The University of Maine System belongs to the people of Maine and is managed for the people by the UMS Board of Trustees, those who administer in its name and the governor and Legislature who nominate and confirm board members and allocate funds for to help support Maine’s universities and community colleges.

Given the defining role these universities and community college play in any imaginable future that the state can possibly enjoy, given the scarcity of funds and what is unquestionably a sacred trust, it is always important to consider whether the University of Maine System is being managed in the people’s interest.

A letter in the Bangor Daily News (Aug. 29) from Jim Bradley, state president of ACSUM (Associated COLT Staff of the Universities of Maine), raises an issue about which we should all be deeply concerned. According to Bradley’s letter, the governor and Legislature recently appropriated $4.2 million “with the expectation that this money would be used to settle outstanding contracts” with USM employees.

According to Bradley, this expectation has not been met. To begin with, “only 70 percent of the $4.2 million was used for compensation.” Furthermore, much of it was not used to settle outstanding contracts issues but instead funded “additional raises to administrators … nonrepresented employees … [and] units that had already settled their contracts.”

Bradley’s letter raises a number of questions that need to be answered: 1) Is this what UMS did with the $4.2 million? 2) Did it violate an understanding with the governor and the Legislature? 3) If so, will it be held accountable by the people’s representatives in Augusta? 4) If not – if this use of public funds is acceptable to the people’s representatives – is it acceptable to the people they represent?

In an election year, it is entirely appropriate for all involved to address these questions. At a time when the University of Maine System is searching for a new chancellor, all involved need to welcome the opportunity to hold themselves accountable.

As a faculty member at the University of Maine, I, of course, have a particular interest in how these questions are answered, but my interest has less to do with the contract the faculty union eventually negotiates than with the responsibility all of us in the University Maine System have to the people we serve as public servants.

With this responsibility in mind, a good point of departure might be our responsibility to the people of Maine who work in the University of Maine System and whose wages do not enable them and their families to live above the poverty level. This would not make faculty salaries a priority, but before other interests are addressed, perhaps the University of Maine System should guarantee that every person who works in the system is paid a living wage.

If that modest priority were met, the University of Maine System would take an important step in becoming the kind of model employer that the people who own the system have right to expect. Or, to put this another way, since we, the people, are ultimately the employer, it would be an important step in creating a community in which we fully respect our neighbors.

Tony Brinkley lives in Bangor and teaches in the English Department at the University of Maine. He is the interim director of Franco-American Studies and the faculty associate in the Franco-American Centre.