University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy delivered the 2026 State of the University address on March 4 in Minsky Recital Hall.
The slides presented at this event are available online.
Full transcript of event
George Kinghorn:
Good afternoon. I’m George Kinghorn, Senior Executive Director of Cultural Engagement and I would like to welcome you to the State of the University address. We would like to thank you for joining us today in person and via zoom.
We would like to begin with the University of Maine’s land acknowledgement:
The University of Maine recognizes that it is located on Marsh Island in the homeland of the Penobscot Nation, where issues of water and territorial rights, and encroachment upon sacred sites, are ongoing. Penobscot homeland is connected to the other Wabanaki Tribal Nations — the Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Mi’kmaq — through kinship, alliances and diplomacy. The university also recognizes that the Penobscot Nation and the other Wabanaki Tribal Nations are distinct, sovereign, legal and political entities with their own powers of self-governance and self-determination.
Chancellor Dannel Malloy:
I am very happy to be here but I do want to say a few things at the outset. We are seeing a war underway in the Mideast once again. We should keep in our minds that civilian loss as well as at least six members of our military losing their lives as well, we should hope and pray if we are so inclined that some sort of settlement takes place before more civilians are destroyed and I hope you share those thoughts. There are unusual decisions being announced in the federal government, money being taken away, sometimes coming back, sometimes never to be seen again. These are difficult times for colleges and universities, not just in New England where we have a particular issue that we face, which is we tend to be the oldest portion demographically and that causes even more trouble when those sent to us or taken away by Fiats, and we are dealing with a problem on an ongoing basis.
Let me also say of your university, you have played a large large role in helping all of us in Maine, public and private to understand the difficulties that we are facing, that your university is facing as a result of decisions being made in Washington that are not based on reality, not based on what’s going on at this campus or at any of our campuses. And we can also hope and pray that we move from that type of government to a more steady application of the rules that they are bringing forward in the hopes that they understand that they hurt the universities, but more importantly they hurt our students. We know that we have an uphill fight when it comes to making sure that young people come to college or university.
But what they read and what they hear and what they see happening to us is a true challenge, and I want to say to you in this room that this university has responded very very well, and because of that I will say it again. Some of our small universities are in a better position today because of the work undertaken by the land grants, our flagship university, our space university, and sharing your great expertise has been very very helpful. I also want to say that we have made a decision within the system with respect to the bonuses paid for the first contract with our graduate students. Rather than having that money taken out of dollars appropriated for actual research, the system will step in and make those payments, and I give some credit to the next person to speak, Joan. I want to say of my relationship with your president, we have a close working relationship.
We decided that that was the best thing for all of our universities and I reference to that already, but I also want to tell you that no one fights harder for their university, no other President fights harder than any other president in our consortium of universities, but this is the biggest — this is the only R1 university in Maine, and you are doing tremendous work.
I want to say, before I turn it over to Joan in just a minute or so, thank you for what you do. I frequently refer to those folks who are involved in education, that what we are involved in is raising the next generation. And educating that generation to be good citizens, to be active in their community, to have the jobs in the work that they hope to have, you are responsible for that. And we know that when someone in a family receives a degree, it is likely that the next generation will get a degree and the next generation after that will get a degree.
And so I think the steps that this university has taken, what we have seen in retention across all our universities, but also very much here, we can be very very proud of. And then finally, before I turn it over to my good friend, your president, who I respect so very very much, there is one other group of folks I should have included.
As you know, there have been great difficulties with respect to immigration. People not being treated properly. American citizens losing their lives, people who are here legally being forced to prison. All of that, too, should be on our list of things we want to see as a nation, as a state, as an individual, we need to make progress on that subject as well. With that, Joan, thank you so much for inviting me. I’m sorry I missed it last year. I’m looking forward to your speech, but I look forward every single day to working with you.
Joan Ferrini-Mundy:
Hi, everybody. That’s okay, good to see you all. Thank you so much, Chancellor, for the gracious introduction and for your steadfast support of the University. Including our regional campus in Machias. Let’s begin with an acknowledgment of the sad and tragic events at the University that happened over the last few weeks. I like to have a moment of silence for our students Joamaliz Orozco and Kasie Malcolm, who tragically passed away, and for Chance Lauer, who is missing. Thank you.
