HIGHER ED COMES UP SHORT

The single loss among bond questions last Tuesday was for a combined $9 million in repairs within the University of Maine and Community College systems. The loss can be explained several ways, and higher-education officials in Maine have been explaining at length. It was the last bond on the list; it didn’t have much for matching funds; it was for the unglamorous purpose of building repair; it was too little money to matter; voter fatigue. All interesting reasons; none satisfactory.

The message from this bond is clear: Higher education in Maine does not have the kind of voter good will it needs to thrive. The UMaine System, in particular, which has gone through a difficult 18 months of unhappiness following the release of its strategic plan, has a serious problem, partly of substance and partly of image. Trustees can either be complacent about this, accepting polls that suggest voters merely didn’t like the question, or they can look more deeply and act.

They can begin with the vote. For instance, Cumberland County was substantially in favor of this bond; in Penobscot, home of the university system and the flagship university, the public rejected it by more than 3,000 votes. Rural counties such as Aroostook approved it; rural Piscataquis County, adjacent to Penobscot, overwhelmingly did not. Nine of 16 counties in all rejected the spending, a mixed result that suggests not voter fatigue or disdain for the size of the bond – the question immediately preceding it, $12 million for land purchases, won in every county – but a reaction to perceptions about the university.

The public wants to know, deserves to know, that the university system is spending public money wisely. The system’s leadership has a responsibility to account for spending and to explain it. (The focus should be on the university rather than the community college system because, on their own, the community colleges traditionally have gotten bond support above two-thirds of voters. Until last week, they had never lost a bond question.)

A much-needed independent audit might cause resentment on campuses and fear that some less popular programs that are nevertheless important will have trouble justifying themselves financially. It’s possible and a risk, but this is where university leadership has led the system. It can’t ask for another bond; it will have difficulty with the Legislature, which is aware of the lack of public support. Just recently, a state task force handed Gov. John Baldacci what amounts to a rejection of a major portion of Chancellor Joseph Westphal’s reform plan – turning down a planned merger between the University of Southern Maine and the University of Maine at Augusta.

The higher-education bond, if the vote holds up, will have lost by the narrowest of margins, but whether it won or lost, its finish compared with the strong support for all other bond requests highlights a growing problem. Trustees will ignore it at the university system’s peril.