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University Of Maine

March 23, 2012 by · Comments Off on University Of Maine 

University Of Maine, All discretionary salary increases for University of Maine System employees have been suspended, Chancellor James Page said Thursday evening in the wake of news that 44 University of Southern Maine employees received $242,000 in raises during a difficult fiscal year.

The system plans to do a full review of salary increases at each of its campuses. System spokeswoman Peggy Markson said she should have a better idea Friday of how long that process will take.

The Press Herald first reported on the salary increases earlier this week.

The 44 USM employees saw their salaries boosted between 5 percent and 41 percent under the Salaried Employees Compensation and Classification Program, which allows the employees to have their positions reviewed to determine if their work warrants higher pay.

“Compensation and programs and policies must recognize the fact that the university system’s greatest asset is our people’s knowledge and experience,” said Page, who took office Tuesday. “But they must also reflect the values of the people of Maine and, in particular, their inherent sense of equity and fair play.”

The program was established in 2005 to compensate system employees for increases in workload and not to bring salary levels to the same level as other universities in the nation or University of Maine System, according to Tracey Bigney, the system’s chief human resources officer.

Since 2007, USM has lost an equivalent of 118 full-time positions, which have either remained unfilled or been eliminated, according to USM spokesman Bob Caswell.

Many of those roles and duties had to be passed on to other individuals, who saw an increased workload, many times at less cost than refilling the empty post, Caswell said.

Monique LaRocque, USM’s executive director of university outreach, received a $34,515 raise this year under the program – a 41 percent increase over her previous salary. She now makes $118,000 a year.

That raise came after LaRocque’s boss left for a different job. Rather than filling the position, USM eliminated it and passed its responsibilities to LaRocque and others in the office.

Caswell received a $18,212 raise after his position was reviewed. He attributed the 21 percent salary increase to the fact that he took on a number of duties outside of his original job description at the request of USM President Selma Botman. His salary is now $106,000.

Those duties included leading high-level campus task forces, taking on responsibility for coordinating internal communications, coordinating community events on campus and providing strategic counsel to the president, Caswell said.

University Of Maine

February 10, 2012 by · Comments Off on University Of Maine 

University Of Maine, On the night of Nov. 12, the University of Maine men’s hockey team was 3-6-1 overall and 3-5 in Hockey East.

The Black Bears had just been swept at home by UMass Lowell.

Six of those first eight Hockey East games were at home so it appeared as though a top-four finish and a home ice berth for the Hockey East quarterfinals wasn’t in the offing.

But the Black Bears have gone 13-2-2 since that series, 8-2-2 in Hockey East.

As they begin their final seven-game stretch of Hockey East games, the Bears have put themselves in position to earn a home ice slot.

The top five teams are separated by just three points and Maine has the fewest number of games against the other four front-runners: one.

That will take place on Saturday night when the team visits UMass Lowell after playing a Friday night game at Providence College.

“We’ve put ourselves in a pretty good spot over the past couple of months but we still have to finish strong,” said Maine senior center and co-captain Brian Flynn. “Some teams are fighting to finish in the top [four] and some are fighting to get in the playoffs. Every weekend, we’ll be playing a hungry team. We don’t have any easy games.”

Boston University leads the league with 27 points – teams are awarded two points for a win and one for a tie – and UMass Lowell is second with 26. Merrimack and Boston College have 25 apiece and Maine has 24. Maine, BU and BC each have played 20 games while UMass Lowell and Merrimack have played 19.

Maine owns the tie-breaker against BC and BU after going 2-1 against each team but it would lose the tie-breaker to Merrimack (0-2-1) and UMass Lowell (0-2).

Providence and New Hampshire have 17 points each, Northeastern has 16, UMass has 14 and Vermont has just five points.

UNH, Northeastern and Vermont have played 20 league games while Providence and UMass have played 19.

After playing Providence and UML this weekend, Maine will host UMass for a pair, visit Northeastern for two and host New Hampshire for one.

Entering this weekend, BU has two apiece with UMass Lowell, Vermont and Northeastern and one with UMass; BC has three with Vermont and two each with Merrimack and Providence; UML has three with Merrimack and two each with BU and Providence plus the one with Maine; and Merrimack has three with UML, two apiece with BC and UMass and one with UNH.

All five teams are among the top nine in the Pairwise Rankings that mimic the NCAA Tournament selection process. BU is No. 1; UML is tied for second with Michigan; BC is sixth; Merrimack is tied with Minnesota for seventh and Maine is ninth.

Maine swept Providence 5-4 in overtime and 3-1 with an empty-net goal.

“We have gone through our toughest stretch already but if we don’t bring it this weekend against Providence and Lowell, we’ll get knocked off,” said senior left wing and assistant captain Spencer Abbott.

The stretch he was referring to was in January when the Black Bears went 6-1-1 including six games against three teams ranked among the nation’s top seven: BU, BC and Merrimack.

“We’re just focusing on ourselves,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “Hopefully, we’ll get some help from some other teams but we’re not counting on it. We’re excited about the challenge this weekend. “

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