Good afternoon, everybody, welcome to everyone who is here and those watching the lifestream. Is the livestream working? We will be able to see it at some point. I want to say the state of the university is strong and evolving. Right now more than 10,000 prospective students who have been accepted to University of Maine for the coming fall are considering whether they will ultimately enroll here. We are the most powerful educational and economic engine in the state, and Maine is counting on us. There are numerous challenges and I will speak to them directly through this talk but we are poised to meet them and move our university and the state forward. Today I want to thank everybody here for your great work and to urge us to keep our focus on the best interests of our students of the state as together we innovate and adapt to become even stronger and more sustainable for the future.
So here is why I’m confident and excited about the fact that we are strong and evolving and that we can succeed. First, we have a dedicated, talented and problem solving oriented community here. We are good at assessing and adjusting to the shifting landscape around us. We are essential, perhaps more so than ever to the success and well-being of our students, the state of Maine, and well beyond — a responsibility I know we all take seriously, and in our 161st year we are continuously improving. Okay. Are the slides up? Okay, that was a success. I should be happy. Okay. I’m glad that we are here today as a community as black bears. We have chosen to be here and stay here for a variety of reasons. Our students have chosen a pathway to a career, advance to other pathways of career and to enjoy their college years and more.
I want to thank our excellent University of Maine student government inc and the leaders were here today and I know that we have Keegan Tripp who is the president and we may have Alison Emery, president of the student alliance Council and the graduate student government and its leaders, I don’t know if they are here today.
These two organizations present our student body very very well. I rely on them in our regular meetings to let us know what we can do better and how we can learn together and they are extremely helpful. I want to also congratulate you, and I had to really look this up. I’m bringing the driver era to the area. I think that is a good thing so congratulations.
I would also like to acknowledge the leadership of the UMaine Machias Senate and its president, Joseph Ferguson. Machias, congratulations on your recent successes like the annual Haunted Forest and the annual ice fishing derby. You bring hundreds of local visitors to your events, reminding us how important students are to the fabric of local communities.
Others of us are here because we care about the University of Maine as an institution. We recognize the important role it has as a source of talent and solutions in our state, nation and world, and we want to do our part in the roles we will have to make it strong and steward it for those who come after us. I would like to ask that Chancellor Malloy and members of the University of Maine system, I see St. John in the back and Ken O’Leary, the directors of research series and institutes and members of the faculty Senate for a standard — stand and wait so we can acknowledge what you do for this institution.
Thanks to all of you for your leadership and partnership. I’d like to recognize — we are all here and/or, we are all here because we love to teach and share our knowledge with our students around the world. I’d like to recognize the 2025 Presidential Teaching Award winners Dr. Gayle Kraus, from UMaine Machias, and Dr. Melissa Maginnis, from UMaine; 2025 UMaine Alumni Association Distinguished Maine Professor, Dr. Mark Brewer; and our 2025 honorary degree recipient Dr. George Denton. They are exemplars of the hundreds of committed, impactful faculty at our university.
Last year, for the first time, Dr. Peter Schilling and his team at the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) recognized 14 dedicated faculty and graduate student assistants with the SEATLE (Supporting Excellence, Achievements, Transformations, Leadership and Equity) in teaching awards.
Biologist Dr. Eric Jones won the “Cross Campus Pollinator” award (works across UMaine and UMaine Machias) and Dr. Liliana Herakova won the “Starter Culture” award (she works nurturing the next generation of educators.)
Our teachers are fantastic. Many of us are here because this is a place where we can discover, create, interpret and understand the world around us through research, scholarship and creative endeavors. As a result of all that excellent work including that of the doctoral students who completed their degrees, UMaine’s prestigious Carnegie classification was reaffirmed in 2025. We remain the first and only institution in Maine to receive this high level of productivity and research performance. And we reached another record high in research expenditures in the 2025 report which is 2024 data. You may be asking what HERD is — it’s the higher education and research development survey.
