Dive Brief:

• The University of Southern Maine’s president is backing off of her plan to lay off 12 faculty members to help close a $14-million budget gap.
• Theodora Kalikow, the president, claims she was not influenced by weeks of student protests. Or the roughly two dozen students meeting state lawmakers in person to lobby against the layoffs. Or the faculty union’s challenge of the layoffs. Or the university’s Faculty Senate 27-point proposal for alternative cuts.
• Kalikow didn’t say what changed her mind, but she didn’t see herself as caving in to pressure, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Dive Insight:

While Kalikow told the Faculty Senate on Friday that the layoffs are off the table for now, she has not reversed her decision to eliminate about 35 positions. She will listen to ideas for alternative cuts over the next couple of weeks. The formerly laid-off faculty are safe until at least October, when the next layoff notices could go out. Two of the student protests over the layoffs drew at least 200 people. The university’s budget of $140 million is due to be cut by $14 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1 — part of a $36-million overall budget gap for the University of Maine schools due to state funding and enrollment issues, while tuition remains frozen.