AGENDA UAF GOVERNANCE COORDINATING COMMITTEE SPECIAL MEETING Friday, May 23, 1997 8:00 a.m. Library 341 I CALL TO ORDER - S. Nuss A. Roll Call B. Adopt Agenda II BUSINESS A. FY99 Budget Planning (Attachment 1) III ANNOUNCEMENTS IV ADJOURNMENT ********** ATTACHMENT 1 UAF GOVERNANCE COORDINATING COMMITTEE SPECIAL MEETING MAY 23, 1997 MEMORANDUM TO: John P. Keating, Provost Michael Rice, VC for Administrative Services Karen Cedzo, Vice Chancellor for University Relations Ralph Gabrielli, Executive Dean, College of Rural Alaska Carla Kirts, Dean, Student Services Don Lynch, President, Faculty Senate Ron Pierce, President, Staff Council Catherine Wheeler, President, ASUAF FROM: Joan K. Wadlow, Chancellor University of Alaska Fairbanks DATE: May 6, 1997 RE: FY99 Budget Planning This memorandum outlines the process for developing UAF's FY99 operating and capital budget requests. The procedures are consistent with the February 7 memorandum I sent to the deans, directors and governance representatives who participated in the January workshops at my home. Now that the Board of Regents has officially approved the guidelines, which are enclosed, we can proceed in accordance with my February 7 memorandum. I encourage you to set some guidelines or parameters that will reflect the current and expected financial realities. As I said in January, we want to update and modify priorities, as needed and desirable, but spend as little time on the task as possible. Already, the 3-member committee chaired by Tim Bauer has prepared a draft of proposed fixed cost lists. This draft is being reviewed by units prior to preparing the final list. Steps in Preparing the FY99 Operating Budget Request 1. Enclosed is a copy of the current (FY98) budget requests that was developed internally by UAF during 1995-96 under the auspices of the former Budget Council. The Budget Council no longer exists, and so you need to provide an opportunity for units reporting to you to make requests for adjustments in priorities. I will provide the same opportunity to governance-- the Faculty Senate, ASUAF and Staff Council--with a further stipulation that each send its proposed adjustments to the UAF Governance Coordinating Council for review, recommendation and prioritization before submitting anything to me. All proposed and prioritized adjustments from you, based on input from your units or organizations, should reach my office no later than Tuesday, May 27. Your instructions should be sent THIS WEEK so that personnel on 9-month appointments can provide input. 3. Remind your units or organizations that the current year request grew out of extensive discussions over several years to link our budget to UAF Goals for the Year 2000, Program Assessment enhancements and BOR themes. Since this is a dynamic university and since we also confront new challenges from RIP vacancies and legislative cuts, there may be higher priorities to consider. This process allows for adjustments to priorities. 4. All requests from you and governance will be reviewed collectively at the central level. If the new BOR budget timeline permits, a further opportunity will be provided for units and governance review of the central administration's plan. 5. The UAF request submitted to Statewide as well as the budget request prepared by Statewide to integrate the requests from the entire system, will be available on the WEB at different stages of BOR approval. Capital Budget Request The current capital request will be sent to the Master Planing Committee for review, comment and recommendations. Final adjustments and priorities will be developed by the central administration, keeping in mind the BOR limit for the entire university, which is $50 million as expected, the deferred maintenance backlog and fire code corrections remain the highest priorities. If you have suggestions, please forward to Walter Ensign. ********** FY99 PLANNING ASSUMPTIONS The FY99 Budget Planing Assumptions outline the process to be utilized in developing the FY99 operating and capital budget requests to the governor and legislature. I. FY98 Base Assumptions Reallocations necessary to cover fixed cost and other necessary increases will be made in accordance with regents' policies and the program assessment plan as adopted by the Board of Regents. II. FY99 Budget Development Process The administration, working in conjunction with the MAUs, will present a draft operating and capital budget request to the Board of Regents for their consideration in August. This will be a systemwide request, incorporating only major system or MAU initiatives into a single uniform document. It will also incorporate information about the university's base budget, including historical financial information for major programs and units within each MAU. The administration will present a second draft budget request to the Board of Regents for their consideration in September, incorporating public comment and the Board of Regents' comments and concerns expressed at the August meeting. The request, as approved in September, will represent the Board of Regents' FY99 operating and capital budget proposal to the governor and the legislature. III FY99 Operating Budget Assumptions FY99 incremental requests will be organized under the following budget categories: i. Maintain Essential Services: This category includes the incremental costs of maintaining essential core services, and reflects the impacts of inflation, regulation, and other items or expenses which are for the most part unavoidable. Increments to fully fund salary increases will be developed centrally. The full cost of essential services will be reflected in the request. ii. Improve the Quality, Breadth, and Accessibility of the University's