We want you to know that we see and appreciate all that you are doing to put our learners first and to work together to address the budget challenges as we plan for the University of Maine’s strong, sustainable future. Thank you to all who came to the Presidential Town Hall. You can access the full presentation here. The recent “Enrollment 101” session led by Vice President Kevin Coughlin, the Enrollment Management team, and Associate Provost Debra Allen will soon be posted on the Provost Office website.Ěý

As reinforced at these public events, through our ongoing engagement with the Faculty Senate and other valued campus groups, and in our recent letter, 91¸ŁŔű leaders are deeply committed to continued transparency and collaboration, including as it relates to the development of the FY28 budget. This letter continues our effort to share information with members of our university community and the public as it becomes available.Ěý

As we draw on priorities and ideas generated through the Strategic Re-Envisioning (SRE), we are also developing increasingly refined enrollment projections, improved clarity about the changing federal funding and policy environment, and other factors that will affect our budget in FY28 and beyond. We should note that assumptions about compensation, tuition, University of Maine System (UMS) shared services costs, and state appropriation are all beyond our direct control and subject to change, which impacts our planning.

91¸ŁŔű is not alone in facing challenges. Universities across the nation are confronting unprecedented budget deficits resulting from the same factors. Those include declining enrollment, federal funding and policy uncertainty, pressure on state budgets, and rising operating costs. Those universities are also considering, or have already taken, similar measures to raise revenue and reduce expenses, including layoffs and retrenchments. 

As we informed you in September, Academic Affairs, which represents approximately half of 91¸ŁŔű’s budget, has committed to reducing its FY28 base expenses by $10M. All other units understand that resolving the additional $9M shortfall falls to them. Here we summarize how the other major areas of the university, as represented by the Cabinet leaders below, have committed to make reductions to their base budgets. In those non-academic areas as well, workforce reductions will unfortunately be necessary to more closely align the university’s expenses with revenue on an ongoing and permanent basis. The adverse impact of such actions on our students and the wider community will be mitigated to the fullest extent possible, with sensitivity to the impact on affected employees and their colleagues and full adherence to all collective bargaining agreements (CBAs).Ěý

Expense reduction in non-academic units

Multiple approaches to expenditure reduction have been identified and will be implemented. In addition to layoffs, some approaches are common to all Cabinet areas: decrease in reliance on external vendors; elimination of some vacant positions; funding certain positions with external funds rather than E&G; centralization of some functions for greater efficiency; reduction of some forms of additional compensation; use of one-time non-E&G reserves; sunsetting of non-critical functions, and automation of tasks to streamline essential, time-consuming, manual functions. 

Other approaches are only suitable to particular units given their functions and existing CBAs, including: modification of the length of some annual appointments; control of overtime expense; consolidation and realignment of units; pursuit of new external sponsorships and licensing revenues; facilities usage fees for external clients; facility use optimization; fee increases; and sale of real property and other monetizable assets. As these approaches are examined and implemented, the university remains committed to close consultation and procedural and policy compliance with appropriate groups, ranging from our bargaining units to the UMS Board of Trustees.   Here are examples of what units may implement, in accordance with CBAs:

• Athletics: Modification of the length of some annual appointments and not filling select vacated positions.
• Student Life: Modification of the length of some annual appointments and elimination of some vacant positions.
• Research: Consolidation of centers/institutes.
• Strategic Partnerships, Resources, Innovation and Engagement: Elimination of some vacant positions, covering more expenses with external revenue, and reduction in the use of external contracts.
• Finance and Administration & Facilities Management: Combination of units and greater control of overtime expenses.
• President’s Office (Including Marketing & Communications and Cultural Affairs units): Reductions in operational expenses, limited use of external contracts, modification of the length of some annual appointments, and not filling select vacant positions. 

Revenue generation in non-academic units

While striving to decrease the size of the deficit through ongoing reductions to the base budget such as those noted above, the use of one-time funds is inevitable again in FY28. As always, we are exploring ways to generate new reliable revenue. For example, an expanded agreement with our existing partner Sodexo will support increased events and conferences throughout the year, including in the summer months. Additionally, each of the units listed above is expected to find a 1% revenue increase. As a result, the university has modestly budgeted for $1M in increased recurring base revenue beginning in FY28. 

Taken together, we anticipate that the expenditure reduction measures enumerated above and new sources of revenue will account for about $6M of the $9M shortfall in non-Academic Affairs areas. Assuming these targets are met, the remaining $3M gap will present a challenge and closing this will be the Cabinet’s main focus over the coming weeks. 

We remain committed to providing an outstanding learner-centered experience, to establishing new fundraising initiatives with incoming leadership at the 91¸ŁŔű Foundation, and to ensuring our capacity to be competitive for external research funding while meeting changing compliance requirements coming from the federal government.  

Thank you for your continued constructive ideas as we develop the FY28 budget to present to the System in January, and for all that you do to advance our students, our state, and the important mission of the University of Maine and its regional campus in Machias.

Sincerely,

Joan Ferrini-Mundy, President 
University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias 

Gabriel Paquette, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

Jenny Boyden, Vice President for Finance and Administration & Chief Business Officer

Andrea Gifford, Dean of Students

Giovanna Guidoboni, Vice President for Research

Jude Killy, Vice President and Director of Athletics

Nicole Lawrence, Vice President for Human Resources

Jake Ward, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Resources, Innovation and Engagement

This transcript was generated by Zoom. It has been reviewed for speaker identification and spelling.

Transcript:

Joan Ferrini-Mundy

Good morning, everybody.

Thank you. I’m Joan Ferrini-Mundy. I’m the president of the university. I want to thank you all for attending this year’s fall town hall. Presidential town hall is what we have called these in the past. We’ve done these annually for several years now.

And I want to begin by thanking everyone who is here, everyone who is online watching for your interest and attention to the University of Maine and to making the University of Maine the best place that we can make it. I want to point out that this cover slide indicates that you may continue to submit questions online. We’ve received many, and we will continue to accept those through the session. We may or may not be able to answer all of them during the session, but we will take them up as appropriate for later.

So I’m just going to start right in, recognizing that our budget challenges are top of mind for all of us, and I mean all of us. We worry about this. We have anxiety about this, we have stress, we are trying to figure out the very best way through this challenge right now, and so I want to just be very clear that we have a projected $19 million deficit for fiscal year 2028. We are in fiscal year 2027 now, where we do have a budget that is balanced and working for us, and we have already announced an anticipated set of layoffs and retrenchments, and that, I understand, is generating a lot of conversation and concern on the campus.

We will do a bit about the budget and those challenges during this town hall, as we normally do, and then we have scheduled, and I’ll give you the date when we get to the right slide, we have scheduled a budget session for the very beginning of November, which will go into depth With the budget planning at that point in time.

I also, though, today want to point out that this is part of our long tradition of getting together in the fall, and a part of what I want to do is to recognize that the members of my cabinet who are here, and if you could all please just raise your hands.

Are working diligently together with all of us to keep this university moving forward in all of the best possible ways that we can work through together. I also want to thank the senior managers in the room, the senior leaders. There are deans and heads of departments and heads of schools, as well as center and institute directors. This group of people has been working tirelessly to continue to advance excellence.

in the ways that will work for us into the future. So thanks to everybody. In addition to my update, you’re going to hear from Provost Paquette about academic affairs, Vice President for Research Guida Boni, and Vice President Ward about research and innovation, and from VP and CBO Boyden about a budget overview.

And at the end of the program, the speakers will be seated up here as a panel to take questions. And we will be moderating that. The moderation will happen by, will be done by Brenn Borror, who’s our Interim Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, and Executive Director of Marketing. So thanks to all, again, who’ve… contributed questions. Next, I’m going to thank Jason Charland, specifically, where did Jason go, for his incredible work in helping us prepare for today.

Now I will introduce Jude Killy, who is the Vice President and Director of Athletics, and he will provide the land acknowledgement. Jude. 

Jude Killy

Good morning, and thank you, President Ferrini-Mundy. 91¸ŁŔű recognizes that it is located on Marsh Island in the homeland of the Penobscot Nation, where issues of water and territorial rights and encroachment upon sacred sites are ongoing.

Penobscot Homeland is connected to the other Wabanaki tribal nations, the Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Mi’kmaq, through kinship, alliances, and diplomacy. The university also recognizes that the Penobscot Nation and the other Wabanaki tribal nations are distinct, sovereign, legal, and political entities with their own powers of self-governance and self-determination.

Joan Ferrini-Mundy

Thank you. Thank you, Vice President Killy. I’d like to begin with a reminder of why we’re all here, why we’re part of a university. We are here for the students of this university, for finding the very best ways to help them achieve their own goals, to help them grow, to help them succeed in their endeavors, and I think it’s really a wonderful photograph of the class of 2030.

Excuse me, a reminder that… okay, I already have to… water. A reminder that these students who arrived this summer to the wonderful Bridge Week organized by the Office of Student Affairs, these students came eager and excited and ready to take great advantage of all that we offer. And so they are looking to our faculty and our staff and to other students to make this experience a fantastic one for their growth and for their lives.

And thinking about the students reminds me of a very good line that our provost has used a couple of times now. This is the class of 2030. And where we also need to stay focused while we are serving the class of 2030 is on the class of 2060.

What will be here at that time? How will this university look? How will it have been re-envisioned and reinvented to serve that group of students in some future wonderful picture in the Alfond Arena? So I want to be clear that we face challenges. We are well aware of the challenges as a community. We are working together in many different ways to address our challenges.

And our challenges are not only specifically to do with budget, they have to do with many other features, our deferred maintenance, our need to stay constantly in good service to the state of Maine and to the nation and beyond. But I also want to take a few minutes today to talk about some positives. We really have an incredible amount of positive activity, of successes happening on this campus, and I’ll mention just a few, but the real point I wish to make is this, that we’re able to do these sorts of wonderful, forward kinds of activities, because there is great confidence in this university, in the people of this university, in you who are in the audience, in our faculty, in our centers and research institutes, in our colleges and departments, in all of the areas represented by the cabinet. We see donors.

federal agencies. Private foundations and corporations. Members of our state legislature and our governor’s team and the alums of our university, we see them excited about this place. They want to see good things happening at this place. And when good things happen, they are often a part of it or behind it. And so this is just a sampler for a few milestones that I believe are worth highlighting for everybody today.

