ORONO – Northern Maine soon will have a center to provide local communities and businesses with information they need to make better decisions about the future of the region.

The Center for Rural Sustainable Development in Fort Kent was approved Monday by the University of Maine System board of trustees. The center is a collaborative effort among university campuses at Fort Kent, Machias and Presque Isle.

The common thread among the three is a rural environment and a strong commitment to their local regions.

“It’s an opportunity for students and faculty to be more directly engaged in collecting data that communities need to make decisions and local businesses need to make decisions,” UMFK President Richard Cost said at Monday’s trustees meeting.

The cost to establish the center is about $150,000, and Cost said that to start, a director and a part-time support employee will be hired.

The center will partner with communities, existing economic development organizations and individuals as well as with other entities within UMS, and each institution will contribute to the center in specific ways as defined by the needs of its community.

The universities then will provide data to various entities to support opportunities that promote economic development and other essential building blocks of a community, and which contribute to the retention and in-migration of people. The center will not act as an advocacy group but will provide information to allow communities and businesses to make better decisions based on local data.

In addition to the northern Maine center, the board approved UMS Chancellor Richard Pattenaude’s Agenda for Action – a five-point strategy for enhancing the role, value, reputation, and impact of Maine’s public university system.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Pattenaude said. “It lays out a very positive direction for the university system. It talks about work we can do collectively, but also the work of each campus.”

He highlighted two critical elements that have priority. The first is to increase the number of students who are successfully completing their degrees, and the second outlines ways for all campuses to contribute to economic development statewide.

“[The Center for Rural Sustainable Development] is an excellent example of what one university can do to serve its region,” Pattenaude said.

Economic development efforts by the system typically have been linked in the past to research and development, but Pattenaude’s plan extends those efforts.

“We are moving beyond a narrow definition of economic development,” he said.

The board also unanimously approved at its meeting the following items:

. Renovation plans for facilities at several of the system’s seven universities, including: a $2.8 million renovation at University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Folsom-Pullen Hall; $2.3 million phase three renovations to the second, third and fourth floors of UM’s Colvin Hall; turf replacement and creation for $2.2 million at selected UM fields; and a $4.3 million renovation to create a graduate center at UM’s Stodder Hall. Each project is a combination of funding from state bonds, campus and system funds, or private donations.

. A master’s degree program in education for the University of Maine at Farmington, the first graduate-level degree program ever approved for UMF.

. Authorization to proceed with plans to shift administrative and operational responsibility for the university system’s 10 University College academic outreach centers to the University of Maine at Augusta. The centers now are managed centrally by the university system’s vice chancellor for academic and student affairs. The action complements UMA’s mission and is projected to save $300,000 when fully implemented, Pattenaude said.

. Elimination of two associate-level programs now offered by the University of Maine at Augusta, an action consistent with UMA’s transition to a baccalaureate-degree granting institution.

. Selection of Allyson Hughes Handley as president of UMA, effective March 1.

. Internal loans and repayment schedules for the University of Southern Maine in the amount of $8.2 million and at the University of Maine at Machias for $1.3 million to cover operating deficits while they undergo financial and organizational restructuring. Each loan has a four-year repayment plan to begin July 1, 2009.

The next UMS trustees meeting is scheduled for March 9-10 at the University of Southern Maine.

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