Eleanor “Ellie” Baker, a member of the University of Maine System board of trustees and graduate of UMaine with a law degree from the University of Maine School of Law, will head the committee composed of faculty, staff, students and alumni.  It is expected the committee will make recommendations to University of Maine System Chancellor Richard Pattenaude by the end of the summer.

“I’m delighted that trustee Baker has agreed to chair the search, as an alumna and participant on advisory boards, she has an excellent sense of the university,” Pattenaude said in a statement.

Current UMaine President Robert Kennedy announced in March of this year his intention to step down from the position in June 2011.  He will remain at the university to oversee several projects dealing with statewide economic development and educational opportunity.

Other search committee members are University of Maine System trustees Charles O’ Leary of Orono and Michelle Hood of Bar Harbor, UMaine professor of spatial information science and engineering Harlan Onsrud, professor of wood science Robert Rice, associate professor of management Stephanie Welcomer, Department of Facilities Management budget analyst Joseph Szelesta, Department of Athletics administrative assistant Ranee Dow and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Jeffrey Hecker.

UMaine graduate student James Beaupre, Class of 2012 president and student Sen. Nathaniel Wildes, along with James Goff of the UMaine board of visitors and alumnus John Rohman, a Bangor engineer, were also named to the committee. Second-year business student Katie Foster, also the nonvoting student representative to the University of Maine System board of trustees was named to the committee as an alternate.

“Our search committee represents a broad cross-section of the UMaine community which is key to helping us make the best possible recommendations,” Baker said in a statement.

In prepared remarks, Pattenaude said the plan is “bold in that it both reduces costs significantly through careful use of technology, strategic cost reductions and the many talents of our people, and simultaneously invests resources in key priorities facing the state of Maine.”

The report presents an action plan for the short-term — 2010 or sooner — and long-term — 2011 or later — future of the system.

Short-term goals include “Contain the cost of compensation and benefits at current levels for FY10 & FY11,” which is expected to save $13.8 million in fiscal year 2013, and “Create strategic investment fund,” which is expected to require a $5.6 million investment for an undecided return.

Long-term goals include “Develop a front end portal and virtual self service center for MaineStreet,” which is expected to cost $3 to $4 million for undefined returns, “Review and eliminate courses with enrollment of 12 or fewer,” which is expected to save $2 million in fiscal year 2013, and “Implement seamless student transfer of credit hours within UMS.”

The plan suggests the system contain employee compensation and generate a public agenda to more effectively lobby for funds.

Before the trustees approve the plan, there will be public meetings on each of the seven system campuses and at the system office in Bangor. The board will use input gathered at these meetings when making its decision on whether or not to adopt Pattenaude’s plan. Pattenaude said he hopes the board will approve the plan by November.

“[The plan] is very critical, first of all, because in these economic times, we have to be financially very, very careful, and we have to balance our budgets,” Pattenaude told reporters after addressing the board. “But also, the future of Maine depends upon an educated work force, so we need to continue to contribute and evolve so we do that. So it’s about the strength of the system, but it’s also about the strength of the state.”

Joe Wishcamper, the chair of the Board of Trustees, said the current structure is not sustainable. “We’re a state which is not growing in population,” Wishcamper said after the meeting. “We’re really in a position where our costs are continuing to escalate, and our enrollments are not growing to keep pace with the escalation of costs. So it’s crucial we address the fact that our trend lines are not going in the right direction, and that has to do not only with the financial stability of our system, but it really has to do with the viability of our higher education enterprise in the state of Maine.”

According to Wishcamper, if the system were to continue business as usual, “within four years, we’d have a structural gap somewhere in excess of $40 million annually.” The system’s annual budget is about $600 million.

“We’re taking this occasion where we really need to address our financial issues to address how to get better as a system,” Wishcamper said. “The economics of our system are essentially providing not only the opportunity but the necessity for us to analyze and address all our ways of operating.”

University of Maine President Robert Kennedy said he is pleased with the process thus far and is looking forward to the conclusion of the restructuring process.

“I think all of us are pleased to be at this stage in the process,” Kennedy said. “[After the] public comment period, it means this process will be done, and I’m looking forward to the outcome.”

