UMS chancellor to seek $300M bond

ORONO – University of Maine System Chancellor Joseph Westphal plans to ask the Legislature for a significant investment in the state’s public universities over the next several years.

Aiming to make the University of Maine System “the investment priority for the state,” Westphal said that when he makes his initial 2008-2009 budget request to Gov. John Baldacci this fall, he also intends to ask for a bond to finance more than $300 million in deferred maintenance.

The message to the state will be that “it’s time to re-invest” in the university system, the chancellor said during a visit Friday to the University of Maine.

“We’ve taken a lot of pain and it’s time for the state to realize that the future is in us and in higher education.”

Westphal was visiting the campus along with Vice Chancellor Elsa Nunez to update faculty, students, administrators and staff on the UMS strategic plan.

Speaking to more than 50 faculty, students, administrators and staff who gathered for a morning forum, Westphal said that 28 states with surplus budgets have reinvested in their public universities after “realizing they’ve been cutting higher education to fund health care and K-12.”

“They’re all coming back and putting more money into higher education,” he said.

Westphal said he plans to discuss specifics about his bond request with the governor, legislative leaders and the Maine Community College System in the near future.

“We don’t want to be asking for something we have no chance of getting,” he said.

The flagship campus would receive the bulk of the money for improvements to Fogler Library, classrooms and laboratories, he said.

To ensure that Baldacci and the Legislature have a long-term understanding of the university system’s needs, Westphal said he aims to present a multiyear biennium request.

The first biennium is the foundation on which the second and third biennia are built, he said. “Without a foundation we can’t go forward.”

That way, the Legislature will be able to see the big picture and what its investment will build and create over the next 10 years, he said.

Money is needed to hire more faculty and make their salaries competitive; strengthen libraries, particularly UM’s Fogler; and improve distance education, Westphal said.

He emphasized that UMS “will do our part” by increasing private support, creating more efficiencies and cost savings, using alumni to advocate for the university system, and launching an aggressive marketing campaign that reaches out to prospective students both in Maine and outside the state, Westphal said.

Noting that the Legislature on Monday will discuss UMS’ supplemental budget request, Westphal said he has asked for $5 million to help fill a $15 million gap. Meanwhile, Baldacci’s supplemental budget includes only an additional $1.75 million for the university system.

State support for the university system has been declining over the years, the chancellor said. In 1989 the state appropriated $8,000 for every UMS student compared to $5,148 currently.

That decline has resulted in more reliance on tuition to balance the budget. In 1989, the state provided 72 percent of the budget, compared to about 45 percent currently, Westphal said. Next year, for the first time ever, tuition revenue will account for a larger part of the budget than the state appropriation.

The chancellor said that “outstanding” progress has been made on the strategic plan “because of the effort and the work that people are putting into it. Participation levels are high and are critical to getting good ideas and moving forward with creative thinking,” he said.

Nunez said that while many people contended that the development of the plan was a “top-down” process, the implementation planning phase has been “very inclusive.”

The more than 300 faculty, administrators, students and staff from all seven campuses who are working to create an implementation plan will meet Friday to rank the recommendations in the strategic plan, she said.

In May, a report will be issued containing the recommended priorities, along with their cost and how they should be assessed, Nunez said.

Westphal said that down the road the university system aims to:

. Continue to make progress in creating accountability measures by collecting data on such things as student graduation and retention rates and the need for remedial courses.

. Have more conversations with the Legislature about the way earmarked funds are used so that the priorities of the state as well as those of each individual campus are addressed.

. Work with the congressional delegation to fight federal cuts in student financial aid.