LEWISTON — Staff and students voiced frustration about finances, policies and a shaky vision, with hardly a mention of the close but unsuccessful “no confidence” vote in University of Southern Maine President Selma Botman, the reason behind University of Maine System Chancellor James H. Page’s visit Thursday morning.

Page spoke and listened from the Hannaford lecture hall on the Portland campus with a live video feed to USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College.

Last week, faculty voted 194-88 against Botman, short of the two-thirds majority required to oust her; 377 full-time faculty were eligible to vote.

Botman has been university president since July 2008 and has overseen a major reorganization. She found herself in the spotlight earlier this spring when several discretionary staff raises were made public.

Page, on the job since March, said for every person with concerns that he’s heard from on campus the past several days, he’s heard from one person off campus.

“You might be surprised to the degree this has really captured the public,” he said, announcing plans to stay for two days with a consultant.

Page talked broadly about “enormous challenges” in public education, said he would meet with the President’s Cabinet, Faculty Senate, three union heads and others, and declined to offer a timetable for what might lie ahead.

Wendy Chapkis, a professor of sociology and director of Women and Gender Studies, drew applause when she approached the microphone and said the lack of a faculty contract had to be resolved. She also had concerns about USM’s reputation.

“I’m worried that rather than being competition for Orono for the best students, people think we’re competition for Kaplan (University) or Southern New Hampshire (University,)” Chapkis said. “We have people on faculty here that should be trumpeted. There’s a real feeling of despair on campus right now.”

When someone else asked for the difference between Kaplan, a for-profit college, and USM, Page said, “Our mission is very different and our responsibility under our charter is very different.”

To another question — “Do you have a hidden stash of money up there you’d like to give us?” — Page said rumors of a vault of money in his Bangor office were not true, acknowledging, “There’s a lack of clear information about the finances.”

Roxie Black, director and professor of occupational therapy at LAC, stood in the Portland auditorium to address what she called “the gorilla in the room.” She’d signed the petition calling for a no-confidence vote and wondered about retribution.

“People fear for their program, their ability to get promotions,” Black said.

Between 15 and 20 people listened in from Room 285 at LAC.

Jan Hitchcock, a professor of social and behavioral sciences, and the only person in Lewiston who stood to ask a question, said afterward she thought the morning had set a good tone.

“I think the main thing is, every single person has positive hopes moving forward,” she said.

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