Dive Brief:
- Students at the University of Southern Maine are protesting planned faculty layoffs and program cuts.
- On Saturday night, the school’s Student Senate passed a vote of no-confidence for university president Theodora Kalikow to protest the administration’s plan to handle a $14-million budget shortfall. About $36 million in cuts will be made to University of Maine schools overall.
- More than 100 students protested outside the University of Southern Maine’s office of the provost on the school’s Portland, Me., campus on Friday, and more protests were planned for today.
Dive Insight:
It’s a sad situation with a familiar refrain: Lower revenues plus higher costs and declining student enrollment — down 12% over seven years, in this case—means higher tuition, more taxpayer money, budget cuts, or a combination of the three. The cuts will reduce the school’s faculty staff to about 280 from 310. The protests on Friday had some students crowding the hallway outside the office of the provost, Michael Stevenson, as he was trying to conduct meetings with faculty members who were being laid off. Students also chanted: “I don’t know but I’ve been told, cutting professors is getting old. Try to take away their jobs, you’ll have to answer to our moms,” the Bangor Daily News reported.