We are up in that data set from 188 million to 198 million and we sit in the 85th percentile amongst universities. We have steadily made progress on our research expenditures over the last decade. Many of the people here know that UMaine is a critical partner with the state. For example, Doctor Angela Mech is doing tremendous service for Maine by leading the Spruce Budworm lab to track one of the most pesky US threats to our forest. The UMaine Cooperative Extension reached more than 72,000 individuals through online and in-person programs over the last year and over 15,000 young people participated in 4 H camps and learning programs throughout the state. We have so much to be proud of.
Others are here because of the course of whatever they do for the university, they care deeply about our students and helping them to succeed in whatever way they can. I particularly want to thank all of our staff. At our holiday dinner in December I met a member of our custodial staff Gail Nadeau who took the time to decorate a cart around the holidays because she knew it would bring a smile to the students during a stressful time of the year and I’m sure that it did.
457 student athletes at this university pursue their degrees wild playing division one sports and they make UMaine and our entire state proud. We have a number of people from our athletics department here. If folks can wave, I would like to acknowledge all for what you bring. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Special congratulations to last year’s championship teams. Men’s ice hockey won the Hockey East title last March and this fall, women’s soccer three-peated as America East champs. Women’s cross country was the American East champion for the first time in UMaine history and our women’s field hockey team achieved a GPA of 3.89, the highest among all D1 field hockey programs. Women’s Basketball has its first playoff game tomorrow night in the pit against University of New Hampshire.
Athletics is a vital part of UMaine and we thank you for all you do. If you love the outdoors and its day in Maine for that reason you can learn to experience as a listener first. Karen Beeftink of UMaine Machias is inviting others to do just that with our soundscape Project, developed with artists and ecologists to capture Maine’s sonic environment. People care about Maine and its cultural heritage and are there because part of what the state’s public research university does is to educate and preserve and promote that heritage. I’m thinking specifically here of our Wabanaki center which will move to a renovated building next year which will elevate its community engagement. If you haven’t visited our outstanding Hudson Museum, you should.
Finally, I hope a part of while all of us are here is because this community feels like home because it feels safe, it welcomes us, and nurtures and challenges us. I truly hope that is true of our 490 international students, faculty and staff. From the 67 countries that they represent. I know they are here for those reasons and more. I know many of you are able to attend — thank you to our international community and we know how vital you are to this university so let’s applaud our international group. [APPLAUSE]
I also know that being part of a community, especially higher ed Community right now can be difficult. The Chancellor named a few. Many are understandably anxious and fearful about the future in this community and we need to acknowledge that I’m sure we pay attention to that. Over the last year here, we have done a number of things. We have stepped up our efforts to prioritize student well-being, belonging and success university wide. Deeper collaborations among UMSG, the undergraduate-led Committee of Holistic Health and Wellness, and Student Life departments—including Student Wellness (SWell), the Counseling Center, Campus Recreation, and the Academic Affairs’ Student Success Hub—are resulting in a coordinated network of care. Our new balance rec center gets 1000 visitors a day. Participants in the counselor center’s holistic health among the center grew 26 percent this year and for the third year in a row we maintained no waitlist for counseling. Student input has shaped the programs and spaces that we have, such as the mind spa, relaxation station and powerlifting gym which I can verify looks great while all I have done is walk by.
All of those are made to foster balance and restoration here. We are seeing some results. Changes at the federal level have affected all of us. Faculty and staff have scrambled to find new funding for their students while at the same time they are reassessing and adapting in their own research and scholarship to align with new priorities and new funding opportunities. That is not easy work. Given this landscape that is evolving, our faculty and staff are working to write even more unusual proposals but the environment is very tough.
So far in fiscal 2026, 275,000,000 new dollars and funding have come into UMaine because of the diligence and intelligence and excellence of our faculty and staff. Congratulations. At the same time, these numbers in comparison to previous years are down. At this point last year our grant amount was 141.1 million, about double where we currently stand. So we are looking for ways to support our faculty as they seek external funding and pivot and adapt to address some of the new federal priorities and that’s an element of change that is really quite significant.
