UAF photo by Eric Engman.
A rainbow appears over the UAF Troth Yeddha' Campus on the afternoon of June 4, 2024.
By Sam Bishop
Moore and Bartlett halls upgraded
Moore and Bartlett residence halls, UAF’s largest, reopened this fall after a comprehensive renovation.
“All 322 rooms have new flooring, lighting and furniture,” reported Cameron Wohlford, director of UAF’s Design and Construction Division, in a June 7 column in UAF’s Cornerstone newsletter.
Restrooms and showers were completely replaced, he noted. The Moore and Bartlett laundries got new energy- and water-saving appliances, and Bartlett’s was moved up from the basement to the ground floor.
Both halls first opened in the latter half of the 1960s. They’d been updated since, but not recently.
“When I visited Moore Hall just before renovations started in May of last year, the space was exactly as I remembered it [as a student] 30 years prior,” Wohlford noted.
That has all changed with the $32 million renovation.
The updates “align with the evolving needs and expectations of today’s students,” said Owen Guthrie, vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management, in a July 2023 Cornerstone column as the work began.
As of September 2024, the project was complete, and the students moved in.
Bettisworth North Architects and HZA Engineering designed the improvements, and GHEMM Co. did the work.
Summer flowers in late July brighten the south wall of the entrance to Moore and Bartlett residence halls, which underwent major renovations during the past year.
Logan Hammersland with the UAF Division of Design and Construction talks about the new laundry facilities on July 23, 2024, in Bartlett Hall, one of two residence halls that underwent major renovations during the past year.
Abdullahi Mohamed.
Hoopster men top Seawolves after 20 years
When the Alaska Nanooks men’s basketball team traveled to Anchorage in early February 2024, more than 20 years had passed since they’d beaten the UA Anchorage Seawolves in that city.
They broke the streak Feb. 3 with a 65-49 win.
It was the first victory in Anchorage over UAA since Feb. 22, 2003, when the Nanooks won 73-70.
Abdullahi Mohamed led the Nanooks with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Overall, the Nanooks finished the 2024 season with eight wins and 18 losses.
Student Success Center emerges in library
A high-pitched whine filled Constitution Plaza in June and July as a concrete saw cut into the west and south sides of the Rasmuson Library. The noise came as contractors worked to create the new Student Success Center on the library’s sixth floor.
The $9 million center brings together multiple UAF units that help students thrive and graduate.
Students can find tutors and advisors all in one location. Testing services are housed here. So are the math lab and the writing and speaking centers.
The new layout, replacing the long rows of books, features modern finishes and furniture. A family study room serves students with children.
And natural light is invited in: Those noisy concrete saws removed several panels so they could be replaced with glass.
“The space aims to be a useful, attractive and inclusive area for students, filled with color and providing increased natural light by using high open spaces,” said Cameron Wohlford, director of UAF’s Design and Construction Division, in a June 7 column in UAF’s Cornerstone newsletter.
Construction began in August 2023 and students were using the space by the end of August 2024. A grand opening was held Sept. 19.
The project designer was Bettisworth North Architects, and the main contractor was GHEMM Co.
New windows above the west entrance to the Rasmuson Library replace the original concrete panels, which matched those visible to either side of the windows in this photograph from late July 2024.
Contractor employees work on the Rasmuson Library sixth floor renovations for the Student Success Center on July 23, 2024.
A contractor employee works on new windows on the sixth floor of the Rasmuson Library during renovations for the new Student Success Center in July 2024.
Frank Ostanik coaches the Monroe Catholic High School Rams during a game.
A Nanook returns to coach basketball
Frank Ostanik ’93 was named head men’s basketball coach in June.
Ostanik previously was head coach from 2004-2007 and an assistant coach for the eight years before that. He played for the Nanooks from 1990-1992.
Ostanik spent the past 16 years at the Catholic schools in Fairbanks, serving first as the high school basketball coach and athletics director. He then was overall director of the Catholic schools’ pre-K to 12th grade system for the past two years.
Rural college gets a new name
The College of Rural and Community Development is now the College of Indigenous Studies. The UA Board of Regents unanimously approved the name change at its May 23 meeting in Anchorage.
