President: USM Evolving

USM is starting the year with momentum, President Richard Pattenaude stated at the annual breakfast for faculty and staff opening the academic year, held Friday, Sept. 1 at the Brooks Dining Center.

A $1 million gift to the capital campaign, initiatives to present to the Legislature, and a year long effort to sharpen definition of USM’s mission were the major points Pattenaude made in his state of the university address.

As examples of achievements that are “carrying the institution strongly into the new year,” he cited the new residence hall being built in Gorham, the planned renovation of Lewiston- Auburn College, and a $10 million expansion of the Science Building in Portland to accommodate new institutes in biological and informational sciences. He also reminded the audience that USM again has the largest student body in Maine, enrolls more Maine students than any other campus and has half of the System graduate students.

A lot of the vision of USM’s future will be paid for by the capital campaign now underway. To bring the campus up to date on the campaign, he introduced the volunteer campaign chair, Leon Bien, vice president of Citizens Bank.

Bien announced the latest gift -- $1 million to support the Department of Music-- which brings the “21st Century Campaign for Excellence”up to $12 million, Bien said, more than halfway to its $21 million goal. The campaign, he said, has received verbal commitments for another $1.5 million, with $3 million more in prospective gifts under discussion.

As a result, completion of the Glickman Library’s top three floors --a campaign priority -- should begin by the end of the academic year, he said. He also thanked the faculty and staff for contributing $250,000 to the campaign. He expects the campaign, which began several years ago and was announced publicly this past winter, should conclude in a year.

Money for the operating budget and salaries will be the foundation of our 2001-2002 legislative request, Pattenaude said, but we also will be advocating for major capital improvements. Plans will be developed for a $10-$12 million Portland complex that will feature a four-story parking garage, a 300-seat auditorium and other meeting and office space, to be located on the parking lot across from the Woodbury Campus Center. A second major initiative will be to secure funding for a much-needed $6 million renovation of Bailey Hall, the largest classroom building in the university system.

A vigorous survey of the region’s needs and expectations regarding USM was described by Rosalyne Bernstein of Portland, longtime civic leader and chair of USM’s Board of Visitors. The clear message from the surveys, she reported, is that USM must become “...one of the top-ranked regional, public and comprehensive universities in the nation.” Bernstein said the board will meet later this month to finalize the report and develop a plan for publicizing the conclusions.

The president emphasized that the external visions for USM would be balanced by an internal review process, built around the reaccreditation report being pulled together by Dick Stebbins, former dean of CAS. That document, being prepared in advance of the visits in April for USM’s 10 year reaccreditation, will be “a powerful statement of the incredible array of activities,”developments and achievements of the last five years. Now, at the end of the former strategic five-year plan, he said, we “must continue to evolve.” He promised a year of dialogue and planning, led by the new provost, Joseph Wood, that would explore the implications of our accreditation report, the report of the League of Women Voters, and the challenge from the Board of Visitors. We can’t do everything, he said, “so we have to choose where to put our energy and emphasis.” We must identify those priorities that will help us become a top-ranked regional university, while maintaining the centrality of liberal arts. We must evolve, he said, but “we must not compromise our core values.”

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