the economic challenge will be the biggest issue he will face.”
Kennedy offered a parting message to the campus community.
“I express my appreciation for the opportunity to serve this great institution and to have the chance to interact with so many people,” Kennedy said. “I would really like people to remember the University of Maine as a very special place.”
Bangor Daily News