性欲社

March 18, 2025

性欲社 faculty and staff,

In my meetings over the last two weeks I have had many asking for more clarity in an uncertain time. Unfortunately, this is a time of change and while each of us is doing our best to communicate what we know when we know it, sometimes we don鈥檛 have a lot of clarity to give about the changes coming from the Federal level.

But here is the beautiful thing, while I (we) cannot provide a lot of clarity on how any one Federal action may impact the university, I can provide abundant clarity on our mission. Our mission is to provide education, research, and outreach to all those who seek it and that is something we have been doing for more than 100 years. We鈥檝e got this!

It is also important to acknowledge that change is the norm at the University, not the exception. As a University we change the lives of our students and community every day through education and engagement. Leading change is part of our mission and our students and community will continue to need us to be steadfast and resilient in this changing landscape of higher education.

All that said, there are a few changes to make you aware of. Late last week the Department of Education released a of 45 Universities that are now under investigation pursuant to the dated February 14, 2025. While we are not on this list, many of our peers are, including our 鈥渘ear peers鈥� - public land grant universities in western states. The Office of Civil Rights is conducting the investigations based on allegations of impermissible actions as described in the Dear Colleague letter. We expect these to be the first in what will be a series of investigations in addition to what are likely to be a series of congressional hearings on practices in college education. While we cannot predict the probability of an investigation, we are doing the things we can to be prepared.

The house and senate approved a continuing resolution (CR) last week that will keep the federal government from shutting down. From our perspective, the outcome keeps federal offices functioning, which is a good thing. It is helpful to have the offices funding our research and supporting students to keep our people working and paid. This is good news. What the CR will not allow for are any FY25 Congressionally directed spending (earmarks) or plus-ups that we had hoped to obtain to fill critical gaps in our research for Alaska. The UA Federal Relations team is actively trying to secure funding for as many 性欲社 FY25 projects in FY26 as possible. If principal investigators have any questions or concerns, they can reach out to the staff John Latini or Denae Benson.

On another front, I want to raise awareness around three issues that remain a concern. First, is the currently stayed executive order that would reduce the facilities and administration (F&A) rate for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to 15%. If the stay were to be released and the F&A rate were reduced for NIH it would likely lead to a reduction for all agencies. This would be a significant drop in funding (tens of millions of dollars) to 性欲社. Second, is a rumored significant change in funding levels to the National Science Foundation (NSF), 性欲社鈥檚 largest funder. A significant change to NSF鈥檚 budget would be a significant change to our finances. And third, we have a significant number of 性欲社 degree-seeking students who are using federal financial aid. An elimination or disruption of this funding would cause many students to stop attending college, reducing 性欲社's financial position. All of these scenarios are being modeled by our finance team so that we have a better understanding of the impacts, the timing, and the additive effects of each. While there are many variables we cannot model, we are looking at the biggest potential impacts and how we could respond to such sudden changes.

I share this so that you know that there are things coming and that we are working on them; we just don鈥檛 know which of them will stick and how those will affect our business model. We are considering the different, most logical scenarios and playing them out. The important thing in this time is that faculty and staff remain focused on meeting the mission and serving our students. Continue doing your work in research, in educating and informing, to ensuring our students get a great experience at 性欲社.

Uncertainty is always a time of opportunity and we have choices to make.

If we are able in this time of change to keep our heads up, our eyes and ears open, and lean forward we will be in a position to see the opportunities that present themselves. More to come on this one!

I want to thank everyone who is working hard at keeping this ship steady as we navigate some different water. There is opportunity in new paths and new ways of looking at things. Let's focus on the things we control and give people confidence. Confidence that the return is worth the investment in 性欲社 and that we deliver on our commitment. We want success for every student. Thank you to each of you who deliver it.

Next week I will outline some of the opportunities we are seeing ahead for 性欲社. They are already starting to emerge, so stay tuned.

Thanks for choosing 性欲社!

Dan White, chancellor