Maine Gov. Vetoes Bill to Add Nonvoting Employee Trustees

Faculty and staff members hoping for a voice on the University of Maine’s Board of Trustees won’t get one after Democratic governor Janet Mills vetoed a bill that would add trustees from both groups.

Faculty and staff would have been added as nonvoting members under the bill, L.D. 1820, which Mills shot down last week. In vetoing the bill, Mills claimed that it would violate university policies and create a conflict of interest, according to reporting by The Portland Press Herald.

“The perspective of faculty, staff, and the public is certainly important to the work of the Board of Trustees of the University of Maine System,” Mills wrote in her veto letter. “I encouraged the Board to develop better methods for obtaining input from current faculty and staff at its Board and subcommittee meetings to ensure that they have ample opportunity for involvement in significant decisions impacting the System. However, I believe this can and should be done without adding to the membership of the Board individual faculty and staff who are currently employed by the System.”