UMM seeks healing in campuswide forum

MACHIAS – The acting president of the University of Maine at Machias, wary that faculty and staff on campus were feeling uneasy after the visit from University of Maine System leaders last week, says divisions are healing after a campuswide meeting Tuesday.

“I’m a straightforward person and I felt we needed to talk things out,” Sue Huseman said after the meeting. “I felt like the campus community was splintered, and we were becoming potentially divided.”

Huseman, faculty and staff hashed over issues of trust Tuesday afternoon. From Huseman’s perspective, the atmosphere has improved.

The visit by the UMS chancellor, vice chancellor and three trustees to UMM last Thursday to discuss how the campus would change as the state’s university system changes had drawn serious, questioning crowds all day.

Huseman used Tuesday’s meeting to regroup as a campus.

“We need to keep focused as a campus on our vision and mission,” she said. “We actually didn’t spend much time on what happened Thursday.

“We did talk about the positives of Thursday, how many had expressed deep feelings about who we are. The downside is that so many more folks who are just as eloquent didn’t have time to be heard.”

Huseman said strengthening the campus’s reputation as the Center for Downeast Coastal Studies “will be our leverage” as the UMS plan develops through the summer.

She added that some campus leaders will try to initiate informal discussions with leaders on the University of Maine at Presque Isle and Fort Kent campuses before the proposed merger into the University of Northern Maine.