Suggestions for UA Legislative Advocacy

If you are advocating for a particular program, explain your involvement and why it is important to you.

If funding for the program you are supporting is included in the Regents’ Budget Request, be prepared to speak to the initiative and provide additional support materials, if available.

Encourage policymakers to review the total Regents’ Budget Request.  Don’t feel obligated to answer budget questions that you are not educated about, but commit to getting the answer and following up with the legislator to make sure the question gets answered.

Though the legislature has appropriated a significant dollar amount to the university over the past decade, it has not been sufficient to keep up with costs that are not necessarily controlled by the university – fuel, utilities, healthcare and retirement. Increases in non-general funds have been restricted in use and primarily belong to specific federal research projects and are thus not available for general instructional programs. 

The University has received program funding (general funds over and above the funding needed to pay fixed costs) in only three of the past twenty years.

The university has been successful in creating and enhancing programs in high-demand fields because it has reallocated internally and has been successful in attracting money from private donations, industry and tuition.

Alternative sources will continue at a slower growth rate, but state funding is necessary to build sustainable programs. 
 
Alaskan employers are forced to recruit outside for qualified workers to fill Alaskan jobs as the University is turning students away from high demand career areas such as nursing, allied health, process technology and engineering for lack of funding to expand and enhance the programs.

Data provided by the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education indicates that 80% of students who leave Alaska for school do not return to the state, while 80% of those who go to the University of Alaska stay in the state to work, raise families, and contribute to Alaska’s economic and social well-being.

Alaskan employers will hire Alaskans when they are trained to do the work; the most effective “Alaska Hire” program is to support the University of Alaska.

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For Information Contact:
Pete Kelly, Director, State Relations
450-8006/465-2382