I want to thank Interim Vice President for Research Giovanna Guidoboni and her team in the Office of Research Development have launched the “Coffee and Concepts” program. Over 40 faculty across campus are working to learn how to write quick quadchart in response to calls for proposals – the goal is to have fast, effective responses, in an “it takes a village” environment. to provide internal feedback and rapid improvement. Two major current topics of focus, in alignment with state and federal priorities: AI, materials, and manufacturing; and health and life sciences and engineering.
Thanks to the very good work of our University of Maine foundation we were able to provide $250,000 in bridge funding to sustain graduate workers whose research was impacted by federal cuts last year.
Having mentioned the foundation I would like to call to your attention the president of the University Maine foundation, Jeff Mills who can wave — Jeff has announced his intention to retire in six months from the Maine foundation. I want to publicly congratulate him and thank him for his amazing contributions to the University. [APPLAUSE]
Beginning in January of 2025, I established several new groups that I want to thank all involved for their effort. To study and respond to changes coming along with this new administration. Several senior administrators at UMaine, along with Chancellor Malloy — and many others turned from some of what they were doing and spent their time on to take up this work. I want to especially thank vice president Jake Ward and Senior advisor Jason Charland for their incredible leadership in the amount of time they put into tending to our attention to the federal efforts. Jake and Jason, thank you. They are here somewhere.[ APPLAUSE ] One group was the Grant review task force. After January 20th they met almost every day in 2025.
Grants that were terminated, suspended, inextricably suspended or being questioned, all received thoughtful direct consideration from this group which was also taking in and learning the federal policy changes in the moment. All efforts were made to restore impacted grants. Since last January the group has looked at 176 grants and of that 91 have been restored.
This is remarkable compared to other universities. The current federal administration as Chancellor Malloy has noted, has created a number of issues and challenges for universities and for this university. They have issued 127 executive orders along with countless other documents, many of them really affecting us very directly. More than a dozen leaders from around the system meet monthly and more frequently earlier as part of a second group, our federal actions group take over — they are assessing in real time and digging into understanding how we can respond to these new challenges in ways that protect our community and that move us forward and not the same time leverage new opportunities.
We are grateful to Maine’s congressional delegation, Senator Susan Collins and Angus King and representatives Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden for their ongoing support and engagement and we engage with them frequently over the past 14 months. In particular Senator Collins who chairs the Senate appropriations committee directly helped to reverse a number of those Federal awards, such as Maine’s Sea Grant and secured new federal spending that recognizes our importance in Maine. I should note here that I will be grateful to the state legislature and Governor Janet Mills and her administration for their ongoing support of Maine’s public universities including ours.
I can tell you that at UMaine over the last few years the percentage of our E&G budget that comes from the state is close to 40 percent, and it is about half of what covers the University of Maine system. We are also very fortunate to receive an annual appropriation from the state for the Maine Economic Improvement Fund, or MEIF, currently at $21.85M for UMS and about $17M coming to UMaine.
Now I need to speak frankly about our challenging fiscal situation. We do not have enough resources to do everything we want and need to do as Maine’s flagship land, sea and space grant R1 and D1 university. Not if we want to remain accessible and affordable to the people of Maine, and confront our daunting $1.1B total in deferred maintenance.
I always read some history of UMaine as I prepare for these, resource constraints have been since its founding in 1865. In the earlier years (late 1870s, and without the strong legislative support we now have), things were tense and difficult between the state and the university. Doctor Arthur Hauck (1933 – 1958) saw the university through the great depression, World War 11, and the post war emergence of research universities.
In 1933 he found himself in essentially the same place as earlier presidents without enough money to accomplish his and the University’s goals, that is in the Smith 1979 history. During the 2008 recession with a reduced operating budget by $37 million. I am sharing these two bits of history for two reasons: This current moment is not the only time UMaine’s face challenges and there will be more to come.
Yet with each difficult financial stress the University adopts, resets and emerges stronger, all the while continuing to serve learners and our state’s economy at high levels of excellence and we are doing that now. What I take from this quick historical tour is that we must, as a community, do the best we can to do what it takes to: make progress on improving our fiscal position; sustain what is most core to being Maine’s learner-centered R1 university; and embrace new opportunities and ways of operating to innovate, partner, and grow.