“The regents’ approval of the UAF College of Indigenous Studies represents more than a simple renaming,” said UAF Chancellor Dan White. “It’s essential to strengthening our international leadership in Alaska Native and Indigenous research and education.”
The college will eventually be housed in the new Troth Yeddha’ Indigenous Studies Center, to be built adjacent to the UA Museum of the North.
Members of the Iñu-Yupiaq Dance Group pose in the Wood Center after their workshop during the 2023 Indigenous Peoples Day, a community event hosted by the College of Indigenous Studies. From left are Alliyah Nay, Naatanii Mayo, Cavelila Wonhola and Sonni Shavings.
Elli Spencer.
Perfect score leads Nanooks rifle team to bronze
For only the second time in history, a shooter scored a perfect 600 at the NCAA Rifle Championships. And, for the second time, the shooter was an Alaska Nanook.
Elli Spencer accomplished the unusual feat March 9 while shooting in the air rifle competition in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Spencer’s score helped the Nanooks finish third in the nation at the 2024 championships, behind first-place Texas Christian University and second-place West Virginia University.
“Shooting a 600 in any match is incredible. Shooting it at the NCAA championships as a freshman is literally unheard of and is a huge milestone,” coach Will Anti said.
Steel bridge team takes fourth in nation
UAF’s team placed fourth overall in the 2024 Student Steel Bridge Competition national finals on June 1 in Louisiana.
The competition, sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction, brought together students from 49 universities to assemble their scaled steel bridges.
The UAF College of Engineering and Mines team’s bridge dominated in efficiency and stiffness, taking first and second place respectively in those ranking categories.
UAF’s team also placed first in the Pacific Northwest regional contest, April 6-7, in Vancouver, B.C.
Members of the UAF steel bridge competition team pose outside the Usibelli Building. In the back row, from left, are Wilhelm Muench, Lucas Gomes, Porter Baffrey, Jerry Carroll and Cody Hernandez Farr. In the front row, from left, are Janet Felix, Iza Lepkowski, Lori Houghton, Darya Kholodova, Jenna Hernandez, Haylie Cortez and Dani Klebesadel.
A visitor reads one of the new interpretive signs at the site of the 2021 Yankovich Road Fire.
Interpretive trail on campus explains wildfire
A new interpretive trail opened July 11 at the 2021 Yankovich Road Fire site, where 3.5 acres on UAF’s forested North Campus burned within 100 yards of a neighborhood.
The Wildfire Walk educates visitors about the fire site through nine interpretive signs describing the relationship between wildfire and the boreal forest, fire science and climate change, and wildfire prevention.
The trailhead is located at the Large Animal Research Station parking lot at 2220 Yankovich Road.
Siberian tiger’s remains arrive at museum
The body of a 500-pound Siberian tiger that died at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage has arrived at the UA Museum of the North, where its skin and bones are being preserved for future research.
Consulting the labeled bones could help scientists identify similar bones from extinct big cats once found in Alaska.
“Having the whole large cat skeleton gives us a reference for species IDs and fragmentary parts,” said Aren Gunderson, who manages the mammal collection at the museum. “We preserve the skin and skeleton as parts we can loan for science and education purposes.”
Aren Gunderson of the UA Museum of the North inspects the back paw of a Siberian tiger donated recently by officials of the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage after the tiger died at age 19.
A rocket launches from Poker Flat Research Range in April 2024. The rocket carried the High Resolution Coronal Imager instrument, part of NASA's sounding rocket program to investigate solar flares.
Poker Flat sends off four major rockets in 2023-2024
Two Black Brant IX sounding rockets launched moments apart from Poker Flat Research Range on April 17 to gather data about a moderate-sized solar flare.
The UAF Geophysical Institute owns and operates Poker Flat under a contract with NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
Range Director Kathe Rich said the 2023-24 season was unusual because it featured launches in November and April rather than in the months between.
“Fall launches have never been done at Poker Flat, mostly because the fall months are generally so cloudy,” she said of the two November launches.
The April launches occurred during daytime, also something different for the Poker Flat crew. Launches usually occur in the dark for aurora research.
Private foundation funds pavilion for Bus 142
A $125,000 donation from the Christopher Johnson McCandless Memorial Foundation will allow the UA Museum of the North to construct an open-air pavilion for the display of Bus 142, made famous by the book and film, “Into the Wild.”
