University of Southern Maine

At the beginning of 2014, administrators at USM announced that the university had found itself in dire financial straits, and would be announcing program closures and faculty layoffs, including long-term just cause faculty and tenured faculty.[6] President Theodora Kalikow and Provost Michael Stevenson announced that four departments would be closed: the Recreation and Leisure Studies Department, the GeoSciences Department, the Arts and Humanities program at Lewiston-Auburn College, and the graduate program American and New England Studies (the Recreation and Leisure Studies closure was later rescinded[7]). A week later, twelve individual faculty members in various departments were informed that they would be laid off effective May 31. As a result of protests led by USM students,[8] the layoffs were rescinded by Kalikow.[9] Later that year, Chancellor Page asked Kalikow for her resignation as USM president.[10][11][12]

This process was restarted in October 2014, when Interim President David T. Flanagan (former CEO of a power company) and Provost Joseph McDonnell announced that the three programs targeted for elimination in March would indeed be eliminated, and two more: French and Applied Medical Sciences.[13] In addition, USM faculty were notified that twenty-five departments would have to shed fifty full-time faculty members, whether through retirement or layoffs.[14] In the end, 36 faculty members retired, but since some of them were not in targeted departments, 25 faculty members were fired.

Local business leaders claimed the cuts would impair Maine's economy[15][16] and many faculty, students, staff, and community members disputed administration claims about financial insolvency.[17][18][19] Critics claimed that the layoffs were arbitrary and capricious,[20] an attempt to eliminate outspoken faculty critical of administration policies and actions, and in violation of the Faculty Senate governance document and the faculty union's Collective Bargaining Agreement.[21][22] All of the faculty layoffs were immediately challenged through grievances filed by the union against the University of Maine System.[21] Following an investigation, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) voted in 2015 to censure the university.[23][24]

William J. MacLeod served as president from 1970 until 1971. Louis J.P. Calisti served as president from 1971 until 1973. Walter P. Fridinger served as president in 1973. N. Edd Miller served as president from 1973 until 1978. Kenneth W. Allen served as president from 1978 until 1979. Robert L. Woodbury served as president from 1979 until 1986. Patricia R. Plante served as president from 1987 to 1991.[25] Richard Pattenaude served as president from 1991 until 2007. Joe Wood served as interim president from 2007 to 2008.[26] Selma Botman served as president from 2008 until 2012. Theodora J. Kalikow served as interim president from 2012 until 2014. Former power company CEO David Flanaganserved as interim president from 2014 until 2015.[27] Glenn Cummings, former speaker of the Maine House, served as president from 2015 until 2022.[28][29] Jacqueline Edmondson became the 14th president of the University of Southern Maine in July 2022.[30]

The Maine-Greenland Collaboration is an interdisciplinary research project to investigate the environmental, socioeconomic and cultural challenges facing coastal communities in Maine and Greenland. The collaboration involves researchers and students from the Muskie School of Public Service, the School of Social Work and many other programs.[33]

USM has a partnership with Reykjavik University allowing for more students and faculty exchanges between USM and Reykjavik University. The partnership was signed in 2017.[34]

The University of Southern Maine administers the Maine Teacher Residency Program for the University of Maine System. The program allows teaching students to work in Maine classrooms while completing their degrees and aims to ease the shortage of teachers. In the 2022–2023 school year, 40 teaching students were enrolled in the program. The program will grow to include 70 more student teachers in the 2023–2024 school year.[35]

The Muskie School is located on the Portland campus and includes public health, tourism and hospitality, geography-anthropology, and the graduate school of policy, planning, and management. The Catherine Cutler Institute is the research arm of the Muskie School.[36]

The Quality Control Collaboratory (QC2) is a partnership with the Maine Brewers' Guild to provide laboratory analysis and testing for the craft beverage industry. It is located on the Portland campus. The lab provides research opportunities for USM undergrad and graduate students.[37] [38]

The Boyne Family Advanced Simulation and Interprofessional Education Center is a $2.5 million simulation laboratory for nursing students located on two floors of the Science Building.[39]

The old Woodbury Campus Center visible at far left, the Glickman Family Library, and the Wishcamper Center seen in 2013.

The Portland campus is located in the Oakdale neighborhood. The campus also houses the Wishcamper Center, the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, Hannaford Hall, Luther Bonney Hall, Masterton Hall, the Science Building, the Southworth Planetarium, Payson Smith Hall, Abromson Community Education Center, the Alumni House, and the Sullivan Gymnasium complex. Many department offices are located around the perimeter of the campus center in converted multi-story homes as well as in the major buildings.

The student-run community radio station WMPG and the student-run newspaper The Free Press are located on the Portland campus.

