New University of Alaska head visits the Mat-Su

PALMER — University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen met with students, staff and select members of the community at Mat-Su College on Wednesday, his first visit to the campus since his September 2015 appointment by the Board of Regents.

In an interview with the Frontiersman, Johnsen took the opportunity to tell the Valley a little bit about himself and his vision for the college and the university system as a whole.

About the president

Johnsen was born in Augsburg, Germany while his father was stationed there with the U.S. Army, and lived there for seven years. Upon the family’s return to the states in 1966, the Johnsens established residency in California, though they continued to move throughout the country.

When it came time for Johnsen to go to college, he chose to attend the University of California-Santa Cruz, where he completed a bachelor’s degree in political philosophy and economics. Johnsen continued his education at the University of Chicago, where he completed a master’s degree in political science, followed by a doctorate in higher educational management from the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1983 he moved to Juneau, where he met his wife, Mary, and started a family. He worked for the University of Alaska in various executive capacities (including vice president) from 1996 to 2008, then became senior vice president of administration at Doyon, Ltd., an Alaska Native regional corporation based in Fairbanks. After that, Johnsen was a senior vice president for Alaska Communications for a few years before returning to the university.

“I didn’t leave the university because I fell out of love with higher education — I really wanted to know more about our state,” he said.

The community college

Johnsen spoke at length about the University of Alaska system as a whole (which you can read more about in his Jan. 12 address to UAF), but he also described the roles of the smaller UA campuses.

One such role is “to be a key part of the culture of a community,” Johnsen said. He used the Glenn Massay Theater as an example of a facility that adds to Mat-Su College and the lives of residents in the surrounding area.

Community campuses should also service college-bound high school students who may not have the time or means to travel to the primary university campus, he said.

“If you’re a high school kid and you wanna get moving on your higher education … a community campus is perfect for providing that local opportunity to get ahead,” Johnsen said.

But not every student at Mat-Su College is in their teens and 20s. Johnsen said the school offers many opportunities for older adults looking to continue their education, which keeps the college going and supports the local economy.

“They’re coming back, taking some courses (to get) a better job,” he said.

Not every “better job” requires a four-year degree, either. There are plenty of valuable trade jobs that require only an associate’s degree or two-year certification, he said, which is all some students want.

“We need more of those people in our economy than we do people with bachelor’s degrees,” Johnsen said.

For those who do have the desire and means to obtain four-year degrees, but want to stay close to home and save on gas or living costs, Mat-Su College is a good starting block, he said. Once the general education classes are out of the way, Mat-Su students can then move to “a bigger stage” in Anchorage, Fairbanks or Juneau.

Looking to the future

Though Alaska residents have been bemoaning a low budget for higher education for months — even Gov. Bill Walker called this year’s cuts “painful” — Johnsen said he’s not afraid of taking office now.

When asked by a young, non-Alaskan staffer of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s recently why he took the job in times of fiscal uncertainty, Johnsen offered a particularly Alaskan analogy:

“When it’s 40 below and (there’s) ice fog and we see a vehicle off to the side of the road with its hazard lights flashing, what do we do? … We pull over and we help,” he said.

In order to help, though, some sacrifices must be made, and will be in the case of the university, Johnsen said.

“We’re gonna make a lot of very difficult decisions about what programs move forward and what programs are reduced or eliminated, so that everything we do is excellent…. That we try to be everything to everybody and everyone at our university is not how we build focused excellence.”

Johnsons said there are a few programs that are definitely not in danger of being cut.

Cutting nursing at any campus, for example, “would be ridiculous … given the high need for nurses in Alaska,” he said. Teaching programs also need to stay, because “we can’t back away from our responsibility to provide teachers in Alaska.” Engineering’s not going anywhere, since Alaska has doubled its production of engineers in response to industry needs, he said, and the paramedical technology program at Mat-Su is clearly of use to students and the community at large.

“If, god forbid, something bad happens, we’ve got some really skilled, enthusiastic people who are ready to go to help us out,” Johnsen said, of Mat-Su’s student paramedics.

Mat-Su College as a whole is doing exceptionally well compared to the rest of the university’s campuses, too. It’s the only UA campus with increased enrollment this year, Johnsen said, and appears to be thriving along with the community.

“I’m really positively impressed by the commitment people here have to their college,” he said.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.