BANGOR, Maine — As the University of Maine System eyes major structural changes in hopes of resolving its persistent financial struggles, it could take the rare approach of seeking a single, system-wide accreditation.
In an April 27 letter to university employees, Chancellor James Page announced that the system is interested in pursuing a single accreditation for the entire system — if possible.
“While supporting the same high standards, a single accreditation model could support initiatives such as the implementation of multi-campus degree programs or a unified budget process,” Page said in the letter.
Currently, the seven universities in the system are accredited separately by the same agency — the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. NEASC accredits more than 240 universities and colleges, mostly in the Northeast and a few international.
Accreditation is a voluntary process by which schools are reviewed by a regional accreditation agency, such as NEASC, which determines whether that school’s academic offerings and programs are solid.
Annual dues and fees are paid to NEASC based on each school’s enrollment and expenses.
Barbara Brittingham is president of the NEASC’s Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. She said during an interview Tuesday that accreditors and the system have been discussing plans with the University of Maine System since last year.
“They’re approaching this carefully and in good faith, and I’m very optimistic about it,” Brittingham said.
NEASC does not have a process for accrediting university systems as a whole, rather than as individual campuses, she added.
Page said that while pursuing this single accreditation, “we must take no steps that would compromise [existing] accreditation.”
The system expects to meet with the accreditation commission in June to discuss its options.
“We do not know whether they will or will not recommend single accreditation,” Page said.
This push stems from the system’s “one university for all of Maine” initiative — an effort to establish seven “mission-differentiated, mutually dependent campuses operating as one fully integrated university,” Page has said.
Page and system trustees have said they won’t close any of the seven universities, but they also acknowledge that those universities can’t afford redundant administration and inefficient resourcing of academic programs spread across the state.
Page said he believes a single accreditation model could better support the efforts to reorganize the system as “one university” with campuses focused on their specialty programs. One accreditation could simplify the process of starting multi-campus degree programs and other cross-campus collaborations, he said.
Ellen Chaffee, a North Dakota-based consultant, was hired by the system to lead its Academic Program Review and Integration Process. She’s working with committees made up of more than 100 faculty members from the system’s universities to figure out ways to redistribute programs and increase cooperation among universities, reducing duplication across the system and the amount of intra-campus competition for students.
Without substantial systemic change, the University of Maine System projects a $90 million deficit by 2020.
The system also hopes to establish a unified financial structure by fiscal year 2017, in which the system allocates resources to the individual campuses, rather than each university submitting a siloed budget to the system.
Page plans to submit a request for an opinion from NEASC in May as to whether, or under what conditions, single accreditation might be viable.
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