FORT KENT, Maine — Drops in enrollment coupled with systemwide budget woes have forced the University of Maine at Fort Kent to come up with a half-million dollars in reductions for this fiscal year by eliminating one salary position, reducing hours and calling for voluntary furlough days.
“For the past two months I have met with my cabinet to discuss what we have to do to reduce expenses,” Dr. Richard Cost, UMFK president, said Friday afternoon. “We recognized in order to achieve fiscal sustainability we needed to reduce $500,000 from our budget.”
Working with his senior staff and the chairs of the academic divisions, Cost came up with the following budget reduction measures:
— Eliminating one salaried position.
— Not filling one expected open faculty position.
— Reducing $100,000 from the adjunct faculty and faculty overload budget.
— Reduction in hours of eight to 20 hours a week among six hourly employees.
— Reducing two 12-month salaried positions to nine months.
— Reducing hours of operations in administrative offices to 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
— Reconfiguring one position to half administration and half faculty.
— The president and each member of his senior staff taking five voluntary furlough days.
Statewide, the University of Maine System is looking at a $42 million shortfall in the next four years.
The shortfall hit UMFK at a time when the system’s northernmost campus has seen a 24 percent decline in enrollment in each of the last two semesters.
“Fully two-thirds of that is due to changes affecting Canadian students applying to come here,” Cost said.
For close to two decades the teacher education program at UMFK was a popular choice for students from Maritime Canada who were unable to get into the limited number of teacher education slots at Canadian universities.
“About a year ago the Canadian government began saying they wanted their teachers staying in the country,” Cost said.
“We are hoping this will be the only round of reductions like this we have to make,” said Tamera Mitchell, UMFK director of human resources. “We are fully aware of how devastating these cuts are to those employees affected by them.”
In an effort to make sure there are no more cuts, Cost said he has directed his staff to concentrate on what he has called the “three R’s” — recruitment, retention and revenue generation.
“We will monitor enrollments closely and plan to hold tuition increases to no more than 6 percent for next fall,” the president said.
In addition, Cost said advisers would work closely with students in planning their overall two- and four-year degree coursework to ensure courses are offered only when they are needed.
“If we do a good job at that, every student will get the courses they need, when they need them in time to graduate,” Cost said. “We will work hard to plan ahead and make sure our faculty’s time is properly allocated.”
Employees were informed of the reduction measures early in the week, and a follow-up campuswide meeting is planned for next week.
“We are all saddened by these changes and I extend our concern to our colleagues directly impacted in ways that they did not themselves choose,” Cost said.
The system’s New Challenges, New Directions task force will hold a public meeting at UMFK at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, in Nadeau Hall.
