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Trish Riley is the chair of the University of Maine System board of trustees.
The University of Maine System is an engine of educational attainment and economic mobility.
Now is the time for the Legislature to fund it adequately.
Building on her past support, Gov. Janet Mills proposed a 4 percent annual appropriation increase for our system in her final biennial budget. Last month, three-quarters of the Maine House and the entire state Senate endorsed this essential funding.
But the recently enacted continuing services budget for fiscal year 2026-27 flat funds the university system, exacerbating decades of disinvestment when we can least afford it.
While the state once funded 72.5 percent of the system’s operations, our inflation-adjusted appropriations have declined for decades and now pay just 43 percent of UMS education costs, far less than the 55 percent rightly provided for public K-12 schools.
To maintain affordable access for Maine students, meet our obligations to talented employees and sustain the current system of statewide campuses as the law requires, UMS has made tough choices.
Faculty and staff have been laid off, including at the University of Maine, the University of Southern Maine, the University of Maine at Farmington and in the system. Hundreds of positions have been left vacant. Deferred maintenance has been delayed, with our critical capital projects backlog now $1.8 billion. Wages remain well below market averages, challenging recruitment, retention and the ability of some employees to support their families without relying on public assistance programs.
Despite this, our public universities are partnering and innovating to deliver more for Maine than ever: region-leading tuition affordability, rising student enrollment, record retention and unprecedented research and workforce impact. Last month, we graduated more than 6,500 career-ready professionals. Most will stay in Maine to live and work, contributing critically needed nurses, teachers, engineers, entrepreneurs, attorneys, social workers and tax revenue to our communities.
But our public universities can only do so much without the resources to meet their mission. And our dedicated employees and Maine students deserve better.
Last month, system trustees balanced continued affordability for students with better wages and benefits for the faculty and staff upon whom their future success relies, approving a 3 percent tuition hike for next year to partially pay for the $27 million in employee compensation increases that are warranted and necessary, along with other inflationary costs.
The additional state appropriation recommended by the governor was expected to bridge the difference, including covering our costs for Maine’s new mandatory leave program, but the continuing services budget has left us with a $13.5 million gap just in the coming fiscal year (FY26). We can’t make it up on the backs of our Maine students, more than half of whom are eligible for need-based Pell grants, especially when community college is free and Congress is considering cuts to federal financial aid.
Last week’s announcement that $50 million in UMS federal funding has been terminated or threatened only adds to the uncertainty, and the importance of Maine investing in its public universities now.
The Legislature must follow the governor’s lead and include her increases for Maine’s public universities in the Part II budget currently being negotiated. Doing so is essential to avoid even more significant reductions in UMS staffing and services that would hurt Maine and its students.
We appreciate that in recent months, our faculty, staff and their labor organizations have stood alongside us in the halls of the State House to advocate for this needed funding, noting that the lack of state support for the system is “pennywise and pound-foolish.”
S&P Global, a leading rating agency, also agrees. While the agency recently reaffirmed our rating and recognized UMS for its strong financial management, it also emphasized that “continued, growing support from the state is imperative to the system’s long-term success.”
Trustees recognize that Maine has more needs than resources. But as hubs of educational excellence, employment and research-driven innovation, our public universities are best positioned to promote prosperity and a growing state economy that works for everyone.
Funding the University of Maine System must be a priority. Maine’s future depends on it.
