University of Alaska

A gravel road runs along the edge of HAARP’s array – that matrix of giant radio antennas on the tundra that’s been blamed for everything from the 2010 Haiti earthquake to chronic fatigue syndrome. On June 14, Fairbanksan Carl Triplehorn stood by that road crafting a hat out of tinfoil. Then Jessica Matthews, HAARP’s director, handed him a big picture frame to pose with.

It’s fair to say that HAARP’s staff is in on the joke.

“Some of the best calls I get are from people that tell me, ‘I have a wedding that’s coming up. Can you guys help us out with the weather?’ Matthews said.

Scientists at the Gakona-based High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program — known everywhere as just HAARP — open their doors once a summer to show the public what they’re up to.

It wasn’t the facility’s first open house, but it was the first since the University of Alaska Fairbanks’s Geophysical Institute took complete possession of HAARP from the military this year — a process that started a decade ago.

The military built HAARP in the 90s to conduct atmospheric defense research. These days, scientists mostly use it to look into things like space weather, and how gravity acts on the ionosphere, the highest layer of Earth’s atmosphere.

Matthews said security around there used to be much tighter, which probably fed the intrigue.

“Back in the Air Force days, when you came up to that gate, you saw that scary, big red warning sign: ‘No Trespassing,'” she said.

HAARP’s shadowy reputation has been hard to shake

Speculation about what happens there runs pretty wild. Some believe the facility is trying to do everything from reversing Earth’s magnetic poles to trapping people’s souls.

And sometimes those ideas are endorsed by public figures. Like last year, when prominent far-right activist Laura Loomer accused HAARP of creating a blizzard to blow then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s chances in the Iowa caucuses.

Matthews said the open houses pull the curtain back on what they’re really doing.

“Events like this give them an opportunity to actually ask some of those hard questions of the researchers and get an answer,” she said.

The people who work at HAARP are more than happy to talk about their research and day-to-day grind — when the mics are off. Most are wearing buttons that say, “No photos, please.” All of that is to safeguard against harassment and credible threats — which they do get from time to time.

“I take very seriously my obligation to protect our staff to the best of the ability that we can in every discussion that we have, in every meeting that we have,” Matthews said.

Taking off the tinfoil — and teaching the public about space physics

The idea behind the event isn’t just about clearing up dangerous misunderstandings. The scientists want to share what they’ve been learning about the upper atmosphere by beaming massive amounts of radio waves at it.

UAF physicist Craig Heinselman said the facility is like the “world’s best screwdriver” to poke at nearest space.

“Being able to steer the beam in various directions in very short time frames, transmitting at different frequencies,” he said. “The radio waves that are transmitted can also be polarized — kind of like polarized filters on your glasses — and they have different effects.”

He and his colleagues are looking into things that have practical applications, too. They’re studying how space weather interacts with the ionized layer of the atmosphere, which can sometimes disrupt GPS signals.

“We’re working on the basic research to get to there, but eventually we hope to get there and have better space weather prediction,” he said.

For Triplehorn — the guy with the tinfoil hat — that educational aspect was the biggest draw. And that’s true for most of the hundred or so guests, like UAF chemistry student Aggy Boldt.

“I think I’m just trying to explore my options, like what kind of career I could go into with chemistry,” she said. “I think it’s just cool to see what everyone else is doing and learn more about it.”

After a day packed with science talks, drone demonstrations, and walking tours that wound through the facility’s cavernous engine room and up to the array, Matthews, the director, said it was another successful outreach event.

“I’m thrilled that we had young kids that were asking for balloons and asking if they could steal two or three cookies for their siblings,” she said. “This is what I want to see.”

She says that she hopes each open house event makes the facility a little less frightening to the public.

“It’s just Alaskans that are helping to do some really cool science,” she said.

The University of Alaska Southeast hired two new administrators. One will lead its School of Education and the other will oversee the campus in Sitka.

Carlee Simon is the new dean of the UAS School of Education. She’s worked as the school’s interim dean since 2023 and led its accreditation efforts, according to a news release from UAS. The campus appointed her as the permanent dean last December.

Simon said she’s excited to work with faculty on larger projects. This includes developing a new masters of teaching program with a specialty on Indigenous languages, and teaching apprenticeships.

“I think everybody feels that they can kind of settle in and start working on the big efforts and initiatives that we’ve been wanting to get to, but have been waiting for, you know, the stability and leadership,” she said.

UAS also hired Jeremy Rupp as the new Sitka Campus Director. He’s replacing the previous director who retired earlier this year. As director, he will oversee the day to day operations of the Sitka campus.

“This position is meant to support the really important work that others are doing,” he said. “And it’s a community campus, and that means that it’s really meant to support the community.”

