Now that commencement is over, the hand-wringing begins about how to pay for the running of Maine’s public universities again.

The UMaine System is a group of eight universities located in Orono, Portland, Augusta, Presque Isle, Machias, Farmington and Fort Kent, and the School of Law, co-located on the University of Southern Maine campus in Portland. There are also several “University Colleges” where students can take coursework, sometimes by video.

In the last year, with tuition frozen and state assistance frozen, the schools have been having trouble meeting their obligations to their employees. Almost 88 percent of the universities’ budgets come from tuition and state aid.

But 20 percent of the budget for the overall system is siphoned off to the “University of Maine System” office in Bangor, which employs nearly 300 people, even though much of the work they do is replicated in each university.

Duplication of effort has long been a problem at the University of Maine. There is a chancellor, who is theoretically the “CEO” of the entire system and makes decisions about the overall governance of the universities. But each university also has its own president and administrative staff.

These are some of the highest paid positions in the university system. The chancellor’s salary this year was $277,000, while the dean of the School of Law earned $212,011, the president of UMaine Orono earned $270,000, and the vice chancellor and treasurer just received a “retention” bonus, bringing her salary up to over $200,000 per year.

In addition, the presidents and chancellors get cars, housing on campus or a housing stipend, and other perks, making their compensation package worth far more than the salary.

Together, the presidents and chancellors, as well as some of their highest-paid assistants, earn $3.275 million per year, plus benefits.

While some administration of any organization is necessary, a very little can go a very long way. One chancellor and a vice chancellor could probably provide direction for the entire system, allowing those funds to be plowed into the mission of a public university, which is to educate students.

To put that in some context, this figure would pay for more than 200 scholars to attend school and live on campus at Orono for a year. It would pay the salaries of 50 average faculty members, or 80 average staff members.

The universities also need to stop duplicating a great deal of effort. While every college should provide the basic core curriculum students need to graduate, there is no reason why Orono must duplicate USM’s music major program, or Augusta must duplicate Farmington’s teacher education major program, or Machias must duplicate Fort Kent’s solar energy engineering major program.

When a student applies to the University, he or she should be told where the major exists that he or she wants to study. If accepted, the student should be prepared to attend that college unless his or her major changes.

And the University should be courting more grateful alumni dollars than it is currently. New sports facilities are fun, but even if they are paid for entirely, the University has to pay for staff, heat, and maintenance ever after. The grateful alumni should ask the University what it needs, not insist it takes what the alumni want to give.

That might mean a donation to the endowment. University of Maine’s endowment in 2011 was about $184 million, and that included the value of its original land grant and any forestry or agricultural land given to it ever after. Tuition and state funds are making up a far too large portion of the University’s budget for it to remain healthy. The University must learn to live … at least partly … on the margins of its investments.