Editor’s note: This transcript has been edited for clarity.

 

Good afternoon. Please welcome Professor Brian Hall and Ryan Fitzpatrick performing for you.

(Applause)

¶ ¶ (Music playing) ¶ ¶

(Applause)

Wow! and that is the arts that you have! Thank you. I welcome you in the Indigenous language to recognize the importance of the ancestral lands that we inhabit and this land at UAF is on. Thank you. It is appropriate as I think about the way we ended last year with the recognition of Reverend Anna M. Frank with an honorary Ph.D., one of our elders. If you are on campus, thank you for joining us. If you are out in our Fort Yukon campus, thank you for joining us there.

And if you are here in the audience or online, thank you for choosing UAF and thank you for being here.

(Applause)

Ordinarily at convocation what we would do is spend about a third of the time talking about the budget and about a third of the time talking about UAF’s goals and the Board of Regents’ goals. But in the last two months I sent out 30 communications on the budget, and there is a board meeting on Friday and Thursday, which I encourage you to tune into, so today I thought we would expand that third of the time and celebrate who we are at UAF. So thank you for being here and thank you for choosing UAF. We are who we are because of you.

Everyone is welcome at UAF, and as you will see in some of our new signage, we talk more about belonging; everyone is welcome here, but we want everyone to belong here also. This is a place of belonging, and I would like to thank Margo Griffith and her team at the Department of Equity and Compliance for their work in creating a respectful, diverse, inclusive and caring environment, because all of the faculty, staff and students at UAF deserve it.

I would also like to recognize Jessica  Rhoads with the Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities for their efforts on campus wellness. It is important to us all. Thank you. 

Be sure to take your Title IX training. Everyone is required to take their Title IX training by September 30. We are about 50 to 60% complete so please take that. It is important for you and it is important for all of us. It will take you somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour, but it will be time well spent for us all.

This is the third convocation I have done, and I cannot go through it without taking a safety minute.

It is a little different because [I watched some of our people] doing a safety exercise and putting on a survival suit.

It occurred to me as I watched a video of the dean and Sabrina and they were putting on survival suits, but it was a race, and as I watched that race I thought to myself how important would it be to see who is the fastest because I want to know if I have to get off the ship, who I want to get in line behind.

Sabrina is one of the members of our women's basketball team. Thank you.

(Applause)

And here is your vice chancellor.

And I and another volunteer who is willing to jump into a survival suit — we only have 30 minutes for convocation so we will have to keep this moving. Somebody keeps volunteering. Arleigh is shaking his head no. Do we have another basketball player? All right, Arleigh, come on up here and give this a try.

(Applause)

So here is what we are going to do. We are going to need some space. Watch closely because this is a survival safety minute.

Larry has done this before.

What we are going to do first, before the chancellor gives out a scarf — the fastest gets a scarf. Arleigh, go ahead and pick [a suit], and if you are not the fastest, you don't have to keep going until the end. Give up.

(Laughter)

The way this works is we all dump them out and then we get into the suits. Have you seen this? It is a suit and you put it on. Are you guys ready? Are you going to cue the music? 3, 2 ,1, go!

¶ ¶ (Music playing) ¶ ¶

All right.

(Applause)

(Laughter)

All right. Doggone it.

(Applause)

Well done, Sabrina. Congratulations! Here is your scarf. Thank you for participating.

(Applause)

I will just leave my shirt on.

(Laughter)

I am going to put my shoes back on.

So my kids ask me, what is it that you love? Why is it that you love working at the university? (And I tell them we have to have easier exercises.)

I tell them it’s because I get to spend every day with smart people who are dedicated and passionate about their work at the university.

That is really something that I see every single day in this group of people.

These are your vice chancellors and, of course, you have met Larry, our vice chancellor for research.

Dr. Keith Champagne, vice chancellor for student affairs, who is responsible for all the students and their wellness, and also our athletics director responsible for athletics at UAF.

Evon Peter, our vice chancellor, Julie, our vice chancellor for administrative services, and, of course, the provost and vice chancellor. We have a great leadership team.

(Applause)

So thank you to them. They are working hard every day for all of you, faculty, staff and students, and it is an honor and a privilege for me to serve with them. I would like to just go through a few minutes of administrative changes. We have some new people around campus at our rural sites. The first is Stacey Glaser out at our Chukchi Campus in Kotzebue.

Bill Schnabel started as our dean, and Kinchel Doerner, thank you for joining us.

(Applause)

I don't know if you know, I love clapping because it just makes you feel good. So feel free to do that. 

Owen has just been an innovative leader on campus for many years. He’s just taken over as the eCampus director. It used to be called, of course, eLearning and Distance Education, and now it is the eCampus. He is a fearless leader. 

Karen Jensen took over as our director of libraries after the departure of Susan. Karen has really embraced this new effort to make the library a modern student library with student space. We will talk about that a little bit more, but with a student services environment where all students can go and get various services at one place. That has been a colossal effort over the summer, and we appreciate her for that. 

Adam Watson, our new PAIR director, thank you, Adam for joining the team.

Brian has big shoes to fill. Brian Uher, filling in for Mary Ann, is our acting dean, and we appreciate his efforts. 

Milan Shipka already had a job, and he is now also the acting director of our Cooperative Extension.

Jessica  Rhoads, I mentioned earlier, is the director for student rights and responsibilities. Jessica has a great team and they are caring for our students so thank you for you and your role here at UAF. Linda Curda, with the departure of our late Mary Pete, has stepped in as the director of the Bethel campus, and then we had the retirement this year of Bob and Barbara Amarok has stepped in.

Our longtime-serving associate vice chancellor has retired, and Jenny Campbell has stepped into that role. Thank you for that. As Julie came up from associate vice chancellor of finance and into the role of vice chancellor for administrative services, Amanda Wall stepped into her role. 

Kate Ripley joined us as the development and alumni director. Thank you.

(Applause)

For everyone in this room who is a faculty, you are well represented by your Faculty Senate. The current leaders, the president and vice president, they meet frequently and, of course, they meet at the regular Faculty Senate meetings. They're doing a lot of work on behalf of all faculty. Thank you to the Faculty Senate.

(Applause)

Your Staff Council, I saw Carrie, but I don't know if Matt is here. Thank you for being here. This whole Staff Council represents all staff all across this university. The Staff Council is made up of representatives from different units on campus. They have Matthew as your president and Carrie as your vice president. Matthew is also president of the statewide alliance — Staff Alliance — which is all staff across all of the UA system.

Thank you for that work.

(Applause)

Students are represented on this campus by the Associated Students of UAF, and this is a picture — I don't have a picture of all of the students. But this is their president, Bernard, who ...

(Applause)

Bernard does a great job for the students. The vice president is Danny. Thank you, Danny, for your work as well.

We did a strategic planning exercise. I laid out some strategic planning goals, and this group had teams working on that for the better part of the year. It was led by the executive officer, Nickole Connolly. They presented their initial results of the strategic planning exercise at a strategic planning forum and this is the picture for that.

I want to recognize Alex Hirsch. In addition to being our fearless leader of our Honors College, our Honors Program has been renamed as the Honors College. They did a great job leading the strategic goals, which was modernizing the student experience. 

Dr. Pat Sekaquaptewa, who has led our global leadership with the Alaska Native indigenous studies, Taryn Lopez who led our — I always have to stretch my arm up, it gets us from almost the very top to the very top of researched leadership in the country, and we are almost there — I think that the group came up with some strategies. It is not a great leap to get us from this last little step into the highest level of research universities in the country.

So thank you for your work, Taryn, and the work of the entire team. Peter Webley, I see him. Peter has been an innovative person on this campus for many years, and you will see again in this slide show our transforming our intellectual property and commercialization enterprise. 

One of the things that is most important on this campus is our culture of respect, diversity, inclusion and caring. Dr. Jesse Young-Robertson led that effort and did a nice job. All of these things and reports are online, and I encourage you to see them.

Jennifer Tilbury, CTC, led the effort on revitalizing the academic program. Thank you to that group for the work that they did and for everyone in here who participated on one of their groups.

I will try to keep going forward because you saw the last one already. But strategic enrollment planning is so important for all of us. It is important for our programs and important for our diversity and inclusiveness, and it is important for our financial bottom line. Enrollment is what makes us a vibrant university. I just recognized Mary Kreta, associate vice chancellor, with this grand effort. They came up with 71 recommendations and there was more than 150 faculty, staff and students that participated, and Mary gave me the list of 71 things that she wanted funded. That is a really long list.

(Applause)

But I think we are going to get through the top 10. I think it was time well spent and it was a valuable effort and I appreciate the 150 people, many of whom are in this room, and all of the effort that went into that because it was important to us currently and a support to our future.

We are going to talk about a few highlights. It seems like I always end up calling out the Alaska Satellite Facility and Dr. Nettie LaBelle-Hamer for her great work because there is so much great work going on there.

This year we got a $50 million grant. We don't get that very often.

But you have to have a lot of confidence. The funding agency has to have a lot of confidence in you to handle $50 million to UAF and her leadership. The whole team warrants that so thank you Nettie and Bob McCoy for that leadership.

The Arctic report card is something that is submitted to Congress every year. The Arctic report card talks about change in the Arctic, the needs in the Arctic. We are the world's leading university in Arctic research. We have not always had a presence in the writing of this report card, but this year we did, and we had seven scientists who contributed to the writing of that important document. It really kind of solidifies the leadership across this country and recognizes that.

So to the scientists — Uma Bhatt, Andy Mahoney, Martha Raynolds, Skip Walker, Rick Thoman, the incomparable John Walsh and Jackie Richter-Menge — thank you for the work in the leadership in this country in Arctic issues.

(Applause)

Some years ago UAF was recognized as a leader in unmanned aircraft. I always like to say that this university has the largest fleet of unmanned aircraft at any university in the country. Dr. Kathy Cahill is the director for the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft and System Integration, and that group is transforming unmanned aircraft to a commercial product. Essentially what happened is with unmanned aircraft, there were hobbyists and there was military and nothing in between, and the FAA needed somebody to figure that space out. That is what Kathy and her team have done. They just started, and they’re the first in the country to do beyond lines-of-sight unmanned aircraft commercial activity.

So congratulations to them. They are the first in the country for this kind of work.

(Applause)

Again, and I will stretch my arm up to show how high we are in our research, almost right at the very tippy top. One of the other things that great universities do is they have university-affiliated research centers. These are centers that the DoD sets up in places they have a lot of confidence in to get funding more quickly to the scientists to do the important work than needs to be done. Curt Szberla and David Fee just got this this year, and it is a $46 million space in which they can work.

So it is up to $46 million that the DoD can put into this. Johns Hopkins has one of these and Johns Hopkins does $4 billion worth of work at the DoD so we are not there, but we are getting there.

That is important.

Another place — yes, let's give them a round of applause.

(Applause)

Another place that great strides have been made — a year ago, year and a half ago we talked about creating the One Health initiative. Dr. Arleigh Reynolds agreed to be the director of that One Health initiative, which has turned into One Health research because one health, think of the Indigenous world, the connection between people and the environment and animals and all of this great research at UAF and student research and health and wellness can plug into to create something bigger at UAF. One Health has taken off. There's been a lot of progress made. This March is going to be the international summit, One Health One Future, and there is a short video that was made. I will just give a shout out to a couple of people that have really contributed to this. Arleigh Reynolds and Michelle Renfrew, they were contributing to this One Health endeavor. We will roll this.

(Video playing)

»: Together, the Indigenous nations, the air, soil, growth, green leaves stretching toward the sun, a rough wind whistling across jagged rocks. Water, freshly melted ice, the urgency of the hunt, the drive to thrive and survive and grow. The wake left behind by the movement of magnificent creatures, the flash of speeds, exploration, innovation, expansion grows. This is all life interconnected. Every creature's survival, our very future made manifest to these dynamic actions.

An interwoven complex web that surrounds and includes every creature, be it human, animal, environmental, each locked in a dance through all time, nothing existing alone. The strength of one enriching another, all suffering when one falls, this universal global dance of cause and effect and cause and effect, interconnected lives, health and being tied together woven into an intricate, delicate balance. Together we grow, all one, one planet, one existence, one health, one future

(Applause).

CHANCELLOR WHITE: Thank you. That is a nice work for our One Health team and they put that together. Stacy Rasmus is another key person in this.

And also the PI of a project on suicide and addiction in our rural communities. It is also with Evon Peter. I will talk about this getting to this last bit of global research. These three have just submitted a MacArthur 101 change in proposal. You have to be at a certain level to submit the proposal. This is a $100 million proposal on One Health and Alaska. They have made it past the first round and they are now in the round of, I think, for 17 in the entire country. This is a really big deal so congratulations. It is a big deal just to submit the proposal so congratulations to Stacy Rasmus, Evon Peter and Arleigh Reynolds.

Also, in the area of One Health, Kelly Drew had her Center for Transformative Research funded by the NIH. That is around $12 million. Brian Barnes had submitted a project renewal that is an NIH program that is about $20 million.

We also had a submission of a renewal of our BLAST program, which is getting underrepresented youth into research, and that is about a $16 million project. These are great, great signs that UAF’s One Health research is making progress and on its way to getting us to that last level.

Just an indication, we had as part of Stacy Rasmus' project, 12 or 14 NIH directors. These are people at the highest level of NIH you want to come here. They wanted to go out to the village of Emmonak, which is one of her budget sights to see what UAF is doing. They were amazed and impressed with all of the work that Stacy and her colleagues were doing so that is also a great sign.

Last year I put this picture up because I noticed that we have at UAF this icebreaker and there was nothing on it that said UAF.

So I hung that flag on it. It is a virtual flag and not a real flag.

And then I got this picture sent to me about six months later.

(Applause)

So now everybody that gets on that ship is part of that nation. Hopefully, they know how to put on the suits better than some of us, but thank you for doing that, to the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. The College of Fisheries also bought a smaller boat and they just named it the Nanuk. I figure they got that message so thank you for doing that.

(Applause)

MOSAic is the biggest project in the Arctic ever. This is a 600-scientist project that is going to freeze a German icebreaker in the ice for an entire year to do the science. We have a team member on that ship. Rob left yesterday to get on that ship. He will be doing chemical work. It is another sign that UAF is right in the middle of this work. I look at the students that are out here. These are works that students can get involved in. The biggest project in the Arctic, 120 million euros is what I think the total value is.

Karen Jensen, I want to shout out for her work, they removed 10,000 volumes from the library, 10,000 volumes that had not been used. They were old and outdated, and they have created new space in the library for students and student activities.

A shout out to the School of Management for putting on a gaming and e-sports summit, part of modernizing our student experience, and something that came out of strategic enrollment planning. Students now are interested in gaming and we want to create a gaming space for them to do that.

Arizona State — I don't know if you have heard of Arizona State on the radio advertising all the time. They are selling products to our high schools and getting all of our high schools to take packages of e-learning courses from Arizona State. Oh, one came up is — you know we are better than them at this and we are here. Are we allowed to compete with Arizona State? And I said yes, absolutely. Fourteen schools now have foregone the Arizona State model and chosen the UAF model for our virtual middle college led by Owen Guthrie and his team at eCampus.

So congratulations, Owen.

(Applause)

Now Rev It Up, this is a great team welcoming students on campus and also all the athletes.

And I see basketball and volleyball and some hockey and some swimming. I cannot see that well, but thanks for all that you did, all of these athletes were out there helping new students move into the dorms, getting them into UAF. It is a great week and if you haven't participated in Rev It Up before, I encourage you to do so.

(Applause)

From the beginning to the end, this is a picture of Hishinlai' Peter, who was a student in linguistics and graduated this spring. Twenty years ago we had four Alaska Native Ph.D. students, and today we have 40. That is a big deal. It is a lot of progress. Vice Chancellor Peter and I agree that any time any Alaska Native receives a Ph.D. from one of our rural communities, he and I will go there and do a special hooding ceremony to show the importance of that and the importance of that commitment that that person made.

So he and I and Hishinlai' went out to Fort Yukon to celebrate her Ph.D. there and we had a special ceremony.

This was the spring, and we were in Fort Yukon the year before to award two Ph.D.s, and we will be in Fort Yukon next year to award another Ph.D. There is not that many people in Fort Yukon, and it occurred to me that Fort Yukon may have the most Ph.D.s of any place per capita in the country.

(Applause)

That is something to be proud of.

(Applause)

So congratulations to everyone. Now our Kuskokwim Campus, Evon and I had the pleasure to go out there. Eight master’s students were recognized in Bethel, another sign to know that the campus work that UAF does is so important.

As I looked at the Carlson Center with 3,500 people in it, after two hours they needed to stand up. So this year we are going to do the wave at commencement. It is going to start in the middle, at least this is the way I saw it from where I was sitting, and then it will wrap around. Here is what we are going to do. You will be there so we can just practice once. If you can raise the lights up. Can you come up and help do the wave? The women's basketball team?

(Applause)

Women's basketball team?

We will also shoot T-shirts out at commencement.

So if you don't mind, just for practice because you will need some blood, we will start over here.

And Lane Louis will start the wave. Do you have that, Lane? Start the wave and it is going to go this way and then Olivia is going to catch it from over there, can you see them? And then we will give it back to Lane, Nook, and me, not everybody has to stand up but you still have to raise your arms. Are you ready, Lane, go. Nice! Look at that! You got it! Okay, come on! Nice! All right! Let's give yourself a hand!

(Applause)

All right. Now these guys are going to throw some T-shirts out here. We are going to do that at commencement too. Chuck them out there as far as you can.

(Laughter)

Don't put any eyes out.

OK.

Get those out there. Try to get them where the people are. OK.

So we are not going to shoot the T-shirt cannon. We are done — thank you. We aren’t going to shoot the T-shirt cannon, OK, there is one in here still. We are going to shoot it at commencement, but we are not going to shoot it here because we tried it and it is really loud.

The other thing that happens is that either the T-shirt falls apart and it goes about two rows or it shoots out the light at the end of Davis. But anyway thank you for indulging in that fun. 

Now the UAF School of Education did a great job of picking up all of the students from U of A and the challenge that they had. Thank you to Amy Vinlove for your work.

(Applause)

Incidentally, the person in this picture is Joe Bifelt, who graduated from the School of Education in the spring. If you are out and you see the movie that is about to hit the theaters, you will see Joe. It is just great when we see UAF people out in the community, whether they are starring in movies or they are athletes or whether they are our faculty and staff engaging with young people from the community. Congratulations to the College of Liberal Arts in the visual arts academy.

(Applause)

It is arts and science. This is a picture of Katie and her work with the Fresh Eyes on Ice to protect students, young kids to understand the ice and what different ice conditions mean. 

RAHI graduation — this is the 37th commission of RAHI bringing young people around Alaska to UAF.

The CTC fire academy — John puts on the fire academy for CTC. Thank you to him for his leadership and Michele's leadership. These are the firefighters that populate all of UAF and all of our communities so they do a great service from CTC to us at UAF and also to our community.

(Applause)

This is a picture of the certified nursing assistant program. It is so important to our communities. Thank you for training the CNA's, the people who will stay there and serve their communities.

(Applause)

Terlyn is our new executive assistant athletics director.

(Applause)

She has made lots of changes in athletics and there is a lot to be proud of there. Thank you for coming and sharing your ideas.

I encourage you to come and engage in the athletics event and be part of the Nanook Nation this year. Our group is the second-best team in the division, Division I rifle. We have the volleyball team, which is ranked fifth. We are expecting great things from them and it is a great crew again this year. Men’s and women’s cross-country is active now.

And the skiing will be active soon.

And women's swimming, thank you to the women’s swim team for being here and women’s basketball, of course, you see the winner up here in the swimsuit or whatever that thing was.

(Laughter)

I was trying to remember — so this was after the Governor's Cup and those guys were holding up 10 and I think it means that somebody won the Governor's Cup 10 years and it was either UAF or UAA. Do you remember which one it was? It was UAF. Congratulations to the hockey team.

(Applause)

To continue with outreach, Colton Parayko graduated and he left here in 2016 to go win the Stanley Cup for the St. Louis Blues. But then he comes back. He comes back and he helps a kids camp, young girls and boys camp. What’s special about Colton? He won the Stanley Cup and he signed a big contract with the St. Louis Blues, but that is not the special thing. The special thing is that he finished his degree playing professional hockey and he left before he was done. They said we need him. He wasn't done, but he finished it online and congratulations to the School of Management for putting all of their degrees online so people like Colton can finish even while they are playing professional hockey.

(Applause)

Thank you to everyone that showed up for the Golden Days parade. Again, it is part of our community outreach. This is the research open house, and participating or going to a play. 

This was directed by Carrie Baker in our film department. 

Or going to the orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra and, of course, Brian Hall is our concertmaster and conductor.

And Molly of Denali. 

(Applause)

Well done. Well done. Poker Flat held a late-night open house, two scientists, Rich Collins, exposing people who have always known Poker Flat was there but never knew what they did. Thousands of people were able to go out there and see what the special work is that is done at UAF. On behalf of the nation really. 

We were declared a Purple Heart campus this year for our outreach to both the Purple Heart and military students and their families. Thank you to Jackie Morton who you see in the background for that.

(Applause)

And then the Nanooks Brotherhood project. A number of diversity initiatives across the campus. Everyone belongs here and we want everyone to feel that they belong here. Thank you for the efforts for the Nanooks Brotherhood project. 

I will say just a quick thing about Facility Services because they do so much for all of us. Their hard work and keeping the campus beautiful and safe. 

(Applause)

We have 3 million square feet of indoor space at UAF, overall. We have 2 million square feet of parking areas. If it snows 6 inches, that produces 71,000 cubic feet of snow that they have to move.

And if you don't think of cubic feet of snow, that is 4,750 dump trucks full of snow, every time it snows 6 inches.

So good on you, Facilities. Thank you.

(Applause)

Summer Sessions has kept us entertained and inspired all year. 

Steel bridge, the most winningest team in the history of the country, again in the top 10 of the country.

(Applause)

eCampus partnered with the museum to put this 111,000 Arctic butterfly collection online for anybody in the world to view. It’s a great partnership. 

I am just going to wrap up with a few things. Mark Herrmann who I am sure is sitting right in the center because I saw when I went by — we all know him because he is an innovative leader in the School of Management, all of those programs online, he is now the U of A Foundation Edith R. Bullock Award winner. It is the highest award, congratulations.

(Applause)

Peter Webley who I mentioned earlier was recognized this year by the National Academy of inventors for his progress in innovation and all the work he has done for UAF. Thank you, Peter.
We recognize Early Career Award, it gives career awards to promising young scientists, science, arts everything. Last year we had two and this year we had one, and we want to recognize Chris Maio for his work in decision-making theory.

So thank you, Chris.

(Applause)

I will recognize all of the faculty that was promoted and tenured. Those of you here, congratulations and thank you for the work that you do.

(Applause)

And then finally Emil Usibelli, the three highest awards that UAF gives to faculty in three areas: teaching, research and service. These awardees are Charles Mason, Katey Walter Anthony and Michael West, and congratulations to them.

(Applause)

So lastly, as we just close, there are a lot of challenges ahead. I think we are going to go into a really challenging time with consolidation and accreditation and that discussion. But I just encourage you to walk tall. What you saw here is just a tiny sampling of all of the great stuff at UAF. Be proud. Be proud to be part of UAF and keep in mind the dialogue agreements. I have written about the dialogue agreements in my columns and the last, but certainly not least of the dialogue agreements is to take care of yourself and take care of each other. Thank you all for choosing UAF. Let's go get some ice cream!

(Applause)

¶ ¶ (Music playing) ¶ ¶

Thank you. Welcome. Thank you for attending today, and thank you for choosing UAF. Let's thank, once more, our Ensemble 64.8 for the music today.

