A University of Maine System committee voted 6-1 Wednesday in supporting a proposal to cut the undergraduate French major and the master’s program in applied medical sciences at the University of Southern Maine.

“I think all of us are personally affected by everything that has happened and wish that things were different, but they are not,” Trustee Margaret Medd told the academic and student affairs committee of the system’s board of trustees.

Trustee Bonnie Newsom opposed the eliminations, saying she didn’t have enough information, and questioned, for example, if the programs needed better marketing to grow demand.

“I want to be able to support your proposals, but I worry that in our haste, we may not be doing our due diligence,” Newsom said, prompting applause by audience members.

The full board of the trustees will meet at USM on Friday to vote on the proposal.

USM President David Flanagan has said the academic program cuts are necessary, along with eliminating 50 faculty positions in various departments, to shave $6 million of a budget gap of $16 million for the next fiscal year.

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USM officials say 36 faculty members took an enhanced retirement package by the Monday deadline, with 24 of them in departments targeted for cuts. The 24 retirements could offset layoffs in targeted departments, but the administration has to determine whether some positions need to be replaced.

On Wednesday, Flanagan repeated that the administration values the programs and regrets cutting them, but that the financial crisis demands immediate action.

“The $16 million (gap) … is real,” Flanagan said, referring to critics who have questioned the administration’s accounting. “No one can wish it away no matter how hard they scrunch up their eyes and wish really hard. No amount of teach-ins and wishing is going to change this reality.”

Student activists planned to hold a forum Wednesday night to discuss USM finances.

After the meeting, committee members remained to talk to the roughly 40 people in the audience for about an hour. All the speakers criticized the cuts.

“The (biotechnology) jobs are there, the phenomenal faculty is here. How do we augment the program to attract the people to make it profitable?” said Nathalie Forster, a project manager at Maine Biotechnology Services Inc. in Portland. “Please don’t eliminate (the programs) because the numbers aren’t reconciling.”

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Flanagan warned that some education experts predict many universities will be forced to close in the coming decades.

“What we’re doing at USM is to avoid being part of the casualty list and rebuild as a financially sustainable institution,” he said.

Flanagan has proposed closing the remaining $10 million shortfall through staff and administrative cuts, and an academic reorganization that will cut costs and add revenue, he said. Those plans will be announced before the end of the year.

Last year, USM closed a $14 million gap in its $134 million budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. These cuts are aimed at closing the projected budget gap for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2015.

Closing a projected $16 million budget gap, “is a very daunting task,” Flanagan said “This proposal is one component of an overall program of structural reform to address our structural deficit.”

This fall, the French program, with one professor, had seven majors, two minors and 62 students taking classes, a campus spokesman said. The applied medical sciences program, with five faculty, had 16 majors and 54 graduate and undergraduate students taking courses.

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Without changes, the entire University of Maine System faces a projected $69 million deficit by 2019. In the most recent budget, approved in May, officials cut 157 positions and used $11.4 million in emergency funds to close a $36 million deficit in the system’s $529 million budget.

Several area high school language teachers said they hoped the USM French program could be spared, and several current USM students said the cuts could drive students away.

“If the students are not satisfied, I’m sorry, but we will go elsewhere,” said senior Tom Bahun, a double major in political science and history.

“The students don’t want this. For the most part, nobody wants this,” said recent USM graduate Philip Shelley. “I just think it’s tragic. We have to try to grow, to foster development, instead of trying to take us apart.”


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