In recent months, much has been said in the Alaska Dispatch News opinion pages about the University of Alaska and its budget. One group says the university is a unique institution whose budget should remain unscathed by the current round of cutting. Another says that UA is a bloated bureaucracy that should have its budget cut just like any state agency. Each group has a point.
The first group is correct that the university is special. It educates and nurtures our young people, who are, after all, our state's future. UA is not just any state agency. It does deserve special consideration. But the second group is correct that there are some cuts that can be made without damaging UA's ability to carry out its mission. That mission is teaching, research and service to Alaska.
UA students will soon be our doctors, nurses, engineers, technicians, skilled workers, business leaders, government officials, and well-informed citizens. If we educate our own young people right here at home, they're likely to stick around and help to build our state.
UA professors are a valuable resource. It's important to remember that the real work of a university is done by its faculty. They teach students, and they do the research that helps Alaska. All the other UA employees are there to make that work possible – employees like registration clerks, residence hall workers, janitors, deans, and even the chancellors and president.
We have some great professors. If we lose them, it will take a long time to rebuild the faculty to get back to where we are now. Too long. It's hard to replace faculty and rebuild departments after they've been harmed by budget cuts. Universities' reputations -- good or bad -- last a long time. An institution may not be able to recover from the loss of good teaching and research faculty.
But what about the overblown bureaucracy complaint?
There are four administrations within the University of Alaska. UAA, UAF and UAS all have administrative units to look after their own administrative needs, and there's also a fourth unit -- the one that insiders call "statewide." It's the overall system administration that sits atop the three individual universities. It's purely administrative in nature, and, with very rare exceptions, statewide employees do no teaching or research. Some systemwide administration is needed, but many statewide employees have been added in recent years, and the size of this unit has grown dramatically.
If UA needs to cut budgets, administration is a great place to start. It may be time to carefully and selectively reduce the size of UA's administrative structure, but we need to continue to build the mission part of the university, its academic side.
The mission is what's important. Teaching, research and service.
Dr. Alex Hills, who lives in Palmer, is Distinguished Service Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. He has also taught at UAA, UAF, and many other universities around the world.The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com