News Releases

Board of Visitors Presents New Report on the Future of the University of Southern Maine

“A Southern Maine Imperative II” ties the health of USM to the health of the region and the state.

March 20, 2008

The USM Board of Visitors, an advisory group of business and community leaders, including alumni, today presented a new report based on the premise that “a vital and healthy USM leads to a healthy Southern Maine region, which in turn leads to a prosperous Maine.”

The report, “A Southern Maine Imperative II,” outlines a vision for USM and includes eight recommendations. It was independently funded with support from the Davis Educational Foundation and Clark Associates Insurance.

Robert S. Blackwood Jr. of South Portland, chair of the Board of Visitors, outlined the report at a noontime meeting of students, faculty, staff and USM advocates on USM’s Portland campus.

The new report updates a Board of Visitors’ report from the fall of 2000, “A Southern Maine Imperative: Meeting the Region’s Higher Education Needs in the 21st Century.”  The 2000 report stated that USM’s quality is critical to the economic and cultural well being of the region and, based on extensive community feedback, included a series of recommendations to build USM’s quality and link the institution more closely to the future of the region.

Both the original “Southern Maine Imperative” and “SMI II” are based on a comprehensive series of interviews and focus groups with business and community leaders to assess their expectations of USM and its role in the region and the State of Maine. “SMI II” goes on to make eight new recommendations to strengthen USM’s role as the leading provider of undergraduate and graduate education in Maine’s most populous region.

“‘A Southern Maine Imperative II’ is not about how to address USM’s current financial deficit,” Blackwood told the campus gathering, “nor is it about competition among the individual campuses of the University of Maine System. It is about making the case for four-year undergraduate and graduate public higher education in Maine in general, and specifically for the critical role that USM plays as the principal institution of higher education in the most populous region of the state.”

Blackwood, a USM and Bowdoin alumnus and senior vice president of Norway Savings Bank, said the focus of the report is on a long-term vision for USM and what it takes to fulfill those expectations. He stressed several of the report’s eight recommendations, among them a mandate that USM continue to make “consistent progress toward becoming a university of national distinction.” 

Blackwood said the report also calls for the private sector, the governor, legislators and University of Maine System (UMS) trustees to work together to “secure sustainable financing consistent with the community’s vision and USM’s mission.” 

Blackwood ended his presentation by thanking the audience for “the many wonderful things accomplished at this university,” and went on to express his hope that “‘SMI II,’ like its predecessor report, will be the catalyst for many great things to come.”

An executive summary and complete copy of the report can be found online at http://www.usm.maine.edu/bov/smi.html.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact USM Board of Visitors Chair Bob Blackwood at 879-4307, rblackwood@norwaysavingsbank.com

>more news releases