Published Jun 30, 2023 by Georgina Fernandez

Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down affirmative action in college admissions marked a major step back for some Americans.

The University of Alaska says their universities “each have their own admissions processes; none of them use race as a sole basis for determining admission,” but that they are “reviewing the Court’s decision and its impact on our admissions and programs but do not anticipate significant impacts to our processes.”

Published Jun 30, 2023

The R/V Sikuliaq is a familiar sight in the Port of Nome. The ice-breaking research vessel is owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Each year the ship brings several groups of scientists on competitive and meticulously planned research cruises through Alaskan waters. This year, while the vessel is out at sea for various missions that have nothing to do with algae, it will be collecting water that could signal whether a bloom is occurring.

Published Jun 30, 2023 by Colleen Flaherty

To bridge the gap between need and care, TRIO SSS at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks brought counseling directly to its students this past academic year, in the form of an embedded professional counselor. She’s been booked solid since.

“The stigma and potential mystery surrounding the therapeutic process appears to have decreased significantly as mental health services have become as accessible and commonplace as academic advising services,” says Nikki Baird, the university’s first embedded TRIO SSS counselor. Students “who have been otherwise hesitant to seek mental health services have been encouraged to do so within the comfort of a familiar space and with the endorsement of a trusted organization.”

Victoria Smith, director of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks’s TRIO SSS program, explains that TRIO-eligible students are at elevated risk of mental health issues because they’ve been disproportionately exposed to adversity and trauma in their lives. Add Fairbanks’s near-arctic weather and lack of daylight for much of the year, plus Alaska’s relatively poor climate for youth mental health, and Smith’s advisees are especially vulnerable.

Unfortunately, Smith continues, while students historically have opened up to TRIO advisers about their mental health, too few students have followed through with referrals to attend professional counseling and other wellness services on campus.

Published Jun 29, 2023

Culinary Boot Camp is a summer program at UAA’s Community & Technical College for kids ages 11 to 17. They learn foundational cooking skills at the week-long camp, starting with kitchen safety and sanitation practices. The camp is split into two sections, cooking and baking.

The instructors are professors from UAA’s culinary arts program. They stick to easy baked goods and simple meals so the kids can focus on learning the process and tools of the kitchen. Brown said working with younger kids is a nice change of pace.

“We want them to be professional in what they do, so that’s why we use simple recipes, but they are using adult equipment,” she said. “And it’s really cute because there’s little tiny 11 year olds with gigantic bowls and spatulas.” 

In the other room, 18 kids in the cooking section were learning how to cut and marinate meat for their steak and chicken fajitas. Every day, the cooking group makes lunch for everybody, and the baking group makes dessert. Any leftovers get sent home with the campers, which the instructors said is always a hit with the parents.

The culinary college is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Every year, graduates head off to work as line cooks and head chefs. The summer camp started two decades ago to raise awareness for the college program. The dean, Raymond Weber, said it’s also a way to teach members of the community important life skills. He said the kids are learning more than just how to cook.

Published Jun 29, 2023

A few days ago, Mat Wooller had news about a woolly mammoth my friend LJ and I “adopted” last October.

“You’ve got one of the youngest ones,” said Wooller, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and inventor of the Adopt-A-Mammoth program.

Wooller’s goal is to carbon-date the 1,500 mammoth fossils that rest in drawers within the University of Alaska Museum of the North. He has created a go-fund-me type project to find out more about when the iconic woolly mammoth disappeared from mainland Alaska.

What do we know about when mammoths went extinct? The most recent Alaska mammoth fossil is a 5,600-year-old tooth found in a cave on St. Paul island.

Researchers dated mammoth fossils found on Wrangel Island north of Siberia to 3,700 years ago, making that the “youngest” mammoth of which we know.