Recommendations for implementing a new unified budget system for all of the campuses of the University of Maine were presented Monday to the University of Maine System Board of Trustees.
The proposal places an emphasis on collaboration among the campuses to reduce costs by creating a systemwide budget to replace the system in which each campus proposed its own budget to the trustees.
Board Chairman Sam Collins said the so-called One University initiative is predicated on collaboration among the seven campuses.
“Getting all of the CFOs from each of the campuses in the same room and agreeing on a direction that these recommendations have come up with,” Collins said. “Certainly, balancing the budgets of each of the campuses is critical for a total unified budget balance. We’ve been moving in that direction and we’re getting there.”
As part of the new financial strategy, UMaine financial officer Ryan Low recommended that the seven campuses be placed in three separate groupings and assigned a standard tuition rate for each group.
“In the group with Augusta, Machias, Fort Kent and Presque Isle, that would mean moving up to the Machias rate, so it would be setting all of those four campuses at the $222 per credit hour rate,” Low said. “In this case Farmington and USM would be at the next level up at $261 and then UMaine would be at $279.”
The board is expected to adopt the budget plan in September.
Correction: The board is expected to adopt the budget plan in September, not November.