Published Aug 8, 2023

Transparency is an extraordinary value for citizens who want to understand what their government is doing with their tax dollars. Transparency in how local governments, such as cities and boroughs, school districts, and public universities spend funds, helps them to remain responsive to their obligation to be good stewards of public resources.

The University of Alaska (UA) has kindly provided Alaska Policy Forum with its full payroll for fiscal years 2021 (FY21) and 2022 (FY22) through a public records request. The searchable payroll database available through Alaska Policy Forum lists these years according to the start of the school year, so FY21 is listed as 2020 and FY22 is listed as 2021. The payroll includes staff from all three universities that are part of the UA umbrella — the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS), as well as the statewide office (SO).

While one might think of professors as the quintessential university employees, there are also administrators, maintenance staff, student employees, and more. Each row of the data includes the employee’s name, university, job title, and the amount received that year for healthcare, pension, retirement, other, benefit (including leave), salary, and total compensation. This analysis focuses primarily on total compensation. Aggregate benefits are calculated as the sum of healthcare, pension, retirement, and other benefits costs for each employee.

Published Aug 8, 2023

In partnership with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the UAS Center at SBD plans to administer other sites for testing, training, and demonstrations in California, in addition to their Flight Operations site at San Bernardino International Airport

The UAS Center at SBD, a leading provider of uncrewed aircraft systems training, policy and sites for testing, research and development and demonstration, is pleased to announce the expansion of its test site network to accommodate the increasing demand for UAS testing.

Through a unique partnership with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), the UAS Center at SBD plans to administer other sites for testing, training, and demonstrations in California, in addition to their Flight Operations site at San Bernardino International Airport (SBD). In February 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration granted a regulatory waiver to UAF’s test site, affording drone manufacturers and operators expanded opportunity to demonstrate the safety of their drones for subsequent certification.

“Test sites for uncrewed aircraft systems must continue to evolve at the pace of innovation. The additional test sites will enhance our ability to serve our customers and provide them with convenient access to cutting-edge testing facilities,” states Kimberly Benson, Administrator, UAS Center at SBD. “As a trusted name in the industry, the UAS Center at SBD is committed to delivering high-quality solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. By cooperating with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, we aim to further strengthen our position as a reliable partner for both private and public sector entities.”

Published Aug 8, 2023 by Iris Samuels

Troy Bouffard, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said that the Russian and Chinese joint operation was part of a larger pattern of joint exercises between the two countries.

“In recent years, China has been allowed to participate incredibly in Russia’s largest annual military exercises,” he said. “Each year there’s a little bit more participation, a little bit change in how they do partner and work together militarily. So this maritime effort now is also not surprising.”

Bouffard said the operation is also tied to interests of foreign powers in the Arctic, and to Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Russia “wanting to demonstrate that they can still conduct force projection elsewhere in the world.”

“These are the kinds of reminders that we can’t wait for the enemy to fully engage, to start our own preparations,” said Bouffard.

“The U.S. Navy right now is not really set up for Arctic waters. Anything that has sea ice — we don’t really have ships that are ice-hardened yet — so the ability of the U.S. Navy to have a surface presence in parts of the Arctic with sea ice is pretty limited. And that’s something that just has to be dealt with at a strategic level. We’ll have to figure out a solution to that some day,” Bouffard said.

But he added that without a concrete threat on the horizon, it is difficult to convince Congress to divert funding from elsewhere to the Arctic and to Alaska, and the state still lacks the infrastructure for Navy ships to be permanently based in its waters.

Published Aug 8, 2023

Alaska is a vast state with extremes in weather and terrain. For people living in its 240 remote villages and communities, obtaining lifesaving medicines can be a challenge. And extreme challenges call for innovative solutions.

To help, we teamed up with the University of Alaska, a drone provider, local governments and others to demonstrate the use of drones to increase access to medicines in a proof-of-concept project. The drone was outfitted with thermal protection system packaging for the safe delivery of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals.

Published Aug 8, 2023

The flooding in Juneau came from a side basin of the awe-inspiring Mendenhall Glacier, which acts as a dam for the rain and melted snow that collect in the basin during the spring and summer. Eventually, the water gushed out from under the glacier and into Mendenhall Lake, from which it flowed down the Mendenhall River.

Water released from the basin has caused sporadic flooding since 2011. But typically, the water releases more slowly, over a number of days, said Eran Hood, a University of Alaska Southeast professor of environmental science.

Saturday’s event was astonishing because the water gushed so quickly, raising the river’s flows to about 1 1/2 times the highest previously recorded — so much that it washed away sensors that researchers had placed to study the glacial outburst phenomenon.

“The flows were just way beyond what anything in the river could withstand,” Hood said.