Dunleavy vetoed a faculty seat on the board that governs the University of Alaska

Governor Mike Dunleavy vetoed a bill Monday that would have given a University of Alaska faculty member a voting seat on the board that governs the university, setting its budgets, its programs and the terms of their employment. The university had priced the change at $4,500 a year in added travel costs.

His reason was conflict of interest. In a one-page letter to House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, Dunleavy wrote that seating a current employee would create "inherent conflicts between the Board's fiduciary responsibilities and the faculty member's interests." He added that a twelfth member would raise the odds of tie votes, and that faculty can already be heard through existing governance processes. No press release went out with the letter.

The Board of Regents already includes someone with a direct stake in its decisions. One of its 11 seats belongs to a University of Alaska student.

The bill was Rep. Ashley Carrick's, a Fairbanks Democrat whose district takes in the Fairbanks campus, and she called it the University of Alaska Faculty Representation Act. It would have expanded the board to 12, with the faculty senates at the Anchorage, Fairbanks and Southeast campuses electing nominees for the governor to choose from.

It moved slowly and it moved with votes from both parties. The House passed it 23-17 in May 2025. The Senate passed it 18-2 this May. The House agreed to the Senate's changes 26-14 the next day.

Add the Senate's 18 and the House's 26 and the bill drew 44 yes votes against 16 no. An override needs 40 of the 60 legislators sitting together as one body. But those were votes on passage, not on overriding a veto, and no member is bound by them. No override has been scheduled.