Academic Programs: This category includes initiatives geared towards improving student retention and graduation rates, strengthening the university's role in community college education, and enhancing distance education and other technologically-based methods of instruction. iii. Advance Academic and Fiscal Effectiveness and Accountability: This category includes efforts to develop and utilize information systems and outcomes evaluations to improve the effectiveness of academic programs and support services. iv. Support Alaska's Industrial Structure, Economic Development, and Cultural Richness: This category includes academic and research initiatives that help to understand and develop Alaska's natural resources, or that enhance the artistic, cultural. and intellectual life of Alaska. v. Contribute To and Help Establish the State, National, and International Research Agendas: This category includes collaborative efforts with the state and local governments, other universities, private firms, and other nations to support Alaska's social and economic well-being. IV. FY99 Capital Budget Assumptions A. The capital budget planning process and request will encompass the six-year period FY99 to FY04 and will incorporate the FY98-FY03 Capital Budget Request approved by the Board of Regents last September. The annual general fund request will be limited to $50 million. Projects included in the FY98-FY03 request will be updated and reevaluated to reflect current information, new estimates, and priorities. Changes from the FY98-FY03 request will be clearly identifiable. B. The high priorities for capital funding are as follows: i. Projects fully funded by other sources: Legislative authority to receive and expend nongeneral funds for a specific capital project. ii. Deferred Maintenance/Code Compliance: Funding to reduce the backlog of deferred maintenance and code compliance problems. iii. Matching funds to leverage additional funding for construction: Funding for planning, design, or other preliminary activities that will help leverage outside funding for construction. iv. Equipment and Telecommunications: Equipment, telecommunications, and network improvements necessary to support academic and administrative programs. v. Building/Infrastructure Completions, Renovations, and Safety Improvements: Funding to complete or renovate/remodel existing facilities and infrastructure, including safety improvements to address the physical safety of students and staff while on campus. vi. Planning for Growth: Land acquisition and planning for projects which may be proposed in the future to meet increased enrollments or other programmatic needs. vii. Construction for Growth: Projects designed to meet increased student enrollments. C. Funding to reduce the backlog of ADA, deferred maintenance. and code compliance problems will be requested as a systemwide capital request. MAUs will develop capital requests for each of the other categories as appropriate. with projects included in a given category to be listed in priority order. ********** University of Alaska Fairbanks FY98 OPERATING BUDGET REQUEST INITIATIVES Funds Requested I. UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION Accessibility of Information Technology The Computerized Campus $200.0 Training Student Lab Workers/Longer Lab Hours $150.0 Meeting New Demands for Library Services, $200.0 including Distance Delivery Meeting Accreditation Needs/Mandates Outcomes Assessment & Excellence in $500.0 Professional Programs Compliance with State & Federal Mandates $100.0 Strengthening the Environment for Student Services Improving Success at Rural Campuses $150.0 Quality of the Educational Environment on Campus $125.0 Enrollment Efficiencies/Retention $300.0 II. RESPONDING TO STATE AND NATIONAL NEEDS Exploring Alaskan Issues with Help from Graduate $250.0 Students Value-Added Alaska Fisheries Products $250.0 Science & Technology for Arctic Environmental $200.0 Health Value-Added Forest Products and Forest $250.0 Regeneration Earthquake and Volcano Hazards $92.0 Arctic Botany $66.0 Building Alaska's Tourism Industry $100.0 Enhancing Native Education Science Initiatives for Rural Students $100.0 Alaska Native Language and Culture $200.0 II. UNITY Meeting New Demands for Library Services, Including Distance Delivery Faculty & Staff Training for Distance $150.0 Delivery Implementation TOTAL $3,383.0 ********** UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS FY98 OPERATING BUDGET REQUEST I. Undergraduate Education At the beginning of the decade universities talked about drop out rates. Now we describe the concern in terms of retention and graduation rates. The bottom line is that at UAF we have implemented a series of actions throughout the decade to keep our students and help them graduate. We introduced freshman interest groups (FIGS) and early warning of academic difficulty and in response to a 1993 student survey we made changes in advising and initiated an advising award. Although UAF has made strides in retention as statewide reported to the Board of Regents at its February 1996 meeting, we need to do more. We've learned more about the complexity of the issue and have found some structural, attitudinal and information obstacles that are now being addressed. Accordingly, during 1996 several major initiatives were taken to accelerate achievement of one of UAF's year 2000 goals--high quality undergraduate education for ALL UAF students, full and part time, no matter where they live. On July 1,1996 the Chancellor appointed Dr. Dana Thomas, an award- winning faculty advisor, to the position of Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Enrollment and Educational Assessment. He will develop and oversee implementation