University of Alaska

One of numerous cost saving realignments within the University of Alaska system, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Journalism and Communications departments have merged.

Professor Charles Mason said the merger should save money, and shore up the journalism department, which has seen a declining number of majors in recent years.

”The point of this merger is to have, probably, a smaller core faculty over the long run, but increase the number of majors in the two programs together so that it’s a single department with a reasonable number of majors and a pretty large number of students,” Mason said. “And the savings will come in through that.”

Mason says the combined journalism-communications program has more than 60 majors, and a dozen graduate students.

He said the merger, which includes plans for co-location at a single facility, has resulted in the elimination of an administrative job, but that no other cuts are currently planned.

He noted that the department hopes to hire for an open journalism professor position.

The University of Alaska is in the middle of a year-long review of its academic programs and administration. It’s called Strategic Pathways and is an attempt to save money and make the university system more efficient.

“How can we take advantage of our oneness, being ‘The University of Alaska,’ and at the same time take advantage of the unique strengths of our campuses all across the state?” asked University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen in a video on the university website.

His question strikes at the heart of what university system officials hope Strategic Pathways will accomplish.

University spokeswoman Roberta Graham called Strategic Pathways a framework.

“The university will review its administrative and academic functions to find where there is the possibility of greater alignment, greater efficiency,” said Graham.

She said the goal is to improve students’ experience with the university system and to save money. Because of steep budget cuts and a multibillion-dollar state spending gap, Graham said the university’s board of regents asked President Johnsen to find ways to save money and give students a quality education.

The university built teams to study how its academic and administrative areas could be improved. The teams started phase one of their work in late June.

Graham said they looked at “the schools of education, engineering and business management. On the administrative side: information technology, intercollegiate athletics, research administration and procurement.”

The teams’ developed options for the board of regents to consider during its latest two-day meeting in Juneau. The board chose the options they liked and now, new teams will consider how to bring those into fruition.

For example, the University of Alaska will move to a single college of education with one dean for the entire state — rather than three.

University of Alaska Southeast Chancellor Rick Caulfield hopes the regents choose his school.

“The location of that dean or the location of the lead university for that has not yet been determined,” Caulfield said. “Southeast has long been a leader in that area and we’ll see how that conversation unfolds. It’ll be the president’s recommendation in the end to the board of regents.”

University officials said the regents adopted Johnsen’s recommendation for UAS to continue offering its bachelor’s of administration and master’s of public administration programs online.

Caulfield said, “What is proposed for change is that we would combine what’s now in our school of management into our school of arts and sciences. We would consolidate the administrative side of things, but maintain those important programs.”

Graham said phase two of the Strategic Pathways review will begin in October. Teams will consider a new set of areas to reform. There will be a third phase during the winter, and the entire process is scheduled to end with a final presentation to the board of regents in June 2017.

The university also considered reorganizing to hold one accreditation instead of three in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau.

Graham explained that an accreditation is “sort of the stamp of the academic approval of a university’s curriculum and a university’s course offerings and that they are up to the standards of the accrediting body – which in our case is the northwest regional accrediting body.”

She’s unsure how a single accreditation would have changed the university system’s organizational structure. In any case, the board of regents put the option on hold.

“I believe the regents felt that it was just a bit too much at this time because it is such a complicated and time-consuming process,” Graham said.

The university also released a report that concluded a single accreditation probably wouldn’t save a significant amount of money, improve student experiences or improve academic performance, like some hoped.

Graham said the university is placing its bet on Strategic Pathways for now, but a single accreditation is still an option for the future.

Gov. Bill Walker vetoed a bill today that would have set aside University of Alaska board seats for residents from different geographic areas.

The governor will continue to be able to appoint the 11 Board of Regents members without geographic limits on where they live.

Supporters of House Bill 107 said the bill would increase the representation of Matanuska-Susitna and Kenai boroughs, as well as residents who live off of the road system.

