Chancellor "Ask Me Anything" Session With UAA Community

It was already standing room only when I got to the meeting with UAA Chancellor Sandeen.  With the governor's budget cuts, and the Board of Regents' declaration of exigency, the university is scrambling.  We still don't know how the final state budget will emerge and then there's the kickoff of the campaign to recall the governor to add to the uncertainty.

There were questions from students -

• why haven't there been support teams to help students cope with working, parenting, protesting, and school work when everything is so uncertain?  
• why haven't we had a Native Students director for the last few years?  
• Will I be able to get my classes and graduate?  
• Will engineering be in Anchorage or Fairbanks and can I finish my degree?  
• I'm a theater major, what's going to happen with the arts?

Answers were basically -

• we don't have many answers ourselves, we're trying to cope ourselves and just getting ready to respond,  this meeting is the start
• we were ready to hire when positions were frozen, 
• we're going to make sure all students are able to graduate, either here, or elsewhere, and 
• they're focusing on work preparation degrees, but I believe arts programs are work preparation and Anchorage is the arts center of Alaska, so I'm pushing hard to keep those programs.  

There were questions from faculty and staff -

• what happens when UAA and UAF each have grants that stipulate only one per institution if we combine into one institution?  
• what sort of structure can we expect for administrators?  
• what do we tell prospective students who we've been working with when they ask if UAA will have the programs they want?  
• will faculty be involved in the restructuring?

There was even less certainty here.  (Here's what I heard, though I didn't take careful notes since I was in the standing room section.)

• we don't know.  We'll have to work with the agencies as we transition.
• the HR department has already gone through this and if it's a model, the services will be centralized, fewer positions on campus
• things will work out, there will be places for them somewhere, but right now we don't know any details
• the president's plan calls for making restructuring proposals first and then allowing participation afterward, maybe those will be tentative proposals [don't hold your breath, the President has been trying to make one unified university since he got here and now he's got his way to do it]

Chancellor Sandeen was impressive.  She's only been here less than a year, but she was warm, caring, and listened and she sounded honest and sincere.  The audience, at one point, stood up and applauded her work so far.  She said that she hasn't for one iota of a second regretted her decision to come here, that she loves the community here and we'll work through this.