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May 6, 2025
UAF faculty and staff,
This past weekend we celebrated students and their successes at UAF. What a great
celebration! I hope many of you were able to attend. The Carlson Center was standing
room only with more than 6,000 people in attendance.
In my message last week, I shared information about the multiple executive orders
the administration released on April 23, 2025, and the impact these have on our institution鈥檚
accreditation, workforce development, and hiring. I talked about how our accreditor,
the (NWCCU) is addressing the executive order on accreditation. I also shared the increasing
focus on existing federal requirements for universities to report on foreign funding
of projects and the increased consequences for failure to comply with these reporting
requirements.
As we continue to talk about funding, highlights of the president's (commonly called the 鈥渟kinny budget鈥�) were released on Friday, May 2, 2025. This
release is part of the budget process and we are not expecting a full budget request
to be released until mid-May at the earliest. However, many of the numbers released
in the president鈥檚 FY26 budget request are not favorable to the science agencies that
fund UAF. It is important to keep in mind that these are early days and we need to
rely on our legislators to raise the voice about the importance of our research work
to AV狼论坛 and AV狼论坛ns. Volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, and fish (just to begin) affect
AV狼论坛ns and our livelihoods. Many across the system, myself included, are working
closely with the UA Federal Relations team, John Latini and Denae Benson, on communicating
the impact and needs of our institution to agency leaders and our delegation to help
alleviate as much impact as possible to the work we are doing 鈥� as well as to advocate for growth in areas we can meet the needs of areas that will
see increased funding (e.g., defense).
Regarding the federal budget, the following was provided by Director John Latini in
an email last week.
From J. Latini (email dated 5/2/2025):听
鈥淲e prepared a document that highlights some of the key portions of the skinny budget.
Our office will update this document as new information comes available. Please know
that the language in our document came directly from the budget request documents,
not our writing.
There are many concerning portions of just this skinny budget. I am anticipating being
even more concerned when the full budget request is released. That being said, Congress
will have a significant say on how the final budget looks as we begin the Congressionally-driven
appropriations process.
Please do not hesitate to share any initial thoughts or concerns you may have. In
the coming days and weeks, the UA Office of Government Relations' Federal Relations
team will be holding listening sessions across the UA system to gather feedback on
the potential impacts of the recommendations in the FY26 budget request. Sessions
will be held on either a topic or a particular federal agency, depending on the size
and scope of impact. Stay tuned.鈥�
Because our largest federal research funder (by percentage) is the National Science
Foundation, we have two main concerns. The first is a general proposed cut to the
NSF budget and the second is the announced cut of the Facilities and Administration
(F&A) rate. Like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Energy
(DOE), NSF has reduced its allowable F&A rate to 15% (from the federally negotiated
rate, which is 55% for most research at UAF). As with the NIH and DOE reductions,
this action has been challenged in court and may be enjoined by a temporary restraining
order. If you are preparing an NSF proposal in the coming days, please confer with
Vice Chancellor Conner as our strategy on how to document F&A must be cognizant of
the legal status of the change.
On Friday, May 9, 2025, at 8:30 a.m., I will be hosting an open forum on federal budget
impacts via Zoom. This forum is for all faculty and staff to hear more information
from our UA Federal Relations Director John Latini, UA General Counsel Wayne Mowery,
Vice Chancellor for Research Laura Conner, and myself. This is also an opportunity
to ask questions. Tune in as we work to provide more information with the continually
changing federal landscape and the potential impacts to UAF.
Thank you for choosing UAF.
Dan White, chancellor
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