AUGUSTA (AP) – The University of Maine System has backed away from a controversial campus merger plan and the Legislature has opted to stay out of the system’s reorganization process.

Those developments this week mark an end to the plan by Chancellor Joseph Westphal and the system’s board of trustees to merge the University of Southern Maine and the University of Maine at Augusta.

Protests about the plan prompted legislators to develop a proposal to require academic and community input into major decisions by the university system.

But after Westphal reversed course and endorsed a report calling for the Augusta campus to remain independent, the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs voted Thursday to scuttle the bill. Instead, the panel encouraged university leaders to include public input in the process when proposing a major change.

Prior to the vote, Westphal pledged to do just that.

“Lessons were learned and we are committed to a public process,” the chancellor said.

Westphal told legislators that system trustees accepted the task force recommendations and are incorporating them into the strategic plan.