The primary academic areas at the Portland campus are business, nursing, history, political science, economics, sociology, biology, physics, chemistry, math, English, psychology, media studies, modern and classical languages and literatures, American and New England studies.[40]

In 2021, the university removed the Woodbury Campus Center and broke ground on the 580-bed Portland Commons dorm that is expected to open June 2023.[41] In 2022, the university announced a fundraising campaign to build an almost $60 million arts center on the Portland campus with an art gallery, a visual arts teaching space, and a performing arts center able to seat 210 people.[42]

The campus is adjacent to Noyes Park,[43][44] a three-quarter acre landscaped park with large shade trees, and near Fesenden Park, Baxter Boulevard park, and Deering Oaks. The USM Portland campus is bordered by I-295, with on and off ramps accessing the campus on Forest Avenue, and is across the street from a Hannaford grocery store and near restaurants and bars, which include The Great Lost Bear.

The Albert Brenner Glickman Family Library is the main library, located on the Portland campus. It includes the Osher Map Library. It houses the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, where the current collections represent the African American, Jewish, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities.[45] The library also has a rare books collections, with strong holdings in pre-20th century New England textbooks.[46]

Corthell Hall is located on the Gorham campus and is the School of Music's concert hall. Originally Corthell Hall was the sole classroom building on the Gorham Normal School campus.

Gorham is home to most of the university's dormitories and competitive athletic facilities. The primary academic areas residing in Gorham are industrial technologies, engineering, art, music, theater, counseling and education, anthropology, geography, environmental sciences, and geosciences.[40] McLellan House, built in 1773, was acquired by Gorham State College in 1966. It was converted into dormitories and later into office space.[47] The Academy Building was built in 1803 and purchased by the university in 1878.

Residence Halls located on the Gorham campus include:

• Woodward Hall
• Dickey and Wood Towers: Dickey and Wood Towers were opened in 1970 and formerly inaugurated in 1973. They are named after Edna Dickey, who taught history at the university from 1945–1972 as well as serving as Dean of Women from 1945–69 and Esther Wood, who taught social sciences from 1930–1973.[47] USM has proposed mothballing the two towers, which currently have several vacant floors, to save $400,000 in 2014.[48]
• Upton Hall and Hastings Hall: Upton Hall and the adjacent Hastings Hall are named after Ethelyn Upton and Mary Hastings, both of whom were prominent faculty. Upton Hall, home of the university healthcenter and Residential Life Office, was opened in 1960. Hastings Hall opened in 1968. Together, the complex can house up to 300 students.[47]
• Anderson Hall
• Robie Andrews Hall: Robie Hall is named after former Maine Governor Frederick Robie, who served from 1883 to 1887. It was built in 1897 to replace a female-only dormitory which had burnt down in 1894.[47]
• Phillipi Hall: Opened in 2001. Philippi hall also houses USM's new Pioneer Program.[47]
• Upperclass Hall (completed fall of 2007)

44°4′35″N 70°10′20″W

USM's Lewiston-Auburn campus, Front entrance. This campus was established in 1988

The Lewiston-Auburn campus of the University of Southern Maine is the newest of the three campuses. The college on this campus is known as Lewiston-Auburn College (USM LAC). USM LAC is committed to being a national leader in interdisciplinary education, serving as a resource for the community, and providing degree programs that are responsive to changing cultural and workplace demands available to a non-traditional and diverse student body.[49]

Baccalaureate degree programs available at USM LAC are: Arts and Humanities, Leadership and Organizational Studies, Natural and Applied Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences. Master of Arts in Leadership and Master of Occupational Therapy degrees are offered exclusively at Lewiston-Auburn College. The USM Nursing program (BS & RN to BS) from USM's College of Nursing and Health Professions are also offered at the Lewiston-Auburn campus.[49]

The Brooks Dining Hall on the Gorham campus was renovated in 2019 at a cost of $2.5 million allowing it to expand the vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free food [50] because "students who prefer a plant-based diet were ditching the meal plan, eating elsewhere or foregoing meals."[51] Sodexo operates the dining hall. In spring of 2022, students reported dissatisfaction with the food served by the dining hall, complaining of undercooked meat, overcooked pasta and a lack of vegetarian options.[52]

In the fall of 2022, Sodexo introduced delivery robots who carry food to students on both the Gorham and the Portland campuses. The robots are called Kiwibots and have special tires to work in the snow. Students must download an app to use the service. The robots can deliver Starbucks lattes and falafel from food trucks parked on campus.[53]

The student-run and funded campus newspaper was founded in 1972. It publishes a print edition weekly during the academic year, equaling roughly 22 editions a year. The newspaper has a circulation of 3,000. It is an entirely student-run and student-funded newspaper not supported by an academic department. The university does not have a journalism program. In fall 2022, lack of staff led the newspaper to discontinue updates to its websites and social media and focus on the print publication.[54]