UMaine System must return to its roots

I was privileged a number of years ago, when I was the state’s deputy attorney general, to participate in the drafting of the legislation which created the so-called super university – we merged the state teachers colleges into the University of Maine System. I had able assistance from former Attorney General Jon Lund and former Supreme Court Justice Sidney Wernick.

For about a year after the draft legislation was passed, I did all of the legal work to make the UMaine System a reality. I’ve followed its fortunes with great interest ever since, and most recently I’ve represented some of the University of Maine at Augusta professors who were very concerned that UMA was going to be swallowed up by the University of Southern Maine.

Although the recent bond issue contained some monies for the Community College System, we need to separate the two. The voters of Maine view the Community College System much differently than the UMaine System. They have a more positive view and in my view, were they separated, the community collegedollars would have passed.

There have been many reasons assigned by various university spokespersons to the defeat, including the fact that the item was last on the ballot, that they hadn’t had full time to explain the reasons for the bond issue, or that the language was confusing. Those gloss over the real reasons.

The UMaine System has a fine, intelligent and skilled board of trustees. They are, however, not in touch with the reality of the university image in Maine, generally, nor is the chancellor, who tends to look down from his lofty perch and expects things to happen according to his demands.

The fact is the average Maine person loves the university, but they’re uncertain as to whether their tax dollars are going to be spent wisely – the university’s track record of a number of years ago referring their proposed greenhouses as “controlled, environmental, growth chambers” didn’t do anything to enhance their credibility.

They need to look at their position in the greater Maine community and to re-establish their credibility – they won’t do that with highly paid spokespersons, they won’t do it with glossy brochures, but they could do it with a grass-roots campaign.

It’s been a source of frustration to me to see a system which provided my education and which I helped create, not really achieve the status it deserves. We’ve had some situations where the chancellor or the board was more in touch with reality and those were positive times, but now, in spite of the obvious skills of all concerned, the university’s ability to convince Maine people that they ought to have more money (they wanted even more than they asked for) is at a low ebb.

I challenge the trustees and the chancellor to get busy and to make the university more relevant, to better explain what it is that they are doing and better explain the need for expenditures. I also caution them not to rely on their usual approach of high-sounding pronouncements, press releases and glossy brochures to bring their position forward.

Additionally, they need to reach out to real Maine people – they got forced into that position finally when the new proposals were unveiled about a year ago to make changes in certain campuses and they put together a traveling road show to speak to the public.

No one should have to force them to do that; they ought to do it automatically. It doesn’t work to have trustees’ meetings around the state, because all that means is geographically, one transfers one’s briefcase from Point A to Point B. The trustees, the chancellor and administration, generally, need to understand their constituency and in the understanding of that constituency they will find the solution to their problems.

Jon R. Doyle is an attorney in Augusta.