AUGUSTA -- The University of Maine at Augusta has won reaccreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and the once-a-decade review gives high praise to the 42-year-old campus.

It also points out the challenges ahead for the third-largest of the state's seven campuses.

The eight-member evaluation team that visited the Augusta university credits UMA's efforts to implement its new mission to educate students seeking four-year degrees.

But they point out that the school needs more financial support to make the shift and other changes at the school.

"The mission of the university has changed without a concomitant change in funding (and) revenue allocation systems to support its move to become a baccalaureate-level institution," the team concluded in its report, released last month by the university.

"Although a good foundation in assessment of student learning outcomes has been established, it is not clear that the university will be able to continue this initiative without the commitment of full-time personnel resources in both assessment and institutional research."

UMA Provost Josh Nadel said the accreditation group was so impressed that it did not require his school to respond to any corrections, which he said is usually expected, even after good evaluations.

The accreditation agency requires colleges and universities to be evaluated every 10 years to remain in good standing. UMA's next review will be in 2015.

In her letter to UMA President Richard Randall, Chairwoman Judith Gordon of Boston College said the university would be expected in its 2011 interim report to show how it is:

n Ensuring a sufficient revenue base to offset continuing increases in tuition and fees as well as to provide funds for deferred maintenance and capital improvements.

n Implementing its plan for data-driven decision-making in the academic program, particularly in the area of outcomes assessment.

n Achieving equity between the Augusta and Bangor campuses with regard to allocation of resources and deferred maintenance.

Dan King, vice president for academic affairs at Queensborough Community College and chairman of the UMA evaluation panel, said "that every member of the team found that the university had prepared very well for the accreditation visit."

"It had conducted a comprehensive self-study and published a thorough review report," King said. "It provided every additional piece of data that was requested during the visit. All personnel, administrators, faculty, staff, students, were exceptionally open and honest with their comments. And members of the university's external constituencies were similarly willing to share their impressions."

Randall said the evaluation sets the tone and direction for his institution.

"I think it was an extremely important accreditation visit in the history of the university," Randall said. "The baccalaureate clarification of mission for the university was instrumental in such a positive report."

Kelly Deprez, a UMA senior and student representative to the University System of Maine Board of Trustees, said the evaluation report rang true to her and touched on many of the issues she feels are most important to her university.

"Of course, some of the issues surround funding for our university," Deprez said.

A vocal student leader, Deprez said she is not as dissatisfied as some over the cut her school receives from the state university system after reviewing the budget numbers herself. With the third-largest student body in the state system, UMA receives the fourth-largest funding allocation, she said.

"These are really system issues and so they have to be dealt with by our president and faculty representative, but mostly new president has to bring it to the system," Deprez said.

Nadel said UMA needs to look for new sources of revenues rather than expecting more money from the university system or increased tuition.

The university has begun efforts to reach out to alumni and community supporters, hiring administrators with that in mind, he said.

UMA is attempting to tailor academic offerings to student demand, while at the same time beginning to compete in the national online instruction market, particularly in areas where UMA has expertise, Nadel said.

"We need to be entrepreneurial enough to move into the future," Nadel said. "We want to recapture our leadership in distance learning and these are the first steps in doing that and it will also be the first step in developing some new income streams that will insulate us from local economies."

UMA Dean Tom Abbott, part of whose responsibilities are to oversee distance-learning initiatives, said UMA can offer advantages in teaching and costs for some online courses compared with those offered by private institutions. "It's a new strategy and we think we can compete in the marketplace," said Abbott, co-chairman of the UMA team that prepared an extensive self-study of the university in anticipation of the outside evaluation.

As a student leader, Deprez said she found support for her contention that UMA should regain control over the distance-learning sites. The university system took that responsibility away from Augusta more than a decade ago.

"They said we, as UMA, need to have our sites back," Deprez said. "If we're offering the programming, we really need to have those sites back."

The report indicated that full-time faculty at UMA want to increase their ranks at the expense of the school's historical dependence on part-time teachers.

Professor Carol Kontos, a former legislator and co-chairwoman of the UMA self-study team, praised the contributions of part-time instructors, but said more full-time professors are needed to help with chores outside the classroom, including student advising, committee work, community interaction and research.

"We're a campus that does not have graduate programs, so we don't have graduate students" who traditionally teach lower-level courses at many universities, Kontos said.

But that is also one of the university's strengths, she said. "Would you rather have a 101 course taught by an experienced faculty member or a graduate student? That's something that does distinguish us."

Nadel acknowledged that there have been inequities in facilities between the university's Bangor and Augusta campuses. He said the university system had planned to close the Bangor facility before UMA took over 12 years ago and renovations have taken time.

Deprez said she was interested to see that the evaluation team picked up on the perceived disparities between the campuses. "That has to do with deferred maintenance because the Bangor campus is so much older than ours," she said.

The UMA provost said he anticipates building problems in Bangor will be resolved in coming years.

The commission report also noted the debate within the campus community over a possible name change and said UMA officials should decide if the time is ripe to put that issue to rest. Nadel said discussion over a name change has subsided in recent months pending the appointment of a new UMA president. One of the problems, he said, will be coming up with a name that represents students and activities both in Augusta, Bangor and at the school's far-flung distance-learning centers, while giving a sense of connection to potential contributors throughout the region.

"I think there's an awareness that specific geographic identification in our current name causes us some problems with some people," Abbott said.

Gary Remal -- 621-5642

gremal@centralmaine.com