More than 100 University of Maine students, faculty and staff members packed a town hall meeting Monday, voicing their disapproval of looming layoffs with union chants, requests to administrators and calls to vote for pro-union candidates across the state.
The emergency town hall, which was held in Donald P. Corbett Hall on UMaine’s campus, was an extension of letters and requests that staff, faculty and union members have sent to university administrators after a $19 million budget shortfall that will require layoffs and retrenchment was announced by administrators in September.
Faculty and staff members have asked for more transparency and input in creating the university’s budget. Administrators have shared plans to close the budget gap, which many universities and colleges across the country are facing, to $3 million and said they are searching for ways to limit layoffs. Plans have not included information about where layoffs will occur in academic departments.
All of the eight speakers who took the podium Monday condemned the cuts, saying that they are not for the betterment of learning or working at the university. One of the speakers, Faculty Senate President Brian McGill, repeated requests the senate have made for involvement and shared governance in the upcoming budget.
With the cuts to faculty positions and student academics still unknown, the UMaine faculty senate passed a resolution to request more input in the budget and sent 36 questions to the administration. The questions, which ask how the budget shortfall was caused and what actions will be taken to ensure cuts do not happen for multiple years, should be answered so the campus community and Mainers better understand what’s going on, McGill said.
“They seem like questions every taxpayer in the state should be asking right now about this university, and we’re working our best to try and get the information,” he said.
Administrators responded to the request for more input last week, saying that faculty have a consulting role and not a deliberative position. Suggestions for cuts from UMaine’s dean’s office have been rejected because of “potential adverse consequences for students and faculty,” according to the response.
Rep. Amy Roeder, D-Bangor and Sen. Mike Tipping, D-Orono said state appropriated funds that have not kept pace with inflation are at least partially to blame for the university’s budget shortfall.
Appropriated funds from the Maine State Legislature accounted for more than 70% of UMaine’s total revenue in previous decades, but now equates to roughly 40%, Tipping said. Student tuition and fees have replaced that revenue.
While student fees and tuition now make up nearly half of the University of Maine System’s revenue, looming cuts may take away from what students are offered, Roeder said.
“What exactly are the students supposed to get less of?” she said.
While an announcement of the Universities of Maine Professional Staff Association launching a UMaine chapter, calls to vote for Roader, Tipping and Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Troy Jackson, and chants ignited the crowd, the largest reaction came when speakers mentioned the university system’s contract with Open AI.
The University of Maine System entered a two-year contract with the artificial intelligence giant in May. The contract gives every faculty and staff member and student access to a specialized version of its chatbot called ChatGPT Edu.
Every mention of the contract was met with loud boos and jeers from the crowd.
One of the speakers who mentioned the contract, Andrii Obertas, a graduate student from Ukraine, said the program’s integration is showing that the university is not prioritizing faculty positions.
“It is an acknowledgement by universities’ leadership that UMaine can no longer fulfill its mission of advancing learning and discovery through excellence and innovation,” Obertas said. “It signals a level of financial mismanagement that risks trapping the university in a vicious cycle of layoffs, declining enrollment, worsening financial scrutiny, and even more layoffs afterwards.”