PORTLAND (AP) — The president of the University of Southern Maine says the school should eliminate four majors and lay off up to 50 faculty and staff to help shore up a $14 million budget shortfall.

USM President Theodora Kalikow told a meeting of the Faculty Senate on Friday that those cuts as well as closing some facilities would only be about $7 million in savings.

“This is painful and disruptive for those dedicated and talented people directly affected,” Kalikow said. “Facing some of these issues is long overdue and therefore the magnitude is larger than if it had been caught and rectified earlier.”

The cuts are part of a University of Maine System effort to eliminate 165 positions and make up for a deficit of $36 million brought on by flat state funding, decreasing enrollment and tuition freezes, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Each campus will submit their budgets to the UMaine System next month.

Kalikow proposed doing away with the American and New England Studies, Geosciences and Recreation and Leisure Studies majors at the Portland and Gorham campuses, and the Arts and Humanities major at the Lewiston-Auburn College.

Some faculty members were highly critical of the proposal.

“I am not leaving this place without a fight,” said Geosciences professor Stephen Pollack, who listed the achievements of the four faculty members. “I think this is very shortsighted of you to do this to us.”