The University of Southern Maine encompasses three campuses, in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston. The campus in Gorham is the only one that could be called a “traditional” campus — remote enough and secluded enough to have an insular campus life, but even those students travel to Portland for many of their classes.

The other two schools work with many nontraditional students — single parents raising children, for instance — and are in the hearts of major Maine cities. Until comparatively recently, Portland was tied to the community in one very meaningful way — in providing quality, affordable childcare — until the University Day Care Center was cut in 2009.

Oh, there is a research project and think tank at the Muskie School focusing on child care and how difficult it is to get good quality care in Maine, but the child care program itself, which used to serve about 88 families, many of them university students and staff members, is no longer in operation.

Portland has a crying need for early childhood education, but the truth is the program cost the University $400,000 per year, and when push came to shove, the program had to be axed.

Another program that was lost at the same time was the LifeLine program at the Sullivan Gym, a well-used program for recovering heart patients who needed gentle exercise.

Restoring the LifeLine program, and child care — and perhaps a new, early childhood major — would be simple, obvious ways the University could interact with the community in Portland. Other programs that other universities have tried include things like health care clinics, legal aid clinics, free auditing of classes for community members, free use of libraries, museums, planetariums and observatories, gyms and pools and sports arenas during off-class hours, swimming lessons for children, and more. When one considers how the community could benefit from the presence of a large and tax-exempt property in its midst, those ideas come readily to mind.

University of New England is providing a dental clinic. Bowdoin College offers the community free classes, and free admission to its museums and day use of its libraries.

USM is still very much in its infancy when it comes to thinking along those lines.

According to Richard Barringer, professor of foundations of public policy, sustainable communities, and envrionmental policy, who is trying to define USM’s future, what the campuses need to become are a “metropolitan university.” Portland State University, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and UMass- Boston are examples, according to him, of successful urban universities that have made this transition.

According to David Flanagan, interim president, “metropolitan” universities are those that mirror community characteristics, specifically, “a rich cultural life noted for its music and the arts; for its passionate commitment to protecting the environment; for its concern for children, the disenfranchised and the sick with our schools, social agencies and health care organizations; for welcoming tourists to our state to enjoy its beauty, restaurants and cultural events, and for its entrepreneurial spirit, as displayed in our small businesses, technology startups and service industries.”

But as the child care center example shows, “metropolitan” universities cost something if they’re going to be truly a useful thing to their communities.