When the University of Alaska Board of Regents voted unanimously on Wednesday to put the headquarters of the College of Education at University of Alaska Southeast, the regents had more than the impassioned words of Juneau residents to urge them.
On the table as encouragement was a $1 million offer from the City and Borough of Juneau, emailed in a letter to UA President Jim Johnsen and the Board of Regents at 4 p.m. Tuesday. If the college was in Juneau, the money was the university’s. No college, no money.
“It was very instrumental and certainly was a factor” in the vote, said Dale Anderson, a regent from Juneau.
Anderson wouldn’t go so far as to say the money was the key to the 11-0 vote, but after days of meetings urging a Juneau location, it certainly was a key, he said.
Now comes another question — where will the city get the money?
“Basically, out of our savings,” said city manager Rorie Watt on Thursday. “It could be fund balance, it could be budget reserve, which we used to call the rainy-day reserve; we also were going to appeal to the community.”
In a letter to the editor published in Friday’s Juneau Empire, Watt calls for Juneau residents to contribute to a fundraising effort administered by the Juneau Community Foundation.
[Letter: Decision keeps UAS a strong, stable system]
Foundation board members and staff did not return calls for comment by deadline Thursday.
The details are still being worked out, but the broad idea is that residents and organizations will contribute to the cause, and what private donations don’t provide, the city will, up to $1 million.
It is not clear when the city will pay the $1 million to the university.
“I don’t think it’s instantly, but I think we need to make good on that in the next several months or so,” Watt said.
It has not appeared on the Assembly’s public agenda, and Watt said it was discussed in an executive session at Monday’s City and Borough of Juneau Assembly meeting. He said an ordinance will be placed in front of the Assembly with the mechanics of the gift.
The university system has been considering the consolidation of education programs at the Fairbanks, Anchorage and Southeast universities for at least a year. Under the plan, the students and teachers will stay at each school, but the deans and administrators will go away or be housed in Juneau.
Johnsen originally favored Fairbanks as the headquarters of the College of Education, but he changed his mind after hearing an outpouring of support for Juneau, he said Wednesday.
CBJ Assemblyman Jesse Kiehl said the million-dollar pledge isn’t out of line with what the borough has done before, as when it donated land for NOAA’s Ted Stevens marine research center.
Had the College of Education been housed elsewhere, “there would’ve been a terrible risk of UAS being on the chopping block as a university,” Kiehl said.
He thinks the million-dollar pledge “was an important part of turning the university president’s recommendation around.”
The pledge has a downside. The City and Borough of Juneau has cut extensively from its budget in the past few years, and fiscal hawks are sure to criticize a new expense.
“It was a really hard pill to swallow,” said Assemblywoman Mary Becker, “because $1 million is a lot of money, and we could definitely use it in our budget.”
Assemblywoman Debbie White said she knows people might see the $1 million figure and second-guess the Assembly’s decision, but losing the college would mean losing jobs.
“I’d rather take some flak for that (pledge) than take some heat for not doing anything and losing it,” she said.
• Contact reporter James Brooks at 523-2258 or james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com.
