Strengthening the University of Maine System

    Boards across America have been taken to task for not linking executive pay to demonstrated performance. They’ve been pummeled for awarding fat cat salaries to top executives of foundering organizations, salaries exorbitant in scope when compared to average workers from the same entity.     The University of Maine System is in a financial crunch. In fact a financial crisis.
    I don’t know who specifically awards the large executive salaries of University of Maine System and campus executives (many make 2x and as much as 3x as much as is earned by the Governor) but I do believe a couple of things:
• Artificially high salaries can breed detachment as one becomes removed on a personal level from the financial pain others are experiencing in daily life. I don’t know the inner thoughts of University of Maine System Chancellor Pattenaude, but I do know that the UMS plan to close a discussed $40-plus million potential shortfall, which some faculty project could involve triple digit job losses, doesn’t start at the top to lead by example in regard to including real and significant executive salary reductions.
• Why should faculty and staff across the seven campuses be afraid for their jobs without the top administrators — making 150K to 200K and beyond — taking perhaps 10-20 percent off the top of their own salaries first?
    In a pay-for-performance model, accountability should start at the top. Having top administrators emerge essentially or even relatively unscathed while the organization financially restructures is like having an NFL team fire only linebackers and place kickers (and maybe an assistant coach or two for political cover) after a string of losing seasons.
    Chancellor Pattenaude was named chancellor at a time of major financial difficulties at USM, where he was president, but this financial condition was not widely reported until after he became chancellor.
    I recently watched Chancellor Pattenaude attend a listening session at the University of Maine in regard to his plan to address the financial crisis and move the system forward, and it looked to this attendee as if he was having as much fun as being at the dentist having teeth pulled!
    I believe that was his only session at UMaine following the detailing of his plan, and public comments were curtailed at the end of approximately 90-120 minutes because he and the accompanying board members had other things to do! I also believe that I was also the only member of the public that spoke during this public forum, perhaps the only one in attendance (University of Maine President Kennedy told me later it was well publicized).
    Public task force and board meetings also, from what I’ve seen, draw very few public attendees, and if UMS wants to reverse the declines in Maine public funding, which they keep insisting is critical for System success, then they have to be much more skilled at engaging public participation and care. Having a system of accountability that seems fair is, I believe, part of that.
    I am a University of Maine (Orono) graduate. I worked hard and while at UMaine was a USAA National Scholar and graduated number one in the College of Arts & Sciences. It hurts me to hear that students are dropping out of school because they can’t afford to stay, at the same time as those most responsible, system-wide, for getting the System out of the financial mess won’t in my view fairly share in the financial pain.
    I reject out-of-hand as untenable the common argument that we need to pay these hefty salaries to compete with other universities to attract the best talent.
• The Governor of Maine earns 70K, and 22 individuals (including myself), including some with significant positions statewide are seeking that opening.
• You could cut the top administrative salaries right off the bat by one third or one half and believe me you’d have plenty of good people still wanting to apply
• It’s a very rough economy, and I don’t want to throw the proverbial stones, but how good are their capabilities really if the System is in such a financial bind?
    The Bangor University of Maine System offices are extraordinarily plush, and the Chancellor is apparently spending too much time there. One trustee told me there have been 14 campus meetings (total across individual campus sites) over the last 10 months. I’m underwhelmed.
    Here’s what I propose: Unless the University of Maine System Trustees beat me to the punch by toughening up and holding top executives accountable in a pay-for-performance model, then when (if) I become Governor I will, for starters, withhold every penny from UMS in my proposed budget (unless I am prevented from doing so by statute) unless and until the Chancellor agrees to spend a minimum of 50 percent of his time on the campuses and then follows through to do so.
    Maybe we should scrap the Bangor System offices entirely and the Chancellor and UMS staff could have a single room or two instead at each of the campuses, which they can utilize for their needs and their work with each of the campuses on their, and the state’s, business.
    In the end we must realize that their salaries are paid by students, and also by Mainers (among other sources of income). While I respect academic freedom and the professional decision-making of individuals, I also know this: they work for us.
    Alex Hammer of Bangor is an independent candidate for governor of Maine.