The University of Southern Maine (USM) has laid off seven full-time faculty members in order to reduce expenses.

Bob Caswell, a spokesman, said that the university had decided on seven faculty layoffs, but there would be more in future, which will include both faculty and staff positions.

"I'm very hesitant to get into the numbers game without ensuring that people have been notified and the numbers have been locked down," Caswell said.

Caswell said that the decision to lay off professors was an effort to reallocate expenses (around $5 million) to areas of highest importance for the 2014 fiscal year and make the student and teacher ratio proportional.

However, the university is hiring in some departments, including business, social work and education.

Caswell said that this move is not only tough for the concerned lecturers, but for the university too.

Caswell said that by implementing tough decisions on the workforce, the university will be able to better handle the tough economic times.

Ed Collom, an associate professor of sociology and the president of USM's chapter of the Associated Faculties of the University of Maine, said that in order to solve its financial problems, the university can borrow money from the University of Maine's system reserves, which is estimated to have around $177 million.

School of Music on USM's Gorham campus has notified Steve Bizub, a lecturer in music education, about his job loss. Now, the program will be left with only one music education professor.

In addition, a voice instructor, a bassoon instructor and band director Peter Martin will be retiring next year. The university is not planning on finding a replacement for Martin.

The six other campuses in the University of Maine System are also introducing similar measures as they are also facing budget pressures.

Rebecca Wyke, the University of Maine system's vice chancellor for finance and administration, said that the important sources of revenue for the universities and colleges are student tuitions and state funds.

The enrolments have decreased over the past few years. Plus, the state funds to the system have reduced by $6 million since 2008 and are currently estimated to be $179.5 million.

As a result, the system's trustees have frozen tuitions.

Wyke said that when the university is not able to obtain enough revenue from tuition or state funds, it has to look out for alternate sources to compensate on the increasing operating costs- health insurance and building maintenance.

Gov. Paul LePage has proposed a $139 million budget for the next two years starting July 1, a slight increase from the current $138 million budget.