By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

If Question 3 passes, Maine’s public universities and community
colleges are poised to receive $43.5 million, funds that could help the
schools manage fluctuations in student demand.

“I’m feeling good about public opinion on the bond issue,” said
University of Maine System (UMS) Chancellor and former University of
Southern Maine (USM) President Richard Pattenaude. “Every campus will
be able to renovate or expand buildings. Much of this is focused on
having modern, up to date facilities as well as expanding capacity.”

The total estimated cost of the bond is roughly $56.7 million, which
includes nearly $14.2 million in interest, assuming the interest rate
stays at 5.5 percent over 10 years.  

UMS is slated to receive $23 million for renovations and improvements,
while the community college system (MCCS) will receive $15.5 million
and the Maine Maritime Academy will receive $1.5 million. The bond will
also include $1.5 million for the Department of Education’s School
Revolving Fund and $2 million for the Maine State Cultural Affairs
Council’s New Century Community Program, which provides funds to
preserve and strengthen historic and cultural assets, expand access to
digital and educational resources and revitalize downtown areas.

Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) officials are faced with the
challenge of providing resources as essential as faculty and classroom
space for a growing student body. Out of the seven colleges in the
community college system, SMCC has seen the most rapid growth - a 140
percent increase since 2002, according to a system report. Central
Maine Community College in Auburn has grown 43 percent during the same
period, Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor has grown by 37
percent and Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield has seen a
36 percent increase in enrollment.

SMCC President James Ortiz expects a new-320 bed residence hall to be
complete in December, but he said the new hall will not increase
capacity, but rather meet the need for students currently renting or
living in off-site housing.  Roughly 160 SMCC students live at the
Maine College of Art and the University of Southern Maine’s Portland
Hall.

USM intends to sell the 290-bed Portland Hall because it is no longer
an efficient, effective or safe hall, said USM Interim President Joseph
Wood. The school opened a 287-bed residence hall last month on the
Gorham campus, increasing the housing capacity across campus to 1,837
students, said USM Executive Director of Public Affairs Bob Caswell.
There are currently 145 vacant beds across campus, which Caswell said
is a reflection of declining enrollment.

Despite SMCC’s rising enrollment, state funding has decreased, said
Ortiz. State appropriations make up 34 percent of the current operating
budget of $35 million. Tuition and fees currently make up 32 percent of
the budget and the remainder comes from federal grants and student room
and board fees.

Five years ago, SMCC’s budget was roughly $25 million, with 55 percent
appropriated by the state and 20 percent coming from tuition and fees.

This year the legislature appropriated roughly $193.6 million to UMS and about $46.1 million to MCCS.

 Ortiz said the school is “maxed out.” He recalled sitting around
a table with the other six community college presidents prior to the
creation of the new system and discussing how they would spread the
message about what community colleges have to offer.

“People just found us and said, ‘This is where we want to go,’” Ortiz said.

This year, SMCC enrolled the largest student body in its history –
5,100 students – at its main campus and satellite locations. The
college currently operates a campus in Bath, seven satellite locations
and offers online and interactive TV courses. There are 1,700 students
enrolled in online courses.

Ortiz projected much of the future growth to take place north of
Portland. SMCC currently offers manufacturing courses at its Brunswick
Advanced Technology Center and has plans to open a campus at the
Brunswick Naval Air Station, part of the former base’s redevelopment
project. Ortiz projected 2,000 students would be enrolled at the
Brunswick campus by its scheduled opening in 2011. By 2014, that number
may reach 10,000 credit students, he said.      

Last fall, SMCC had to deny roughly 1,400 students from enrolling in
their first choice programs due to capacity issues, said Ortiz. He said
many students enroll in the liberal studies program and fulfill their
general education requirements while they wait for an opening.

Programs in which demand exceeds capacity include nursing, radiography,
plumbing, automotive, heating/air conditioning/refrigeration and
communications and new media.

Ortiz said classes in programs like heating and plumbing are restricted
to 18 students because they require more equipment and more space. The
nursing program accreditation body mandates low faculty to student
ratios resulting in small classes, but Ortiz said there is also limited
space in hospitals, where students are required to do internships.
Ortiz said the school is working with hospitals to change that.

Three years ago, there were 60 students in the nursing program, Ortiz
said. Today that number has risen to 90 and there are 300 students on a
waiting list. According to MCCS reports, more than a quarter of Maine’s
registered nurse graduates in 2005 earned their degree from a community
college.

