Published Aug 4, 2023 by Jack Barnwell

Chavonda Jacobs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary for research, education and economics toured the University of Alaska’s agriculture facilities Thursday as she spoke about two grants for the university.

UAF is one of four Alaska Native-serving and Native Hawaiian-serving recipients for the $3 million grant from the Institutions Education Competitive Grants Program.

The other three recipients are Iḷisaġvik College in Utqiaġvik and two programs at University of Hawaii Systems, Honolulu.

UAF earned its portion based on being collaborative partners for the Drumbeats Alaska: Place-Based Solutions for Alaska Native Food & Energy Sovereignty project.



Published Aug 4, 2023 by Caleb Jones

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks hockey team is bringing in four new defenders for the upcoming season.

The new arrivals include: Dawson Bruneski, Caleb MacDonald, Derek Pys and Broten Sabo.

The Nanooks start their season with a high-profile clash with the University of Denver on October 7.

Published Aug 4, 2023 by Nathaniel Herz, Northern Journal

Alaska’s top energy official, Alaska Energy Authority Executive Director Curtis Thayer, complained about opinion pieces written by his co-leader on a state energy task force two days before GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy removed the co-leader from the panel, according to newly released email correspondence.

Thayer, the head of the Alaska Energy Authority, wrote June 7 to university researcher Gwen Holdmann saying he was “disappointed” she’d written a series of energy-focused opinion pieces without “sharing” them in advance, adding that the essays were “causing trust issues” with other members of Dunleavy’s newly formed Energy Security Task Force.

Thayer and Holdmann, the founding director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, were the original vice chairs of the task force, which Dunleavy has charged with reducing the cost of electricity in the state.

Two days after Thayer emailed Holdmann — following email correspondence between Thayer and gubernatorial aides — Holdmann said she was notified that Dunleavy had removed her from the panel. She’s since been replaced by another official from the University of Alaska system.

Published Aug 4, 2023 by https://www.kucb.org/people/theo-greenly

Coastal Alaska is on the front lines of climate change. Extreme weather events like Typhoon Merbok that pummeled western Alaska last fall are becoming more common. And many communities along Alaska’s shores are wondering if the future will bring more of the same.

The Arctic Coastal Geoscience Lab at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has spent the last four years trying to answer that question — what storms might look like in the future. They’re doing that by looking into the past.

“You've often heard that story that the past is the key to the future,” said Chris Maio, the lab’s director. “And so in geology and understanding coastal changes, we're really looking into the past through sediment cores.”

Sediment cores are cylindrical sections that scientists extract from the earth's crust. The UAF researchers use a piston core to insert a long pipe into the seafloor and pull out a tube of earth, which displays the varying strata.

Under normal conditions, the sediment in bays and fjords around the Aleutians is very fine-grained, like silt or mud. But when a storm comes in, it churns up the ocean and moves larger sediment.

Scientists can see those layers in the core and use radiocarbon dating to determine when an event occurred.

Published Aug 4, 2023

The University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Business and Security Management is introducing new online graduate courses in healthcare management and leadership. Students can enroll in healthcare administration classes starting in fall 2023.

Healthcare management courses will be available through two different pathways: a 12-credit graduate certificate and a 9-credit healthcare concentration in the MBA degree program. Topics include healthcare law and ethics, information systems and decision making in health services, the economics of health care delivery and more.

The healthcare management certificate program offers students hands-on experience working with local health service organizations to help solve complex problems. These programs are intended for those who are interested or who currently work in the healthcare industry and will prepare students for careers such as healthcare consultant, business or data analyst for a health system or insurance company, practice administrator and hospital administrator.

Published Aug 4, 2023

Oil industry woes weren’t the only drag on Anchorage. Falling oil prices also pulled down state revenues and therefore state government.

The state’s capital budget was the first to take a drubbing.

The fiscal year 2016 budget was the smallest in more than 15 years. Having peaked at $3.7 billion in FY 2013, the budget reached less than half that in FY 2016, where it stayed for the next five years.

Construction employment losses followed, tied not just to capital budget cuts but to less oil industry activity and dwindling commercial construction.

Residential construction also slowed; building permits dropped by half, from the 800s in 2014 and 2015 to a little more than 400 per year for the next five.

State employment, including the University of Alaska system, started to feel the pinch.

Job cuts began in 2015 and by 2020, Anchorage had 1,100 fewer state government jobs, with the largest chunk taken from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Published Aug 3, 2023

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced an investment of nearly $3 million to support four Alaska Native-serving and Native Hawaiian-serving Institutions Education Competitive Grants Program (ANNH) projects to enhance education and prepare the next generation of agriculture leaders.   

“As we build the future workforce that will lead agriculture, it is critical that all voices, cultures and beliefs are represented in our food system. This investment will enhance opportunities for students at Alaska Native-serving and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions to strengthen education, applied research, and community development programs,” said USDA NIFA Director Dr. Manjit Misra. “Across all of NIFA’s education programs, we work to equitably prepare young people for a career path that will improve the science of food and nutrition, create climate-smart agricultural production and prepare our policy leaders for the future.”   

Priority for funding is given to projects that enhance educational equity for underrepresented students; strengthen institutional educational capacities; prepare students for careers related to the food, agricultural, and natural resource systems of the United States; and maximize development and use of resources to improve food and agricultural sciences teaching programs.  

Published Aug 3, 2023 by Madison Troyer

According to a 2023 Wall Street Journal poll, 56% of Americans worry a four-year degree is not worth the cost. Despite the fact that college graduates earn between about $630,000 to $900,000 more over their lifetimes than people without degrees, fewer high school graduates are enrolling in college right away, according to a 2023 report from the National Center for Education Statistics. The Hechinger Report warns that this trend could lead to labor shortages, a weaker economy, growing racial inequities, and even a lower life expectancy.

All told, 44 states saw a decline in college enrollment between 2010 and 2019. And while that number is startling, it doesn't necessarily spell doom for the system as a whole. As it turns out, the trend is fairly recent. When you look back to the start of the millennium, only three states—Alaska, Michigan, and Illinois—have seen consistent enrollment drops. And while total U.S. enrollment is down 6.6% between 2010 and 2019, federal statistics show it's actually up 128.8% compared to 1970, and only down 3.3% between 2019 and 2020. So there's no need for an all-out panic just yet.

#2. ALASKA

- Enrollment change, 2010-2019: -32.9% (11,446 fewer students)

- Enrollment change, 1970-2019: +146.6% (13,882 more students)

- Impact of pandemic, enrollment change 2019-2020: -5.3% (1,247 fewer students)

Over the last decade, the University of Alaska system has been battling a whole host of challenges that affect its enrollment numbers. First, the school was forced to cut a host of education programs, including its bachelor's in Elementary Education, after it lost accreditation for those particular courses of study. Then, the governor cut $130 million from the school's budget, and thousands of students learned the funding for scholarships and grants they'd been awarded was unavailable. All of this change has made many wary of the institution, unsure of whether it will survive, and therefore unwilling to enroll.

Published Aug 3, 2023 by Caleb Jones

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks released a list of five incoming forwards for the 2023-2024 hockey season.

The five new forwards are Cade Ahrenholz, Edvards Bergmanis, Chase Dafoe, William Lawson-Body and Filip Wiberg.

“I chose Alaska because of the culture Coach Largen has established since taking over the program,” Ahrenholz said in a university news release. “His reputation for developing players, not only for hockey but life beyond hockey, and creating a winning culture is like no other.”