UA Board of Regents' Meeting Summary

Submitted by Carla Browning
Phone: (907) 474-7778
12/06/02

The University of Alaska Board of Regents has elected Fairbanks Regent Brian Rogers as its new chair. He succeeds Chancy Croft, an Anchorage regent whose term ends in January.

Juneau Regent Elsa Demeksa was reelected as the board’s vice chair, and Anchorage Regent Fran Rose was reelected as secretary. Regent Joe Usibelli of Healy was elected treasurer succeeding Brian Rogers.

The board elected new officers at the end of a two-day meeting held on the UAF campus in Fairbanks.

In other actions, the board:

o Approved a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics Degree program at UAF. The program is for students wishing to teach Alaska Native languages, world languages or English as a second language.

o Approved Women’s Swimming and Diving as a new intercollegiate sport at UAF.

o Approved Women’s Indoor/Outdoor Track and Field as a new intercollegiate sport at UAA.

o Approved the change in NCAA level of competition from Division II to Division I for Women’s Gymnastics at UAA.

o Approved the acquisition of 2.3 acres of land adjacent to the Kenai Peninsula College’s Kachemak Bay Branch in Homer for $485,000. The land is now occupied by a trailer park for 22 trailers, and the owner of the park will assist the current tenants in moving to new locations. Once the sale is completed, the seller will have 200 days to clear the property. UA wants to acquire the property for the purpose of expanding the Kachemak Bay Branch and to provide for adequate parking.

o Approved the UAF Tanana Valley Campus Space Renovation Project and Schematic Design which will enable Tanana Valley Campus to renovate the old Fairbanks courthouse and move its programs into it by sometime next summer. The project will cost $2 million, and the funds will come from the state as part of the general obligation bond issue approved by the voters in November. The university acquired the courthouse from the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation last month.

o Approved the addition of approximately 36,000 square feet of the University Center in Anchorage primarily for the Community and Technical College to the UAA Campus Land Acquisition Plan, and authorized the president of the university to arrange a letter of credit pledging assets of the Land Grant Trust Fund. The university will request funds for the acquisition from the legislature.

o Approved revisions to the student employee pay grid. The changes were necessary because the minimum wage increases from $5.75 to $7.15 per hour on Jan. 1, 2003. The change to the grid will cost the university about $32,000 for the remainder of this fiscal year.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Bob Miller, (907) 474-631.