News

President rolls out strategic plan

MacKenzie Rawcliffe

University of Maine President Paul Ferguson addresses the audience in Hauck Auditorium on Thursday as he explained his PRE-VUE strategic plan for the university.

By Lauren Reeves

Posted on Oct. 30, 2011, at 11:47 p.m.

University of Maine President Paul Ferguson addressed a full auditorium of students, faculty and community members to discuss initial impressions since coming to Maine four months ago.

“[The] No. 1 challenge is the state we’re in. Maine poses some significant challenges for us to be competitive nationally and internationally and poses some challenges of competing interstate,” Ferguson said.

“Secondly, we need to hit this issue of the role of a flagship head-on. There is no question that the University of Maine is the flagship campus for the University of Maine System,” he said. “I think it’s critical to embrace the role of flagship — to be proud of the role of flagship — because there is no place like the University of Maine in this state.”

The last two challenges Ferguson believes UMaine faces are enrollment management and financial sustainability. He believes the University of Maine needs to exponentially increase focus on enrollment management.

Ferguson told the crowd about a conversation he had with a student. He asked the student if UMaine was his or her first choice, and the student said no, but that it should have been. To this point, Ferguson asked what could make UMaine a first-choice college for prospective students.

He has a plan for a new path for UMaine. His new initiative is called the President’s Request for Vision of University Excellence (PRE-VUE). This initiative will get UMaine on track, according to Ferguson. For a total of $1.5 million over the next three years, he has put out a request for five major proposals from the UMaine community for the PRE-VUE project.

The purpose of PRE-VUE is for the campus community to work collaboratively on specific issues and visions for the university. According to Ferguson, strategies should produce various new visions of becoming a land-grant institution for the 21st century.

PRE-VUE is also intended to identify and prioritize the challenges facing UMaine. The purpose is to bridge, or to “preview,” effective short-term and long-term problem solving, he said.

With these goals identified, Ferguson moved on to what he believes are going to be PRE-VUE priority areas, starting with how UMaine can increase critical faculty and hiring faculty.

He also plans to increase development and research resources for teacher-scholars along with balancing a community academic research portfolio on Maine’s top land-grant research university.

Additionally, the president said there is a need for financial equality directly related to student educational experience and improving campus-wide student recruitment and retention programs, including enrollment and student life experience in general.

“Our national reputation is extraordinary. People know the University of Maine,” Ferguson said, adding that challenges facing the university don’t detract from its renowned quality.

“What has really impressed me about our students is their love of this place, their high respect for the world-class faculty of this place and their amends to using the University of Maine education to move this university forward as a partner,” said Ferguson.

With the spirit of Maine already ingrained in Ferguson, he said the challenges UMaine faces can be overcome.

“We build it together, and we build it right, and we’re going to do it wicked good,” he said.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 30th, 2011, 11:47 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.