BANGOR, Maine — Longtime University of Maine System financial officials will assume the top jobs at two of the state’s universities on an interim basis while leaders conduct searches for permanent presidents, the system announced Monday.
Rebecca Wyke, the system’s treasurer and vice chancellor of finance and administration, will lead the University of Maine at Augusta as interim president until a new leader is selected and confirmed by the UMS board of trustees. The system hopes to have a decision by the November 2015 board meeting.
John Murphy will serve as interim president at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Murphy, UMFK’s chief financial officer, has served in the school’s administration for more than 20 years. He takes over for Wilson Hess, who plans to retire in September. A permanent replacement is expected in early 2016.
Wyke takes over for Glenn Cummings, who agreed to leave his role as UMA president to fill the presidency at the University of Southern Maine when then-incoming president Harvey Kesselman backed out of the job. Kesselman decided in May to return to his longtime university in New Jersey rather than come to Maine. Cummings had been a finalist for the USM position, but Kesselman got the job.
Wyke has served in her role as treasurer and vice chancellor since 2008. Before that, she worked for nearly two decades in various financial roles with the state.
“Dr. Wyke has all the skills and experience to continue the superb legacy of UMA in helping students across the State of Maine meet their educational goals,” Cummings said in a Monday news release. “She brings a uniquely qualified understanding of both the University of Maine System and the workings of state government to the university.”
Wyke’s term as president starts July 5 and will continue until the next president takes office.
Her vice chancellor post will be vacant until she returns from her temporary UMA assignment, according to the system. Her salary will remain at its current rate of $205,000 per year.
Murphy will continue in his financial management role while leading the campus, which the system says will save $180,000 during the time he serves, according to system spokesman Dan Demeritt.
He will get a pay increase, from a salary of about $105,000 per year to $140,000 per year, while he works both jobs, according to the system.
In a third leadership decision released Monday, Ryan Low, the Orono flagship campus’ vice president of administration and finance, will be promoted to direct statewide fiscal management for the entire seven-university system. Low will be the system’s chief financial officer.
He is tasked with overseeing the system’s Unified Finance and Administrative Model, which trustees approved in May as part of Chancellor James Page’s One University initiative. Under that model, the system creates the budget and passes allocations down to campuses. In the past, campuses have proposed their own independent budgets to the system.
System officials have said that without drastic change and strong financial oversight, UMS could face a $90 million budget deficit by 2020. Some campus faculty members have expressed concern that their schools will lose control over their finances and, in turn, decisionmaking.
“Ryan has the financial acumen, commitment to collaboration and credibility needed to unify our seven, siloed, financial systems into one seamless, statewide model,” UMS board of trustees Chairman Samuel Collins said Monday.
Low will still work with the financial staff at the University of Maine in Orono, but his old position will not be filled, according to the system. Existing staff will “take on more responsibilities around the financial management of UMaine,” according to Demeritt.
Low’s salary will increase to $185,000 in his new leadership role at the system office. That’s a $20,000 increase from his salary at UMaine.
In each of these position shifts, the system says no new positions will be created or filled. For that reason, the system says it will save about $375,000 during the term of these appointments.
There is another noteworthy leadership change in the system. Danielle Conway, a 14-year law professor at the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, starts her new role as dean of the University of Maine School of Law in Portland this week.
She takes over for Peter Pitegoff, who has been dean since 2005. Pitegoff has said he will remain at Maine Law as an active member of the faculty.
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