To UA Board of Regents and President Pitney,

We, the undersigned University of Alaska Staff, are writing to ask that you join us in continuing to advocate for funding in our state’s budget to support 3% across the board compensation increases and maintenance of health insurance for staff. Your position that such funding is “a critical condition to ongoing stability” (President Pitney, 3/12/26) has been consistent, and in fact was the Board of Regents’ highest-priority budget item this legislative session. With the sharply rising cost of oil–and by extension transportation, utilities, and cost-of-living more generally–this raise is even more necessary for UA to maintain its workforce. It has therefore been concerning to learn that, after both the State House and the Senate UA Finance Subcommittee included this funding in their proposed budgets, the University is now reversing course by supporting the elimination of these funds from the state budget following our union election.

To address any concerns about whether your bargaining obligation has been met, we also ask that you quickly agree to the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) put forth by our union, CAUSE-UAW. This MOA makes clear that the union and UA administration are in full agreement that any appropriations provided by the legislature for wage increases or maintenance of health insurance plans will be implemented for staff in the bargaining unit.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you agree to take these actions with us to restore staff compensation/benefits funding in the state budget, so we can proceed with knowing that staff are receiving commensurate increases with other campus employees.