January 27, 2016
For Immediate Release
Jan. 27, 2016
Regents Endorse 绿奴天花板 President鈥檚 Plan for University Future
Following a two-day work session with the University of Alaska Board of Regents, 绿奴天花板
President Jim Johnsen has announced his framework to restructure the university so
it will be more streamlined and efficient in the years ahead. While still a working
draft, the framework calls for establishing a lead campus for specific degree programs,
reducing redundancies, cutting costs and strengthening areas of excellence for focused
growth.
鈥淓ach main campus 鈥 Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau鈥攚ill focus its research, teaching
and service on its unique strengths, capabilities, advantages and opportunities.鈥
Johnsen said. 鈥淭he 鈥榣ead campus鈥 model will eliminate duplication and strengthen degree
programs, reduce duplicative administration and put a greater emphasis on delivery
of courses through technology.鈥
For example, as the university鈥檚 metropolitan campus, 绿奴天花板A could focus on workforce
development in such important fields as nursing, and lead research in the economic
and policy sciences. As the leading research campus, 绿奴天花板F could focus on research and
workforce development in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. As
the public liberal arts campus, 绿奴天花板S could focus on interdisciplinary studies and strong
training programs to support the mining and marine industries. While each campus would
lead with its respective areas of emphasis, all would offer a wide variety of other
classes on campus or via distance technology to ensure all students are prepared to
be critical thinkers and good citizens of the state.
鈥淲hile this will have impacts on students, communities and university employees, restructuring
will preserve excellent and diverse program options across the system and respond
to the unprecedented reductions in our budget,鈥 Johnsen said. 鈥淭he Board of Regents
and university leadership believe this is the best way to use increasingly scarce
resources to meet the needs of students and our state.鈥
The framework was an outgrowth of a planning meeting held late last week with the
Board of Regents and university executives to discuss ideas and concepts that would
make the university stronger, more cost effective and better able to meet the educational
needs of Alaska鈥檚 students and the state's needs for a trained workforce.
General Education Requirements (GERs), liberal arts and humanities courses, developmental
education classes, and career and technical certificate and degree programs will be
available broadly at all campuses. The university will continue to enable student
transfers and flexibility through common calendars, common GERs and academic courses.
In addition, there will be greater consistency in administrative systems and educational
technologies across the university.
"President Johnsen鈥檚 strategic framework boldly addresses the many challenges facing
our university and our state,鈥 said Jo Heckman, chair of the Board of Regents. 鈥淚n
these difficult fiscal times, it is critical that we clearly define the university
in a way that ensures excellence, highlights and strengthens our campuses and eliminates
redundancy. The Regents unanimously support President Johnsen鈥檚 framework and look
forward to more details at our February meeting.鈥
The next steps include developing a planning and implementation timeline to address
the challenges this restructuring requires and engaging the university鈥檚 key internal
and external stakeholders. Implementation of the plan will begin in 2016 but is expected
to require several years to complete.
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For more information contact Roberta Graham, Assoc. Vice President of Public Affairs
and Federal Relations at 907-786-1190 or 907-360-2416
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