Cutting the budget by 41% just isn't responsible, no matter how you slice it.

The governor is explicitly making this cut in order to increase the oil revenue dividend for residents to $3K per year.

Budget cutting is almost completely ineffective at fat cutting. If you want to cut fat you have to identify it first.

There is a lot of fat to cut. The US spends almost twice as much per student on tertiary education per student, and about 2.6% of GDP in tertiary education, compared to the OECD average of 1.5%.

Not to mention that tertiary education funding is regressive. It tends to help those who are already relatively well off.

That is unfortunatly true but with that cut it will not only be the fat that is cut but also a lot of the meat. UA is already struggling and it needs help. The way to fix is that is not to cut funding from it. A better solution that I heard would be to hold a mass audit of some kind to figure out what people are actually useful.

UA provides an essential service to the state which is basically making and keeping smart people in AK. without UA there would be a severe brain drain and that would really hurt the economy.

One final point UA is NOT a for profit institution and that effects the dynamics of the university. There is not as much pressure to nickel and dime people as one would think.

"Unpopular opinion: there's probably a lot of fat to be cut and this is possibly the only way to do it."

What makes that an opinion? Seems like conjecture more than anything.