Portland’s learning curve (continued)
	Brick by brick Despite funding concerns, the University of Southern Maine has managed to support quite a building boom since 2000, the year the school’s Board of Visitors published a report in which, among other recommendations, it encouraged USM to offer more graduate and doctoral level programs. But when the President of the school, Richard Pattenaude, is claiming USM won’t be able to fill 20 faculty positions this year due to budget woes, where did all the money for construction come from? Much of it is thanks to Portland’s legislative representatives and you, Mr. and Ms. Voting Public. Of the six major construction projects completed since 2000, including a new residence hall on the Gorham campus and the Abromson Community Education Center in Portland, three of them were funded in part by multi-million dollar bonds crafted by Portland legislators and approved by Maine voters. The rest of the money for the academic and operational buildings came from private donations, federal money, and good-old capital campaigns. The total price tag? About $63.5 million for all six projects. According to Bob Caswell, Executive Director of Media and Community Relations at USM, none of the money for the added infrastructure was pulled from academic or operational coffers. But why add a $15 million wing to the Bioscience Research facility in Portland if the school is struggling to find the financial aid money to convince masters and doctoral level students to come and work there? Finding the students isn’t the problem, says Caswell, because these buildings will house programs already overflowing their current facilities. "We’re just not building and hoping people will come and fill these facilities," he says. "It’s not a 'build it and they will come' philosophy. There’s been a pent-up demand for facilities improvements based on the growth of the student body, based on projected academic programs." But it’s not all about what the school needs right now. Since one of the main reasons the University of Maine at Orono is considered the unrivaled masters and doctoral king of Maine public universities is the extent of its infrastructure (about 175 buildings to USM’s 95), it’s crucial to USM’s expansion at this stage to build the kind of sleek, advanced facilities that can rival Orono’s to entice great students, research funding, and ace faculty. Maybe the theory's more like: If USM builds it, great things will come. This year, the school launched a $25 million capital campaign, the largest in its history. The bulk of the raised money, around $20 million according to Caswell, will go toward constructing the "University Commons," a cluster of new buildings planned for Bedford Street which will include a new Osher Institute and a new home for the Muskie School of Public Service. And this November, voters will again be asked to approve money for infrastructure expansion at USM. There will be two related bond issues on the upcoming ballot, one for $2 million to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Portland and the other for $2 million to expand USM’s Lewiston/Auburn campus. It’s up to you to decide if USM deserves the money. _SD

USM President Richard Pattenaude says he can always hope for a larger share from the university system, but he sounds like a man who’s learned not to hold onto hopes. In light of Pattenaude’s claim that 20 crucial faculty positions at USM will remain unfilled this year because of budget constraints, his plan to expand the school’s graduate programs seems a bit ambitious. The 2400 graduate and law students enrolled at USM in fall 2004 account for 21.5 percent of the total student body. By 2009, Pattenaude wants post-baccalaureate students at USM to make up 25 percent of the student body — a net increase of about 350 students, according to the office of Graduate Studies. He says his plan is in direct response to the Board of Visitors, which was created by the Legislature in 1997 to help the school better fulfill its mission.

But supporting more advanced degree programs, as the Board has urged, requires some artful cannibalism on Pattenaude’s part.

"Internal reallocation — we take money from programs that are declining in size, and [use tuition money thanks to] enrollment growth," says Pattenaude. Increasingly, USM and other system schools are relying on revenue from tuition to make ends meet — the kind of model more often used by private colleges and universities and one of the reasons tuition at universities and colleges just keeps growing. Both undergraduate and graduate tuition at USM increased roughly eight percent this year, according to USM spokesman Bob Caswell. It was one of the sharpest increases in a decade.

"This is not about our choices, this is about our desire to serve," says Pattenaude. "People have dreams and aspirations for this community. And it’s our job to be there to support those dreams and aspirations, it puts enormous pressure on us."

According to John Diamond, Executive Director of External Affairs for the UMaine System, it is USM’s job to serve its community, but if this means expanding grad and doctoral programs to rival Orono, it’s not necessarily the chancellor’s job to help USM do it.

"The reason that Orono receives that support is a reflection of its unique mission and its tremendous historical investment in facilities, faculty, and programs," says Diamond.

UMO was founded in 1868 and is the oldest public university in the system. Its mission is to be "the principle research and graduate institution of Maine." According to Diamond, UMO has built 175 academic and facilities buildings since its founding.

By comparison, USM has 94 academic and facilities buildings. USM’s mission is "teaching, research, and public service for the benefit of the citizens of Maine and society in general." What if USM’s mission to serve Southern Maine and the state means offering some of the same programs that Orono does, just a little further south?

Essentially, that can’t happen under the current system. According to Diamond, Orono’s tremendous infrastructure of academic and research buildings can’t be transferred or replicated on the USM campus just because it may have a more urban location. It doesn’t fit the system’s organization or the state’s budget.

"It’s really not accurate to compare the two institutions in terms of head count and geography because the missions are very different and the programs are very different," says Diamond. "It is comparing apples and oranges."

Portland representative Herb Adams attended some of the budget sessions in the House Appropriations Committee last year to show his support for USM as the university system allocation was being decided. In one meeting, Adams says all seven of the university system presidents were in the room. It was the only time he’d ever seen them all together. Not that they argue — Adams says they’re very high-minded about everything. But still, the university system budgeting is difficult. Each school has a mission, each president has a plan, and everyone has to share.

And Adams says representatives in Augusta haven’t had much say about who gets what.

"It would be a very blunt instrument if we put in a bill that just said, ‘USM is going to get $8 million more this year,’ " he says. "That wouldn’t stand much of a chance. Just like if someone said ‘UMF should receive $8 million more.’ "

Instead, Adams and other representatives like Glenn Cummings (D-Portland) have focused on securing bonds for infrastructure improvement, something they can hand off to voters to decide on (see "Brick by Brick" sidebar). In 2003, voters passed a $2 million bond to expand facilities and classrooms at USM’s Lewiston/Auburn campus and in 2005 passed another $2 million bond to expand the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on the Portland campus.

In her office on the second floor of USM’s Graduate Studies department, Margo Wood, the Dean of the department, explains that the university offers fewer graduate assistantships (part-time work in exchange for scholarship money) than most other comparable schools. USM provides 150 full- and part-time assistantships to a post-baccalaureate class of just over 2000 students, not including the law school. This fall, it will combine automatic tuition wavers with assistantships. While this practice is common for many public and private institutions, it will be offered for the first time at USM.

Despite the budget crunch, the University has been able to add eight graduate and doctoral programs since 2000. A master’s degree in Women’s Studies is currently in the works.

Wood, whose detailed 2004 report on expanding the graduate studies department stresses infrastructure, recruitment, and "strengthening of graduate culture," believes the university system chancellors and trustees will relinquish more funds once they realize Southern Mainers don’t want to commute north to study.

"I think as the area, the Portland area, develops a critical mass of need and students who are already here and want to do whatever they’re doing here, it will loosen up," she says.

Exactly when that loosening up will occur, Wood has no idea.

Sara Donnelly can be reached at sdonnelly@phx.com