A national association that advocates for university and college faculty issued a report Wednesday criticizing University of Southern Maine leaders for recent faculty and academic cuts, but administration officials said the group’s report misrepresents the school’s financial situation.
The report by the American Association of University Professors said USM’s finances were not bad enough to justify eliminating faculty positions last fall, and the school didn’t properly consult with faculty when making those decisions.
Interim USM President David Flanagan blasted the report in a letter, saying it was factually inaccurate and was incorrect in concluding USM doesn’t have financial problems. On Wednesday, a spokesman reiterated those concerns.
“The AAUP report on USM is unworthy of serious consideration,” spokesman Chris Quint said. “(The report’s) ill-founded financial analysis is a misleading attempt to paper over the urgency of the economic situation of our state higher education system.”
The report is based on an investigation by a committee of faculty members from other universities who talked to USM administrators, faculty and staff. The group has no legal standing with the university, which is currently in arbitration with the local union – Associated Faculty of the Universities of Maine – which filed grievances over the cuts. Those talks are expected to continue into June.
One of the key findings in the report was that USM’s administration failed to work closely enough with faculty on changes to the academic mission and programs, a criticism that Faculty Senate leaders have made repeatedly for more than a year.
Last fall, Flanagan cut five academic programs and eliminated 51 faculty positions to help close a $16 million budget gap for the current fiscal year. Even with those cuts, Flanagan plans to use $1.6 million in campus reserves to balance USM’s $127 million budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
USM’s fall 2014 enrollment of 8,428 students was down 5.5 percent from the previous fall, and down 13 percent since fall 2010.
The academic programs cut were USM’s master’s program in applied medical sciences, the American and New England studies graduate program, undergraduate French and geosciences programs and the arts and humanities undergraduate major at USM’s Lewiston campus.
“We were genuinely surprised by some of these closings,” said Michael Berube, investigating committee chair. “We have grown wearily accustomed to seeing French departments shuttered, but USM also closed an applied science program that had a great deal of support in the local biotech industry and a geosciences program that had the support of the state geologist’s office.”
While not directly tied to the report’s findings, some faculty members who were interviewed “were almost uniformly convinced” that the layoffs and academic changes were less about finances than they were about reducing USM’s research role within the UMaine system. The report also found the administration “acted in brazen disregard” and “in flagrant violation” of the professors association’s recommendations on academic freedom, tenure and shared governance between administration and faculty.
Flanagan’s letter said that after reviewing the report, “one can only surmise that there was not even a casual review for factual accuracy,” adding that it “seeks to perpetuate the misconception that there is no financial issue” at USM or at the system level.
“No matter how hard it tried, AAUP cannot refute the harsh reality that the University of Maine System, and the University of Southern Maine, in particular, face enormous challenges as a result of demographics, competition, new technology and costly old buildings. We must adapt to those new realities and their fiscal consequences to make sure we have a vibrant, useful, relevant public university in Southern Maine in the future.”
Noel K. Gallagher can be contacted at 791-6387 or at:
Send questions/comments to the editors.
