| UA News for February 28, 2024 |
| In today's news: a bill in the legislature would require the university to post the cost of textbooks; UAF men's basketball still has an outside chance at reaching the GNAC tournament -- if they win all remaining games; the Alaska Graduate Workers Association organized a sit in at the Butrovich Building after a delay in the bargaining process; a UAA art alumna created the poster art for the Anchorage Folk Festival; the Arctic Beaver Observation Network is meeting in Fairbanks to inform each other on observations of beavers moving north into the Arctic; and the Cooperative Extension Service's Art Nash discusses seed starting, greenhouses and other spring growing topics.
Email mmusick@alaska.edu to suggest people to add to this daily news summary. |
| | | Transparency bills seek to reveal the true costs of college • Stateline | Published Feb 28, 2024 by Elaine S. Povich University students in Alaska kept asking Republican state Sen. Robert Myers why they were being blindsided with requirements to buy expensive textbooks after they signed up for classes, he said.
Students complained to Myers that universities warned them about high tuition but not about the costs of textbooks, lab fees and equipment that also add up. Often, students sign up for classes long after their financial aid has been approved, without knowing these extra costs ahead of time and how much, if anything, is covered by the aid, Myers said in an interview with Stateline.
A University of Alaska Anchorage student complained to lawmakers about extra book costs during a hearing in 2022, said Myers, a resident of the town of North Pole.
“He was taking a class required for a degree and found out halfway through the semester there was another version of the class that was using a free textbook,” Myers said. “But his was not. He was very unhappy that he hadn’t heard about that before. That’s what this bill is trying to do.”
Myers’ bill, which would require the University of Alaska to post online a list of all materials required for each course and whether they are free, low-cost or come with a fee, passed the Alaska Senate last May with only one dissenting vote. It’s awaiting expected approval in the House, he said.
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| Fairbanks Daily News-Miner | |
| Here’s how UAF men’s basketball can still reach the GNAC tournament | Published Feb 28, 2024 by Gavin Struve The Nanook men enter the final week of the regular season with an outside chance at reaching the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) men’s basketball tournament.
UAF has given itself a postseason opportunity, however unlikely, in spite of a mid-season coaching change. Head coach Greg Sparling went on leave in December, and assistant Drew Hedman took over as acting head coach.
All but two of UAF’s GNAC games this season (in which they finished 1-1) have been played under Hedman’s guidance. Currently at 8-16 overall, UAF has been slightly more successful in conference play where they have a 6-10 record.
That puts the ‘Nooks in position to reach the six-team conference tournament (called the GNAC men’s basketball championships but referred to here as a tournament given its structure) if several things break their way. In order to get there, however, UAF needs to start with winning both of its remaining games.
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| | Alaskan Graduate Workers Association organizes sit in after bargaining session cancelled | Published Feb 28, 2024 by Adrian Peterson Adrian Peterson On Feb. 27, the Alaskan Graduate Workers Association also known as AGWA-UAW gathered at the Butrovich Building where they had a sit in, protesting the cancellation of a scheduled bargaining session.
Facing a tight deadline to ratify a contract with the University of Alaska System (UA), the union expressed their discontent with a lack of negotiation progress by organizing a sit in and marching into UA President Pat Pitney’s office to express their concerns and issues. Many union members at the sit in expressed concerns that the UA system had cancelled the session to put off negotiations inevitably keeping system finances lower and graduate student income lower.
The lack of negotiation progress has become a paramount concern for the union which faces a tight deadline to ratify a contract this year.
While the union is frustrated with the bargaining process as it stands, the UA system says they only cancelled the Feb. 27, bargaining session due to a misunderstanding of ground rules set by both parties. That misunderstanding surrounding testimony was given to the state legislature on behalf of AGWA-UAW.One thing the two parties do agree on is an effort to make the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) an R1 university. The R1 designation pertaining to their research status. This designation indicates a high level of research expenditure and PHD graduates, for which the university is hoping to average about 70 PHD graduate over the next few years. AGWA-UAW, however, says that one thing preventing this from happening is a lack of the union contract, which if it were to be ratified, the union says it would help get UAF to an R1 status. | | | Readership | 50,375 | Social Amplification | 0 |
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| | Creative Currents: Under the ‘Midnight Sonne’ | Published Feb 28, 2024 Sonne has been creating visual art for as long as they can remember. After living in Alaska for a few years, she decided to take an art class at Blaine’s Art Supply from Honor Hall, who was an-adjunct professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage at the time.
“Because I was self-taught until that point, I didn’t even know what I didn’t know,” Sonne said. “That prompted me to apply to the bachelor of fine arts program at UAA. I took around 30 hours of courses at UAA from some of Anchorage’s most talented artists. They really helped develop my craftsmanship and eye for color and design.”
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| | Beaver watchers exchange science and Indigenous knowledge | Published Feb 28, 2024 by https://fm.kuac.org/people/robyne For the past decade more Arctic residents have noticed an increase in beavers and the way they change the land and affect other animals. The Arctic Beaver Observation Network, or ABON is meeting for three days in Fairbanks to inform each other about new findings.
Scientists came from Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway and the US. Trappers came from Kotzebue, Stebbins, Noatak, Shungnak and Inuvik.
They all have evidence that beavers are extending their range north.
This is the third time the network has met. They started online in 2020 and last met in Yellowknife, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, in 2022. ABON is lead by UAF Research Professor Ken Tape, with help from Benjamin Jones of the Institute of Northern Engineering and Caroline Brown, with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks.
Arctic Beaver Observation Network is funded by the National Science Foundation. The five-year project runs through 2026. The network consists of scientists, local observers, land managers, tribal representatives and other stakeholders.
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| | ‘Spring thinking’ from starting seeds to greenhouse heat | Published Feb 27, 2024 by Art Nash When the days start to gain noticeable light and we begin to bump up toward 32 degrees, my “spring thinking” asks: What vegetable seeds should I start this year to rehabilitate last year’s fallow garden? Should I begin planting seeds in trays along our south-facing loft window? Where do I have adequate space heating to transplant the seedlings after they pop up? This year, how do I prevent spindly seedlings from appearing?
I wonder, is this the spring to construct a greenhouse? If so, is one with passive heating (without electricity) best? Are cold frames better? Or do I want to wait until this fall and then put up a deep winter greenhouse (known in horticulture circles as DWG)? Energy and healthy home environmental factors (such as temperature/heating efficiency, lighting, humidity) are what I focus on when thinking through these horticulture questions.
First, I know that through south-facing windows the sun’s radiation provides two necessary factors for growing things: 1) ultraviolet light, and 2) adequate ambient heat around the potting soil and seedlings. Since I have grown many leggy or spindly seedlings that couldn’t stand and survive on their own, retired Cornell Professor Thomas Bjórkman’s research examining this malformation has been interesting. One contributing factor he has found is light deficiency, which can be remedied by providing supplemental spectrum lighting.
As a University of Alaska Fairbanks engineering professor who studies heat transfer and models thermal systems, Professor Sun Kim has been conducting greenhouse heat storage and distribution in part by experimenting with attachable box-shaped, passive solar air heater panels, which are designed to collect the sun’s radiation through efficient greenhouse glazing (enhanced with low-wattage fans). These move cold air from the greenhouse into the solar heat collector for heating and return it to the growing area.
Similar panels could lengthen the front end of the growing season, allowing plant starts to be transplanted earlier into a well-heated environment while home growers wait for their garden to thaw. The continuous low-wattage, direct current fans that move cold to warm air can be powered by a deep cycle boat battery or small solar photovoltaic panel; this is particularly nice for off-grid or homestead horticulture.
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