Published Nov 14, 2023

The University of Alaska Board of Regents recently approved Fiscal Year 2025 budget requests and strategies on the grounds of growing enrollment and ongoing fiscal stability.

“The University of Alaska System is strong, and the actions taken today show the confidence this board has in our institutions,” UA Board Chair Ralph Seekins stated in the press release. “Alaskans should be proud of the quality and offerings of their universities.”

The approved operating budget request includes: $6 million in state funds to support State and Arctic Leadership programs that will support students through their educational endeavors and ultimately add to Alaska’s workforce; $8.5 million to cover unavoidable fixed cost increases as property insurance premiums, cyber security, and utility costs continue to escalate; and $14.7 million to offer negotiated compensation increases to faculty and staff.

Regents kept tuition rates flat for FY25 while tuition revenues are expected to grow by roughly $3 million due to higher enrollment, according to the press release.

UA’s proposed FY25 budget is $927.4 million, which includes federal funds and other sources.

“This budget effectively balances fiscal restraint with strategic investment in programs which empower Alaska,” UA President Pat Pitney stated in the press release. “With growing enrollment, increased research investment, and positive forward momentum, UA is well positioned to serve our state and industries.”

Published Nov 13, 2023

A second winter storm since Thursday’s massive snow dump has again paralyzed Anchorage and much of Southcentral Alaska Monday, just a week after the city’s first major snowfall this season.

Anchorage School District and Mat-Su Borough schools have declared remote learning days Monday, with after-school activities in Anchorage canceled as well. The University of Alaska Anchorage is also closed.

State offices in Anchorage and the Mat-Su, as well as Municipality of Anchorage offices, are closed as well. Anchorage’s People Mover bus service has been suspended for the day, with AnchorRIDES making only essential trips. As of 9:30 a.m., police had reports of 20 stranded vehicles Monday plus four vehicle accidents, one of them with injuries.

According to the National Weather Service, Anchorage was under a winter storm warning until noon Monday, with 6 to 9 inches of snow expected in most areas. The heaviest snowfall is forecasted for the Anchorage and Eagle River Hillsides, which could receive up to a foot of snow.

Published Nov 13, 2023 by Rod Boyce

The second NASA sounding rocket of the season headed into Earth’s upper atmosphere from Poker Flat Research Range shortly after midnight Thursday, carrying a payload of science instruments.

It was the second launch in two nights at the rocket range owned by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and operated under a contract with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, which is part of the Goddard Space Flight Center. The range is located at Mile 30 Steese Highway.

In Thursday’s launch, a four-stage NASA sounding rocket carried instruments for the Beam-Plasma Interactions Experiment, which involved generation of very low frequency radio waves using a pulsed electron beam. The goal was to cause charged particles to rain down from space, along Earth’s magnetic field lines, and into the upper atmosphere.

Such a process might someday help remove charged particles from space after a nuclear explosion. The cleanup would make space safer for satellites.

The experiment’s principal investigator is Geoff Reeves, chief scientist for the Intelligence and Space Research Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“The mission was very successful. The launch was flawless,” Reeves said. “We could see from housekeeping data when the accelerator turned on and confirmed that the beam produced waves. This was huge for us. I was giving odds at about 50/50.”

“It was a pretty risky and innovative experiment,” he said.

Reeves needed a clear night with no aurora over Alaska to conduct the experiment. That’s because the aurora also produces radio waves, which would interfere with the experiment.

Published Nov 11, 2023 by Patrick Gilchrist

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum of the North (UAMN) houses prominent researchers, valuable artifacts and fascinating exhibits.

And every month, it also welcomes the community’s young and curious souls to learn more about the world around them.Dozens of kids and their families filtered through the galleries on Friday morning, wearing smiles and pensive looks. Checking out displays like the ringed seal and arctic fox, they searched for animals and artifacts as part of the scavenger hunt organized for the Early Explorers event.

Designed for children 5 and under, UAMN Director of Education and Public Programs Jennifer Arseneau said the monthly program also featured crafty activities to get the kids keen on this month’s theme: Arctic Life.

Arseneau explained these events fulfill a big part of the mission for Alaska’s only research and teaching museum: education.

“We like to host these kind of events just to welcome people in and help them look at the museum in a new way with a new theme, and make them feel comfortable,” she said.

Published Nov 11, 2023 by Gavin Struve

The 49th state dominated the first day of the Alaska/Hawaii Challenge on Friday, as the Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska Anchorage men’s basketball teams both won close games over Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade, respectively.

The Nanooks controlled much of the first half, building a double-digit lead, before trailing much of the second half and rallying back in the final minutes of a 69-64 win to open the season.

