The university reimbursed Board of Regent members $63,630 for travel in 2006, more than a third of which was for non-regent meetings, records show.

The 11 regents received more than $37,300 in travel compensation for full board meetings, according to records kept with the university.

UA reimbursed regents $26,330 for other travel costs, including a conference in Florida, university graduations and other meetings they attended as representatives of the board.

The average regent was reimbursed for about $5,784 worth of travel expenses. But the rules, both on paper and in practice, governing reimbursement were such that no regent followed quite the same protocol for calculating their reimbursement.

Pages of receipts backed up most of the money paid out. But another portion was based on calculations that applied even when a regent stayed at his or her own house.

In practice, the way per diem reimbursements are given, regents can take more money than they may have actually spent to ensure that they are not losing out by missing a day of work.

When a board meeting was held in a regent's hometown, or the regent audio conferenced into a meeting elsewhere in the state, regents often filed a reimbursement for the full per diem rate, which is calculated to include a hotel and meals.

"You can turn in per diem for the day because you have to leave the job for the day, so you're either taking vacation time or just not getting paid," said Regent Carl Marrs, the board's treasurer.

Regents have two options when they travel to a board meeting, Marrs said.

One option allows them to accept the full per diem rate for hotel and meals, ranging from $135 to $160 depending on the meeting, without any receipts, plus compensation for the exact amount turned in on receipts for transportation expenses, he said.

Regents often choose this when they don't have their receipts anymore, although it can also be taken when they know it provides a higher compensation, Marrs said.

The second option pays a partial per diem, between $40 and $44, essentially a food allowance, and then the exact amount of receipts for lodging and transportation, Marrs said. Regents can also file for incidental costs related to the meetings, such as relevant phone calls, he added.

The university also picks up the bill even when it's not an actual regents meeting.

Regents Brian Rogers, Mary Hughes, Cynthia Henry, Jacob Gondek, and James Hayes were reimbursed for going to an April 2006 conference in Florida sponsored by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

Records from 2006 show the regents only chose to take the per diem rate without showing up when most regents traveled to attend the meeting. For example, no regent filed for the August audio conference meeting.

And not all regents chose to take the full per diem when they were at home. Marrs, an Anchorage resident, didn't get reimbursed for any of the three meetings in Anchorage last year.

"You can, but I usually don't take it," he said.

Others, such as Gondek, the student regent and also of Anchorage, did take the full per diem.

For the January 2006 retreat at the Captain Cook Hotel, Gondek was reimbursed $270.

"At the time, I was living out of town, so driving into town made up the difference," he said.

Regents Timothy Brady and Bob Martin opted not to be reimbursed when they audio conferenced into meetings in 2006, according to reimbursement records.

But Rogers did accept the full per diem rate for that meeting, $139.

Brady, Martin and Rogers did not respond to requests for comment.

Whether or not a regent was reimbursed while he or she was at home isn't the only disparity in the amounts regents were reimbursed.

Just as regents made individual choices on whether or not to file for reimbursement when they were at home, the number of days taken for a given meeting varied.

For the full board meeting held Feb. 15-16, records show regents took anywhere from two to four days of full per diem.

Rogers, who had the highest overall travel reimbursement at $9,288.41 but lowest average reimbursement per full board meeting with $559.13, filed for full per diem reimbursement for the two days the meeting was held.

Hayes, who is under federal scrutiny for misuse of federal funds, was at the middle of the pack for overall reimbursement but had the second highest average reimbursement per full board meeting with $882.02.

He filed for three days of full per diem reimbursement.

And Marrs, toward the low end for overall reimbursement but with the third highest average reimbursement per full board meeting with $839.90, filed for four days of full per diem reimbursement.

Nonetheless, Marrs said that any money gained in the reimbursement process doesn't cover the time spent on regent duties.

"It is purely a job that you do from the heart," he said.