Budget planning, both for the end of fiscal year FY26 in balance and bringing forth a balanced FY27 budget plan is well underway under the expert leadership of vice president for finance and administration Jenny Boyden, the finance team and members of the cabinet on behalf of the organizations they all represent.
This planning is informed by the ongoing SRE processing close consultation with key university groups, the UMaine senates, finance and institutional planning committee, the president’s budget and finance committee, the space committee and the President’s committee on operational excellence. The Dean’s, center and institute directors and school leaders and many many others are all engaged in the work of finding solutions that can work the best for most people.
Our FY26 reality is difficult, more so than we initially anticipated and one reason is because of enrollments. Specifically, while we have seen record graduate and doctorate in enrollment over the years, overall student credit hours this year are down about 4 percent from what we modeled, from what we planned in the budget. Due in part to large declines in some of our out-of-state enrollments. Our enrollment management team under Vice President Coughlin is absolutely on this and moving us forward, but this is the reality we face.
Another reason is the cost of operating our large, and in some cases antiquated statewide plant, that costs continues to increase. Higher than planned fuel costs—it has been a very cold winter. Unexpected repairs and failures like sinkholes, steam pit emergencies, broken chillers and more have meant that we are doing internal midyear adjustments to get the balance. Our projected gap as of two weeks ago, I want to be careful so I don’t get quoted is partially saying this.
Two weeks ago the gap was about $9 million for the remainder of this fiscal year, and that is against our $279.9 million E&G budget. And so the teams I’ve mentioned have been working pretty much around the clock to close this so that we balance, which is required in our System, that we balance by the end of this fiscal year. And they have been very very clever and diligent about how to do this. One time-saving from employee attrition, they have applied grant, gift and special appropriated state funds as well as federal funds when allowable to E&G expenses. Redirecting available FNA recovery dollars judiciously with possible replacement by gift funds in some cases. For those of you following that particular issue I will come back to that in a town hall we are going to hold next week.
And then recovering student financial aid funds that are freed up by the lower enrollment. Some use of strategic funds and more. So in the coming weeks, we will be balanced by our projection at the moment at the end of fiscal 26 which is good news.
In the coming weeks we will complete the work on the fiscal year 27 budget proposal, fiscal year 27 begins in July so we have to be ready. I appreciate all that the units did in striving to reach the 7 percent reduction target for 2027. That was difficult work and affected every unit on the campus. We announced a $20 million gap in our preliminary FY27 budget early in the planning in October of ‘25, and I am pleased to report that through similar hard work, creativity and collaboration we are very close to having a plan that closes that gap so we can present a balanced budget and preserve our ability to execute our engagement mission.
Every hire across all units and levels is now reviewed and scrutinized through our critical hiring community which means we will meet at least once a week and then sometimes more. And then by me. I’m asking new questions about these hires. Could this be a joint position across units? How will it help us move forward across strategic areas? Will programmatic expansion in this area be helpful for students and so on. Because we are talking about the context and landscape and although it’s generally not reassuring, UMaine is not alone in this fiscally challenging moment.
All three credit ratings—Moody, S&P Global Ratings, and Fitch—currently assign a negative outlook to the entire higher education sector, citing rising operating costs, slowing revenue growth, demographic pressures, and uncertainty in federal research funding. We see daily national news of faculty and staff reductions, hiring freezes or slowdowns, program reviews, and structural adjustments. Over 9,000 higher-ed jobs were cut in 2025 tied to budget pressures. Fortunately, very few of those were at UMaine.
We have found ways to be frugal and to be careful with our dollars, and I should note that Moody has recently upgraded our UMS outlook from negative to stable. I’m sure you can see that a lot of these pieces need to fit together in ways that continue to move us forward.
Our proposed fiscal year 27 budget will be released as part of the public budget materials as part of the finance facilities FFT committee budget meeting on March 25th. That meeting is public and you will have the opportunity to see and hear what is discussed. I’m committed to ensuring that you know what will be presented to the BOT in advance and I’ve scheduled a budget town hall for March 23rd at 1:00 p.m. I want to give special thanks to the Deans and their leadership teams. Everyone worked hard to get us here but special thanks to them for what they’ve been able to do both for fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27.
