Cut college costs, not opportunities

In the op-ed essay “To fix UMaine: Close small campuses, raise tuition” (BDN, Nov. 16), Andrew Viano suggested that the cure to budget crunches in the University of Maine System is to kill local campuses and skyrocket tuition. Mr. Viano, a former chemistry professor at the University of Maine, suggests that laboratories are in disarray and the department needs more modern equipment and more money for graduate students and faculty.

Mr. Viano is completely wrong about the solution. Increasing tuition would not fund more faculty positions or allow departments to buy more modern equipment. Instead, it would make higher education less affordable and move it further from the grasp of students seeking it. Those students will look elsewhere – and a tuition increase meant to boost revenue will actually lose it.

Consider the budget shortfalls at the University of Southern Maine. Moving into its fourth year of deficits – now totaling $12.4 million – USM administrators blame the community college system for declining enrollment. Why? Because more students are taking advantage of the inexpensive tuition at our community colleges – and why not? It is nearly half the price of USM’s.

Community colleges are being utilized more and more because our university system is becoming too expensive. Yes, the University of Maine is among the most affordable state universities in New England – and instead of Maine moving to be among the most expensive, we should aim to maintain that “affordable” title.

Increasing tuition is not the answer. The university system must make decisions that cut costs.

For example, in April, UMaine women’s basketball coach Ann McInerney resigned her post. The university agreed to pay her salary – a figure of $100,000 in July – for up to one year until she is hired for a comparable position in collegiate athletics. Wasteful? Yes.

And in July, when university system Chancellor Joseph Westphal resigned from his post, he was hired as a University System Professor – equivalent to a full-time professor – with a salary of $208,000 per year. That figure is 21/2 times the salary of an average UMaine professor making $79,700. Wasteful? Yes.

It took me just 30 seconds to find potential savings of more than $300,000. Imagine what a team of administrators could do with an entire day.

Further, the university system could take a lesson from Gov. Baldacci: Consolidating university administrative operations while maintaining academic quality is a cost-saving concept worthy of consideration. The universities in Fort Kent, Presque Isle, Machias, and Augusta provide quality education to those who need to stay local – to raise a family, to have a quality job. For many at these campuses, moving to Orono is not an option. Consolidating their financial, human resources, and administrative functions into a single systemwide office would both cut costs, and maintain local educational opportunities.

The University of Maine System is so quick to request additional funding from the Legislature, and even faster to authorize an 8 percent to 10 percent increase in tuition paid by students. Instead of asking for more, more, more, university administrators should find ways to do more with less, and cut costs.

Derek Mitchell of Canaan is a senior journalism major at the University of Maine in Orono.