Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
1/20/12
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The University of Alaska Fairbanks financial aid office is offering a full day of free seminars to increase financial literacy among current and future university students.

Financial Sense Day will take place Wednesday, Feb. 1 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Wood Center on the UAF campus. It will include workshops and seminars designed to help students pay for school, create a budget, file for taxes and deal with other financial responsibilities. There will also be two evening sessions at the UAF Community and Technical College in downtown Fairbanks: “Paying for College” at 6 p.m. and “Discover You Money Personality” at 7 p.m. All seminars are free and open to the public.

Sessions begin at 9 a.m. There are four sessions during the day with several to choose from each hour. Some panels are offered more than once. This is the third year the financial aid office has held the event.

9 a.m. panels include: “Living on Less,” “Money Skills,” “Money Management Tools”

10:15 a.m. panels include: “Paying for College,” “Understanding Personal Finance”

11:30 a.m. panels include: “Writing a Scholarship Essay,” “Getting Out of Debt”

12:45 p.m. panels include: “Money Realities,” “Tax Filing”

From noon – 2 p.m., financial aid experts will also be on hand to help students complete financial aid applications and the FAFSA. The computer lab at CTC will be open from 6 – 8 p.m. for the same purpose.

ADDITIONAL CONTACT:  Ashley Munro at 907-474-1934 or via email at [email protected].

ON THE WEB: http://www.uaf.edu/finaid/

NW/1-30-12/146-12

Darcy Harrod
907-455-2878
11/10/11

Fifteen students will graduate from the 21st session of the UAF Community and Technical College Law Enforcement Academy, Friday, Nov. 11, at 1 p.m. at the Alaska Centennial Center for the Arts in Pioneer Park.

The graduation marks the culmination of the 13-week academy, which is offered twice a year. The academy is designed to provide students with basic police training, which enables them to receive the Alaska Police Standards Certification. The certification makes them eligible for employment with the 21 state law enforcement agencies or 43 municipal police departments within Alaska.

This session’s students come from all over Alaska and the Lower 48, including Homer, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Nulato, Washington, Minnesota, Montana and New York. The class speaker is Alice Williams with the Petersburg Police Department.

The ceremony brings the total number of academy graduates to 359 since August 2001. The next session of the academy begins Feb. 13, 2012.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Dusty Johnson, CTC law enforcement academy program coordinator, at 907-455-2811 or via email at [email protected].

ON THE WEB: http://www.tvc.uaf.edu/programs/lawacad/index.html

DH/11-10-100/107-12

Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
11/10/11

The University of Alaska Fairbanks will host a workshop to familiarize people with the draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The event will begin at 7 p.m, Nov. 11 in Room 208 of the Gruening Building on the UAF campus. Speakers will offer information on ANWR history and public land management, as well as insight on how to offer input on the future of ANWR.

The event is sponsored by the Northern Studies Student Club at UAF and is free and open to the public. Space is limited, so arrive early.

MEDIA CONTACT: Marmian Grimes, UAF public information officer, at 907-474-7902 or via email at [email protected].

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UAF photo by Theresa Bakker
A giant spider hangs in the window as the University of Alaska Museum of the North prepares for its Halloween open house.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks will host several Halloween events this weekend. All of the events are open to the public. Parking at UAF is free on the weekends and after 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Halloween at the University of Alaska Museum of the North
Monday, Oct. 31, 4-7 p.m. – UA Museum of the North

Costumed superheroes, zombies and scary monsters of all kinds are invited to see bones and bugs, bats and birds in the museum’s research labs and explore the galleries. The event is for children ages 12 and under with adult chaperones. Admission is free with a donation of canned food for the Fairbanks Community Food Bank.
  Information: 474-7505

Wood Center’s Family Halloween Bash
Saturday, Oct. 29, 4-6 p.m, – Wood Center
Wood Center will host a full slate of activities for children 12 and under with adult supervision, including Mars vs. Aliens Bowling, Space Walk, Fishing in Space, Rocket Launch and more. Goodie bags and prizes will be given out. Admission is free with a canned food donation to the Fairbanks Community Food Bank. 
Information: 474-7037

