In the spring, more than 70% of faculty at the University of Maine said they felt “extensive stress” related to budget cuts on campus after the flagship public university faced an $18 million shortfall last school year, according to a survey released to faculty on Nov. 5.
Only 29% of faculty said they would choose UMaine again.
The Higher Education Research Institute survey, which was administered by UMaine officials and the Faculty Senate last April, also showed that 81% of faculty felt they were at odds with administrators. Less than a quarter of faculty felt they were sufficiently involved in decision-making processes on campus, and half of faculty said they had considered leaving the university.
Those surveyed include full-time faculty who worked with or taught undergraduate or graduate students, part-time undergraduate faculty and full-time academic administrators.
The survey was distributed at the end of a tense year when the university faced an $18 million shortfall. Last year, the university asked departments to shave 7% of their budgets to address the gap. UMaine shared the results with faculty on Nov. 5.
Faculty and staff also raised concerns last year about the school’s strategic planning process. Some felt that their input in planning for the university’s future — which involved addressing fiscal sustainability — was insufficient.
Faculty Senate president Brian McGill said the results show that people are pretty happy with their jobs and departments, but have strong concerns about the university overall. The spring survey, which had 230 respondents, showed that faculty positively rated their experiences and relationships with their peers and departments, and highly rated their retirement benefits.
“I think that reflects what I hear,” McGill said. “They like their colleagues. They like their students. They like their departments. But they’re not having great feelings about the overall climate on campus.”
UMaine Provost Gabe Paquette said on Friday that the strengths that were highlighted in the survey — such as strong relationships with peers and support for research — will provide a foundation for UMaine leaders as they work with faculty to improve communication and trust on campus, as well as address financial and enrollment challenges.
“As we have repeatedly said and shown, UMaine leaders recognize and respect the contributions of our dedicated faculty and staff, and we remain deeply committed to shared governance,” Paquette wrote in an email to The Monitor. “We believe that transparency, trust, meaningful consultation, clear communication, and collaboration between the administration and our employees are essential.”
He said that the university’s leaders have hosted two sessions to discuss the budget, where faculty and others pitched ideas. He also said administrators provided responses to questions that the Faculty Senate raised about the current budget shortfall and fiscal sustainability.
UMaine is still welcoming suggestions, he said.
This year, the campus faces another hefty $19 million shortfall for the upcoming budget year, which starts in July. UMaine so far has plans to address $16 million of that budget gap, including by laying off faculty and staff, but not the remaining $3 million it must make up.
This week, UMaine sent out offers of retirement payouts to faculty members in an effort to address the gap. They have until January to choose whether or not they wish to accept.
McGill said that, with recent developments, opinions of campus have likely not improved, though he suspects they also have not changed significantly.
“We’ve kind of been building a slow-rolling crisis for a while,” McGill said.
This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.