The 800-square-foot pavilion will be built in the boreal forest behind the museum, with access during museum hours via a wheelchair-accessible trail.
Bus 142 is moved out of the UAF engineering building's high bay into secure storage following completion of conservation work.
Student Caleb Fronek, the nanosatellite project manager, holds the retrodirective and UHF antennas. The avionics test stack is on the tabletop.
Air Force picks UAF students to build nanosatellite
A team of UAF students will build a satellite the size of a bread loaf to show that communications technology from large satellites can be packed into a small space and deliver much more data.
UAF’s team was the only one among 10 universities to advance in the Air Force’s University Nanosatellite Program. UAF will receive $419,690 to deliver the satellite to the Air Force. The team hopes to be ready in fall of 2025.
Students will operate the satellite if it passes a variety of tests and is successfully deployed in space.
Drone makes first-of-kind flight: Nenana to Fairbanks
Alaska’s leading public uncrewed aircraft program flew a drone from the Nenana airport and landed at Fairbanks International Airport in September 2023.
The flight, conducted by UAF’s Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration, was the first in Alaska of a drone departing one airport and arriving at a controlled airport.
ACUASI’s SeaHunter aircraft touched down at the Fairbanks airport’s general aviation area at about 11:15 a.m. on Sept. 8 after making the 45-mile flight from Nenana.
The SeaHunter drone of the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration flies to Fairbanks International Airport from Nenana on Sept. 8, 2023.
Kendall Kramer finishes the 6-kilometer race in first place at the NCAA West Region Championships in Monmouth, Oregon, in November 2024.
Women’s cross-country team secures fifth in region
The Alaska Nanooks women’s cross-country running team finished fifth among 24 teams in the NCAA Division II West Regional Championship on Nov. 4, led by Kendall Kramer’s first-place finish in the 6-kilometer race.
Kramer won in 20:29.8, her career best in a 6K. Rosie Fordham finished sixth overall with a time of 20:57.3. Naomi Bailey, the previous year’s West regional champion, finished 19th with a time of 21:32.3.
Kramer and Fordham then represented UAF at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships on Nov. 18 in Joplin, Missouri. They placed 23rd and 36th respectively and both earned All-American status, the first time UAF has had a duo recognized with that honor in the national championships.
Ski team takes sixth in Nordic events at nationals
The Alaska Nanooks ski team took sixth place among 18 teams in the Nordic events at the NCAA Skiing Championships in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, in early March.
The Nanooks were anchored by the women’s team. Rosie Fordham took sixth place in the freestyle 7.5-kilometer race on the first day of Nordic competition, with a finish time of 22:51.5. Kendall Kramer finished 13th, in 23:19.1. Two days later, Kramer took sixth place in the 20K classic race in 1:02:51.5 and Mariel Pulles took eighth in 1:03:42.8.
In men’s Nordic races on the first day, Christopher Kalev posted a 17th-place finish in the 7.5K freestyle with a time of 20:28.2. Ben Dohlby finished in 20:28.9 for 18th. Two days later, the men’s team saw a 12th place 57:06.0 finish by Mike Ophoff in the 20K classic and a 14th-place 57:46.0 finish from Kalev.
While UAF was sixth in Nordic events, it was ninth in the scoring of all events at the national championship because it doesn’t field a downhill ski team. The University of Colorado took the overall national ski title, while the University of Utah and the University of Denver were second and third, respectively.
Rosie Fordham races for the Alaska Nanooks.
First place finishes boost swim team to seventh in conference
The Alaska Nanooks swim team finished seventh in the 2024 Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference Championships, boosted with wins by Tori Shoemaker in the 1,650-yard freestyle and Charlotte Fletcher-Stables in the 100-yard backstroke.
The championships, held Feb. 14-17 in Monterey Park, California, featured 15 teams and 145 swimmers in the women’s field.
Shoemaker finished first in 17:24.28, nearly three seconds faster than the next competitor, in the 1,650-yard freestyle.
Charlotte Fletcher-Stables swam the 100-yard backstroke to victory in 55.17. That was fast enough to qualify her for the national NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships in Geneva, Ohio, where she placed 29th.
Charlotte Fletcher-Stables.
Tori Shoemaker.