Chilling Children’s Carnival and Trick-or-Treating
Saturday, Oct. 29, 5-8 p.m. – Moore-Bartlett-Skarland Complex
UAF Residence Life will host trick-or-treating and a Halloween carnival. The carnival will take place from 5-8 p.m. in the Hess Rec Center and will include a variety of activities and games. Trick-or-treating in Moore and Bartlett Halls will run from 6-7:30 p.m. Trick-or-treaters should meet in the lobby and will be escorted through the buildings by volunteers. Admission is free.
Information: 474-7247

NW/10-25-11/095-12

Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
10/24/11

University of Alaska Fairbanks computer science students are now accepting proposals for software design projects for class.

The projects allow students to gain real-world experience while local government, public service and private organizations gain software free of charge. Typical prices for commercial custom software development projects done annually by UAF students can be up to $40,000. The projects often require more than 650 hours of development per team of three to five students.

Students have developed more than 65 successful projects over the last two decades. In previous years, students have created software for organizations like Love INC, Fairbanks North Star Borough, City of North Pole, Bureau of Land Management, Fairbanks Taxi, University of Alaska Museum of the North, and the National Weather Service.

Each completed project has presented student teams with a new set of challenges. Project clients are partners in the educational process by working with students to clarify requirements and being involved in the evaluation of the student project outcomes.

Review of submissions will begin Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. The final deadline for submissions is Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Submissions can be made by email to [email protected] or by regular mail to: Department of Computer Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 756670, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6670. Proposals should include a basic description of your organization’s needs and contact information. Direct phone inquiries to 907-474-2777.

MG/10-24-11/092-12

Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
10/5/11

An anthology penned by writers from rural Alaska recently won three national book awards, while its co-editors, University of Alaska Fairbanks professors John Creed and Susan Andrews, were honored for their cultural journalism project.

“Purely Alaska: Authentic Voices from the Far North,” features stories from 23 rural Alaska writers. The anthology, published by Epicenter Press, won a bronze medal in Foreward Magazine’s 2011 Book of the Year competition, a second-place award in the nonfiction anthology category of the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Benjamin Franklin Book Awards and an honorable mention in the Eric Hoffer Awards for Short Prose & Independent Books’ culture category.

“Purely Alaska” is a follow-up to “Authentic Alaska: Voices of Its Native Writers.” Both anthologies have their roots in Creed and Andrews’ cultural journalism project, Chukchi News & Information Service, which was founded in Kotzebue in 1988. The project works with UAF Chukchi Campus students and helps them get their work published in local newspapers and statewide news websites. The Alaska Professional Communicators recognized Creed and Andrews for their work on the project.

Contributors to “Purely Alaska” include Andrews and Creed, Steve Werle, Noatak; Iva Baker, Kotzebue; R.A. Dillon, Kotzebue; Nancy Berkey, Thorne Bay; Marcus Miller, Haines; Karl Puckett, Kotzebue; Burtov Haviland, Jr., Kotzebue; Amy Reisland-Speer, Denali National Park; Gina Pope, Kokhanok; Joli Morgan, Bethel; Sonja Whitethorn, Petersburg; Lucy Nuqarrluk Daniels, Golovin; China Kantner, Kotzebue; Steve Pilz, Ambler; Emma Snyder, Kotzebue; Robert Andrews, Haines; Kathryn Lenniger, Nenana; Wilma Payne, McGrath; Terry Wilson, Nome; Al Bowling, Deering; and Katie Cruthers, Kotzebue.

Creed and Andrews will be signing copies of their books Friday, Oct. 7 from 6-10 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble on East Northern Lights Boulevard in Anchorage.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: John Creed at [email protected] or Susan Andrews at [email protected].

NW/10-5-11/084-12

Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
9/28/11

The University of Alaska Fairbanks will host a free open house for high school juniors and seniors and their parents on Friday, Oct. 28 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This event, dubbed UAF Inside Out, is designed to introduce prospective students to the university.

Participants will receive in-depth information on financial aid, the admission process, classes, college life, extracurricular opportunities and academic programs.