Finding personnel savings that involved vacant positions, stewarding their funds very wisely, finding collaborations and staying focused on the instructional and research missions, acting strategically to getting us closer to being on track and making hard decisions over these few months, we have a clear path to balancing through these measures with minimal faculty retrenchments or layoffs planned for 2027, so I would like to applaud our deans because they bear the bulk of this burden.
I recognize that challenges are being experienced in different ways by all of us. I’m especially sensitive to the challenges that our international community feels and want to mention that here. We need to remember that we are all here for our own reasons and with different expectations of what our experience at this university will be but as a community and as higher education institution, we must find and continue to find ways to be civil and respectful as we disagree and debate, recognizing that we do share common goals, and we need to always communicate better. We also need to extend grace to each other every chance we get and I’m grateful to see a lot of that in the past year. We are doing and experiencing many things for the first time at this university in a world that is troubling in so many ways.
We have achieved our first collective bargaining agreement with our graduate workers Union and we are thrilled that has happened and want to congratulate all that made that happen. [APPLAUSE] we’ve already mentioned the plethora of federal changes and requirements in an environment that is causing turmoil in higher education.
We have our new Title II compliance which I know people are working diligently on, we have a new research misconduct requirement from the federal government that is getting good work accomplished on that, I want to thank AFUM for their engagement in particular. We are looking for the budget solutions that are the least disruptive and least harmful to the majority of people here. We want to responsibly integrate AI, we need to implement new emergency communication systems and that’s moving along with great support from our system, and we are engaging the most expansive campus construction and renovation in decades, so there’s a lot going on, and I’m very encouraged actually that we are continuing to move ahead. Finally as we leave this discussion of the changing landscape and move in, I promise, to the final section of this talk, I ask for your patience and constructive suggestions as we move forward together.
We must let each other know what we can do better and at the same time we always need to assume that people are trying to do their best here. So, to the conclusion: It’s a little bit more talk but you know, we need to talk about re- envisioning, because that has been a very big part of our last year. We began ambitious and as Chancellor Malloy said at the time, a brave, re-envisioning effort a little more than two years ago. We challenged ourselves to this question: What would the University of Maine look like if we were designing it today? I noted at the time in a paper that is on the website that the world was changing around us and pointed to developments in technology, the responsibilities of higher ed for social mobility and access to careers, declining student population in Maine and so much more as a reason to collectively look forward to that happening. And that happened. In a draft final report that will be shared soon, Doctor Sabrina DeTurk who is here I think maybe — thank you Sabrina. The SRE project director has prepared a report. She notes that the SRE process has been a collaborative effort to reimagine our institutions structure and strategic direction. That has evolved at least 200 people across groups, hundreds of participants and retreats, town halls and shared ideas. I want to thank everyone who has been with us on this journey. It is not over but it is going to evolve into something new, so I want to really acknowledge the good hard work that people have done in the midst of so many other interesting and important challenges.
Out of all of this, undertaken in this period of unusually rapid shifts and turmoil, our university has produced an extraordinary set of next steps and outcomes. At least 100 actionable ideas in fact. The SRE concept of being a learning centered R1 University is in place and pervades what we do. We are now a destination university for students who want a research learning experience in their first semester. More than half the student body in this academic year at UMaine engaged in authentic research experiences, leading to an increased rate of retention and sense of belonging and distinguishing our medium-sized resource constrained R1 as a place where undergraduates can come and do research. By building on our lessons and foundations of SRE so far, I’m now proposing that we think of UMaine as being in a continuous improvement mode which is critical to the health of institutions like this one. It is not that SRE is done, and now we move on, it is that SRE becomes a part of who we are and what we do in ways that are more standard and a part of our normal structures. The most recent formal work was that of our SRE implementation groups launched last spring. Let me think about the participants who have worked so diligently over the last many months. The college APR and RPR reports were delivered to the Faculty Senate on February 27 so these reports are making their way into the hands of those who have the opportunity to review and study them and make their own comments and continue to look at these areas. I’ve heard a lot of questions about the relationships of the SRE effort to the budget development. Any budget reflects the priority of an organization. When we talk about strategic budget development and shared values, we need to be sure there’s a clear enough set of priorities, commitments and shared values that guide the choices that we make. That is, our values and commitments and priorities guide the budget. The budget is the reflection of what we value. And it’s even more important in a time of tight fiscal situations to have those framing principles in mind. For those of us who’ve been working on the budgets of 25, 26 and 27, we’ve been fortunate to have had such tenants. Some emerging from SRE and some emerging naturally in an environment where we are reflecting on our own activity over the last two years. I’ve already mentioned learner centered R1. The commitment to prioritizing learner access and success. The need to expand our audiences of learners and expand online education. The need to be sure we are relevant in what we are. The need to serve as Maine’s R&D department, to be a national leader in research, to maintain a national reputation that attracts dollars and students, to reduce silos and have more interdisciplinary integration. To streamline our organizations and structures. To find administrative efficiencies at all levels and have more coordination, and to learn to look at negative and positive consequences of proposed change.
