LEWISTON – University of Southern Maine President Selma Botman on Thursday told local faculty and staff to expect layoffs, changes in job descriptions, the elimination of vacant positions and other cuts throughout the university as the school looks to fill a $4.1 million hole in its budget.

But specifics, she said, won’t come for a few weeks.

About two dozen people attended the president’s speech at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College. Botman gave a similar speech at USM in Portland on Wednesday.

USM expects $120.1 million in revenues for 2009-10. The problem? It will have $124.2 million in expenses.

About $600,000 of that gap will be filled by eliminating the university’s child care program and Lifeline, a community fitness program. Those cuts were announced earlier this year and take effect this summer for the 2009-10 budget.

Botman has asked the university’s deans, directors and vice presidents to help her fill the rest of the $4.1 million gap. Because their budgets are 80 percent personnel, she said, “they have no place to turn except to personnel cuts.”

Still, those cuts will not be across the board. In an effort to stop making “opportunistic” reductions that can affect the quality of the university, Botman said, USM will make no cuts to its libraries and will increase financial aid, fill an alumni relations position and add an institutional research officer to oversee USM’s research data.

Botman also defended hiring a special assistant to work on USM’s five-year strategic plan. The two-year position carries an annual salary of $89,500. One person questioned the need for the position, saying the president’s office already had people with the expertise to get the strategic plan done.

Botman strongly disagreed. She said the financial and academic strategic plan needed to be done quickly – by the end of this school year – and that couldn’t have happened using only the staff members she had.

“I am going to assure you this is the very best decision I made this year,” she said. “Absolutely. No hesitation.”

Botman said she would give details of the specific cuts designed to fill that $4.1 million budget gap in a few weeks. But the budget work likely won’t end there.

Gov. John Baldacci wants to cut the university’s state funding by $525,000 to help fill the state’s own budget gap. The Legislature has not yet approved the reduction, but Botman did not expect it to get any better.

If anything, she said, there may be more cuts as the state struggles with less tax revenue and the university deals with investment losses from the weak economy.

“We have to roll up our sleeves in short order and find a half-million dollars,” Botman said. “And then we still remain on shifting ground.”

She did detail one potential bright spot. The university can get $2 million in federal stimulus funds this year and more than $1.3 million next year and the year after that. Although the money won’t reduce USM’s structural deficit – the millions can’t be used to prop up the school’s base budget – USM can use the money for financial aid, student services, instructor salaries, building modernization, renovation and debt payments.

USM had not yet applied for those funds.