Friday Focus: Many hands make light (budget) work

June 30, 2023

— By Dan White, chancellor

This week, I spent a night in Anchorage between meetings at the Alaska Energy Authority and University of Alaska Anchorage. Wednesday morning at the hotel I ate a biscuit, egg, cheese and sausage breakfast sandwich. I was reminded that the people will often invoke the saying “you don’t want to know how the sausage is made” when discussing the legislative budget process. This made me think about our budget process at UAF and how far from sausage-making it is. For starters, it is something that we not only want you to know about, but encourage you to participate in!

UAF has long had a budgeting process organized around principles of opportunity and transparency that are brought to life by our Planning and Budget Committee. Each fall, a broad solicitation goes to deans and directors for distribution. This is the opportunity for everyone, faculty, staff, and students, to submit their needs and wants to be considered for the next year’s budget cycle. Proposals can be large or small, long in duration or short, ongoing or one-time. 

The Planning and Budget Committee meets each spring to consider these ideas for inclusion into the UAF budget selection process. The committee submits their recommendation to the core cabinet (provost, vice chancellors, executive director of advancement and chief of staff). Core leadership considers PBC priorities, recommendations from the Tuition and Fee Committee, and proposals from Strategic Enrollment Planning in addition to other puts and takes such as unavoidable maintenance expenses, code upgrades/changes etc. The core cabinet also takes into consideration guidance from the UA President before submitting a recommendation to me. In consultation with the Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services Julie Queen, I then send UAF’s final budget proposal to President Pat Pitney.

Once out of our hands, the process of review continues. The President then considers proposals from Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau before submitting her final proposal to the Board of Regents. If approved by the President and the Board, our requests get forwarded to the Governor. The Governor then decides what to include and submits an amended proposal to the State Legislature. The Legislature adds, subtracts and modifies the proposal before sending it back to the Governor for approval. This whole exercise takes a year!

That is how it works and how the process ended last week. There is no unsavory or secretive “sausage-making” about it. It is methodical, planned, publicly available, and strategic. It is not wasteful, ad hoc, or indifferent towards the source of the funding. In fact, I often say that our budgeteers could pinch the buffalo off a nickel. They are looking for every cent and doing their best to see that it is spent wisely.

During my many years as an engineering faculty member I spent seminars, thesis defenses, and meetings in Duckering 535. In that room on a wall panel was the Thomas Paine quote: 

“Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous conscientiousness of honor. It is not the produce of riches only, but of the hard earnings of labor and poverty. It is drawn even from the bitterness of want and misery. Not a beggar passes, or perishes in the streets, whose mite is not in that mass.”

I often think of that and reflect on it especially during our budget process. As a public university, our funding comes from public sources. It is entrusted to UAF to spend with the “most scrupulous conscientiousness of honor.” That’s pretty heavy. I encourage you to reflect on that responsibility as you plan your budgets in departments, programs and colleges.

As I reflect on the budget I am constantly reminded that UAF has a great deal to look forward to. I had a walking meeting with UAF Faculty Senate Vice President Abel Bult-Ito the other day and was inspired for a new day – one in which a collaborative effort pulls us in a positive direction. Many hands make light work and the university is made up of many capable hands doing work worth doing.

Enrollment continues to grow thanks to your efforts, strategic enrollment planning, and our admissions and retention teams! Earned revenue (e.g., tuition, research) continues to grow. State appropriation has increased to meet salary increases for employees, and we are getting closer to building the Troth Yeddha’ Indigenous Studies Center (construction planned for 2025). A community organizing group is planning a new, on-campus collegiate hockey arena, and we are discussing  replacement of dorms and research facilities. The highest tier of research, R1, is within sight for UAF and we have a talented group of faculty and staff working to bring us to that goal. 

Most importantly, when I walk around campus from one meeting to another, I see a vibrant campus filled with students, summer campers, community members and employees of all kinds. I see transformative experiences changing lives.

Friday Focus is written by a different member of UAF’s leadership team every week.