of actions to improve the retention and graduation of our students and oversee the development and implementation of comprehensive institutionwide educational assessment. Coinciding with this appointment, UAF reorganized and relocated its enrollment services to better serve our students. These actions resulted from three years of work by UAF's Enrollment Strategy Board and a recent visit by an enrollment specialist. The position of admissions director (recruiting) has been separated from the former Office of Admissions and Records. The new interim director reports directly to the Dean of Student Services. The Registrar now reports directly to the Provost and has additional responsibility to work with the academic deans to ensure that the developing student information system provides the complex information that an institution needs to be effective in retention and graduation, e.g., advising, tracking, identification of specific groups such as transfer students, athletes, scholarship holders, honors students, and allows "early warning" signals about unsatisfactory academic progress especially in introductory courses. Functions associated with enrollment which were previously dispersed and inconvenient to students have been relocated into Signers' Hall first and mezzanine floors. This will allow more effective coordination and easier access by students to services connected with registration, including fee payment, course selection and financial aid. Since these quarters are among the most pleasant on campus, we believe we send a good signal to students, their families and our public. Full implementation of effective comprehensive educational assessment at UAF will allow us to make improvements in programs which will lead to greater student academic success. Initial actions taken recently include the appointment of the Educational Effectiveness Evaluation Team; the adoption by the UAF Faculty Senate in April 1996 of the EEE Policy; and the identification of pilot projects. This includes parts of the core curriculum--always a challenge for universities to evaluate--and five majors. To highlight implementation of UAF's comprehensive educational assessment program, two special fall events are scheduled to better orient faculty, staff and students about the importance of measuring educational attainment. A national leader on educational assessment will address a fall convocation on the subject of why assessment matters. This will be followed mid-semester by a training workshop on effective assessment programs and implementation strategies. With these events and the existing campus expertise on outcomes assessment UAF will begin implementation by Spring 1997. The initiatives that follow are essential components of successful programs in retention and educational assessment. Accessibility of Information Technology The Computerized Campus Improving and maintaining the UAF network is critical and costs money. US News and World Report says "how a school uses technology in the instructional process is crucial." (1996 College Guide) The development of the Internet, the World Wide Web, and collaborative computing makes a state-of-the-art computer network fundamental to the learning environment. Students must graduate with strong computing skills or lose any competitive edge in the marketplace. Faculty must also have the ability to teach their students using the latest technologies, thereby improving the quality of instruction, as well as the ability to serve more students in wide-ranging geographic locations. We know regular contact with students is directly related to retention; we can maintain contact with efficient and effective delivery of courses and services using technology. At the campus and systemwide level, efforts have been made to reallocate resources to keep abreast in the rapid development of electronic tools to increase effectiveness and distance deliver a wide array of courses throughout the system. Over the last two years, UAF has invested about $250.0 of private funds, provided by MAPCO and Usibelli Coal Mine--and its own budget--toward this goal. The UA System has also made available more than $200.0 over the last two years to enable UAF to provide better access to programs and broader course availability. This initiative supports a staff position to oversee network administration and planning, as well as several internships for engineering and/or computer science students to learn network management through real life experiences and gain valuable employment skills. This initiative will also fund key software and hardware associated with network management. UAF request $2OO.O Training Student Lab Workers/Longer Lab Hours Understanding technology, especially computing technology, has become essential for almost every profession. In evaluating whether a campus takes computing technology seriously, reviewers look at the quality of help for students who have software problems. UAF has developed computing labs to assist students and to facilitate their learning. However, demand for increased hours and assistance from trained staff to help students as they work on projects is not being met. This initiative will fund a full-time staff position to train student lab workers and monitor the on-going operations of the lab. It will also allow increased opening hours and allow the installation of basic software applications (e.g., word processing, spreadsheets, etc.) for use by students. UAF request $150.0 Meeting New Demands for Library Services, Including Distance Delivery As the quality of distance education improves through the development of sophisticated technology such as video conferencing, the UAF student population already supported through distance education