Rupp moved to Sitka from Carlton, Minnesota. He started the position about a month ago and said he’s looking forward to being a part of the local community.

Alaska could lose several research institutions and a pipeline into science for budding researchers in the state if the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget become a reality. 

“Even the possibility of the disruption is affecting the students and the researchers,” said Joshua Hostler, a Ph.D. student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His research group met this week to discuss if they’d apply for a new federal funding opportunity. Because of the uncertainty, they probably won’t.

“Even if they do approve the funding, are they going to take it away later?” Hostler said.

He said that groups across the university system have been easing up on submitting research proposals for the same reason. 

The Trump administration proposed to slash the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget by about 27% and eliminate climate research in a memo leaked this month. The draft cuts would terminate funding for several research institutes that rely on the agency to finance their work in Alaska. Among those on the chopping block are the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies (CICOES), the Alaska Ocean Observing System, Alaska Sea Grant, the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy and the Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. 

The institutions share projects, faculty and student researchers with the University of Alaska so the state can understand and adapt to climate change while training the next generation of in-state experts.

Hostler is currently developing a seasonal lightning forecast system to help wildfire managers in Alaska plan for the upcoming fire season. Lighting strikes most in Interior Alaska, and that’s where the biggest wildfires in the state happen. Hostler is using machine learning models to predict the intensity of lightning a season in advance, so fire managers know where to put their resources. 

But he’s funded by a NOAA grant from the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research office that would be eliminated under the draft cuts, and he applied for the grant with help from CICOES, which would also be cut. The funds cover Hostler’s wages of $29 per hour.

“Without that funding, I just wouldn’t be able to pay my rent,” he said. “I’d have to stop doing the research that I’m doing now and I’d have to go get a job somewhere.”

Hajo Eicken heads the International Arctic Research Center at UAF. He said these NOAA-funded institutes have helped create a pipeline for students to develop research in Alaska and then have opportunities to continue working here after graduating.

“These students, in particular, the Ph.D. students, they’re at the cutting edge of the field,” he said. “They help us respond much more effectively to various opportunities and challenges that we’re facing in Alaska.”

CeCe Borries-Strigle, a Ph.D. student at UAF who is set to finish her degree this summer, was planning to stay at the university for another year as a post-doctoral researcher to finish her work improving fire weather forecasts in the state. But, like Hostler, that project would be funded through a NOAA office and a research institute that may soon cease to exist.

Borries-Strigle is based in Kenai and was there in 2019 when the Swan Lake Fire jumped Sterling Highway and smoke choked the region for several months. She said she wants to stay in Alaska working on wildland fire research, but might have to change those plans due to funding uncertainty. 

“I think there’s going to be a huge generation of scientists that miss out on more early career training because the funding is not there,” she said. “Those jobs aren’t there.”

At Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Homer, 10 college students participate in community-driven research projects each year. Katherine Schake manages the reserve and said that past students have gone on to manage invasive European green crab with the Metlakatla Indian Community, track fish stocks at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and been hired on to continue freshwater research at the reserve. 

The reserve receives more than $800,000 per year from NOAA, and a 30% match from the University of Alaska Anchorage. That covers facilities and half of the staff’s salaries, Schake said. Without the base NOAA funds, she said that the staff would likely drop from 10 to four, and they wouldn’t be able to continue mentoring students.

One key service that students help with in Alaska is collecting data at sea. Seth Danielson leads an oceanography lab at UAF. His team tracks ocean conditions such as the temperature, nutrient content and salinity off the coast of Alaska over long time periods. That data, which shows how the seas are changing, feeds into how fisheries are managed.

“So NOAA develops the ecosystem status report for the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council every fall, and the council uses the assessments of ocean conditions as they set harvest levels for next year’s catch limits,” Danielson said. “So not all that data is collected only by NOAA — some of it’s collected by university researchers like us.”

More than 60% of Danielson’s funding comes from NOAA through the Alaska Ocean Observing System, one of the institutes that would be closed under the proposal. If that happens, he says he would probably have to lay off four of his five staff members. 

He’d lose more than staff. Last August, his team moored half a million dollars worth of equipment to the bottom of the ocean. To get the data it’s been collecting all year, they need funding to sail out there and retrieve it. 

“So not only is the data at risk and the students who are relying on that data for their graduate research, but the equipment itself is at risk — the batteries don’t last forever,” he said. 

If the batteries die before Danielson can secure funding for the expedition, all of the data would be lost.

In Juneau, Curry Cunningham runs a fisheries lab through UAF. He estimates that NOAA pays for at least 30% of his research and staff, and said that the bleak funding outlook means he’s planning to scale back the number of graduate students and research projects he’ll take on in the future.

Right now, Cunningham oversees six graduate students and four post-graduate researchers. Three of them are working on NOAA-funded projects. 

