Jim Johnsen

Prior to joining the university, Johnsen held executive leadership positions in the private sector with Alaska Communications and with Doyon, Limited, and in higher education at the University of Minnesota and the University of Alaska between 1992-2008 in executive roles including director of labor relations, vice president of administration and chief of staff. He was also a visiting scholar at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley in 2002.[5]

Johnsen meeting with Senator Lisa Murkowski in 2020.

Johnsen was appointed the president of the University of Alaska system on July 28, 2015.[1] As the system president, his priorities included a systemwide Title IX compliance effort,[6] remedying UA's historic land grant deficit, restructuring of academic programs and administrative services of the university to increase student success and reduce cost,[7][8] aligning with Alaska's primary and secondary education sectors,[9] and a systemwide push to achieve the State of Alaska's goal for 65 percent of Alaska's working age population to have a post-secondary degree or certificate of value by 2025.[10]

Johnsen assumed the role of president during a period of budget cuts following the state of Alaska’s loss of income from collapsed oil revenues. [11][12][13] In March 2016, Johnsen said university system would have to continue to cut back significantly.[12] At the same time, Johnsen made a public case for supporting Alaska's higher education system, extolling the virtues of education and the role the university can play in bolstering the state's economy.[12][14]

In July 2019, Alaska governor Mike Dunleavy announced he was using his line-item veto powers to cut the University of Alaska System’s state funding by $130 million, or 41% of its total budget.[15][16] The cuts were widely condemned, including by Johnsen, University of Alaska trustees, and public officials from across the political spectrum.[17] The outcry led to hearings being held by the Alaska State Legislature about a possible veto override; Johnsen was the first person to testify in these hearings.[16] Johnsen led a negotiation effort on behalf of the university with Dunleavy,[17] which ultimately resulted in the governor and the Board of Regents agreeing in August 2019 to cut $70 million of the university system’s budget – about half the size of the original cuts the governor had planned to make.[18]

The financial situation and Johnsen’s proposed “Strategic Pathways” plan to facilitate budget cuts caused friction within the university system and led to a “non-binding vote of faculty sentiment” of no confidence being passed 28-9 by the Faculty Senate at the University of Alaska-Anchorage in January 2017.[19] The following month the Faculty Senate of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks also passed a resolution of no-confidence related to the “Strategic Pathways” plan, by a vote of 26-12.[20] Later that year, Johnsen, in response to direction from the Board of Regents, proposed creating a single university, combining the system’s three separate universities, as a way of mitigating the budget cuts. After opposition by the three university chancellors, the University of Alaska’s Board of Regents voted to keep the system in place. Johnsen later said he acted too hastily because he was still operating in “crisis mode.” [21]

In May 2020, Johnsen was announced as the sole finalist for the job of University of Wisconsin System President.[22] The announcement was met with concerns among university system faculty and students over the way that the search had been conducted.[23] Johnsen withdrew his name from consideration for the University of Wisconsin System job in June 2020 because of the controversy..[24]

Johnsen tendered his resignation amid blowback from the Wisconsin job search, among other reasons.[25] Johnsen's resignation was accepted by the University of Alaska Board of Regents on June 22, 2020. He continued to be the president until July 1, 2020.[2]

Johnsen is a commissioner on the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a commissioner on the Denali Commission[26] and a member of the board of directors of the Alaska Aerospace Corporation.[27] He is past chair of the Alaska EPSCoR, chair of the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education, vice-chair of the Alaska Student Loan Corporation, vice-chair of the University of Alaska Foundation, and member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of System Heads.[4]