                                    [Gwich’in] Shijyàa nąįį, Jùk vành gwinzįį. Shoozhrì’ Dan White oozhii. UAF Chancellor ihłįį.

I welcome you. It's an honor, really, to welcome you by emphasizing the importance of Alaska Native language and culture to all of us here at UAF.

This is a picture from last year's Indigenous Peoples Day. If you didn't get a chance to go, I'd encourage you to attend. This coming year, October 8th, will be Indigenous Peoples Day. It's a celebration for everyone at UAF and everyone in the state, but here particularly at UAF where we have global leadership in Alaska Native and Indigenous studies.

You heard the safety minute, and the safety minute talks about the exits. But I'd like to emphasize UAF's culture of respect, diversity, inclusion and caring. And that's on all of us. It's on me. It's on you. Take your Title IX training. Every employee at the university and the students are required to take Title IX training by September 30th. I see a lot of our UAF athletes out in the audience, and I know that they have taken it. Please join them and join me in your Title IX training, because a culture of respect, diversity, inclusion and caring is on all of us.

I'd like to thank Drs. Anahita and Champagne, who are co‑chairing our IDEA task force. IDEA stands for inclusivity, diversity, equity and accessibility. This is a task force that I asked a year ago to look at some of the areas that we could improve in inclusivity, diversity, equity and accessibility. They will come back with some recommendations, and we will look to implement some of those things.

This is now my second year as chancellor. A lot of people ask me, "Dan, how did the first year go?" It was just great. There are so many things to celebrate here at UAF. It started out with Rev It Up. I thank Mary Kreta and all of her team for the outstanding work they do at orientation. Rev It Up is new student orientation, move‑in. Parents come, parents leave. That's the day that students all start their new life as an adult at UAF. Their new career, coming back for a new career — that's the first day. And that's the chance that all faculty staff have to influence that trajectory.

Again, I thank our university athletes who were there all week long helping out, helping the students move in. What a great week that is.

Another great week is commencement. Lots of ceremonies at all of our different campuses. At our commencement here, there were 600 students that walked across the stage, out of 1,400 graduates. When I was getting ready for commencement, people said, "Geez, Dan, you're going to have to stand up there. It's going to be like four hours you're going to stand up there. You're going to have to shake all these hands. Your hand is going to be tired, and your knees are going to be tired. Oh, what an ordeal."

And after 600, I thought, "Is that it?" That was great! Every single one of those students was happy. It was a great day for them, and a great day for all of you — faculty and staff and students. I know there are a lot of students here, so I thank you for that.

I got to attend a lot of athletic events, and it was wonderful. There wasn't a single athletic event that I left and wasn't enthused to be part of the Nanook Nation. Women's volleyball is at the beginning part of their season. As the chancellor, I have eight seats. Come and join me at an athletics event. Come and join me for women's volleyball or men's basketball. Come see a swimming meet with me. We've got Division 1 hockey. These hockey players — and I know there's some of them out there — these are the elite athletes in the country in hockey. Come watch them skate for the Nanooks.

Dr. Champagne and I were sitting at the Patty Center and looking up at the Division 1 rifle championship banners. Dr. Champagne said, "Isn't that a dynasty?" In most parts of the country, they call that a dynasty.

These athletes that we have, the shooters, Division 1, best in the country, national champions over and over again. They are taking real majors here at UAF, and they're excelling. They're very focused, and they're excelling in their academics. So join me for an event. I apologize if there are any skiers or cross‑country runners, because I don't have a picture of you up there, but you are great athletes as well.

One of my favorite things to do is to welcome people to UAF, and I get this opportunity to say thank you. Thank you for choosing UAF. If you're a student, thank you.

I like to stop by the museum, and there are people that get off the buses. They're just here to go see the museum for a day. I stop and I say, "Thank you for choosing UAF. Thanks for choosing to spend your afternoon with us here." Whether it's a career, whether it's four years or five years or a two‑year or a one‑year certificate, thank you for choosing UAF. It's really a great honor to be able to do.

One of the things that I get to do is make remarks. We just had a lot of construction this summer, in case you missed it,. I get the opportunity to cut ribbons and throw ceremonial switches. We had the CHP, the Combined Heat and Power Plant, ceremonial switch‑throw the other day. We have, of course, a fabulous photographer, JR Ancheta. And if you don't know JR, at some point he will take a picture of you, too.

I've noticed that he takes a lot of pictures of me. Unfortunately, not all of JR's subject matter is that cooperative. Surely I didn't have my eyes closed the whole time, but obviously I did there. No fewer than six times did JR take my picture with my eyes closed, but I've been told on good credibility that I actually was there, and I did flip the switch, and my eyes were open for at least part of that.

In case your eyes were closed this summer also, you might have missed the Yukon Drive reconstruction. Now there are sidewalks on both sides of the road. It's a nice walk and an easy drive.

In case you didn't smell it, they redid the roof of the Lola Tilly Commons. Lots of changes in the Chapman Building, if any of the students have classes in there. There's been a whole renovation there. Improvements to the dorms — this is what's called a super‑single, which is a double room, but used as a single. There are lots of improvements for our students.

We got to cut the ribbon on the Engineering, Learning and Innovation Facility, a project near and dear to my heart as I worked on that when I was director of INE. I'd like to thank all of our design and construction staff, including Jenny Campbell and Cam Wohlford and Kari Burrell. Thank you so much to our design and construction and our facilities for all of the work that they did. Thanks for all that work, because it makes us great, and gives us great facilities to do our teaching, research and service.

And, of course, out here in the Great Hall, after convocation there will be ice cream served by the vice chancellors. The vice chancellors are all sitting here in the front row, so you'll have to  give them to get out to serve ice cream.

Out there in Davis there's been a great facelift. New construction in the Great Hall. And, of course, if you're out in the Northwest Campus, Bob Metcalf and the crew out there got some renovations, so they're seeing improvements out in Nome.

There are some new roles and faces across campus, and I'd like to just take a minute and start with Dr. Anupma Prakash, who is here as our new provost and executive vice chancellor. An executive vice chancellor means that if something happens to me, she's in charge. So be nice to Dr. Prakash.

I know that Dr. Henrichs is here, our former provost, so thank you, Susan, for coming in.

As Dr. Prakash moved into the provost role, that left a vacancy in the College of Natural Science and Math, and I'd just like to thank Dr. Leah Berman for stepping in as the interim dean of CNSM. Thank you, Leah.

Pat Druckenmiller took over as the museum director for Aldona Jonaitis. And Sarah Andrew, in Dillingham, took over as our director of the Bristol Bay Campus.

I just had the opportunity this year to go out with or Evon Peter out to the Dillingham campus in Bristol Bay. What a great opportunity it is for all of the rural students to be able to go to a hub for their education, whether it's in construction trades, bachelor's, master's, or Ph.D. So thanks for all of the service to all of our rural campuses.

This is what we call the core cabinet. This is a diverse and hardworking group that are working every day for you. On the left, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Keith Champagne; Vice Chancellor for Rural, Community and Native Education Evon Peter; Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services Kari Burrell; Provost Anupma Prakash; Director of University Relations Michelle Renfrew; and Vice Chancellor for Research Larry Hinzman.

Thanks to that group for all of the support that they provide to me, and all of the support that they provide to you. And they'll be serving ice cream later.

A few other changes — Heather Brandon, our Sea Grant director; and Jodie Anderson, Matanuska Experimental Farm director; and Stacy Rasmus CANHR interim director. CANHR is the Center for Alaska Native Health Research, and that is a key part of our One Health initiative. I'll talk more about that a little bit later.

One of those people who will remain nameless, Jodie Anderson, is going to receive this Alaska Nanooks baseball cap in the mail. So she can join the Nanook Nation with the rest of us. There have been a few other changes. Of course, we had a change in our School of Education, which is now in the College of Natural Science and Mathematics. Thank you, Amy Vinlove, for serving as the director of that. You may know Theresa Bakker, because she has for years written fabulous articles in the Daily News‑Miner about the museum. She has just recently moved from the museum to take over as the alumni association director. Thank you, Theresa.

Kaydee Van Flein has stepped in at the Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities. That's a great big job. Thank you, Kaydee, for your efforts there.

We are a military community, and this is a military‑friendly campus. We have active duty military across the campus in the classrooms and online. Retired military, ROTC, spouses and dependents — thanks to all of them for the service to our country. Thank you to Jackie Morton, who is our new director of the Department of Military and Veterans Services. This is on the first floor of Eielson when you walk in. Stop in there sometime. Whether you're a military veteran or not, stop in and say hi to Jackie and get connected with our military community.

We have some changes in athletics. Our new AD, Sterling Steward, will be here next month. We also have a new assistant coach in swimming, Rebecca Weiland. Kerri Nakamoto, head coach of women's basketball. Erik Largen, new hockey coach, Division 1. And Jesse Brown, who is our assistant men's basketball coach, along with with Greg Sparling, who is our new head coach for men's basketball. We've got some local athletes — I know Daniel Hornbuckle is here, and Jalon McCullough, some of our local athletes who are excelling in UAF basketball and Nanook Nation. 

I'd like to thank Mary Kreta. If you don't know what strategic enrollment planning is, you soon will. We have a big enrollment initiative. Mary Kreta is in charge of that. She has stepped in as the associate vice chancellor for enrollment management. Strategic enrollment planning is targeting how we go about recruiting and retaining students. There will be more to come on that.

I'd like to thank Arleigh Reynolds, who has stepped in as the One Health director. I'll talk a little bit more about One Health later, but that's an initiative that I think can really lift all parts of UAF in the future.

Cody Rogers is our Center for Student Engagement director — thank you, Cody. Stop by the Wood Center and see Cody and learn about the new things we're doing for students on our campus.

A great opportunity I get to do is to celebrate some of the achievements. I will start out with our student firefighters. We have a long history of producing firefighters through our student‑led program. And, of course, they will be keeping me and the rest of you safe at Starvation Gulch this weekend.

They have, of course, occasion to administer CPR. Their success rate at administering life‑saving CPR is twice that of the state in general. Twice that. They are twice as effective at administering CPR as the rest of state of Alaska. So congratulations to them.

I want to thank Michele Stalder and Keith Swarner and all of the team down at CTC. They produced this film called Success Discovered. Go down to CTC. Watch this film, and try to leave there without signing up for a course. It is really inspiring, and it received the Gold Paragon Award for video. Well done, Michele, and the rest of the team down at CTC.

UAF is part of the University of Alaska system, which includes UAA and the University of Alaska Southeast. The UA system gives out one award for the staff who makes students count. This year that was given to Wanda Wahl out in Dillingham at the Bristol Bay Campus. So, Wanda, if you are watching out in Bristol Bay live‑streaming this, thank you for putting students first and making students count.

Again down at CTC, our law enforcement academy had the largest graduating class in the last ten years.

Upward Bound is a program for high school students that gets students interested in science and math. They just got their grant renewed — I think it's close to $2 million — to continue that important work of getting high school students into fields that are going to get them a profession. They also might be able to take advantage of a lot of the research opportunities we have here at UAF.

One program that just continues to grow and grow and grow is eLearning. Eighty percent they grew this year. Last year they grew 10 percent. Over the last five years they have grown 56 percent.

Right now we are offering 16,000 credit hours by distance education. I'd like to congratulate all of the eLearning team for meeting students where they are. It gives students choice. It gives students opportunity. Thank you, Carol Gering, for your leadership in that important role.

It says "eCampus" up there in the upper right‑hand corner of your screen. They're rebranding from  eLearning and Distance Ed to just the eCampus. Come visit us at the eCampus.

At Alaska Native Language Revitalization Institute there were nine or 10 Alaska Native languages that were focused on earlier this year, with about 200 participants. This was an opportunity to really focus on saving and revitalizing and encouraging Alaska Native languages.

Lots of Indigenous languages across the world have been lost, but UAF and Alaska in general has the opportunity to revitalize some of these languages. I want to thank Evon Peter for his important work in this Alaska Native language revitalization. Thanks, Evon.

I don't know if Jerry Johnson is here, but Jerry Johnson is a research professor in the Institute of Northern Engineering. And he's an inventor. One of the things students, faculty, and staff have at this university is the opportunity to invent.

These are some of Jerry's students, and they're working on a finite element code. That is a code that looks at how materials interact with each other. That code is something that Jerry invented, and then the university copyrights that code, because the university owns that intellectual property.

Jerry is the inventor. He and his colleague, Anton Kulchitsky, started a company called Coupi to produce and sell that software that he then licensed from the university. The university owns this copyright. We license it to Jerry's company. Jerry's company creates wealth with this. It sells it. It makes money. And then because it's a license with the university, Jerry pays the university for the right to use that.

That money comes to the university, and then it's divided up in between his unit, and then it goes to all of the inventors, all of the people that had a role in inventing that code. Jerry is, of course, one of them.

This is a great opportunity for all of us at the university to create economic development in our community, and I thank Jerry. Peter Webley is here. He has done the same thing. Thank you, Peter. And Trey Coker from IAB is here. Kelly Drew is here. This is a group of people who are right at the cutting edge in developing new inventions, creating companies to then market and sell that product. It's a relationship with the university that's good for everyone. So thank you to all of our entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs are not always in science and math either. We have a lot of things going on in the liberal arts, and I'll just give a shout‑out here to Dr. Sarah Stanley, who has done wonderful things with the community of writing. This is a picture of Sarah and a group of her students at the Noel Wien Library. She works in the correctional facilities. She is somebody who is reaching out across our community to make people better. So thank you, Sarah.

I get to brag on UAF all the time. UAF has the largest fleet of unmanned aircraft of any university in the country. That is all operated out of the ACUASI, the Alaskan Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration, and Dr. Cathy Cahill is the director of that.

We received one of the very first test centers for the FAA. Right from the very beginning, UAF was in the lead. Dr. Cahill wrote a great proposal to the Department of Transportation to be one of the leaders in piloting over‑the‑horizon unmanned aircraft flight. For the most part, a commercial drone has to have line of sight. You have to be able to see the drone that you're flying. But the hope is, in the future, we'll be able to fly these out of line of sight. And Dr. Cahill and all of her crew at ACUASI are leading the way.

Incidentally, she received one of ten proposals in the country. There were 150 universities that were vying for these coveted roles, and Dr. Cahill received one. Dr. Cahill knows, as many of you know, that if you write the best proposal, your success rate is 100 percent. So congratulations to her.

Two other people who understand that the best proposal gets 100 percent success rate are Dr. Srijan Aggarwal and Dr. Carie Green, two faculty at UAF who received a really coveted career award. This career award is given to the best new faculty in the country. The National Science Foundation takes a chunk of money, and they say, "This is going to go to building the careers of the best new faculty in the country."

That we have two of those this year is good on us and good on them. Thank you, Srijan and Carie, for your excellent work.

I mentioned One Health earlier. One Health is the health of animals, the health of the environment and the health of people. One thing we really have the opportunity to contribute to through all of the research all across the campus and the teaching is One Health.

I think about the work that is being done out of CANHR, the Center for Alaska Native Health Research, by Evon Peter and Stacy Rasmus, on suicide and addiction. That is an important part of the health of people, but it's not in isolation. It's not outside the environment. It's not unrelated to animals. It's not unrelated to kind of the dynamics in the Arctic. Over this next year or two, Dr. Arleigh Reynolds will be really leading this effort and looking to integrate the work that all of you are doing — faculty, staff, and students — into the One Health initiative.

The National Science Foundation has put a set of earthquake monitoring devices all across the country. That has moved across the country, and it's now in Alaska. I'd like the thank Mike West, who is the director of the Alaska Earthquake Center. He has worked tirelessly to get that equipment given to the university so that we can continue to operate it.

This is an image that he sent. There was an earthquake up in Kaktovik, where that star is. All of these sensors were gathering information about that. That's important for communities trying to understand the impact; for disaster relief and where are the disasters going to be; and for resource allocation. All of these kinds of functions rely on important and timely information. This is something that is really impacting Alaska. I thank Mike West and your work in getting this array to UAF.

 I'd like to thank Scott Rupp for his work with the Boreal Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring project, another big multimillion-dollar project.

We don't thank our arts enough, whether it's the performing arts, the symphony here, performances, film, creative arts, and quantitative and qualitative research. Well done to CLA, and well done to all the performing arts for giving us so many great ways to come and be educated and learn about arts across UAF.

There are four long‑term ecological research sites in Alaska. There's one in the Beaufort Sea up north. There's one in the gulf, this one that I have pictured — the North Gulf of Alaska. There is one in Bonanza Creek, which is just down the road, and there is one at Toolik. Two of them are led by UAF researchers, one by a former UAF researcher who is a Ph.D. student, who is now at the University of Texas, and one by a marine biological lab on the East Coast, and we have a significant involvement in all four of them.

I'd like to thank Russ Hopcroft and his crew for writing the successful proposal for the northern Gulf of Alaska LTER. If you don't recognize this deck, I'll just show you, it's a deck on the Sikuliaq. The Sikuliaq is the only ice‑capable vessel in the entire UNOLS fleet. So UNOLS is an organization that schedules all of the ships — ships that are owned by the National Science Foundation, but they're operated by universities.

This is a ship, the only one in the country, that is ice‑capable. It is not operated by the University of Washington, which operates some of them. It is not flying the flag of Oregon State or Scripps, but it turns out that it's flying the UAF flag. So I will thank Brad Moran, the dean of the college, and all of his crew who are operating this ship and making — doing great things for science and doing great things for UAF.

I know student athletes are here, and you have busy schedules. If you get a chance, participate in undergraduate research. We lead all of our peers in the percentage of students who do a research project. Some of that is done informally. Some of that is done through the URSA program, the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity.

URSA has a day where all of these undergraduate research projects are presented in a competition. If you are doing undergraduate research, if you're a faculty and you have undergraduate researchers, get them involved in this. It is a really fun day. Students all kind present their posters, and there's a competition. Good on UAF for its encouragement of undergraduate research.

I'd like to just spend a few minutes talking about goals and measures. As I mentioned, UAF is part of the UA system. As the chancellor of UAF, I report to the president, Jim Johnsen, who is the president of the UA system. He reports to the board of regents, and the board of regents is appointed by the governor.

The board has a set of goals and metrics for the system, and those trickle down to us. If you're not familiar with those, I'd encourage you to look them up on the system's website.

For example, on increased degree attainment, the board has said, "We would like to see, by 2025, an increase in enrollment of 55 percent and an increase in the completions by 126 percent," which, for UAF, by 2025, would be 13,000 students and 3,500, rough numbers, graduates.

Those are stretch goals. All the things we do contribute to the goals that the board has set in one way or another. I'm not going to list all of them up, but these are the metrics and the goals. Providing Alaska skilled workforce specifically refers to teachers and healthcare workers. Growing our world‑class research.

I'll note that one of their metrics is that this UA system retain its number‑one standing in Arctic research. As you may know, UAF is the number‑one university in the world in Arctic research. We lead the world. So kudos to us, and that is recognized by the board.

Contribute to Alaska's economic development and operate more cost effectively. These are board goals, and why are they important? Well, as we look at the budgets — all of these goals have an impact on what budget requests we have that go forward.

For example, this year, the board gave a 25 percent discount to all qualifying occupational endorsements. So anybody that signed up for welding, for example, this year at CTC got a 25 percent discount on their tuition. There are a lot of things that are done at that board level that then impact us here at the university.

Last year we had a budget of $158 million from the state. Our overall budget was much larger because of tuition and research. In FY19 — this year — was $163 million. That's a slight increase, which is nice, because we of had a little bit of a downward trend, but we're bouncing back up. All of the money there kind of went to specific initiatives towards meeting those goals.

UAF is starting a new strategic planning effort this fall, and I'll be appointing teams. I would encourage anyone who wants to be part of this to submit a nomination for oneself or somebody else to participate in our strategic planning.

We will start this fall and hopefully end in around February or March. We'll focus on some strategic themes. I'll be asking the groups that are working on specific themes to come up with some specific goals and metrics around the theme.

Modernizing the student experience. I am confident that faculty and staff who are in our classrooms are teaching cutting‑edge material, cutting‑edge research. What is the cutting edge of the overall student experience, and how do we get that for people, for all of the students that are coming to UAF?

I'd like some goals and metrics around revitalizing academic programs. As the budget declined, we have had an opportunity to look and say, "What are the academic programs, and how are we going to deliver them into the future for the next seven years? What does that look like?"

Cementing global leadership in Alaska Native and indigenous programs. We are working really hard on Troth Yeddha’, which will be the Indigenous study center right next to the museum. We really are a global leader in Alaska Native and indigenous studies. We need to cement that. What does that look like? What are the goals and metrics that allow us to do that?

The Carnegie classification is how universities are rated in the amount of research that they to, and we are close to the top. We are a research higher university. The next level, and the only other level, is called the Tier 1. Tier 1 research universities — we're very close to that. But we could do that.

And why do that? Why be a Tier 1? When reviewers are reviewing proposals, they ask the question, "Can the researcher do the work?" If the answer is yes, "Is the budget sound? Can they do the work for the amount of money that we're going to give them? Yes." The last question that they ask is, "Does the university provide the environment that allows them to do the research?"

With a Tier 1 research university, the answer is always yes. Tier 1 universities know how to support them. As a Tier 2 university, we also do that. But I think if we just take that next step — and it's not a big step — I think that will benefit all of us here at UAF. So I'd like to see some goals and metrics associated with achieving this Tier 1 status.

Transforming UAF's IP development and commercialization enterprise. Alaska needs economic development, and we have a unique position that allows us to take inventions, commercialize them, and create new companies. I'd like to thank Gwen Holdmann and Nickole Conley for their work in creating Center ICE, which is the university's first‑ever small business incubator, as well as those innovators that I mentioned earlier who are participating in that. Thank you for that. We'll look to see some goals and metrics around that.

Finally, embracing and growing a culture of respect, diversity, inclusion and caring. This is a picture of Margo Griffith, who is our Title IX coordinator, giving a lecture about Title IX and what it is. We'll look for some goals and metrics there.

Finally, I'd just like to wrap up by asking you: What can you do? I got an opportunity to meet with a lot of units this year. We sat down, and we said, "What are all the things we could be doing?" People had tons of great ideas, and they said, "Well, we could be doing this, but we can't because of."

I said, "Let's hold the but‑fors, and let's focus on the we‑could‑be‑doings." We could create a long list of really great stuff that we could be doing. And then we set that aside, and we said, "OK. Now, what are all the but‑fors? What are all the things that are stopping us from doing that?" There's budget, and I'm wearing five hats as it is — a lot of things. But when we looked at them, and we took stock of all that stuff — there weren't that many big things. There were a lot of things that we could solve.

And so I'd ask you — faculty, staff, or students — what could we be doing? Put that in a box and give it to your supervisor, or give it to me to solve so that we could be doing great things.

When I looked, I thought, "Catch somebody doing something good." I thought I'd like to put a picture up here of all of the people that I caught this year doing something good, and there's just way too many. I can't put all those people up there. So I've put up one picture of three people I caught doing just something great for this university. Joanna Young is a student, Jane Wolken is a staff, and Jessie Young‑Robertson is a faculty. A student, a faculty, and a staff got together and created the Women in Science workshop. The Women in Science workshop led to a petition, which I think many of you signed, that just said, "You know what? Here's a bunch of things that the university could be doing."

They took all the but‑fors, and they wrapped them up in a box, and they put on a bow on it and said, "There are a lot of things that might stop us, but let's focus on what we could be doing."

They did that, and that's what created the IDEA Task Force that I mentioned at the beginning that's being led by Dr. Anahita and Dr. Champagne. Just this spring they held another conference called Mindful Leadership. These are three people who are changing UAF for all of us and for the better. So thank you to Joanna, Jane and Jessie for your leadership.

I'd like to wrap up there. Again, thank you for choosing UAF. There are some UAF T‑shirts that some of the athletes will be handing out. Nook is out in the Great Hall, and there's ice cream.