First of all, the SAWIC Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce Innovation Center is completed. I was fortunate to have a tour. This is a prime example of a learner-centered R1 facility that was built that way, designed to be a very unique kind of place where our learners and our faculty and our staff and our external partners could come together in an industry-scale facility to learn.

everything, modern, really, about the aquaculture industry, and to be ready to go and be innovators and leaders in the state of Maine. And it’s worth pausing, even if you’re not an aquaculture person. To take note of this, to look at that building, to think about what’s going on in there and what will go on in there for our students going forward. In similar vein, I would like to cite also, of course, the completion of the GEM facility, the Factory of the Future, beautiful building on our campus that is now ready and is already filling with students who are taking courses there across a range of areas.

As well as, of course, the extraordinary R&D work that will go on there and is already going on there with an even bigger 3D printer. But this is right here at the University of Maine, supported by people with great confidence in this institution, and it is home to a large number of faculty, staff, and students.

We’ve had two new awards through congressionally directed spending. The Health and Life Sciences Complex Award, again, an indication of confidence that others outside have in us, but maybe even more importantly, our readiness as a university to bring together our great strengths across these areas, strengths that our faculty, staff, and students have developed to serve this state and beyond, and you’ll hear a bit more about this coming in, as well as an early college center at the University of Maine at Machias to try to support students in that part of the state who may then come forward and matriculate at 91¸ŁŔű Machias.

Continued honors at the national and international level. Robert Steneck elected to the National Academy of Sciences last spring. He spent many years of his career right here at the University of Maine. Two programs, in the top 100 of the best MBA programs. I always struggle with this because, actually.

The Maine Business School, noted here as being in the best online MBA program, they’re actually tied at number 78. So perhaps I should put here in the top 78. And then for MCEC, top 100 best graduate engineering schools in the top, they’re tied at 97. So these are good statistics for us. These bring attention to our university at the national level.

And they’re terrific. And just last night, I had the good fortune of going to a major event that was happening over in Wells. It’s Maine Forest Biomaterials Week. A great gathering of faculty, staff, and students, and then corporate representatives from around the world coming here to the University of Maine for the work that was being, announced concerning our EDA award, a $20 million grant.

That is involving our entire campus and that promises in a very in a very compelling way to be a project that ultimately will lead to the replacing of imported plastics, fuels, and building materials with homegrown alternatives from low-value wood. So, congratulations to Rene Kelly and all who are a part of that work.

It’s just a reminder, things are happening here that are fantastic, that are available to our students, and we need to be able to figure out how to keep those going. A number of convenings and groups have been coming together. We’re doing much of this earlier in the budget cycle than we have done in the past, and that’s on purpose. That’s to be transparent and to engage folks. I was fortunate to be able to attend the Budget Advisory Committee yesterday, led by Vice President Boyden. Outstanding questions, probing questions, a group of people that will be understanding our budget deeply and will be able then to bring the concerns and questions and curiosity that you all are expressing to those meetings to discuss what’s happening. Space Advisory Committee coming up, the Committee on Administrative Excellence coming up, a new initiative that I’ve offered on the advice of a colleague president who has said find ways to have very informal conversations with faculty.

Have been or will be shortly announced just times to get together with no particular agenda. And then listening sessions that the Provost and I will undertake with the colleges across the university. And we also will have a budget session. And I didn’t give it a specific name because I really think I’d like to see that co-designed with the Budget Advisory Committee, with members of the Cabinet, with FIPSE from the Faculty Senate, so that we make that a session that’s useful and productive. And that’s still really quite early in our process for engaging with the system with draft budgets. So we are definitely committed to coming together with folks from across the campus to hear the great ideas and the great solutions and finding a path forward.

I’d also like to point out that work has continued in terms of summarizing and preparing materials in a form that will be useful relative to our SRE initiative, and I’ll just share this much. A provisional vision statement that has emerged from looking at that work And that is in response to questions we’ve had from a number of sources about, well, you know, where are we going, where are we headed? I say provisional because a vision statement was never the explicit goal of SRE, but indeed a vision statement does need to be included in our basic strategic planning for the university.

And at some point later this year, the provost will be leading an effort to harmonize what we have in our very good Strategic Vision and Values Framework that was developed several years ago with recommendations and ideas and directions coming out of SRE.

But what’s next? I’ll just give you a bit of a preview, and you should be checking the SRE website for new material. Is a focus on continuity of our improvement efforts. we’re not now in some yet new, separate kind of re-envisioning or planning, but rather, we are using existing structures, existing expertise here on our campus, building new ones when needed, but institutionalizing the kind of work and conversation that drove SRE, the great work of Really, everyone who’s involved, starting from early retreats and open sessions to ideas submitted online to the 14 theme groups populated and led by Provost Fellows and faculty and others.

All of this work, I think we are continuing as a community to need to assess, examine, and recognize that we have shifted, we are changing already in many, many ways. So think about the inflection point for my mathematical friends that we used in illustrating this early on. We’re past that now. We’re on the increase here, and we are regularizing our processes.

I want to say just a bit about student resilience here, and the incredible outpouring of support from supporters, from stakeholders. When we asked, toward the end of last year, to get some help, because we knew there were students who were not able to meet their financial obligations and be able to register. And so we worked, particularly with the Alumni Association, I see Tom Pico, I saw him. Okay. Tom is here and want to thank him. But we were able to build a fund that we’re naming the Student Persistence Fund that will be available to students who have need and need this kind of support in a quick way. There will be, $44,000 available for this. We’ve already spent, I think, about $11,000. And so this is donors and people who care about our students coming together and saying, let’s find a way to help them and to support them.

And of course, we have Bear, and that’s good. We should have had Bear here. In any case, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about some positives. We are here, we are fully prepared to work with questions that you will have, and we will obviously be having many times together over the coming weeks.

But at this point, what I’d like to do is introduce Vice President for Research Giovanna Guidoboni to the podium, and she’ll produce… provide an update on research, areas. And… okay, and you invite Jake after that. Got it. Okay. Thank you.

Giovanna Guidoboni

Thank you, President Ferrini-Mundy. Hi, everyone. I have two slides to share with you, which are directly in response to some of the questions that you have submitted ahead of time, and I would really like to thank you for that.

The questions were around health and life sciences, and, what about this main medical education task force? So, I am very happy and proud to say that we are working together across all cabinet units. To really coordinate and align what our strengths and opportunities and possibilities of collaborations are around the health and life sciences areas. So here you see four boxes which correspond to four different task forces or committees. Some of them have already been launched and some of them will come.

So the first is the main medical education task force. I have a slide just about that next. Anyway, that is a task force that has been launched directly by the chancellor and our president. To come up with recommendations on how to react to the TRIP UMBAC report, which you may know was sponsored by our state. The feasibility study in that report specifically was about a possible public medical school in Maine.

However, the report has really highlighted the needs of strengthening the pipeline of medical doctors as well as supporting professions in the area of health. And we all live here, so we know that we need that. And so really the goal of the task force is to work collaboratively across the whole state, so not only across our system, but also across the state.

to see how 91¸ŁŔű can lead, support these collaborations and partnerships to better serve all the people in the state. This task force has been launched in June. We produced a first progress update, and our next slide is on that. And the goal is to have a report with recommendations by mid-November.

The second box that you see is specifically about research at 91¸ŁŔű in the area of health and life sciences. So, as our president just talked about, and as all you know, budget is an issue. So, how can we support the great work that our faculty, our students, our staff is doing in this area while at the same time have, you know, be parsimonious and efficient and intentional about the budget?

So no single person can come up with a good solution. And collaboration and partnerships are always important no matter what the scenario is around us, but now is especially important. So you see the number of groups and centers that are involved in the conversation, but you see that there are also entities, let’s say, that are not technically research centers. For example, you see the GSBSE program there. That is the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering that actually, is housed in the grad school, which, as a unit, reports to the provost. And actually, this, with a dotted line to the VPR. But this is an example of how, even though the budget target for that specific task force is How can we be more efficient in the resources allocated in the area, specifically in the budget of the OVPR, is not a decision that is made closed doors in my office.

But that actually has Deans, has Faculty Senate representatives, as well as leadership of the various centers to see how we can come together to, again, make choices that support our function, our vision, and what we want to do moving forward.

Let me also say that this is challenging, because this may also lead to, hey, how we have been doing things so far, maybe it is not the most efficient way. And that’s okay. So what can we do moving forward? The task force has already met as a first meeting and recommendations are due by December 15th.

The next box is academic, so I don’t talk too much about that, because it would be the provost’s purview, but I also want to say that in the meantime, there is also a look at our academic programs that may be related. And how we can best structure them.

And then finally that has not been launched yet, but as the president has reminded us earlier, there is a big investment on a new health and life science complex, and how will that look like? So this slide is to say. The capital investment and the firm maintenance, the academic programs.

The research infrastructure and our service to the state and the nation cannot be looked in isolation, and I am pretty proud to say that at this moment in time, we are all working across all aspects of the university to actually make a coordinated effort for each of those investments to make sense.

In the next slide I have, it is pretty busy so I will not read everything but it is kind of the summary of the progress update of this main medical education task force. So, you see on the right all the institutions that are represented in this task force, either through the committee per se, or the various focus groups that have met.

So you see that there are many, so not only University of Maine and University of Maine Augusta and University of Southern Maine and also the UMS System Office and the Board of Trustees. But also you see other academic institutions across the state, including UNE and the Ruh Institute, among others. You see the major hospital systems.

You see smaller, institutions and also non-profits related to the area of health and life sciences, as well as major research institutes. So I told you, this is truly statewide, and the goal is how can we better serve the people in our state, understanding that 91¸ŁŔű plays a crucial role Because we are the R1 in the state, we can advance innovation, and we also have a responsibility to graduate students that will help us.

And in the right, you find what is kind of a very high-level summary of the report that we have so far. So, we have launched several focus groups that looked at, for example, what is a sustainable model to grow the workforce? Which kind of workforce are we talking about?

How can we connect the clinical training with the learning? And so, these seven themes actually have come across As crucial. And, of course you can read everything, but I would like to point you specifically to the one on the top right.

And I have heard it in so many different environments or groups. We have so many things across Maine, but we are quite fragmented, and we are not connected. How is that initiative connecting with that initiative or with that initiative? So, again, I appreciate very much all the questions that came in advance to this meeting, because I think that the work that is going on Specifically in the area of health and life sciences, is helping us get our heads together and really get connected and work on the, you know, great effort that is already going on, but not thinking about those in a fragmented, disconnected way, but coming together to make a bigger impact. So, in particular, I want to thank Deputy Provost Hanna Carter, Institute of Medicine Director David Harder, and the Assistant Director of IOM Tanya Pinkham, they have done an amazing job in keeping the group moving forward. What is going on next is that the groups will meet again to see which recommendations we can come up with. And so this is also an open invitation to anyone to reach out to us.

