Question 6 Universities and learning centers

Question 6

Do you favor a $36,700,000 bond issue to make improvements to the State’s public universities, the Maine Maritime Academy and other public learning centers?

Art students are taking the 21st century workplace by storm. Students who have a four-year degree in studio art with experience in computer art, graphic design, Adobe Photoshop or Web design are getting terrific jobs, said professor James Linehan, chairman of the University of Maine art department.

“Nowadays, everybody who’s got a business from a mom-and-pop store to a major corporation needs a Web site … and Web sites are designed by trained professional artists, not computer scientists and engineers,” he said.

But the UM art department, which has grown from four faculty members and 20 students in 1966 to 20 faculty members and 200 students, is desperately cramped for space and scattered among nine buildings throughout the campus, Linehan said.

That’s why he and others have been traveling the state, urging voters to approve Question 6, a bond referendum that includes $4 million to pay for a portion of design and construction costs for an art center at UM.

Proponents say the $36.7 million bond, which would help pay for construction needs throughout the University of Maine System, would spur economic growth, attract new job opportunities, ensure a skilled work force, and keep Maine children from leaving the state to pursue educational and career opportunities.

Besides the art center, the bond – which requires the individual colleges to raise additional funds – would provide:

. $4.8 million to the University of Maine at Farmington for a portion of the construction of a classroom facility;

. $5.6 million to the University of Maine at Presque Isle for a portion of the construction costs of a health and physical education complex;

. $4 million to the University of Maine at Augusta for a portion of the construction of a technology classroom and student center facility;

. $3.2 million to University of Maine at Fort Kent for a portion of the construction of a health-technology center connector building and the renovation of a library-classroom;

. $8 million to the University of Southern Maine for a portion of the construction of a community

education facility and the renovation of a library-classroom;

. $4 million to Maine Maritime Academy for a portion of the construction and renovations of dormitories, classrooms and laboratories;

. $1 million to the Maine Technical College System to renovate and equip classroom space at the Bath Higher Education Center and $200,000 to renovate and equip classroom space at the Katahdin Area Training and Education Center in East Millinocket;

. $1.8 million to the University of Maine System to renovate and equip classroom space at its Western Maine University Center in South Paris and $100,000 at its Calais Center.

Officials recently offered reasons to approve the bond package.

While the state provides funding for primary and secondary schools, bonds are the only way for schools of higher education to raise money, UM President Peter Hoff pointed out. The last capital bond bill was in 1988.

This is as good a time as ever for the state to borrow money for long- term improvements to facilities because interest rates are at their lowest point in 40 years, UM spokesman John Diamond said.

And state economist Laurie Lachance called it critical to invest in education at all levels.

“Hard work isn’t enough anymore,” she said. Maine’s population growth is so slow that the only way to pull out of the 37th place in per capita income is to advance the skills and educational attainment of every worker.

Plans for UM’s art department include renovating Lord Hall, which is on the National Historic Register of Buildings, for department offices, art galleries, and lecture halls. A 25,000-square-foot studio building for painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture and ceramics would be built at a separate location.

While the total art facility project budget is $6.5 million, a $1 million corporate gift has been promised, contingent on the success of the bond bill, say officials.

Bolstering art education at UM will have wide-reaching effects, especially since half the state’s public school art teachers graduate from the department, Linehan said.

School districts find that students’ math scores go up when instruction in art and music is expanded, he pointed out. Also, increased art instruction happens to be one of the state Learning Results mandates.