will continue to grow. The delivery of information and library materials to students in distance education programs is critical to their success and the equity of educational opportunities. UAF's Elmer E. Rasmuson Library is a leader in collaborative efforts to provide statewide access to a wide array of library services. UAF already devotes a full-time librarian and a 1/4 time staff to support these academic offerings, but the demand is overwhelming. This initiative will increase the support to distance education students and faculty through the provision of information, library materials and training using the latest electronic resources. The Rasmuson Library has been at the forefront of this technological revolution and it is imperative it so remain. UAF request $200.0 Meeting Accreditation Needs/Mandates Outcomes Assessment and Excellence in Professional Programs Accreditation, especially for the professional schools, is critical for maintaining academic credibility of programs among students and their parents and with UAF peer institutions. Recent visits have identified deficiencies that need correction. They are costly; they are urgent. For example, UAF is presently working towards remedying equipment deficiencies identified by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology in anticipation of the next site visit. Five more accreditation visits for engineering, journalism and teacher education programs during 1996-97 are likely to identify more deficiencies that will require funding to correct. With the changing characteristics of higher education in the United States, accrediting agencies are modifying the standards by which educational institutions are measured. At the institution level, the overall accrediting body, the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges, has implemented a new standard which requires all institutions to implement a comprehensive educational assessment process for measuring student achievement. Comprehensive assessment is costly; for example, some institutions find that $10 per student can be required to fund the comprehensive assessment that is requested. UAF request: $500.0 Compliance with State and Federal Mandates Funding will be used to address demands of federal and state regulations including: Americans with Disabilities Act OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Regulations Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act requires the university to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access to education. UAF is out of compliance with regard to programs and equipment. To continue providing student health services, the Center for Health and Counseling must comply with federal and state OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen regulations and the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988. UAF has internally reallocated to meet this requirement on a temporary basis. UAF request $100.0 Strengthening the Environment for Student Services We need to give special emphasis to student services directly related to retention--a point stressed nationally and by regional accreditation standards. We have identified several for this current initiative--some in Fairbanks and others in rural campuses. For rural sites, the need for counseling has been documented repeatedly, including at the 1994 Native Summit held at the UAF main campus. On the Fairbanks campus, with its higher percentage of residential students, the priorities are to increase substance abuse prevention and personal safety education and to improve the timeliness and educational orientation of the campus disciplinary system. The highest student services priorities related to retention are as follows: Improving Success at Rural Campuses Most rural campuses have no counseling staff and depend on faculty and staff members as substitutes for the counselor's role. This is useful for helping students at registration and throughout their academic progress, but is inadequate. The need for full-time vocational counselors at rural campuses to improve rural student success was expressed at the 1994 Native Summit held at the Fairbanks Campus. This initiative will place counselors, some shared, in Bristol Bay, Interior-Aleutians, Chukchi and Northwest. These positions will focus on employment including job readiness skills, training for job upgrades, and preparing students for jobs forecast by the Dept. of Labor as up and coming fields. These positions will also provide educational counseling for students seeking information about job opportunities related to further study such as teaching, or those who intend to pursue baccalaureate/ graduate level degrees. UAF request $150.0 Quality of the Educational Environment on Campus One of two most pressing needs is for a professional staff person to fully implement the campus disciplinary system and to perform tasks now required by recent state and federal legislation, including the Campus Security Act, which dictates new reporting procedures. An effective campus disciplinary system is a student service directly related to retention. Students tell us through surveys that an educational environment conducive to studying is important. Our accreditation is in part evaluated by how we handle student complaints and grievances and whether we implement policies in a fair and consistent manner. At a residential campus of UAF's size, a full-time professional is needed to ensure timely and educational actions. In addition, a Substance Abuse Prevention Coordinator position will be expanded from .55 FTE to .80 FTE, bringing staffing up to the level obligated from a federal grant received in FY90/91. UAF request $125.0 Enrollment Efficiencies/Retention During the