If you would like to get involved. And before I pass the baton, I also would like to thank all the faculty and staff. I know that research is quite a changing landscape. Things are changing day by day. And yet. For example, the month of July has seen a… high, like, all-time highest number of proposals going out from the University of Maine. So this means that all of you have been watching what is changing, looking for opportunities to go out there, and that is not easy, and I wanna thank you. I also wanna thank the staff.

Everywhere across our university, because things are changing also in terms of requirements for proposals to go out. Whatever, check the box on conflict of interest, conflict of commitments. I mean, those things that you check the box in PARS have a lot of work behind it. And if we don’t keep up with that, proposals cannot go out. So I want to thank both the faculty and the staff to keep the work going, and it is truly excellent to see everything that is going on, and I am honored to have the research growing at this point at this university. So next I would like to invite Vice President Ward, who will give us an update about the federal landscape. 

Jake Ward

Thank you for coming today, and it’s great to see so many friends and… colleagues in the audience and online. I wanted to, again, thank Joan for, mentioning the Tech Hub, but one of the things I want to start in before we get into sort of the federal nitty-gritty is that These are the types of projects that the federal government is looking at now, and that this really does focus on the partnership with the private sector, the partnership with other state agencies. We have our collaborators at the Maine Technology Institute and the Department of Labor, but really focusing on the translation from research to practice, and that this next five-year project is really geared toward technology maturation and workforce development to actually take advantage of the R&D and the forest bioproducts and advanced manufacturing that we’ve been doing for the last decade or so. So it is a flavor that we’re starting to see in federal agencies, and I just wanted to point out that, you know, what our team is doing and working with faculty and staff across campus and organizations across the state, as well as dozens of private sector partners that are part of this.

That we stand by and we’re ready, and as Joan said, we’re really capable and at capacity to be able to do that because of the investments we’ve made over the last Decade or so. Federal update, Quickly is, the story is, I gave an update a few weeks ago, the good, the bad, the ugly, it’s a roller coaster, and one of the things that, you know, plays into all of this is that since the transition beginning at this administration.

Nothing has settled, nothing has landed, there’s a lot of proposed changes, things that come, things that go, and so it’s very hard to predict the future, right now until things settle out, until we get to a steadier state.

So, a couple, you know, sort of 6 bullet points of things that are, like, front of mind to everybody is, right now, we are already in the FY… federal FY27 budget. We are working under a continuing resolution. They passed that through December 11th.

Last year at this time we were in shutdown and trying to figure that all out, so that’s paused. But what that really means is that the full FY27 budget appropriations, CDSs and everything then and there are going to have to be solved either by the 119th Congress, which ends in December, or the 120th, which begins in January.

Depending on the outcomes of the midterms, that may change a lot of different things. The FY28 pressure ahead, as we’ve seen over the last few years, the federal agencies, the federal government, the administration has proposed many cuts in agencies. Congress has continued to fight to bring some of those back, so we don’t know what that resolves, but that also means that the federal agencies don’t know where they’re coming, where they’re going, where their budgets are going as well.

So, as we look at the number of grants coming out, the number of RFPs, hard to predict where those will continue, either in traditional things that we’ve seen for decades, or new opportunities that are coming along. Right now, Pell is another big component of our, our federal funding to the university, through tuition dollars, and it enables our students to come and, and, and attend an affordable And while the current year is stable right now, there continues to be challenges at the federal level of how they’re going to continue Pell.

They’ve improved the Pell, the Workforce Pell, which is for non-academic programs, professional training programs, career technical education, things like that, and so there may be opportunities for us to continue to build programs that are eligible for that, but at the same time, that’s dividing the pie up into more segments.

Continue to have challenges in the Department of Ed, the reorg of the Department of Ed, and things like TRIO. We continue to watch and advocate for those. And then, of course, the, all the, different changes with, that apply to international programs, duration of status, for faculty, staff, students, and employment. So, just wanted to point those out. Those are things that we are looking at daily. We’re trying to make sure that we pay attention to.

We do have, with my colleague Jason Charland, tag-teaming on a lot of these things, regular conversations with our delegation, and they’ve been very helpful when they can be helpful, but there’s so much unpredictability about this that it’s, it continues to be something that we have to watch daily.

Okay. Who am I? I’ll pass the clicker on to Provost Gabe Paquette. 

Gabe Paquette

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Can everyone hear me? Great. It’s wonderful to be here. I know your eye will probably gravitate naturally to that slide, but just bear with me for a second. I just would like to thank the President for the honor of serving under her leadership, and also to serve as her Provost. My admiration for her leadership and vision for 91¸ŁŔű is why I’m so proud to stand at this podium.

I’m also very fortunate to, lead academic affairs, and we have a number of new leaders at the helm of major units of colleges. And in the interest of time, I won’t actually enumerate all of them, but I would like to just state how grateful I am for their intelligence and their commitment, and the dynamism that they have brought to their roles. So thank you, colleagues.

I also want to just pause for a second to thank the staff in Academic Affairs. I could extend that to the entire university, but just would like the staff in Academic Affairs. We all know that, University of Maine would, essentially not be able to move forward and grind to a halt, without all of your efforts.

You’re at the front line with students, you’re also at the front line with faculty, and your efforts do not go unrecognized. Oftentimes when we talk about a learner-centered R1, we are foregrounding students, and faculty. But in fact, staff are not only centered on students and also centered on faculty, but also are at the center of fulfilling our mission as a university, so I’d like to thank the staff as well.

So now I’ll address the first slide, and the president and her remarks discuss continuous improvement and how we must ensure that our academic portfolio evolves to reflect student interest in order to advance our mission.

And we currently have 439 academic plans or programs, and this encompasses degree programs, BAs, BS, Masters, Doctorate, Doctoral degrees, minors, as well as certificates. And essentially, in each case, all 439 of those programs were created through intense faculty effort, and at the time, they were recognized to be of great value to our students and to the university as a whole.

Faculty worked in concert with administrators, often dialogued with students. And in short, we’ve been very good at creating programs, but, not perhaps quite as adept at sunsetting them. So as this slide shows, we have 107 programs that have conferred a degree or credential to 10 or fewer students over a three-year period. So that’s 10 or fewer in total over three years.

These 107 programs currently enroll, collectively, 258 students. So, no need to strain your eyes to look at this slide. The slides will be available after the town hall, and I also have a one-pager with much more detailed information that I’d be very happy to share with anyone after this town hall.

Now, the vast majority of these programs, these 107 programs, are certificates and minors that are dormant or nearly so, and it might reasonably be asked, what’s the point of examining these programs? Their elimination won’t solve or even contribute much to addressing our budget situation.

But revisiting low-enrolled programs and determining, after careful analysis of data, both quantitative and qualitative, their viability, whether they should remain in our catalog. is not only a matter of budget. It is a matter of why we should, as a university, present a more coherent, current, relevant, in-demand, and clear set of programmatic offerings to the public, including prospective students.

So taken together, the goal that I have for Academic Affairs, in alignment with the faculty, is to present a revitalized catalog of programs that serve students well while aligning with the University of Maine’s mission. We’ll also afford faculty the time and opportunity to strengthen current offerings and shape our academic vision into the future.

Some of this might be thought of as academic housekeeping, or good scholastic hygiene, but it’s much more than that. It’s part of envisioning who we strive to be in the future. Any analysis of these 107 programs, or indeed any of our 439 programs, will involve shared governance processes. That is, it requires a partnership.

Of the faculty and the administration, I think this is a very exciting opportunity. to jointly evaluate our present offerings with an eye toward a more dynamic future. And as provost, I must underscore that I have no predetermined outcome. At first glance, at least to me, personally, these appear to be moribund programs, but my perspective is only one among many, and all voices must be heard and taken into account.

That is the work ahead, and work that must take place with the Faculty Senate, and also within the academic units themselves. The resulting recommendations may include program closure, significant modification, or the continuation, and all of that has to be based on discipline-specific rationale balanced with trends evidenced in data. I do want to emphasize, and really underscore here, that in the event of a program elimination.

students currently enrolled in academic programs would be able to complete their degrees, which is consistent with current policy, and also standard practice at universities, including University of Maine and UMM. I now would like to shift the attention to enrollment. And there have been a number of questions about the 1% goals that were announced in the September 17th letter that the president and I sent to the university.

And I think, rightly so, there should be questions about that. But permit me to share a little bit of context in two slides, and then provide a rationale for the 1% increases. What I’m sharing today complements, or perhaps supplements, what you heard yesterday in Enrollment 101, which was led by Vice President Kevin Coughlin and his remarkable team, and also Associate Provost Deb Allen.

Thank you, colleagues, for that. Those slides will be posted imminently and a recording to follow. I don’t want to recapitulate that much ground. But I do want to share that, as of now. and the last projections, I should add, were conducted at the end of the ad drop period, we are projected to land at about .6% above budget for total enrollment. That includes University of Maine undergraduate, University of Maine graduate, University of Maine and Machias.

We are seeing higher than expected average credit loads, so we are running 2% ahead in credit hours. Overall, for tuition revenue, we are projecting we’ll be at between 0.1% and 1% of what we budgeted. And Deb Allen, Associate Provost Allen, in her presentation yesterday, provided the methodology that OIRA uses to project enrollment credit hours, and they’ve been on the spot year after year after year.

So, looking at how this breaks down, across the three major groups of students, we are at 1% above what we’ve budgeted for undergraduate, 3% below for 91¸ŁŔű Machias! but I do want to emphasize, that 3% only is equivalent to nine students, and 1% below budget for graduate students.

I do want to sort of offer some caution that we are still fairly early in the process. There will be some changes in student credit hour loads, which could make spring enrollment more difficult to predict, but still, I think this is fairly accurate.

So as we look ahead to fiscal year 28, we see that the base model for next year projects overall enrollment to be down by 2%. Again, this is a headcount, not credit hours and revenue. And we need to reverse this trend, and to paraphrase, somewhat blasphemously, poet Dylan Thomas.

