The unanimous approval by the University of Maine faculty senate last week of a resolution calling attention to the university’s funding plight was a positive sign that everyone on campus knows what is at stake if chronic downsizing continues. The public, however, must be convinced of the seriousness of the situation before faculty can expect state government to respond.

The evidence is there. As the state budget has grown, Maine’s investment in higher education has shrunk from 7.1 percent of state expenditures in 1991 to 4.9 percent today. Even as the rest of the University of Maine System has expanded, the campus in Orono has cut 417 jobs, postponed essential maintenance and been forced to turn away millions of dollars in research grants because administrators knew they could not rely on the state to provide the necessary matching grants.

Maine is one of 18 states involved in EPSCoR, a federal program that helps states that have traditionally lagged behind in research and development. Even in this program, however, Maine is at the bottom. Maine’s 4.9 percent effort is paltry compared with the average EPSCoR state contribution of more than 13 percent to higher education. The order by the UMaine System trustees to each university in the system to annually cut 2 percent from their budgets will make the situation significantly worse.

The Univeristy of Maine no longer can carry an undue share of downsizing and perform as the state needs it to. The resolution by the faculty senate should start trustees talking about the problem and should prompt legislators and Gov. King to re-consider their treatment of higher education.