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Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

spectrum.ieee.org

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Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#12

Post by tsunamifury »

I understand a well off nation ruled by democracy due to distributed table-stakes, and a poor nation ruled by a dictator due to centralized table-stakes, but I've never known a well off nation to intentionally sabotage its own table-stakes in order to surrender to dictatorship. Why is this happening? Who supports it? Why do they think it is necessary?

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#13

Post by cavisne »

This is in some ways a preview of why the theory of basic income replacing other government spending (and therefore being fiscally conservative and libertarian) is false. Alaska is redirecting money from universities to basic income (the oil dividend) and it’s considered an outrage. The same thing would happen for any government program.

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#14

Post by narrator »

So being the kind of person who has a lot of random trivia floating around in my brain, this is the first thing that came to mind when I thought of Alaska engineering colleges:

Search DuckDuckGo for the following :

"[Censored] Evaluation is a study at the University of Alaska Fairbanks using finite element modeling to evaluate the possible causes of [Censored]'s collapse."

Re: Alaska’s Engineering Colleges Prepare to Slash Programs, Lay Off Faculty

#17

Post by hpoe »

On the flip side if they just continue to run at a deficit for extended periods then they have to cut even more as they will no longer be able to fund what they have.

I get that this isn't an ideal situation but it seems like so often whenever anyone wants to cut anything its the end of the world. I mean what would you cut in order to reduce the deficit? Welfare services? Health services? Emergency services?

It may not be a particularly popular move but I imagine this was part of people evaluating all the places the cuts could come from trying to figure out how to cut things to minimize disruption to existing services and then taking action consistent with a plan.

But I could be wrong, maybe internet commentators that read a 10 minute article actually have a much deeper and penetrating insight into the finances of the state of Alaska then the accountants and budget people that spend their lives doing this? Maybe it is part of an evil plan by the governor to do.... something nefarious. Or maybe it is part of a widespread governmental budget cuts throughout Alaska designed to try and minimize impact while still trying to allow them most essential services to remain intact.

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