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UPDATE From: President Richard L. Pattenaude
Number 8, June 2005
> Budget Update
> Tuition Increase
> Outstanding Volunteers
> USM Author's Wall
> Contratulations on Tenure
> In Recognition
Current and proposed budget cuts continue to be a concern
for the University of Maine System. As of this writing, the
Maine Legislature is revisiting the borrowing package approved
earlier this spring to bridge the $450-million gap in the
State budget. One option on the table is to ask each state
agency and the University of Maine System to submit budgets
that reflect a five-percent cut. In combination with other
variables such as the possibility of lower than expected enrollments
or higher than expected health and labor costs, this cut could
result in a $2.2-million hole in USM's budget.
We will keep you posted on the budgetary situation as it
continues to develop. As a precautionary measure, however,
I encourage every faculty and staff member to be extra sensitive
of budgetary concerns and spending initiatives.
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Certainly, significant factors affecting USM's budgetary
status are enrollment levels and subsequent tuition dollars.
Earlier last week, the System Trustees adopted a budget plan
for the upcoming fiscal year that will raise tuition at USM
an average 7.8 percent. That translates to full-time undergraduate
tuition increases of $12 per credit hour for in-state students
and $34 per credit hour for out-of-state students. Given the
pressures on the University budget and the fiscal challenges
facing the State, increasing tuition is an unfortunate but
necessary step. While we must be increasingly sensitive to
the affordability of public higher education, a tuition increase
helps soften the blow of budget cuts at the campus level so
that we can continue to provide high quality education to
our students.
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One measure of the University's growing reputation is the
caliber of our volunteers.
As we move forward with USM's current fund-raising effort
"Transforming USM: The Capital Campaign," we are privileged
to have Carol Wishcamper and Richard McGoldrick
serving as volunteer co-chairs. Carol is an organizational
consultant with expertise in team building, strategic planning
and leadership development. Dick is chairman and owner of
Commercial Properties, Inc., a real estate firm in Portland
that he founded in 1978. In addition to their service to the
campaign, Carol and her husband Joe Wishcamper have made a
$1.5 million gift to the campaign, while Dick and his wife
Carolyn McGoldrick also have made a truly significant gift
to the campaign. The Wishcampers' gift will be used to complete
a new home for the Muskie School, to be named The Wishcamper
Center, and support other campaign goals. The McGoldricks'
gift will support the entire Commons effort, which also includes
a new national center for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute,
an expanded Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic
Education, and a repositioning of the Glickman Family Library's
entrance.
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Last month, Provost Joe Wood and I were pleased to recognize
our latest group of USM authors at the annual Authors' Wall
Reception. Each year, current book covers are displayed in
the administrative offices on the 7th floor of the Law Building
until they are transferred for permanent display in the Otis
Room and Great Reading Room on the 7th floor of the Glickman
Family Library on the Portland campus. This year, Joe and
I had the honor of recognizing 29 USM faculty and staff members
who had produced books, plays and music scores. I encourage
you to visit the 7th floor of Glickman Library to view the
latest works by Robert Atkinson, Nancy Austin, Benjamin Bertram,
Rachel Brown-Chidsey, Ardis Cameron, Donna M. Cassidy, Susan
Feiner, Annie Finch, Nancy Gish, Bhisham Gupta, Assunta Kent,
Mark Lapping, Barbara Mann, James W. Messerschmidt, Lynne
Miller, Karen Pearson, Eve Raimon, Robert Russell, Robert
Sanford, Lydia Savage, Ronald J. Schmidt, Harry Sky, Judith
A. Spross, David Wagner, Travis Wagner, Shelton Waldrep, H.
Fred Walker, Helen Ward, and Richard West.
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Congratulations to our faculty who have been awarded tenure
and/or promotion this year, effective September 1, 2005. Receiving
tenure and promotion to associate professor are: Christina
Beaudoin, Sports Medicine, CONHP; Janet Whatley Blum, Sports
Medicine, CONHP; Rachel Brown-Chidsey, Human Resource Development,
CEHD; Paul Johnson, Social Work, CAS; Robert Kuech, Teacher
Education, CEHD; Caryn PrudentŽ, Chemistry, CAS; Ronald Schmidt,
Political Science, CAS; and David VanderLinden, Accounting
and Finance, SB. Receiving tenure at the current rank of associate
professor: Susan Fineran, Social Work, CAS; Patricia Hentz,
Nursing, CONHP; David Jones, Recreation and Leisure Studies,
CONHP; Ira "Ike" Levine, Natural and Applied Science, LAC;
and William "Bumper" White, Education, LAC. Receiving promotion
to the rank of professor: Nancy Artz, Business Administration,
SB; Dusan Bjelic, Criminology, CAS; Michael Hamilton, Political
Science, CAS; Susan Picinich, Theatre, CAS; and H. Fred Walker,
Technology, ASET.
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Recognition also is in order for Rita Heimes and the staff
of the Center for Law and Innovation at the University of
Maine School of Law. The Center recently was awarded a $74,710
cluster enhancement award from the Maine Technology Institute
for its Maine Biotechnology Transfer Capacity Project. As
part of the project, the Center will connect Maine's top research
scientists with professionals to teach them how to identify
research with commercial potential, patent that research,
and commercialize their invention, and to help them understand
the benefits of this process for the economy and society.
Congratulations!
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