Registration is required and space is limited to 75 students. For more information and to register, visit www.uaf.edu/admissions/insideout or call 907-474-7500.

ON THE WEB:  www.uaf.edu/admissions/insideout

NW/9-28-11/078-12

Amy Hartley
907-474-5823
9/26/11

Located at the top of the globe, beneath the Arctic Ocean, the Amerasia Basin is poorly understood. This large depression in the ocean floor was created during the Mesozoic Era, the age of the dinosaurs, but how the tectonic plates shifted to open up and create the basin remains a puzzle. Professor Bernard Coakley and a 12-person crew currently aboard the research vessel Marcus G. Langseth hope to find the fossil plate boundaries associated with the basin and recreate the birth of this mysterious feature.

Coakley, a marine geologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, is the chief scientist on the cruise. By email from the ship, Coakley explained how the crew is collecting seismic reflection data on the sedimentary make-up of the seafloor in a specific transect of the ocean. “We already have good information. If things continue as they have so far, we will be able to collect the complete grid I’ve laid out and probably have some time left for additional work.”

UAF undergraduates Emily Decker and Grant Cain and two UAF doctoral candidates, Ibrahim Ilhan and Melissa Johnson, are assisting Coakley on this project. UAF alumnus Dayton Dove is serving as the co-chief scientist on the cruise. The crew work 12-hour shifts and data collection is going well. Coakley said the crew is getting along marvelously, despite the close quarters and the repetitive nature of the work.

“‘Groundhog Day’ is a movie people cite for life onboard,” Coakley wrote. “The routine is the same every day. The things you do and when you do them don’t move around very much. Only the data change.”

The research cruise began when the ship, the Marcus G. Langseth, left Dutch Harbor, Alaska Sept. 6. It will run until Oct. 10. During the cruise, Coakley is posting frequent updates from the ship on The New York Times’ blog Scientist at Work. You can read Coakley’s posts at http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/author/bernard-coakley/.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Bernard Coakley, professor of marine geophysics, at 907-474-5385 or via email at [email protected].

AH/9-26-11/076-12

UAF photo by Todd Paris
Contestants compete in the log roll competition during the Farthest North Forest Sports Festival.

If you’ve got what it takes to compete in old-time woodsmen skills, mark your calendar for Oct. 1. The day’s itinerary includes ax throwing, log rolling, bow saw and crosscut sawing, fire building and more when the 14th annual Farthest North Forest Sports Festival occurs at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Everyone is welcome to participate as individuals or as teams of four to six. Observers are also invited to this free event. Awards will be granted to individuals, teams and the “Bull of the Woods” and “Belle of the Woods.”

Faculty members and students at UAF’s Department of Forest Sciences developed the competition as a way to commemorate old-fashioned forest festivals. While high-technology tools are the norm for forest professionals in today’s world, the festival pays tribute to a time when traditional woods activities were the basis for work and play, survival and revival.

The morning events begin at 10 a.m. at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm fields across from the Georgeson Botanical Garden. At 1 p.m. the games move to Ballaine Lake on Farmers Loop. A warming fire and hot drinks will be available at the lake. Participants are advised to dress warmly.

The festival is sponsored by the UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences Department of Forest Sciences and the Resource Management Society, a student organization.

CONTACT: David Valentine at 907-474-7188 or [email protected].

NT/9-23-11/075-12

Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
9/21/11

This weekend, the University of Alaska Fairbanks will celebrate Starvation Gulch.

The annual fall tradition includes a bonfire competition, when students use wooden pallets to build the most creative fire with the highest flame.

Businesses or community members who would like to donate pallets or who have questions or concerns should contact the UAF Student Activities Office at 907-474-6026.

Bonfire-building will take place Saturday, Sept. 24th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Taku Parking Lot. The bonfires will be lit at 10 p.m. and the event will include music, booths and a barbecue. The public is invited to attend.

For a complete list of events, visit www.uaf.edu and click on the link.

ON THE WEB: http://www.uaf.edu/woodcenter/activities/traditions/starvation/schedule/

NW/9-19-11/072-12