Maine's state-funded colleges and universities are preparing for layoffs in response to curtailments totaling nearly $8 million over the next two years. The brunt of the impacts announced last week by Gov. John Baldacci are expected to be felt during the second half of the budget cyle, at a time when demand for education is expected to be high.

Gov. John Baldacci's nearly $8 million in cuts to higher education in Maine will hit the institutions hard -- but some say it could have been worse.

"it's just amazing when we have to look at a $1.7 million cut and we're thankful that it's not deeper," says John Fitzsimmons, President of the Maine Community College System. Fitzsimmons had been told in October to prepare for a reduction of $2.1 million dollars, so when it turned out to be nearly a half-million dollars less, there was some sense of relief.

But Fitzsimmons says the impact of the reductions will be felt during the second half of the state budget cycle that begins July 1. "We're basically losing 240 students and we would lay off between 20 and 25 faculty, staff and administrators."

In releasing a curtailment designed to partially address a revenue loss of more than $90 million dollars during the first five months of the fiscal year, Gov. John Baldacci issued a $63 million dollar curtailment order to immediately cut state spending. The administration is now preparing a supplemental budget for the Legislature that is expected to address a projected revenue shortfall of nearly $400 million dollars over the next 20 months.

Fitzsimmons says he can only deal with one cutback at a time. And he says it's regrettable that the state is doing less for Maine students at time when the demand for community college programs is at an all-time high.

"We turned away 4,000 students last fall, so we've had tremendous demand," Fitzsimmons says. "Part of it's the popularity of the community colleges, and the other's the reality of the tough economic times -- Mainer's have got the message and they're coming back to school in droves. The problem is, they're just queuing up, and there really isn't an answer for them, because we are the lowest tuition in Maine, and either they can get in to our place, or most of them can't afford going to college, so they have to wait until we're ready."

In addition to the $1.7 million cut at the community college level and a little more than a quarter-million dollar reduction to the Maine Maritime Academy's budget, the University of Maine System was forced to absorb a cut of nearly $6 million.

"The positions affected are across the campus, they nclude classified professional and faculty positions," says Janet Waldron, Vice President of Administration and Finance at the system's flagship campus in Orono. Waldron says UMaine's share of the reduction was was about 50 percent, or just under $3 million.

As with the community college system, Waldron says positions at UMaine will not be affected until July. "The stimulus funds that we're receiving certainly will help in terms of holding some of the positions from having to be eliminated mid-year," she says. "However, as the curtailment gets translated into an ongoing base reduction in fiscal year '11, then it will definitely have permanent reductions behind it."

Rebecca Wyke, Vice-Chancellor for Finance and Administration for the University System, says all of the campuses are reevaluating their academic programs, and she says consolidations or eliminations may be unavoidable. "They would all argue that they've been cutting every year for years, just has other public entities have been doing, but they have tried to keep that away from the academic side in the past, and at this point, I think there's really no way to avoid it," she says.

As administrators at the higher education facilities assess their options, educators, including Community College President John Fitzsimmons, say the worst of the cuts may be yet to come when the Legislature takes up the governor's supplemental budget in January.