“A lot of the job opportunities that may have been available in the recent past are unlikely to be available for some of our students as they exit our program,” he said.  

The proposed cuts come as UAF has set a goal to become one of the top-tier research institutions in the nation, called R1 status. To qualify, the university needs to award an average of 70 doctorates per year. Laura Conner is vice chancellor for research at UAF. She said that roughly a quarter of the university’s operating budget comes from the federal government, and graduate researchers rely on federal dollars.

“It’s likely that large decreases in federal support could impact R1,” Conner said.  

But, she said it’s hard to predict how it will play out and UAF is still hopeful it can achieve the status. 

Even so, she said that a deep cut to NOAA funding, “will have a chilling effect on research across the nation, more generally.”

Staff at NOAA’s Juneau offices and the White House declined to comment, and final funding decisions have not yet been made. 

A lot has changed at the University of Alaska since President Trump’s inauguration. After executive orders, the University of Alaska Board of Regents directed its university leadership to remove mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion to protect its federal funding. But the Trump administration still froze or canceled millions of dollars in federal funding.

At the University of Alaska Southeast, Chancellor Aparna Palmer said she’s trying to balance upholding the university’s values with maintaining federal funding. Two of the campus’ grants have been affected, but it has been able to restore or find other sources of funding for them.

Palmer said she’s focused on federal financial aid, which hasn’t been touched yet.

“My priority is to make sure that we do what it takes to preserve that federal student aid for our students. That would be a huge, huge percentage of students who would be affected,” she said.

She said about 40 to 50% of UAS students receive federal student aid. Palmer said students should continue applying for aid. 

On top of funding, UAS is keeping an eye on its international students’ immigration status. Elsewhere in the state, four University of Alaska Anchorage students have had their visas revoked.

But Palmer said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers haven’t been on any UAS campuses.

“So far, none of their visas are being revoked, but we monitor the situation daily,” Palmer said.

She said anyone who sees immigration enforcement officers on campus should report it immediately to the university so they can support and advocate for students.

Listen here:

Nearly two months have passed since the University of Alaska Board of Regents directed leadership to scrub mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion from websites and publications. The action was in response to federal threats to withhold funding from universities.

There have been some big changes across the University of Alaska system due to the Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI. Campuses in Fairbanks and Anchorage have experienced federal funding cuts, revoked student visas and office reorganizations for people serving Alaska Native students and other underrepresented communities.

But these things aren’t happening at the University of Alaska Southeast, which has three campuses in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan. UAS Chancellor Aparna Palmer said at a recent virtual town hall that the campus’ own Native and Rural Students Center hasn’t changed.

“The Indigenous heritage of Alaska is so central to our identity as an institution,” she said. “At UAS, it is part of the fabric of who we are, so our commitment to that continues.”

Instead, UAS continues to review and scrub mentions of DEI on campus webpages.

One name change includes the Chancellorʼs Advisory Committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Cultural Safety. It’s now the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Belonging, Empowerment, Access, Representation and Safety.

UAS Executive Director for Community Relations & Strategic Partnerships Elizabeth Cornejo said in an email that staff have updated about half of the webpages as of Wednesday morning. She said they expect to update the rest by the end of the semester.

Once that’s done, she said they’ll start reviewing PDFs, catalogs and other documents. 

UA President Pat Pitney said in a press release more than $5 million in federal grants has been frozen or canceled. At UAS, a federal grant from the U.S Department of Agriculture was temporarily frozen, but Cornejo said that’s since been restored.

While the changes have been smaller at UAS compared to the other campuses, students like sophomore Poppy McBride said the decision to scrub mentions of DEI has been demoralizing.

“This is just ignoring great majorities of the students that attend our schools,” they said.

McBride said they appreciate the support from campus staff since the decision passed though.

“I am grateful for the leadership we do have at this school, trying their very best to support students throughout it all,” McBride said. “I think a great majority of our faculty is pushing to stay inclusive and to keep supporting students and to not ignore all the identities and people who will be pushed kind of under the rug by this move.”

In the meantime, McBride and other students are finding community through campus events and student clubs as the Trump Administration continues to investigate and threaten other universities across the country.

At least four international students in Alaska have had their student visas revoked, as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown continues.

They are among hundreds across the country facing removal after losing their student visas.

One of them is recent University of Alaska Anchorage graduate Jean Kashikov.

Kashikov first visited Alaska in 2017 as a tourist from his home country of Kazakhstan.

“We took a cruise out of Whittier, and we did a bunch of regular tourist stuff,” he said in an interview Sunday. “And I felt like it’s a really nice place with really nice people.”