As the formal phases of SRE blend into our current structures and lead us to new ones, as a community we do self reflection to question entrenched practices and programs and structures and use data far more developed than it was two years ago.
So how are we doing? Has the University been re- envisioned in significant ways since May of 2024? I claim yes. Part of the state of the university is that it looks different than it did two years ago and for the good. Was SRE the cause of every change? In some cases yes, there’s a direct straight line from the SRE work to the change and in other cases the most I would change is that the changes are in line with the conversation and work we’ve been doing around SRE. We are well along in re- envisioning and enacting UMaine for today and for tomorrow. It is evolving. Here’s a few quick examples.
Take a look around. We are different. There’s more than 120 capital projects underway at UMaine and UMaine Machias with our SRE articulated commitments of being a learner centered R1 and Maine’s R&D department at their core. The GEM factory of future building, designed from the beginning to integrate student learning with the cutting edge R&D that will open this fall. And I would like to credit Dean’s Emily Haddad and Giovanna Guidoboni, and ASCC director Habib Dagher along with many others in coming together in the spirit of reducing siloes and becoming a learning centered letter R1 facility. I see them all here, so good job. [APPLAUSE].
That facility is funded by a combination of federal, state and philanthropic funds that reflect strong support for UMaine’s leadership. The BOT Loft, in the Advanced Manufacturing Center, opened last summer. They offer certification and micro-badges to meet the standards of the Smart Automation Certification Alliance. And as part of the same renovation, with funding from the Harold Alfond Foundation is the new Maine College of Engineering and Computing Student Success and Advising center – real evidence of our commitment to meeting students where they are and enabling them to succeed and be ready for the workforce. I’m told not only MCE students use the facility but others take advantage of it as well.
There’s more to come. The food innovation lab, the health sciences complex brought to us in a $45 million congressional directed earmark by Senator Collins, the sawmill training and education Center, the Forest biomaterials innovation center, that PFAS and Catalysis lab, the Black Bear Academy day care expansion, the Maine environmental analytical lab in Deering, and Boardman Hall. All of these facilities will be reconstituted and developed with a learner centered letter R1 theme driving how those will evolve, and we know those are essential to our success. The Alfond Funded renovation of the Shawn Walsh Center and Hockey Arena are improving the experience for our black bear athletes, fans and our community. Same with the new balance soccer and track and field complex all transforming the campus. The area outside of Wells’ comments is just beautiful. At Machias, the Reynolds gym renovation and new basketball court are a point of pride for the whole community. Fogler library has launched GLAAM which sounds like it may be about beautification only, it’s about galleries, libraries, archives, arts, and museums as well as a landscape design service learning project, very consistent with some of the themes. But from SRE we have new capacity and tools for looking at ourselves and new data, new experiences coming together across many disciplines to agree on criteria that matter and to let each other know when we don’t think the criteria are correct and new processes for coming to recommendations. The academic program portfolio and review implementation group undertook UMaine’s most comprehensive ever compilation of quantitative and qualitative indicators of the status of every one of our academic degree programs, and there is much richness in that particular work. They invented ways to categorize, have an integrative review process by deans and others and provide perspectives from the deans and others about ways to realign, align and rethink the criteria, generate revenue, and sunset programs if needed. So we are starting to get very good at asking ourselves the right questions about the relevance and sustainability of our academic portfolio and how we can improve it.
