Brennan: Uncertainty worries Alaskans

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — and I’m not just referring to the cable television movies that start in July and drive some people bonkers.

Several Alaska organizations have Christmas in July functions, most notably the Santa Claus House in North Pole, near Fairbanks. The latest in Southcentral Alaska was the Alaska Native Lutheran Church, which held its annual Christmas in July Crafts Bazaar yesterday.

It is that time of year when Alaskans thoughts start to focus on the approaching season. We are now in the second half of the year, have been since July 1, and that flip of the calendar often starts the clock running on what the mental health people call “seasonal affective disorder.” Though that is generally associated with the dark days of midwinter, Alaskans are aware that the optimistic first half of the year is now past and we are headed toward winter. The months ahead can be a downer if you don’t keep thinking about enjoyable things.

Which brings us to Alaska’s present political situation. The looming budget cuts, job losses and missed opportunities will be a definite downer for many people — and it may take awhile before the issues are resolved. This is a good time to stay in touch with your friends and family and try to cheer them up. Reminding them that Christmas is eventually coming might or might not help. You’ll have to play that by ear.

Alaska was beginning to climb out of a recession when the budget ax began to fall just after summer solstice in June. Now, with the chocks kicked out from under a substantial part of the state economy — and many of its people — the looming approach of fall and winter, with their darkening days and colder temperatures, can mean many sad people.

One bad news/good news item was the decision last Monday by the University of Alaska Board of Regents to go ahead with declaring “financial exigency,” which is something like bankruptcy and negates a lot of otherwise binding commitments. That is frightening and discouraging news for many members of the university’s faculty and staff, and to its students, both current and prospective.

The “good” aspect of the exigency news is not all that great but it does open the way for the regents to consider what Governor Mike Dunleavy seems to want, a thoughtful approach to downsizing what has grown over the years into a university empire. It will also, unfortunately, encourage decisions by both students and faculty to bail out and head for other institutions, most of them outside Alaska, before the ax falls. That could become a “voluntary” downsizing limiting the number of terminations that would otherwise be necessary.

The university’s main problem seems to be that it has grown too large. It now has three separately accredited universities — the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Alaska Anchorage and the University of Alaska Southeast — and 13 campuses, many of them community colleges. It currently has 30,000 students and grants 400 unique degrees.

Governor Dunleavy, like quite a few other Alaskans, considers the university much too large and virtually unaffordable for a state whose primary source of revenue, oil taxes and royalties, is in decline.

The longer the university’s budget questions remain unresolved, the more bailout leaps are likely to occur. August is fast approaching and both faculty and students need to know where they will be spending the coming school year.

If the state doesn’t fix the problem soon, the bailouts will have a major financial and emotional impact on many Alaska families.