“The concerns that we had … revolved mostly around the funding for the university and the centralization of services,” Kennedy said. “We’ve been quite proactive in … stating our concerns.”

“One of the things I’ve been pleased with is that the chancellor and the board of trustees and his staff have heard us,” he said.

Pattenaude said the decision of which classes to eliminate won’t be made just by the number of enrollees. “Each class we look at, [we ask] ‘Is it needed?’ ‘Is it part of a curriculum?’ ‘Do students need it for graduation?’ ‘Are there alternatives available?’ This is not a hard and fast rule; it’s a review process to make sure we are not unnecessarily running small classes,” Pattenaude said.

Kennedy said it is hard to make across-the-board decisions about class size. “It really varies from subject area to subject area,” Kennedy said in a phone interview. “It’s hard to make blanket decisions.” Kennedy went on to say, “On average, the University of Maine is at or above the level recommended in the document for our peer institutions.” He did not state what that level was.

Pattenaude said the restructuring will make transfers between system universities easier, and more classes will be offered online. Increased use of MaineStreet will lead to streamlining administrative staff. While the University of Maine System “will always keep the capacity for face to face,” Pattenaude said he likes the ideal of a student who never has to go to an administrative building because he or she can do everything online.

Pattenaude stated the restructuring of the system was started in April 2009 in response to the growing financial problems of the system’s campuses. Pattenaude formed three groups to look at three arenas of university operations: academics, finances and the system structure. The first two groups were composed of chief academic and financial officers from the campuses and the system office. The third was an independent task force of representatives taken from every university in the system.

The task force’s report suggests reducing tuition for first-year and second-year students at all system campuses in order to attract and retain more students. Similarly, the report suggests pricing the universities at “appropriate rates that reflect the different student clientele they serve.”

“I think essentially what the task force is saying is take a look at reducing the price of the first two years with the understanding — the expectation — that it could bring in more students,” said Janet Waldron, UMaine’s vice president for administration and finance. “I think what’s not being addressed here is, what about the next two years?”

In terms of pricing the universities at “appropriate rates,” Waldron said the recommendation means looking at pricing policies in broader terms.

“What I’ve understood the task force report to say is look at the pricing structure across all of the institutions,” Waldron said.

The task force’s report, released during the summer, recommends four suggestions to the Chancellor: Create a public agenda that would transform the UMS’s economic impact on Maine; make system campuses act together as a union, instead of a confederation and pursue less redundant services and programs; restructure system-wide services to be more accountable; and “use financial policy to realize system goals.”

“When the [Faculty] Senate responded to the task force, we made our position clear that the big issue on the restructuring was the centralization of services,” said Judy Kuhns-Hastings, president of UMaine’s Faculty Senate. “That’s a very expensive thing to do, and that the centralization of services needs to be reduced and that work needs to go to the campuses that can do it; which is probably UM and USM. … Centralization of services costs a lot of money.”

The task force report does not share the belief that individual campuses are better suited for providing certain services. It states: “We believe, again, Maine is too small to fragment services where natural economies of scale exist, and further, that many of our problems have come about as a result of various campuses refusing to adopt common procedures.”

Kuhns-Hastings said she did not feel better about how the task force addressed centralized services after she read its report.

“I don’t think that the centralization of services has been well thought out at a central level, and I think it’s continuing to cost a lot of money,” she said. “It seems to me that when you have campuses that already have expertise and already are pretty well set — this campus does a very nice job on distance education — to pull that away to a centralized model is not necessarily money-saving.”

The task force recommended saving money through information technology, in addition to other areas of system services and operations. John Gregory, IT director at UMaine, said the report’s proposed model for IT services, called the “hybrid IT model,” is largely what he and his counterparts already do.

“It talks about trying to save money by increasing the number of virtual servers we have,” said Gregory. He added, “we’ve got a committee made up of some members of the IT directors who are working at ways that we can standardize the desktop and laptop computers that we use in administrative offices.”

Gregory said UMaine will likely migrate away from the WebCT program and switch to Project NG, a hybrid of Blackboard and WebCT, because the next version of WebCT has tools for such a migration and will soon be phased out.

