The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Neil Greenberg, a 32-year staff member in the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences, is the statewide president of the Universities of Maine Professional Staff Association, which represents over 1,800 salaried staff members throughout the University of Maine System. Michael Grillo has taught for over three decades at UMaine and is a member of the Associated Faculty of the University of Maine. The views expressed represent the authors as individuals, and do not attempt to speak for the University of Maine or the University of Maine System.
In a volatile period of federal research funding including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, now is a particularly urgent time for the Legislature to support Funding Maine’s Future. This campaign asks that the Legislature approve additional funding to the individual University of Maine System campuses so that we can best meet the needs of our students and our responsibilities to the state.
We all are very appreciative of the allocation included in the current budget, but the long-term erosion of state support for four-year higher education and graduate studies has undermined our abilities to offer our students the highest quality education that they deserve, the research opportunities that will prepare them to lead our state forward in an increasingly competitive world, and the rich collaborative potentials that we can build with community partners to further revitalize our towns and cities.
Over the past few decades, funding for higher education in Maine has dwindled, rarely staying even with inflation, at a time when other states are more intentionally investing in their students’ futures. Through a long-term commitment to excellence, the University of Maine has earned its RI Carnegie Classification, identifying it as a national top-tier research institution. Further investment beyond this year’s current allotment is essential for us to maintain this most prestigious status, which helps draw the best and brightest to so many of our undergraduate and graduate programs.
UMaine has embarked on a multi-year strategic re-envisioning initiative as a commitment to using its funding efficiently and ensuring that higher education continues to evolve to meet the advancing needs of Maine. While optimizing our resources positions us well for serving our students, it cannot compensate for long-term funding erosions, for as the renowned innovator, and UMaine graduate, Doug Hall notes, “You can’t cost-cut your way to greatness.” Only through supplemental support can we be fully competitive in attracting and retaining students, staff and faculty, for other peer institutions typically offer better financial-aid packages, graduate stipends, and staff and faculty salaries.
The chronic underfunding of the university system campuses is evident in their inability to maintain many of their facilities. While UMaine has constructed several new facilities with welcome support from private funding foundations, other buildings slowly deteriorate, with inefficient and erratic heating, falling tiles and stained walls, mildew problems, etc., all of which undermine student, staff, and faculty recruitment and retention.
Over the years, our universities have had increasing trouble competing with big-box retailers for essential service positions in offices and facilities maintenance. With increasingly inflated housing costs, several staff members have become homeless, couch-surfing with friends and living out of their cars. Over the past several decades, we have lost numerous positions to attrition with no replacements, whether in support positions or in the faculty. As our student enrolments begin to grow in these post-COVID years, we must rebuild the number of faculty and staff lost through recent retirement attritions so that we can best meet their needs.
For us to responsibly Fund Maine’s Future, we need additional state financial support that will go directly to each campus specifically to support excellent teaching, innovative research, and committed community development. If we are preparing our students for the current world only, we are failing them, for we need to give them the education and experience to create new futures, as innovative leaders in their fields and in new fields unimaginable to us now but vital for the future. Losing a comprehensive coverage of diverse fields, the very definition of university, may help temporarily balance budgets, but makes it impossible for us to teach our students with the full range of knowledge that they will need to lead, that’s right, “dirigo,” to build our state’s future.