Review of academic programs will strengthen USM LAC for the future

The University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College will celebrate its 20th anniversary this fall with our students, alumni and friends. Working with partners throughout the region, we strive to fulfill our mission of providing quality education and serving as a community resource, and we plan on celebrating anniversaries far into the future.

Over the last several months, all of us have read and heard about the need to re-evaluate university budgets at all levels. As part of that process, the University of Southern Maine is evaluating some 26 academic programs, including some at USM LAC. Understandably, this program review has raised concerns about the continuation of USM LAC and its programs. These are valid concerns, and we need to address them.

First and foremost, neither have programs been cut, nor has any decision been made to suspend admissions to any programs. We are eagerly welcoming students into all programs for fall 2008.

Most important, the intent of this review is to give those responsible for managing these programs the opportunity to submit plans that will make them even stronger.

Interim USM President Joe Wood underscored this point in announcing the program review, when he said USM was taking this action “because any prudently managed university should, as a matter of course, evaluate its academic offerings to ensure that we are responsive to the needs of our students and the community at large. Our students who pay tuition and Maine citizens who support us with their tax dollars and private monies deserve nothing less.”

USM LAC programs are high quality, and several have received national recognition. Walk through our doors and you sense not only a great deal of transformational learning occurring, but a true educational collaboration with students as well.

Nevertheless, faculty in all of our programs, together with administrators and staff, have already been engaged in a creative and thoughtful assessment process to make our curriculum still stronger – even before the USM-wide program review. In this way, our highly committed, accomplished faculty and staff work hard to nurture not just each individual student’s success but also the success of the college itself.

The program review also gives USM LAC yet another opportunity to work closely with our community partners, to evaluate and ensure that our programs are responsive to the region’s needs, a practice that we have followed from our very beginnings. We expect to continue our success in fulfilling our commitments to serving as a transforming agent in the Lewiston-Auburn area.

For example, even as we help USM LAC students make their educational dreams a reality, we are working with more than two dozen partners across the region to raise the aspirations and educational attainment of Androscoggin County residents more generally, through the growing efforts of College for ME-Androscoggin – which is housed in the new LearningWorks facility at USM LAC.

We also have a strong record of civic engagement, with hundreds of students involved in service learning. In the spring of 2007 alone, our students logged 28,585 hours in service with community organizations.

Similarly, USM LAC faculty, staff and students play a continuing role in the development of the Downtown Educational Collaborative, with educational partners from Bates College, Central Maine Community College and Andover College, as well as important community partners, the Lewiston Public Library, Empower Lewiston and Lewiston Adult Education.

LAC has graduated almost 1,000 people with bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and we look forward to helping change the lives of many thousands more. Our teacher education students are in area classrooms and our nursing students are providing health care. Other graduates manage community businesses and nonprofit organizations, and deliver and oversee social services throughout the area.

Almost daily we hear from alumnae/i of USM LAC, who share powerful stories of the difference the college made in their lives. We anticipate hearing many more stories, some of which we will share across the community soon.

And we look forward to continuing to do what we do best: helping people across the region achieve their dreams as they study and complete their college education at Lewiston-Auburn’s university.

Marvin Druker, Ph.D., is interim dean of University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College.