AUGUSTA – Discontent with the University of Maine System’s draft strategic plan was keener than ever Monday at the Augusta campus, and two professors called for yet another new campus alignment to be called the University of Central Maine.

Faculty, students and community members gathered for the informational forum less than two weeks before the public comment period on the reorganization proposal ends.

Under the current proposed plan, the University of Maine at Augusta, which offers the majority of the system’s two-year degree programs, would become part of the University of Southern Maine to provide only four-year degrees and some graduate programs in public policy and business administration.

In addition, the plan calls for reorganizing the seven universities into four and shifting all two-year programs to the community college system.

Offering many of the same objections as during previous public forums, participants said they were concerned that UMA would “be swallowed up” and lose its identity by merging with USM. The system’s southernmost campus has a different culture, they said.

“UMA isn’t USM. Your students aren’t their students,” said Rep. Julie O’Brien, R-Augusta, one of several legislators to attend the forum.

But USM President Richard Patenaude said the campuses both have a preponderance of nontraditional students.

He insisted that UMA would retain “its quality, strength and identity” and said he was committed to “not doing anything to damage the institution and success of students.”

USM hopes to bring more degrees and more programs to Augusta, he said.

A number of participants called for the creation of a University of Central Maine, a concept formalized in a proposal by Carol Kontos, associate professor at UMA, and Jon Reisman, associate professor at the University of Maine at Machias.

According to their plan, which is discussed on today’s Op-Ed page, the campuses at Augusta, Machias, Bangor, Lewiston-Auburn and the outreach centers in Belfast, Ellsworth and Calais would be merged.

The professors said their idea is fairer and makes more sense than the current proposed plan because the campuses share a similar geography, commitment to distance education and because faculty and programs “complement rather than duplicate each other.”

If system administrators “really want buy-in they need to give this serious consideration,” Reisman said during a telephone interview Sunday.

Otherwise, a fight could ensue at the Legislature – “a fight the university as a whole will lose,” he said.

Vice Chancellor Elsa Nunez said Monday that the idea was interesting but that it “needed analysis.” It will go into the “pool of ideas” that have been generated since the strategic plan was issued last spring, she said.

The UMS board of trustees will decide in August whether to adopt a new model or endorse the plan they have, she said.

Audience members on Monday worried that the place-bound, nontraditional students that make up most of UMA’s enrollment would be left high and dry because they wouldn’t be able to travel to Portland.

Participants said the elimination of associate’s degrees would reduce access to higher education and pointed out that the Maine Community College System was already at capacity.

Rep. Edward Finch, D-Fairfield, a member of the Legislature’s Education Committee, said he understands that students currently enrolled wouldn’t lose programs because the programs would be phased out gradually.

“But what about people enrolling in the future? If there’s a need for programs for people who are currently involved, there must be a need for future enrollees,” he said.

Participants questioned whether there really would be any savings under the proposed plan and voiced concern that distance education would be diminished.

But Vice Chancellor Elsa Nunez said, “It’s our intent to have stronger distance education capacities.”

Shannon Collins, president of the UMA student government, said a petition is circulating calling for postponing the strategic plan initiative until Gov. John Baldacci releases the statewide comprehensive educational plan that’s currently being worked on.

“Why should we tailor K-12 to higher education. Higher education needs to be tailored to K-12,” she said.

Others worried that if the proposed plan is approved, economic activity in central Maine would suffer.

“We need UMA badly,” said Stew Kinley of Fairfield. “Somerset County is the most depressed in Maine. As we try to grow our way into economic recovery, it’s abundantly clear we need an educational institution of our own to center around.”

USM Professor Don Anspach said he heard the Legislature plans to take any savings resulting from the implementation of the strategic plan and give it to the community college system.

Nunez said, “I don’t know that to be true.”

Rep. Finch said, “To my knowledge, there’s no pre-determined plan to take money from X and give it to Y.

“But right now the community college system is very highly thought of” because it serves not only adults but young people who didn’t do well in high school and are looking for “a second chance,” he said.