Do not go gentle into that enrollment cliff night. Resist and combat the dying of the light and ambitious revenue goals. I refuse to be a provost who exceeds and resigns himself to manage decline. The steady attenuation of our programs and our student numbers. We need to right-size the university to be sure, but that does not require downsizing, the university.

So with that in mind, we are seeking to achieve 1% growth in each of five categories. The first year entering class, transfer students, retention across all years, not just first and second year retention. tuition-paying graduate students, and also building on the success of Finish Strong, which was generously funded by the University of Maine system.

We will aim to increase readmits yielded through our partnership with REopt. Which is a third-party vendor. We’ll bring that number up to 1% as well. I just want to linger on this fifth category for a second, because there are 39 million Americans with some college but no degree, and this is, I think, a national travesty as well as a tragedy.

But this also includes students who began in Orono, or Machias, their academic journeys and did not complete them. And so I believe it’s an ethical imperative, as I’m sure many of you do, to ensure that we provide pathways towards a degree for these students. A degree is not just an academic credential, but it’s also a pathway to opportunity, both intellectual and professional.

Students entered this university, and they entered not just physically, but also they entered into a compact that we would do our very best to ensure that we created the conditions for their success. And we maintain that commitment, which is why we want to bring as many of them back to the university as we possibly can.

I want to say just a couple of words about, graduate, enrollment. And we are currently projecting a modest overall decline in graduate enrollment for next year, driven in part by anticipated decreases in the number of international students, and also changes in available funding, for graduate assistantship, GA positions.

Of course, these are challenges that are facing universities across the country, pretty much every graduate program from the Ivy Leagues and beyond. And we are currently adapting to these challenges as well. We remain optimistic about growing graduate enrollment in graduate programs that are primarily supported by external tuition dollars, and our exceptionally good new dean of the Graduate School, Zeke Kimball, is already working collaboratively with academic units to identify strategies to strengthen graduate enrollment.

Find efficiencies and also to expand capacity and programs with high demand. And I just want to add that we will be, offering an Enrollment 102 session that will be jointly led by Dean Kimball and also Senior Associate Provost Marzilli on graduate enrollment and also student retention, undergraduate as well as graduate.

All right, so I’m coming to the close here, but I just want to say something about the 1% targets. It may seem a little arbitrary to you to choose 1% targets in each of these five categories. And you might say, what about being data-driven, or at least data-informed, Provost? So, first, I want to confess that there’s imprecision here. But I think that imprecision is justifiable, and allow me to give you the justification for it.

Enrollment decline is not an option. That way lies institutional demise and obsolescence. But there’s good news. Whether thanks to Vice President Coughlin’s sophisticated recruitment strategies, Senior Associate Provost Marzilli’s novel retention tactics, we’ve seen how many new approaches have actually yielded measurable results that are very encouraging.

Pilots that were launched have now either been scaled up, or on the process of being scaled up, or have been, you know, abandoned, because the results weren’t necessarily positive. Deans and faculty are getting more involved, and that’s been a revelation, so thank you, deans, and thank you, faculty. We are slowly moving the needle.

The problem has been, and I take responsibility for this as provost, that there’s been a lack of coordination. We are now doing this, and each of the one-on-ones I have with the deans, I ask them about the progress they are making towards the 1% goals. We are laser-focused and unrelenting in pursuit of this goal, and really to the point of tedium, as I’m sure the deans will tell you. But I think that we need to see what happens when we increase our collaboration.

When we try new approaches, we try new strategies. What happens when we act in concert? what happens when we try to behave more strenuously? What will this produce? And I believe we can get there. And if we do, we’ll generate $2 million in new net revenue, and this will decrease the need for adverse personnel actions that will impact colleagues and friends and neighbors, and also the community more generally.

Yesterday in Enrollment 101, a very wise department chair said, what can departments do to move towards these goals? And I think that’s the right question, and that’s the right spirit. We need to emphasize our agency in trying to increase enrollment.

But I’d also like to add a complimentary question, which is, what can Academic Affairs do for your units, so that you can reach the enrollment goals that we all have? How can we better coordinate? How can we better support? So please hold me to that.

So, I ultimately take responsibility for these 1% goals, and so look at the slide, please, take a photo of it. If we don’t reach this goal, I don’t deserve the honor of speaking at this podium next year. Academic affairs, like all other units, must be held accountable for concrete, measurable results that actually meaningfully affect our budget situation.

If we can actually achieve these results, we will reassess whether or not the 1% targets are the right ones. Should it be 1.5, 0.8, you know, whatever, whatever it happens to be. We’ll have, then, the data that can inform which interventions are needed, which ones should be amplified, which ones should be abandoned, tweaked, revised, etc. And so, in short, I’m confident that we’ll evolve to meet this particular enrollment moment, as well as meet the challenge in all other spheres of the university. Thank you very much.

For listening today, and with this, I wish to call up Vice President Jenny Boyden for her remarks. 

Jenny Boyden

Thank you all. And as the President said, we had a very robust Budget Advisory Committee meeting yesterday, which ran 15 minutes over, so clock management, evidently not one of my skills, if someone wants to give me the high sign that I’ve gone on too long.

I would appreciate that. A little bit of background before we delve into some budget numbers. We have multiple funds that we use to create the overall University of Maine budget. Our education and general budget is our unrestricted core operating fund. Our auxiliary enterprises, those are the entities that really act as a business, intended to be self-sustaining. Housing, dining, the bookstore.

Restricted funds, gifts, or grants that come with restrictions on how they can be utilized by the donor, the federal agency, the state agency that is providing the funding. And designated funds such as the Maine Economic Improvement Fund through the state of Maine, MEPHIS and CES, which receive directed fundings through.

The Hatch Act and Smith. I’m gonna… Smith Lever, thank you. We are required to plan for and submit a balanced budget every year to the Board of Trustees for our E&G budget and our auxiliary budget. We also budget certain designated operations, MAFIS, CES, and MEIF. We don’t annually budget the sponsored research grants, gifts, or other funds, and the reason is, a lot of, as many of you certainly know, those grants are coming in for multi-year periods, so we don’t budget just one single year.

What goes into setting up the assumptions for our budget? For revenue, it’s enrollment, student credit hours. In addition to that, it’s the residency of the students. I’ll talk about that a little bit more in a moment. State appropriation, financial aid assumptions.

Residential students for auxiliary, research revenue, and F&A cost recovery. Those are our primary revenue buckets. On the expense side, compensation and benefits. Which makes up about 67% of our operating expenses. We factor in inflationary increases when possible, investments in strategic priorities, capital expenditures, which includes debt expense, and any contractual commitments.

I wanted to touch base on what FY26 looked like to start and how we finished. When we were at last fall’s town hall. We announced and let everyone know that we are projecting a $6 million revenue gap associated with tuition.

We ended up seeing about 3… I’m sorry, $6.6 million of a variance in tuition and fees. By the end of the year. And that flag is right in the way of 27. So for the base budget for FY 26, our budget was almost $130 million for tuition and fees. Our base budget for fiscal 27 is 126.8 million.

We are budgeting less in revenue for tuition and fees in 27 than we started with in 26 for our assumptions. Some of the factors are what Gabe mentioned we are seeing a decline in enrollment. But another factor is we’ve seen a shift in in-state and out-of-state mix.

Last year, we had 67% in-state, 33% out-of-state. This year, we’re at 70%, 30%. That’s only 270 students, but it’s roughly $4 million of net tuition revenue. It’s a big swing. And that is a significant decrease from where we were when Flagship Match started, when we were nearly 50-50 in-state and out-of-state mix.

So, as we look back on the changes in our net tuition revenue, that’s one of the driving factors of A relatively flat line of net tuition revenue, from 2019 to 2027, It’s about a $7 million increase over that 8-year period.

That’s a relatively slow growth, and that is because of the decline in enrollment, the shift between in-state and out-of-state students. Government appropriations, this is the portion of funding that we receive from the system, which is appropriated money by the state legislature.

In 26, we received $109 million. In FY27, that’s up to 114.5 million. The system receives the appropriation from the state legislature, and that has grown Fairly significantly over the last 10 years, about 3.5% per year. The issue is that perhaps isn’t keeping up with the cost of doing business, right?

With the relatively flat tuition line, 3.5% growth here is not keeping up with our expenses. Indirect cost recovery, this is the F&A recovery that we budget, from the federal grants. This… the base budget of $24 million in fiscal year 26, we were very close.

We monitored that very closely through the year, because we did not know if we were going to make it. Based on changes that were happening. This does not take into account any changes to the structure of F&A that are being proposed at the federal level.

This is the $23 million budget that is just based on our historical experience of how grants are expended. That have been awarded to us. So we’re projecting $23 million for this year, which is less Than we achieved in fiscal 26. And it’s over $3 million less than we achieved in fiscal 25.

That’s… A draw. You know, that’s $3 million of revenue that we would have been planning on increasing, actually, every year. The change in direction, Has caused us to pull back on that assumption. Investment income, gifts, sales services, and auxiliary, those make up the remaining.

16-ish million dollars of our revenue picture. So in fiscal 26, our actual revenues came in at 273 million. We’re budgeting 280.1 million for fiscal 27. So, continuing… To go to the expense section, How did we get to A balanced budget for fiscal 26, while… Having 6, you know, it was $4.4 million less in total revenue.

We presented everyone with our plan last year. It involved accessing additional research funds at the system level, changes to our indirect Cost sharing plan, we pulled back on some expenses, we were very aggressive on our position management.

And this shows that we came in. without using more reserves than planned, except for $142,000. That was actually a specific state appropriation that had lapsed the prior year that we pulled back, so that feels different. But I don’t want to… underscore the point that that was not easy. And at the end of the year, it involved reaching out to departments who.

Stayed within their budget to see if there was more they could do for us, if there was more. Expense that could be shifted to gift funds. If there were expenses on the ENG side that could be supported by auxiliary. I called Dick Young and said, can we shift the cost of the Black Bear Express to auxiliary services?

To help balance the fiscal 26 budget. So we found ways to do that. Also, hopefully, I’ll be able to answer some of the questions that came in during the presentation. That being one, there was a question about whether or not ENG is supporting auxiliary.

Actually, last year, it was the opposite. Auxiliary Services was providing additional funding to E&G to support our budget. As I mentioned at the start, though, our compensation and benefit line, that accounts for about 67% of our total expenses.

If I had put FY25 on here, It would look… like, a little bit of an outlier, and part of the reason for that is in FY25, our fringe benefit rate was lowered for one year to recognize the fact that We had… underspent in our health insurance plan. We’re self-insured, so the system collects money, and then as claims come in, they pay it out.

