PORTLAND, Maine — A group that has protested budget cuts at the University of Southern Maine is calling on the University of Maine System’s Board of Trustees to undo a site change and move its September meeting back to Portland.
The trustees meeting, which is scheduled for Sept. 21 and 22, originally was going to be held on USM’s campus. In June, the university system leadership moved the meeting to the University of Maine at Fort Kent. The board’s November meeting, which was scheduled to take place in Fort Kent, was moved to Portland.
The group wants the site change because the board is scheduled to vote at the September meeting on whether to eliminate three academic programs at USM — a task that has generated some controversy on campus.
“Whatever reason they could have had for moving the meeting can’t trump rights of the students and faculty to be present at this meeting and to speak out about their livelihoods and their future,” Meaghan LaSala, a spokesperson for the group, called Students for #USMFuture, said in a statement that was sent out Thursday morning. The group has spoken out against cutting the programs and called for more transparency within the university system.
Several hours later, UMaine system executive director of public affairs, Dan Demeritt, sent out a statement saying, “We will not be changing the location of the September 2014 University of Maine System Board of Trustee Meeting. It will be held September 21st and 22nd at the University of Maine at Fort Kent as scheduled.”
Demeritt said the meeting locations were switched because travel to Fort Kent can be difficult in November due to the weather.
He also said that the leadership at USM knew in June that they would be in transition and that moving their meeting to November would give them more time to “settle around the changes.”
When asked whether those who switched the meeting locations knew that the three program eliminations would be on the September meeting agenda when the switch was made, he said, “not with certainty.”
They did not know whether the academic affairs committee would vote to push the eliminations forward, he said. That committee did in fact vote to eliminate the programs — New England and American studies, geosciences, and the arts and humanities program at the Lewiston-Auburn campus — at their meeting in August.
“The fact of the matter is that we know now that it’s on the agenda,” LaSala said. “We think that it’s the right of the students and faculty so have a voice and be present at this meeting.”
The #USMFuture group held a press conference on Friday outside of the Abromson Center that was attended by about 40 people, LaSala said. Speakers included the single faculty member in the arts and humanities program at the Lewiston-Auburn campus, Barry Rodrigue, the director of the New England and American studies program, Kent Ryden and Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland.
“If you’re trying to make decisions and not hear any opposition to it, this is a great way to do it,” said Russell, who had previously remained silent on the issue.