Thank you, and have a great day.

Thank you. Thank you and welcome. I'd like to just give one more round of applause for Ensemble 64.8 for that uplifting and energetic music.

Well, thank you. I am glad that you're here. Whether you're in the Davis Concert Hall or online, I'm glad you're here, and I'm glad I'm here. And thank you for the privilege to serve as your chancellor.

I'd like to make a couple of announcements about cell phones and ice cream, not in that order. The first is about ice cream, and I've been told to announce that the ice cream in the Wood Center will not be available until after convocation. And I'm not sure whether that was intended for you, so that you don't go to the ice cream before convocation is over, or whether that was intended for me to not head over there before it's over.

And the other is cell phones. Leave your cell phone on and, in fact, turn the ringer up. Peter Webley, here in the front, has offered to answer all cell phone calls during convocation. And he has a British accent, so it should be convincing. So if you have a call, just bring it on up. Thank you.

First is exits. You came in in one of the doors on either side of the stage. If there was an emergency, please use one of those exits. On your right is also a second exit. Please use that in the event of an emergency.

I start all of my meetings with a safety minute, and I would encourage you to do the same. And safety is an opportunity for us to talk about much more than exits. I don't consider safety talking about where the bathrooms are. You'd only need to have that safety minute once. But use it to talk about important issues for safety for all of us.

So talk about Title IX. Is the Title IX training done in your unit? We are all responsible employees. What does it mean to be a responsible employee from a Title IX standpoint? How would you report a complaint? Talk about that in your safety minute. Everyone should know how a complaint gets filed and then what happens after that.

Take a minute to talk about mandatory reporters. Mandatory reporters have special meaning in our protection of minors, so use that opportunity to do more so that we're all ready, if we see something, to say something and to do something.

It is great to be back. I love this university and have spent, really, my whole career here. For those of you who don't know me, I started in 1995 as an assistant professor of civil engineering. I spent time as a department chair and time as IME director, also associate vice chancellor and director of the intellectual property office, and then had an opportunity to spend two years at statewide as vice‑president for academic affairs and research.

And all of these jobs have given me the opportunity to look and see new challenges, new ways to address challenges, but most important to me is they have given me an opportunity to work with you. And I've worked with many of you I can see in the audience, and I really appreciate the opportunities that I've had to learn from you over these years.

I was chided a little bit about this picture because of the sideburns. And somebody asked me, as we put this picture up, if I started in 1977 with Erik Estrada. And, in fact, I can assure you I was 10 in 1977, so, no. This was a more recent picture, and this picture came from that period between 2010 and 2013 when sideburns were in high fashion. And we all know ‑‑ we know ‑‑ that engineers are at the cutting edge of high fashion.

This is a selfie of my family. And my wife, Ann Marie, is here. She's a 1998 graduate of the MBA program. She's also an engineer, and those are my two engineer daughters. No, actually, they can do anything they want, as long as it's engineering.

They're obviously too young ‑‑ they're 11 and 14. They're too young to be students here, but they're not too young to benefit from all that UAF has to offer. And whether it's the BRIGHT Girls Camp that they did this summer or ASRA, we at UAF have such an impact on our community. And whether it's students that aren't here yet, whether it's students that graduated and are coming back, or whether it's people that don't have any role in the university at all except that they come here for a lecture or they come here to hear the symphony or a play ‑‑ we make such a contribution to the arts of the community. We play an important role, and we are a world‑class university.

We are a people organization. And whether it's the students or faculty or staff, we're a people organization. And we lose faculty, staff, and students every year. And I'd just like to take a minute of silence to kind of recognize those individuals that we lost this year.

[In memoriam screen]

Thank you.

We're a world‑class university. I'm not sure if I said that or not yet, but I'll say it again. Our founders wanted more for Fairbanks. They wanted more for their children, for themselves. They wanted more for the Territory of Alaska. They wanted more.

For 100 years we've been building this world‑class university, and this year, of course, gave us the opportunity to celebrate that with our centennial celebration. And there's been a lot of activities over the course of this year, and I'd like to thank Michelle Renfrew and Emily Drygas, who were the chairs of our centennial campaign during this year. And it's been a great celebration. Thank you.

And here are a few highlights from the centennial.

[Video played]

We as the university are much more than the sum of our parts, but I'd like to take just a few minutes to celebrate some of the parts. If you are a faculty that was promoted or tenured over the course of the year and you are here, thank you. Thank you for your commitment. The fact that you were promoted or tenured or both this year is a demonstration of your commitment to UAF, and we all benefit from that. Thank you for that.

And a new commitment to the University of Alaska Fairbanks is Keith Champagne, who will start on December 4th as our new Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.

The Alaska Center for Energy and Power. Daisy Huang is a faculty mentor who mentored a group of engineering students for the Department of Energy's wind energy challenge, and they competed nationally and won third place.

$1.4 million. That's the value. $1.4 million is the value of the Student Investment Fund. That fund started in 1991 as $100,000, and it's been managed ever since by students, up to $1.3 million. Plus these students have returned $58,000 to scholarships that are given to School of Management students. Close to 100 students have benefited from this.

Sagen Maddalena has been named to the National Rifle Team. And, in addition to that, eight students have been named to the GNAC Academic Athletes Club, which talks about them as student leaders in the classroom and leaders in their athletics.

The CTC Emergency Management Group, emergency services, competed in the state's skills Olympics and won all of the categories.

This was an URSA. Erin Walling is a student who applied for an URSA grant, and the purpose of this was to test virtual reality in the speaking center. This was to give students practice in public speaking in virtual reality. And I thought about this. I didn't know about that at the time, but I thought about this. And I thought that might have saved you from me practicing this talk in reality‑reality.

Cathy Cahill, director of our ACUASI, received a patent for her work on a device that mounts on airplanes that detects volcanic ash to make flying safer for us all.

Or Orion Lawlor, professor in the College of Engineering and Mines and Computer Science, competed and won fourth place in a national challenge to use 3D printing to print a built habitat. And the idea here was to use recycled materials as the feedstock or materials that you might find on Mars. This was a NASA competition. And the idea was to print on Mars a built environment with a 3D printer. He finished fourth nationally. So the idea here is that if you go to Mars, bring Orion and a 3D printer.

Each year the state committee on research celebrates innovation in our state, and they celebrate this by inducting up to eight people in the Innovators Hall of Fame. And this is a photo taken at the induction ceremony in Juneau at the innovation summit. And I'd just like to recognize Peter Webley, who is here, and Jeff Rothman, who I saw, and Rajive Ganguli for being recognized in this way and being inducted into the Innovators Hall of Fame.

Roger Reuss was the PI of the Bonanza Creek Long‑Term Ecological Research Station. And this is a program that the National Science Foundation funds, and it's been ongoing for many years. We have been the PI of this, the principal investigator. The University of Alaska Fairbanks faculty members have been the principal investigators, which demonstrates our leadership in these massive programs. LTER is a big program that impacts many universities around the country. We're the leaders. And thank you, Roger Reuss, for your role in that.

And speaking of the Long‑Term Ecological Research Stations, a 20‑year effort by the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences has finally come to fruition with the first Long‑Term Ecological Research Station in the marine environment with the North Gulf of Alaska LTER. Thank you.

And your faculty senate vice‑president this year, Donie Bret‑Harte, was the leader of an agreement with the National Science Foundation for the management of the Toolik Field Station. That's a $17.3 million agreement that we have that, again, demonstrates our leadership.

Mingchu Zhang. Mingchu, through his work in soil science and nutrition, has made a significant contribution to the peony industry that is growing in Alaska. This year they shipped out 200,000 stems of peonies, mostly around the Pacific Rim. And they recognized Mingchu for his contributions to that industry. This is just one of the ways that you all ‑‑ faculty, staff, and students ‑‑ at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are contributing to our state's economy.

And HARP. First I have to put a picture of HARP up here, the High‑Frequency Active Aurora Research Program. And Chris Fallen, who is your faculty senate president this year, is one of the scientists at HARP. And HARP is now under our management. And I think about all of these great opportunities, whether it's Poker Flat or HARP or Kasitsna Bay or Toolik or the Sikuliaq that really give our students and our faculty and our researchers kind of a world‑class opportunity.

We celebrate ourselves ‑‑ we talk a lot ourselves about what a great Arctic university we are, and the Week of the Arctic was an opportunity for the rest of the world to celebrate that. And, of course, the Week of the Arctic culminated in the Arctic Ministerial Meeting and the handoff of the chairmanship of the Arctic Council from the United States to Finland. And that all happened here, and a lot of it right here in Davis, not because Fairbanks is easy to get to, but because UAF is a leader in Arctic research.

All of the world leaders came here to UAF to celebrate that, and I'd like to just take a minute to thank Larry Hinzman and the army of volunteers that worked that and made that a great success. Thank you.

And I'll just do a shout‑out to CTC who hosted the closing ceremony in their hangar out there on the west ramp of the airport. In this hangar, which was elaborately decorated, heads of state came. Our senators were there. And it was a celebration of the Week of the Arctic. It was a celebration of the handoff, a celebration of the ministerial, but mostly it was a celebration about UAF. And that night and that week, UAF folks were walking tall around campus, and it was a great thing to see.

The library. The library is involved in Arctic research. The library received a $200,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create an Arctic portal so that other people could get access to the great resources.

We talk a lot about UAF as an Arctic ‑‑ I talk about it as an Arctic university, but there is so much more to UAF. There's the arts, the education. This is a picture of our education programs. And our education programs are ranked in the 99th percentile out of 800 programs. Our elementary education is ranked 7th in the country.

And our online programs. U.S. News & World Report has classes of things that they call "This is the best of." And best of online programs included UAF in four places: in our MBA program, in our graduate criminal justice, graduate education, and just best online bachelor's program. So congratulations for that.

Stacy Rasmus, one of the faculty in CRCD and IAB, received a $4.5 million grant to study suicide and suicide prevention in our Alaska communities. Such important work to be done.

Not connected specifically with that but related to that is with "We Breathe Again" documentary. And I'd like to thank Evon Peter and Maya Salganek for their work in making this documentary happen. And it was debuted at the Week of the Arctic. I saw it there, and it was very moving. If you didn't see it there, in two weeks from today it will be on PBS nationally; and I'd encourage you to see this great work.

The museum, partnering with the School of Education, received two grants in the Department of Geosciences to bring science to teachers. It's such an important thing to get science from the university into the hands of teachers and into the hands of students. And the museum is also developing innovative new ways for membership, new ways to generate revenue in the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

And the arts. Five women wearing the same dress. Sold out. All the shows were sold out. Again, thanks to the arts for making this a great university and a great community.

And, of course, speaking of the arts, we have all learned a lot from Michelle Bartlett. And she was recognized by the University of Alaska Board of Trustees this year with the Edith R. Bullock Award. So congratulations, Michelle.

One person who has dedicated her career to UAF is Provost Susan Henrichs. And Susan started here as a faculty member 35 years ago, and we debated whether or not I could reference this picture coming from Star Trek or not. Star Wars, not Star Trek, but you get the picture.

But Susan has meant so much to this university, and she's meant so much as an educator, as an advisor, as a mentor, as a graduate school dean, and as our provost; and I've just really been thrilled with the opportunity. As you know, Susan is retiring next June, and she will be dearly missed. Thank you, Susan. Thank you.

And on enrollment, enrollment is down this year. I think it's down 5.7 percent in student credit hours, about 4 percent in head count. And there are a lot of reasons for that. There's a lot of things that we don't control in this dialogue, reasons that students may not be coming here. It's been a few years that student enrollment has been declining.

The legislature. We don't have control over the state's fiscal position, and we don't have control over the legislative dialogue about the university and its buildings and whether or not the university will be here in four years.

And I get stopped at Fred Meyer's and places and asked, "Is the university ‑‑ does my student have a future four years from now at UAF?" And I say, "UAF is a world‑class university. Yes, your student has a future. We have dedicated faculty and staff to your student."

Enrollment is a tricky issue for us, and there's lots of things we don't control in that dynamic with students and their parents and their other options. But I'll tell you, there's one thing that we do control, and that is how we respond, how we respond to the situations. And I think every day I get up, "There's lots of things I'm not going to control over the course of the day." But every day I have the ability to control how I'm going to react and what things I'm going to do. I have full control of that. What am I going to do about this today?

And the university is putting in money. We're investing. We're investing into military students and veterans. We're investing into online programs. We're investing into marketing. These are ways. I would like to thank all of the people that contributed to the enrollment strategies work groups that came up with lots of options on: How do we increase enrollment? This is a path for us, and we have a lot of headroom here, I think, to grow enrollment.

Before I move off this, there are bright spots. Of course, we have overall enrollment decreases, but CTC has taken its welding program and is now delivering that in Bristol Bay, giving opportunity to more students. Rural human services, that's an area that's growing in the Interior Alaska campus. And the pre‑nursing qualifications is an area that's growing at our Northwest campus.

And online programs. Even though overall enrollment decreases, online has been growing every year for the last five years. And this past year, from one year ago to now, online enrollment is up 10 percent. And I know a lot of you are working on online enrollment, and I appreciate that. I think that's a great opportunity for us.

One example is the Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Thanks, Cam and Sean, for your leadership here. That's another program that's growing and reaching audiences that we haven't previously attracted.

Graduation rates. We lead the system in graduation rates, but there's still things we could do there. 81 percent of the freshmen from last year came back this year. That's a retention number. We retained 81 percent of the freshmen. That's a great number. Those numbers are typically in the 70s. 81 percent. I think we could still do a little better there, but we are doing things right, and I appreciate that. Thank you.

There are lots of opportunities for undergraduate research. This is a university that gives lots of hands‑on opportunities for students. And whether it's undergraduate research, or whether it's things like the steel bridge that the engineering students do, these are things that are offering students opportunities they may not get elsewhere. And that's one of the reasons that some of the enrollment initiative is going to marketing, to get that word out of the great programs and opportunities that students have.

And, of course, we're moving into our next 100 years, and so we're building projects, finishing projects, making needed repairs. Of course, this is a picture of the Wood Center which received its new roof. It should be done in November.

Of course, the engineering building is going to add 120,000 square feet of space for engineering teaching and research, as well as its connection to the business school. The combined heat and power plant should be done next year. And then this is a current picture of the Great Hall under construction to fix the roof.

Budget. I'll talk a little bit about budget. Budget is the elephant in the room. Budget is always the elephant in the room. And, of course, the governor started out the legislative season by saying $325 million, which is what the university got last year, is what the university should get this year. As you know, there was lots of dialogue ‑‑ maybe $303 million or maybe $325 million. And we ended up at $317 million as a system. UAS's share of that is $158 million. Five years of cuts. There have been five years of cuts, roughly $20 million. That's a lot of money, and I realize that's a lot of things that we just can't keep doing.

The other really complicating factor in this is the $5 million budget. We needed $50 million for capital improvements, and as a system we got $5 million. And UAF gets, then, a portion of that.

In addition to kind of the budget and the uncertainty related to the budget, there have been a number of statewide activities ‑‑ of course, Strategic Pathways. And Strategic Pathways is a way of the university system kind of dealing with budget and looking at organization, and the new university councils that the president has set up to, again, look at system‑wide issues.

I'd like to thank all of the UAF people that have participated in both of these as a way of making sure that our perspective is included in this broader management.

But I think, as I look at the university, and I say, "Well, $20 million over five years, it doesn't seem to me" ‑‑ when I look out, the students are getting a great education. There's great research that's going on. It doesn't seem like there's $20 million of fewer things going on. And what it tells me is that there's a lot of you that are juggling a lot more balls than you were before.

You know, I think one of the things that we need to figure out how to do is to set a ball down if it needs to be set down. I know you can add balls as you're juggling, and you can add ‑‑ "well, I can juggle three. I can't juggle four." What if there's five?

At some point we have to have the courage to say, "We can set this ball down." And one way to do that is to have more decision‑making being done at all levels in the university so that you have the ability to say, "This is something that we can't do anymore."

Now, I get lots of things that are pushed up to me now, and they say, "The chancellor has to make a decision on this." And I ask the question: "Does the chancellor need to make a decision on this, or is this a decision that could be made closer to where the impact is going to be?"

Even though we have these budget challenges ‑‑ I realize it's something that's always going to be on our mind. We don't have a lot of control over what money we get ‑‑ but we do have the ability to do some strategic reallocation, and there has been some strategic reallocation to research. There's been some strategic reallocation to marketing and enrollment. And the president has sent some strategic reallocation to UAF. We received an additional $1.4 million from the president for research, and that money is going to be used for a post‑doc program. The bulk of the money will be put back into the units that generated it.

The president has started a President's Professor program, and so far two of those have been named and both of them at UAF, one in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, and one in the College of Engineering and Mines.

But I think innovation is a place where we have a lot of headroom. And whether it's innovation if you're staff or faculty or a student innovating in new processes of the way that you do your job to make it more efficient, or whether it's innovation in getting the technology that we have and that we're developing in the university outside the university, that has a benefit for us. Licensing technologies that we've developed is a financial benefit to us, but it's really a financial benefit to the community. So I'd encourage you to keep innovating.

Title IX. I think it's important to talk about Title IX. Margo Griffith, shown here, is our Title IX coordinator. Everyone, as I mentioned at the beginning ‑‑ all employees are considered by the Office of Civil Rights in our voluntary resolution agreement. All employees are responsible employees. A responsible employee has responsibilities, and one of those is to take the Title IX training so that you know what is sexual assault, what is sexual harassment, what is stalking, what is discrimination. It's important that, if you see these things, that they come to light, that you recognize them as such so that we can become a safer environment.

You know, I think of diversity. And I think we get our strength ‑‑ we are a great, world‑class university because of our diversity. And we can't be a diverse environment if we are not a welcoming environment to all people and if we're not a safe environment. Everyone has to feel that they can be safe here at the university from discrimination. And it's not on Margo, it's not on any individual; it's on all of us. All of us get to play a part in making this a safe environment for everyone.

As I said in the newspaper or said in an interview, "You all have a home here. Discrimination does not have a home here."

I'd like to just kind of wrap things up with some discussion of vision. And I was talking to my kids about vision, and I'm trying out some ideas on vision through the university. This was six months ago or so. And they said, "Well, Dad, you can't just have rainbows and unicorns." But I did get a rainbow.

Now, I kind of framed this, as I was thinking about vision ‑‑ and lots of people over last six months, before I became chancellor, asked, you know, "What's your vision for UAF? And what do you want to see? What would UAF look like in five years?"

And I think about when I get stopped at Fred Meyer's and somebody says, "Dan, is UAF going to be here in four years?" And I have to have that conversation. "Of course it's going to be here in four years."

Or somebody stops me in Juneau and says, "Dan, what about the waste? I've heard there's so much waste at the university." And I have to say, "There are so many people working so hard at the university."

How do we change that dialogue, and what would that dialogue look like? And what I would like is somebody grabs me at Fred Meyer's and says, "Dan, UAF values its students, and I know that. I know that because of the opportunities that they're afforded."

Maybe somebody stops me and says, "Dan, the university puts first things first." I'd love to hear this in Juneau. "Dan, the university puts first things first, and I know this because they're making the hard decisions."

I'd like to walk across campus and have somebody say, "You know what? The University of Alaska Fairbanks, UAF, is a university that communicates. And I know this because I can ask anyone on campus, 'What's going on at the university?' And they can tell me." "What happened in this situation?" "Here's what happened in that situation."

UAF is a university that empowers people. We hire great people. Let's trust them to make decisions. Somebody should stop me and say, "Dan, I know UAF is a university that empowers people because it trusts its people to make decisions."

World class. I'll be in Washington, D.C., and somebody can come to me and say, "You know what? UAF is a world‑class university, and I know that because the world is looking to UAF for solutions."

Or entrepreneurial. "UAF is an entrepreneurial university. I know this. I know this because if there's a better way, UAF faculty or staff or students are going to figure it out. And they're not just going to figure it out; they're going to do it."

Because of the next one, which is that UAF is a university that rewards risk. It's okay to fail trying at UAF. We need innovation, and we need people working at the edge of innovation. And lots of things fail there, but that's okay, because we need that to succeed as a university.

I'd love somebody to grab me and say, "UAF is a university that rewards risk. And I know this because it's okay to fail trying, but it's not okay to fail to try at UAF."

And UAF is a university that listens. And I know this because the university listens to me, and they hear me and they care about me."

Stimulates growth. It would be great if somebody was in Juneau, somebody who has got a company in Fairbanks, and grabs a legislator and says, "You know what? UAF is a university that stimulates economic growth. And I know that because I create wealth in the community based on UAF ideas and technology."

UAF is a university committed to safety. I know this because UAF knows that it's not a box you check. Safety is a process, and we're continuing to improve. I know we have issues now, and we're working through all of our issues. We're all working together on those issues. But UAF understands that this is a continuous improvement.

And finally, UAF is diverse. It would be great if somebody stopped me and said, "You know what? I know that UAF is diverse because it realizes that UAF needs everybody and is not waiting around for diversity to happen."

It is a privilege to be your chancellor. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for coming to this, and I look forward to the months and years ahead. Thank you.

Good afternoon and welcome. It’s good to be here. I’d like to thank our percussion group Ensemble 64-point-eight for being here today. I’d like to also welcome our alumni, those joining us from our community campuses, and UAF locations from across the state.

It’s good to be back. I already know many of you, and look forward to meeting the rest of you in the coming months.

I’d like to thank my predecessor, Mike Powers, for his leadership this past year, and especially for his courage and commitment to campus safety and Title IX issues. Now it’s up to us to continue to work together to create a SAFE and welcoming environment for everyone.

The few weeks I’ve been here as interim chancellor have been busy. My first day included a visit from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Fairbanks campus. My thanks to Michelle Bartlett and Summer Sessions for arranging that historic event.

Shortly afterward, I went to Seattle to tour the Sikuliaq, which is operated by the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. Yes, I said COLLEGE of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. The Board of Regents agreed to the name change, which acknowledges the broad role this unit serves and the strength of its programs.

I then traveled to Dillingham to meet with the rural campus directors and listen to how I could support their programs and services. Then it was back to Fairbanks to greet our students and our new faculty.

Seeing everyone is a great pleasure — but it also reminds me of friends and colleagues we’ll no longer see. I’d like to take a moment to reflect on those who have passed away in the last year.

[In memoriam screen]

Thank you.

For those of you who don’t know me, I was a faculty member and then an administrator for 30 years here at UAF. My wife Kay spent her UAF career at Rural Student Services and in Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development. She is here in the audience today.

I moved to UA Statewide in the spring of 2012 to serve as the vice president for academic affairs and research, and I retired almost three years later.

Kay and I began snowbirding to Phoenix, Arizona. We came back regularly to visit our son and enjoy the canoe season in Fairbanks. We were enjoying our no-stress life. So much for retirement.

Many people have asked why we came back to UAF to take this job when I could be relaxing in the desert sun instead.

We did it in part because we had rewarding careers here. In fact Kay and I dated when we were students here and fell in love, and we both graduated from UAF. We love this institution.

But while WE were were retired, all of YOU were facing the difficult task of dealing with budget cuts. Yet you have remained strong and committed to your work and this university. So when the opportunity arose to take this challenge, we said yes, absolutely.

We will work hard for UAF to maintain and grow in its role as Alaska’s student-centered Research University, as America’s Arctic University.

And we will work hard for the university that students recently named the number one outdoor college in Backpacker magazine. That’s a ranking I certainly agree with.

One of the things I love to do most in Alaska is get out in the wilderness, especially in a canoe.

However, you will generally not find me paddling lakes or ponds. I like the challenge of whitewater. That’s my nature.

As you know all too well, the university has been facing a long stretch of rapids. We don’t know exactly how long a stretch remains, but we seem to have farther to go. I’m here to help navigate.

