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Dear College of Business and Public Policy Students: The State of Alaska is facing a very serious financial challenge. With the collapse of oil prices, Alaskans are now confronted with a new economic reality and the State's financial deficit is being passed on in part to the University of Alaska (UA). The tuition and fees paid by UAA students only cover approximately 31% of operating costs with the balance coming from legislative appropriations and other sources. The College of Business and Public Policy has already experienced two years of declining state funding and is now facing even more significant reductions to next year's budget. Until now, the College has managed to use internal savings to maintain class size, number of sections, and the many elective course offerings we had scheduled before the budget cuts, as a part of our commitment to supporting our students' learning and success. In order to continue to fulfill our mission of delivering the highest quality in business and public policy education and to expand opportunities for student achievement, we are putting forward a proposal to the UA President for enhanced tuition on College of Business and Public Policy upper division and graduate courses. The enhanced tuition is an amount students pay in addition to their regular UAA tuition and is used widely by professional schools, such as engineering, health, and business. We recognize the majority of our students are working and self-supporting, therefore, in order to lessen the impact, we are requesting a phased approach. The College is submitting a proposal to UA President Johnson requesting a 20% enhanced tuition to be phased in over two academic years. Upon his approval, a 10% increase in fall 2016 will be put into place, followed by another 10% increase in fall 2017. What does this mean to you in terms of cost? With the fall 2016 resident tuition rate of $232 per credit hour for upper division courses, the enhanced tuition would mean an increase of $23 per credit hour. For graduate courses, the resident tuition rate of $444 per credit hour would increase by $44 per credit. The value of a business degree from a high-quality AACSB accredited school like the College of Business and Public Policy is demonstrated by the high demand to employ our graduates from community partners, by the relatively higher long-term career earnings of CBPP graduates as compared to majors from other colleges, and by the commitment to provide the best business education. We recognize the hardship enhanced tuition will place on our students, and hope you are able to understand the necessity of the tuition proposal the College is submitting. We are committed to maintaining and increasing the quality of the business education we offer, to continuing to reduce costs through increased efficiency in internal College operations, and to increasing scholarships available to students to alleviate some of the financial burden. The College of Business and Public Policy is dedicated to investing in you, so you can invest in your Alaskan future. Sincerely, |
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Rashmi Prasad, M.B.A., Ph.D. |
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To learn more about the challenges the State of Alaska is facing, please take a few minutes to view Dr. Gunnar Knapp's overview of our State's budget crisis: Overview by Dr. Gunnar Knapp |
