November 12, 1999» NR 19-1999

Discussion about the University of Alaska's operating and capital budget request for next year will continue on Thursday and Friday, November 18-19, when the university's Board of Regents will meet in the Butrovich Building on the UAF campus in Fairbanks.

The administration is preparing the university's Fiscal Year 2001 budget requests, which must be submitted to the governor's office later this fall. Following discussions with regents at this month's meeting, the budgets will be finalized.

The full board will convene at 9 a.m. Thursday for the report of University President Mark R. Hamilton, and then to hear public testimony, which is scheduled to begin about 10 a.m.
At noon on Thursday, the model for the expansion of the UA Museum will be unveiled in the Regents' Conference Room at the Butrovich Building. Governor Tony Knowles has indicated he may meet with the regents for an hour in the late afternoon, so a meeting has been set tentatively for between 4 and 5 p. m.

On Friday, regents are scheduled to be at the Hutchison Career Center at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast hosted by the Tanana Valley Campus Advisory Council and Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Hank Hove. Following the breakfast, at 9 a.m., the regents will participate in the dedication of the Howard Cutler Student Apartment Complex in Hess Commons, Moore/Bartlett/Skarland Complex, on the UAF campus.

The board's committee of the whole will meet Friday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., and then the full board will meet again from 3 to 5 p.m. An executive session is scheduled as one of the last items of business and is expected to last about an hour.

Agenda highlights are listed here by committee of origin:

Academic & Student Affairs

• Conduct initial review of policies on student health and information resources.
• Continue discussion on the feasibility of starting a Regents' Scholar program.
• Hold a discussion about developmental education funding.
• Receive reports on UAA community partnerships and on service- and community-based learning at UAA.
• Hear presentations from the College of Rural Alaska Advisory Council, and from representatives of the three regional campuses on the status of studies of the effectiveness of the university's educational programs.

Human Resources

• Consider approval of renumbering, retitling, and revisions to regents' policies on human resources and the uniform personnel system.
• Receive the annual report on UA system grievances which shows the status of eight formal grievances filed by employees not represented by a collective bargaining unit. Six of the eight have been resolved.

Finance, Facilities & Land Management

• Consider approval of the annual Land Management Development Plan.
• Consider approval of UAA's energy improvement project to promote energy savings with a cost not to exceed $501,000.
• Consider approval of UAA's Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvement plan which calls for deficiencies to be corrected in six buildings at the Mat-Su campus, four buildings at Kenai Peninsula College, and four buildings on the Anchorage campus. Total cost of all projects is estimated at $686,383.
• Receive the university's FY99 financial statements from interim Vice President for Finance Jim Lynch.
• Receive status reports on UAF's coal-water fuel project, on university construction in progress, on plans for improvements to campus signage throughout the system, and on campus entrance designs.

Committee of the Whole
The committee will hear presentations on:

• Partners in Science, a project that links K-12 students and teachers with practicing math and science professionals using network technology. Paul Reichardt, UAF provost, and Nick Stayrook, program planning and evaluation director at the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, will report on this partnership program between UAF and the Fairbanks school district.
• UA Corporate Programs which provides a means by which workforce training and education programs are brought together under one strategic umbrella and brokered to business and industry. The aim of Corporate Programs is to assure that all levels of employees in Alaska business and industry can access the skills, knowledge and competencies they need for their current, or future, jobs.
• Alaska Process Industry Careers Consortium. This will be discussed by Joyce Helens, director of Corporate Programs for the university, and by John Payne and Kitty Farnham, both of BP Amoco.
• Insurance, Risk Management and Campus Safety. Julie Peterson, UA's manager for risk management, will present an informational briefing on the status of UA's insurance placement, claims administration and risk financing program. Frank Williams, vice chancellor for administrative services at UAF, and his staff will present a briefing on campus safety and environmental health programs at UAF. UAA and UAS will report on campus safety and environmental issues at subsequent meetings of the board.

Additionally, the committee will consider approval of the proposed budget for the Natural Resources Fund spending allowance distribution. The budget includes a provision of $457,008 to fund land management operating costs and $2,119,458 for support of university programs such as UA Press, system-based scholarships, president's discretionary awards, systemwide academic program support and the UA Scholars Program.
Audit

• Receive a report on the FY 1999 external financial audit, and a presentation on internal audit policies.
• Review recently completed audits, and receive reports on the FY2000 annual audit plan and on internal audit staffing and resources.

All meetings of the Board of Regents and its committees, except for executive sessions, are open to the public.

During the meeting, messages can be left at the Board of Regents' office, 907-474-7908; FAX 907-474-6342. Messages should indicate that they are for participants in the Board of Regents' meeting.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Bob Miller, 907-474-7272