I’m also careful about who I paddle with — do they have the right skills? We do have the right skills here, with our leadership team of vice chancellors, deans, and directors. It’s a group I trust and rely on.

Some here today, including Kay and me, were here in the late 80s and early 90s — what we refer to affectionately as the “desert years” — and we know that we will make it through this time, just as we did then. The university may look different from the way it does today, but we will persevere, and if we do it right, we can be even stronger as we begin our next century.

Throughout this academic year, I want to make sure you have an opportunity to speak your mind, raise concerns and provide feedback. I am committed to shared governance. I know its importance, having served on the Faculty Senate and as chair of curricular affairs.

We also want to hear about your successes, because despite the choppy water we’re in right now, there is still much to celebrate.

The year 2017 marks 100 years we’ve been Alaska’s flagship university. We’ve made tremendous progress in a relatively short time, growing from an outlandish idea to a world-renowned institution.

For example, this past year alone, UAF faculty and scientists discovered a new dinosaur species and examined the DNA from the oldest known human remains in the Arctic (not, I’d like to add, from the same time or place).

UAF’s own Jessica Cherry has been invited for a second round of interviews for the NASA astronaut program. Out of 18,000 applicants, only 100 have made it to this level.

The Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration has helped law enforcement search for two missing people in just the past few months.

UAF faculty received two patents this year — one to Jeffrey Rothman for infrasound detection technology, and the second to Keith Cunningham and Peter Webley for an innovative remote-sensing tool.

Cooperative Extension recently took over the Mining and Petroleum Training Service program. The program has trained more than 100,000 people since it began in 1979, and it is a natural fit for UAF and its role in workforce development.

Our Reindeer Research Program is working with Stevens Village, Savoonga and St. Paul to develop commercial reindeer enterprises in Delta and on St. Lawrence and St. Paul islands.

Alaska Sea Grant is working closely with rural communities to deal with the rapid changes in the fishing industry, one of Alaska’s largest private employers.

Our business administration undergraduates have placed above the 90th percentile on the national business exam for more than a decade, and this year placed in the 99th percentile. This is out of SIX HUNDRED universities.

The linguistics program and the School of Education are collaborating on a federal grant to develop a nationally accredited endorsement for teachers of emergent bilinguals — that is, students who speak two languages but who aren’t fluent in them. This is especially important for education in rural Alaska.

The Geophysical Institute acquired HAARP, which will continue to attract scientists from around the world to study the ionosphere above the Arctic.

Matt Wooller secured an NSF award for a multicollector plasma mass spectrometer -- the ONLY one in Alaska. This device will be in the new engineering building.

And for the first time, UAF was named a Tier One national university by U.S. News and World Report. This makes UAF the only Tier One university in Alaska, and puts us in a category with the best universities in the country.

We welcomed hundreds of the world’s top Arctic researchers and policy makers to Arctic Science Summit Week last spring. Thanks to the outstanding efforts of our organizing staff, the U.S. State Department selected Fairbanks as the host of the Arctic Council’s Ministerial Meeting this coming May, where the United States will pass the chairmanship to Finland. This meeting will include the U.S. Secretary of State and delegations from the other seven Arctic nations.

It’s no accident that the Ministerial meeting is happening here. If it’s about the North, we are involved. After all, UAF has the highest number of publications in Arctic research of any university in the world. Our researchers are the pre-eminent experts on climate change and its natural, physical, social and economic impacts on the Arctic. This is a competitive advantage that will be crucial to UAF’s future.

However, that future is not completely clear.

Over the past several months you have heard a lot about President Johnsen’s Strategic Pathways Initiative. It’s a framework for reorganizing the university, and is intended to highlight the unique strengths of each campus. The president’s goal is to improve the overall quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness of the university.

The process began in June, when teams reviewed seven areas. Last week the Board of Regents agreed that President Johnsen should move Phase One in the following directions

• Further centralize IT functions except for externally funded projects
• Centralize procurement and research administration at UAF, with service centers at UAA and UA Southeast.
• Examine centralizing the School of Education with a single dean at a single institution but with programs offered at each university.
• Maintain engineering and management at both UAA and UAF but collaborate more closely
• For athletics, the board decided to maintain athletic programs, and two possibilities are being explored
  • First, a waiver to allow UAF and UAA to field fewer than the required 10 teams each
  • Second, a consortium between UAA and UAF that would share teams between the two institutions

The regents are expected to make their final decisions at their November meeting. In the meantime, Phase Two will begin in late September.

We need to continuously assess the cumulative effects of these individual decisions to ensure we’re prepared to fulfill our mission well into the future. Our ultimate goal when we’re done is to have a sustainable and vibrant university.

Another area that has been under consideration is single versus separate accreditation. The board agreed with the president’s recommendation to set aside single accreditation for now until the full impact of Strategic Pathways is realized. It is an issue we will continue to be engaged in.

While we are working our way through Strategic Pathways, there is, of course, the budget.

Every part of the university has been affected by the reductions of the past few years. We have eliminated academic programs and learning centers, and have reduced research support. We have fewer faculty, staff, administrators and student workers. From spring 2014 to spring 2016 alone, we lost 380 employees. Many of you are wearing multiple hats now.

We have early guidance on the FY18 budget from two sources — first from UA Statewide and second from the governor’s office. Last week President Johnsen proposed a $335 million budget request. This is what the legislature supported out of conference committee last spring, and was the governor’s initial proposed FY17 budget. President Johnsen has also proposed a 10 percent tuition increase.

For next year, the governor’s office has provided preliminary guidance that UA should plan on a 5 to 10 percent reduction, which amounts to roughly an $8-$16 million reduction to UAF. These numbers are very early, and we expect additional recommendations from the Legislature, so it’s likely to change.

In addition, we estimate a $9 million increase in our fixed costs, things like utilities and health care. This does NOT include an across-the-board compensation increase.

When we add the proposed general fund reduction and fixed costs increases, we estimate an early budget gap of $17-$26 million, based on the governor’s guidance.

How will we manage if we have another year of cuts?

If the reduction is small, we will not make horizontal cuts. If the reduction is large, every unit will have to share in the pain because there will be no other choice.

We must also aggressively pursue revenue-generating opportunities in research and enrollment growth through new or expanded high-demand programs.

We must continue to increase retention and graduation rates. And we must address tuition. UAF has one of the lowest tuition rates for baccalaureate degrees in the country. Maintaining it is not sustainable, however, and it’s one source of revenue we simply must consider, to address the budget shortfall. However, we must still offer low-cost postsecondary opportunities for certificate and associate programs.

Over the next few months, the leadership team and I will be soliciting ideas from you and from the broader Alaska community. You can help us find the right path forward. We’re planning a campus forum in a couple of weeks to hear from you. I will start the discussion now by suggesting some possible goals to increase our enrollments by 2021. For example

• 5,000 baccalaureate admitted students
• At least 2,300 associate-level and baccalaureate-intended students
• 1,200 graduate students
• and at least maintain our numbers of nondegree students
• That’s a 35 percent increase from where we are today, and it helps fill our existing capacity without new facilities and without additional state support.

To achieve this, we must

• Seek students outside our current target populations.
• Find ways to attract recent high school graduates more effectively.
• Provide more UAF financial aid (upper-division in particular), and more federal financial aid advising.
• And finally, we need to attract Alaskans who have some college but no degree

We should develop and offer new programs to grow enrollment. A few programs that have been suggested to date are

• a certificate as a medical scribe specialist
• a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering
• a master’s degree in marine studies
• and a bachelor’s and master’s in biomedical sciences

We should also expand high-demand existing programs. A few examples might include

• Applied associate degrees that more efficiently lead to baccalaureate programs
• Diesel and heavy equipment
• And tribal management

There are more programs with growth potential, and I invite your ideas on those and other opportunities.

We’ve made great progress increasing our baccalaureate completion rates over the past decade. The efforts of faculty and staff advisors, services provided for first-year students, and programs that engage our students have significantly helped our retention efforts. Thank you for your dedication to supporting our students, getting them involved, and helping them graduate and go on to achieve their goals.

Your work is paying off. We lead the Statewide system with a 6-year baccalaureate graduation rate of more than 40 percent. We need to increase that rate to 50 percent, but we’re moving in the right direction. More Alaska Performance Scholars and UA Scholars are choosing to come here, and our freshman retention rate is nearly 80 percent, which makes us very competitive with our peers.

We also need to increase our certificate and associate-level graduation rates. One way to do this is to make more scholarships available to those students, perhaps through public-private partnerships. These measures will help improve our reputation, aid our ability to recruit students, and will improve our ranking as a national university. And by the way, it will help us fill the budget gap.

We work hard to meet the demands of the state through our academic programs. We hear repeatedly how much state and local businesses rely on our engineering and management graduates. Our commercial, political and public institutions rely on the communication and critical thinking skills of our liberal arts graduates.

Industry leaders need more skilled and technical workers so they can expand their businesses. Our changing climate and the intense focus on the Arctic is increasing demand for our social, natural, and physical scientists. Alaska needs more of our highly qualified teachers, health care workers and social workers. And we need our fine and performing artists to help us simultaneously question and bring meaning to our experiences and joy to our lives.

It’s a big challenge, and it’s one we can rise to. Our students are certainly rising to the challenge.

The UAF steel bridge team swept all seven categories at its regional competition, and the men’s basketball team was named the Division II Breakout Team of the Year.

Students at Chukchi Campus and their professors, Susan Andrews and John Creed, won several state journalism awards, and the investigation by Brian O’Donoghue and HIS team of journalism students helped free the Fairbanks Four. That story inspired one of our music graduates, Emerson Eads, whose composition had its world premiere right here in this hall during this year’s Summer Fine Arts Festival.

This summer, nine students were the first to earn an occupational endorsement in mining mill operations. This 10-week training program is the first of its kind in the nation.

Our Rural Human Services students volunteered more than 2,000 hours of service in their communities.

With guidance from Denise Thorsen, students built, programmed and successfully launched our first student cube satellite, or cubesat. Some of those students have presented their work at the national level, and others are collaborating with their peers at Bristol Bay Campus to build components of the next cubesat.

It is a wonderful example of the kind of experience students can have at UAF — sometimes even before they are students here.  

For example, the Rural Alaska Honors Institute just had its largest graduating class ever. Sixty-eight high school students earned 679 UAF college credits with a GPA of 3.47.

So, as a student-centered university, what can each one of us do?

As many of you know, last year’s back-and-forth budget process in the Legislature showed that while there is some disagreement about how we fund the university, we do have some strong champions in the Legislature.

It’s important that legislators hear from us about the increasingly difficult choices we must make if the budget is reduced further. We must ask them to create a revenue stream this year to address the budget gap. And if they are not willing to do so, then we must ask them what kind of future the state will have without a strong university.

When you contact your legislator, please remember to do it on your own time, in your own words. But I encourage you to speak up. Make your opinions heard. We cannot afford to be silent as a university or as citizens of this great state.

For my part, I will be working with my leadership team, President Johnsen, and the university community to identify ways we can preserve our core programs and services to remain strong and serve the people of Alaska.

We will continue to work on increasing enrollment and donor and alumni giving. We will continue to work on legislative support.

There are opportunities here.

High school graduation rates are expected to start rising next year. The two new F-35 squadrons are expected to bring about 3,500 people to the Interior, plus more than $500 million in construction. This will benefit the entire community, which means it will also benefit UAF.

Finally, we need to continue to grow research.

There’s some good news on this front. Our research expenditures last year were 5 percent higher than the year before.

As we look for opportunities, we must be bold. Judge Wickersham was bold when he used $100 of his own money to create the cornerstone in 1915. WE need to be bold as we enter our next century.

We need your best ideas and your engagement. We need people like our faculty who recently received promotion and tenure.

I’d like to recognize those individuals for their achievement. Congratulations, and thank you.

Two words — “thank you” — perhaps the easiest and most effective thing you can do to help. Acknowledge the hard work and contributions of your colleagues, staff, and student workers.

If there are things you can change to improve a process or your work environment, do it.

Many of you are feeling the effects of taking on more work. This could mean decreased response times and, sometimes, decreased service. We are all going to have to be more patient and give each other the benefit of the doubt during this challenging time. Take a breath. Recognize and acknowledge what others are experiencing.

I ask you to take care of this university, and of each other.

It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that UAF’s campuses are safe, welcoming and inclusive. There is no place for discrimination here. Period.

The university’s non-discrimination policy now includes gender identity as a protected category. We have gender-inclusive restrooms and housing, and we will continue to improve facilities in this regard. And survivors of sexual harassment and assault can get free and confidential help from the new Resource and Advocacy Center on the Fairbanks campus.

While we have made progress, there is still much work to be done. I recently joined two dozen students, faculty and staff for Green Dot bystander training. I learned many ways that I can make a difference in reducing violence. I encourage all of you to take that training. You can find out how at the information table in the hall when we’re done here.

It takes a community to keep a community safe.

On New Year’s Eve, we will kick off our 100th anniversary as Alaska’s flagship university, and we will celebrate important milestones throughout the year. We are a university that was founded by a cast of interesting characters. It’s because of their strong will and foresight that we are here today.

That, right there, shows you who we are. We’ve had our share of ups and downs, but we have always continued to go forward.

Thank you to eLearning and University Relations for that wonderful video.

UAF has been a cornerstone of Alaska for the past 100 years, and we will continue to be a cornerstone in the next 100. One way is through our fundraising efforts, and working with our 32,000 alumni around the world.

I am pleased to tell you that the Alumni Association has increased its membership by 23 percent in the last 18 months. And over the past 10 years, UAF donors have contributed more than $100 million. Students are the heart of our Centennial fundraising mission. We are nearing our goal to raise an additional $3 million in scholarships, almost doubling student support.

These efforts are crucial. Currently, students who receive scholarships at UAF each year represent just 6 percent of the student body, a percentage we must increase.

The Board of Regents has approved bonding to complete the engineering building, which is very good news. A lot of people have worked hard for this building, including many at the College of Engineering and Mines, Design and Construction, fundraising co-chairs Janet Weise and Ethan Schutt, and many others. The fundraising committee helped raise more than $2 million to complete the fourth floor for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power.

A second initiative, the Troth Yeddha’ Legacy, has raised nearly $700,000 toward the short-term goal of $5 million. This project is for an indigenous studies center that will be a leading academic resource that welcomes Alaska Native students and peoples of all cultures.

Their giving — and your giving — helps ensure our university will be providing students a world-class education for the next 100 years.

When President Johnsen asked me to serve in this interim position, he gave me four charges.

Secure funding to finish the engineering building. Done, and I look forward to seeing students IN class IN that building in the spring of 2018.

He asked me to continue and expand UAF’s pre-eminence as an Arctic research institution, to continue to address safety issues, including Title IX, and finally, to celebrate our accomplishments through our centennial.

I’ve added four more to that list.

Stay engaged in Strategic Pathways, to prepare us for the next 100 years.

Ensure that the voice of shared governance — your voice — is heard in decision making.

Remain committed to academic freedom.

And continue to focus on student learning and engagement.

It’s a lot to do in one year, but we will be doing it together. That’s part of what drew me back here — the opportunity to work with all of you, and your expertise, to keep UAF an indispensable part of Alaska.

We will continue to offer quality programs. We will continue to provide access to all we serve. We will continue to invest in making our campuses safe and inclusive. We will continue to prepare Alaskans for Alaska’s jobs.

UAF is ready to help our state for the next century.

Is it going to be easy? No. But remember I don’t paddle with just anybody. I know we will move beyond this, and reach smooth waters.

I am grateful and honored to have been given the chance to serve with you once again. I thank you for coming today and I thank you for your support.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for the 2015 UAF State of the University address. To begin, a few safety items.

As we move into fall, I want to remind everyone that now is the time to begin planning for cold weather.

Several departments, including Environmental, Health, Safety and Risk Management, will be at the reception outside the concert hall following the presentation. They’ll have ice cleats for pickup and can explain how your department can order them in bulk.

It’s an honor and a privilege to address you today. I thank you for taking the time to come here, or to listen or watch from your offices across campus, across town or across the state at one of our rural campuses or learning centers. Welcome to all of you, our faculty, staff, students and alumni, and a special welcome to those of you who are new to UAF.

This is my 30th fall in Fairbanks. It is always a beautiful time of year. The sandhill cranes are steadily making their way south and the carillon rings occasionally in the background. Both of them are audible reminders that it’s September and we’re someplace special — the University of Alaska’s flagship campus.

Alaska itself is, of course, a part of what makes UAF special, but by far our greatest resource is our people. Unfortunately, we lost some of our finest educators and supporters this past year, so I ask us all to take a moment to remember them.

We will really miss them.

Before I begin my remarks, I’d like to introduce University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen. He’s the other new guy, at least in this role as president, but as many of you know, he’s worked many years for the University of Alaska, so this is kind of a return home for him. I’ve known Jim for some 15 years. Our kids went to school together. I can tell you from personal experience that he and his wife, Mary, both have a deep, meaningful connection to this state. We’ll need that in the coming years.

Please welcome President Johnsen.

 

 

Thank you, Jim.

I have a long history with UAF. After graduate school, my wife Teri and I were looking for jobs. Our number one goal — get to Alaska. Fortunately for us, we were offered an incredible opportunity in Fairbanks through the Lutheran Health Systems.

When we first moved here, I was immediately struck by the inclusiveness of the community. THIS was an unpretentious town with world-class opportunities in the natural world, the arts, and its university offerings.  

People were just friendly, wanted to meet you, go exploring, go fishing, find a job — whatever they were here for, people just wanted to be themselves. It was an eclectic mix of environmentalists, developers, military, academics, miners, internationals, and indigenous populations. This is a richly diverse community, and the same thing can be said of Alaska as a whole. And after all these years, it really hasn’t changed.

Clearly, a major factor in us choosing Fairbanks — aside from a job in healthcare — was the university. As it turns out, UAF is a lot like Alaska — practical, welcoming, and wanting to get out there and do things.

Being part of a university town was paramount for Teri and me. We’re fortunate to have such a variety of classes, lectures, concerts, theater, athletics, and so much more. The university adds much to the richness of life throughout Alaska. I’ve been fortunate to have a connection to UAF for most of my time here.

I retired recently, after 30 years leading or helping lead Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. I took this job because, as a longtime Fairbanksan, I understand the critical role the university plays in Alaska. So when I was asked if I would step in as interim chancellor for a year, the answer was simple.Absolutely.

Our children grew up in Fairbanks, so they definitely knew UAF. In the summer, they were the camp kids, and attended writing, theater, finance, science and sports camps here. At one point, then UA President Mark Hamilton visited one of the camps. At the end of his motivational speech he encouraged the kids to think about attending UA when they got a little older.

Later that week we were at church, which Hamilton also attended. My fourth-grade son kept fidgeting and looking around to the back of the church. Finally, he turned and whispered to me, “Dad, I believe that’s General Eisenhower back there.”

This story illustrates the connection the university has to the community. There’s no town gown divide. In August, I attended Lee Salisbury’s memorial here at UAF. I was touched by the heartfelt tribute paid to Lee, and awed by the influence one man had on so many people. The community came together in the Salisbury Theatre to honor Lee and the legacy he shared with this institution.

Lee’s professional sphere was in the arts, but the way he wove together institution and community is what so many university people have done for the last century, and it is what many of you are doing now, each within your own professional spheres.

The university is wonderfully integrated with Alaska and Alaskans because you are out there — visiting local classrooms, serving on advisory councils, using your enthusiasm and expertise to help make our communities stronger and more vibrant.  

Just as the university goes out to communities, our communities come to us as well, for athletics and special events — and for alumni reunions, which is going on right now. This is especially true for our community campuses, where the campus truly belongs to the community.

So as we move through this next year, I want to make the most of that connection between UAF and Alaskans. Here’s my shortlist of priorities.

I’m going to:

• Pass the baton
• Work the budget
• Provide stability
• Engage the community

Pass the baton. Easier said than done perhaps. But it will be critically important to find someone as passionate as Chancellor Brian Rogers and Sherry Modrow to lead this university as it begins its second centennial.

Work the budget. This is going to be another tough budget year, and we will be making difficult decisions. The vice chancellors will evaluate their areas and make recommendations. Their recommendations will go before the Planning and Budget Committee for consideration, and to determine if, by cutting one area, it has a negative effect on another unit that we cannot avoid.

In addition to dealing with the budget and helping UAF find a new, permanent leader, I want to provide stability.

I will do this by working with the existing leadership team and fostering and championing the shared governance concept. In the hospital, shared governance is with doctors. At UAF, it’s with students, staff and faculty. You are the experts, and I will rely on your expertise to help lead the way. What can we do better, more efficiently?

Engage the community — The state’s fiscal climate has changed drastically in the last two years. Our environmental climate is changing as well, sometimes, it seems, almost as dramatically. That’s why it’s as important as ever to engage the communities we serve. The challenges that face us as an institution, and that face us as private citizens — they also face our fellow Alaskans.

But in many ways, we have the resources to help. We have experts to advise on a huge range of subjects:

• Small-business development and workforce development.
• Education and health care.
• Resource extraction and resource management.
• Sustainability and self-reliance.

No list can possibly contain everything you know and everything you do for this state, but it’s important that you keep doing it, because the more people know that it’s UAF that is making a difference in their lives, the more they will help us make the case that Alaska needs UAF.

So, we need to engage communities, but it is also important to engage our employees. We’ll soon be rolling out an employee engagement survey to give us insight into how our employees are doing. I suppose it’s easy to be cynical about yet another survey, but I encourage you to participate. It’s even more critical now that leadership hear from you so we know where we need to make improvements. The first way you can help is by completing this survey.

As many of you know, I’ve been interim chancellor for a grand total of 24 days now, but I am very aware of the great strides this university has been making.

In the last seven years, UAF has:

• Launched the Sikuliaq.
• Raised $100 million in philanthropic giving.
• Awarded nearly 40 percent of all its degrees
• Completed the Murie Building.
• Expanded Wood Center through a novel public-private partnership.
• Started work on the engineering building
• And started work on the combined heat and power plant, which is on track, on budget, and has its financing fully secured.

These are simply a few successes we can point to over the last few years. There’s a good team in place here at UAF, which will help smooth the leadership transition.

We have the right people to lead us, we have the infrastructure, and we have the five guiding themes laid out through the three-year statewide strategic planning effort, Shaping Alaska’s Future, with its core themes of:

• student achievement
• school partnerships
• industry partnerships
• research, and
• accountability to Alaskans

This is really the umbrella, our strategic direction. These are themes you are all familiar with, because they are so similar to our accreditation themes:

• educate
• research
• prepare<
• connect
• and engage.

They are familiar, because they are part of our mission, and because they are the work you do every day.

I was on the UA Board of Regents from 2011 until I became interim chancellor. I can tell you from my time there that three topics keep coming up:

• The budget — No surprise there. This is an ongoing concern for the regents and for the administration at all the campuses.
• Academic advising — Effective, one-on-one relationships with students means they are much more likely to do well in school and graduate.
• Title IX — Sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual discrimination: Whatever its form, wherever it happens, whoever was involved — it is wrong, and it will be not tolerated. If you see something, say something. Do something. We are a community. Take care of each other.  

Creating community is something I’ve seen UAF do time and time again.

In terms of just plain fun since I’ve been here, I truly enjoyed Rev-It-Up and the campuswide welcome to new students. Simply being on campus at the start of the semester is an exciting and promising time in life. Dozens of staff members, faculty and administrators, orientation leaders, student ambassadors, Dining Services and others take the time, not just to welcome these new students to campus, but also to literally move them in. Computers, clothing, bedding — you name it, they move it.

There was one parent who parked his camper out back behind the dorms for the night, and at eight a.m. when the dorms opened, he had his son moved into the front lobby by 8:05, and he said, “This is my third one — I’m out of here. I’ve got to get on the road!”

