Gender issue delays UMS trustees’ bids

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Citing concerns there aren’t enough women on the University of Maine System board of trustees, a legislative committee has canceled today’s confirmation hearings at which Gov. John Baldacci planned to nominate men to replace two female incumbents.

The governor has recommended Paul J. Mitchell of Waterville and Charles J. O’Leary of Orono be appointed to the 16-member board, supplanting Sandra Prescott of Bucks Harbor and Margaret Weston of Yarmouth. That would leave only one woman, Judith Andrucki of Lewiston, to govern a university system that’s 60 percent female.

A third trustee, Charles Johnson of Hallowell, was renominated for a second five-year term.

Education Committee co-chair Rep. Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, said Tuesday he and Senate chair Neria Douglass, D-Auburn, asked Baldacci to delay the hearings “to make sure we have both gender balance and solid agreement on who will be the next trustees.” He emphasized the issue was not the nominees’ qualifications.

“We want [Baldacci] to consider the impact of his nomination on gender balance,” said Cummings. He said he would like the governor “to come back and nominate two women so it’s not a step back.”

“I couldn’t press a green light for what would make the gender balance even worse,” said the legislator.

He said he was looking for long-term changes. “At the very least I’d like to see a plan to create more gender balance over the next few nominations.”

Many legislators – including some who weren’t on the Education Committee – have voiced concerns about the nominations, said Cummings.

Since the nomination process takes 60 to 90 days, the hearings likely won’t be rescheduled until fall, he said.

But Lee Umphrey, the governor’s spokesman, said Tuesday he didn’t foresee any changes.

“We’ll stick with our nominees,” he said.

Baldacci is “sensitive and responsive” to the committee’s concerns, Umphrey said. But he “is firm with supporting the two nominees he has in place.”

The governor has “surrounded himself with strong women in the cabinet and as chief of staff,” Umphrey added. “So this was more of a case of the governor wanting to have his own people on board and not a reflection of any gender choice.”

He said they were unaware until recently that the two male nominees would replace two female trustees.

Some trustees were also speaking out against the nominations.

Pointing out that Prescott and Weston have been “outstanding trustees,” trustee Wickham Skinner of Tenants Harbor said the governor’s move was unprecedented.

“It came as a total, complete shock to everybody because good trustees have always been re-appointed,” he said last week.

Prescott, executive director of the Washington Hancock Community Agency and a former state representative, said Tuesday that a message had been left at her home a week and a half ago telling her her name wasn’t going to be re-posted.

“I wondered what I did wrong,” she said.

But during the intervening days she said she has received “overwhelming support” and now thinks of it “more as what I’ve done right.”

“I’ve worked very hard to be a good trustee,” she said. “I’ve tried to work diligently and keep the interest of students foremost in my decisions.”

Weston, who is a private consultant, was the president of The Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. She said she was disappointed at the governor’s decision and that his administration “must have overlooked” the importance of gender balance.

“You need not only role models, but the sensitivity that comes from having a board with gender diversity as well as other [kinds of] diversity,” she said.

A number of trustees are approaching the end of their tenure, Weston said. “There will be other opportunities for the governor to appoint people,” she said.

Education committee member Rep. Mary Ellen Ledwin, R-Holden, said she was pleased the hearing was postponed, but concerned about the nominees.

“They are probably excellent candidates, but to bring them forward and not agree with the governor is going to be embarrassing,” she said.

Matthew Rodrigue, student trustee and the president of the University of Maine student body, said he has written to the governor urging him to re-nominate Prescott and Weston.

Women faculty, staff and students “will be frustrated if the board’s leadership is left so disparate,” he said in the letter.

During a telephone interview on Tuesday, Rodrigue recalled several years ago when the system was “criticized for having pay disparities between men and women. Now there’s a leadership disparity.”