Walker said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Chenault that there’s no evidence that some areas are unheard, and that it’s important for board members to respect each area.

He also opposed a provision that required residents to live in an area for two years before joining the board, saying it isn’t consistent with Alaska’s embrace of personal freedom.

Bill sponsor Wasilla Republican Lynn Gattis said she doesn’t agree with Walker’s reasoning.

“Boy, that’s a lot of BS, and you could go ahead and put that on the radio,” Gattis said. “Because I think the bottom line is, the fact that we do have very different regions. That’s why we elect representatives from those different regions. They bring a different flavor to the table.”

It’s Walker’s fifth veto as governor, other than budget line-item vetoes.

From underneath the roads to inside our homes, insulation is everywhere in Alaska.

But traditional foam board is energy intensive to produce and often ends up as plastic litter in oceans and waterways.

A group of researchers at the University of Alaska Anchorage are working to develop an environmentally friendly alternative. 

Professor Philippe Amstislavski stands in front of a group of students from the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program.

“This is all experimental, nobody has ever done this,” he said. “We didn’t have any clue how this would work.”

The high school students have spent weeks in the lab this summer, designing molds and filling them with a coarse, grey mixture. They’re finally getting the chance to see how their experiments turned out.

The objects are light and foam-like, some are a little crumbly, while others keep their structure as they’re passed around the room for everyone to admire. They all have one thing in common; they were grown from an unlikely local substance- mushrooms.

“We have a long history in the north of using mushrooms for food, medicine — now we’re experimenting with using them for insulation,” Amstislavski said.

Over the past year and a half, Amstislavski and his team at UAA have been developing a new type of insulation, designed to overcome the environmental issues caused by conventional foam products on the market today.

“We have problems with particulates in our waterways and our oceans,” he said. “Pink board or blue board that we use for insulation is typically made out of oil-derived polymers that are non-biodegradable.”

The researchers instead use a mix of local fungus cultures, sawdust, and other natural ingredients to grow their own bio-material blocks in the lab. When Amstislavski shares his research with friends and colleagues, they’re often skeptical.

“The first question we always get ‘Is this going to kill me if I touch it?'” he said. “It’s not toxic. It’s not going to jump on you and try to take over your body.”

The researchers still have a lot of questions to answer when it comes to determining if the new bio-material will be a viable alternative to foam insulation. They need to test whether it can handle freezing and thawing. And make sure it won’t get waterlogged.

Back in the lab, Anchorage high school student Charitie Ropati, from ANSEP, is measuring her own recently grown insulation block, designed to be used in future home construction.  She’s impressed.

“I didn’t know that living organisms could be used to build these kind of things,” she said. “I was like, wow, I could actually use this kind of stuff.”

Ropati isn’t the only one who sees potential in the bio-material. Amstislavski and his partner have been invited to Washington D.C. to showcase their insulation at a national competition later this month.

Leadership for Cooperative Extension Service at the University of Alaska Fairbanks announced Aug. 31 a plan to keep two offices open that it planned to close this fall due to state budget cuts –- one in Anchorage and the other in Sitka.

The Sitka office now will be funded largely through grants, some with 4-H and the National Park Service.

The program assistant Jasmine Shaw, based at the University of Alaska Southeast, will continue her work offering programs to the community.

Fred Schlutt, Director of the Cooperative Extension, said this arrangement reduces the cost of running the Sitka office from roughly $25,000 a year to less than $5,000.

The Anchorage office will change in both location and function.

The office will close its doors Oct. 28 and move into the Chugachmiut Tribal Consortium Building. Schlutt said this change will allow the Extension to maintain a physical presence in Anchorage, while significantly reducing the cost.

“(The Anchorage office) cost us almost $300,000 a year in operating costs,” Schlutt said. “With a $1 million cut, that was an easy decision to make because that was 30 percent of the cut. But my goals was to try to eliminate, or rather save as many staff and faculty position s that we have as possible.”

The Anchorage office also will also change in focus, converting from a district office into an “outreach center.”

