PORTLAND (AP) – Two members of the University of Maine System board of trustees have resigned following legislation that critics say threatens plans to reorganize Maine’s universities and undermines the board’s authority.

Wickham Skinner and Donald McDowell submitted letters of resignation following the Legislature’s approval of a state budget that included an amendment that prevents the board from changing the names or locations of the state’s seven universities.

Skinner, vice chairman of the board, said Wednesday that the legislation blocks the proposed merger between the University of Maine at Augusta and the University of Southern Maine, and prevents name changes at other campuses.

Moreover, he said, it throws higher education into the political arena.

“I think it’s a very serious setback,” Skinner said. “On the board, some people are saying, What’s the use? What’s the point?”‘

When the Legislature passed the budget last week, Sen. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, drafted an amendment that stipulates the names and locations of the universities – in essence preventing trustees from changing them without legislative approval.

Martin said the Legislature has always had a big role in higher education. Lawmakers created the university system in 1968, and legislative initiatives have renamed, created and merged campuses over the years.

He also said trustees overstepped their bounds with their strategic reorganization plan, which he said was created in secret without legislative input.

“From my point of view, I wish they’d resigned two years ago, and then we wouldn’t have had the mess with the secret strategic plan created by them,” he said.

The Board of Trustees in March 2004 released a plan to reorganize the university system to close a projected $102 million budget gap over the next five years.

Among other things, the plan called for merging the universities in Fort Kent, Machias and Presque Isle into a single school. It also proposed merging the University of Southern Maine and the University of Maine at Augusta.

After objections from faculty, lawmakers and others, the plan to merge the three eastern and northern Maine campuses was scuttled, and the USM-UMA merger plan was delayed by a year.

The new legislation blocks the USM-UMA merger, which now can’t occur without legislative approval.

It also prevents the university system from initiating name changes at any of the campuses without lawmakers’ OK. Board members have said changing the names of the campuses would strengthen their individual identities, while helping market the system as a whole and the state’s flagship campus in Orono.

Sen. Karl Turner, R-Cumberland, called Martin’s amendment “late-inning shenanigans,” offered up late at night without a public hearing. He said it undermines the board and could hamper future efforts to recruit board members.

And he said he’s not surprised that Skinner and McDowell resigned. McDowell, whose resignation was confirmed by Board of Trustees Chairman Charles Johnson, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Gov. John Baldacci said Wednesday there is a balancing act between the Legislature and the Board of Trustees. But ultimately, Baldacci told reporters, “the Legislature, and rightly, has control.”

Martin said that Skinner and McDowell’s terms were set to expire in May, and that they couldn’t serve any longer since they had already served two five-year terms.

“So obviously their resignations are a mere protest that serve no purpose,” he said.

Skinner said he would have resigned even if he could have served another five years. “But it would have been a more difficult decision,” he said.

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