University of Alaska Fairbanks officials rolled out statistics Friday outlining expected funding shortfalls.
Administrators say rising costs and cuts in state dollars have produced a $42 million gap.
Interim UAF Chancellor Mike Powers and other administrators project a troubled fiscal landscape for the school in 2017.
Forty percent of the University’s budget is tied to state dollars, which are growing scarcer as lawmakers grapple with low oil prices and deficits.
Vice Chancellor Kari Burrell outlined the history of UAF funding and the situation on Monday.
“The pull backs we’ve had centrally was for $29 million over the last three years, but we’ve also asked units to absorb $13 million,” Burrell said. “So, the total gap that we have filled over the last three years has been $42 million.”
Burrell talked about vertical and horizontal cuts. Horizontal cuts distribute pain across most programs and has been the prevailing strategy for meeting deficits. Now, however, UA President Jim Johnsen has asked chancellors to look at vertical cuts, a strategy that could lead to programs with low student numbers to be eliminated or combined with another disciplines.
Chancellor Powers said most likely both strategies will be employed.
“Emphasize the vertical as opposed to the horizontal, but it will be a part of both,” he said. “Everybody will be touched in some way, there’s no question.”
Powers underscored the projections for the future were preliminary.
He says university officials will wait to see what Governor Walker proposes in his budget due out this month, then see what law-makers come up with when they meet next year.
