New UMS chancellor sets priorities for fall semester

BANGOR – New University of Maine System Chancellor Terrence J. MacTaggart says that he will focus on higher education advocacy, operational efficiencies, and managing a “highly participatory” search process for the person to succeed him after his one-year appointment ends next summer.

MacTaggart made the remarks at a recent meeting in Bangor of the University System’s board of trustees. The board meeting was the first held since trustees appointed MacTaggart to succeed Joseph W. Westphal, who stepped down last month after four years as chancellor.

MacTaggart of Hampden served as system chancellor from 1996-2001 and is a widely recognized expert on higher education leadership and governance.

MacTaggart outlined “three broad areas” on which he will focus his attention as chancellor. “The first [area] is our relationship with the governor, the Legislature and the people of Maine. We need to make sure they recognize why investment in Maine’s public universities is good for them and good of our state. Second, we need to consolidate and rationally address the items in the strategic plan [to see what needs the most immediate attention. Part of that includes] an operational audit of the functions of our systemwide services, that is, those areas that are managed centrally, in Bangor or elsewhere, on behalf of our statewide operation. The questions we will be asking include: What were the original purposes of the activity? Are these purposes being achieved? Are we doing it as cost-effectively as possible? Should we be doing it centrally, or should it be the work of a university or perhaps another state agency? This will be a tough-minded review,” MacTaggart said. “Our guarantee to our employees is that they will have a voice in the process and the review will be conducted with fairness and good sense.”

MacTaggart said he will direct the operational review using internal resources and personnel.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate or necessary to hire outside consultants to perform this work,” he said. “We’d have to pay them just to get them up to speed on what we do, and that would waste time and money. We have people within the system who know how it works and know how to apply those questions to find honest answers.”

MacTaggart said he hopes the operational audit will be completed by late fall.

Continuing to outline his three-part agenda, MacTaggart said that the trustees have asked him to manage and complete a successful search for the next chancellor.

“The trustees and I believe that we don’t need to hire an outside search consultant to run the search,” he explained. “We will save about $150,000 by managing it in-house. The process will be similar to past searches. This will be a highly participatory process. We will need the collective wisdom of our colleagues across the state to conduct and complete the search, and whoever is chosen for the position will need their help and support as well.”

The board meeting was also the first one presided over by Margaret “Meg” Weston of Yarmouth since her election in May as board chairwoman.

Weston, previously the board’s vice chairwoman, succeeds Charles L. Johnson III of Hallowell.

Weston said that she will work with the board and MacTaggart to improve the system’s focus on academic vision as it relates to the state’s priorities. She said it is important to market the system and its member universities to their many constituencies throughout the state in ways that meet their mutual needs. Weston also said that the board would continue to stress its accountability to the public and to the many people served by Maine’s public universities.

The board meeting featured a number of business actions:

. Trustees approved the “first phase” of priorities related to the system’s strategic planning initiative. Noting that more than 300 individuals participated in the process to develop the priorities, Weston called the board’s action “both a point of completion and also just the beginning of the work of implementing the plan. This calls for advocacy, collaboration, implementation, evaluation and accountability.”

. The board modified its existing policies to allow for the University of Maine and the University of Southern Maine each to have a graduate student serve as student representative to committees of the board of trustees. Prior to the change, the two universities would alternate responsibility for having a graduate student represent both universities.

. Trustees approved the establishment of the Pauline and Emanuel Lerner Endowed Professorship for Child and Family Policy at USM. Funding was made possible through a gift to the USM Foundation from the Pauline A. Lerner Revocable Trust.

. Board members approved the appointments of Dana Humphrey as interim dean of UMaine’s College of Engineering; Marianne Rodgers as interim dean of USM’s College of Nursing and Health professions; Stuart Swain as the University of Maine at Machias’s provost and vice president for academic affairs; and Edna Szymanski as UMaine’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost.

. Trustees also gave MacTaggart authority to approve employee contracts tentatively agreed upon by two of the system’s six collective bargaining units: the Universities of Maine Professional Staff Association; and the Part-Time Faculty Association. The board also approved compensation adjustments for non-represented employees. The amount of compensation and benefits for all three groups totaled a seven percent increase over a two-year period.

. As part of a long-standing plan, trustees formally eliminated the associate’s degree program in health information management at the University of Maine at Augusta and approved UMA’s revised mission and purpose statement.

. The board also approved UMM’s request to offer a bachelor’s of science degree in secondary education.