Budget update: April 24
April 24, 2019
During last week’s legislative session, the University of Alaska Senate Finance Subcommittee recommended that the UA unrestricted general fund budget be set at $322 million. This is a $5 million increase from the House budget proposal of $317 million and represents a 1.5% reduction to the university’s allocation from the state.
As noted in my budget communication last week , President Jim Johnsen would still expect the universities to reallocate internally to fund the Board of Regents’ priorities (up to $30 million statewide). Based on the April 19 meeting of the Executive Council (president, vice presidents, chancellors), chancellors were asked to continue planning for the $317 million “case 2” as laid out on p. 21 of the president’s April 8 BOR presentation (PDF) .
Last week I charged the UAF provost and vice chancellors to work with deans and directors to articulate steps already taken or to propose new steps in areas of facilities, organizational change, programmatic change and student affairs to meet our share of the “case 2” scenario. The provost, VCs and I will meet this week to discuss cross-university strategies to position UAF should $317 million end up being the Legislature’s funding level. During the April 19 Executive Council meeting, there was discussion about trying to mitigate reallocations through modifications of the BOR initiatives submitted to Gov. Bill Walker last fall. That being said, equity and market compensation remains a high priority for the university, as does funding other new initiatives.
I will continue to keep you updated as the budget evolves and as we consider options to reposition ourselves for the future.
Thank you for the role you play at UAF.