UNIVERSITY SUPPORT

A $150 million capital campaign approved Monday for the University of Maine will go a long way to improving the buildings, enhancing the faculty and helping students. The campaign, which is slated to last six years, should be generously supported by university alumni, area residents and businesses and others who benefit from the Orono campus and its programs.

This is an ambitious campaign for UMaine. Its last capital campaign, the Campaign for Maine, which began in 1990, aimed to raise $50 million. When the campaign ended in 1997, $68 million had been donated. That money went mostly to buildings such as the Sawyer Environmental Sciences Building and the Class of 1944 Hall.

This campaign, which university system trustees approved Monday, aims to bring in more than twice that amount. The goal is to raise $40 million for endowed scholarships for undergraduate students and fellowships for graduate students. In the absence of increases in state funding, tuition and fees have increased in recent years. This year, for the first time, tuition and fees cover a larger part of university costs than state appropriations.

Another $40 million would go toward capital improvements for buildings such as the Fogler Library, Maine Center for the Arts, Memorial Gym and other facilities. With a long list of deferred maintenance, many outdated buildings and the recent defeat of small bond issue to finance repairs at university buildings, money is clearly needed for this purpose.

The largest portion – $60 million – would go for endowed chairs and professorships to improve the quality of faculty at UMaine. The university’s salaries are among the lowest in the nation for similar schools, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, making it hard for the university to compete for top candidates for teaching and research positions.

The remaining money – $10 million – will enhance university programs, such as athletic and cultural events.

These are all areas much in need of money and this campaign will help address many pressing needs.

Raising what for Maine is a large sum of money won’t, however, propel the university far ahead nationally as two dozen public universities around the country are currently in the midst of or have recently completed campaigns to raise $1 billion or more. Both the University of Iowa and University of Kentucky have $1 billion goals. The University of Arkansas recently completed its campaign, raising $100 million more than its goal of $900 million. The University of Washington seeks to raise $2 billion and the University of Virginia has a goal of $3 billion.

The situation is the same in the research and development realm. Although Maine has substantially increased its investment in R&D, from state, private and other funding sources, the state still ranks 50th in the country because every other state has invested more.

Raising $150 million – or more, given the history of past UMaine fund-raisers – will be a big boost to the campus so alumni and university supporters must ensure its success. The next campaign, however, must aim much higher.