UMaine System reports fall enrollment down 2.5 percent - NOEL K. GALLAGHER, Portland Press Herald

Dogged by a budget crisis fueled in part by low student enrollment, the University of Maine System says its fall 2014 headcount is down 2.5 percent systemwide, although the numbers are up slightly at the system’s flagship campus in Orono and at UMaine Fort Kent. At the University of Southern Maine, which has 8,428 students in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston, overall enrollment is down 5.5 percent, with a 1.4 percent drop in graduate enrollment and a 6.6 percent drop in undergraduate enrollment from the fall of 2012. USM enrollment is down 13 percent over five years, according to the report dated Oct. 23. The system has posted declining enrollment figures for years, which officials say is largely related to Maine’s demographics and the shrinking number of Maine high school graduates. http://www.centralmaine.com/2014/10/30/umaine-system-reports-fall-enrollment-down-2-5-percent/