The Campus Identities Reorganization Plan

This reorganization plan is forward-looking and very realistic. It embraces the Strategic Plan and handily establishes distinctive campus identities (at no cost). Each would become especially effective with regard to marketing USM. Most significantly, only this plan creates administrative structures that highlight USM's emerging strengths, especially those for which we are uniquely competitive relative to other northern New England institutions: 1. business/law/public policy = Portland campus, 2. nursing/health sciences = Portland campus, 3. creative and performing arts = Gorham campus, 4. teacher training = Gorham campus. These foci can provide identity for who we are. They can decisively distinguish us from other institutions in northern New England in the competition for students, as well as providing enhanced targets for our civic, business, and political supporters.

This plan is distinct from those in the Academic Restructuring White Paper because it utilizes the Strategic Plan from an institutional perspective rather than administrative. It saves a comparably modest amount of money as the white paper scenarios. When identified, further cuts can be incorporated into this reorganization plan.

No changes are proposed for L-AC. The following changes are for the Gorham and Portland campuses. All schools would retain whatever administrative structure is required for their accreditation.

Everything would move toward the central, core mission of the institution. Units that might have felt structurally somewhat isolated from the core mission (e.g, Nursing, Education) would be embraced as being at the center of our mission. In doing so, the College of Arts and Science would be split into the following college of sciences and a college of arts:

1) College of Science, Nursing, and Health = Portland campus focus

(including the following, all of which are already on the Portland campus: nursing, biology, chemistry, physics, AMS, psychology, sociology, social work. Also, probably criminology. perhaps computer science and others)

2) College of Arts, Humanities, and Education = Gorham campus focus

(The liberal arts curriculum would be administered together by the two, new colleges. Although most students receive a liberal arts education, it is difficult to use this as a recruiting tool.)

Additional groups would be:

3) Business School, Muskie School, and Law School = Portland campus focus

(It is logical to integrate these together administratively as much as possible for strategic planning and especially for marketing – What other northern New England school could offer these program opportunities in an environment comparable to Portland? Yes, the law school can’t be touched structurally but nevertheless its value can be significantly enhanced.)

4) ASET = Gorham campus focus

(This would likely include engineering, technology, environmental sciences, geosciences, plus reorganization to include the GIS Lab. These are all already on the Gorham campus. These programs have excellent records of placing students in very good jobs right out of college.)

To establish these distinctive campus identities, no programs move.

This plan does not make a perfect split because the college administration of several important Portland-based programs including Communications, English, History, and others would shift to Gorham. Over the years, perhaps some courses might shift toward Gorham, but for now there would likely be a classroom space issue.

For brevity, some important programs aren’t mentioned here. The same is true for some intentional design elements. One quick example: The College of Arts, Humanities, and Education is not a “lumping”. Each of five ‘units’ (one at L-AC, two each at Portland and Gorham) include strong elements with commitment and experience for getting a student a quality job in Maine/New England immediately after graduation.

I’d be please to incorporate your comments. Dave Champlin