Trustee James Erwin to serve fourth year as Board Chair
Trustee Mark Gardner to serve first term as Board Vice Chair
Orono, Maine — The University of Maine System Board of Trustees at its May meeting elected Trustee James R. Erwin to serve as Board Chair and Trustee Mark R. Gardner to serve as Vice Chair. Trustee Erwin will be serving his fourth year as Chair — the limit for service in that capacity per Board bylaws — and Trustee Gardner will be serving his first year as Vice Chair.
Trustees Erwin and Gardner are both in their second five-year term of service on the University of Maine System Board of Trustees. They began their terms of service in September of 2012. During their time on the Board, Maine has become a national leader in higher education affordability and reform.
“Trustees Erwin and Gardner have served on the University of Maine System Board of Trustees in a time of great challenge and change in public higher education,” said Trustee Lisa Marchese Eames, Chair of the Board’s Nominating Committee. “Their stewardship and guidance as Board members have helped position Maine’s public universities as a national leader in affordability and student and state-focused service.
“The Trustees are especially appreciative of Chair Erwin’s willingness to serve a fourth year leading our Board. Under his leadership we have declared a set of strategic priorities for our campuses that is moving Maine toward the establishment of an employer-engaged, efficient, cost-effective, and flexible continuum of public education serving learners from early childhood to retirement.”
In July of 2019 the Board of Trustees directed newly-appointed Chancellor Dannel Malloy to report on accreditation options that would support the development of significantly more collaborative multi-campus academic programs. In January the Trustees endorsed moving forward with a plan to unify the separate university institutional accreditations into a unified accreditation under the University of Maine System. With this accreditation model, for the first time in the country all of a state’s public universities will be assessed based on how well they share public resources among them to satisfy accreditation standards.
“The collaboration we will now be able to achieve among our universities will enrich our academic programs and further extend the reach of our support and services to students no matter where they are,” continued Trustee Marchese Eames. “Now is a great time for learners and their families to choose public higher education and join a university family committed to student success and educating the work-force ready graduates Maine needs.”
Follow this link to a list of UMS Trustees with brief bios.
DISTRIBUTED 5/27/20