Politics
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The University of Maine said Thursday it is temporarily pausing all new teaching, research and fellowship offers to graduate students following funding uncertainty and changes in “priorities” coming from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The state’s flagship university in Orono also cited the Legislature advancing a state budget that maintains but does not boost funding funding for the University of Maine System for the next two years in explaining its decision to immediately pause new financial offers, including assistantships to graduate students, as it “assesses what resources it will have to support these mission-critical positions.”
UMaine said it has 3,261 graduate students this academic year, with 806 of them appointed to paid assistantships that typically provide stipends, tuition waivers, health care and other benefits in exchange for teaching undergraduates, conducting research and performing other duties.
The pause comes after the Trump administration suddenly froze and then unfroze federal funding for Maine’s public universities after Trump sparred with Gov. Janet Mills in February over the state’s policies allowing transgender students to compete in sports aligned with their gender identity.
Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, had singled out in a viral social media post a transgender student who won a state high school track and field title before Trump threatened to pull federal funding from Maine. Various federal agencies then launched investigations into Maine and its schools before making swift but legally untested findings they are violating the anti-sex discrimination Title IX law by allowing transgender girls to play on teams aligned with their gender identity.
The school district home to the high school student and the Maine Principals’ Association said they will not sign an agreement the Trump administration gave them until Thursday to approve that said they violated federal law by allowing transgender students to play sports. Both entities noted they are following state law allowing transgender students to compete. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has threatened to sue Maine for noncompliance with Trump’s demands.
UMaine said Thursday the federal government has slowed the awarding of new grants and continued to pause other grants and contracts for the school as the Trump administration “reviews them for alignment with its priorities.”
It also cited the Democratic-controlled Legislature and Mills approving an $11.3 billion budget last week that “flat-funds” the university system through 2027. The university said Maine’s public schools “will now need to advocate for those critical appropriations to be added into a second budget bill” lawmakers will pass this summer.
The university said in a statement it began notifying graduate students Thursday and plans to provide an update in early April before the traditional April 15 “decision day” for graduate programs. UMaine continues to make admission offers and intends to honor any financial commitments already made to graduate students, although it said those will remain dependent on available funding. UMaine also announced in January a pause in hiring new faculty and staff.
“While Maine’s flagship is the most affordable in New England, with its current in-state graduate credit hour cost about half the average of peers in the region, the pause impacts all aspects of its world-class education and research enterprise and the planning of hundreds of students,” the university said Thursday.
The university system said it currently has its highest-ever graduate enrollment, with 6,999 students pursuing master’s degrees and doctorates, more than half through the flagship campus in Orono. Graduate enrollment has increased 17.6 percent over the past five years.