UAF ended the game on a 13-2 run over the final 3:07. The Nanooks will return to the court on Saturday to play Chaminade — who they beat in this event last season, and who lost 77-72 against Alaska Anchorage earlier Friday.

Published Nov 11, 2023 by Mark Sabbatini

There’s a saying Alaskans don’t care how things are done elsewhere, but clearly a standing-room-only crowd of more than 150 people was quite interested in how other places around the world are limiting cruise ship tourism impacts.

But one reality they were told is some of those methods aren’t practical and/or legal in the United States, and thus — to the grumbling of some in the audience — working with the industry is necessary if solutions are going to happen.

“In those countries they’re more socialistic and they depend upon the government to solve the problems,” said Jim Powell, an assistant research professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, presenting his findings during an Evening at Egan event Friday night at UAS. “They don’t go to the industry first…In our country I think you solve the problems by partnerships between the industry because they have a lot of knowledge about what they’re doing. And then also it’s us — it’s the public and the people we elect.”

The crowd packed into the Egan Lecture Hall at UAS to hear Powell’s presentation, watch the documentary “Cruise Boom” about the industry’s impacts on Sitka in 2022 after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, and participate in the Q&A — with many attendees making impassioned statements rather than asking questions.

Powell, during his presentation, noted Juneau has taken some pioneering steps to limit cruise tourism impacts including being the first port in Alaska to implement a head tax decades ago, plus the voluntary five-ship-a-day agreement reached with the industry scheduled to go into effect next year.

Among the other ports Powell discussed during his presentation were Bergen, Norway; Visby, Sweden; Akureyri, Iceland; and Nome, which is preparing for a major expansion of both its port capacity and ship activity. He noted Norway has implemented a zero-emissions requirement by 2026 and the Iceland port has imposed a limit of 5,000 passengers a day, but such measures in Juneau pose difficulties.

Putting a set limit on the number of passengers, for example, would likely be illegal due to the right of people to freely travel between states, Powell said, echoing a position taken by many local leaders.

Instead, he said, “my approach really is to look at things in a sustainability format.” He said there has been progress in a variety of ways since cruise ship tourism began its massive expansion during the 1990s — such as best practices agreements, and technology that allows better pollution control and monitoring — but one constant difficulty is “there’s a power imbalance.”

“We’re a small community,” he said. “These are big, billion-dollar industries.”

Published Nov 10, 2023 by Gavin Struve

The University of Alaska Fairbanks women’s basketball team dropped to 0-4 with a Thursday loss at Biola. The first game of UAF’s weekend in the Golden State was competitive early, even featuring a Nanooks’ lead after a quarter, before a barrage of 3-pointers felled the ‘Nooks.

UAF scored right away with a pass off the opening tip to sophomore forward Kayla Johnson, but the hosts responded immediately. The Eagles’ Sarah Alexander hit a 3-pointer on the next possession in a bit of foreshadowing for what the rest of the afternoon had in store for the visitors.

UAF will play again on Saturday in the Biola Tournament against Concordia University Irvine.

Published Nov 10, 2023

If you live in and around Gulkana, Alaska and recently saw some eerie lights in the sky—don’t worry; they were all part of a science experiment. Earlier this week, researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and several other US institutions created artificial auroras by sending radio pulses into the Earth’s ionosphere using HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) transmitters on the ground. The frequencies of these transmissions were between 2.8 and 10 megahertz.

These transmitters act as heaters that excite the gasses in the upper atmosphere. When the gasses “de-excite,” they produce an airglow between 120 and 150 miles above ground, according to a notice about the project issued by the HAARP team. This is similar to how charged particles from the sun interact with gasses in the upper atmosphere to create natural auroras; the charged particles are steered by the Earth’s magnetic field to the north and south poles to form aurora borealis and aurora australis. Compared to those light displays, the artificial auroras are much weaker. 

So why did the researchers do all this? Studying this artificial airglow may provide insights on what happens when real aurora lights appear.

If you noticed a faint red or green splotch in the sky above Alaska between November 4 and November 8, chances are good that you saw the experiment in progress. HAARP also notes in its FAQ that these ionosphere-heating experiments have no detectable effects on the environment after 10 minutes or so. 

Published Nov 10, 2023 by Caleb Jones

The University of Alaska Fairbanks volleyball team (13-16, 6-9) faced off against the No. 19 Central Washington University Wildcats (16-6, 10-4) on Thursday. The Nanooks couldn’t pull off the upset as they lost in three sets (13-25, 19-25, 13-25).

The volleyball season is nearing its end for UAF as only three road games remain. The team was looking to snap a three-game losing streak entering the contest against Central Washington. The last time the two teams met in October, UAF pulled out a victory in four sets.

The loss marked the Nanooks’ fourth straight. They’ll have a chance to bounce back in their next contest on Saturday against the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks.