GORHAM – Two adjacent, eight-story dormitories on the Gorham campus of the University of Southern Maine are slated to be closed and could be demolished.

The decision to close the dorms comes as university officials this week continue working to narrow a $14 million budget gap for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Shutting down the pair of 44-year-old, round towers – Dickey and Wood halls – saves $170,000 a year in maintenance, heat and other costs, university spokeswoman Judie O’Malley said this week.

“They’re mothballing them for next year,” O’Malley said.

O’Malley said the university has received a quote of $2 million to demolish the towers.

“It’s under serious consideration,” Robert Caswell, university spokesman, said on Wednesday.

Shonn Moulton, vice chairman of the Gorham Town Council, lived in the towers when he was a student.

“The towers are some of the tallest structures in Gorham and certainly would be missed in the landscape of the university,” Moulton said. “Razing the buildings is a tough option.”

But, renovation expenses could cost more than a new building.

“They are in pretty rough shape,” O’Malley said.

Students will move out of the towers beginning May 9, the last day of finals. They could be the last of thousands to live in the two towers.

The two towers will not be heated and water will be shut off.

According to university figures in March, enrollment at its three campuses has dwindled in recent years from 11,000 to less than 9,000.

The number of students living in dorms is also declining, as many of its students in Gorham live off campus. Dickey and Wood halls can accommodate 368 students, but, Caswell said, only 40 students were living there now.

The university has about 1,500 beds in residence halls on its Gorham campus.

“We don’t have enough students to fill the halls,” O’Malley said.

One of the towers had previously been shuttered for a time. Dickey Hall was shut down in 1992 as a cost-saving measure. The hall had shifted from a dorm to available housing for people attending events on campus. At that time, the university enrollment was 10,423, but the university then cited students seeking off-campus rooms as the reason for shuttering the dorm.

Moulton on Wednesday recalled life in the towers in the years 1995-1998.

“On-campus student residents were down at that time as well and the university had used interesting ways to fill spaces in the towers,” Moulton said. “What they had come up with was leasing floors to groups of students where we took care of running the floor with our own type of government and we would secure the floor ourselves.”

Moulton was head of a floor in 1997. By 1998, Moulton said, the on-campus student population had increased and the program was canceled.

The Dickey-Wood complex was nicknamed the twin towers. The towers, which are connected on the ground level, were built in 1970 at a cost of $2,240,000.

The two buildings were dedicated in 1973 and named the Edna F. Dickey Tower Dormitory and the Esther E. Wood Tower Dormitory. Dickey taught history and was dean of women; she also wrote a town history, “Fifty Years of Gorham 1936-1986.” Wood was a social sciences professor and contributed articles for several publications.

The dedication program says each tower floor was divided into four sections with double and single rooms with a circular lobby.

The buildings’ dedication information said the towers were built by Brown Construction Co. of Portland from a “striking architectural design” by Allied Engineering.

Now, the dorms could be doomed as the university faces trimming its budget. In addressing a $14 million budget gap, Caswell said, the university has “booked” $4.5 million in savings through measures that include not filling vacant positions, 25 staff layoffs, and cutting expenses.

The University of Maine Trustees will decide this month on whether to grant USM $7 million from a rainy day fund. If that is approved, USM could reduce its budget gap to $2.5 million.

After USM President Theo Kalikow earlier rescinded proposed faculty layoffs, the faculty and Kalikow are working to identify $1.26 million in academic program savings by May 31.

USM is also looking at long-term savings by eliminating three programs and seven faculty members. The programs are American and New England studies, arts and humanities, and geosciences, taught in Bailey Hall on the Gorham campus.

“My hopes are that the number of on campus students for the university can once again rebound and that the campus begins to flourish at its peak capacity once again, because the university and the town are symbiotic of each other,” Moulton said.

“We need those students on campus,” he said, “to help spend money in town at our restaurants, visit our shops, and maybe like me, call it home once they are done with their time at the university.”

The University of Southern Maine is mothballing these two dorms on its Gorham campus at the end of the semester. The university has a quote of $2 million to demolish the towers, built in 1970.