University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen toured the Kenai Peninsula today, presenting to both Kenai Central High School and a joint Kenai and Soldotna chamber luncheon.
He gave updates on the university system that spans Alaska and issues it’s facing.
Pres. Johnsen: “One of our big challenges is not just the fiscal gap, but the uncertainty of how big it is. We depend on the legislature for about 45 percent of our revenue and we don’t know what that number is that will be coming from the legislature that year so it’s tough to plan just what it is that we’ll do.”
Johnsen says the University is beginning work to raise more private funding by tapping into alumni resources.
Another topic he says is ruling conversations is the issue of the University’s spread across the state and what can be done to centralize programs in order to cut costs.
Pres. Johnsen: “Perhaps consolidating some programs so that, for example, maybe Program X is being delivered from three different University locations, it’s possible we would have it from one but again still make it available to people using distance education technologies and other e-learning technologies to make it available to other student locations across the state. So that’s absolutely something we’re looking very hard at.”
He says all suggestions to cut costs are up for consideration at this point.
Johnsen also commended Kenai Peninsula College Director Gary Turner on the strong local relationship with K-12 schools and the success that has been seen in the Jump Start program.
