Amid Backlash, Alaska Governor Relents on Draconian Cuts for University System

Last updated (8/14/2019, 11:37 a.m.) with lawmaker reaction to the budget deal.

Faced with growing outrage over budget cuts that threatened to permanently weaken the University of Alaska system, Gov. Michael J. Dunleavy announced on Tuesday that he had agreed with the university to reduce the cuts from $135 million to $70 million and to spread them out over three years instead of one.

Dunleavy insisted the move wasn’t related to a growing recall effort prompted by the more than $400 million in statewide cuts he imposed by vetoing sections of the 2020 budget passed by state lawmakers. Tuesday’s announcement came shortly after the Republican governor reversed course on cuts for both early education and senior-citizen benefits.

“Part of the budget process is you have to listen to Alaskans,” Dunleavy said in a news conference broadcast on Facebook. “You have to listen to the people your budgets are impacting.”

The president of the University of Alaska system, James R. Johnsen, who had warned recently that the university’s “house is on fire” with the sudden, extreme cuts, said on Tuesday that it was time to “pivot to the positive.” Under the deal with the governor, the university will be able to plan for reductions in a more careful matter, he said.

The $130 million in budget cuts imposed by Dunleavy, combined with $5 million in cuts made by the Legislature, had slashed the university’s state funding for the 2020 fiscal year, which began on July 1, by 41 percent. Faced with a budget crisis, the university’s Board of Regents authorized Johnsen to devise a plan to consolidate the system’s three universities — in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau — into a single accredited university. The system also has 13 community campuses.

Dunleavy began his announcement on Tuesday by insisting the university was “near and dear to my heart” and a vital institution in the state. The agreement, he said, will make it stronger.

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John Davies, chairman of the university’s board, said the plan would provide “a clear and gradual multiyear glide path to achieve budget stability.”

Last month the board declared financial exigency, which allows it to make cuts more quickly and to lay off tenured professors.

“We’re at a place where we’re locking arms and moving forward,” Dunleavy said.

Asked whether he owed Alaskans an apology for the angst he had caused with his draconian cuts in the university’s budget, the governor suggested that thanks might be in order instead.

“It’s not my desire to cause angst or worry or turmoil,” he said, “but the budget vetoes in many respects got us to where we are today.”

Maria Williams, chair of the university’s Faculty Alliance, said faculty members were breathing “a collective sigh of relief” now that the budget for the current fiscal year had been resolved.

Given the hiring freezes, travel reductions, and other cuts the universities have already made, Williams predicted that cuts in programs and faculty members would be minimal. In a news briefing after the announcement, Davies said there would probably still be layoffs, but far fewer than previously feared. Johnsen said some adjuncts had already been laid off and teaching loads for remaining faculty members increased.

Williams wrote that “there is still concern that President Johnsen is moving forward on a single-accredited-university model, without taking the time to examine other models,” such as a consortium approach favored by the system’s chancellors or another that would designate “lead campuses” for different disciplines.

Johnsen said he still supported and was devising plans to consolidate the system into a single accredited university, which he said would shift spending from administrative structure to academics and student services. Regents will vote on that model next month.

Johnsen conceded that the budget battle had damaged the university’s ability to recruit and retain top faculty and staff members, as well as to enroll students. Classes begin in two weeks. “That’s done,” he said. “Our task at this point is to look forward … and do our very best to build on the formidable strengths of the University of Alaska in service of the state.”

Some lawmakers have accused the governor of overstepping his authority by prescribing budget cuts for the coming fiscal years. They say it’s their job, not the governor’s, to appropriate funds. Next year, they could approve more money for the university, which the governor could again veto. Once again, it would be up to state lawmakers to garner the support needed to override the veto, which they were unable to do this year.

In an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, Sen. Scott Kawasaki, a Fairbanks Democrat, described the deal as “extortion” of the university system’s Board of Regents. “I think the regents, in the position they’re at, had a gun to their head and basically agreed to the words that were on the page,” he said. “But the Legislature ultimately has the ability to fund the university, and I hope the governor will respect that.”

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.