Then inside there was a mom almost hugging the admissions counselor, and saying to the first child she was sending off to college, “You’re going to be all right.” I think she was consoling herself as much as her daughter.

If you participated in move-in day, or in getting ready for it, or if you’re on a front line serving students, I want to personally thank you for your hard work and dedication. It’s your faces our students see when they first arrive on campus. Please give yourselves a round of applause!

The time and attention you give our students pays off. The first-year retention rates for our freshmen have exceeded our peers since 2005. Some of that is attributed to rigorous advising, but more broadly, it’s also our supportive environment. Our graduation rates are also improving and swiftly approaching our peers.

This year we launched a new alcohol and sexual assault prevention training program for students. Both are designed to help our students make good, safe choices for themselves and for each other.

I’m also pleased to report that nearly 100 percent of UAF employees have taken the mandatory training on sexual misconduct. Many of you participated in one of the trainings offered by Title IX coordinator Mae Marsh and Police Chief Keith Mallard.

I want to thank Mae and Keith as well as our community campuses for their outreach to shelters and police in Bethel, Dillingham, Fairbanks, Kotzebue and Nome. We’ve signed MOUs with several key organizations that deal with this issue. These efforts show that UAF is taking this seriously.

This isn’t just a top-down approach. For New Student Orientation, students and a faculty member wrote, produced and performed a play on the topic.

I was inspired by this novel approach and the initiative shown by our students.

UAF was also the first in Alaska to sponsor the college campus Green Dot bystander education training. Our students are already showing an interest in participating in this program, which shows how each of us has a role in preventing, recognizing and reporting violence and abuse.

All these efforts are about taking care of one another and creating a healthy learning environment for our students.

It’s probably no surprise to you that I’m a big fan of wellness programs. They help us have healthier employees and students, healthier families and a healthier bottom line. There’s a lot of positive in that.

Take advantage of our health screenings, and please, get your flu shot. You can save hundreds of dollars in insurance rebates, and these small choices have a huge effect in helping us contain our health care costs and ensuring we can all do our best work.

On December 31st, UAF will also become a tobacco-free campus. This is something I support wholeheartedly. We successfully implemented this at all hospitals in Alaska in the last few years, and I am glad to see UAF taking this step.

It’s really about our people. The talent the UAF staff and faculty bring to the university’s mission is extraordinary. The equation is simple: If we aren’t healthy, we can’t take on the challenges ahead. And as we all know, there are significant challenges ahead.

UAF is in its third year of cuts.

• In FY14 we saw an  $8.5 million budget gap.
• In FY15 a $14 million budget gap
• And were currently managing a $20 million gap for FY16 due to a $13 million cut last year and $7 million in increased utilities and fixed costs..
• In total, this is three-year shortfall of about $42 million.

I realize that it’s been difficult. You’ve told me, and I’ve seen it. I know that we’re asking you to continue to do more with less. These are significant cuts, but I’m impressed with how UAF has managed the shortfall overall. It is difficult and painful, but it is necessary, and I ask that you do it with thought and analysis and innovative thinking.

Over the past year, UAF reviewed nearly 25 percent of its academic programs. The continued use of 90-day vacancy holds for positions, and furlough days for senior administrators have resulted in some savings. We’ve had contract reductions throughout the organization. We eliminated a number of positions through attrition, and, unfortunately, layoffs.

We’ve moved departments back to campus, reducing off-campus leases, and there have been a number of service reductions.

We were able to use one-time staff benefit savings this year. Unfortunately, that won’t be the case next year.

We recognize that next year will likely bring more reductions. Nevertheless, we are continuing to look at key areas of investment that will keep us stable for the time being and make us able to respond more quickly when the economy improves.

For FY17 we’ll request funding for fixed cost increases, which includes regulatory mandates such as Title IX and disability support services.

We’re also requesting funding for a few key program enhancements, including:

• Completing the establishment of the collaborative two-plus-two veterinary medicine program with Colorado State University.
• Meeting the chemical engineering degree demand to support industry needs.
• Requesting funds to finish the engineering building, and for deferred maintenance.

Funding to complete the engineering building remains our number one capital priority.

Of the 120,000 square feet constructed, only 6,000 is currently usable by the public — as a lobby and walkway between Duckering and Bunnell. Not for classes. Not for labs. As a result, we’re challenged to accommodate the increased demand for this important area of workforce and economic development. Students want to enroll in our engineering programs. Industry wants us to graduate more engineers. We need to get the building finished to meet the demand.

In addition, we must continue to address the more than $800 million deferred maintenance backlog.

We did not receive any funding for this backlog in FY16, so this year we will be asking for two years’ worth. Of all the needs in the statewide system, UAF shoulders the biggest burden, with the oldest facilities in the most critical shape. This is not a can that should be kicked down the road: The longer we wait, the more it costs to replace and repair.

While we look to the state to help us meet some of our needs, we are fully aware that there are others we must meet ourselves.

For UAF to continue a similar level of high-quality service that we have delivered in the past, we must increase our revenue as well.

About 42 percent of our budget comes from the state. Two years ago, Alaska crude was more than 100 dollars a barrel. Today, it’s less than 50. Every agency is affected, but we must continue to advocate for the university and show that we are part of the solution to the state’s fiscal crisis, not part of the problem.

In addition to our general fund dollars, another 10 percent of our revenue, or $43 million, comes from tuition and fees. Our tuition rate continues to be the second lowest in comparison to our peers nationally. UAF is a great value.

About 19 percent, or $92 million, of our revenue comes from research activities primarily made up of federal receipts, and another 2 percent from federal stimulus funding.

UAF’s research dollars have been steadily declining despite our best efforts. UAF scientists are extremely successful in competing on a national scale.

However, federal research spending declines, are due primarily to the end of the stimulus funding, and to tightening at the federal level.

Fundraising is another revenue source for us.

Under Chancellor Brian Rogers’ leadership, UAF’s development team raised $100 million in the last seven years, due in part to focusing fundraising efforts on some of UAF’s biggest needs as we head into our centennial.

Additional effort on development and fundraising remains a priority. We will continue to build on long-standing relationships with our alumni network and community partners.

President Obama’s recent visit to Alaska, and the role many of our researchers played in that visit, underscored yet again the opportunity to capitalize on the intense global interest in the North.

Our scientists have dedicated their professional lives to understanding the Arctic. That’s why the president’s chief science and technology advisor, John Holdren, recently traveled to Fairbanks. He wanted to meet with the world’s best Arctic scientists — our scientists — so  their expertise could be tapped by the White House and the senior Arctic officials of the international Arctic Council.

In addition to our advisory role with the Arctic Council:

• UAF coordinates the academic affairs for the University of the Arctic, or “UArctic”  
• UAF, along with UArctic and Dartmouth, form the Institute for Arctic Policy
• Two of our researchers are in the inaugural class of Fulbright Arctic scholars, a brand-new initiative that is co-led by a third UAF member.

As Jim Johnsen has said so emphatically, we will not cede our leadership role in Arctic research.

The list of opportunities is long. Climate change and shipping lanes, unmanned aircraft systems, search and rescue, energy and microgrids, homeland security and oil spill response, biodiversity, human migrations and cultural resilience — and that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. All this, and you are the experts.

Now UAF is gearing up for one of the largest annual conferences on Arctic science. This coming March, scientists and policymakers from all over the world will come to the Fairbanks campus for a very broad, very impressive array of world-class events, including the Arctic Science Summit Week and the Arctic Observing Summit.

Our presence in the Arctic allows us to capitalize on our strengths and open doors to new opportunities, including commercial ventures. For example, invention disclosures have gone from six in 2011 to 75 last year. We must consider this potential for growth as a revenue source.

Another revenue source is tuition. The regents looked at all the tools we can use to continue providing quality programs, and they have put it back on the table. The fiscal reality demands it: We will engage our students in the conversation, because tuition has been and will continue to be part of the budget discussion.

That’s one effort, but what about the number of students enrolling? The demographics are stark — fewer high schoolers are graduating in Alaska, and the competition for them from other universities is tough. So we have to boost our base by investing in marketing and recruitment. We have great programs here, but we need to make sure people know about them.

Our admissions and marketing teams are working hard and creatively to attract those students, reaching out to them, in their communities and here on campus, with things like

• Inside Out, where potential students get an inside look at UAF
• Coordinating with schools and colleges to strategically expand our presence at college fairs in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest
• Establishing productive partnerships with high school counselors throughout the state
• And targeted marketing campaigns within the state and Outside

These efforts are a long-term investment in creating a culture in Alaska that sees UAF as a top choice, not a fallback position.

Once our students enroll, we have to advise them intensively and well to keep them here. And we need to expand access.

For some students, affordability is access. You can’t go to college if you can’t pay for it. For most students, that means a combination of work-study programs, loans and grants, but also scholarships, and that’s an area we’ll be focusing on in the coming years through the centennial scholarships program.

Access also means being physically or technologically able to take a class or get a degree, wherever students are. They shouldn’t be held back by a poor Internet connection or a class that’s offered rarely and in just one location. Students can’t always come to us; we have to be able to go to them. This is something those of you in rural Alaska know better than anyone.

Our challenge: To maintain quality programs and services as we face additional uncertainty. We have to increase enrollment, and we have to increase the number of students who graduate.

Every student counts. Students are not the abstract responsibility of a small group limited to faculty and the good people in Admissions, Financial Aid and Residence Life. Most of you listening are university employees. You know the ins and outs. Help a lost student find their way. Recommend a resource to a struggling freshman. You don’t have to provide the solution, but you can help a student get to someone who can. It doesn’t have to take much from you, but it can mean so much to them.

As UAF heads into the centennial, we have established three fundraising initiatives. The initiatives help ensure UAF is equipped to provide a world-class education in the coming century.

One initiative is to raise $6.5 million in private funds to relocate the Alaska Center for Energy and Power to the fourth floor of the new engineering building.

The center has outgrown its facilities and needs a new, permanent home to house new, innovative labs and workspace that will equip researchers and students to meet real-world energy needs.

The staff and students there work with partners to develop practical, cost-effective and innovative energy solutions, not just for Alaska but for the world.

You know what the future holds.

You just saw one of our students directly engaged in research. Students are the focus of another initiative, the Centennial Cornerstone Scholarship and Fellowship Endowment. We’re raising private funds to boost existing scholarship and fellowship awards, aid that will help retain the most talented students. This initiative launched April 2015 with a goal to raise $1 million in new scholarship support.

Last month, at Chancellor Roger’s retirement celebration, I was inspired as community members came with checks in hand to support this important fundraising effort. Many of you contributed to this fund. Thank you.

Our third effort is to raise $25 million for the Troth Yeddha’ Park and an indigenous studies center. This park and center will honor Alaska’s first people, strengthen the bridge between their cultures and higher education, and help us serve our students. In 2014, for the first time, the number of Alaska Native students graduating was proportional to the state’s population.

The Troth Yeddha’ initiative builds on UAF’s decades-long history of service to rural and Native students through entities such as the Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development, and the tribal management and Native arts programs.

While these are three very different projects, they have an unshakeable underlying goal: To help make a better Alaska. Make our lives warmer, richer, brighter. Make us more curious, and more capable.

I believe it is the role of everyone listening to help us all be better thinkers, makers, and communicators. Help us be better teachers, researchers, and students. These are not job-specific duties of just some of us. Each of us, every day, has an opportunity to teach someone, learn from someone, help someone.

My academic training is in the humanities, but for three decades, I have worked with doctors — scientists. Science and the humanities are not an “either/or”  elective  but a “both/and”  imperative. If our students are to become great citizens, they must have both.

These are big goals. Grand plans. But this university was built on grand plans. Judge James Wickersham placed the cornerstone in an open field and set something in motion that would forever change the landscape of Alaska. The effort wasn’t without its challenges, however, as these excerpts from Judge Wickersham’s diary makes clear.

and I am very, very glad of it.

Wickersham’s grand plan had come together. He prevailed, and we will too. This Alaska grit and determination is in our DNA.

I may only be here a short time, but I have faith in this university and its leadership team. For you—the staff and faculty, students and alumni—there are more opportunities now than ever before to get involved, to lead, and make a difference.

Our grand plans are taking shape, and you are all so important to the future. For me, it’s an honor to be here at this time. Challenging? Yes. But this university has come far in the last 100 years. It’s rather extraordinary to think how far we’ll go. UAF will make grand plans and continue to change the landscape of Alaska.

To this group — with all of you, here in person or listening online or on the radio —

Thank you.  

Good afternoon. I’m happy to welcome each of you to the start of the new academic year. It’s nice to see so many of you here in person, and I’m pleased that others are joining us online from our rural campuses, research and outreach centers across the state.

I’d like to begin with a safety minute. If you don’t know where the exits to this concert hall are, please look around to find them. Please also check to see if anyone sitting near you might need a little help in an emergency. Thank you.

Here in Fairbanks, we stand on Troth Yeddha’, wild potato hill. This is a place whose history is far older than our buildings and classrooms. Wherever we are in Alaska, whatever campus, learning center or research site, we are on land where people have been learning and teaching for thousands of years — Inupiat, Yup’ik, Ch’upik, Alutiiq, Dene Athabascan.

The people here before, the people here now — we are the people of UAF. We are students, faculty, mentors, advisors, researchers.

Some of us are alumni. If you are here as part of this weekend’s alumni rendezvous, I welcome you back to your alma mater. This morning we opened up the time capsule from 1964, when students listened to the Alaska Flag Song on a 45, they were living in the brand-new Lathrop Hall, and we had a proposed budget of $5.2 million.

And in the time capsule was a copy of the Polar Star student newspaper’s Lathrop Hall edition. I’d like to quote from that issue:

“Perhaps President William Wood most adequately summarized the intricate vastness of this University when he said in his inaugural address: ‘Where but in Alaska could one find a single University with a fur farm, a musk-ox herd, a square mile of glaciers, several tons of bones of prehistoric animals, and ice stations on the Polar ice cap 400-odd miles North of Land’s End, a world famous scientist with a special alarm system to awaken him whenever the aurora borealis flashes across our Northern skies, two satellite tracking stations, no social fraternities, no sororities and no losing football team for the alumni to use as an excuse for firing the President.’”

I am pleased to say we have no plans for a football team at UAF.

We are the people of UAF. UAF could not exist without our work and our belief in our mission.

Our mission brings us together, and it makes us friends as well as colleagues. We’ve lost some friends and colleagues this past year, and I’d like to take a moment to remember them.

We will really miss them.

It’s autumn again, and even as we look back, we can’t help but look forward, too. The Equinox Marathon was less than a week ago. It’s a tough race. Many of you were part of it, part of something difficult but ultimately successful. It’s a community event and a point of pride for us.

Each of us at UAF is running our own kind of race. We are all here for different reasons, for personal or professional growth, because we enjoy working in an academic environment, or to make our mark on the world.

Some of us are in it for the long haul — we have people who have worked for UAF for decades. Others are just getting started, and we want to give you a hearty UAF welcome.

No matter how long you’ve been at UAF, this is a race we are all in together.

UAF has recent finishes — successes — to be proud of. Each started as an idea, and for some it took years of hard work for our ideas to become reality.

The Sikuliaq will shortly make its way through the Panama Canal.

The Kuskokwim Campus is getting much-needed deferred maintenance.

We’ve remodeled the Bristol Bay Campus science building and the Northwest Campus student center building.

We have been able to make improvements at Toolik Field Station.

We are now accepting applications for entrance to the new UAF-Colorado State University 2 plus 2 veterinary medicine program, which will start next summer.

Of the 60 people who wrote the National Climate Assessment Report, four were UAF scientists. Other researchers discovered a major new site for dinosaur fossils in Alaska.

In May, we celebrated the largest graduating class in our history, with more than 1,400 students receiving awards.

In June, hundreds of elite musicians and classical music fans came to UAF to participate in or watch the Piano-e-Competition, and thousands more watched online.

Our students and student offerings continue to grow and improve. In 2014, for the first time, every athletics team had an average GPA above 3.0.

We have 200 students in the Honors Program, 80 of them new to UAF.

We have expanded courses in our emergency management program, and busy students can now earn their MBA completely online.

This semester, students, faculty, and staff are using are using the new student union building, the addition to Wood Center that makes living and working on the Fairbanks campus even better.

Next spring, the NCAA rifle championships will come to Fairbanks for a second time.

Our Development and Alumni Relations Office, aided at times by our great student callers has done outstanding work to help support institutional priorities. Last year’s target was $8 million. They reached over $13 million.

This year we hope to raise $8.7 million to support UAF priorities, and we’re already on our way. We thank the Douglas Island Pink and Chum hatchery, which has donated more than a million dollars to fund a fellowship for fisheries graduate students.

We appreciate Kinross Fort Knox for its second million-dollar commitment to UAF, and the many donors large and small who make a difference here. At tonight’s Nanook Rendezvous we will announce yet another special gift.

We led the way in securing an $18.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for the University of Alaska to study health, disease, and the environment.

And I am pleased to announce that this morning, we received notice of a $23 million NIH grant to support minority student biomedical research opportunities. That one is a partnership between UAF’s biomedical researchers, veterinary medicine, our CRCD rural campuses, and UA Southeast’s campuses.

The new engineering building is taking shape on the southeast corner of the hill. Just a month ago, construction workers placed 360 yards of concrete for the facility’s strong-floor, where engineers will be able to create mock earthquakes. It is one of the building’s unique features, and the only one of its kind in the state.

We still have funding challenges to complete the engineering building, but we’re working on it. UAF produces the most engineering graduates in Alaska. In fact, we’ve more than doubled the number of engineering undergrads since 2007. The state relies on engineers, and we rely on the state to help us invest in Alaska’s economic future.

We had tremendous support from the Legislature, who invested in construction of a new combined heat and power plant in Fairbanks, the biggest single project in the university’s history. If you see your legislators, please thank them, and thank you for your continued advocacy for the university.

Now we welcome a new opportunity, with the Troth Yeddha’ Legacy. After 10 years of hard work, we have a design in hand and a campaign to raise the money for a park and an Indigenous Studies Center. This legacy will be a destination for scholars from Alaska and the world, and a physical reminder of this hill’s meaning to the Tanana Athabascan people.

The very location of Troth Yeddha’ Park, where it sits between the University of Alaska Museum of the North and the natural sciences of the Reichardt Building, symbolizes the bridge between culture, science and traditional knowledge.

It’s the transition into our next century, where the integration of science and culture will transform life in the North. It is where today’s students will become tomorrow’s leaders.

Three weeks ago, at the gathering to honor the establishment of the park and future center, I was struck by how many times I heard someone say, “When I was a student here.”

So many of our Alaska Native leaders, our community leaders, our state leaders, have personal roots at UAF. I am extremely proud that UAF and Troth Yeddha’ are one, and I cannot wait to see our future students and leaders using the park, and eventually the Indigenous Studies Center.

For the Tanana people and now for all of us, Troth Yeddha’ is a place to gather, to think, and to work together, as a community, just as we are a community at UAF.

We spend years of our lives at UAF. We know each other as colleagues and friends, even sometimes as family.

We help each other. We watch out for each other. If we see something wrong, we say something, and we do something about it.

We work every day to keep our buildings and grounds safe. We look for ways to make UAF safe and welcoming for everyone, regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation or disability, and regardless of whether that disability is visible or not.

I’d like to take a minute to explain why it’s so important we care about safety. It’s not just a matter of completing safety training or reviewing our emergency action plans for departments. This is about ensuring that none of us gets hurt—or worse. It’s important that what may seem like a small issue is NOT overlooked. When it comes to safety, small things add up to big problems.

So please report concerns, and encourage others to do so. Don’t take them lightly. We need to be an example for students, so they will be prepared for what they will see in the workplace.

Many of you participated in the safety pilot program and received the supervisor’s tool kit for safety and awareness. We will use it to help achieve a culture of safety. That, of course, is a goal for all of us. I encourage each of you to make safety part of your own culture at UAF.

I’m also very pleased that nearly all UAF employees have successfully completed the Title IX training, and I hope the others will complete their training very soon too. The training is a necessary reminder that we can’t have equality in education if we don’t have a safe and welcoming campus for everyone.

We must go farther than talking about a safe and welcoming campus. Sexual assault and sexual harassment are endemic in Alaska. We must be part of the solution — the solution to help victims continue their education without barriers, and to create opportunities where, in the past, there have been disparities.

We need to be part of the solution that ensures there are fewer occurrences each year until there are none, and to heal where there has been harm.

The discussion at the national level creates an opportunity not only to meet the needs of our students, but to provide an environment where students can create their own futures and thrive, and I am very pleased ASUAF is working with us. And it is also critical for our faculty, our staff, and their families and communities.

The federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights will be in Fairbanks October 6th and 7th and at the Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel on October 10. They will be reviewing UAF’s compliance with the Title IX law, ensuring we prevent and respond to sexual harassment and sexual assault.

They will conduct a series of listening sessions and interviews. Please encourage your students and employees to attend. Tell your stories.

As I said at the beginning, UAF is made up of people. We must never forget that. We are not statistics or FTEs. We are students, alumni, and employees working to do the best we can for ourselves and, I hope, for each other.

That is why it’s crucial to remember that the challenges we face are not strictly institutional challenges — they are personal as well.

We are still managing the effects of this year’s budget shortfall, about $14 million. Although much can change in an election year, we know that we will still face budget challenges in the next few years due to declining state revenues.

The Legislature reduced funding for operations by $8 million, but our fixed costs — the ones we can’t control, like utilities and negotiated contracts — continue to increase, and there’s only so much that we can absorb without negative consequences.

We continue to introduce energy-saving measures, and, with the new Sustainability Master Plan, we’ll have more ways to reduce costs and waste. In Fairbanks we’re saving money by continuing to move off-campus units back to campus. We’ve cut travel. We’ve cut budgets. We’ll continue the 90-day hiring delay. Some positions will not be refilled.

The business of budget reduction is difficult, because most of what we do requires people, and reducing budgets means fewer people to do the work. We spent months gathering information, comments, and analysis to develop a plan for the next two years. The Budget Options Group developed an initial set of options.

The Planning and Budget Committee, made up of staff and faculty throughout UAF, did a tremendous amount of work to come up with a series of recommendations. Shared governance takes work. It is shared work and it does matter.

I asked, and the Planning and Budget Committee asked, for your suggestions and recommendations, some of which we’ve already put into effect. Here are just a few examples:

We reorganized Dining and Polar Express with the Bursar’s Office and eliminated vacant positions.

We consolidated space for the Office of Information Technology. We merged SNRAS and the Cooperative Extension Service into the School of Natural Resources and Extension.

There have been reductions in overall services you may have noticed, including reduced shuttle service, a limited grounds crew, and fewer staff to answer the phones. We’re going to feel the effects.

We’ve spent nearly 100 years finding ways to do what we need to, not just to survive, but to excel.

This year, 2014, marks the 50th reunion of the class of 1964. That was the year of the earthquake that caused such devastation in parts of Alaska. Some of the students who came here in the aftermath had lost everything. But they rebuilt.

UAF has not lost everything. We still have students, faculty, researchers and staff whose integrity and willingness to work hard rival any university in the country. Despite current budget challenges, we have a bedrock foundation of people and expertise that will keep us strong.

It’s images like these — of where we’ve been, and how far we’ve come — that will inspire us as we continue to do our work for Alaska in the face of growing budgetary pressure.

There are limited means for the university to raise revenue. One option is to increase tuition, which is one of the lowest in the country.

However, last Friday, the board of regents voted against President Gamble’s request to raise tuition by four percent. The proposed tuition increase would have brought in an additional $4 million to the statewide system, including about $1.5 million to UAF.

The board of regents challenged UA’s leadership to reduce the number of academic, research and support programs we offer.