“They’ll be the same product at that point,” Gregory said.

Gregory said the plan calls for replacing Microsoft Office at UMaine and its sister campuses with less expensive software such as OpenOffice. UMaine spends about $70,000 per year on licensing fees for Microsoft Office.

The report calls for switching to the hybrid IT reporting system between chief information officers, such as Gregory and the IT director at the system office. The task force report says this new model will likely save $700,000 during the course of the next four years. But another, called the “enterprise” model, which would require Gregory and other IT directors at system campuses to report directly to the system office, would have likely saved $950,000 during the same period, according to the report. Gregory said the enterprise model was rejected because it called for too much centralization and placed too heavy an emphasis on the system office, unlike the hybrid model, which only requires increased communication.

Pattenaude’s final plan, titled “Adding Value Through Educational Opportunity and Economic Development,” will be unveiled during the Sept. 14 meeting of the system BOT.

Board of Trustees Representative Rebecca Dyer discussed two BOT meetings that took place over the summer where the task force’s proposed suggestions were explained.

One of the suggestions would lead to raising the tuition more at UMaine than at other schools in the University of Maine System, Dyer said.

Dyer also noted positive changes for UMaine, including updating the heating and air ventilation systems in Fogler Library, a new art studio to be constructed in the vacant Steward Commons and repaved bike paths.

Sens. Pete Christopher and Ben Goodman proposed a resolution to “Recognize the Contributions of the late U.S. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy” during the new business portion of the meeting.

Several senators discussed the “appropriateness” of the resolution and its reflection on the student body.

“It’s inherently political in nature,” Sen. Zach Jackman said. “I can not support this. It’s just a political thing.”

“What society have we come to if we can’t respect the dead?” Sen. Nelson Carson said. “There’s nothing bad coming from this. You guys are making something out of nothing.”

“We don’t need something like this to immortalize him,” Sen. Richard Luc said.

Sen. Derek Jones discussed the labels that could be placed upon senate because of the resolution. “This is an unneeded stance on national politics,” Jones said. “I don’t like being forced to decide this when I will be labeled something that I am not.”

Sen. Nyssa Gatcombe said, “I do not feel as if it is our place to recognize people outside of the University of Maine System.”

“It doesn’t benefit students on campus. It’s inappropriate,” Sen. Nate Wildes said.

“He was a champion of the little guy,” Goodman said. “He always spent time looking for the next generation. … The fact of the matter is, Sen. Kennedy always believed the most important thing to do was to invest in the next generation.”

The resolution to honor Kennedy passed with a 12-9 vote with five senators abstaining.

Student Heritage Alliance Council (SHAC) representative Sen. Alexander Ortiz discussed funding for SHAC’s Harambe Jazz Festival on September 5.

Questions were raised about SHAC’s total involvement in the event. Ortiz clarified that SHAC “is looking to make this a yearly event.”

The resolution passed without objection and $3,130 were allocated to SHAC.

According to system Chancellor Richard Pattenaude, the system-wide tuition increase is the smallest in seven years. The 2002-2003 tuition increase was 4.7 percent, while the increases have ranged from 7.6 percent to 10.3 percent since then, according to a press release.

The increases come just three days after UMaine announced savings for fiscal year 2010 totaling $8.8 million, which included 32 layoffs and 31 work-year reductions.

“The university presidents and I are extremely concerned about maintaining our universities’ affordability and quality,” Pattenaude said in the release. ‘The new tuition rates are necessary to protect the quality and value of our educational offerings.”

UMaine’s $9,626 tuition represents 28 percent of Maine’s per capita personal income of $34,119. Of the New England public universities, UMaine is cheaper than all but the University of Rhode Island, but represents a higher percentage of the per capita personal income than all but the Universities of New Hampshire and Vermont.

UMaine projects an operating budget of $248 million next year.

UMaine is expected to suffer a 2.6 percent drop in enrollment for next year after four straight years of increases totaling 5.1 percent. UMaine is the only University of Maine System campus to increase enrollment over the past five years; overall the system’s enrollment has dropped 4.3 percent over the last five years.