Every day remarkable stories are created at the University of Alaska. Your contributions, through your work and giving, inspire success among our students and programs. Your belief in University of Alaska and our students helps to shape and enhance the UA experience while making it more accessible.

Some of you have shared what they BELIEVE in at UA on the Staff Campaign website. These statements serve as inspirations to us all. Why not share what you BELIEVE in and earn a chance to win two Alaska Airlines vouchers?

If you haven’t yet had a chance, join your peers in a few minutes of fun by posing with some fun childhood props from the Land of Make BELIEVE for another chance at entering the drawing. Photos shoots will be held on

• April 29, 12:30-2:30 p.m. in the Bragaw Building, Room 205 or
• April 30, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in the Butrovich Building, Room 109.

Any employee that shares a quote or participates in our photo shoot enters their name into our drawing, which will be held on May 1.

From Chris Christensen
Associate Vice President for State Relations
Distributed April 18, 2013

Ninety days after it began, the First Session of the 28th Alaska State Legislature adjourned on April 14. In a very difficult budget year, UA fared well under the spending plans adopted by the legislature.

Each year for the last seven years, the State of Alaska has received more revenues than it spent. This allowed the legislature to fund generous operating and capital budgets, while having money left over to put into the state’s savings accounts. This string of budget surpluses ended during the current fiscal year (FY13), and this session the legislature enacted budgets for the upcoming fiscal year (FY14) knowing that revenues would again not be enough to cover expenses. In fact, revenues in FY14 are expected to be at least $1 billion less than the revenues received in FY13. Accordingly, the legislature made substantial reductions to the state operating budget that was submitted by Governor Parnell, and it enacted a capital budget that is much smaller than the capital budgets in recent years.

We now await the governor’s action on legislation and on the FY14 operating and capital budgets. Once a bill has passed the legislature and is sent to the governor, he must sign it or veto it within 15 days if the legislature is in session (not counting Sundays) or within 20 days if the legislature is not in session (not counting Sundays). In the case of a budget bill, the governor may veto any individual appropriation contained in the bill; he is not limited to vetoing the bill in its entirety. MORE..

The University of Alaska Foundation is grateful to all Alaskans who made gifts to the University of Alaska through Pick.Click.Give. Pledges to all UA campuses totaled $28,425, an increase of 12 percent over 2012.�

From Finance and Administration

We are pleased to announce that after many months of collaborative work with the campuses we are ready to roll out our Pilot of the new Travel and Expense Management module (TEM). This is not a booking tool, it is for expense management. This module captures the university’s travel information in a web-based application. �

Our goal was to produce a finished product that:

• Complies with the Board of Regents Regulations
• Eliminates paper
• Provides electronic approvals
• Creates efficiencies
• Provides a training program to include both in person or online training opportunities
• Provides the organization with more usable data as it relates to travel

The committee members, selected by each MAU, includes:

• UAA – Martha Nelson, Sara Braniff and Jeanne Taylor
• UAF – Geoff Jacobs and Helen Conner
• UAS – Wendy Cole, Nicole Rogers and Judi Parriott
• SW – Raye Ann Robinson, Laura Katucki (co-leaders),Sherry Hansen, Donna Evans, Christine Corwin, Rita Murphy (all providing support to the project)�

With our goals in mind our process began with updating the Board of Regents Regulations to reflect changes requested by the MAU’s.

The committee looked at how we currently process travel authorizations and expense reports, decided where the problem areas are and where the majority of the effort for this process is being spent. Three primary areas identified were: calculation of per-diem, manually routing documents, and the amount of paper being shuffled around the institution. These areas are being addressed with the new application, along with many others.

The pilot program is scheduled to start May 1, 2013, with campus selected participants. The participating groups are:

• UAA – Institute of Social & Economic Research (ISER) and � College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)
• UAF – Institute of Northern Engineering (INE), Cooperative Extension (CES), and Center for Alaska Native Health
• UAS – Chancellor’s Office, Arts/Sciences, Facilities, Ketchikan Campus, and Sitka Campus
• SW – Finance (including VP for Finance, Controller, Fund Accounting, Cost Accounting, Financial Systems)

The pilot will run for 6 weeks and will be assessed weekly.

Starting July 1, 2013 we will be phasing in the rest of the university departments with a full implementation to be completed by September 30, 2013.

SITKA— The University of Alaska Board of Regents concluded a two-day meeting at the University of Alaska Sitka Campus on a strong note after two days filled with fisheries and maritime information, testimonies on the impact of the campus on the community and a fond farewell to Mari Freitag, student regent.

During public testimony Sitka residents, students and faculty testified in support of the varied programs offered through campus involving the fisheries and maritime industry, arts, construction and health care. Many who testified offered personal thoughts and stories about the impact of the local campus to the town and region of about 9,000 residents.

General Manager for the Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association Steve Reifenstuhl spoke passionately about a career field he has spent his life working in.� “The fisheries, seafood, and maritime industries, with over 70,000 jobs, offer our children and citizens an exciting career path. With the right education, this career path can be a lucrative one—whether in reefer repair or fisheries research. I believe we can tell this story in a way that will invite greater participation within Alaska.”

“The success of our faculty in high-tech distance instruction is leading the way for the whole UA family,” said Campus Director, Jeff Johnston.� "New programs in fisheries management and law enforcement synthesize best practices and meet critical statewide needs. The Sitka Campus has emerged as a healthcare education magnet and with regional partners, a practical center for promoting economic development and environmental research.”

The board approved formal project approvals for the University of Alaska Anchorage Health Campus Pedestrian Bridge; a project change request on UAA’s MAC Housing Renewal; a project change request for UAF’s Margaret Murie Life Sciences Research and Teaching Facility; adoption of a UAS Campus Master Plan; approval of a revision to Regents’ Policy 05.12.040 on Capital Project Development; and an audit department name change.

The decision on whether to increase tuition for Fairbanks students enrolled in business management courses was postponed to next meeting, which will be held in Fairbanks on June 6-7, 2013. The proposal to introduce “differential tuition” for University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Management was made to address projected budget shortfalls in the department.

Student Regent Mari Freitag enjoyed her last meeting with the board and received a resolution of appreciation outlining her life and college career. The regents also stood in standing applause in recognition of her outstanding efforts in representation of the UA student body.�

Click below to follow the University of Alaska on Twitter for all your real-time updates and systemwide news.