Budget update: May 29
May 29, 2019
— by Anupma Prakash, provost and executive vice chancellor
The academic deans and directors have been working hard using a multi-pronged approach
to address the anticipated budget shortfall in FY20, while still aiming to contribute
to the University of Alaska’s proposed 2017-2025 goals and measures. President Johnsen also urged us to grow our student-faculty ratio and to focus on
a seamless student experience as we look at academic program offerings across the
UA system. UAF is committed to improving both.
One way to grow the student-faculty ratio is by increasing the number of students.
UAF has taken a systematic approach through the strategic enrollment planning process to grow the student numbers over the next five years. A special thanks to
the many staff, faculty and administrators who continue to contribute to the SEP process.
Though our current enrollment numbers show a decline, the SEP action plans we will
implement, along with the efforts of individual employees, are projected to help us
reverse the enrollment trend. Growth in online education, dual enrollment and high-demand
academic programs such as One Health, sport management, and many occupational endorsements
and A.A. degrees are seen as key to new student recruitment. Greater focus on academic
advising will further improve student retention contributing to a healthy student
number at UAF.
Another way to increase the student-faculty ratio is by decreasing the number of instructional
faculty. Since 2014, we have suspended or deleted 22 programs, put seven programs
on an improvement plan, and reduced our faculty lines by 12 FTE through a set of special
program reviews. UAF also lost faculty through retirements and attrition. Overall,
we have 152 fewer faculty than in 2014, a 15% reduction over four years. Due to a
series of budget cuts, we made a choice to replace only few of those faculty positions.
We managed with fewer faculty by streamlining program offerings and redistributing
the teaching among the remaining faculty members. We are also discontinuing selected
low enrollment electives. We are further reducing our faculty numbers by decreasing
the number of sections and frequency of offerings of some of our classes, especially
the General Education Requirements. As an example, over the last three semesters the
College of Natural Science and Mathematics reduced the number of math and science
GERs by 44%, from 90 sections to 50 sections. Through continuous monitoring and such
judicious measures, we will continue to increase the student-faculty ratio.
It is important to note that UAF is somewhat unique in the high number of faculty
who have joint appointments between an academic college and a research unit. This
complexity does not lend itself well to the computation of a student-faculty ratio
that was designed for universities composed of full-time teaching faculty. This ratio
has been much debated, and UAF is working to propose a more representative way to
compute the ratio that would account for UAF’s greater focus on research.
Deans and directors are also working with faculty to refine the curricula and program
offerings within their units, while working with me to look at statewide synergies
in academic offerings. Some noteworthy examples of the latter are the joint UAA-UAF
philosophy program, the expanded offering of the initial licensure programs at UAF’s
School of Education, and the nursing program offered at UAF community campuses by
UAA. We also plan to revisit the previously conducted special program reviews. Insufficient
progress toward the improvement plan could form the basis for program suspension or
discontinuation. Savings from any program discontinuation will not be immediate as
there will be a teach-out phase to allow enrolled students to complete their programs.
Though each dean and director is planning to manage their unit budget in a slightly
different way, they are all looking at a combination of some of the following measures:
- permanent reduction in faculty lines,
- one-time saving from sabbaticals,
- voluntary reduction in selected faculty contracts,
- reduction in the number of staff or staff contracts where feasible,
- reduction in some the number of teaching assistantships where possible,
- increase in class sizes to avoid a new section where possible,
- increase in enrollment by offering high-demand programs.
Though the reduction of course sections and low-enrollment electives has resulted in a modest reduction of adjunct faculty, the deans and directors advocate for continued support for UAF’s adjunct faculty as the adjunct faculty generally have non-overlapping expertise with our tenure-track faculty and play a critical role in our academic program delivery.