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Moving Forward: The USM Plan for Financial Sustainability
Preliminary Progress Report to BOT, November 4-5, 2007
A. Elements of the Plan:
1. Expenditure Reduction. The primary emphasis for aligning the USM budget with resources is spending reduction—doing fewer things in order to build an infrastructure to support 10,000 students by reducing the base operating budget by approximately 5 percent. Accomplishing this alignment will require the following steps:
- Reduce FY2008 budget by $2M leaving an estimated year-end deficit of $2.6M
- Reduce FY2009 budget by $2M leaving an estimated year-end deficit of $0.6M
- Reduce FY2010 budget by $1.5M; begin restoration of USM reserves
- Reduce FY2011 budget by $0.5M; continue restoration of reserves at $2M/year
- Continue restoration of $2M through FY 2015
2. Investment to Enhance Revenue. Use targeted growth to augment spending savings, to provide investment capital for targeted allocation, and for strengthening the strongest and most mission-appropriate programs. Accomplishing targeted growth requires coordinated investment in:
- Retention and student success efforts
- Recruitment and Financial Aid to increase student success
- General education implementation
- Integrated marketing
B. Implementation: ([BOT] = will require BOT action)
1. Immediate (2007-2008):
- Freeze hiring leading to elimination of some 90 positions, 2007-2010.
- Freeze equipment purchases
- Freeze discretionary travel
- Freeze discretionary promotions
- Reduce part-time and overload expenditures consonant with sustained revenue
- Build new budget review process
- Adjust recruitment strategy toward targeted groups, including enhanced outreach to community colleges and dual enrollment
- Implement integrated marketing strategy
- Evaluate mission to align programming and budget
- Initiate reduction, merger, or elimination of academic and non-academic programs, including public service, non-credit, and administrative support activities
- Implement new Program Review process focused on outcomes assessment
- Implement Communication Strategy
- Deploy Community Advisory Board and internal economic analyses team
2. Intermediate (2007-2009):
- Continue cost savings – hiring, travel, and equipment freezes
- Implement reorganization to reduce divisional administration overhead: eliminate deanships; vice presidencies to generate savings [BOT]
- Deploy program review process to identify academic programs for reduction, merger, or elimination; implement reductions and mergers [BOT]
- Implement enhanced retention efforts
- Build on and recalibrate recruitment efforts
- Build on and recalibrate integrated marketing
- Continue implementation of Entry-Year-Experience courses in General Education
- Develop and implement tuition pricing strategy [BOT]
3. Long-Term (post- 2008):
- Align programming with mission, and budget with programming
- Continue reorganization, retention, recruitment, and marketing efforts
- Complete implementation of General Education
- Continue to capture savings for reallocation to new faculty positions to support strong programs
- Eliminate programs. [BOT]
- Implement tuition positioning
C. Addendum: Moving Forward Communications:
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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