Even if we receive the same state funding as last year, and with unavoidable cost inflation, our predicted budget shortfall for next year, FY16, is another $14 million, which would mean a repeat of the scale of this year’s reductions. If state funding allocations for the university actually decline, it will be even more challenging.

A tuition increase would make only a small dent in that amount, but would offer some relief to the cuts we face. We have no more options for simple or pain-free reductions.

We don’t know what the governor and Legislature will decide, but I need to ensure we are ahead of the planning and budget curve.

Therefore, I have asked the vice chancellors to explore further reductions, and I have asked Provost Henrichs to reconvene the UAF Planning and Budget Committee this fall instead of next spring to renew the process of identifying areas where we can cut significant amounts of money. And to look again for new or expanded revenue sources.

My tentative timeline is for the Planning and Budget Committee to complete its work in December 2014, right after the governor announces his UA budget.

Once we know our target, I will work with the committee and my Cabinet to make the tough but necessary decisions to have a balanced budget, and I will announce those decisions shortly thereafter. This schedule will allow us to notify staff of any layoffs, so everyone has time to prepare, and so we are ready to realize budget savings when the new fiscal year starts on July 1.

I take this personally. I know it is not “fat” we’re cutting. It’s real people, real programs and services. It means a university that cannot do everything we do now, at the same time we are adapting to changing societal demands from higher education.

These are the constraints we must work within. There is not an alternative.

Many of us are feeling pain because of what we are giving up. It is vital that I hear your concerns and your suggestions. Last year we held two forums where I took your questions, and, I hope, answered them. The next one is Tuesday, November 25. In the meantime, I urge all of you to continue to communicate with your director, dean, vice chancellor, the provost, or with me, if you have ideas to help UAF manage during this time.

Although UAF receives strong support from the Legislature compared to many of our peer institutions, we must continue to remind our state leaders that a strong UAF means a strong Alaska.

For example, the Alaska Center for Energy and Power needs more room to continue its work finding affordable, sustainable energy solutions for Alaska and the world. A successful fundraising campaign will allow us to finish the fourth floor of the new engineering building dedicated to ACEP.

We still need an expanded early childhood education lab school and child care program for the Fairbanks campus.

And we must finish land and building arrangements on the Northwest Campus, so we can set the stage for improvements in the future.

We have to deal with deferred maintenance, and renovate our nearly 50-year-old research facilities on the West Ridge.

Our teaching and research won’t stop. We must continue to enhance our classroom and distance learning technologies. We’re developing a centennial scholarship fundraising campaign, so more students will be able to afford a college education.

We will continue to teach the students who will one day be our leaders, and they will continue to learn, in our classrooms and libraries, from our faculty, and from each other.

We’ll continue to reach out — online, in print, through social media, by radio, on TV, and person-to-person.

We’ll continue to conduct research that helps us develop new industries, respond to new challenges, and live better lives.

The research we conduct here directly affects us. If affects how we live our lives, and how well we live them. The work we do — it’s tremendously exciting. It’s important and necessary. It’s inspiring.

This is footage from a recent commercial shoot that shows a small slice of the work we do here. We do so much more, and we will continue to tell the world about it.

But if we are to be heard, we must have a clear and consistent voice. UAF is made of many parts but the one thing that links us all together is being a part of the UAF brand. Our brand defines why we're here and where we're headed.

It's who we are and what we stand for. It's how we express ourselves, and how we present UAF to the world.

It is important that our students, donors, legislators, community members and policymakers understand what UAF contributes to Alaska, the nation and the world. We can do this only if we stand together as one united university.

In the coming months I will share plans for how we can all tell the UAF story more coherently. This is something I consistently hear we need to do better.

We will only be able to position UAF as a leading student-centered research university and America’s arctic university if we work together.

We’re in an election year. Legislators and candidates are going to be very interested in your opinions, and in what you know about the university. About how we make a difference in Alaska’s economy and workforce development. About how we strengthen the state’s education system and social fabric. About how we provide intellectual capital, and about how we serve Alaska.

States with healthy and strong economies all have strong research universities. And paralleling that, for us to be a strong research university, we need to ensure there is a vibrant state economy; that is a key part of the land grant mission of this university.

Your legislators and candidates are listening. So talk to them. Tell them what you know about how to make Alaska better.

Around the world, no other university’s arctic research has been cited as often as UAF’s. We do outstanding work, and the world is taking notice.

We’re part of the international education and policy community through the University of the Arctic network of 170 universities, colleges and research centers. Our faculty and administrators have leadership roles in a wide variety of Arctic scientific organizations.

We are actively advising the US State Department in support of the coming US chairmanship of the Arctic Council, and our faculty support every one of its working groups.

Arctic nations and other stakeholders are engaged in discussions about the Arctic, such as opening sea routes, resource exploration, and the major social changes such activities create. We have the expertise and the reputation to make significant contributions to these discussions.

UArctic and its member institutions strengthen our capacity to be the primary U.S. resource for practical, science- and scholarship-based information about the Arctic. We can be the authoritative U.S. academic voice among our arctic neighbors. UArctic is one of the ways we are taking leadership in the Arctic and enriching our own education and research programs in the process.

UAF staff and faculty are increasingly productive inventors. Invention disclosures have gone from six in 2011 to 75 this year. Last fiscal year we licensed one technology. This year, we licensed 40, and presented our first royalty checks to UAF faculty and staff.

And our students might be giving their faculty members a run for their money. For example, the UAF robotics team won an innovation award from NASA for the four-wheeled mining robot they developed.

Our unmanned aircraft testing center is the largest research facility of its kind in North America, but our reach goes around the globe. Our unmanned aircraft staff are helping track wildlife in Africa and sea lions in the Aleutians. They’re monitoring oil spills and helping fight wildfires.

And, as an FAA test site, they’re helping develop protocols and best practices for using unmanned aircraft in research.

Last month we hosted the U.S. special representative for the Arctic, Admiral Papp. Four weeks ago, members of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Science and Technology met at UAF to discuss international arctic security issues. UAF arctic leaders and scientists made presentations to the delegation, and the meeting included an overview of UAF's abilities to address needs through innovative research and applied science.

I am very excited about the opportunities there will be for our students and faculty to engage with the international community on Arctic issues.

For example, in 2016, the world’s biggest arctic science conference — the Arctic Science Summit Week — will be right here at UAF.

These successes come from the hard work of many individuals throughout UAF. It is because we work together, collaborate, and cooperate that UAF is a world leader.

UAF is, of course, also part of the larger statewide system. Just as we collaborate within UAF, we collaborate with our colleagues in Anchorage and Southeast, and with the UA system office.

Shaping Alaska’s Future is the result of the system’s conversations throughout Alaska. It is the board of regents’ policy, and a framework for the kind of institution the University of Alaska aspires to be. It is our framework as well.

I’d like to highlight a few efforts from Shaping Alaska’s Future that UAF is already well on its way to achieving.

One is that UA become a recognized world leader and international collaborator in arctic research. Done. UAF is there.

Another goal is to have our graduation rates at the same level as our peer institutions nationally. We’re doing that. In four years, UAF’s six-year graduation rate went from less than 32 percent to 41 percent. Room to improve? Absolutely. On the right upward trend? Absolutely.

Yet another goal, and the last one I’ll talk about today, is “excellence everywhere.” As Shaping Alaska’s Future puts it, “UA is often judged, not by the quality of its education, research or outreach, but rather by the personal experience that an individual encounters when accessing those programs.”

Each of us has a role in recruiting and retaining students. It’s not just the responsibility of Admissions and student services. It is imperative that we create and nurture a culture where students feel welcome, safe, respected and wanted. As times get tough, that’s more important than ever -- for our students and for each other.

So, excellence everywhere. At the front desk, on the phone, on the web, in the classroom, in the field. Excellence for the people of Alaska. Excellence for each other. Why would we be part of this great university, in this great state, if we did not want excellence?

We are America’s Arctic University. Now that the Arctic has the world’s attention, that means we have to work harder to stay in front.

We have to invest in new and continuing faculty in emerging areas. We need to become more interdisciplinary, building bridges between disciplines and partnerships with other institutions.

We have to renew our focus on indigenous languages and cultures, intensifying work on preservation of Alaska Native Languages. The Indigenous Studies program can be an international magnet to UAF.

With the Cornerstone Centennial next July, we move into a new era.

Our second century as a university will be defined by how we use science to inform policy and actions in the Arctic

And by how we use indigenous knowledge to inform policy and actions in the Arctic.

By how we blend the two, so science learns from traditional knowledge and indigenous peoples can benefit by our science.

By how we serve the needs of the people of Alaska and the North.

And by what we pass on to the next generation of northern leaders and northern citizens.

Many of us came north from somewhere else, and found it a life-changing experience. Now it’s our turn to do the same for others.

Our research is profoundly changing what we know about the world.

Our teaching is giving us people who will know how to interpret and communicate what we find. That allows us to extend our knowledge throughout Alaska. We’ll have business leaders and engineers who will help develop our economy, and teachers and health workers who will help us care for our families.

We’re helping to shape the thinkers who will shape our culture, in Alaska and beyond it.

We want to know what is over the next hill or around the next bend, and we know there will always be something to which we can look forward.

But for now, in the very short term, I am looking forward to sharing some refreshments with my Fairbanks colleagues in the Wood Center multilevel lounge, where we also have an employee resource fair. Please join me at Wood Center.

Thank you for coming here today, or for watching or listening online, or for gathering at our many campuses and research sites throughout Alaska.

To our Jewish friends and colleagues, L’Shana Tova – happy New Year. And to all of you, I wish you a happy new academic year

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining me today.

Welcome UAF students, faculty and staff to today’s convocation. I’d like to welcome our guests: members of the University of Alaska Board of Regents, UAF Board of Advisors and Fairbanks Community Advisory Council.

Most of you are, of course, returning to UAF, but I want to especially acknowledge the 50 new faculty who are now members of this community. I know we have in the audience members of the Faculty Senate and Staff Council, the UAF governance groups with whom the administration shares responsibility for this institution.

Our colleagues at community campuses, research stations and extension sites have joined us online. Finally, I’d like to extend a special welcome to the board of the alumni association and the alumni who are here to celebrate a weekend of reunion activities.

I want to recognize the loss of some of our colleagues, and our friends, during the past year. In very different ways, each helped build this university, and we are all indebted to them for what they gave. Please join me in a moment of silence.

Thank you.

We’ve come to the end of a glorious summer, one with record-breaking temperatures, cloudless blue skies and a bumper-crop of berries. Here in Fairbanks we got a reminder of the changing seasons yesterday. And as that dusting of snow tells us what’s coming, we can already see signs of a changing future at UAF. Change can be challenging, but just as we adapt to snow in September, we Alaskans can adapt to a changing fiscal environment.  

Here in the North, we understand intuitively and intellectually that we are all linked, through time and space. Where I stand today, where I work every day, as do many of you, is on the ridge known as Troth Yeddha’. This is where Athabascan elders met to share information, as we do now. Those elders knew their lives depended on understanding and heeding the complexities of the world. They knew, as we know, that we are never separate from the world around us.

Like every other university in the country, we are engaged in a national discussion about higher education. Does it cost too much? Are we preparing students for jobs? Can we get them out of school faster? Can we simplify the process? Can we do it all online?   

While we do need to be concerned about costs, and employment, and speed to graduation, I’d like to suggest today that in both the national and local discussions, we need to remember the value of a liberal arts education. Higher education is not just about preparing people for jobs. It’s about preparing people for life.

Traditionally, the liberal arts are those subjects a person needs to know in order to engage in civic life. In ancient Greece, that included rhetoric, grammar, and logic. Later mathematics, music, and the sciences were added.

But what is a liberal education today? What do our students need in order to function successfully in the 21st Century? UAF’s Faculty Senate is grappling with this through the General Education Revitalization Committee. The Senate has already adopted the overall learning objectives, saying students need four basics:

• Knowledge of human institutions, socio-cultural processes and the physical and natural world;
• Intellectual and practical skills;
• Tools for effective civic engagement; and
• The ability to integrate and apply learning.

We’ve come a long way from rhetoric, grammar and logic. But life today is far more complex than in ancient Greece. We know that most of our students will, at some time in their careers, hold jobs that don’t exist today, just as many of us who’ve been here a while do things that were unimaginable when we were in college. So we teach for life, teaching students to learn how to ask questions and how to answer them.

A sustainable society needs thinking, innovative workers. We need people who can analyze, create and collaborate. Our job isn’t just jobs. Our job is helping students see the world beyond themselves and their career pathway. It’s ensuring they have basic knowledge of history, the humanities, arts and sciences. Our job is helping students discover their place in the world is more than a paycheck, that it is also the best of their intellectual, emotional and moral lives.

This is a fundamental issue, and one we need to address along with those other discussions of budgets, costs and time to graduation. We cannot forget that we are a university, and the students who are with us for a short time must be prepared to live in society for a far longer time. I want to thank the faculty members who are working diligently on the general education requirements, and ask others to assist them. I consider this the most important initiative at UAF today. Shaping our students’ future is shaping Alaska’s future.

Another national issue facing UAF and institutions like ours across the nation is the threat of reductions in federal support, and the impact it will have on us.

Sequestration, a word few people had heard a year ago, is now, unfortunately, part of our vocabulary. It has become an all-too familiar term, and one we are likely to continue to hear in the coming years.

What does this mean for UAF? It means we need to focus. UAF must continue to conduct world-class research on arctic issues and climate change. Our campuses, outreach and learning centers across the state must continue to offer training that allows Alaskans to get jobs and provide for their families.

Alaska needs us, and the world needs us, too. We live and work amid some of the greatest environmental change the modern world has seen. As the ice melts and the coastlines shift, we have to ask — and answer — questions about human migration, biological extinction, food security and national security. We don’t just have a front-row seat to the drama of climate change: Our world is the stage, and we have a starring role.

So we are both central to the world and interconnected with it. The university provides a foundation for life in Alaska. We educate Alaskans, opening them up to the possibilities of being creative, savvy, adventurous and tough-minded.

It takes many to build and grow a state. We have a responsibility to Alaska. Every class we teach, every project we undertake, every student we inspire, or legislator we convince — everything has the potential to build something greater than the sum of its parts.

Those parts, of course, require investment. The decisions we make today will impact where we are, as a state and a university, tomorrow. When people think about shaping Alaska’s future, many recognize UAF as a good investment. From research projects to student-life initiatives — government, industry, foundations and Alaskans support UAF because they know they will see a return in the form of new knowledge and in smart people who can apply it.  

We are going to need their support, and yours, for the biggest capital challenge in our history — construction of a new heat and power plant for the Fairbanks campus. We have been building awareness of the need for replacement for several years. We have been working on the necessary permits, and by next year we will be ready to start construction. The heat and power plant is our biggest risk — we obviously cannot operate a campus in Fairbanks Alaska without heat. But it’s also our biggest opportunity, to save more than 40 percent on fuel costs, and to significantly reduce emissions from the plant. It’s a good investment.

The combined heat and power plant will join other tangible evidence of real progress in investment and renewal of our university. Last fall we secured the public-private partnership for Wood Center that continues the reinvigoration of student life on the Fairbanks campus. We launched the Sikuliaq, the most advanced arctic research vessel in the world. Winter brought the opening of the Hulbert Nanook Terrain Park, the nation’s first certified ski and snowboard park on a university campus. We broke ground on the engineering building in the spring. After a decade of effort, we completed the Margaret Murie Building for life sciences teaching and research.

On the research front, we identified the world’s oldest circumpolar umiak, we’re adding new sensors as we launch unmanned aircraft, we’re understanding adaptation to climate change, we’ve begun investigating geothermal power for Nome, and far more.

When I say “we did this,” I mean you. Each of you — students, staff, faculty, researchers, and administrators — all of us played some part in some aspect of our success. It’s only because of you that we did this.

We have this great momentum … and yet. We all know the fiscal realities. Each of you can think of someone or something affected by budget cuts. Everything we do at UAF has value to someone. Whenever we stop doing something, someone feels it. But people are counting on us to continue making UAF better, keeping our education relevant and cost-effective.

We are a public institution. We are a research university. We reach across Alaska, coastal and inland, rural and urban, old and young, college prep and postdoctoral. We serve the underserved, provide vocational training, and produce research doctorates. We support students compelled to do more, intellectually and professionally. We conduct groundbreaking research respected around the world.

But in an era of ever-shrinking resources, can we do it all? I know we can’t. If everyone’s plate is full, what do we take off so we can put on something new?  These are not decisions I can or should make by myself. If it were easy to stop doing any of our activities, we would have done so already. Change, and focus, are things we must all talk about. We are many separate parts but we are still one university. We need to come together and stay together. We have to listen to each other and incorporate the best ideas from every quarter. Over the next several months, I hope to meet with many of you to talk about what we can no longer afford to do, even if it’s good and important work, and to talk about what we cannot afford not to do.

What we will do better, and what we will stop doing are real questions, and we have to answer them. Those answers will come only if we are working together.

Now is not the time to retreat to old ways or to hide. Last year I talked about the safety mantra of “see something, say something.” I’d like you to think about that approach for everything we do, whether it’s a money-saving idea, or energy saving, a way to recruit new students or a way to combine resources in the lab. The more efficient we are, the more nimble we will be. We’ll be able to respond to the curve balls that will inevitably be thrown at us. We can let them knock us over, or we can hit them out of the park.  

One of the things I heard over and over from throughout UAF was that, in dealing with declining dollars, we need to cut vertically, not horizontally. No more across-the-board cuts that weaken everything, whether already weak or strong.  This has meant making some hard decisions, but any cut is going to be hard.  We will see services change — some already have. Sometimes the change will increase efficiency, but some services will, frankly, decrease. Because we take pride in the work we do, we naturally resist changes that diminish it. But we do have to face the fiscal realities. Some doors will inevitably close, but others will open. I’ve talked with Staff Council about how to improve UAF’s training and professional development programs, so all staff are prepared for a changing university, and are able to take advantage of new opportunities that await us.

We have so many choices, but we will greet the coming years with excitement and determination — and we will do it together.  

“UAF is ... naturally inspiring.” Our new brand strategy, introduced last year, has created a strong and unified message about who we are and what makes UAF  unique and special. I could go on for hours about what I find naturally inspiring about UAF, but I won’t, and I suspect each of you can think of several things at UAF you find inspiring.

And our brand is working — UAF’s numbers are up this fall, counter to expectations and counter to the trend in Alaska higher education. Thanks to all who have embraced it. Thanks for understanding it is not just about a tagline or a logo, it is about the UAF experience. This year I want to share with you what it means for our students — from their first contact with an admissions counselor to when I congratulate them when they walk across the stage at commencement. Our students remind us of who we are and why we are here: Because we are curious, we dream big and we are always game. 

This is our university, made by every student, every classroom, every laptop, data point and teaching moment. We are complex. Sometimes complexity can be a drawback, but I believe that far more often it is one of our greatest strengths.

The magnitude of UAF’s programs is breathtaking. We have rural campuses and learning centers, deeply rooted in the communities they serve. We have research centers, forging new futures of discovery and development. Our students graduate with certificates, licensures, associate, baccalaureate and master’s degrees and PhDs. We deal in ice and volcanoes, birds and rockets, mask making and engine repair.

No other university does what we do, covering such a broad geography, such diverse cultures, and with such a comprehensive mission. No other university leads a network of more than 100 international arctic institutions. No other university has the northern focus on climate change, people and the natural world that we do. No other university has you, the students, faculty and staff who shape this institution. No other university is shaping Alaska’s future like UAF does.

Whatever lies before us, it is a privilege to be part of an institution that cultivates and celebrates such diversity, creativity and curiosity.

Thank you for being that inspiration. Thank you all for being part of Nanook Nation.

Let’s go get some ice cream!

Good afternoon, and welcome to the 2012 convocation. Thank you to Ensemble 64.8 for getting us started today, setting the tone for an upbeat year. Thank you also to the Theatre Department, OIT and the Music Department for all of your work in setting up today's event.

I'd like to start with a safety minute.

• There are exits at all four corners of the hall, with lighted signs. If there is an emergency, proceed calmly to the exit nearest you, and leave the building.
• To comply with fire and safety regulations, the aisles and doorways must remain clear.

Welcome to the start of a new academic year. While our summer programs are getting better by the year, the campus feels more vibrant once our faculty and students return for the fall semester.

A special welcome to UAF's governance leaders, with whom I share responsibility for major decisions affecting this institution:

• Faculty Senate President Jennifer Reynolds
• Staff Council President Juella Sparks
• ASUAF President -- and Student Regent -- Mari Freitag
• And the new president of the UAF Alumni Association, Jim Dixon

I am pleased to have a member of the University of Alaska Board of Regents with us today:

• Please welcome Mike Powers

Our special guest today is University of Alaska system president, Pat Gamble.

• Please also give a warm welcome to Pat's wife, Ailese.

And I couldn't do all I do without the help of my wife and partner, Sherry Modrow, now a full-time volunteer for UAF.

Finally, a number of longtime UAF employees -- many of them alumni as well -- have taken on new leadership positions at the university, and they are joined by several newcomers. Please welcome our deans:

• Todd Sherman, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and
• Michele Stalder, dean of the Community and Technical College are here;
• Not here today is Allan Morotti, dean of the School of Education
• Joining us shortly will be John Eichelberger, dean of the graduate school, who will lead strategic growth in our graduate programs, and also serve as dean of Graduate Studies for the University of the Arctic.

In administrative and support roles, please welcome:

• Mike Sfraga, adding new responsibilities as vice chancellor for university and student advancement,
• Kris Racina, associate vice chancellor,
• Michelle Renfrew, director of marketing and communications, and
• Mae Marsh, director of diversity and equal opportunity.

When Mae was hired I challenged her to develop new initiatives that celebrate our diverse community and provide critical programs and services that ensure UAF is an open, caring, and supportive institution. I want to stress that UAF has not and will not back off in our efforts to support a diverse faculty and student body. I've asked UAF governance groups to work with me in a task force to plan actions that demonstrate our commitment to our diverse students, whether Latino, African American, Asian American, Alaska Native, active duty military and veterans, LGBT, international, students with disabilities, and all others. 

Also joining UAF will be Gary Gray, the new Nanook athletics director. Gary is committed to the "student" in student athlete -- and building upon the important role athletics play on the Fairbanks campus, our community, and Alaska.

Finally, I'd like to recognize Lael and Mark Oldmixon, chairs again for the UAF United Way effort. Our United Way campaign shows Fairbanks that we are part of the community; we give back; we inspire; we are engaged.

As much as we appreciate our new leaders, we do not forget our past. We do not forget those who have been part of UAF.

• And we do not forget that they have helped us get to where we are today. The UAF community has lost several members over the past year.
• Please join me in a moment of silence to remember those we lost, and who made a difference to us, and whom we will miss.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act of 1862, which established land-grant universities. It created the framework for UAF's missiontoday and it tells an inspiring story.

In Senator Justin Morrill's words, the Act would "promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes," to teach "agriculture and the mechanic arts." We are much more than that today. But let's talk about the three 50-year periods since it passed.

In the first 50 years, Alaska went from being part of the Russian empire to part of the American one. The seeds of the future University of Alaska were sown in the Fairbanks experiment station.

During the second 50, Alaska became a territory; the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines was established; it grew to be the University of Alaska, and Alaska became a state.

In the third 50 years we blossomed as a university. Alaska was a young state, and the university was a small school. The Fairbanks campus in 1962 looked like this, with

• Constitution Hall, which had been used seven years earlier to draft the state's constitution,
• Signers' Hall, then transitioning from gymnasium to museum,
• the Eielson and Brooks Buildings,
• Patty Center -- just constructed,
• the lower dorms, and
• a much smaller Duckering Building.

