ORONO – After more than a year of hearings and revisions, the University of Maine System board of trustees approved recently a long-term Strategic Plan.

Meeting in Orono at the University of Maine, trustees voted unanimously, with one absent member, to approve a significantly modified version of the plan, which was initially presented in draft form in March. A revised version was issued Sept. 10, after more than 120 hours of public comment sessions across the state and review of hundreds of pages of correspondence.

“The Strategic Plan recognizes that change is necessary and that maintaining the status quo is not the answer,” said Charles L. Johnson III, chairman of the board. “Today’s vote on the plan will re-engineer our university system to ensure its value and vitality for the years ahead.”

University System Chancellor Joseph W. Westphal credited the trustees for their work on the plan. He cited the board’s statutory responsibility for planning and fiscal management and praised members’ commitment of time and energy.

“The plan contains good things for Maine’s future,” Westphal said. “Once implemented, the plan will provide more resources, more educational opportunities and, in time, an improved infrastructure that will strengthen the value and benefits of our public universities.”

The principle objectives of the Strategic Plan are to enhance academic quality, reduce administrative costs and expand partnerships with public and private sector entities. Maine’s public universities also face a projected $102 million five-year financial structural gap in current and priority operations.

The plan includes merging the University of Maine at Augusta with the University of Southern Maine; partnering with Maine’s community colleges to coordinate resources and programs; creating a formal agreement involving the universities at Fort Kent, Machias and Presque Isle to share administrative costs and coordinate programs and services; and to improve public outreach and private fund-raising. Once fully implemented in five years, the UMS projects a net cost reduction of $12 million annually.

James D. Mullen, chair of the board’s strategic planning steering committee, presented the plan to trustees He said that the implementation process will be lengthy and will involve a lot of people.

“The plan does not solve every one of the system’s needs, but it is not intended to do so,” Mullen said. “It’s a conceptual framework from which, with a great deal of input from others, we will identify and answer the questions that have arisen and will arise.”

State Education Commissioner Susan A. Gendron, a member of the board of trustees, said that it is essential that all parties work collaboratively to make the plan successful.

“We have to think creatively about new ways of serving the educational needs of our state,” she said. Gendron said the plan advances the state’s interest in creating a “seamless” educational network that includes the prekindergarten to grade 12 system, community colleges and Maine’s public universities.

The Strategic Plan includes nine directions covering academic quality, administrative structure, cost effectiveness, and entrepreneurial partnerships, and would incorporate the following organizational structure:

. A central system administration which, working with the board of trustees, provides systemwide planning, management, coordination and oversight, and performs certain “back office” administrative functions.

. A land grant, sea grant research university with statewide and national responsibilities, including primary responsibility as Maine’s graduate level, research and public service outreach institution – the University of Maine.

. A comprehensive, multi-campus, urban university serving the southern and central regions of the state, offering undergraduate programs and a focused set of graduate, research and outreach offerings – the University of Southern Maine, including what currently is the University of Maine at Augusta.

. Three liberal arts universities operating as part of a rural consortium. Each would have at least one signature academic program and offer undergraduate programs and a focused set of graduate offerings – the University of Maine at Fort Kent, University of Maine at Machias and University of Maine at Presque Isle.

. A single campus, public liberal arts college featuring a strong set of teacher education programs, with focused research and outreach offerings related to its unique role within the university system – the University of Maine at Farmington.