Published May 23, 2024 by Leah Thom

The University of Alaska Fairbanks will have a free shuttle for visitors this summer. It will run Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Aug. 31.The daily schedule will begin and end at the Wood Center bus stop. The shuttle’s hourly schedule is as follows:

• On the hour – Bookstore and Wood Center, the bus stop is on Yukon Drive.
• Quarter after – UA Museum of the North
• Half hour – Georgeson Botanical Garden
• Quarter till – Large Animal Research Station

Visitors interested in using this service can track it in real time using the 

Published May 23, 2024 by By  Joel Davidson

On June 27, the Alaska Supreme Court will consider an appeal to a lower court ruling that prohibits Alaskans from using state-funded homeschool allotment funds at private or religious schools.

The Alaska Performance Scholarship program, established in 2011, lets students use scholarships to attend private trade schools or Alaska colleges – even those that happen to have a religious connection.

More than 12,000 Alaska graduates have received performance scholarships since its inception, and while the vast majority use the funds to attend the state-run University of Alaska, nearly 400 students have opted for private or religious schools.

According to Zeman’s ruling, however, it is a violation of the Alaska Constitution to use any money for private or religious education. In issuing his April ruling, Zeman cited Article VII, Section I of the Alaska State Constitution which provides, “[n]o money shall be paid from public funds for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.”

While homeschool allotments are a reimbursement to parents, the Performance Scholarships are paid directly to the institutes of higher learning where award recipients attend. In 2023, that included about 60 payments to private colleges and trade schools in Alaska.

Approved institutions for the Performance Scholarships include Alaska Bible College, Alaska Christian College, Alaska Pacific University, Charter College, Wayland Baptist College and many other private or religious institutions.

Published May 23, 2024 by Jordan Rodenberger

Tyson Gilbert knew his life would change when he moved to Alaska in 2020.

“What’s the wildlife like? Is it dark all the time? How much does it snow?” the former University of Alaska Anchorage guard recalls pondering prior to leaving home.

Little did he know at the time, the real mystery lay not in the details of his next home, but how many heartbeats he had left.

However, little could prepare Gilbert for the major life shift that awaited him one day while scrimmaging with teammates in Wasilla. In a single moment, Gilbert’s relationship with basketball — and life in general — would change forever.

At UAA’s student health center, an electrocardiogram test came back irregular. Another EKG and an MRI stress test at the Alaska Heart Institute also came back irregular. A CT scan revealed he was born with a rare heart defect.

“What I had was a right anomalous coronary artery,” Gilbert said. “Basically, I was born with one of my arteries on the wrong side so anytime I would exercise, it would pinch off oxygen to my heart.”

Gilbert was told there were two possible paths forward. He could go on without further treatment and live a non-active lifestyle or undergo open-heart surgery in hopes of continuing his basketball career and current lifestyle.

Gilbert more than left his mark on Seawolf athletics and the state of Alaska. His performance donning the Green and Gold as a senior led him to be named the 2023-24 Bill MacKay Athlete of the Year as the school’s very best. He was also recognized by the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame with the Trajan Langdon Award, given to an athlete within the state who “demonstrated leadership, integrity and sportsmanship during the past year and positively influenced and inspired others to be better sportsmen or sportswomen.”

Published May 22, 2024 by Chris Bieri

On Monday, Cole Nash was soaring high above the Anchorage Bowl, spending the day paragliding in the Chugach Mountains.

This weekend, he hopes to ascend to All-American status in his final competition with the University of Alaska Anchorage track and field team.

Nash, who graduated earlier this month with a double major in economics and business management, is heading a two-athlete contingent traveling to Emporia, Kansas for the NCAA II Outdoor Track and Field National Championships. Nash will compete in the 5,000 meter championship, which will be run Saturday afternoon.

Nash ran a personal-best time of 13:55.71 in the 5,000 at the Stanford Invite in March and won the 5,000 at the GNAC Championships earlier this month. He was also the GNAC cross-country champion in 2022 and was an All-American after his performance at nationals. He plans to lean on that experience this weekend.

Published May 22, 2024 by Matt Acuña Buxton

The Alaska Legislature created the Alaska Performance Scholarship in 2011, a merit-based scholarship for younger Alaskans to pursue higher education. However, usage has slumped since hitting a peak in 2017.

Legislators are hoping that will change under a bill approved in the final hours of the legislative session last week. Backed by Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, changes to House Bill 148 seek to update the program, expand access and make it easier to use.

Officials with the program say the decline has been driven in part by the 2011 law’s limitations, such as the award amount not keeping up with inflation, late notifications in the college application process, and the lack of access to qualifying tests for students in rural communities.

The changes contained in House Bill 148 do the following:

• Removes the standardized testing requirement, allowing students to qualify with either a certain minimum GPA or by hitting the minimum test score requirement
• Increases the award amount for the Alaska Performance Scholarship
• Extends the window for students to use the scholarship from six to eight years
• Requires students to be notified of eligibility by mid-junior year
• Creates a step-up track that allows students to increase their award level

The change comes as the University of Alaska Board of Regents is also set to consider updates to the UA Scholars Program this week. Under those changes, the scholarship award level would be increased from $12,000 to $15,000, and the window would be extended from five to six years following graduation.

If the change is approved by the Board of Regents and House Bill 148 is signed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, it would represent a combined increase of more than $5,200 in scholarships for University of Alaska students. 

Published May 22, 2024 by admin

Dozens of Alaska’s most remote streams and rivers are turning from a crystal clear blue into a cloudy orange, and the staining could be the result of minerals exposed by thawing permafrost, new research in the Nature journal Communications: Earth and Environment finds.

For the first time, a team of researchers from the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, the University of California, Davis, and other institutions have documented and sampled some of the impaired waters, pinpointing 75 locations across a Texas-sized area of northern Alaska’s Brooks Range.

These degraded rivers and streams could have significant implications for drinking water and fisheries in Arctic watersheds as the climate changes, the researchers said.