They had collected more than anticipated for claims, That was provided back to. the programs through a lowered fringe benefit rate for fiscal 25. So if you’re looking at compensation and benefits, it almost looks like a dip.

So, like, I throw that out even though it isn’t on the screen and may not help with context, but… Our compensation and benefits for 27 are expected to go to $192.5 million. Fuel and electricity. We were aggressive last year in our budget and thought we would get down to 9.4 million and actually spent 10.9.

This year we’ve… Gone back to 10.6 as a budget. We are a bit, obviously subject to the market, we do have a consolidated energy services group that helps us manage when we should purchase fuel and utilities and lock in different rates, which we do at different intervals to try to capture the best rates that we can throughout the year.

Shared services, this is the portion of costs that go back to the system to support the… System-wide HR, IT, facilities—there was a little bit of facilities. Finance. My group. My finance team, Nicole Lawrence’s HR team. Through fiscal 26, we were budgeted at the system level, so our costs are a portion of that shared services line in fiscal 26.

IT is the biggest component of that line. And that is not just the IT staff that are employed by the system, but also the IT products that we purchase. Those are included in that number. In fiscal 27, that number actually dips a little bit, and that is because they transitioned finance staff that are on the campus.

So myself, my staff, Nicole’s HR staff, they transitioned us back to the campus budget. So, a portion of the decrease is offset by an increase in compensation and benefits. That’s gonna get a little messy as we try to trend out, and we’ll have to probably restate some things for a comparative number across time.

As I know, people are interested in that shared services number. Debt service? Last year, when the budget was created, it was actually fiscal 25. When the FY 26 budget was created, we thought we would be further along in the steam plant project.

So we had budgeted $4.9 million for debt service. We actually only spent $3.5 because we had not moved as far along as we thought. In fiscal 27, we’re going up a little bit, because we’re still not quite as far along as we thought. In debt service, I do want to touch on one of the other questions was, how much debt service have we incurred for new buildings?

Nothing. We have not bonded… we have not done revenue bonds for any of the new building construction that has gone on. The only debt that we have issued through revenue bonds has been for the electrical infrastructure that’s going on on the south side of campus, and we have authorization to bond for the steam plant.

Steam plant provides heat to 85-90% of the buildings on campus. It operates On a main boiler, that is from 2012. Secondary boiler from 2007, 2008. The backup boilers are from the 50s. We have to invest in the steam plant for… Risk avoidance to campus.

The remainder of the lines? I can go down through in detail if you want. Capital expenditures, the last rate before total expenditures, it’s pretty flat at seven-ish million dollars. I would like us to be able to invest more in our.

Buildings, these… that really goes along with maintenance and alterations. What work can we do to make sure everyone is working in an environment that works for them? MEFA CES and MEIF transfers, we provide a match to these programs.

The requirement for the MEPHIS and CES programs is a one-to-one match. I’m looking at Hannah. Okay, thank you. What has happened over time, the federal grant side has stayed flat, right, so The dollar value… has been a flat number. So as costs increase, because it’s primarily people.

And the cost can be normal collective bargaining, increases in fringe benefit rates, that ends up on the ENG side. And we are providing additional funding well in excess of the required match for those programs. Last year, as I said, we budgeted 2.16 for transfer from reserves to balance. We did 2.3, but that had the 142 in it.

This year, we’re budgeting $5.5 million. From reserves to balance the budget. What we did to get to a balanced budget for FY27 was a mix of ongoing and one-time items. We had a $5.6 million reduction in operating units. A lot of that was vacant positions, retirements that then were not filled.

As well as other reductions. There’s a $2.3 million increase in the state appropriation allocation. So you saw a relatively good-sized jump from $109 million in fiscal 26 to $114.5 million in fiscal 27. That… Was a larger than normal jump, and that’s because the system chose to provide $2.3 million as an offset to the increase in the cost of shared services. The shared services cost looks like it went down because some people were pulled out of that number, but if we had been left in, there would have been a larger increase. It’s really driven by technology and the cost of those products.

We also made changes to the Foundation and UMS, endowment agreements. The one-time items were $5.7 million in budgeted attrition. And 5.5 in the strategic use of reserves. This slide, some people like, some people don’t like.

This is the MYFA, the multi-year financial analysis that we provide each year to the system. The way we have done this, is… Assume status quo. So we have a Fisk, this was… Assume FY27, Everything we have continues. To exist.

We use Deb’s student credit hour assumptions. We use assumptions from the system on tuition increases, state appropriation increases, projected wage growth, fringe benefit rates, and the cost of shared services. Looking at all of those things, you can… if we look at FY27 right in the middle, you can see… The tuition and fees, that’s the gross number.

Other revenue, which was all the other detail. Less financial aid gets us to the 280.1. Salaries, wages, and benefits of $192.50. All other expenses are $93.1. Total expenses, $285.6. Negative $5.5 million balance, that’s what we’re covering with reserves.

If we assume all of the same people stay. All of the expenses stay, except that we add in what we know. We know that there is going to be more in debt service. needed in fiscal 28, because we will be doing work on UMAC. We use projections, the base projections from Deb Allan.

For student credit hours. the system assumptions. That’s where we get to the $19 million gap for fiscal 20 yeah 28. These are last year’s assumptions. We are still waiting for the new assumptions from the system. I would call your attention to the fringe benefit rate.

Our fringe benefit rate this year for fiscal 26 is 48.6%. This assumes going to 49.1. That will get an update. Maybe it would go down? That would be great. We take all of these into account and that’s how we go forward, assuming.

Things continue as is. We’re not factoring in any new proposals into this number. This is kind of the base. Here is the budget process. In my life, budget is all year, all the time, sometimes more than one, two, or three budgets at once, depending what time of year it is.

We’re obviously living in fiscal 27. We are currently in the phase of campus budget development right before fall census. This will go on through January. In February. January, February, we will submit our plan to the system office and we will meet with The board, beginning in… February, March.

To work towards a budget approval process. Also, as the President mentioned, we will have a budget session at the end, or at the beginning of November. We’ll also do a Budget 102, and I would like to take suggestions for what that would be. My thought had been a more detailed look at the multi-year forecast, where maybe we can sit and you can say, well, what if wages increased by 3% instead of 2%. We’re in bargaining right now, maybe that would happen. What does that look like? What does that change for our number?

What if this other number changed? We can try to get there. Happy to entertain suggestions on what Budget 102 could be. But now I’d like to invite President Ferrini-Mundy back up. 

Joan Ferrini-Mundy

I’d like to thank Jenny and all of our presenters. Let’s thank them, and we’ll start to move to the table.

For Q&A. And I’d welcome Brenn Borror to walk us through this part of the meeting. Thank you. 

Brenn Borror

Okay, as everybody’s finding their seats, again, please continue to submit questions through that form. We won’t get to everything today, but we will take those into future discussions. I did ask for the photo of Bear to be added back to this slide, just for my personal comfort, so thank you for that.

The way we’re gonna manage this is first through the pre-submitted questions that have been coming in over the past week, and then we will transition to questions in the room, and then I will integrate questions from the forum as we have time.

A little less than 20 minutes, so we’ll get started. So, first question for our panel. What are the principal drivers of 91¸ŁŔű’s structural deficit, and what is the long-term plan to restore fiscal sustainability?

Joan Ferrini-Mundy

I’ll begin, and I’ll turn to Jenny to speak to that. in a moment. So, I believe that Jenny’s slides gave, gave a sense of the many drivers, for, for the deficit, and how they’ve shaped in different ways over the years, and so we certainly can provide more detail there, but But fundamentally, when you have a structural deficit, the problem is that costs are rising faster than revenues in any setting, whether it’s in your household budget or in your business or in your university. But we haven’t made changes in the structures.

that will help to ameliorate that particular dynamic of the increased cost and the, either flat or decreasing revenue. So, the kinds of things that we work on are about what would help us either bring down costs or increase revenue and that’s the longer term discussion many many good ideas coming from SRE coming from all of you coming from leadership meetings with Deans and others about how to do both of those things in ways that preserve our major intent as a university I would add specifically the changes in FNA that we are very it’s very difficult to model those because that’s so dynamic, as you heard from Jake. Those are a part of this factoring.

Factoring in kind of what’s happening in the world around us. And then there are other matters that Jenny may wish to just mention too. 

Jenny Boyden

I’m not sure what to offer beyond what I said. There are certainly factors in our enrollment. We’re seeing a decline in enrollment. We see a change in the mix of our student for residency.

Our indirect cost rate, as the President… or, our indirect cost recovery, as the President mentioned, has declined and is projected to Continue to decline for now. And then it really is just that our costs are. The growth in our costs are outpacing the growth in our revenues.

Brenn Borror

Thank you. Our second question is, in addition to academic programs, please elaborate on how expenses and revenues in various university operations and enterprises are being reviewed and examined. 

Joan Ferrini-Mundy

So I’ll take that and again turn to Jenny to add.

As you’ve seen and heard, this is a big and complicated university. We’re a comprehensive institution, and you’ve met several of the vice presidents just this morning who are leading entire units that include, of course, academic affairs, but all the others that you see and that you see represented here.

As our process is proceeding this year, every one of these vice presidents who leads a major unit, and then others who also have substantial responsibility, every one has been asked to do a top-to-bottom review with everything on the table.

as a possibility for how we address our challenges with costs and with revenues. And that is ongoing. Academic Affairs has come out first with their ideas, and you’ve heard them described so eloquently by the Provost, and those are moving forward, but it’ll probably be within a few days that we’ll put forward a letter that says more about all of the areas. I just want to assure you that everyone is working, and looking at what possibilities might be available to them by unit, by level, and by, general function.

Jenny Boyden

We are looking at. all available options. I can say, for areas under my purview, so I have finance, I also have facilities. I am struggling to identify what I can change within facilities without further impacting the facilities themselves.

One idea that we are currently Starting to undertake the review, we talked about it at Budget Advisory yesterday, is what if we increase the parking fee in order to support the cost of Snow plowing, snow removal, parking repairs, striping of parking lots.

It appears that the parking fee for faculty and staff has not been changed since at least 1998. It is currently below what students are charged. So I’ve asked the Budget Advisory Committee to Take a review. What is an appropriate rate to be charged?

What are appropriate costs to assign to that charge? And make a recommendation for us to review. If there are other ideas like that, that I can ask Budget Advisory to work on, I’m happy to do that. I offered that opportunity to all of them yesterday as well.

