November 20, 2008
To: Members of the UMaine
Community
From: President Bob Kennedy
Gov. Baldacci announced the details of his
budget curtailment order Wednesday afternoon. His proposal to the
legislature reduces the current-year University of Maine System
budget by $8.3 million, as opposed to the $10.6 million
curtailment we anticipated several days ago.
For UMaine, this translates into a current
year reduction of $5,375,803. The governor's Wednesday actions
restored all FY09 Maine Economic Improvement Funds ($628,187) and
some base-budget funds ($555,500) for a total r of $1,183,687.
While the curtailment will still have a
major impact on UMaine, its students and its ability to serve our
state's critical needs, we appreciate the governor's efforts to
minimize the reduction in the University of Maine System budget.
As you may recall from last week's message (http://www.umaine.edu/news/budgetupdate.htm),
we were preparing plans to deal with an even larger curtailment.
The governor's actions demonstrate that he listened to our
arguments that any reduction has a serious impact on our students
and on UMaine's unique capabilities and potential to make Maine's
economy stronger.
Appreciative as we are, it's still
important to note that these are exceptionally difficult times and
this curtailment, especially after several years of budget
cutting, will challenge all of us in significant ways. We will
continue to communicate with you and the university's advocates as
this situation unfolds, and we will all need to work together to
make the case that investment in UMaine is critical to helping our
state move toward a brighter future.
