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July 22, 2025
UAF faculty and staff,
On Tuesday, July 15, 2025, I held a federal updates zoom forum with participation
from Federal Relations Executive Director John Latini, Vice Chancellor for Research
Laura Conner, and UA General Counsel Wayne Mowery. Updates during the meeting touched
on multiple topics to include financial aid, research grants, and the FY25 federal
budget. Following are a few of the key points made during the forum.
According to Executive Director Latini, funding has been revoked from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration coastal resilience programs and National Park
Service conservation ecosystem programs. Latini shared, however, that 鈥渋f you currently
have funding in hand, you should be fine.鈥� The funding at risk is primarily that which
has not yet been disbursed. Even though additional funding could be at risk, there
are potential opportunities across the federal government, particularly with the Department
of Defense. Latini also shared that as the budgets develop in Congress, the cuts to
the federal science agencies, like the National Science Foundation, are looking like
they will be far less than feared.
As I have shared in previous updates, there was a significant proposal to change the
cap on facilities and administrative (F&A) costs to 15% for the Federal agencies.
This would represent a sharp reduction in traditional reimbursement rates for research
the agencies fund us to conduct. Fortunately, the 15% rate has not been implemented
yet due to legal challenges. The delay in implementation has allowed the (JAG), a collaboration of organizations that represent universities and research
organizations, to work with the White House to propose alternative models. These models
aim to be more straightforward, acceptable to the federal government, and still provide
fair compensation for research costs. UAF is a member institution of the (APLU) - a key driver of the JAG. During the forum, Vice Chancellor Conner discussed
the different models for calculating F&A being proposed by the JAG. She discussed
the potential impacts of each model on UAF.
UA General Counsel Wayne Mowry discussed the current legal landscape impacting UA.
In particular, the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling limiting federal district court
judges from issuing nationwide injunctions. This ruling will have near-term impacts
on UAF as many of the actions affecting universities, such as the change in the F&A
rates, were paused. Unless UA, the State of Alaska, or one of the associations we
are members of joins a lawsuit, we would not be afforded the protection of a ruling
as we were under the nationwide injunctions. According to General Counsel Mowry, the
UA system typically stays out of litigation due to cost and the size of the UA system鈥檚
legal team. Additionally, there are membership organizations like the APLU, which
can participate in litigation on behalf of its member organizations, such as UAF and
the UA system.
In other Federal news, congress voted to rescind funds that were originally allocated
to several entities, including the (CPB). It's important to note that the loss of funds for CPB will likely result in
local public radio stations, including KUAC, permanently losing their federal funding.
Funds for the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development,
and various independent and related agencies were also affected and make up the majority
of the rescinded funds.
As we see more information, the UA federal relations team is monitoring impacts closely
and providing updates as able. You can find updates on the . If you have any questions, please reach out to your dean, director, vice chancellor,
or the UA federal relations team.
Thank you for your continued engagement, and thanks for choosing UAF.
Dan White, chancellor
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