The BDN in a Jan. 26 article described restructuring of the University of Maine System planned by Chancellor James Page and the UMS Board of Trustees. The basic idea is individualization of the seven campuses and elimination of redundancy.
Maine’s rich cultural and economic heritages rest heavily on marine resources, and Page indicates that the University of Maine at Machias likely will be focused around marine sciences. Further quoting Page, “that’s going to be the place that’s in charge of developing the statewide mission for that particular discipline.”
It seems that Page has been so focused on the system’s ever-deepening financial woes that he is unaware of its substantial successes.
A painstaking prioritization exercise at the University of Maine in Orono identified the School of Marine Sciences as a signature program, the only campus unit to attain this status in both research and teaching. Undergraduate enrollments in the School of Marine Sciences have grown steadily since it was founded in 1996. (The university’s Oceanography Program predates the School of Marine Sciences, and UMaine’s marine laboratory, the Ira C. Darling Center — on the coast in Walpole and widely known for its roles in shellfish research and student training — is celebrating its 50th anniversary.)
According to data compiled by the university system’s Academic Portfolio Review and Integration Process, the School of Marine Sciences had 3,933 contact hours of marine science teaching in academic year 2013-14 — 79 percent of the university system total. The University of Maine at Machias accounted for 2 percent. From 2010 to 2014, UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences saw a 16 percent increase in student contact hours; Machias saw a 55 percent decrease. A 2014 survey of School of Marine Sciences alumni revealed 73 percent employed in the marine sciences or a related field; 89 percent reported that the school prepared them sufficiently to very well for their current careers.
The influence of UMaine’s School of Marine Sciences on the statewide mission for marine sciences is evident from a couple of examples and some telling statistics.
SMS faculty members developed what is still the most advanced coastal ocean observing system in the nation, delivering reliable data from the Gulf of Maine for well over a decade now and providing clear evidence of marine climate change. Few are foolhardy enough to go to sea from Maine without checking its reports of current sea conditions and its forecasts. Lobstermen use its temperature records to decide where and when to lobster. SMS researchers are also integral to ongoing lobster stock assessment, and to the Lobster Settlement Index, the only source of advance information on future lobster catch several years ahead.
SMS brings in about $10 million per year in extramural funding, primarily from federal sources, to research important local, regional and global problems in marine sciences. With about 125 employees (many paid from those grant sources), SMS is a high-tech, environmentally friendly, medium-sized business that brings substantial income as well as valuable information to Maine.
Marine sciences are interdisciplinary and complex, as are Maine’s needs for reliable marine resource information. Increasingly, sustainable marine solutions span the range from social sciences through natural sciences to engineering. SMS is noted for its span of those disciplines and its fertile interactions with engineering and social science units at the University of Maine.
With due respect for our marine science colleagues in Machias, no other campus is remotely as qualified as UMaine to fill Maine’s research and teaching needs in marine sciences.
Peter A. Jumars is professor of marine sciences and a former director of the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine in Orono. His opinions do not represent an official position of the University of Maine.