It's a process that's been in the works for nine months; now it's official.

Three work groups were put together to address finance, academics, and governance and structure in the University of Maine system.

They circulated through the seven campuses, where public hearings were held.

In July chancellor Richard Pattenaude was charged with putting an action plan in place to formulate the information in those reports into goals for the university system.

They hope to eliminate a shortfall of more than $42,000,000 by 2013.

But they didn't want to hike tuition rates at a faster rate.

"That's one of the goals that we set out is that we want to maintain a quality product that is affordable," Said the vice chairman of the board of trustees Norman Fournier. "I mean one of the things that the Trustees have said here is that we want to try to minimize the increase in tuition as long and as much as possible so that it is affordable so that the people of this state can get a higher education."

The plan is a transition document with benchmarks placed in it so the board can see if they are progressing the way they originally expected.

The board will review those goals at their meetings every two months.

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