The University of Maine is looking into tapping campus reserve funds to help deal with a larger-than-anticipated budget shortfall.
At a University of Maine System meeting this week, President Joan Ferrini-Mundy said that, with enrollment significantly lower than expected, the school is projecting to bring in about $15 million less in tuition revenue this year.
"We were not predicting the drop in enrollment that the University of Maine experienced this year. That was not factored into our budgeting. Fall of '22, we were down significantly from our projections, and from, certainly, what we had been looking at over the previous decade," she said.
To make up the difference, the school is looking at keeping many vacant positions unfilled and use nearly $6 million of additional funds from its campus reserves.
University of Maine System Trustees have already approved plans from several other campuses to tap into reserves to deal with their own budget challenges. The University of Maine at Farmington reported a drop of about $2 million in tuition, dining and housing revenue.
Trustee Barbara Alexander said the situation highlights the ongoing need to work together to boost enrollment across the state.
"My point is, this is not just Farmington's marketing problem. It is a system marketing problem. And I hope we can talk about for the next fiscal year, at a later point," she said.
Chancellor Dannel Malloy noted that new efforts to recruit new students across the state have recently been implemented.
Campus leaders have said that the budget and enrollment challenges have highlighted the need for a strategic planning process to outline the system's future.
