Office of the President
The 21st-Century USM
From: President Selma Botman
April 2, 2009
Welcome to the latest 21st -Century USM update. Please check this site regularly for official communications on a range of issues. Please don't hesitate to contact me directly at president@usm.maine.edu. I also invite you to check out my blog at https://blogs.usm.maine.edu/president
Preparing for Fiscal Year 2010
Earlier this morning, Thursday, April 2, I shared with the deans, directors, and vice presidents USM's budget targets for fiscal year 2010, which begins on July 1.
Based on the best information available at the present time—which incorporates a reduction in our state appropriation, allows for our campus share of the University's system-wide services, and includes needed adjustments in the budget—we are projecting that USM’s expenses will exceed its revenues by more than $4 million. Consequently, we have some very difficult decisions ahead of us as we prepare for fiscal year 2010.
I have asked the deans, directors, and vice presidents to report back no later than Wednesday, April 15, on how each unit proposes to meet its targets and provide the more than $4 million in reductions. Chief Financial Officer Dick Campbell, Provost Kate Forhan, Vice President for Human Resources Judy Ryan, and I will work with the deans, directors and vice presidents to ensure that all decisions are as strategic as possible.
USM must meet its budget targets. We are not allowed by the University of Maine System to carry over a deficit. Accordingly, there are a few key points we are keeping in mind:
- We are now projecting a deficit of more than $4 million. This number will change, possibly several times, depending on the condition of the state budget for 2009-2010, our enrollment next fall, and other variables that may increase our costs. In others words, the deficit continues to be a moving target.
- We are positioning ourselves to be more strategic in our budgeting. For example, we will not cut funding for the Library next year; at the same time we will increase student financial aid. We are also maintaining research support activities and initiatives, along with a number of other strategic investments in USM's academic enterprise. Protecting the quality of teaching and learning must remain our highest priority.
- We must also budget for new costs in FY 2010, including anticipated increases in insurance, some critical investments in our alumni operation, and institutional research. Universities simply cannot cut their way to success; sometimes they cannot put off investing in their futures.
- The bulk of the reductions must be made in base budgets. They cannot be found in one-time cuts which only delay the time of reckoning and require additional cuts to be made in each succeeding fiscal year. Indeed, the State's fiscal conditions suggest that we may very well face additional reductions of similar size in FY 2011, making every long-range cut we can make this year critical to next year's budget process.
This will be extremely difficult work. The deans, directors, administrative executives, and vice presidents have a tough challenge ahead as they weigh a variety of options for fulfilling their obligation to meet their targets.
It is too early in the budget process to speculate about specifics. Until all of the schools, colleges and units have submitted their proposals for meeting the targets, and the many variables that I have cited above become clearer, I do not yet have any reliable information about what these reductions will entail for USM.
We will be working with unit heads on their targets. Some of the initial ideas they offer may require considerable modification; other proposals may evolve. I will share the final results of this budget process with you as soon as it is complete at the beginning of May, and there will be town meetings on each campus at which I will update you and answer your questions about the FY 2010 budget.
Making USM's budgetary decision making substantially more strategic is a complex, long-range undertaking. We have made small, but extremely significant strides toward that end since last summer. However, as we look forward, our work must progress in a timely manner since the University of Maine System requires us to finalize our FY 2010 budget by May. Nevertheless, I remain confident that we will not only survive this stressful period, but also emerge from it stronger, more focused, and more dedicated to our mission as northern New England’s outstanding public, regional, comprehensive university. It is our challenge as a community to discover opportunity within necessity, to turn the demands of the present into the foundation of our future.
USM will remain a center for learning, discovery, scholarship, and creativity that provides resources to our state, the nation, and the world. We owe it to our colleagues, our students, and our region to make the necessary hard choices to ensure USM’s fiscal sustainability and to build on our role as an engine for Maine’s economic well being.
Dean's Task Force White Paper To be Presented at Opening Breakfast
Given the urgency and complexity of the budget task ahead of us this spring, I have decided, in consultation with Dean John Wright, chair of the Dean's Task Force, to distribute the Task Force's white paper at the Opening Breakfast, scheduled for Friday, August 28.
This semester, classes are nearing conclusion and finals loom this spring. I fear that many of you would not be able to devote sufficient time or energy to think through carefully the scenarios presented by the Task Force. Additionally, the white paper is not yet complete. The scenarios presented in the paper deserve your thoughtful consideration, and the hectic weeks remaining in this academic year simply do not allow enough time for sufficient reflection and thorough discussion about significant changes in the structure of USM.
As a result, I project the revised timeline to be as follows: We will distribute the white paper at the Opening Breakfast. The beginning of the next academic year will provide a productive time for discussion. We take the first two months of the new academic year to evaluate the various scenarios, identify and refine those worthy of implementation, and make a sound and reasoned decision on our organizational structure.
After we come to some important organizational decisions, we will then spend the rest of the academic year 2009-2010 implementing the recommendations. This part of the timeline remains unchanged.
I will also continue to work with the Budgetary Advisory Committee to help us through these difficult decisions and to increase the information available to USM’s students, faculty, and staff about the budget process.