In 1962 we had no MBS, no West Ridge, no Rasmuson Library, no Wood Center, no Fine Arts Building, no Gruening Building, and the Heat and Power Plant sat in the center of the campus.

Today the University of Alaska Fairbanks is far more than the Fairbanks campus. Today, we are also:

• Bristol Bay
• Chukchi
• Interior-Aleutians
• Kuskokwim
• Northwest
• The Community and Technical College
• And all the learning centers, research stations and facilities, the Cooperative Extension Service and Marine Advisory programs across the great State of Alaska.

So what do we do with the next 50 years of this great land-grant tradition?

Well, we plan for it, and then we build it.

We think strategically, pick a direction, and we take the initiative. The Strategic Directions Initiative, developed by the UA System office and the three universities, will guide us. It's a series of commonsense directions for Alaska's university system that complement and highlight UAF's mission and vision for the future:

• Student Achievement and Attainment
• Productive partnerships with Alaska's Schools
• Productive partnerships with Alaska's Public and Private Industries
• Research and Development to Build and Sustain Alaska's Economic Growth
• And Accountability to the People of Alaska

Here to talk more about the Strategic Directions Initiative -- SDI -- is the president of the University of Alaska system, Pat Gamble.

[President talks]

Thank you, President Gamble. The SDI themes at the Statewide level, and those of the draft UAF Strategic Plan, use different language, but they align well:

• Educate students (SDI 1)
• Alaska's premier research enterprise (SDI 3, 4)
• Serve Alaska's diverse communities (SDI 2, 3)
• Help students achieve new goals (SDI 1, 2)
• Expand graduate programs (SDI 1, 2, 3)
• Find and keep the best and brightest (SDI 1)
• And manage resources wisely (SDI 5)

UAF's strategic plan and the Strategic Directions Initiative form the foundation of each decision we make. Each plan reinforces the other, and both of them strengthen this university.

In short, SDI and the UAF Strategic Plan come together in a commitment to serving.

• We serve our students, in rural Alaska and in Fairbanks, and via eLearning, worldwide; we serve students born here and students who have come here to study
• We serve the nation and the world in developing understanding of natural processes and their impacts on people and culture.
• We serve the citizens of Alaska, our partners, our communities, and our cultures. 

This commitment to service requires us to think boldly, take risks, and break new ground.

And we've certainly broken a lot of new ground recently!

• We have been living in the midst of construction chaos.
• In the utilidor-Atkinson project alone, we moved 57,000 cubic yards of dirt. That's enough to fill the Patty Gym four times over.
• The good news is, we won't need to do it again on such a large scale, at least not for a very long time.

We're changing our core infrastructure, so our buildings work safely, reliably, and efficiently. These are the "bones" of a university, that allow for safe work by our faculty, staff and students. Sidewalks and roads are torn up, new buildings are going up. And that means accidents and injuries can happen. It can be easy to slip or trip.

I am asking you to work with me to make safety a priority. You'll hear more this year as we identify steps to bring down our accident and injury rate. Here's what I ask of you:

If you see something, say something.

I did, and I contacted Facilities Services.

Did it get fixed because I'm the one who called?

• Perhaps. But I doubt it.
• It got fixed because the people at Facilities Services did their job. I am proud of the work they do, day in and day out, to ensure our facilities allow UAF faculty and staff to accomplish our mission safely.

But safety isn't just Facilities' job. It's the responsibility of each of us to work, safely.

• So if you see something -- say something.
• Be prepared. When you live where we live, we should expect the unexpected.
• And please, make sure you complete your required safety training.

Safety doesn't happen because of rules and regulations; it's a culture, a culture of safety that begins with you -- our staff, faculty, and our students. We will look for ways to improve campus safety without imposing new burdens. We've shown we can make change fun -- as we did with wellness in last spring's Fittest Winner contest.   In 10 weeks, 500 faculty and staff, on 46 teams, lost over 2,400 pounds and averaged 6 hours of exercise per week. If you didn't get a chance to participate last year, a new round of Fittest Winner kicks off next month. Stay tuned for details.

This past year, we saw significant legislative support for expansion of UAF programs and services, including

• Stronger academic advising for at-risk students
• New faculty for the Indigenous Studies PhD program
• Support for graduate students in the Resilience and Adaptation program
• Core funding for the UAF Honors Program
• Faculty and support for Engineering, and the first phase of an expanded Engineering Building
• Start-up funds for the new Department of Veterinary Medicine
• And, for the first time, capital budget support for research, in this case ocean acidification

Clearly you helped the legislature realize that UAF really makes a difference in the lives of Alaskans, in the state's economy, and in the contribution to knowledge in the world at large. 

UAF is growing, and changing. In the last year, OIT has completed outfitting nearly $1 million in smart classrooms and upgraded our information systems. We have a host of new academic and research facilities throughout the state. Some examples:

• The Life Sciences Facility
• The new CTC aviation hangar
• And the Research Vessel Sikuliaq. When the Sikuliaq launches 30 days from today, it will be one of the most technologically advanced research vessels in the world, designed specifically for the Arctic.

We've started to transform student life on the Fairbanks campus, based on the 2006 student life master plan. We completed the new rock and ice climbing wall and the Sustainable Village, a student-oriented research project in progress.

We still have work to do throughout the state

• The combined heat and powerplant at the Fairbanks campus,
• Energy upgrades at the Northwest Campus
• Expanding the cultural center, and improving indoor air quality at Kuskokwim
• Dock and support facilities for the R/V Sikuliaq in Seward
• Revitalizing the Fairbanks campus West Ridge research facilities, where our faculty lead outstanding research projects -- these facilities have been our research platform for the last 50 years, but desperately need renewal to be the platform for the next 50, and
• Other energy conservation and deferred maintenance projects throughout the state

The campus that Fairbanks knows is changing profoundly. These are essential, centennial changes -- based on what we know about enrollment trends, student expectations, industry demands, and state needs.

We are transforming how students experience UAF, with

• Plans for a new dining facility at Wood Center, which will begin construction in the spring
• And new residence halls along Copper Lane, which we hope to be working on by spring 2014

Last week, we completed a new outdoor broomball ice rink. And in the next two weeks we'll begin construction of our new Nanook Terrain Park, giving students more winter outdoor opportunities.

This morning, I asked the UAF Master Planning Committee to develop a plan for UAF trails and pathways. We have a good network of trails, but there are gaps and areas that need improvements. Whether it's sidewalks for walkers, commuter bike paths or recreational bike trails, trails for skiers, snowshoers, disc golfers or dog walkers, we can do better, improving safety and encouraging outdoor activity.

The physical changes to the campus support what I think is the most important transformation -- a renewal of UAF as a land-grant institution for the 21st century. We are transforming traditional thinking about teaching, research and public service to prepare students and society for life in this century.

The Faculty Senate took on the most important task in our instructional mission -- revitalizing UAF's general education requirements. Thank you for adopting student learning objectives, and for tackling the tough work of fitting the general education requirements to those objectives. Students need a transformative higher education in the 21st century, and it is not the same as what you discussed in the late 1980s and adopted in 1991. What you are doing is core to our students' educational experience.

Our research program is transforming, too. We continue to move toward more interdisciplinary programs, recognizing that today's challenges are complex and require understanding of interactions between physical, biological and social sciences. The success of this year's Alaska EPSCoRproposal, working across disciplines, institutes, and indeed institutions, shows that UAF does well in this highly competitive arena.

The EPSCoR grant engages students and faculty across many different disciplines in place-based research that links social and ecological systems research in new ways.  This project will focus on the linkages between climate, water and landscapes, our salmon fisheries and our communities. We will monitor the current environment, and develop predictive models and scenarios of future change, working with our communities to understand how they experience change. Together with the communities we will work to develop strategies and tools to adapt and respond. We are changing how Alaskans understand and respond to climate change. This is important work -- for us and for the people and communities of Alaska. And it's only one among scores of projects where UAF research makes a difference.

UAF researchers are informing local, state, national, and international issues with new knowledge in a broad variety of topics. And by doing so, they are also informing the world on other important issues like ocean acidification, ice dynamics, social and biological change, and indigenous languages and cultures. Our researchers have depth and breadth of knowledge, expertise, and creativity that benefit us all -- spanning the many disciplines that make up this extraordinary institution.

We are also transforming how we think about extension and public service. UAF's outreach programs now focus on engagement and collaboration. As in community-based participatory research, engagement helps us to understand the concerns of those we serve, and to better meet their needs. Often, that means working with other organizations to share experience, facilities, and resources. UAF's rural campuses do this every day with their regional partners; it is how these campuses transform the communities they serve.

Through shared governance, UAF faculty, staff, and students play an integral role in shaping UAF's culture and institutional integrity, and in supporting academic freedom. Shared governance is about collaboration on a common mission. We have outstanding faculty and staff at UAF and it's important we recognize you.

I ask you to make an effort this year to nominate those individuals who make a difference to our institution. Whether it's the Chancellor's Cornerstone award for staff or a Usibelli nomination for faculty, please help me and all UAF recognize the contributions of those who stand out.

It is because of your efforts that UAF has momentum. Nearly every week, I learn of another employee who has a good idea, and who has figured out how to run with it, to make UAF a better place, to serve students more efficiently, or to support faculty more effectively. Whether it's your individual initiative, or your work with other employees on process improvements, I want to thank everyone in this room, and everyone watching online, for caring about UAF, caring about the people and communities we serve. You are making a positive difference in people's lives.

Soon you will see new opportunities for collaboration and creativity reflected in our physical infrastructure.

• The new engineering building literally bridges two buildings and two disciplines -- management and engineering -- creating new opportunities for each.
• Alaska is in the business of building on our resources. Doing so is getting harder and more expensive.
• That's why it makes sense that our students in business and engineering learn to work together now so they can work together, effectively, in the future.

In 2015 UAF marks the 100th anniversary of laying the Cornerstone for the Fairbanks campus. That cornerstone represented faith in the future -- Alaskans knew we needed higher education in the territory, and that a land-grant institution would serve its people.

In 2017 we will celebrate our 100th anniversary as an Alaska institution - in service to Alaskans, our country, and yes the world.

We have a proud history -- one worthy of celebration.

Together we will celebrate our students, our staff, and our faculty. And together we will celebrate the future.

Our Cornerstone Campaign will bring new resources to UAF to enhance and expand the programs we now offer, and establish new programs and initiatives that address the needs of an ever-changing society.

So as we look back with pride upon our first cornerstone nearly a century ago -- we prepare for the next cornerstone -- one that will lay the foundation for our next 100 years.

I look forward to working with all of you to shape our future.

Teaching, research and public service -- it's what we do. It's who we are.

It's our brand.

• Our brand is not a logo, and it's not the logo police.
• Our brand is our culture. It is who we are and what we stand for.
• It's how we communicate our values.

How do we know this? We did the research. Throughout the state, we asked students, alumni and employees. We talked with people who work in industry, education, government and the military.

They told us consistently: UAF is welcoming, practical, and always game. We are authentic and energizing. This place called "Alaska" is what defines us. UAF is Naturally Inspiring.

Of course, this tells just part of the UAF story. A story which is "to be continued." Continued by all of us, in all our actions, in how we recruit students, teach students, conduct research, extend knowledge and treat each other. Our brand is reflected in everything we do.

• In November, we will launch a marketing campaign targeted to new students and a brand book that will help the campus clearly communicate who we are and what we're all about.
• With one, strong, clear, authentic voice, we set ourselves apart from the rest.
• This is your brand. It belongs to you.

Our brand is a reflection of all that we have been, who we are now and the promise of what we aspire to be. It is the foundation for our future.

Some are inspired by people.  Some are inspired by images; some by words; some by actions.

Others are inspired by ice cream.  It is outside, along with a Naturally Inspiring token of appreciation from our brand ambassadors, the UAF Street Crew. 

Thank you for coming, and let's get inspired.

I. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to the Chancellor’s Convocation 2011. Thank you to Morris Palter and Ensemble 64.8 for getting us started today.

One of my graduate school professors suggested that to really understand the meaning of a word, you needed to look at its root, and see what other words are associated with it. “Convocation” comes from an indo-European root meaning “to call,” or “to call together” with associated words of “evoke,” “invoke,” and “provoke.”  “Chancellor” is based on a late Latin word meaning “door-keeper.” So my role today is to open doors, to call you together, and to provoke you to action.  

Faculty, students, staff, alumni and friends, thank you for coming to Davis Concert Hall today. Welcome too, to you who are participating from UAF locations throughout the state and elsewhere via audio conference or streaming audio.  

I would like to begin by recognizing UAF’s three governance leaders ---

• Faculty Senate President Cathy Cahill, 
• Staff Council President Pips Veazey, and 
• ASUAF President (and student regent) Mari Freitag  

I’d also like to recognize my wife and life partner, UAF alumna Sherry Modrow. And here with her today is Ailese Gamble, wife of UA President Pat Gamble. Ailese, thanks for joining us today.

We have several new members of UAF’s leadership team. As I introduce each, I ask that they stand, but please hold your applause until all are standing.

• College of Liberal Arts Dean Johnny Payne 
• College of Natural Science and Mathematics Dean Paul Layer 
• Library Dean Bella Gerlich 
• Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Scott Bell 
• Associate Vice Chancellors for Research Dan White and Nettie La Belle-Hamer 
• Not here today are
  • Vice Chancellor for Research Mark Myers 
  • UAF Community and Technical College Dean Susan Whitener 
  • School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Dean Mike Castellini 
  • Associate Vice Chancellor for Financial Services Raaj Kurapati

Welcome all!

We also have new faculty, staff and students at all UAF locations. Please stand and let us welcome you to UAF!

Today’s convocation is a little longer than usual. It ends with my thoughts on the path toward our centennial in 2017. And our staff knows we need to keep the ice cream cold until I’ve finished.

Looking back, I am impressed by how much you have accomplished for UAF.   The passion and talent of people at UAF are impressive.   Let me share just a few highlights of the past year.

• The work of Sustainability Director Michele Hebert. Michele, her students, and countless others on campus, helped UAF receive a Gold rating for sustainability efforts on campus by the Sustainability, Tracking, Assessment and Rating Systems, or STARS. We’re one of 23 institutions in the entire country, and the only one in Alaska, to have a Gold rating. 
• This last winter was a brutal one for Interior Alaska, and for several of our rural sites. We had the ice-pocalypse in November and the massive snowstorms in March. Our facilities services team worked around the clock to make the Fairbanks campus accessible and safe. Bear Edson and the facilities team are doing a wonderful job keeping our academic homes operating. 
• UAF awarded 46 PhDs, a new record, and has 432 PhD students enrolled. Thanks go to all the faculty members who are involved in graduate education, serving on committees, and mentoring the next generation of the academy. And to Larry Duffy, thank you for your interim leadership of the Graduate School for the past several years. 
• This summer brought UAF’s Fairbanks campus the busiest construction season in recent times. The shining star, the Life Sciences Facility, has emerged with amazing speed. Construction project manager Cameron Wohlford and other members of the design and construction team have provided superb work on this facility. Thank you for making UAF a better place for those who teach, work, and learn here.   
• On the research front, a newly excavated archaeological site in Alaska contained the cremated remains of one of the earliest inhabitants of North America. The site may provide rare insights into the burial practices of Ice Age people and shed new light on their daily lives. UAF archaeologists Ben Potter and Joel Irish and three colleagues published their discovery in the Feb. 25 edition of the journal Science, and the discovery earned national and international media coverage. 
• Rose Meier and the Council of Yup’ik elders integrated traditional Yup’ik knowledge in the creation of a new textbook on ethnobotany under the direction of Kuskokwim Campus Director Mary Pete. Classes in ethnobotany were offered in both Bethel and Kotzebue, where students learned about Yup’ik and Inupiaq uses of Alaska plants. 
• Our engineering programs continue to grow to meet the system goals; we now have over 700 undergraduate engineering students, we graduated 87 engineers this year toward a goal of 100 annually, and retained 83 percent of freshmen engineers, all new highs for the college. Thank you,engineering faculty, and kudos to the steel bridge team.

Now please keep in mind -- this is just a small subset of highlights from the past year. It would take hours to give appropriate accolades to all of the incredible work that is going on at UAF. I thank you all for your part in all of our successes.

In four years we will mark the centennial of laying the cornerstone for our university. In six years we will celebrate its founding. Today I want to talk about the planning efforts underway that will lead us forward, boldly and confidently, to our 100th anniversaries.

Here is University of Alaska President Pat Gamble on UA’s strategic direction.

VIDEO: Pat Gamble

Working within the President’s vision, UAF -- the flagship campus of the system -- will plan for a future that will excite and serve the students who learn here, the faculty and staff who work here, and the communities that depend on us.

As we approach our centennial, we want to communicate what a treasure UAF is. Our strategic marketing committee will help improve UAF’s brand, image, and communications to external audiences.  

II. ACADEMIC PLANNING

Across the UA system, we worked on, and the Board of Regents adopted, a system Academic Master Plan. Here is Provost Susan Henrichs, one of the key architects of that plan:

VIDEO: Susan Henrichs

Institutional accreditation is critical for us as a university. It assures students and parents that we are a good choice.   It assures the federal government that UAF meets standards expected of a university:

• We understand our mission and have clear goals for how to meet that mission; 
• We measure our progress; 
• We offer a quality academic experience; 
• We appropriately treat students and their records; and 
• We have sound fiscal status and management.

The process of periodic accreditation benefits the university by requiring us to examine our standards and performance, enabling us to identify our strengths as well as any areas of weakness, and to improve where needed. Our comprehensive self-evaluation report was sent to the evaluators in August.

Look for the report, and more information on the process at www.uaf.edu/accreditation/ . I encourage you to read it, especially in your areas of interest. Vice Provost and Accreditation Liaison Officer Dana Thomas led the process. Faculty member Glenn Juday wrote an accolade to Dana that I would like to quote:

“The accreditation report presents a clear, accurate, penetrating, accessible, and informative view of UAF, a sprawling and multifaceted institution in a large and diverse state. These documents have set a new standard, and are themselves an indication of the quality of the institution. In my experience, few institutions are capable of this sort of judicious self-analysis. In my more than 30 years at UAF I cannot recall anything that even comes close. 

The reason this difficult assignment was successfully carried out, was due in no small part to your leadership - a mixture of in-depth knowledge, collegiality, determination, and steady commitment to the larger goal.”

Thank you, Dana, and everyone who worked with Dana on this critical task.

Next on the docket is a visit from the evaluation team October 3rd through 5th here in Fairbanks. The site reviewers volunteer their time to help assess and improve higher education. They will speak with faculty, staff and students prior to and during the visit, so please encourage others to read and be prepared for a phone call or visit. The chair of the evaluation team will deliver closing remarks at a public presentation from 9:30-10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 5, right here in the Davis Concert Hall and via audio conference.

What have we learned from the process so far? The good news is…quite a bit. Here are some samples of how we measure progress on our five core themes:

• In Educate: we learned that our retention rate of first-time, full-time freshman degree-seeking students increased to an all time high of nearly 70 percent. 
• In Discover: we learned that while research expenditures per faculty member were in the $90 to $100,000 range at our peer institutions, here at UAF our faculty members generate more than double that amount, at $195 to $223,000 dollars. 
• In Prepare: we learned that 94.8 percent of students who took programmatic certification or qualifying exams passed those tests. In most categories, a larger percentage than the national average passed, and two-thirds of the tests reported 100 percent pass rates. 
•   In Connect: we learned that of 62 reported partnerships with communities, businesses, and state and local government agencies, one third have endured for more than a decade. This speaks to partner satisfaction and continuing value. 
• In Engage we learned that in 2010 we offered a total of 588 distinct workshops at 91 locations across Alaska, with an attendance of over 17,000 participants.

These achievements are a tribute to the work of UAF’s faculty, staff, and students, and demonstrate our reach throughout Alaska.  

Our mission statement and strategic plan are now seven years old. We need to update both for the next accreditation cycle. The first report is due next fall - which will require that we revisit our themes, objectives and indicators of achievement.

One thing that won’t change is the value of a liberal education, now and tomorrow. Universities are not just job factories. At UAF we need to teach students to think, adapt, and use logic. They need to be able to research, write, compute and communicate. They need to be engaged in civic life, and understand our role in the global environment. A college education means delivering quality in all of those areas, as well as workforce development and career enhancement.

That means work on our core curriculum. It was adopted in 1991, and doesn’t fully reflect the world of the 21st century. The current core has a substantial focus on subject area knowledge: science, math, writing, speaking, social sciences, and humanities. We need to recognize the interdisciplinary nature of solutions to today’s problems, including civic engagement, sustainability, globalization and indigenous knowledge, and the value of internship experiences in the core.

III. STUDENT PLANNING

From the first incoming class on the Fairbanks campus, to today’s diverse student body across our community campuses, one thing remains constant: Students are our reason for being and the focus of our work. Strategically building enrollment is a fundamental component of a rich and vibrant UAF.

Here is Vice Chancellor for Students Mike Sfraga on current enrollment planning.

VIDEO: Mike Sfraga

Those enrollment-planning efforts that Mike talked about have already been paying off. Final numbers won’t be available until later this semester, but fall enrollments show an increase in both the number of students and student credit hours. My thanks to the faculty, admissions staff, academic advisors, and recruitment professionals who worked hard to make these gains possible.

I am pleased to report a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of First Time Freshman from Anchorage, Mat-Su, Kenai and Soldotna. We want to be the institution of first choice for college-bound Alaskans.

To accentuate this point -- just last week I welcomed to UAF 190 new UA Scholars. They are the largest incoming class of Scholars in the program’s history. They know what we know -- this is the place to be!

A vibrant and responsive 21st century university must celebrate other cultures and perspectives. I want our university community to benefit from students and scholars from other countries -- creating an international experience that enhances our learning and living environment.

So I’ve challenged the Office of International Programs and Initiatives to increase the number of students and scholars coming to UAF from abroad, building upon several strategic initiatives already in place --in China, India, throughout the Americas, and yes, even Mongolia. And we’ll continue to take advantage of our special role in the University of the Arctic.

Our campuses must continue to change and adapt -- because our students are far different than those of just a decade ago.

Technology, online learning, and economic realities are just a few of the issues guiding us to rethink the way we teach -- and learn. Offering classes and programs via e-Learning is no longer an interesting option; it’s a necessity. Enrollments in the Center for Distance Education continue to surge, with e-Learning a critical component of many students’ graduation strategies.

Let me shift to the UAF student experience. Our students demand more out-of-class activities and programs -- so we will continue to respond to this challenge. In the past two years staff have dramatically increased the number and type of programs taking place on the Fairbanks campus -- and they’ve done a great job.

We have new wellness and fitness programs that take advantage of our unique campus and northern landscape. Just last month we completed the construction of the UAF Outdoor Education Center -- a combined rock and ice climbing wall that will serve as an instructional and recreational facility. The Center will enable us to increase the number of outdoor education courses, intramural and residence life programs, and youth camps. Thanks to Mark Oldmixon for your leadership, and to the facilities crew, and risk management for making this happen. And that’s not all.

We challenged the staff of the new Department of Recreation, Adventure and Wellness, which includes the Student Rec Center, Outdoor Adventures, the Outdoor Ed Center, and still-evolving Nanook Terrain Park to develop a new, comprehensive wellness, fitness, and recreation experience for students, faculty, and staff.

IV. RESEARCH PLANNING

A crucial part of our long-term plan is the strategy for UAF research. Here is Vice Chancellor for Research Mark Myers:

VIDEO: MARK MYERS

Central to our research planning is a focus on research and development relevant to the State of Alaska, its communities, and its people. A strong partnership with the state is going to be essential. We’re fortunate right now to have Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell as one of our supporters. He has background in research and truly understands the importance of what we are doing. Here is a brief video clip where he speaks to the state/university connection:

VIDEO: MEAD TREADWELL

Recent research initiatives that will strengthen our relationships include areas such as oil spill response, climate change, oil production, ocean acidification, earthquake and volcanoes, and rare earth minerals. We look forward to working with Governor Sean Parnell and the State Legislature on ways UAF research can bring value to these areas so critical to the future of our state.