spring of 1996 UAF began to implement new ideas to broaden responsibilities campus-wide for all aspects of enrollment management to include recruiting, retention and overall friendliness of UAF to students. To maximize these efforts, resources will be needed to fund organizational and technological changes within the enrollment and record-keeping functions of the university. Some examples include: improved computer networking at the campuses, implementation of scanned student records, on-line registration, and a computer catalog on the World Wide Web. At the same time as these changes are taking place, UAF will be involved in implementing BANNER, the new statewide system of student information. This change will greatly affect how UAF offers enrollment services since faculty will need computer access to the student information system for advising and registration. This system carries with it a need for increased computer capability. Once this system is on-line, funds will be needed to update equipment in many offices across the campuses. UAF request $300.0 II. RESPONDING TO STATE AND NATIONAL NEEDS UAF has worked aggressively in recent years to create more partnerships with communities, industry and government agencies to respond more effectively to state and national needs. Progress toward this goal for the year 2000 has already paid off well. Some selected examples include: The state transportation industry will benefit financially from a study conducted by UAF's Transportation Center in partnership with the private and public sector; The tourism industry in Alaska uses student surveys; Rural students, including Alaska Natives from the North Slope, will benefit from a partnership between UAF and the Arctic Education Foundation to build an Inupiat House on the main campus; Fisheries research has been boosted with a $1 million private gift for the Rasmuson Fisheries Center which has already spurred industry support including funds for UAF's Fishery Industrial Technology Center researchers to find new uses for fish products; Alaska's unique interior forests will continue to be thoroughly studied as a result of the new UAF-federal agency agreement; And, in a most remarkable partnership involving UAF, the U.S. Weather Service, the U S. Geological Survey, the Japanese government and others, a new International Arctic Research Center is being built on campus. The initiatives proposed for FY98 capitalize on UAF's location, talent and facilities to accelerate and expand its responses to state and national needs. Exploring Alaskan Issues With Help From Graduate Students Graduate students are a valuable resource for Alaska. Many of them, especially master's degree recipients, join the labor force, adding specialized training and skills. Still more of them study Alaska problems and therefore increase our knowledge about issues related to living and working in the North. At UAF, with a large amount of externally funded research, there are many opportunities for outstanding graduate students to work side by side with world class researchers. The number of graduate assistantships has increased in recent years, due to efforts of researchers who place students on their grants and contracts, and through private gifts. But more are needed to bring UAF to levels more comparable to similar universities. This initiative will fund a competitive graduate assistantship pool, which gives priority to students whose projects expand the knowledge about Alaskan issues. Review, including some public representation, will ensure attention to the state's critical issues. The success of this effort can be modeled after the successful process used for the Rasmuson Fisheries Research Center. UAF request $25O.O Value-Added Alaska Fisheries Products The School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (SFOS) is poised to become a world leader in the commercial use of fisheries resources. Recent wild salmon harvests have significantly exceeded demand in the face of stiff competition. More than half of the U.S. commercial fish landings are from Alaskan waters, yet our fish are most often sold in bulk as speculative commodities, not as processed seafood, and their real value accrues outside Alaska. Given new and intense national focus on fish processing waste and waste-by-catch, it is essential that our fishing industry develop new, productive and commercially viable uses for all our catch. Much of the processing capacity in Alaska uses dated machinery, in dated plants, based on dated capital investment. Efficiently dealing with new challenges to Alaska's fishing industry will benefit from modernizing this capacity and will be of interest to all Alaskans, but perhaps most for rural Alaskans in coastal communities including Alaska Natives. This initiative will provide a high degree of collaboration and an integrated approach to issues such as developing technologies for shelf life enhancement, the use of fish flesh in market-driven seafood products, and helping to advise processes of the efficient streamlining of existing plants and equipment in Alaska. Solutions to these problems will help Alaska garner a greater share of value- added seafood processing. Two new positions in seafood engineering and processing system modeling will allow a team approach to solving pressing problems for the industry. These positions will be non-tenure track, recognizing the need for FITC faculty to be fluid when confronting new challenges. The program will increase the graduate opportunities for students in fisheries science and oceanography, food science and engineering. Opportunities for undergraduate research and internship programs will increase and the application of these research findings will be described