Published Jun 25, 2024 by Barbara Norton

Grad students employed by the UA System are days away from working under their first ever labor contract. In May, more than 70 percent of the Alaska Graduate Workers Association (AGWA) voted to ratify a tentative agreement, effective July 1. The contract raises pay and improves conditions for grad students who teach classes and perform research.

AGWA, the first graduate student union in Alaska, is affiliated with the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Workers of America, better known as United Auto Workers (UAW), one of the largest unions in the country. UAW often partners with academic units, including student employees at University of Washington and University of California.

“We have stickers that say we’re the farthest north graduate worker union in the country, which is pretty fun,” says Sofia Sytniak, a grad student in UAA’s psychology department and a member of the organizing committee. Sytniak represented UAA on the twelve-member bargaining committee.

The May ratification vote was completed in a single day, which union organizer Abigail Schiffmiller says is “unheard of.” According to Schiffmiller, the shortest ratification drive that UAW representatives had previously seen at other schools was three days.

The current contract will extend from July 2024 to December 2026. The agreement represents the culmination of nearly four years of work by UA student organizers. Unit membership totals around 450 grad students across the UA system, says Sytniak.

Published Jun 25, 2024 by Jasz Garrett

Discussions continue regarding how to preserve and honor TMHS students’ achievements, such as their athletics trophy case and the “Dem Bones” science display.

“Dem Bones” was a collaboration between the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, TMHS science teacher Kristen Wells and TMHS marine biology students. Under the supervision and mentorship of the instructor and an articulator, students prepared and articulated the skeleton of a marine mammal.

Wells said the skeletons will remain hanging above the library for the 2024-2025 school year and could possibly return to UAF afterward.

Published Jun 25, 2024 by Suzanne Downing

Nearly a month after the land-fast ice went out at Nome in Western Alaska, the ice has left the shore in Barrow, also known as Utqiagvik, population 4,383.

Summer has arrived in America’s northernmost city at coordinates 71° 17′ 33″ N, 156° 47′ 18″, and there is now open water in front of the town that is 3,481 straight-line air miles from Washington, D.C. For most of the year, the ice hugs the shore and extends far out into the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. But now, the sound of water lapping the shore has returned until about December, when it will freeze again.

Watch the ice leave in this video, a collection of still shots taken every five minutes from the camera mounted on the Wells Fargo Bank building:

The camera is approximately 65 feet above sea level and looks over the shoreline, pointed approximately northward. It’s operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

You can watch the continuously updated shore ice and ice floes disappear at the video at this link.