UMaine Combines Departments, Creates School of Economics
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — Combining two departments with complementary expertise, the University of Maine has created a new School of Economics. The new structure is intended to enhance UMaine’s ability to serve contemporary student interest and to address statewide needs.
Formed by merging the Dept. of Economics and the Dept. of Resource Economics and Policy, the school became an official UMaine unit when approved by the University of Maine System on Feb. 26.
“As separate departments, these faculty groups have educated thousands of students and provided invaluable research contributions, while extending their expertise statewide to help individuals, communities and the state deal with any number of critical issues,” says UMaine President Robert Kennedy. “Working together as one school, they will be able to expand on that record of accomplishment, to the benefit of our students and our state.”
The new organizational structure will include scholarship and teaching in a wide range of fields including international economics and development; public policy economics; business and financial economics; health, labor, and demographic economics; urban and regional economics and development; economic growth and macroeconomics; marine, forestry, agricultural, and related resource economics; and environmental economics and policy. Students in the School of Economics will earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics, financial economics, resource economics and environmental economics.
While such schools are typically part of one of a university’s colleges, the UMaine school will operate under a different model which is unique in the northeast. The school will be part of UMaine’s College of Business, Public Policy and Health and its College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture. The deans of those two colleges will share oversight of the school.
“The innovative cross-college structure will provide timely opportunities for teaching, research and outreach synergies between the two colleges, while providing some administrative savings through the creation of one larger academic unit,” says Edna Mora Szymanski, UMaine’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “Collaboration between the two colleges has already produced some great results, including the Center for Tourism Research and Outreach (CenTRO) and a tourism certificate program.”
Additional benefits are expected through collaboration with the recently formed School of Policy and International Affairs in the areas of international economics and development.
Those involved in creating the new structure point to the importance of teaching, research and outreach in areas of contemporary concern, including issues related to understanding Maine’s current and potential role in the North American and global economies.
“Maine is an ideal state to have a School of Economics at the intersection of business, the North American and international economies, and the environment,” says Daniel Innis, dean of the College of Business, Public Policy and Health. “Examples of how business and natural resource issues overlap are ever-present in Maine as are matters of international economics and business. Faculty in the school will work on issues related to creating the best balance between economic development and the environment.”
Innis pointed to examples including urban sprawl, business and economic sustainability, human capital development and retention, land use issues, and the relationship between economic activity and human health.
“The School of Economics will continue to serve traditional natural resource and agricultural clients, but will bring these industries closer to businesses and entrepreneurs and provide more insight into the effects of increasing trade and globalization,” says Edward Ashworth, dean of the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture. “In addition, the new school will serve as a research catalyst as it will bring together the diverse areas of research specialization currently existing in the two colleges.