By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
With the University of Alaska considering a merger of its Fairbanks and Southeast branches, the chairman of the UAS-Sitka Advisory Council told the Assembly Tuesday that may be the end of the Sitka campus.
“We have a real possibility that in fiscal year 2022 we might not have a campus,” advisory council chairman Garry White said.
Earlier this month, the University of Alaska Board of Regents voted to look into the possibility of a UAF-UAS merger as a cost-cutting measure. The University of Alaska Southeast has campuses in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan.
The official summary of the board meeting June 4-5 reads that the board “intends to inquire and collect data, examine ideas and opportunities, explore potential efficiencies, study the pros and cons of a structural option involving a merger of the University of Alaska Southeast and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.”
White said the regents cited a 20 percent cut to the university budget between 2014 and 2020, combined with declining enrollment and a lack of cost effectiveness at UAS as reasons to look into the merger.
He said there has been resistance to the idea of a merger.
“The Board of Regents of the University of Alaska system held a vote to look at the viability of absorbing the entire UAS system into the UAF. And there was quite a bit of push-back beforehand which was pretty much ignored by the Board of Regents,” he said.
“What the university president said is that he estimates that he could find a $15 million cut by doing this action,” White said. “But if you start looking at the numbers, the University of Alaska Southeast general fund budget every year is about $23 million. It’s only 7.6% of the entire overall system. So if they are looking to whack $15 million out of $23 million, it’s a potential that they are just going to close down our local campuses.”
The Sitka campus advisory council has sent a letter to the Board of Regents proposing “placing rural community campuses under University of Alaska Southeast administrative leadership, and advancing UAS’ leadership role in teacher preparation and educational leadership through a consortium of similar programs” at the university’s Anchorage and Fairbanks campuses.
The letter from the Sitka council raised alarm that “the only way that a merger of UAS into another university would make a meaningful impact on addressing UA’s fiscal challenge is if deep cuts were made to academic and workforce programs.”
“Hopefully we can convince the Board of Regents that this is a valued part of our community and that we can continue to keep it and continue to grow,” White told the Sentinel.