UA Board of Regents welcomes public testimony ahead of board meeting

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/KTVF) - The University of Alaska Board of Regents is holding meetings in Fairbanks this week at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

In advance of those meetings, the public was able to provide testimony to the board on Monday. It would be the first opportunity for comment since the board decided to remove references to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as well as affirmative action.

Many topics were highlighted during the virtual public testimony, but disappointment concerning the board’s decision to remove references to DEI was among the most mentioned.

Those concerns were brought up by both graduate students, graduate workers and faculty members.

Amanda McPherson, Amelia McCarthy and Nora McIntyre were among the graduate students who expressed concern over the boards’ decisions in February that removed DEI references across the UA system.

McIntyre said the decision, “did not reflect the values of those of us in the UA community and makes a lot of folks feel very unsafe and unwelcome”.

McPherson said she was disappointed that the board of regents “caved in to an executive order that is not an enforceable law at this point,” and that she wondered how many more executive orders will “shape [the] university system without them being a law.”

Four faculty members of the UA system expressed similar concerns and elaborated on the potential and existing impacts the removal of DEI references has had on their work.

Tim Hinterberger, a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), said, “A 2022 Association of American Medical Colleges Survey found that 96% of US and Canadian medical schools have made diversity inclusion and equity a key learning outcome, and they encourage dialogue related to DEI among students.”

“It’s really not possible to educate doctors to current medical standards without discussion with DEI topics,” Hinterberger added.

“[Not discussing DEI] would be a violation of our medical students, Hippocratic oath.”

Claudia Ihl, an associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ (UAF) Northwest Campus in Nome, said, “everything we do up here, everything we’ve ever done up here every day has to do with diversity, equity and inclusion, because we’re trying to bring higher education to a population of mostly indigenous people”. She said that the campus in Nome, relies on federal grants tied to tribal and indigenous programs, “which are all now in danger of being cut.”

She added that if those funds are lost, the campus would have to close and that those at the campus “feel like they’ve been declared enemies of the state because of this,” referring to the initiative to remove DEI references.

Jenny Poon, an assistant professor of psychology at UAA, explained that the anti-DEI efforts have impacted her ability to support students and receive a grant.

“I have a pending grant from the NIH, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the NIH specifically focused on cultural adapting a gold standard treatment for suicidal and traumatized Alaska Native teens and families,” she said.

Poon claims that the grant was supposed to be funded last July, “however, this was obviously cancelled due to the administration’s executive order. Now I’m trying to revise my entire 200 page grants to remove any quote DEI language”.

Abel Bult-Ito, a professor of neurobiology at UAF, said the motion to remove DEI references was passed for “political reasons to advance an authoritarian white supremacist and fascist agenda.”

The Board of Regents responded to some of these claims.

“We’re not going to tell you to do things differently,” said Scott Jepsen, one of the regents for the UA system.

“Many of [the DEI references] are just, quite frankly, buzzwords in the way they get used on our websites,” he added.

When Poon completed her testimony about having to rewrite a grant proposal due to restrictions on DEI language, Regent Chair Ralph Seekins responded.

“I would like you, if you get time, give me some concrete examples of how what we’re doing or what is being done is negative,” he expressed.

The board will have committee meetings at the Troth Yeddha’ campus in Fairbanks on Wednesday, May 21. The full board meeting is also planned to take place on May 21 and May 22.

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