Governor Frank Murkowski’s fiscal year 2006 budget makes generous provisions for many University of Alaska Anchorage priority projects.

Included in the list is $21.6 million for Phase 1 of the University of Alaska’s number one priority capital project, UAA’s Integrated Sciences Facility.

“Bringing this building on line as soon as possible is essential to UAA’s mission to meet the needs of our students and the state of Alaska,” said UAA Chancellor Elaine P. Maimon.

“Increased enrollment pressure in the sciences, which is expected to continue throughout this century, and rigorous facility standards set by National Science Foundation and other research grant organizations have overwhelmed the current science education and research capacities at UAA.

"The Integrated Sciences Building is an essential tool in offering the kind of science education that will keep Alaska’s young people in the state and that will allow us to grow critical programs such as nursing and biological and health sciences.”

Other requests put forward by UA President Mark Hamilton, the UA Board of Regents, and UAA Chancellor Maimon, which the governor included in his budget for the upcoming year, are $150,000 for planning for UAA’s much-needed Student Housing Phase II and a half-million dollars for an innovative learning center as part of the expansion of the highly acclaimed Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program.

Also considered critical by the Governor is $10.5 million for Safety, Code, and Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades to student housing facilities, asbestos abatement, replacements and repairs to facilities at Kenai Peninsula College, Mat-Su Community College, Kodiak College, Prince William Sound Community College, and KPC’s Kachemak Bay branch, and $837,000 for the Small Business Development Center at UAA.

Governor Murkowski unveiled his FY 2006 budget today at a Commonwealth North luncheon.

“UAA is deeply grateful to the Governor for his commitment, explicit in this budget, to the University of Alaska in general and to UAA in particular,” said Maimon.

“We are also indebted to President Mark Hamilton and to the University’s Board of Regents for their support.”