UNIVERSITY REVIEW

For years, Mainers have been exhorted to go to college. In a logical next step, the new president of the University of Maine has called for a “top-to-bottom” review to ensure the school is doing everything it can to ensure that its students graduate. A companion review of university operations and management could go a long way to easing another long-standing problem – the Legislature’s hesitancy to spend more money on higher education.

The two reviews clearly need to be kept separate, but Robert Kennedy, who was installed as UMaine’s 18th president last week, has a limited time in his new tenure to call for such sweeping looks at the campus.

The graduation piece aims to ensure that students stay at the university and graduate. Although the university’s graduation rate is above the national average for public schools, less than a third of its students typically graduate in four years. Less than half graduate in five years, just above the national average.

The biggest impediments to students finishing college are personal problems, financial concerns and readiness issues, says Robert Dana, dean of students at UMaine. The university has many efforts underway to help students adjust to and succeed in college.

For example, all this year’s first year students were given an inventory meant to uncover family pressures, financial concerns or other problems. Staff in the dean of students office will meet with all the students to talk about the inventory in an effort to begin to address concerns before they hinder a student’s performance or build to the point of forcing a student to leave campus.

Special training sessions have also been held with professors who teach classes to first year students and students who receive a low grade on a first quiz or exam will be referred to the dean of students office where they can get help.

The review President Kennedy called for is meant to ensure that these efforts are well coordinated and that there is not more to be done.

While state leaders frequently cite the need for a college degree to succeed in today’s economy, they haven’t been as willing to finance the state’s public colleges and university’s at the level necessary to bolster the economy that will hire the eventual graduates. Although it is often not well articulated, one reason for the tight purse strings is a sense that the universities and colleges do not wisely spend all the money they already receive.

A good way to dispel such concerns is to undergo an independent audit. Such a review would not, for example, determine that sparsely attended courses should be cut, but rather would ensure that departments and programs are appropriately staffed, can account for expenditures and spend money wisely with minimal duplication. It would do so by comparing UMaine to national norms for similar universities and against the campus’ own stated goals.

While unpopular on campus, such a public review, and any accompanying changes, would go a long way to assuring lawmakers and the public that their money was being well spent in Orono. It could then be a model for other campuses and system offices.