The University of Alaska Southeast will remain an independent entity for now.<\/p>\n
The University of Alaska Board of Regents voted unanimously Wednesday to rescind a June 4 motion calling for a study of a merger between the UAS and UA Fairbanks.<\/p>\n
That doesn’t mean big changes are off the table though, as regents voted for a new resolution which included language keeping restructuring and consolidation options available.<\/p>\n
The proposal to merger UAS and UAF had only been a suggestion, said Regent Dale Anderson, who originally introduced the motion at the June 4, meeting. With state cuts and losses related to the coronavirus pandemic, the university’s financial picture was dire, Anderson said, and drastic changes will be needed.<\/p>\n
“There’s nothing in the motion today I disagree with,” Anderson said of the new motion.<\/p>\n
UA has a fiduciary responsibility to provide higher education to Alaska, Anderson said, and regents have a responsibility to consider the health of the university as a whole. He said a budget shortfall of about $20 million is expected this year.<\/p>\n
“Nothing is off the table to get us to those numbers. To say right now we would never consider the consolidation is not a wise decision,” Anderson said, expressing disappointment with community leaders and UAS faculty and staff who politicized the issue.<\/p>\n
[University of Alaska board votes for study on University of Alaska Southeast merger<\/a>]<\/ins><\/p>\n “When we made this motion, there was an immediate negative response going down a very negative road, there was never a chance to sit down and look at this thing in a positive way,” Anderson said.<\/p>\n The proposal was met with strong pushback from groups across Southeast and the state, and factored into a faculty senate call for then-President Jim Johnsen to resign, which he did in late June.<\/p>\n Regents also expressed opposition to the proposal both at the June 4, meeting and on Wednesday. Regent Darroll Hargrave strongly opposed the proposal at Wednesday’s meeting and said the public feedback he’d received had been overwhelmingly opposed to the merger.<\/p>\n “Through this process, I believe I have received only one letter in support of consolidation from one state administrator in Fairbanks,” Hargrave said.<\/p>\n He received numerous letters of support for maintaining independent universities, which he found very convincing. Hargrave was particularly enamored of a letter from UAS Faculty Senate President Heather Batchelder, which he said articulated the argument well.<\/p>\n Batchelder was present for the meeting, which took place electronically, and said faculty, administration and staff from across the UA system were standing in solidarity with one another to maintain independent universities. Further collaboration between universities could take place within certain programs such as the College of Education and other models of governance<\/a> could be used to save money.<\/p>\n “Taking a merger off the table will help alleviate a lot of the stress,” Batchelder told the regents. (Faculty) have devoted a lot of time for fighting for the lives of our universities,” she said, time which could have been spent better elsewhere.<\/p>\n