Alaska, UAA Brace for New State Budget Proposal Consequences

by Christopher Boulay/CHN Writer (@chrismboulay)

College hockey in Alaska is in danger again.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced $1.6 billion in proposed state budget cuts Wednesday to address a fiscal deficit, with $134 million slated to be deducted from the University of Alaska’s budget for the 2020 fiscal year.

This equates to a 41 percent downsizing of the Unrestricted General Fund, where the school system receives funding for the majority of its programs, including athletics. While it’s not known how the plan will shake out, cuts may occur to both Alaska and Alaska-Anchorage athletic programs. The 2019 budget was $327 million, and was downsized in four of the past five years.

“I think it’s fair to say, because (UA president Dr. Jim Johnsen) has said it, that everything is on the table,” Robbie Graham, associate vice president of public affairs for the University of Alaska said. “There isn’t anything that has been identified in particular, but everything is on the table, with the emphasis on everything.”

This comes just two years after the state’s university system experienced a budget crisis, putting the future of Alaska and Alaska-Anchorage hockey programs in limbo. The Strategic Pathways plan initially provided the state options to shut down the programs to save money, though the Alaska Board of Regents eventually decided against cutting both hockey programs. This nevertheless hurt the school’s ability to recruit for a time, and this new budget proposal likely bring these recruiting issues back into the forefront.

The Alaska state legislature will deliberate over the proposal from now until April, with a decision set for the new fiscal year in July.

“It will be a process to go through the discussions and the debate to look at the proposed cuts at each university, and that will take several months, as the legislature itself continues to debate the budget,” Graham said. “This is the first step in the budget process. The legislature has a long way to go before it makes a final appropriation and we will be advocating for the university all along the way.

“Even though athletics has been mentioned, it has been mentioned alongside everything else.”

While not a guarantee that athletic programs would be cut if the proposal passes, the size of the cuts suggests it would be devastating to the Fairbanks and Anchorage campuses, alone. The University of Alaska released a report Wednesday putting the significance of the proposed funding losses into perspective. The year-over-year budget cut is the most significant in the school’s 100-year existence.

“Elimination of programs, facilities and services throughout the state, will be unavoidable,” the report said.

While cuts will likely be spread out if the proposal passes, the $134 million deduction would be more than the operating costs of the entire Anchorage campus ($120 million in Unrestricted General Fund money). According to the report, the Fairbanks campus’ operating costs are $164 million in UGF. The state school system also has the UA Southeast branch ($25 million UGF), along with community campuses.

Both schools’ athletic departments experienced a tumultuous past few years, with both budget issues and turnover. New Alaska-Anchorage athletic director Greg Myford took over in June 2018, replacing assistant athletic director and acting AD Tim McDiffett, who retired. Following former AD Keith Hackett’s resignation in 2017, McDiffett took over as acting AD for the third time.

Alaska experienced its own difficulties with keeping a stable athletic department. Current assistant athletic director for compliance Kayne Gutierrez acted as interim AD following Gary Gray’s resignation in late 2017. Gutierrez eventually returned to his assistant AD role due to the hiring of current director Sterling Steward.

Both Myford and Steward declined to comment on the situation due to not having enough information and because, they said, the governor’s plan is only in the proposal stage.

Alaska hired Erik Largen as its new hockey coach in May after deciding against signing interim coach Lance West to a long-term deal. The school had town halls involving two candidates for the position: West and former Miami assistant Brent Brekke. Eventually, the athletic department offered Brekke the position, who declined. West moved on to Alabama-Huntsville as an assistant under Mike Corbett.

Alaska-Anchorage also made a change following last season, deciding to let Matt Thomas’ contract expire. The school had a round of candidates — now-Denver head coach Matt Carle, Providence associate head coach Kris Mayotte and former Massachusetts-Lowell and current Norwich head coach Cam Ellsworth — all interview and all eventually turn down the job. Following this, the school hired Matt Curley, the head coach of EC Salzburg II in Austria and former Clarkson defenseman.

This year, Alaska-Anchorage is 10th in the WCHA and 3-23-2 overall, having defeated Colorado College, Bemidji and Alaska. The Nanooks are 9-17-2 overall and in 7th place in the WCHA.