Classes still will be available, but taught by grant-funded faculty and staff. Among them is an invasive plants instructor, an integrated pest management technician and nutrition educator.

The five Extension agents in Anchorage will no longer be on staff.

Three of them will move to vacant positions at the Fairbanks and Soldotna offices. The fourth is transferring to the MatSu office in Palmer, while the fifth is retiring.

Schlutt said the Extension also wants to modernize distance learning, through mobile and video conferencing technology. Most of their clientele is over 45 years old, and Schlutt wants to attract a younger crowd.

“(The new clientele group) is not as prone to do face-to-face workshops, conferences, that kind of thing. They like to take courses that are offered online when they have time in their lives to do that. And they’re also very attached to, whether it’s a cell phone, an iPad, technology,” Schlutt said. “We really need to make that change, because we really have been using the same delivery method for 86 years in Alaska.”

For fiscal year 2017, the Cooperative Extension was cut by $1 million. To absorb that cut, the program also laid off a half-dozen staff members, reduced contracts and cut down travel and operating expenses.

Despite the depth of the cut, Schlutt is pleased the program found a way to maintain the Sitka and Anchorage locations. He added that, with FY18 budget cuts unknown, the Cooperative Extension may face future shortfalls.

Founded in 1930, the UAF Cooperative Extension Services has a particular focus on food security and safety.

“How can we become more self sustainable by teaching people how to grow more of their own food supply? You can look at health issues, obesity, diabetes, the work that we do there. I think Alaska needs us more than ever before,” Schlutt said.

The Cooperative Extension has nine offices and up to 90 staff members in the summer months.

A Ketchikan native and 2008 Kayhi graduate is participating in a training program that transforms U.S. Navy officers into Navy pilots in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Ensign Mari Freitag, a student naval aviator with the “Rangers” Training Squadron that operates the T-6 Texan II aircraft, attended the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, studying political science and justice.

During her last semester, she took flying lessons and decided she wanted to be a pilot. She considered several avenues to achieve that goal, Freitag said.

“I was trying to explore which route I could take to be a pilot, and which one I thought I would like the most, and I ended up settling on the military – the aviation side of everything,” she said. “I applied to both the Air Force and the Navy and I eventually settled on choosing the Navy. Mostly because I like the idea of landing on ships because it seems really hard and so I wanted the challenge.”

Freitag always wanted to be a police officer, and feels the aviation side of the military combined her two passions – justice and flying.

“I honestly didn’t know I wanted to be a pilot, but looking back on my life – flying in floatplanes in Ketchikan with Ernie (Meloche), the ER doctor – it makes sense looking back on it all now,” she said. “It was this weird path towards being a pilot. And while I was getting my private pilot’s license, it just became very clear to me that’s what I wanted to do with my life.”

Freitag started her training in Pensacola, Florida, with aviation pre-indoctrination, a six-week ground school class.

She is currently in the second phase of her training, flying the T-6 Texan II.

“It’s a turbo-prop aircraft. It’s pretty awesome. I’m very lucky to be able to fly it. The part of the program I’m in now, primary, lasts about six months.”

Freitag says after six months she’ll be scored.

That score will determine what type of aircraft she’ll fly in the next phase of her training. If she scores high enough, then she can train to fly jets.

It will be a year-and-a-half to two years before she gets her wings,” Freitag said. She says she committed to eight years with the Navy after she completes training, but plans to stay in longer.

“I’ve been told if you do the absolute best you possibly can at your job, the Navy will never tell you what to do, but it’s a lot of work. I love my job so far. I love being in the Navy. So I’d like to work as hard as I can for the mission, the Navy, and to, hopefully, stay in. My goal is, honestly, to retire in the Navy, so serve at least 20 years.”

Freitag says success in the Navy is due to luck, timing and hard work.

She has been in the Navy less than a year, and doesn’t know what the future holds, but Freitag says she eventually hopes to become a fighter pilot.