GORHAM – With enrollment slipping, the University of Southern Maine is looking to trim faculty, programs, and possibly closing a dormitory complex in Gorham, as officials wrestle with a sizeable gap in the $140 million budget.

“We’re looking at coming up with $14 million,” Robert Caswell, university spokesman, said this week.

But, Caswell said that the direct impact of proposed budget cuts would not be significant on the Gorham campus. Caswell said the university could cut 20 to 30 faculty positions this spring. That comes on the heels of last year when the university axed 21 faculty positions, with a majority of the jobs cut through attrition.

Last week, Theo Kalikow, university president, said at a faculty Senate meeting that she proposes cutting four programs – American and New England studies, a graduate program; geosciences; arts and humanities; and recreation and leisure studies.

Geosciences, which includes geology and related subjects, is taught at Bailey Hall on the Gorham campus with four full-time instructors. Jobs lost, if the four programs were cut, would total eight full-time faculty positions and would affect 120 students. But, under university policy, they would be guaranteed access to courses.

A university study group has also weighed closing the eight-story Dickey-Wood dormitory complex, known as the twin towers. Caswell said the dorm, which opened in 1970, could accommodate more than 350 students, but is probably less than half filled now.

Caswell said those facilities have deferred maintenance issues that need to be addressed. He said savings in upkeep would be “significant” and a decision about Dickey-Wood could come this spring.

In recent years, the USM enrollment has dwindled from nearly 11,000 students to 8,923 now.

“Our enrollment has been declining since 2006,” Caswell said.

Caswell said enrollment is “a big driver” in the budget, as about 60 percent of revenues are generated through tuition and fees.

Caswell said a USM budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 needed to be submitted to the University of Maine system chancellor’s office in Bangor by early April.

Kalikow told the faculty that the university system and the state need a successful USM.

“We can not be complacent when facing a sea change of financial, demographic and technological forces,” Kalikow told the faculty. “We are engaged in a difficult, dynamic process but one that, ultimately, will allow us to build a sustainable and stronger university better prepared to serve students and Maine people in a new era.”

Theo Kalikow, president of the University of Southern Maine, welcomes students outside the Dickey-Wood residence hall in Gorham last September.