to the Alaskan public through extension and publication activities. This request is consistent with the deliberations of the SFOS Fisheries Task Force which met at the request of the BOR, the SFOS Advisory Council, and the BOR mandated SFOS Strategic and Capital/Facilities Plan. UAF request $250.0 Science and Technology for Arctic Environmental Health The purpose of UAF's Engineering Research Laboratory is to facilitate the transfer of technology that will improve physical conditions for living and working in the North. This is done by testing prototype technologies. The technology idea might come from anywhere-an Alaskan, a Russian, a student-and it might address such environmental health issues as better solid waste disposal, cleaner air or safer water, for example. Before the technology can be used, however, its utility and acceptance need to be demonstrated and this is the role UAF's rudimentary facility, whose operating budget was funded through reallocation of funds, is beginning to perform in a limited way. For example, recent tests found that adding ethanol to automobile fuel is less effective at lower temperatures (zero F) than at 20F. This initiative will fund upgrading and purchasing equipment so that testing is more precise and cost effective. As important, it will serve as a match and boost to efforts to secure additional non-state funding to expand the facilities. As the facility expands, more state needs can be served in areas such as alternative energy for remote settings, appropriate technologies for communities not supported by normal infrastructure, waste water treatment and solid waste disposal and oil and gas production technologies. The facility, with leadership from the Institute of Northern Engineering, involves a broad range of expertise, on and off campus, and can capitalize on existing and future expertise in environmental health from other UAF research institutes including the Institute of Marine Science, the Institute of Arctic Biology and the Geophysical Institute. UAF request $200.0 Value-Added Forest Products and Forest Regeneration This initiative will provide funds to develop a program to give added value to forest products, the Forest Products Technology Center. Launching this significant activity has a very large potential for payback to UAF and the partners in the venture-the Alaska Cooperative Extension Service, the School of Agriculture and Land Resources Management, the USDA Forest Service, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the timber industry and the construction industry. This initiative supports forest regeneration physiology at the Palmer Research Center of the SALRM Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, including a new position. The Palmer Research Center is located adjacent to the Alaska Forest Regeneration Center operated by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. This facility includes a forest tree nursery for the production of tree seedlings in Alaska. The research, in collaboration with the Alaska Forest Regeneration Center, will help develop management practices to ensure the success of reforestation under Alaskan conditions. These conditions are substantially different from those found in other states. Successful reforestation is vital to maintaining healthy forests for a variety of uses, including the long-term supply of quality timber resources equivalent to those in the northcentral states where wood products contribute substantially to the economic base. UAF request $250.0 Earthquake and Volcano Hazards State and federal agencies and the Geophysical Institute (GI) jointly operate the Alaska Earthquake Information Center and the Alaska Volcano Observatory. A part of the GI is responsible for providing microwave communication lines for these joint projects. This service was originally provided by the Division of Information Services of the state of Alaska. The GI received $132.0 of that cost leaving $92.0 still to be funded. This is a contractual obligation and mandated expense, not fully covered by the funds previously provided for this by the state Legislature. UAF request: $92.0 Arctic Botany In the ecological sciences, UAF is recognized as one of the top universities nationally, and its Institute of Arctic Biology attracts graduate students from across the country and abroad. World class research has been conducted at IAB at high-latitude plant biology. The work has important implications for issues such as vegetation response to global change and ecosystem function of boreal forests. Funding for a new plant growth facility to support this work was obtained from the National Science Foundation and the state of Alaska. UAF has temporarily reallocated to provide some operational funds. State support for plant maintenance soil, fertilizer, plant containers, and replacement lights, maintenance inside the greenhouse, and purchase of plants is needed to maintain the inside of the greenhouse and to use for teaching and research. This initiative will fulfill UAF's match to the National Science Foundation grant, which stipulated that the university would provide adequate technician support and maintenance of the greenhouse. UAF request $66.0 Building Alaska's Tourism Industry The increased package tour capacity, cruise ships, small business development and international tourism have caused a steady increase in tourism within Alaska in recent years. Nearly all other industries are impacted by tourist dollars. Tourism has the potential to become a major cash industry in rural communities. A serious gap in organized programs of study for tourism exists; simultaneously, funding to pursue the numerous opportunities to conduct collaborative research with Natives is in