BANGOR, Maine — University of Maine System leaders on Monday will review a final report on proposed sweeping academic changes affecting the seven universities.
The board of trustees will hold their regular two-day meeting on Sunday and Monday, Jan. 24-25, at Wells Conference Center at the University of Maine in Orono.
System officials have said the report on academic transformation, originally called the Academic Program Review and Integration Process, is an effort to reshape the way academic offerings are provided — reducing duplication of some programs, promoting collaboration and sharing among the campuses and, ultimately, shoring up budgets.
The system hired Ellen Chaffee, a North Dakota-based consultant, to lead that effort. She’ll share her recommendations with the board on Monday. In her report, she cautions that implementing the changes will be expensive, and the system should prepare to provide $60 million in funding toward the effort by 2020.
Chaffee’s report recommends pursuing efforts to boost tuition revenue, cutting programs based on financial sustainability, investing in campus improvements and hiring a vice chancellor for academic affairs, among other steps. The report does not get into, specifically, what programs could be cut, but says “data and judgment” should drive those decisions. Chaffee also urges the system to continue ongoing efforts, such as implementing a unified budget.
Trustees are expected to approve a University of Southern Maine proposal to start an International Early College program in which international students will be recruited to earn their high school diplomas by taking classes at USM. That item appears on the consent agenda, which is typically reserved for decisions that aren’t expected to be controversial.
Also during Monday’s meeting, system leaders will hear more about plans for a $44 million investment over the next five years to update aging information technology infrastructure across the system’s offices and inside its classrooms.
On Sunday, Eliot Cutler, who the system hired last year to lead the formation of a Professional and Graduate Center, will update trustees on the progress of that effort. The center would bring graduate business programs from USM and UMaine and the University of Maine School of Law under the same roof.
In other business, the trustees will consider adopting a common academic calendar for all campuses. The schedule change has been controversial on some campuses.
UMaine Student Government, for example, opposed the switch because it eliminated the two-week-long spring break on that campus. The change makes it more difficult for out-of-state and international students to go home with their families, UMSG argued.
Officials also will hear updates on several ongoing construction projects, property deals and more. A full agenda and meeting materials are available on the system’s website at www.maine.edu.
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