University of Southern Maine

in dire financial straits, and would be announcing program closures and faculty layoffs, including long-term just cause faculty and tenured faculty. President Theodora Kalikow and Provost Michael Stevenson announced that four departments would be closed: the Recreation and Leisure Studies Department, the GeoSciences Department, the Arts and Humanities program at Lewiston-Auburn College, and the graduate program American and New England Studies (the Recreation and Leisure Studies closure was later rescinded). A week later, twelve individual faculty members in various departments were informed that they would be laid off effective May 31. As a result of protests led by USM students, the layoffs were rescinded by Kalikow. Later that year, Chancellor Page asked Kalikow for her resignation as USM president.
This process was restarted in October 2014, when Interim President David T. Flanagan (former CEO of a power company) and Provost Joseph McDonnell announced that the three programs targeted for elimination in March …