SENATE BILL NO. 36 "An Act relating to reporting requirements of the Board of Regents of the University of Alaska." 10:17:22 AM Senator Gary Stevens, sponsor, explained that SB 36 came about due to the loss of accreditation by the University of Alaska Anchorage. He discussed the process of accreditation, which he deemed as straight forward. He shared that he had been shocked to learn that the School of Education at UAA had lost accreditation. He said that the president of the University at the time had been unaware of the accreditation loss. He felt that the University, particularly the president of the University, should be aware of accreditation standings of all departments and programs. 10:19:50 AM Tim Lamkin, Staff, Senator Gary Stevens, discussed version B of the legislation. He said that the bill would maintain lines of communication within the University system so that accreditation loss did not happen again. 10:20:44 AM Mr. Lamkin discussed a Sectional Analysis for the bill (copy on file): CS for Senate Bill 36 (EDC) (Version B) University of Alaska Accreditation Reporting Requirements Sec. 1: AS 14.40.190(b) Amends existing University of Alaska reporting requirements regarding teacher training and retention, to specify the report is required to be submitted to the Legislature (Senate Secretary / House Chief Clerk) biennially, by the 30th legislative day of the first regular session of each new Legislature. Sec. 2: AS 14.40.190(c) is a new subsection establishing a requirement for the University of Alaska to issue a biennial report on the status of all of its accreditations within the UA system. The report must be submitted to the Legislature (Senate Secretary / House Chief Clerk) by the 30th legislative day of the first regular session of the legislature; and The accreditation report is subsequently to be presented in a formal hearing setting to the education committees of the legislature, the scheduling for which is intended to be at the discretion of the chairs of the committees 10:22:08 AM Co-Chair Bishop asked about Section 2 and the "formal hearing", he was curious who from the University would speak at the formal hearing. Senator Stevens specified that the representative would be from the Board of Regents. 10:22:42 AM Senator Wilson asked whether the chairs of the Education Committee in each house of the legislature would be forced to officially hear the report, or could they simply distribute it to committee members. Senator Stevens asked Senator Wilson to restate the question. Senator Wilson asked whether the bill mandated certain work to Education Committee chairs. Senator Stevens believed that it should be mandated that the presentation on accreditation be heard before the Education Committee. He contended that he could not imagine an Education Committee chair who would not be interested in hearing an update on the states University accreditation. Senator Wilson asked how many programs at the University required accreditation. Senator Stevens was not sure of the number but estimated over 100. Co-Chair Bishop thought the number was 200. Mr. Lamkin pointed to the programmatic accreditation summary in the bill packet (copy on file). Senator Wilson had seen the document but had not wanted to count all the listed programs. Senator Stevens shared that the accredited programs were various and numerous. 10:25:08 AM Senator von Imhof asked whether the reports were currently submitted yearly to the Board of Regents. Senator Stevens responded that all involved parties had been surprised by the loss of accreditation. He shared that there was now a report that went to the board, which was what would be shared with the legislature. Senator von Imhof clarified that the report would be seen by the Board of Regents and then forwarded to the legislature. Senator Stevens replied in the affirmative. Co-Chair Bishop OPENED invited testimony. 10:26:16 AM SUSAN KALINA, VICE PROVOST FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS AND INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE (via teleconference), testified that the three main campuses of the University of Alaska had been reporting on accreditation to the Board of Regents since 2012. She said that the report was annual and that it covered both status of accreditation with the Northwest Commission and to the specialized programmatic accreditations for each program requiring accreditation. She explained that UAA had 59 programs that had specialized accreditation, through 24 accrediting agencies. She stated that the reports outlined all recommendations that might be standing for a program. She related that accreditations were generally on 5, 7, or 10-year cycles, and they cycle ended in a self-study and a site visit. She relayed that the results of the site visit went to the agencies who then sent letters to the University detailing strengths and recommendations for improvement. She said that issues would be addressed and discussed at the end of the accreditation cycle. 10:30:28 AM Senator Stevens thought it was concerning to hear Ms. Kalina's comment that the reports had been issued to the Board of Regents since 2012, when accreditation had been lost in 2019. He queried what could be wring with the system the University currently had in place. He asked what had been done by the University to make sure that the loss of accreditation did not happen again. Ms. Kalina revealed that the report that was presented to the Board of Regents was very detailed. She relayed that at UAA, school deans were required to provide status updated to the provost at frequent intervals and status update meetings between the provost, dean, and heads of programs were frequent. She stressed that if concerns of any size were identified, the provost informed the chancellor. Co-Chair Bishop asked Ms. Kalina to send her comments regarding enhanced accreditation oversight to the committee. 10:33:12 AM AT EASE 10:33:19 AM RECONVENED Co-Chair Bishop OPENED public testimony. 10:33:45 AM Co-Chair Bishop CLOSED public testimony. Co-Chair Bishop set the bill aside. SB 36 was HEARD and HELD in committee for further consideration.