So, what can we do? To support the things that are already happening at the university without reducing them. That’s where I’m looking in particular for. The facilities team. 

Brenn Borror

What is 91¸ŁŔű and the systems strategy for health sciences research, education, and workforce development for Maine?

Joan Ferrini-Mundy

I actually think that Vice President for Research, Guido Bonnie, took that up at a first-tier level, kind of, but we will be evolving that strategy going forward, and I will turn to you, Giovanna, to see if you wish to add, but I would say here that people who are interested in that area, which is a great example of making connections across many, many domains.

I should make that known to Giovanna and to Jake Ward and to Provost Paquette so that we can bring people in to design that for ourselves for our future. 

Giovanna Guidoboni

Thank you. So, I may just add a few thoughts. I know that several questions are about, you know, what about the units that are not academics? How are we approaching the budget? How are we… So, there is just no other way than working together, and I think that Health and Life Sciences is a good example.

Research in that area cannot go on if we don’t pair it with strong academic programs that also support the people that then will advance the innovation after that. And also working on research and working on solutions for the state of Maine and the nation that then can be implemented out there also require an intentional look at how… Research with an end in sight look like.

So there is one thing that I would like to share with you. That is what Erwin Jianchandani just said at a workshop that we had in Portland that was led by the NSF. That was like, research awards are meant to end. And so, one thing that I would like to champion, in this role is let us celebrate awards that end. And what did we do with the money that we were entrusted with?

We should deliver on what we promised, and sometimes we tend to celebrate the millions that we get. That’s great, but then what do we do with those millions? And I think that that is what we need to focus on, and again, in my opinion, that is not just a matter of research, it is working together, looking at the research and solutions that we make possible. And And, when I say that, I don’t mean only STEM.

Because anyway, the… the perception that people have about what we do, the way in which we communicate it, the way in which we engage people, have really to encompass all aspects, from STEM, to art, to communication. So, That, again, coming together will help us.

I believe, as I showed in the slide, that for the health and life sciences in particular, it is just a prime time because of the alignment of many starts that, in my opinion, will offer the University of Maine and the state of Maine to be an example for the nation. And, I… I know what I’m saying, and I know we can deliver, because one of the things that I didn’t show was one of the focus groups that we wanted to launch within the main medical education task force that was benchmarking.

And take examples from other states so that they could inform us on what has already worked or what did not work in other states. And we couldn’t find any that actually worked as a state. And so, I asked Also the director of the National Eye Institute that, if you remember, we invited to campus and I asked the same question, like, which states, which examples can we look at as we embark in this, in this endeavor, and by the way, he came in April, the task force launched in June. So, we have been thinking about this for quite some time, and they said.

Well, Giovanna… The nation will be looking at Maine. So it is not because just I say it. It is the truth. So again, in my opinion, we have a great opportunity. 

Brenn Borror

Thank you. Okay, we’ll transition to questions in the room now. We’ve got a couple of folks with mics up here. If you can raise your hands, they’ll find you.

And while you’re deciding whether or not you want to ask a question, I can ask another one from from the Q&A form. Oh, we got one here. Okay, excellent. Here, do you want to use this microphone, Jenna? Thanks, can you hear me?

Peter Howe

Great. Peter Howe, Vice President of the 91¸ŁŔű Graduate Workers Union, UAW Local 7650. I wanted to ask whether you’re able to share with us when faculty retrenchments and staff layoffs will be taking place, and how it will be decided which departments or which faculty and staff will be facing those cuts.

Gabe Paquette

Thanks very much for… can everyone hear me? Yeah, thanks very much for the question. As you know, we operate within a collective bargaining environment, and all those conversations will take place between the university and those bargaining units affected directly, and I wouldn’t want to comment beyond that.

Brenn Borror

I can integrate a question from online. So far, announcements about the budget have really focused on academic affairs, and this person is curious when we can expect to hear more about plans in other areas of the university, particularly amongst administrative functions.

Joan Ferrini-Mundy

Thank you. This is still live? Okay, good. As I mentioned, every unit at the cabinet level, every major organization has been asked to look at their situation, and so, we expect a letter, fairly soon. I would say… I am worried about promising… everything edited and completed, but certainly next week. That will speak to, kind of, the other half, because Academic Affairs does comprise half the university, and as with Academic Affairs, as I mentioned earlier, these looks do include everything from administration through all of the functions of each of these units, and with… We can provide more as we go. The other thing I will say here, though, is this. We are… you saw Jenny’s timeline about what the… We are working very, very hard, and we’d love your feedback, on being as transparent early in the process as we can, and so engaging in conversations. You just heard the example about parking. There will be others. Engaging in conversations when it’s appropriate with the community to be sure that good ideas are coming forward and that… Excuse me. 

Brenn Borror

Okay, we’ve got a question in the room here. Dave? We’ve got one reliable mic. 

Joshua Kelley

Hello. Hey, that one works. So, right, the projection up there showed 40 million shy in 2030. And, I’m just wondering how you look at this, like, why is tuition not going up? And how does any of this get solved?

Without state investment, because… You can’t, like, just… you know, normally, businesses… don’t say, hey, we can’t sell this product at this cost, so let’s start firing people. They raise the price. Within reason, and we are the cheapest university in New England, right?

State… universe… like, why… why… Why is tuition raising not a bigger solution to this problem? 

Joan Ferrini-Mundy

So it’s a great question, and I’m going to actually turn to Jake a bit to speak about the state situation piece of this. But as you know, we do… We do always consider the potential for tuition increases in concert with our Board of Trustees, and that gets managed in some ways at a system level. I will tell you that when we met recently with student government and had a great conversation with the undergraduates.

Concerns were raised about tuition increases, and, you know, that’s just a lot of this. There are so many different levers, only so many different levers that we can pull to bring in revenues and to increase the potential, but that’s always on the table.

For sure. And that’s important. I’ll turn to Jake because he has the longest history of those of us here with the state. But my general sense is that the state at the legislature and governors across the years have been supportive, and the portion of our budget that comes from the state is very high compared to other states. And so Jake.

Jake Ward

Yeah, I’d just expand on that. I think the, as Joan says, over the years, we have been very consistently supported at a level, a state level of support that other states, state universities do not get. So, there is a relative, comparison there. But certainly, after November, we’ll have a new administration. It tends to be that in Maine, we have governors for two administrations, and… and legislatures, re-elected every two years. So, the potential for, discussions about what state appropriation might be.

The doors open again, but also recognizing that the state itself, reliant on, revenue, tax revenue, and other fees and services, and also a large amount of funds transferred from the federal government, so that, you know, in order for the state to maintain some of the things that they’re trying to maintain, things like healthcare and housing, those priorities, and public K-12 education take up a lion’s share of the budget, so it’s much harder for us to, see an overall state appropriation increase that is Other than what we’ve been doing fairly well at a few percentage points a year.

Jenny Boyden

Yep. I’ll just add one more comment on the state budget. Over the last 8 years, higher education received the 4th highest percent investment from the state. So, the cost of the state’s compensation, so their collective bargaining.

had the largest share of increase, followed by Medicaid, K-12 education, higher education. That’s where this administration and this set of legislatures has chosen to invest funding. So, ahead of all of the other state departments and state activities, we received, overall for higher education, the fourth highest investment.

Brenn Borror

This will be our last question. Okay, yeah, absolutely. 

Gabe Paquette

Thanks very much. It’s a great question, and my colleagues covered the in-state dimension. Yesterday in Enrollment 101, Vice President Coughlin and others also discussed two other things, and I think maybe summarized in price sensitivity for out-of-state students.

We’re seeing out-of-state students who have other options within their home state, other states in New England and other regions of the country are also facing similar demographic pressures and are responding in such a way that 91¸ŁŔű, as our tuition increases, becomes less appealing to those students, especially given their in-state options.

I think we have to be very careful about being overly sanguine about our ability to recruit out-of-state students, given that price sensitivity. 

Joshua Kelley (off-mic)

But haven’t we also let campus go in that their campuses have not been let go, they get to go to their in-state institution.

Hey, the paint’s not falling off the walls. I’ll go here. You know, like, this… The lack of… the lack of investment hurts us in many ways. 

Joan Ferrini-Mundy

Yeah, I think that’s back to this whole question of trade-offs and priorities and where we can invest when, and I think you’ve seen some budget figures about our investment in the physical plant, and we’re at a point where it’s close to a zero-sum game, right? It’s choices about where to put what and what can be maximized and optimized.

Always happy to have those conversations, but do know that this group pays a lot of attention to all of those, all of those pieces, really. Okay. One more? 

Brenn Borror

I promised one more. 

Brian Olsen

From the zero-sum game standpoint, from a, as a department chair perspective.

The faculty within the department are exceedingly committed to trying to find solutions to this. We’ve been working with Dean Hamlin on possible budget cut scenarios, which is always a painful process, talking through that, and I completely empathize with Jenny. You’re looking around and saying, you know, where we start to cut, we start to bleed across the board from the facilities, also on the academic side, where we’re giving up actual, deliverable educational products, when we’re starting to cut. So, we also would love to talk and think and brainstorm about ability to increase revenue that’s under our control within a particular department, but while we have a little bit of say-over about what gets cut, we don’t have much say-over what happens if we raise more money. And we know that the faculty within my department willingness to do that, but are also afraid that what they’re doing is increasing their workload, and they’re going to get the same budget cut at the end of the day, and won’t see any of the money that they would be able to raise. And so, I bring that up as a concern, and that there’s willingness to talk about that, and give some confidence at the local level that the The actions that happen at a local level can be rewarded at a local level to… so that we’re not Helping the university, but… Bearing the cost of doing so, if that makes sense.

Gabe Paquette

Brian, thank you very much for the question. You raised a number of good points. And I think, you know, I think. A wonderful preamble, thank you. But no, I mean, you raise a really important point that we have to take seriously, and I would welcome the opportunity within your unit, you know, and I know the President shares the same view, to come to your unit, but also with Dean Hamlin to have a conversation, you know, ELH, about these very issues. But it’s true. I recognize how, How, you know, how much the faculty are trying, you know, to ensure that we increase, our enrollments, and therefore our revenues, and that comes with certain consequences, so we certainly, want to be cognizant of that, and be appropriately responsive.

Brenn Borror

Okay. Thanks, everybody. We’ll close there. Just want to remind folks of, again, upcoming opportunities for conversation, particularly that budget session that’s been added on November 2nd, and we’ll keep taking questions from that forum for consideration in those future discussions. So, thank you.

