Dozens of students chanting 'stop the cuts!' disrupt meeting of UMS trustees

University of Southern Maine students frustrated over budget cuts that eliminated programs and led to staff reductions disrupted University of Maine System trustees on Monday, marching into their meeting, chanting "stop the cuts!" and taking seats at their table after the trustees yielded to the cacophonous demonstration.

Trustees tried to talk to the protesters before giving up and adjourning briefly.

Chairman Samuel Collins and USM President David Flanagan were shouted down before retreating to the sidelines for 45 minutes, allowing demonstrators to stage a sit-in at their table. Flanagan supported proposals to eliminate programs and 50 faculty positions to save $6 million. The school is trying to close a $16 million budget gap for the next fiscal year.

"I understand the frustrations that led to the demonstration," Collins said in a statement. He said "economic and demographic realities are forcing us to make some very difficult choices."

Trustees seemed to take it in stride.

Collins noted that he and Flanagan already had met with student leaders, including some of those who took part in the protest.

"I'd be concerned if you were not here," Collins told the demonstrators, saying their presence indicated that they were passionate about their studies and their university.

Afterward, trustees approved development of a unified budget process to cover all seven campuses and listened to an updated, multiyear financial analysis that projects a deficit at $90 million by 2020.

Trustees who have gone to great lengths to avoid tuition increases for the past three years are asking lawmakers for a 3.5 percent funding increase over the next two years to keep tuition in check, said Dan Demeritt, university system spokesman.

But the long-term plan calls for tuition increases and more state funding to reduce the size of the projected deficit. The plan also envisions further reductions in the university workforce, along with efforts to boost enrollment.

In other action, trustees approved a strategic plan for the University of Maine at Fort Kent campus and agreed upon a new definition of "consent" as a part of its new policy on sexual assault and harassment. They also agreed to proceed with planning for a professional and graduate center in Portland.