This is a summary of Session 7 of the presentations at the Maine Compact for Higher Education's 4th annual Maine Symposium on Higher Education, "Money For College: The Critical Link to Business & Economic Growth," held August 7, 2008 at the University of Southern Maine.

Session 7: What is Maine's action agenda? What are you going to do?

Ronald Bancroft, President, Bancroft & Company, Moderator
Richard Pattenaude, Chancellor, University of Maine System
Michael Shea, President, Webber Energy Fuels

Bancroft: A summary of today's discussions

• Matt Jacobson at Maine & Company: Employers who are thinking of coming to Maine are concerned with the workforce and the slowness of the Legislative process here.
• Lisa Plimpton: If I were a high school senior, I would be daunted by the idea of taking on big debt to get a degree.
• Business and employers panel: When our current generation thinks of education, they think expensive. Most young employees leave employers after 16 months.
• Philanthropy panel: There is this notion of being on the lookout for more opportunities; it takes a lot of work to dig them out but they're there.
• Alfond Scholarship: Such a wonderful bequest.
• Candidates' forum: We could be simplifying the Department of Education's financial aid forms

Shea:

• Webber has just over 700 employees. Our workforce has specific skill needs, including certification requirements. We offer a lot of aid to those employees.
• There may be an opportunity within the business world to share best practices.
• The Alfond Challenge grant is an opportunity to really change the culture in the state of Maine.

Pattenaude:

• The Alfond program is going to have a tremendous impact, but not right away.
• If only the Legislature could help us with cost of living funding.
• To businesses: provide employees with time, incentives, money, and culture to help employees go back to school.
• Education is not the same as training; education is broader.
• Maine's primary deficit is Master's degrees.
• Three things we can do:
  • Focus on the essential disciplines
  • R&D in education--support the University of Maine System in working on economic development.
  • Control costs.

Comment: Opportunity Maine, as it is, is good for the associate and baccalaureate levels. It would be good if we could target it to graduate programs in key sectors.

Comment: One stumbling block for economic development projects is getting the University of Maine System to work with itself and collaborate with the community colleges. But, recently, UMO submitted a grant to study in the St. John Valley and it got funded. Both UMO and the CC worked together to get the grant.

Bancroft: We are a resource-constrained state. How do we get to the point that we're adequately funding higher education?

Comment: Education takes up about half of state and municipal budgets. There are two things to do: 1) grow the pie; and 2) assess those outcomes to see if they're the most efficient.

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