Campuses
The 2,250-acre Fairbanks campus offers limitless opportunities for activity and recreation. The main campus has two lakes and miles of trails as well as a major student recreation complex for indoor sports. Facilities are available for basketball, volleyball, badminton, tennis, calisthenics, dance, gymnastics, judo and karate. There are rifle and pistol ranges; courts for handball, racquetball and squash; a jogging track; a swimming pool; weight training and modern fitness equipment areas; an ice arena for recreational skating and hockey; a special aerobics area; and a two-story climbing wall. UAF sponsors intercollegiate athletic teams in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country running and skiing, coed rifle, men's ice hockey and women's volleyball and swimming.
The Wood Center is the focus of many extracurricular activities. With a pub, snack bar, food court, bowling lanes, conference rooms, lounge and games area, the Wood Center is a gathering place for the entire university community.
UAF has some of the best facilities in the state. Performances are scheduled almost every weekend during the academic year in Davis Concert Hall or Salisbury Theatre. The Rasmuson Library, Alaska's largest, offers extensive resource materials in print and online. An array of computer databases provides access to hundreds of academic journals, and Internet connections allow students at remote rural sites to use library resources. The UA Museum of the North is not only one of the top visitor attractions in the state but also a resource for students. Its vast collections are used for demonstration and comparative studies in classrooms and labs.
The Fairbanks campus is the statewide university system's principal research center. Internationally respected institutes provide students with an opportunity to see science in action and participate in research activities.
Fairbanks Area
Fairbanks, Alaska's second largest city, sits on the banks of the Chena River in the heart of Alaska. From the UAF campus, the downtown district is easily accessible via the local bus system and a network of bike trails. The city is steeped in a history of riverboat captains and gold seekers. Its character has been shaped by a large military presence, construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the continuing oil economy, and a thriving university. It is a city where old quietly blends with new. Striking modern buildings sit side-by-side with log cabins built in the early part of the last century.
With a population of more than 97,500, Fairbanks offers the conveniences of a big city, yet millions of acres of rolling hills and spectacular Alaska panoramas are only minutes away. Mount McKinley or Denali (Koyukon Athabascan for "The High One"), the highest mountain in North America, is often visible from many UAF residence hall windows. Whether the sport is canoeing, climbing, running, dog mushing, skiing or fishing, nowhere else compares with Alaska.
Transportation to Fairbanks
Fairbanks is easily accessible by land or air. Anchorage is 365 miles away via the Parks Highway or the Alaska Railroad, and Seattle is 2,300 miles away via the Alaska Highway. Major airlines offer several daily flights between Fairbanks and Anchorage, Seattle and many other destinations.
The Alaska Railroad provides a special one-way fare between Anchorage and Fairbanks for all full-time UAF students in summer or regular sessions. Students must ask for the special rate when making reservations and present their student ID to the ticket agent at check-in. For reservations, contact the Alaska Railroad at 907-458-6025 or 800-544-0552.
Community Campuses
In addition to its main Fairbanks campus, UAF has community and rural campuses in downtown Fairbanks, Bethel, Dillingham, Kotzebue and Nome, and maintains six community centers through its Interior-Aleutians Campus in Fairbanks. These branches, part of the College of Rural and Community Development, are central to fulfilling the UAF mission of providing educational opportunities throughout the state. Credits earned at any UAF campus or center are recognized at all UAF campuses, meaning that students may change campuses and transfer all UA credits.
For more information about the College of Rural and Community Development, visit www.uaf.edu/rural/.
Bristol Bay Campus in Dillingham
The Bristol Bay Campus is situated in a 55,000-square-mile region bounded by Bristol Bay, the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The administrative center is located in Dillingham (about 322 air miles from Anchorage and 570 air miles from Fairbanks) with centers in King Salmon, Togiak and Iliamna. The Bristol Bay Campus serves 32 rural communities as far south as Ivanoff Bay, into the north at Port Alsworth, and west to Togiak.
Enrollment at Bristol Bay Campus ranges from 500 to 800 students. The campus offers an associate of arts degree in general studies and associate of applied science degrees in applied business, community health, early childhood education, human services, information technology, interdisciplinary studies, office management and technology and renewable resources. Bachelor's degrees are offered in elementary education, interdisciplinary studies, rural development and social work. Master's degrees are offered in rural development and education.
The Bristol Bay Campus also provides educational opportunities for the communities within its service area, including vocational-technical, community interest and graduate courses. Classes are offered by distance delivery (audio-conference, video-teleconference, correspondence or Internet) and by instructors using traditional methods. For more information, visit www.uaf.edu/bbc/.
The Chukchi Campus is located 26 miles north of the Arctic Circle on the shores of the Chukchi Sea. The campus serves Kotzebue and 10 villages in a region of more than 36,000 square miles. Chukchi offers associate of arts as well as associate of applied science degrees, and courses leading to baccalaureate degrees in education, rural development and social work. Courses are offered by local instructors and through the College of Rural and Community Development audio-conferencing and live Internet instructional systems. For more information, visit www.uaf.edu/chukchi/.
