A huge cost-cutting plan has been approved for the University of Maine System. Trustees for the seven-campus system have given the green light to an initiative they've been working on all year, intended to head off a financial crisis.

This story was clarified on November 17, 2009.  See note below.

"It's a road map for us to move forward," says Norman Fournier, Acting Chairman of the UMS Board of Trustees. "This came about because nine months ago when the UMS realized that, looking at our finances, we were approximately $42.8 million or so short within the next 5 years."

The plan aims to reduce that projected shortfall by establishing a new business model. It's a slightly modified version of a plan put forward by Chancellor Richard Pattenaude in September. He says the university system is to work on reducing its operating costs and increasing efficiencies.

"We will be looking at ways to better utilize information technology to deliver services. There's a whole group of things under better utilizing the size and scope of the system to get economies of scale," Pattenaude says.

Among those economies of scale is a plan to continue cutting back on what Pattenaude calls 'underenrolled' courses - either by consolidating them with courses on different campuses, or by getting rid of them altogether. "What we ask each campus to do is to look at a course that has fewer than 12 enrollments, and if that course can't be justified for academic reasons, or graduation needs of students, then the pressure is to reduce that. Last year we believe we saved a million dollars by reducing the number of courses that are offered."

For example, he says, the University of Maine recently announced it would be phasing out an academic program in journalism and public relations - a difficult, but unavoidable decision, says Patenaude. "It's about becoming a more efficient organization and making sure that we use our state dollars and our tuition dollars intelligently as possible."

The new plan also tries to meet the needs of the 43,000 or so students it enrolls every year, and proposes a number of measures to keep education affordable. Among them, says the university system's Director of Public Affairs John Diamond, is one to offer three-year degrees for certain subjects.

"That one has been elevated as a priority, simply to make the completion of a baccalaureate degree more affordable and more timely for students, as well as to help our students get into the workforce faster," Diamond says.

The University of Maine System initiative also proposes doubling the number of students enrolled in online programs, to especially meet the needs of students who don't have the freedom to attend campus. "We also have students who are, because of their jobs or family situations, or their finances, are time-bound, or place-bound," Diamond says. "They can't get to a campus to take courses as many of our other students do, and this would provide them with additional opportunities to pursue a college education."

The university system also wants to increase enrollment in courses designed to produce healthcare professionals, who will be sorely needed in the years to come, says Diamond. "Nurses, physical therapists, a variety of positions that deal with health and welfare of Maine people, particularly given that we are the oldest, by age, state in the nation -- e have the oldest demograpic in the nation, and as a result we know that the demand for various healthcare services at health care facilities as well as in-home facilities is going to continue to grow."

University System Chancellor Richard Patenaude hopes to attract about a thousand extra students over the next four years.
But he says, unfortunately, the addition of new students will not translate to the addition of more jobs.

UMS, which currently employs around 5,000 people, has lost about 150 positions in last 18 months says Pattenaude, and he fears more cutbacks will come. "It is inevitable that, given the financial pressures that we're under, that we will have fewer employees two years from now."

The final version of the plan can be viewed at www.maine.edu/UMSNCND.

Correction:  University of Maine System Chancellor Richard Pattenaude told MPBN on November 16, 2009 that the UMS cost-cutting plan includes a move to eliminate a course in journalism and public relations at the University of Maine. It appears Pattenaude misspoke: The Department of Communication and Journalism says it's redesigning the journalism major, which means the department is phasing out four courses in advertising within the journalism major; and it is eliminating a minor in public relations.  These changes are partly for budgetary reasons, and partly in response to the changing nature of the media landscape, said the University in a statement.