Joan Ferrini-Mundy

I’d like to just say thank you all. Thank you for your attention during this time. I’m sure we have more material from the online group, and I look forward to this continued conversation. Thank you. Thanks.

Every day at 91¸ŁŔű, we see our mission in action. Students work alongside faculty and staff in research labs, create and perform in the arts, and learn from Maine’s forests, farms, and coast. They ask questions, test ideas, and contribute to work that matters to our state and the world.

This is the essence of a learner-centered R1 university: bringing teaching and research together more effectively to enrich students’ education and support their success. Discovery takes place across disciplines, and students have opportunities to take part from their first days at 91¸ŁŔű.

This October, we will celebrate this mission during Learner-Centered R1 Showcase Month. We invite our students, faculty, staff, families, alumni, future Black Bears, and neighbors from across Maine to join us. Among the month’s highlights are open houses at the new GEM facility and the Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce and Innovation Center (SAWIC) on October 3, 17, and 25. 

At GEM, visitors can appreciate the scale of 91¸ŁŔű’s 3D printing capabilities. At SAWIC, they can learn how research and hands-on education are helping prepare people for the future of Maine’s working waterfronts. Fall Open House on October 17 will welcome prospective students and their families to campus, with tours of new research and learning spaces.

There is much more happening throughout October, including facility tours, conversations with students and faculty, and events at 91¸ŁŔű’s arts and cultural centers. Take a look at the full Showcase Month calendar and find something you’d like to attend. Family & Friends Weekend, October 2-3, and , October 23-25, offer additional opportunities to gather and reconnect.

We are grateful to the faculty and staff whose teaching, research, and dedication bring this mission to life. We hope that you will join us this month to celebrate our momentum and all that is possible at 91¸ŁŔű and 91¸ŁŔű Machias.

Sincerely,

Joan Ferrini-Mundy
President

Gabe Paquette
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

Giovanna Guidoboni
Vice President for Research

Thank you for your hard work and continued dedication to our students and university as we begin the new academic year.

Consistent with our commitment to more frequent and detailed communication, we write today with an important update about our Strategic Re-Envisioning (SRE) initiative and the development of the FY28 budget.Ěý

As you know, SRE was launched in 2024 to develop shared priorities for the future of our flagship university during an increasingly turbulent period for U.S. higher education. We are grateful to the hundreds of individuals who participated in SRE. Consensus emerged around the vision of 91¸ŁŔű as a learner-centered, R1 university. In the coming weeks, we will share the summative SRE concept paper. In the meantime, for current progress and updates, please visit the SRE website.Ěý

In January 2027, 91¸ŁŔű will submit a draft FY28 budget to the University of Maine System (UMS),Ěýinformed by the priorities we developed together through SRE, our future enrollment expectations, the realities of the rapidly changing federal funding and policy landscape, and numerous other factors — some of which are not in our control. Over the subsequent months, the draft budget will be reviewed, revised, and ultimately approved by the Board of Trustees. For this reason, the September through December period requires our intensive work to develop the budget proposal.Ěý

Our operating costs have increased at a faster rate than both our State appropriation and tuition. Due to demographic and other enrollment pressures, tuition revenue has been flat or down. Recent federal changes have affected research funding, financial aid, and learner access to our institution, particularly among international students. We have stepped up efforts to address decades of deferred maintenance, which is crucial for student and employee recruitment, retention, and success. As a result, we face a significant and growing structural gap. As we shared in the April 2026 , in FY28, that gap, based on current assumptions about revenue and expenses, will grow to $19M unless changes are made.

We acknowledge that you have heard some of this before, including last year. Here is why the FY28 budget process must be different: our E&G reserves have dwindled, college/unit operating budgets have been reduced dramatically, and the use of one-time funds and savings has been maximized so we could minimize the impact on personnel and positions. Our university has done outstanding, difficult work to make reductions and reorganize for efficiency, and we recognize that comes at a cost. Progress has been made, but we must continue to seek permanent, structural solutions both by increasing revenues and reducing expenditures.

Over the past few months and drawing on SRE recommendations and widely vetted data, 91¸ŁŔű leadership developed informed projections about future enrollment, modeled impacts of the changing federal landscape, studied creative options for revenue generation and monetization of assets, and reviewed contracts and sponsorship arrangements.Ěý

After considering a multitude of approaches and solutions, we have concluded that strategic staff layoffs and faculty retrenchments will be necessary to reduce the university’s expenses on an ongoing basis. We recognize that such personnel actions are painful for those directly impacted and for the overall morale of our entire university community. Until now, 91¸ŁŔű has largely managed to avoid employee reductions, despite deep and widespread budget cuts by peer universities across the country. Each cabinet member and director has examined their own area to identify potential realignments, personnel changes, and ideas for new initiatives that will reduce expenses and generate revenue. Please know that everything that can be done to minimize the number and adverse impacts of layoffs and retrenchments will be pursued aggressively in the coming months as we plan for FY28 and beyond.

Informed by the Provost’s Office and Deans, Academic Affairs, which represents approximately half of 91¸ŁŔű’s budget, has committed to reducing FY28 base expenses by $10M, resolving about half of the total university shortfall.

The Academic Affairs portion of the FY28 budget proposal will permanently eliminate about one fifth of vacant positions, decrease overload teaching and other instructional budgets, consolidate sections, and reduce some types of additional compensation, collectively resulting in a base savings of about $2.1M. Over the longer term, additional measures may include increasing seat caps in courses, reducing discretionary course releases, and closing underenrolled programs.Ěý

On the revenue generation side, Academic Affairs will assume responsibility for bolstering enrollment by 1% above current headcount projections in each of the following key categories: the Fall 2027 first-year class, transfer students, tuition-paying graduate learners, and adult degree completers. In addition, undergraduate retention across all years will be improved by 1%. We estimate that meeting these targets, which are modest and realistic and for which we are developing specific strategies, would yield $2.2M for our base budget, recurring annually.

The remaining $5.7M gap could be partially closed by changing the assumptions embedded in short-term measures mentioned above. For example, the elimination of vacant positions by 40% instead of the planned 20% could yield a further $1.5M in savings. Making such changes would require further analysis about feasibility and unintended consequences.

If key assumptions are not ultimately adjusted, and if new options do not materialize, resolving the remaining $5.7M Academic Affairs deficit will inevitably require faculty retrenchments and staff layoffs, going beyond what standard attrition (e.g., retirements and voluntary departures) could address.

At the same time, we recognize that some areas of the university are under-resourced, including in academic areas with growth potential, as demonstrated by student and workforce demand and enrollment management data. If we were able to increase capacity and enroll more students in those programs, our revenue would increase sharply. We plan for targeted hiring in those prioritized areas to enable that enrollment growth.

Similarly, data assembled as part of SRE starkly revealed that some academic areas are understaffed currently, even without a growth plan. This burdens faculty (e.g., significant advising loads), necessitates overloads and other instructional investment, and negatively impacts morale. We hope to address this by hiring full-time faculty, particularly lecturers on 10.5-month contracts, in areas of acute need to increase capacity.

We understand that the necessary actions we have overviewed here willĚýcause concern and anxiety. The Provost’s Office, in partnership with the Deans, will communicate information and concrete plans as they become definite, seeking input as appropriate and consistent with our commitment to shared governance. Additional proposed actions are under development by all other cabinet members and will be communicated in the coming weeks. We will also hold a Budget Town Hall in October.

Please know we continue to explore every avenue to reduce expenditures while minimizing the impact on our employees, core programs, and ultimately, our students and ability to fulfill our mission for them and Maine. This includes, but is not limited to, continuing to partner closely with UMS and State leaders, as well as the University of Maine Foundation, to ensure a clear understanding of our budgetary needs and unique responsibilities as Maine’s flagship university, and to identify opportunities for increased support.

We must all work together to lead 91¸ŁŔű into an era of budgetary stability, sustainability, and ultimately, institutional strength. As we do so, our primary commitment remains steadfast: as we actively recruit new learners to 91¸ŁŔű and retain Black Bears already here, we must assure them they can count on an outstanding learner-centered, R1 experience from their first day through graduation and into their careers and civic life.

Sincerely,

Joan Ferrini-Mundy, President

Gabriel Paquette, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

As we begin FY27, I want to take a moment to thank everyone across the University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias for the extraordinary effort that went into closing the FY26 budget and developing a balanced FY27 budget.

We were able to close FY26 without using unbudgeted reserves. That is an important accomplishment, but it was not easy. It required difficult decisions, additional work, and a willingness across our university to find ways to reduce expenses and increase revenue. Departments shifted additional expenses, as appropriate, to gift funds. Auxiliary Enterprises provided support for additional costs within events and hospitality and stepped up to cover 50% of the cost of the Black Bear Orono Express — . All units worked to manage hiring and, based on feedback from both Faculty Senate and the Administrative Excellence Committee, made improvements to appropriately streamline the critical hire process. Each of these actions is helping us navigate the ongoing financial challenges that our university faces.

I recognize that many of these decisions came with real effort. I am sincerely grateful for the flexibility, creativity, stewardship, and partnership demonstrated by so many faculty and staff. This was a collective effort.

The FY27 budget reflects that same commitment. The budget approved by the UMS Board of Trustees and now in effect enables us to move forward with meaningful investments in our employees,students, and infrastructure, including funding for increased compensation and benefits and for making progress toward addressing deferred maintenance. At the same time, we must acknowledge that it relies on one-time resources and vacancy and attrition savings that were necessary as we continue developing longer-term solutions, including the FY28 budget development now underway. Our continued focus on student success and retention, research and revenue growth, and ideas coming from our Strategic Re-envisioning initiative gives us a strong foundation for that work, which began this summer with the President’s Cabinet and will soon expand university-wide with the rollout of a budget timeline and opportunities for your participation. A budget town hall will be held later in the fall.

Thank you again for everything you have done—and continue to do—to support our students, our colleagues, and the future of the University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias. Sincerely,

Jenny Boyden,
Vice President for Finance and Administration & Chief Business Officer
University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias

I am delighted to share the news that I have appointed Dr. Giovanna Guidoboni as Vice President for Research (VPR) through June 30, 2027. Dr. Guidoboni has served with distinction since stepping in as interim VPR in November 2025. In a mere ten months, she has successfully helped the university navigate a rapidly changing and complex research funding landscape and realize new opportunities that advance our learner-centered R1 mission. A bold leader with fresh ideas, she has been a valued partner to me, my leadership team, center and institute staff, deans, and faculty, as well as key external research partners in Maine and across the nation. 