Part of the proposed $15.5 million bond appropriation for the community
colleges has been slated for repairs to SMCC’s Health Science Building,
according to MCCS reports.

One-time funds for USM construction won’t lessen the blow of a
declining enrollment, which has led to another year of million dollar
deficits, said Joseph Wood, USM interim president.

Wood shared the budget figures with colleagues during a series of town
meetings late last month. USM had a deficit of $3.1 million in the
2005-2006 fiscal year, which increased to $4.5 million in the last
fiscal year. The school is projecting a $3.6 million deficit for the
current fiscal year, which ends in June 2008.  

In 2002, USM was the largest school in the state, as it prepared to
welcome 11,382 students, said Caswell. Since then part-time enrollment
has decreased, reducing enrollment to 10,478 students in 2006 and
10,543 this year.

With a target of cutting $5.5 million from an operating budget of
roughly $110 million each year, USM has implemented a three-year hiring
freeze, which began last year and resulted in the elimination of 30
positions and a savings of $1.6 million. The short-term list of fixes
also includes eliminating another 90 positions, which Caswell said they
prefer to do by attrition, and reducing spending on equipment and
travel.

“Even as we freeze hiring and scale back the number of employees
through attrition, we also need to think about what things we do and
what things we don’t do,” said Wood. USM needs to evaluate degree
programs to determine if spending out paces student interest.

Caswell said there are a number of proposals school officials hope will
be “firm proposals” by early next year. Those proposals include
consolidating the business school with the applied science school and
expanding or downsizing the Muskie School of Public Service.

“We’ve got some hard work we need to do over the next several years,”
Caswell said. “We really need to grapple with our organizational
structure.”

Last week, Wood announced plans to step up student retention,
recruitment and marketing initiatives. The school has formed an
Enrollment Council and a Tuition and Pricing Ad Hoc Committee to
recommend enrollment and tuition goals and building stronger
relationships with employers, high schools and the community colleges.

Wood stressed USM’s full-time enrollment continues to stay strong. The
overall undergraduate headcount is down from 8,287 in 2006 to 8,133;
but the number of full-time students is 5,996, up from 5,972 last year.


“In terms of that core full-time student cohort, we’re doing fine,”
Wood said. “We’re holding our own. The students who are departing are
the students who should be going to community colleges.”

Before the community college system was created, Wood said USM was a
community college for southern Maine and while the two-year degrees may
have been eliminated, the school still has a lot of developmental
programs and is still organized like a community college.

Pattenaude, who served as USM president for 16 years, also said the
school played the role of community college for several years and it is
feeling the loss of part-time and non degree students.

“We all saw that impact coming, but projected a decline of about 3
percent whereas the decline is closer to 10 percent and this
restructuring of enrollment patterns appears to be permanent, hence the
need to refocus the instruction closer to 10,000 than 11,000,” he said.
“The USM situation is somewhat unique being located so close to three
rapidly growing community colleges, but I believe a good recovery plan
is in place.”

Pattenaude said other UMS campuses have faced deficits, including the
University of Maine at Machias. He said the school is working to
redefine itself as an “environmentally oriented college with a broader
New England appeal.”

According to March 2007 UMS Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes, the 2007
spring enrollment exceed 32,000 students for the fifth year in a row.
Full-time enrollment decreased by 63 students and part-time enrollment
increased by 374 students. While financial aid has been increasing
roughly 10 percent per year for the last several years, Pattenaude said
tuition has also been increasing roughly 8 to 9 percent per year. In
the current year, a full-time Maine resident can expect to pay roughly
$15,714 per year, which includes housing, books and other fees.  

Part of the attraction to the community college system is that it
offers the lowest tuition in Maine, roughly $78 per credit hour or
$2,340 per year for full-time students. Ortiz said tuition has largely
remained constant over a five-year period. The board of trustees did
approve a $2 increase per credit hour this year and a $4 increase last
year.     

From the very beginning, Ortiz said the mission of the community
colleges has been to increase access for students who had no plans of
going on to college.

Instead of decreasing the pool of degree seeking students, Ortiz said
the community colleges are actually increasing the number of students
who go to four-year universities in their junior years.

According to a MCCS report, there were 2, 336 community college
transfer students enrolled in the UMS system last year, an increase of
40 percent since 2002.

“That’s a great thing,” said Caswell. “That’s how the public higher
education system in this state should work. We support the system, but
it has impacted our enrollment.”