Asserting a chancellor's authority

In a May interview with the Bangor Daily News, University of Maine System Chancellor Richard Pattenaude acknowledged that fundamental changes afoot at the seven-campus system could result in the reduction or elimination of his position.

"This is not about job protection," Pattenaude told BDN reporter
Jessica Bloch. "This is about trying to create the best higher
education system for Maine. I understood that was a risk when we began
this process."

Now, the task force Pattenaude charged with recommending major changes at the University of Maine System is out with a draft of the report it will present to system trustees on Monday.

I blogged recently about the unified approach the report recommends as a way to move along the University of Maine System as the seven-campus network faces a structural deficit of at least $43 million over the next four years.

"What our system cries out for is for someone to be in charge," task force head David Flanagan said Friday at one of the group's final meetings.

That "someone" already is in charge, at least on paper. It's Pattenaude.

The "New Challenges, New Directions" task force recommends no change in governance structure. "[W]e are fortunate to have one of the least intrusive political models in the country, for which we should be grateful," the group's draft report reads.

The report calls instead for an affirmation of the authorities that already exist. Those are authorities, according to the report, that historically haven't been asserted.

A consensus-based decision-making style, the report notes, has been "good for keeping everyone involved, but effectively precludes any actions that are outside of people's comfort zones. Thus, the system tends to repose in inertia, or to move forward by the uncoordinated initiatives of individual campuses, rather than by explicit policy decisions."

An empowered chancellor could help break that pattern, the report implies.

As the task force wraps up its work, it appears that what began as a process that potentially endangered Pattenaude and his position has become a process that affirms and expands his authority.