Budget update: March 4, 2020
March 4, 2020
— by Dan White, chancellor
The UAF Tuition and Fee committee, made up of faculty, staff, and students, began
work in November 2019 to review our fee structure and make recommendations to reduce
the number and complexity of fees charged to students. In my budget column on February 12, I provided a link to the January 2020 UAF Fee Structure Recommendation report and requested input. I have received some feedback to date and request that any additional
input be received by Friday, March 6 at uaf.chancellor@alaska.edu.
In other budget news, the Planning and Budget Committee (PBC) held its first meeting
last Thursday, February 27. The traditional role of the PBC was to review new proposals
for the next budget cycle. That is to say, the committee meeting will review new initiatives
this spring for the FY21 budget. More recently, however, the committee has needed
to look at cost-saving opportunities. Additionally, given a new direction from statewide
regarding tuition proposal development, we will be asking the committee to consider
tuition and fees in conjunction with our budget development. The PBC is scheduled
to meet again in three weeks with its individual review and ranking of the 44 initiative
proposals received.
Because one of the jobs of the PBC is to look at initiatives that would be funded
by “strategic initiative” allocations, some of its work may change with a recent development
in the UA budget. At the board of regents (BOR) meeting on February 20-21, President
Johnsen presented an update to his budget plan for FY21. The budget update presented on slide six is to eliminate strategic initiative funding
across UA with a notation that “the intent to not require additional cuts/allocations for strategic initiatives in the FY21
operating budget.” This will have to be approved by the BOR in June. If approved,
this reduces to a relatively small but important burden of reduction in a UAF planning
context. PBC will still look at all of the proposals received as UAF could still reallocate
to fund new initiatives if the return on investment warrants it. In addition, we will
be looking closely to determine if this change in UA budget strategy impacts any of
the previously allocated strategic initiatives.
Thank you to everyone who submitted a shared service business model proposal. They
are being reviewed and summaries will be posted. Executive Officer Conley will post
summaries by late next week at which point we will solicit feedback as we evaluate
how best to move forward.
Thank you for your continued efforts and support as we navigate the changes and capitalize
on the opportunities ahead of us.
Thank you for choosing UAF.