UAA to release prioritization reports to public on Aug. 13

Internal community to get first review of reports today

Aug. 11, 2014

In March of 2013, UAA announced that it would undertake a major initiative to comprehensively examine all of its academic programs and administrative support functions as part of a prioritization process. The results of the prioritization effort will be released to the public on Aug. 13.

The prioritization process involved a systematic and thoughtful analysis of how our current programs and services aligned with our mission, and the needs of our students, faculty, staff and the state. The Academic Task Force (AcTF)—comprised solely of Anchorage faculty members—reviewed and evaluated over 300 academic programs; the Support Task Force (STF)—comprised primarily of Anchorage staff—reviewed and evaluated over 175 support functions. Both task forces spent roughly three months reading and discussing the prioritization templates submitted by each function or program. AcTF and the STF have produced full reports of their work, each including an executive summary, an overview of the groups’ methodology, the results of their deliberations, the lessons learned, as well as the final prioritization category assignments for the respective programs or functions. The final reports from each task force are similar, though each task force created a parallel and unique approach to the process. For example, the STF used quintiles with a forced and equal distribution for the functions; the AcTF used five categories with a minimum distribution of 15 percent in each category, with 25 percent of programs left to distribute as most appropriate.

When UAA began the prioritization process, the university was not facing an immediate budget shortfall. Circumstances have changed, as has our financial picture, but the fundamental reason for undertaking prioritization at UAA has not changed: the need to examine and align UAA’s programs and functions with our mission and the needs of the state. In order to more effectively fund programs and functions of high priority and alignment, reallocation will need to take place. No decisions about reductions, elimination or enhancement of programs and/or functions will be made immediately. UAA leadership will discuss possible program and function changes in the next few months, and a list of recommendations will be forwarded to Chancellor Case in late winter. Further information about next steps in the process will be available in September.

Media and the general public will be able to view both the AcTF and the STF reports beginning Aug. 13 at uaa.alaska.edu/program-prioritization (Not Available).

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