Published Oct 31, 2023 by Gavin Struve

Thursday may be Alaska’s equivalent of volleyball day, with the University of Alaska Fairbanks' second-to-last home game of the season coinciding with the start of the Mid Alaska Conference ‘tournament’ hosted by North Pole High School.

Not only is the former event Faculty Appreciation Night, it also represents a significant game in relation to any hopes of a UAF volleyball postseason berth. Given there is no GNAC tournament for volleyball, UAF will need to place toward the top of the league standings to have a strong chance of being selected for the NCAA Division II volleyball tournament.

All five of UAF’s remaining games are winnable, as evidenced by their recent four-game winning streak. But they likely need to win all five to reach the postseason.

Which other UAF teams could clinch a conference championship this academic year?

UAF rifle has a strong shot at winning its league after taking the national title last season, but they compete in the Patriot Rifle Conference, not the GNAC, and it’s loaded with some of the nation’s other top rifle programs like TCU and Nebraska.

The UAF swim team also competes in a separate conference (the Pacific Coast Swimming and Diving Conference) and not one they’re expected to win. ‘Nooks skiing, too, is in its own league: the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association.

The Nanooks hockey team is one of the few Division One teams that isn’t in a conference, but they have hopes of reaching the 16-team NCAA postseason after being the “first team out” last season.

While the Nanooks women’s basketball team has struggled in recent years, the men’s hoops team made a surprise run through the GNAC Tournament during the 2021-22 season and may be UAF’s last best hope at a league title in team sports.

Published Oct 31, 2023 by Georgina Fernandez

On Monday, the Alaska Workforce Investment Board (AWIB) kicked off its two-day conference, Alaska Workforce Development Convening, at the Egan Center in Anchorage.

Over two days, the conference is hosting around 75 Alaska industry leaders who are discussing the struggles they encounter in their specific industry and what they think could be done to solve them.

The conversation kicked off on Monday with industries breaking up into small work sessions. During these sessions, Muñoz said industries are sharing their current and future workforce challenges such as job skills that are missing from their respective industries.

Muñoz said having conversations like this will help break down one of the biggest struggles the state has when finding a solution: silos.“Our goal is to really break down those silos and bring people together because we have a lot of alignment right now around workforce development,” Muñoz said.

“We know that Alaskans graduating from high school that stay in Alaska can be successful,” she added. “We have a great training network, the University of Alaska and our regional training programs are really state-of-the-art, wonderful programs. If young people leave the state, only about 1 in 4 return. So we want to do a better job of ensuring that young people choose Alaska for their forever home.”

Published Oct 31, 2023 by Josh Reed

On the college scene, the UAA volleyball team spilt its two road games this past week against Great Northwest Athletic Conference opponents to improve to 13-15 on the season and 5-8 in the conference. On Thursday night, the Seawolves fell in four sets to Seattle Pacific University but were able to bounce back two days later by sweeping Montana State Billings on Saturday. The Seawolves were led in kills this past week by senior outside hitter Nicole Blue who eclipsed double-figures in both matches and racked up 26 combined between the two contests.

The UAA men’s hockey team notched its biggest win of the season thus far when the Seawolves won the second contest in a two-game series with nationally ranked Penn State University. After narrowly dropping the first game 2-1 on Thursday, the Seawolves rebounded the next night with 6-5 win over the No. 15 ranked Nittany Lions on Friday. They used an explosive opening period that featured a pair of goals from graduate student forward Adam Tisdale to build an early 4-2 lead. After Penn State tied the game at 4-4 in the second, UAA’s Connor Marritt and Aiden Westin made sure the Seawolves stayed ahead for good with a clutch goals of their own.

Published Oct 30, 2023

The University of Alaska’s graduate students have organized into a union, after votes counted on Friday overwhelmingly approved the formation of a local unit. Graduate students across the state – mostly at UAF in Fairbanks – are joining Alaska Graduate Workers Association-United Auto Workers.

Sophia Sytniak, a graduate teaching assistant in clinical-community psychology at the University of Alaska Anchorage, said the union will represent about 450 fellows and graduate, research, student and teaching assistants. The next step is to survey members on what they want their union leadership to address with UA leaders.

“Some of the things that we’ve heard are things like health care, wages, those are some of the primary concerns,” Sytniak said. “Also, a lot of our contracts prohibit external positions. That’s a concern because with our wages, us not being able to make like living wages that we’re able to live off of, we’re also not able to seek other employment positions. And so that’s something that can be challenging.”

The union vote took place online from Oct. 13-26, with ballots counted last week by the Alaska Labor Relations Agency. Votes in favor of unionization prevailed 314-11. 

Published Oct 30, 2023

U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-Alaska) and Representative Mary Sattler Peltola (D-Alaska) joined Representative Jill Tokuda (HI-02) and Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i) in introducing the Parity for Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Students in Agriculture Act. U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i), and Representatives Ed Case (HI-02) are also original co-sponsors of the bill.

The bill would reauthorize the Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions Education Competitive Grants Program for another five years and increase the authorized funding level of the program from $10 million to $15 million. The bill would also ensure grant awards could be used over multiple years to reduce administrative burdens on institutions.

The program promotes the ability of institutions like the University of Hawai‘i and University of Alaska to improve and expand their capacity to provide supplemental educational services to Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian students. Grant funds can be used to carry out education, applied research, and related community development programs and to address educational needs within food and agricultural sciences-related disciplines. Priority 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; and maximize the development and use of resources to improve food and agricultural sciences teaching programs.