UA president Pat Pitney discusses proposed budget, student success, increased enrollment

UA President Pat Pitney gave a Town Hall meeting on Nov. 8 via zoom, and a livestream of the event was available on the president’s communications page. Pitney welcomed new faces at the top levels of UA, revealed the proposed budget from the board of regents, and answered questions from the audience.

Pitney started the meeting by acknowledging the work of Barb Amarock, her team, University of Alaska Northwest Campus (Nome) field researchers and students who helped clean up after Typhoon Merbok.

She also welcomed Ben Shier as the new Chief Information Technology Officer. She warned that cyber security is a huge concern within the university and that phishing emails are getting more sophisticated. She mentioned that in the next few months, new passwords will need to be created.

She said that this week is National Compliance and Ethics Week. The university has just added “compliance” to the internal auditing office so now it is the Office of Internal Audit and Compliance.

Moving into the November Board of Regents meeting, one of the big things is the legislative budget request. They have submitted a request for $24 million, which includes a wage increase of 2.75 percent, a retroactive wage increase of 3 percent for last year, and a healthcare increase for full time faculty.

She said that they will also be asking for more money for “expanding faculty capacity and key areas in student services– financial aid, student support, and other offices focused on strengthening student enrollment”.

For programs, they are asking for money to expand WAMI, Alaskan Native Success increases, dual enrollment support, climate science and health research.

Other areas include property insurance and building maintenance, deferred maintenance, and facility modernization.

Pitney said that they are asking to flatline tuition again for most of UA, but to standardize tuition, lower division and upper division, to one rate at the UAF Troth Yeddha’ campus.  

These requests are happening as oil prices are stabilizing, and the state budget is going to be tighter. She said that these are requests and she outlined how this works. The Board of Regents passes a request, then the governor decides how much he will put into his overall budget request to the legislature. The legislature deliberates on the budget, decides what they will approve, then it goes back to the governor, where he will either sign or veto it. Pitney expects that confirmation will be in either late May or late June.

Pitney mentioned that there is a public awareness campaign for the university called “Empower Alaska” which showcases the work that the University of Alaska does to educate and study Alaska for research, education, and job training.

Questions from the audience came from an online form where they were read by moderator Monique Musick, manager of Communications and Marketing, and by audience members.

One question was about UAA increasing the amount of money that UA puts into retirement. Pitney discussed the base being increased to $52,000.

Sue B, who identified herself as staff and alumni, said that some of the students that she works with are interested in distance delivery courses. She said they wanted to know if the cost for prerecorded (as opposed to synchronous ones) would be going down, and if the university would increase them like what was available during the pandemic.

Pitney said that tuition on courses are the same, with some exceptions. As far as offerings are concerned, they peaked during the pandemic, and so in a word, no. As the university shifts back, many in person classes are offered in hybrid form. Pitney said that if students do not find the course online from their own university that they look online to UAA, Southeast, and UAF to find them.

Musick summarized a question about dealing with the university being short staffed and they wanted to know how the university was going to go about “refilling gaps” after prior years and budget cuts. Pitney said it would not.

Many of the university regulations were made when there were more staff and more students. Pitney said, “If you see a regulation that is creating a lot of work that isn’t protecting the institution, question it. Bring it to a supervisor’s attention or the next level up. Bring it with a solution.”  

Musick put forth a question regarding Pearl Bowers, who had lead Alaska Native Student Success and asked if Pitney had a replacement in mind. Pitney said that the University is actively searching for a replacement who will be focused on Alaska Native Success.

Musick read a question by Jessica Johnson, asking that with the budget cuts, “what initiatives are you taking to ensure that students will continue coming or returning to campus?” Pitney said that she “leaves the leadership of the universities to the chancellors”, but she works closely with them. She knows of several initiatives, at UAA she mentioned that Chancellor Parnell had several which included food carts on campus in the summer, setting a record attendance at a volleyball game. She indicated that they would be closing down more buildings and bringing people together. She encouraged staff to find out what they are and to see how their departments can contribute.

Musick read a question where someone asked about how to advocate for the university. Pitney said to watch for advocacy material to drop in January and engage with the community.

In her final comments, Pitney said that one of the best ways to stabilize our revenue is to increase student enrollment. She urged the staff to learn about what the other three universities have to offer and to be aware of student success at the other campuses.

She gave a shoutout to Cheryl Siemers who had an 18% increase in enrollment this fall. Pitney asked how she did it and Siemers told her, “Every student that approached us, we worked with that student from where the student was, not from where the campus was. So what did that student need? If that meant we had to connect them with a different program besides us… and that translated to the students telling other students, ‘Go talk to somebody on campus, they’ll help you out.’”

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