For Immediate Release
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The University of Alaska Board of Regents will gather on the Fairbanks campus Thursday and Friday to approve the FY10 campus budgets following recent legislative action. Also up for approval are a number of new academic programs, including special education teacher training, nutrition and dietetics.

This meeting will be the first for the new student regent, Ashton Compton of Fairbanks. Compton is a University of Alaska Fairbanks political science major. The two-day meeting will take place in Room 109 of the Butrovich Building.

State appropriations to the 16-campus university system--including general fund, workforce development funds and mental health trust general funds--total $328.2 million. Included on the university’s budget sheet is $2.5 million of essentially pass-through money to pay for a National Guard tuition scholarship, previously funded in the Department of Military and Veterans’ Affairs budget; and money to run a residency program at Providence Alaska Medical Center. UA’s total budget, including tuition revenue, federal grants and university generated receipts, totals $823.2 million for the fiscal year starting July 1.

State money included nearly $2 million for two of the board’s top priorities--health academic programs throughout the UA system, and energy research and outreach through UAF.

Also up for formal board action is distribution of $3.2 million in capital money, compared to $542 million requested. Most of that money would have funded deferred maintenance, now at an estimated $800 million. The $3.2 million will go toward facility maintenance based on a formula.

Among academic programs under consideration are a post-baccalaureate certificate in K-12 special education licensure and a master’s degree program in special education, both at UAF; bachelor’s degrees in nutrition and dietetics, both at UAA; and bachelor’s degrees in geography and environmental studies at the University of Alaska Southeast.

Regents will attend a reception with Denali Commission members at UAF’s Georgeson Botanical Gardens Thursday evening. On Friday, they’ll lunch on Angus beef and potatoes from the UAF Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station’s Matanuska Farm. Members of the public may testify at 10 a.m. on Thursday and 9 a.m. on Friday. For a complete look at the board’s agenda, go to www.alaska.edu/bor/.

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NR12-09