After a Wednesday morning announcement by Gov. Bill Walker, the University of Alaska finally knows exactly how much money it will have for the upcoming fiscal year.
During the legislative session, university officials assumed lawmakers would give them between $300 million and $325 million.
“To that end, we prepared for $300 million. When the legislature completed its work and the budgets were finalized, our budget ended up being at $335 million,” Roberta Graham said. Walker’s $10 million veto brings their final number to $325 million — the most the university originally expected.
Graham is the university’s associate vice president for public affairs.
“While we were hopeful that ($335 million) would be the number, and we then looked at how we would take that $335 million and invest in strategic priorities for the university, we also were mindful that the governor’s action may change that,” Graham said.
She said the university’s strategic priorities include maintenance, research, enrollment, compliance issues and fundraising.
Graham added that the university will take most of the governor’s cut from funds dedicated to its strategic priorities and the rest will be absorbed by cutting about eight staff positions in the university system.