Community and Technical College Campus in Fairbanks
The Community and Technical College fulfills UAF's community college mission in the greater Fairbanks area by offering quality certificate, degree and specialized training programs. Its core purpose is to provide community-driven education to meet needs for workforce development, academic preparation and lifelong learning. CTC helps prepare Alaskans for Alaska's jobs.
CTC offers more than 40 certificate and degree programs such as allied health and nursing, process technology, applied business and accounting, paramedic and law enforcement academies, information technology, fire science, aviation, and early childhood education.
CTC benefits from strong partnerships with local employers in business, industry and organized labor. Many CTC faculty come from active workplace settings, ensuring that CTC students learn from people at the forefront of their professions.
Many CTC classes are held during evenings or weekends; the campus also offers a growing array of courses online. CTC specializes in meeting the needs of non-traditional students who have been away from college or whose work and family obligations make full-time student status challenging as well as traditional students entering college for the first time.
CTC's main campus is located at 604 Barnette Street in downtown Fairbanks. At the Student Assistance and Advising Center, students can receive academic advising, register and pay for classes, and take placement tests.
Additional CTC locations in Fairbanks and other communities include:
- Automotive Technology Center: 3202 Industrial Ave.
- Bunnell House Early Childhood Lab School: 703 Chatanika Dr.
- Cosmetology Center: 505 Old Steese Highway
- Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center: 3600 Cartwright Ct.
- Hutchison Institute of Technology: 3750 Geist Rd.
- University Park Building: 1000 University Ave.
- Offices on Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base
- Partnership office at Delta Career Advancement Center in Delta Junction
For more information contact CTC at 907-455-2800 or visit www.ctc.uaf.edu.
The Interior-Aleutians Campus in Fairbanks serves 61 towns and villages within the Doyon region and the Aleutians/Pribilof Islands, an area of about 200,000 square miles. The Interior-Aleutians Campus is the most decentralized of the UAF campuses. Although the director's office and some faculty are located in Fairbanks, there are Interior-Aleutians Campus centers in Fort Yukon, Galena, McGrath, Nenana, Tok and Unalaska. Courses are offered throughout the region via distance delivery, on site by local or visiting instructors, and by correspondence. The campus offers a range of degree programs, including associate of arts and associate of applied science in construction trades technology, educator: para-professional, rural human services, tribal management and veterinary science. Programs for math success and support for future teachers are also available. For more information, visit www.uaf.edu/iac/.
The Kuskokwim Campus is located in Bethel, and serves approximately 25,000 people in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region of the state, which includes 47 remote Alaska Native Yup'ik and Cup'ik Eskimo and Athabaskan villages with 56 tribes in a 57,000 square-mile-area the size of Illinois. Bethel is a community of about 6,000 people 80 miles inland on the Kuskokwim River. The Kuskokwim Campus offers academic, vocational and community interest courses, as well as courses leading to associate, baccalaureate and master's degrees, including a bachelor's degree in Yup'ik language and culture. The Emerging Scholars Program is designed to assist all full-time freshmen in the transition to college, both academically and socially, and in the completion of certificates and degrees. The campus also sponsors one-week summer "Talent Search" programs to prepare incoming students for college. Students may attend classes on campus and through distance delivery. Housing on campus is available in Sackett Hall, which provides suites with space for four students in each. For more information, visit www.bethel.uaf.edu.
Northwest Campus is located in Nome, a community of 3,500 that is the service hub for the 15 villages of the Bering Strait region. This 44,000-square-mile region extends from Shishmaref on the northern edge of the Seward Peninsula to Stebbins on the southern rim of Norton Sound. It includes communities on St. Lawrence and Little Diomede islands. The area contains 570 miles of coastline, which includes all of Norton Sound and portions of the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean.
The Northwest Campus serves a total population of nearly 10,000. Certificates and associate, bachelor's and master's degrees are offered to the region's residents, with courses taught both traditionally and by distance delivery. Affiliated learning centers are located in the communities of Shishmaref, Savoonga, St. Michael and Unalakleet. The campus responds to vocational, business development, cultural preservation and academic needs of the Bering Strait region. Many courses, programs and degrees are offered in cooperation with regional health and tribal organizations, school districts and corporations. For more information, visit www.nwc.uaf.edu.
UAF has been a leader since 1963 in offering courses and programs for students throughout Alaska and the world. The Center for Distance Education offers more than 170 courses in 43 disciplines. About 90 percent of the courses are offered online -- often called e-learning -- and 55 percent are offered as print-based independent learning courses; many are offered both ways. Internet-based e-learning provides an opportunity for students to further their education without the constraint of classroom attendance or, in some cases, the traditional semester time period. Students are guided through courses using course content developed by university-approved experts and CDE's instructional design team.
For more information, see Independent Learning on page 41, contact the Center for Distance Education at 2175 University Avenue South in Fairbanks, by phone at 800-277-8060 or 907-479-3444, via email at distance@uaf.edu or at http://distance.uaf.edu.