The University of Southern Maine (USM) is a multi-campus public university. It is one of seven institutions in the University of Maine System which is run by a board of 16 members, 15 of which are appointed by the Governor. There are three campuses in Portland, Gorham, and Lewiston- Portland being the main campus alongside online opportunities. Currently, USM has about 6100 undergraduate students with 265 full-time faculty. See figure 1. For an outline of the current per credit hours charges at USM. The student body is the most racially diverse, most working class on the most urban campus out of the seven University of Maine campuses.
Figure 1. The USM Per Credit Hour Charges:
Source: https://usm.maine.edu/student-financial-services/tuition-and-fees, 2019
I conducted one thirty-minute interview for this project. Professor Oyman Basaran put me in contact with a well-known, radical, retired USM Professor. The interview was conducted over the phone. I first contacted the interviewee over email when I presented the topic of my research to her. The email read: “Hi Susan, I am a senior sociology major at Bowdoin College. I believe Professor Oyman Basaran reached out to you to let you know that I would be in touch. I am looking into the changes at the University of Southern Maine like layoffs, dorm closures, and department cut backs. I was wondering if I could interview you for my research? Please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you”.
I created the interview protocol centered around the topic of the USM’s 2014 financial crisis. Questions ranged from, what is your connection the university to how did you see the crisis impacting students on the ground? Other questions included:
- What is your connection to USM?
- Have you noticed any changes at USM recently? Over past 5, 10, 15 years?
- If so, why do you think they occurred?
- For what purpose?
- How did they impact the college?
- Who was impacted & why?
In addition to analyzing the interview I conducted with Susan Feiner, I also collected news articles, peer-reviewed articles, and consulted a sociological book. The news articles were gathered from many sites including but not limited to The Bangor Daily News, The Portland Press Herald, The New York Times, and The Atlantic. The different types of sources offered me different perspectives and provided me with additional quotes from relevant actors like Professors, USM’s CFO, and both President’s at the time rather than interviewing them. I chose these forms of information because they exemplify the way in which students and faculty were receiving information from the Board of Trustees and President. The alarming fiscal crisis was plastered through the newspaper rather than the school being transparent by sending a private email to campus.
It would indeed be a good idea to look at Maine newspaper. Also, do not worry about the question of whether or not your informants and (academic or non-academic) sources use “neoliberalism” to frame the changes they observes. With the help of our course, your project will make those connections.