short supply. This initiative will enable the university to develop academic programs designed to give job seekers the edge needed to gain entry into this important industry. Additionally, a tourism research and information clearinghouse will help firms in the Alaska tourism industry by providing objective information and research. The state will experience direct benefits from a rebuilt tourism program centered in the School of Management, yet also involving Tanana Valley Campus, Alaska Cooperative Extension, the University of Alaska Museum and the College of Rural Alaska. The program will utilize Native Elders' research and knowledge. Current programs, in particular, do not begin to meet the needs in eco-tourism or Native initiatives. With additional funding, such programs could be developed in coordination with rural campuses, with courses taught in Fairbanks and cross regionally. The museum will work with regional areas to help set up cultural centers. The dollars sought in this initiative will be a match for private dollars already secured from industry. UAF request $100.0 Enhancing Native Education Science Initiatives for Rural Students Alaska Natives are under-represented in the sciences and engineering. Very few Alaska Native students take courses in college chemistry or physics. This initiative will encourage Alaska Natives' enrollment in science and engineering. The UAF Rural Alaska Honors Institute (RAHI) for rural high school students has demonstrated that the majority of its graduates attend college and earn degrees. This is a state need. The initiative will recruit 10 more rural students for intensive summer study of physics and chemistry, add three part-time instructors and residence staff; cover room and board, travel and stipend for the additional students; and fund additional program costs. This proposed new component of RAHI will help UAF to meet its year 2000 goal by creating ",...better opportunities in higher education for Native students," and to "expand and broaden access...(to the) Rural Alaska Honors Institute." By stimulating the science interests of Alaska Native high school students, UAF will attract and prepare the most promising rural high school students to earn appropriate degrees with which to enter careers in science. Alaska Natives who graduate with science or engineering degrees will help build a professional cadre' of Alaska Natives, which in turn will help UAF meet another strategic plan objective by building a pool of Alaska Native professionals from which UAF may hire Native administrators, staff and tenure track faculty. In 1996 eight qualified students were turned away from RAHI due to lack of funding. UAF request $100.0 Alaska Native Language and Culture The Alaska Native Language Center (ANLC) needs to l) increase its services in documentation and program development, especially in seven Athabaskan languages; 2) increase its services in training Native speakers in Alaskan villages to teach their languages in local programs (including the ability to produce appropriate written materials); and 3) collect and maintain tape and written documentation of the Alaska Native languages repository (including security, cataloging and access). ANLC needs to respond to the rapidly increasing demand for training Native language teachers in the villages, and safeguarding and making accessible the written and tape documentation of Alaskan languages. Graduate students will be involved in the Alaska Native language effort. UAF request $200.0 III. UNITY UAF has played a major role in distance education for 20 years, linking the state through its offerings which range from correspondence courses and courses by audio to interactive technology. Today, with new technology and new emphasis on distance education through UA collaborative efforts, different needs emerge that require even more resource allocation, especially in view of our collective goal to achieve increased unity. With exponential growth in technology across the country, and for UAF to carry its weight in a systemwide, Alaska-based effort, we require good library services and training. Accrediting agencies have specific library requirements to be met in connection with distance delivery and institutional plans for adding new programs have sometimes been delayed when documentation of adequate library services has not been made. Ongoing training opportunities are important. Technology changes rapidly and both faculty and staff will require ongoing training. Both these needs are consistent with Program Assessment enhancements. Meeting New Demands for Library Services, Including Distance Delivery To become as efficient as possible in the delivery of services, the Rasmuson Library is outsourcing activities formerly carried out in- house, such as cataloging, classification and loading of electronic records. This permits the expansion of material available and reduces backlogged materials which allows students access to a greater number of books and periodicals at a much lower unit cost. This initiative is more fully discussed in the section on Undergraduate Education. Faculty and Staff Training for Distance Delivery Implementation As the use of distance education and telecommunications to support classroom-based instruction increases, the role of faculty as teachers, professionals and members of institutional communities necessarily changes. To foster expansion of instruction by distance which is so critical in Alaska, training is needed for both faculty and staff. Faculty members who have had no exposure to distance instruction need training to gain proficiency in operating the specialized equipment and to modify their teaching styles to fit these new technologies. UAF request $150.0