One example I would cite that happened during this time is we launched the Down East nursing track through UMaine Machias through UMaine Augusta—so we are partnering. It’s a way in those local areas in Washington County nursing can become a more viable workforce option for students.
In the parallel Research Portfolio review implementation group, the approach involved many many interesting dimensions and a very comprehensive survey of the campus from which we learned a lot about how people feel about our research enterprise and how we can make it better. The survey results made clear that extensive and very important research and scholarly activity happens well beyond our research centers and institutes which we knew, but having that in the survey results indicates the importance that our faculty feel it needs to be afforded to that point. We’ve learned that the data collection around research is revealing that our own systems for tracking and assembling data are very underdeveloped in this area but as an R1 we have to improve that so there has to be an effort to improve those systems together. We also need further discussion about what ROI for research actually means, because we have a wide range of research and scholarly enterprise and creative activity there and ROI will look quite different depending. The manufacturing materials and workforce acceleration implementation group has demonstrated how to accelerate our impact across multiple domains, for instance the ASCC and the bio products research Institute have a new collaboration now breaking down silos and leveraging integration.
Finally, the fourth implementation group, the Administrative Business Services Group, was charged to identify ways to restructure and optimize selected administrative functions into more unified organizations. There has been progress in that area, with various reorganizations large and small underway, including that the Dean of the graduate school is currently reporting to the Provost, a structural shift that was recommended strongly throughout the SRE work. And we established a new administrative excellence advisory committee which will work from the very good Provost’s Administrative Barriers report from 2024 and the SRE recommendations as we continue on.
Questions asked and suggestions made during the SRE activities as well as the changing landscape around us have led to a number of review groups and task forces that are working hard to make recommendations and assemble information, including the Collins Center for the arts task force, rise center task force, a new workforce pell task force which I chair with Vice Chancellor St. John, and a new medical school pathway task force that’s coming soon. What’s next for SRE? We updated the website today. It includes a tracker that now has 40 projects listing re- envisioning’s underway now and we will eventually continue to refine and upgrade that. Watch the site for a comprehensive two year report on SRE soon and I will also add a new concept paper SRE 2.0 including some of what I’ve talked about here. The notion of continuous improvement as a theme for our university. Efforts to re- envision our academic portfolio and our research portfolio will continue and gradually be integrated into the existing structures under the EVPAA / Provost and Vice President for Research. So the real final conclusion. Let me return to what I said at the beginning. I hope you agree that the state of this university is strong and evolving. That is because of the commitment of our community, our ability to assess and adjust to a changing landscape with civility and respect, and our SRE-driven capacity for continuous improvement. I want to thank every one of you for all that you bring to the University of Maine and the UMaine Machias. Thank you for coming to the 2026 date of the University address. We are going to queue up a Life in the Pines video and then we have a small reception for folks outside.
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I would say Maine is cold but warm.
Cold for the temperature, but nice warm people.
The really cold winter, which is always fun to be bundled up and go play out in the snow with your friends like a child.
It’s always just sweet because I feel like we come together during the winter.
It feels very cinematic.
The DI experience here at UMaine, it’s very unique.
Being so engrossed and so enthralled with the people and the experiences here, while still being able to drive 20 minutes and be in the middle of nowhere.
That experience is just so amazing.
My favorite part about UMaine has honestly been the people I’ve met here and the campus itself.
It’s wonderful to walk around the campus and see all the leaves change color.
The flora and fauna of Maine, it hits a nail on the head.
I love it here.
I don’t want to go.
I’m thinking of the sign you see when you cross into Maine from New Hampshire. You know, Maine, the way life should be.
I think the state of Maine might be my favorite state in general in the United States.
It’s a beautiful state.
I mean, hey, we literally go to school on an island.
It’s great that the school is mid-sized.
It’s not like super small liberal arts, but then again, it’s not like 40,000 other kids.
It’s like a pine tree, very strong, very sturdy.
And the experiences that you have here are going to last through all the seasons of your life.
