Updated (10/7/2019, 8:54 p.m.) with news of a vote to suspend consideration of the merger of the Alaska system’s campuses.
The University of Alaska Board of Regents voted on Monday to suspend consideration of merging the system’s three separately accredited universities into one until the accreditation of the campus in Fairbanks is secured, in 2021.
The board also voted to postpone fast-track reviews of academic programs until administrators have time to consult with the chancellors and president about plans for the future.
The decision followed an emergency board meeting with Sonny Ramaswamy, president of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Ramaswamy told the board members it was essential that they make the lines of authority clear to everyone involved in the discussion over how best to deal with the $70 million in state budget cuts the system faces over the next three years.
He said that his recent, publicly released letter that sent shock waves through the University of Alaska system wasn’t intended to imply that any of its three universities was in imminent danger of losing accreditation. The letter stated that the Northwest Commission was concerned that the three universities had failed to meet critical accreditation standards, largely because of confusion over leadership roles and a lack of inclusiveness in the budget process.
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“We’re holding a mirror up to you so you can see for yourselves” what the accreditor has been hearing from faculty, students, staff, and others who feel they haven’t been adequately consulted, said Ramaswamy, who called in from Bangalore, India, where he is visiting his mother.
Asked by one regent whether the status of the three separately accredited universities was in jeopardy, he sought to reassure the board that the system hadn’t reached a “tipping point.” It wasn’t, he said, “a do-or-die situation.”
A few regents suggested that it felt that way, and that they were doing their best to be inclusive. Mary K. Hughes, a regent from Anchorage, said the board had listened to hours of public testimony; read hundreds, maybe thousands, of emails; and talked to constituents in grocery stores as well as in public meetings.
“Given the summer we’ve had, I think even a 4-year-old would have heard about the University of Alaska,” she said.
The regents voted to “cease consideration of a single accreditation” until the University of Alaska at Fairbanks secures its accreditation, in two years. If the system decides to revisit the single-university model after that, it will require a cost-benefit analysis and an examination of how it will affect accreditation.
Dale Anderson, a regent from Juneau, said the accreditor’s letter had galvanized opposition to the single-university model.
“The letter sent to us from the commission basically threw gas on the fire and did not ignite new ideas,” he said. “It ignited opposition.” He said he’s read hundreds of emails and listened to more than 50 hours of public testimony. “I don’t know how we could have opened any more doors for people who wanted to participate.”
Cathy Sandeen, chancellor of the University of Alaska at Anchorage, told Ramaswamy that the university’s current policies are confusing, because it appears that even though they are chief executives of their respective campuses, the chancellors “have no authority except for that delegated by the president.”
Ramaswamy agreed that the roles were confusing, adding that the accrediting body needs to have “a clear sense of the line of command.”
That became an issue when James R. Johnsen, the university system’s president, sent a letter to the chancellors in August instructing them to support a proposal consolidating the three separately accredited universities into a single university or be prepared to leave. He had earlier told the chancellors, who favor maintaining three separate universities, that any statements they made about the budget had to be cleared by him first.
The letter to the chancellors came shortly after Alaska’s Republican governor, Michael J. Dunleavy, announced that he was cutting the university system’s state funding by $135 million in a single year — an unprecedented 41-percent reduction. Dunleavy later reached a deal with regents to reduce the cuts to $70 million over three years.
Richard Caulfield, chancellor of the University of Alaska Southeast, in Juneau, told the regents this was an opportunity for the system to reconsider leadership roles and responsibilities.
Daniel M. White, chancellor at Fairbanks, said that despite the assurance that the university system isn’t at a tipping point, “it’s a really big deal, as the CEO of an accredited university, to get a letter that you’ve failed.”
Maria Williams, chair of the university’s Faculty Alliance, read a letter saying that a “crisis of leadership” in the systemwide office had resulted in “confusion and chaotic decision making.”
Faculty members across the system had also called for a moratorium on academic restructuring until a more-inclusive budget-planning process was adopted. The chancellors should be the ones to propose academic-program changes directly to the board, the letter stated.
The expedited program reviews were being done too quickly with too little input from constituents, the letter argued.
Teresa Wrobel, a student leader from Anchorage, told the regents the accreditor’s warning letter had students “scared” and “spooked.” Some are considering leaving the university, she said.
Last week the Faculty Senate at the University of Alaska at Anchorage voted no confidence in Johnsen, and called for him, as well as efforts to consolidate, to be suspended.
Seven former chancellors at the three universities also wrote an editorial expressing alarm over the situation facing the university and stressing the importance of respecting the authority of the three chancellors.
One regent (Karen Perdue, from Fairbanks) said she had run into one of her high-school teachers in a grocery store, and the teacher wanted to know who was this Sonny Ramaswamy guy who was dictating changes in the system.
Ramaswamy urged her to tell the teacher he was someone who grew up poor in a single-parent family in India and who achieved professional success because of dedicated faculty members like the ones at Alaska.
“You’ve got a tough row to hoe, but we’re here to support you in finding the best path forward,” he said.
Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.
