In late March, President Gamble charged Michelle Rizk with assembling a team to review SW programs and services.� This is an update on the team, its activities to date, and what you can expect going forward.� MORE.....

On April 16 UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers announced that he will retire August 2015 citing a comblination of factors. Rogers has served seven years as chancellor and interim chancellor, nearly 20 years in all as a university employee, and 45 years of association with the University of Alaska and UAF, including eight years as a regent.� MORE....

By�Jo Heckman
Chair, UA Board of Regents

After review of applications submitted for University of Alaska president since Patrick K. Gamble announced his retirement in December, the UA search advisory committee has forwarded to the Board of Regents a number�of candidates for the board’s further review.

The board thanks the committee for its diligent, thoughtful assistance and�will now proceed to further evaluate candidates to determine finalists.

The board realizes the importance of selecting the next university�president. After further deliberations, the board has asked Gamble to�extend his resignation date for a few months so the presidential candidates�can be properly vetted.

Given the extraordinary fiscal challenges facing the university, this brief�extension also will bring the president’s exceptional knowledge of UA’s system to bear in starting implementation of plans to downsize UA during fiscal year 2016 and in preparing for what is expected to be an even tighter budget in fiscal year 2017.

The University of Alaska Board of Regents held its April 9-10 meeting at the Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel. Public testimony demonstrated strong support for the branch campus as many community members offered personal stories about how much the campus means to their families, community and region. Regents were touched as they imbued the meeting with the importance of cultural and traditional education through their local campus. MORE....

UA President Patrick K. Gamble and Chancellors Tom Case, John Pugh and Brian Rogers announced that system officers, senior administrators and non-represented academic leaders will receive furloughs in FY16. This will be a first step in reducing personnel costs in the University’s budget to meet an expected state funding shortfall. MORE...

Open enrollment is your annual opportunity to change your benefit elections for the upcoming plan year. You have until May 15 to

The deadline to earn the wellness rebate for FY16 is April 30, 2015. The data feeds that the university set up with both Premera and VSP will continue to run and capture exams that occurred during the time-frame of: 7/1/2014--4/30/2015. There is time built in after this deadline to capture any lagging data from both the routine exams and biometrics to ensure that all accounts are updated correctly.

You can verify your information by logging-in to the Healthyroads website (using single sign-on link if you are an employee). Once logged in, you will want to go to your ‘Plan Summary’ page, which is available through the ‘Incentives’ tab. Please note that the website requirements still reflects the original guidelines but anyone who has completed the following will earn the full rebate:

• Personal Health Assessment
• Biometric Screening
• 4 additional points

If you have any questions with your account or regarding the wellness program please don’t hesitate to contact our on-site program manager, Sara Rodewald at: sararo@ashn.com or by phone at: 450-8203. She can verify what is posted to your account and provide any additional research if needed as well as answer any questions that you may have!

We are still waiting on the final news from Juneau. A session's end post will be made on the Capitol Report page as soon as information is available. Chris Christensen, associate vice president for state relations, provides regular alerts and updates from Juneau during the legislative session in his Capitol Report. To view the latest information and sign-up for the advocay list serv visit: www.alaska.edu/state/report/

For an overview of the budget process and timeline please download this interactive PDF.