Kashikov decided to apply to UAA and began taking courses in 2019. He graduated last May with a bachelor’s degree in math, followed by an associate’s degree in aviation in December. Now 24 years old, he began working as a self-employed flight instructor in Wasilla in March.

“In the last four to five weeks that I’ve been doing this, I had a bunch of one-time customers where I gave them, you know, biennial flight reviews, which is something that every pilot needs every two years, no matter how small,” Kashikov said.

Kashikov is able to work in the U.S. under an optional practical training period. It allows international students to remain in the country for one year after graduating, so long as they’re working in the field they studied. The federal government tracks and documents the students’ activities with what’s called a Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, record.

Kashikov’s training period wasn’t set to end until January of 2026. But on April 10, as he was eating breakfast at the Denali Family Restaurant, he received an email from UAA that his SEVIS record had been terminated.

“That basically means that starting this day, you are unlawfully present in the country,” Kashikov said.

In a statement, University of Alaska officials say a total of four UAA students, including one currently enrolled, received a similar revocation, without any prior notice. They added that no students from the Fairbanks or Southeast campuses have been impacted, so far.

“Our international students and scholars are vital members of our community, and we remain fully committed to supporting their success,” UA President Pat Pitney said in the statement.

Kashikov said he believes the U.S. isn’t following its own procedures and laws. At least one experienced immigration lawyer agrees.

“This is, like, totally illegal,” said Margaret Stock, an Anchorage-based attorney and internationally recognized expert on immigration law. “Everybody, they know it’s illegal, but they’re figuring people aren’t gonna be able to fight it.”

Stock cited research from the National Association of International Educators, which found that more than 800 international students nationwide saw their visas revoked or their SEVIS records terminated in recent weeks.

“The president apparently set a goal internally at the White House of deporting 1 million people, and they haven’t been able to find enough people who are actually deportable in order to do that,” Stock said.

Instead, the administration is trying to get people to deport themselves by revoking their visas or telling them directly to leave the country, Stock said. There hasn’t been a consistent reason given to students for the termination of their visas, but officials have made vague references to criminal records checks, she said.

“So it sounds like they apparently went into some system and found the person had a ticket of some kind, or they got arrested for something, even if no charges were brought against them,” Stock said.

Kashikov admitted that he had been arrested before. It was three years ago, in Arizona, when he was arrested for blocking a public bus he says refused to pick him up, he said. He had no alcohol or drugs in his system, didn’t act violently, and the charges were dropped. He also has a pending speeding ticket in Georgia from August.

Neither incident is grounds to deport someone, but many people don’t have the resources to take on the federal government in court, Stock said

“Their strategy is to do things that are illegal,” she said, “because they think people are going to have to go into court, and they won’t be able to afford a lawyer, and they won’t be able to fight the government, because it costs a lot of money to sue people in federal court.”

Kashikov consulted with immigration attorneys who’ve basically given him three options, he said. One is to simply leave the country. Another is to try to get his SEVIS record reinstated, though Stock said the Trump administration is not approving reinstatements right now. A third option is to sue the federal government. Stock pointed to a ruling in Wisconsin from Monday, where a judge granted a temporary restraining order for a student, blocking the termination of their SEVIS record. The order allowed the student to stay in the country and continue to work as their federal lawsuit goes through the courts.

Kashikov said he’ll most likely just leave.

“They can technically come grab me at any time,” he said. “So I’m not willing to test them. I want to leave if I can’t find a better solution. And now there is no better solution on the horizon as of right now.”

Kashikov said he’s going to miss Alaska, and at least one of his flight instruction clients said they’re going to miss him, too.

Kenneth Groat lives in Palmer and said he looked for a flight instructor for more than a year to help him get his sport license, before he found Kashikov.

“He’s a good pilot to start out with, but a good instructor as well,” Groat said. “You know, he did maneuvers that I hadn’t done in a while, and it just worked out good having a good guy in the cockpit with me.”

Kashikov leaving throws a wrench in his plans, Groat said, but it also means the state will be losing a talented worker.

“It just seems like it’s hard to find young people to work these days,” Groat said. “And Jean just seemed, for his age, he seemed super motivated, you know, and headed in the right direction. I really wanted him to succeed.”

Though his future in Alaska seems to be coming to a close, Kashikov said he wanted others to learn from his experience.

“I want the voting public to know that, you know, six months later, or a year later, or whenever, when they come out on the news and say, ‘We deported, removed, etc, so many thousands of violent criminals and whatnot,’ they’re gonna claim that that’s what they’ve done,” Kashkov said. “And I just want people to know that that’s literally not what’s happening.”

Kashikov received an official notice from the State Department that his visa was revoked on Monday night. As of Tuesday afternoon, he remained in the country.

Officials with the State Department and the Kazakhstan embassy, which told Kashikov his visa was revoked, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.