While serving as VPR in AY26-27, Dr. Guidoboni will temporarily step down as dean of the Maine College of Engineering and Computing (MCEC), though she will continue to serve as the lead for the University of Maine System (UMS) TRANSFORMS project initiative for advancing engineering and computing statewide. Provost Paquette has appointed a leader to serve as interim dean of MCEC in AY26-27, an announcement will be made later today.

At the beginning of the spring 2027 semester, I will launch an internal search within the System for a permanent VPR, who would have an expected start date of July 1, 2027. The prospectus for this position will draw directly from spring and early summer campus-wide discussions on the future of the Office of the Vice President for Research. In advance of launching the search, I look forward to engaging with the Faculty Senate, research center staff, and VPR staff, and will invite their participation in the search process. Further details on the search process and timeline will be forthcoming.  

Please know we will also invite faculty, staff, and student involvement in the national searches launched this semester for deans of the colleges of Earth, Life, and Health Sciences and Education and Human Development. 

Our entire scholar and research community will benefit from the momentum VPR Guidoboni built during her interim tenure and will carry forward in the coming months. Please join me in thanking her for her willingness to assume this fixed-length appointment.

Sincerely,

Joan Ferrini-Mundy,ĚýPresident
University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias

Hello Black Bears,

Welcome to a new academic year at the University of Maine!

While summer was a busy and active time at 91¸ŁŔű, the start of a new academic year always brings a special sense of energy and possibility.

As 91¸ŁŔű begins its 161st year, we are excited for what lies ahead for learners across our campuses, online, and wherever they engage with 91¸ŁŔű. This is a time to reconnect, look ahead, and think about what we can accomplish together.

For those returning to Orono, one thing will be clear: campus looks different than it did when you left in May.

The Mall pathway has been repaved, and work across North Campus is improving roads, parking, and the areas around our athletics facilities. The new GEM facility is open, creating special opportunities for learning, research, and collaboration. The Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce Innovation Center is also open, helping prepare students for careers in one of Maine’s key industries.

More improvements are underway.

Morse Arena continues to rise as part of the future Harold Alfond Athletics Village. Improvements to Boardman and Jenness Halls, including the new Forest Biomaterials Innovation Center, will support teaching and research across engineering, computing, nanocellulose and PFAS research, and so much more. In Machias, work has begun on the Early College Student Success Center, which will help high school students prepare for college and careers.

These changes are about more than buildings. They are investments in our students, our faculty, and the future of Maine.

At the same time, our research mission continues to gain national recognition. On Friday, we launched 3Dirigo X, our latest advancement in large-scale 3D printing and advanced manufacturing.

We are solving challenges through the Maine Forest Bioproducts Advanced Manufacturing Tech Hub. We are serving as a lead partner in the National Science Foundation-funded Seafood Engine. 91¸ŁŔű faculty were also selected to take part in the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, and the university is moving forward with a new Health and Life Sciences Complex.

We are grateful to the faculty and staff whose work has helped make these opportunities possible, as well as to Maine’s congressional delegation for its continued support. Together, these efforts will create opportunities for students and strengthen Maine’s healthcare, forest products and seafood industries, as well as its coastal communities.

We are proud of these positive developments, and there are more to come. As you may also know, we face challenges related to our budget and the ongoing need to modernize our campus infrastructure. We are navigating this together, with input and solutions coming from across the university. These challenges notwithstanding, 91¸ŁŔű’s future is bright. 

There is much to look forward to as a community this fall, including Homecoming, Family and Friends Weekend, athletic events, concerts, exhibitions, lectures, and more. 

That same spirit of excitement and discovery begins during a learner’s first days at 91¸ŁŔű. This year, many students took part in our first Black Bear Bridge Week, and many of those students also participated in Research Learning Experiences, where they were immersed in our learner-centered R1 mission. We concluded the week with a wonderful academic convocation in the Alfond. I want to thank all of the faculty, staff, and students who played important roles in these events by leading, coordinating, and volunteering to support the class of 2030.

To our newest Black Bears, welcome. To our entire community, a hearty Maine Hello. Thank you for all you do to move 91¸ŁŔű forward.

Let’s make this a great year!

Joan Ferrini-Mundy, President
University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias

We are deeply saddened by the , a devoted alumna and generous benefactor whose commitment to the University of Maine touched generations of students, members of our community, and well beyond.

Anne, a proud member of the Class of 1961, met her husband, Richard “Dick” Collins ’59, while they were students here. They married soon after and maintained a close connection to their alma mater throughout their lives.

Anne and Dick’s philanthropy helped transform the former Maine Center for the Arts into what is now the Richard R. and Anne A. Collins Center for the Arts. Their gifts made possible significant renovations to the facility and strengthened its role as a cultural centerpiece for the university and the state. They also helped meaningfully advance Black Bear Athletics, including improvements to Memorial Gym.

Anne took an active role in advancing the Collins Center project and saw the arts as a powerful way to educate, inspire, and bring people together. She and Dick envisioned the center as a place that would serve not only 91¸ŁŔű students and the university community, but people from across Maine. In 2007, they received the Stillwater Presidential Award in recognition of their extraordinary dedication to our university.

Anne will be remembered for her incredible generosity and for creating opportunities for others. Her impact can be seen in everyone who gathers at the Collins Center and in the many ways her support continues to benefit the university.

I never had the opportunity to meet Dick Collins, but my husband, Rick, and I had the great fortune to get to know Anne. I will miss her kindness and wise counsel.

My thoughts are with Anne’s family and loved ones and with those who had the privilege of knowing her. We are grateful for her commitment to 91¸ŁŔű and for the enduring legacy she leaves at our university and across our state.

Sincerely,

Joan Ferrini-Mundy,ĚýPresident
University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias

I am pleased to announce that Dr. James “Jim” Pete will join the University of Maine and the University of Maine at Machias as chief of staff, effective August 1.

In this role, Dr. Pete will work closely with me, our executive leadership team, and colleagues across our campuses to strengthen collaboration, communication, and organizational effectiveness as we advance our shared priorities.

Dr. Pete brings more than 28 years of leadership experience in the military and higher education. Throughout his career, he has led organizations through periods of change, built strong relationships across diverse constituencies, and helped leaders navigate complex challenges. He is known for listening thoughtfully, fostering collaboration, and supporting effective decision-making while keeping people at the center of the work.

Most recently, Dr. Pete served as a professor at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, where he taught senior military leaders and government officials while contributing to curriculum development. His experience translating strategy into action and bringing people together around shared goals will be invaluable as we continue advancing our mission as Maine’s learner-centered R1 flagship university, and land, sea, and space grant institution.

Dr. Pete holds a doctorate in education from Creighton University, a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College, a master’s degree in human resource management from Webster University, and a bachelor’s degree in English communications from Lebanon Valley College.

We are fortunate to welcome a leader whose experience, commitment to service, and collaborative approach will strengthen our university community and help advance our strategic priorities.

I also want to thank William Biberstein for his dedicated service as interim chief of staff and for his steady leadership and support during this transition.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. James “Jim” Pete.

Sincerely,

Joan Ferrini-Mundy,ĚýPresident
University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias

Summer is anything but quiet at the University of Maine and its regional campus in Machias. New students are beginning their 91¸ŁŔű journey, our financial services team is working to implement new aid regulations and maintain learner access to our institutions and opportunity, educators are sharing best practices, and young people are exploring engineering, the arts, athletics, and the outdoors. 

Behind each of these experiences are faculty, staff, and students whose dedication makes our university a vibrant place to learn, discover, and connect.

Thank you!

One of the highlights of the summer has been welcoming our incoming students and their families to Orono for New Student Orientation. They explored residence halls, met future classmates, attended information sessions, and, for many, began to picture 91¸ŁŔű as home.

That same spirit continues across our campuses and centers all summer long. We recently welcomed educators from around the world for the Summer Educators Institute and the Leadership for Professional Learning Symposium, fostering the needed exchange of ideas about teacher recruitment and retention, educator leadership, and the future of schools.

Experiential learning is also taking place in Machias, where a partnership with our marine field station, the Downeast Institute, offers students a two-week introductory oceanography course. Students earn university credit while exploring Maine’s marine environment through hands-on learning along the beautiful Bold Coast.

Summer also brings a wide range of programs for Maine PK-12 students, who we hope will be future Black Bears. These include engineering and computing experiences, Upward Bound college-preparation programs, arts and cultural opportunities, athletic camps, and 4-H youth development programs across the state — including Bryant Pond Camp, the Tanglewood Learning Center in Lincolnville, Greenland Point Conservation Camp in Princeton, and Blueberry Cove in St. George.

These activities demonstrate the many ways our university fulfills its teaching, research, and public service mission throughout the year.

One thing that has stood out to me this summer is that visitors are not simply hearing about our future; they are experiencing it firsthand. They see a university addressing deferred maintenance, expanding opportunities, and strategically preparing for the future. Despite the broader pressures facing higher education and our university, we remain committed to advancing student success, serving Maine, and keeping our mission front and center because Maine’s success depends on its flagship university and largest driver of educational attainment and economic development.

As visitors make their way across our Orono campus, they pass the nearly completed GEM facility and Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce Innovation Center. Nearby, Morse Arena continues to rise as part of the future Harold Alfond Athletics Village. In Machias, planning is also underway for a new Early College Student Success Center, which will provide high school students with a dedicated space to connect, access academic support, and strengthen their transition to college and careers.

Together, these capital projects represent one of the most significant periods of investment in our university’s history. This support from our federal, state, philanthropic, and private partners reflects confidence in our mission and strengthens our ability to serve our students and Maine for years to come.

We look forward to welcoming a new class of students to both campuses next month. In Orono, Black Bear Bridge Week will introduce incoming students to campus life before the academic year begins. In Machias, New Student Orientation will welcome new and transfer students the weekend before classes begin.

Whether someone visits for orientation, a conference, a camp, or another program, they experience an R1 learner-centered university that is continually investing in its students, its employees, and in Maine’s brighter future. That progress is made possible by our faculty and staff. Through your dedication, care, and daily efforts, you help ensure that everyone who spends time on our campuses and centers sees and experiences our public university at its best.

Thank you.

Joan Ferrini-Mundy,ĚýPresident
University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias