Place, UME exploring restructuring plan

By BRUCE HOTCHKISS
Senior Editor

COLLEGE PARK — In the wake of a continuing budget crisis, University of Maryland officials are weighing a plan to restructure and essentially downsize the organization.
How to go about achieving across-the-board cost reductions haa been under consideration by a staff advisory committee since April.
However, the urgency to bring something to the table has been underlined by a rash of recent retirements which has left a few counties without tenured staff.
Dr. Nick Place, associate dean of the University of Maryland Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources and associate director of Extension, described the process as “redistributing the chairs on the deck.”
He declined, at this point, to discuss how that redistribution might be accomplished, saying it would be premature.
However, that effort, he said, would attempt to provide what he called “equilibrium” among the counties as to their ability to provide the various Extension services — agriculture, 4-H and family and consumer sciences.
A series of three “town hall” meetings with Extension staffers across the state was held earlier this month, Place said.
The input gathered from those sessions will be incorporated into the plan which will then be shared with the staff before presentation to the dean and provost for final approval.
Place said Extension officials hope to have something in place “this fall.”
The challenge which faces the University of Maryland Extension in continuing to bring its traditional services across the state was boldly demonstrated by the simultaneous retirement of Pam King of Charles County, Doug Tregoning of Montgomery County and John Hall of Kent County.
Each stepped down after 30 years of service on July 1, leaving the counties without either a senior agent or a county Extension director.
It is unlikely, amid the budget crunch, officials said, that any of the three will be replaced.