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FROM: Interim President Joseph S. Wood
October 3, 2007
Dear Colleagues:
I have promised for some time that we would share ideas for reorganization to accomplish the need to reduce administrative overhead costs and create new synergies that build on the things we do well. As I noted at the town meetings, we should have plans in place and implementation underway by January 2008, recognizing that some reorganization plans will need Board of Trustees’ approval.
We have already accomplished several reorganization efforts, and others are already underway in non-academic areas.
- This summer we eliminated the Office of Management Information Systems in Finance and Administration, eliminating two positions.
- The Office of the Vice President for Student and University Life was reorganized, eliminating two positions.
- The University Library and the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) have combined resources and services to create a single computer area in the Gorham Campus Library. This effort enabled us to reduce the number of computers from 52 to 40, and eliminated replacement costs. Importantly, visual evidence and login monitoring indicate a significant increase in use of the computers and information resources of the Library. We are now planning to do the same thing at USM at Lewiston-Auburn.
Meanwhile, a number of other reorganization efforts are beginning, and I want to share them with you:
- I have asked Bob Hansen, associate provost for university outreach, and Craig Hutchinson, vice president for student and university life, to lead a task force to examine public service and non-credit activities across the University for alignment with our core academic competencies. I’ve also asked that they make recommendations on reduction, elimination, or creative restructuring of these activities to find efficiencies.
- We have established a task force to review student administrative and support services in order to gauge their centrality of mission and to consider creative restructuring or reduction.
- The Deans Council has worked with Interim Provost Mark Lapping to develop a proposal for significant reorganization of academic programs—you can find that proposal at www.usm.maine.edu/mcr/update/0708/AAreorg1003.html.
It bears repeating that these are NOT firm proposals. These are ideas on how we might reorganize ourselves. I realize that these ideas will generate some frank and difficult discussions, but it is time for those discussions to begin.
Even as we undertake reorganization to reduce administrative overhead and bring new synergies to our work, let me reiterate what each of you can do: Stop spending, support student recruitment and retention, and talk to colleagues and friends about the fact that USM is a great place, a place that transforms lives and one that will become stronger and more focused through this process.
Thanks,
Joe
For more information, please click on http://www.usm.maine.edu/mcr/update This site includes the breakfast speech; the latest digest of ideas e-mailed to movingforward@usm.maine.edu; our work plan; and notes from the recent series of town meetings.
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