Research relevant to Alaska isn’t limited to the sciences. The work at the Alaska Native Language Center to update the state’s Alaska Native Language Map contributes to Alaskan understanding. The collaboration between the arts and biology that resulted in the live stage production of In a Time of Change: Envisioning the Future brought together scientists and artists to share their ideas surrounding climate change and the future.

Most importantly, as Alaska’s research university, we need to strengthen that connection between our research endeavors and the student experience. I am pleased that Barbara Taylor stepped up to direct URSA, the office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity. URSA’s mission is to support, develop and institutionalize UAF’s diverse and robust programs of student-faculty collaboration in the creation of discipline-specific knowledge.

V. FACILITY PLANNING

To address academic, student, and research planning, we need adequate facilities. Here is Rich Boone, co-chair of the Campus Master Planning Committee:

VIDEO: RICH BOONE

In addition to his Master Planning efforts, Rich is UAF’s lead as dean of graduate studies for the University of the Arctic, and will be spending the next year on loan to the National Science Foundation. And I should note that community campus master planning is underway this year, so we will have master plans for all our campuses.

I know this summer has been challenging for those who work, play or study near our construction zones. We’ve got a lot going on. In addition to Life Sciences, other projects include:

• Labs both here in Fairbanks and at the Kuskokwim Campus for the Center for Alaska Native Health Research 
• A replacement greenhouse for the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences 
• The renovation of the third floor of the UAF Community and Technical College for information technology, drafting, and construction management programs 
• High bay labs for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power 
• Electrical, switchgear, and heating plant upgrades

We’re reducing the backlog in deferred maintenance, and making technology improvements such as smart classroom upgrades and the Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP conversion.

Just as students expect more e-Learning opportunities, they also want their residence hall experience to reflect current trends. We have started a Sustainable Village partnership with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, which will create innovative, arctic-appropriate student housing. We plan to use a public/private partnership to construct a dining facility addition to Wood Center, and suite-style housing with up to 250 beds for upper division and graduate students. If all goes well, we expect both the new dining and housing to be ready for use in 2013.

It’s great to have growth, but new facilities need heat and lights. That brings me to the most significant construction project facing us: a replacement for the aging Atkinson Heat and Power Plant.

We have $3 million for permitting and preliminary design work needed to complete the permitting process this year. We requested $22 million for next year, most of which would be used for actual design of what is likely to be a nearly $200 million project.

Replacement now, rather than renewal of the existing plant, is the best option in terms of efficiency, fiscal accountability, and environmental responsibility.

A combined heat and power plant is the most efficient way to provide energy the Fairbanks campus needs - to get the maximum energy from the fuel we use. When heat and power are generated separately, they operate at about 52 percent efficiency, but when combined, they operate at 65 to 70 percent efficiency

Replacement now, rather than renewal, is a fiscally accountable choice. With just the information we have now, we know without a new plant we will need to spend over $40 million cobbling together temporary, expensive patches to a system nearing the end of its useful life over the next several years.

Replacement now, rather than renewal, is an environmentally responsible choice. A new plant will reduce overall emissions compared to the current plant - the current one burns coal, oil, and a little natural gas, while the new energy portfolio includes coal, biofuels, gas/propane, wind, and waste energy.

Now I know some don’t want coal on campus - but we have examined every alternative. There is no other cost-effective way to heat the Fairbanks campus. Heating with oil would cost us an additional $26 million per year, on top of the $8 million we now spend on fuel. That would be 20 percent of our total state funding. We do have alternatives for electricity, but without coal, we will either freeze in the dark, or freeze with the lights on.

This will be a monumental project, but among the most important as we approach our centennial. Just like Life Sciences, it is going to take all of us within the university as well as our community supporters, to advocate for its necessity. That worked with Life Sciences, and it will work for the combined heat and power plant.

Other significant construction projects on the horizon are a new engineering facility, a new fire hall and emergency and firefighter training center, and revitalization of the Kuskokwim Campus and West Ridge. We will talk more about these projects in the months and years to come.

VI: MOMENT OF SILENCE

Each year we say farewell to members of the UAF family. Pictures of a few of those who died in the past year are on the screen behind me. I ask you to join me for a moment of silence to remember those whose lives we lost and who made a difference to us, and whom we will miss.  

VIII: GIVING AND HEALTH

Before I conclude today’s convocation with an outline of 2017, I want to call all of you to actions that will enhance our future.

The first is on giving. Last year we saw an increase in individual and alumni giving to UAF, with nearly 250 new donors, a 7 percent increase over last year. Thank you to all who contributed. This year, I again ask you to join Sherry and me in giving back to our university.  

The UAF United Way Campaign will also soon kick off. Mark and Lael Oldmixon are spearheading our efforts this year. UAF shows we are a part of the community by our participation; the community shows its recognition of us by its support for our efforts. Mark and Lael will be at the doors as you leave today to hand you more information on how to give to United Way.

The second call is to be healthy. Yes, be healthy. We are all aware and frustrated with health care costs, and the effects on university health care plans. One of the ways each of us can make a difference is by leading a healthy lifestyle. And it doesn’t hurt to have a little fun at the same time.

So we’re embarking on a Healthy Challenge between UAF and Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. We’ve competed for several years on the Heart Walk, raising funds and awareness for heart health. Now we’re upping our competition.

The Healthy Challenge will be in three phases. First, a competition between Fairbanks Memorial Hospital CEO Mike Powers and me. Second, a Healthy Challenge competition between my UAF cabinet members and the FMH administrative team. And finally, a Healthy Challenge competition in early 2012 will be between all UAF employees and all FMH employees. Look for details in the near future.

FMH CEO - and member of the University of Alaska Board of Regents - Mike Powers is here in the audience today, and I would like to ask him to stand be recognized for partnering with us in this endeavor. Oh, and Mike? One more thing. We are in this to win. So let me offer you an extra scoop of ice cream to start the competition.

A second healthy initiative addresses a frequent request - for university staff to have wider use of the Student Recreation Center. Look for an announcement shortly of expanded staff access, supported by university resources.

VIII. CONCLUSION

In the feedback from prior convocations, there were several comments asking that I lay out my vision for UAF. I chose not to do so in prior years, in part because my view of leadership is that setting the vision is a collaborative process, born in the shared governance tradition of the academy. And leadership at a campus, or at an institution like UAF that has many campuses, means orchestrating the process, working to include all stakeholders and to bring them together as a team to carry out the vision.

We face some challenges in the coming years:

• Economic Challenges: With the current state of the economy, state and federal revenue pressures are likely to persist;  
• Market Challenges: Students and the public may be unwilling to pay the increased costs of higher education;  
• Student Challenges: Many students look at higher education more as a commodity than as an intellectual, personal, and career advancement opportunity;  
• Delivery Model Challenges: Consumer driven demands of the student population may conflict with a system vested in tradition;  
• Public Challenges: How do we remain a relevant, top priority in a community struggling with the high costs of energy just to get by?  
• Administrative and Management Challenges: How do we efficiently provide quality services, focusing our resources on mission delivery?

That said, I do have a vision for how UAF will change and adapt to the realities of 2017. It’s made up of initiatives that come from you, the faculty and staff of UAF, our students, our alumni and friends. It will require that we reflect on the necessity of change to meet the challenges, and that we work together to identify needed actions.

When I started working on this section of the speech, I found it went on and on. You and I have big dreams for this university. I’m going to note a few of the top goals, but the work won’t be done until you’ve had the chance to add, delete, markup and comment during the upcoming planning processes.

Educate:

• UAF in 2017 will be the institution of choice for Alaska’s best and brightest students.  
• More of our students will graduate, and more will graduate within four or five years.  
• Every student will have first-rate academic advising throughout his or her academic career.  
• Program review will lead to improvements to underperforming degree programs and the retirement of programs that are no longer needed.  
• We will create new degree programs that take advantage of new research capacity and meet student and societal needs. 
• Undergraduate research will be an important component of undergraduate baccalaureate degrees, and part of most UAF researchers’ work.

Discover:

• Our faculty research efforts will be recognized as central to the future of Alaska, the development of its economy, the advancement of its communities, and the preservation of its cultures.  
• Interdisciplinary research will be the core of our enterprise, and our graduates will be best at solving the complex multi-dimensional challenges facing us now and in the future.  
• UAF’s rural campuses will be seen as key partners by the UAF research community.  
• There will be increased research collaboration among the sciences and engineering, and the social sciences and humanities.

Prepare:

• UAF students will lead the nation in documenting the dynamic change in rural Alaska and the impacts such changes are having on traditional life.  
• Faculty at our community campuses will deliver more culturally and environmentally relevant courses and programs to students on the Fairbanks campus.  
• UAF will be a model for a sustainable university in an extreme environment.

Connect:

• Alaska Native students will be participating and graduating at the same rate as all other students. 
• Our workforce will be more diverse, reflecting the variety of Alaska’s people. Our campuses will be welcoming to all, where people of color, LGBT individuals, religious and cultural minorities feel welcome and appreciated.

Engage:

• UAF faculty-developed intellectual property will lead to more patents, licenses, and commercial opportunities.  
• Through community campuses, Cooperative Extension Service, the Marine Advisory Program, and other engagement efforts, UAF will be recognized as Alaska’s University, a key underpinning of Alaska’s future success  
• We will be concluding the Cornerstone Campaign, UAF’s first major multi-purpose capital and operating fundraising campaign. We will see alumni and individual giving reach new highs, supporting initiatives like library expansion, Troth Yedd’ha Park, student scholarships and program support.

I could say a lot more about UAF in 2017. But what’s really needed is that you say a lot more. The next year will include a conversation about our mission, and where we want to go in the next six years. That’s a conversation, not a convocation speech. I look forward to hearing from you. Let's listen to what some of our students think UAF should look like in 2017.

VIDEO: STUDENT

As part of the conversation I’ll continue to hold at least two open forums each semester, one in Fairbanks and one by audio for rural sites. I think the question and answer format works better in the smaller, open forum environment. In the meantime, ask questions via the Grapevine, and we’ll answer as quickly as possible. I want to close with a thank you to all of you for what you do to make the university a great one.  Now, let’s go have some ice cream!

I. WELCOMING REMARKS

Good afternoon everyone.

Faculty, students, staff and alumni, thank you for coming to Davis Concert Hall today. I would also like to welcome those who are participating from our rural sites and elsewhere via audio conference or streaming audio.  

Community members who came to campus today, thank you. This is your campus too, and I am always happy to have you visit us. And I hope you were able to find a parking space.

I would like to begin by recognizing UAF's three governance leaders ---

• Faculty Senate President Jonathan Dehn, 
• Staff Council President Maria Russell, and 
• ASUAF President Nicole Carvajal.  

University governance is a shared responsibility, and I will continue to work with all three governance groups and their leadership.

Also in attendance is student regent Ashton Compton and a former student regent and new assistant to the chancellor, Derek Miller.

Next, I would like to recognize the recipients of the 2010 Emil Usibelli Awards for Teaching, Research and Service. They are Dr. Richard Boone (teaching), Dr. Thomas Weingartner (research) and Dr. Kara Nance (service). These awards recognize the best of what we do at UAF.

Next, I would like to recognize Dirk Tordoff, recipient of the 2010 Edith R. Bullock Prize for Excellence, the top UA-wide honor. Dirk is head of the Alaska Film Archives at the Rasmuson Library, and throughout today's convocation you will see some examples of archival film footage from UAF, some of it dating back to the 1930s. Dirk doesn't like the limelight, but he does like the result of the limelight, which is why we're featuring film from his archive.

Also in attendance today is the president of the UAF Alumni Association Board of Directors, Randy Pitney.

We should recognize today as Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and a day of rest, which means some of our faculty, staff and students are unable to attend.   It's also the last day of Ramadan, a high holy day for Muslims.

I also know that many of our staff who work in student services are unable to attend because they are helping students with the beginning of the semester. I thank them for their dedication.

The theme of this year's convocation is "Learning from the Past, Preparing for the Future."

The 100^th anniversary of the university is in 2017. Our centennial celebrations will begin in 2015, when we celebrate the laying of the cornerstone on July 4, 1915.  

As we look to our centennial, we have challenging times ahead. In the next five years, we will deal with uncertainties in state and federal funding, rising fixed costs, and an aging campus infrastructure.

Looking back through our history, we can find numerous examples of how we have taken on and survived challenges. If "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger", we are a stronger university.

As Professor Terrence Cole writes in his excellent book "The Cornerstone on College Hill":

"The history of UAF commemorates the colorful past of one of America's most unusual educational institutions. What began in September 1922 as a small mining town's tiny college (with only six students, six professors, a secretary, a maintenance man and an administrator) has grown into a modern state university. It is recognized for its excellence in research and teaching, and is the cornerstone of the University of Alaska System.

"What the frontier college may have lacked in the way of ivy-covered walls and distinguished scholars, it made up for in greater personal attention to students and greater individual freedom. Throughout its history, Alaska --- and its' oldest university --- have attracted fortune hunters, adventure seekers, oddballs and restless souls who could not or would not fit in elsewhere."

Now UAF still attracts our fair share of fortune hunters, adventure seekers, oddballs and restless souls.   Back then, they were telling their stories around the campfire; today they tell their stories by way of Facebook and Twitter.

Within the eclectic mix of individuals who make their way to UAF --- and as someone who came here 40 years ago as a student I put myself in that mix --- you'll find, as we always have done, people who are passionate and dedicated to our university. It's that passion and dedication that has helped UAF weather difficult times; we will tap into it in the future.

Welcome to convocation 2010.

II. ACCREDITATION: Preparing for our academic future

When the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines first opened its doors, it wasn't accredited. That wouldn't happen until 1934. But I'm certain that President Bunnell ensured that the education provided through the college's five major fields of study met acceptable levels of quality --- which is the overall goal of institutional accreditation.

The process of accreditation, which we are currently undergoing, is an important one for us as a university. The institutional accreditation process is mandated by the U.S. Department of Education and is implemented by regional accrediting commissions. We must be accredited for students to receive federal financial aid and for UAF to receive other types of federal funding.

More importantly, the self-study that is the core of the accreditation process encourages us to assess how well we are fulfilling our mission and to use this information to improve. The essential elements of UAF's mission can be found in the five themes:

Educate:Undergraduate and graduate students

Discover:Through research, scholarship and creative activity including an emphasis on the north and its peoples

Prepare:Alaska's career, technical, and professional workforce

Connect:Alaska's Native, rural and urban communities through contemporary and traditional knowledge

Engage:Alaskans via lifelong learning, outreach and community and economic development

These themes define us as an institution. They tell the story of the university that we are and the university we intend to be.

An evaluation team will visit UAF in October next year. To prepare for the visit, we need complete outcome assessment plans and summaries for every academic and vocational program and the core curriculum. In addition, all academic programs will undergo an abbreviated program review process this year to better prepare us for the evaluation visit.

The final questions we are asked in the accreditation cycle are about mission fulfillment, adaptation, and sustainability.   

• How do we assess our accomplishments, and how do we communicate our conclusions about our mission to constituencies?
• How do we evaluate the adequacy of resources to fulfill the mission?
• How do we use the results of our cycle of planning, practices, resource allocation, capacity and assessment to improve ourselves?
• How do we define our future direction, and sustain ourselves and our mission?

A key measure of how we can sustain ourselves, and how we adapt to change, is our budget process and fiscal environment. Our revenues and finances will be driven by the students we serve and by our research vitality.

Our best opportunity to deal with budget challenges is to increase the size of our student enrollments. The economic woes of other state universities, especially in the Pacific Northwest, open the door for us to attract Lower 48 students. And although we have seen increases over the years, there is tremendous opportunity to tap into the international student market. Closer to home, we have yet to figure out how to attract students from southcentral Alaska, where a majority of Alaska high school students are.

How can we grow? We can do so by emphasizing the quality of what we offer. We stake our claim as a premiere student-focused research university.

UAF is Alaska's STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) university, and we should carry that flag proudly. At the same time, we cannot and will not dismiss the important value of a liberal education. We have a responsibility to prepare our students for the future.

Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, said this about the importance of a liberal education in the 21^st century:

"It is just possible, though, that the traditional understanding of the liberal arts may help us in our search for new innovation and new competitiveness. The next chapter of the nation's economic life could well be written not only by engineers but by entrepreneurs who, as products of an apparently disparate education, have formed a habit of mind that enables them to connect ideas that might otherwise have gone unconnected. As Alan Brinkley, the historian and former provost of Columbia, has argued in our pages, liberal education is a crucial element in the creation of wealth, jobs, and, one hopes, a fairer and more just nation." 

The liberal education we offer at UAF must teach students to think, to adapt, to use logic, understand the value of civic engagement, to understand our role in the global environment, and much more. It is just as important as what we offer in the areas of workforce development and career enhancement, and just as important as our scientific research.

Our students are changing the way they interact with the university. This semester we once again see significant enrollment increases in distance and online courses.  

The Center for Distance Education is now UAF's fourth largest unit in student credit hours, after the College of Liberal Arts, the UAF Community and Technical College, and the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Thirty percent of UAF students take courses through CDE, and more take distant and online courses through rural campuses and Fairbanks schools and colleges.

It's clear that our student market is shifting. If we do not choose to embrace this change, our students will choose other universities. It would be unwise for UAF schools and colleges to ignore these realities, even if we do need to address some internal organizational issues. I recognize that not all faculty members embrace the use of online and other technologies to enhance the teaching and learning experience, and recognize that not all courses can be taught via distance. But if we don't adapt to the extent possible, our students will go elsewhere and our opportunities will be limited.

UAF is growing. As an institution, as of yesterday, our Fall Semester headcount and student credit hours are up three and a half percent over last year. But the growth is uneven; our two largest colleges at the Fairbanks campus, CLA and CNSM are experiencing modest enrollment declines.

Based on registration to date, our biggest increases in enrollment, as measured by student credit hours, are at the UAF Community and Technical College, CDE, and the School of Management with the biggest percentage changes in headcount and student credit hours since last year at the Northwest Campus, the School of Management, and the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. 

UAF isn't just about numbers - we care about the quality of our programs. But we have to pay attention to the student numbers to survive in today's economy.

 

III. PRIORITIZATION: Preparing for our strategic future

We've weathered some tough times financially over the years, none more so than 1947 when what was then the University of Alaska was on the verge of bankruptcy. The general collapse of the territorial government's fiscal structure was to blame, and efforts to secure adequate funding from the capitol were less than successful.

In memoirs published years later, Governor Ernest Gruening charged that due to legislative neglect, "the university was a shabby, rundown, inadequate plant staffed by wretchedly underpaid faculty." It got so bad that on November 1st, 1947, the University of Alaska's total available cash balance was exactly $1,104.09. Thankfully, community business leaders rallied in support of the university, and life on the Hill continued.

Though we are facing some challenging times today, it is nowhere close to what other state university systems are facing. The U.S. is seeing a dramatic decline in public support for higher education, a decline that thankfully we haven't seen here yet.

Our legislature has been much more generous. For this fiscal year the University of Alaska system received a 3.9 percent increase in state general fund dollars. Of the UA system total, UAF received a 5 million dollar increase. Our challenge for this fiscal year was that our non-general funds --- funds that come in through tuition, research grants and contracts, auxiliaries and indirect cost recovery --- have not been rising at the same rate as fixed cost increases. To meet the gap this year, and to address other structural budget problems we redistributed 5.5 million dollars to meet existing obligations on the UAF campus and an additional $676,000 within the College of Rural and Community Development.

I wanted to be sure the process was a highly transparent one. All of the information on the pullback and redistribution is available on the web. I encourage you to take a look at the site and the information provided, and if you have questions or comments, please submit them to the feedback form on the site.

The result of that reallocation is that UAF is in stable financial condition moving forward. Our current budget is balanced, without unfunded obligations into the future.

But we cannot stop examining what we do. We are currently conducting an in-depth review of administrative and support functions to look for efficiencies. This will be followed by taking a close look at academic and research programs. Our long-term strategy is to share budget information with academic, research and administrative departments so the university can continue to serve our core mission while strategically positioning ourselves for the future.

In August we submitted our FY12 operating and capital budget request to statewide for consideration. We're early in the process, and the Board of Regents gets its first review of the budget at its meeting in Juneau later this month.

President Gamble indicates that the university is likely to receive flat funding for next year. There are just too many uncertainties - the price of oil, the amount of oil flowing through the pipeline, the national economy and federal fiscal environment, and political changes at the state and federal levels. What this means is that there will likely be no new programs or program growth unless we can fund them internally, either through enrollment growth or more reallocations.

On the research side, we are going to have to earn our way to growth. We've benefited over the years through Alaska's seniority in Washington. With the loss of Senator Stevens, who was a tremendous champion of the university, and the primary upset of Senator Murkowski, Alaska no longer has the same appropriations clout. For us, earmarks are a thing of the past, so we will have to compete for federal funding, now more than ever. Fortunately, we have competitive faculty – some of the best there are in our fields of expertise.

I'm confident we can continue to grow UAF's research enterprise, especially by building our research strengths of energy and engineering, climate change and biomedicine. These are the areas where we are gaining our greatest prominence, joining our traditional strengths in geophysics, fisheries and ocean sciences, and natural hazards. Our research efforts will continue to have significant impact on the people and state of Alaska, as well as the nation.

On the capital side, our top priority continues to be fixing what we have through funding of deferred maintenance, renewal and renovation. You might have noticed the buildings in the archival film footage looked rather familiar; that's because in most cases, they are the same buildings we have now.

It's likely there will be few new buildings on the UAF campuses in the next couple of years. The exceptions are the Energy Technology facility we are starting this year, and hopefully, the Life Sciences Classroom and Lab Building. Funding for that project, a University of Alaska priority for years now, is part of a statewide general obligation bond package that will go before voters in November.

At last year's convocation I stood before you and told you how important this project is for UAF. That message remains the same.

We need the life sciences facility now because it will help us educate a new generation of Alaskans to solve Alaska's challenges in biomedicine, neuroscience, and wildlife biology.

We need life sciences now because it will provide the critical space for Alaska-based biological research that we are ready to do now.

We need life sciences now because it represents the best of the best in research that benefits the entire state of Alaska.

You will be hearing more about the importance of the Life Sciences project in the weeks to come, leading up to the November election.

You will be hearing more about the importance of the Life Sciences project in the weeks to come, leading up to the November election.

UAF has an important role in supporting the development of the state and its economy. That's a key part of the land grant mission. Our research efforts can help set the stage for new sustainable economic development in Alaska, as well as finding better ways of developing our non-renewable resources. 

Some examples of where we have been helping build the Alaska economy include:

• The UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences is collaborating with the local business Homegrown Market to help make locally grown reindeer meat available for purchase. 
• A partnership between UAF and the Alaska Berry Growers and Alaska Blue is examining plant propagation and the nutraceutical properties of blueberries and other berries.   
• A partnership between the UAF College of Liberal Arts and Denali – The Alaska Gas Pipeline helped provide training for Alaskans interested in working on the pipeline as archeological technicians. 
• The Cooperative Extension Service Thorne Bay program is working with island sawmill operators to turn wood waste into wood fuel, to heat the local school and government facilities. 
• The Alaska Center for Energy and Power is working with several utilities, land owners, and communities to quantify resources and assess options for geothermal development in several areas of the state. 

These are just a few examples of how throughout our rural campuses, schools, colleges and research units – UAF is taking our knowledge and expertise and applying it to real life problems that can make a difference for the state’s economy.

 

IV. TELLING OUR STORY

Every day as chancellor I learn of new things our faculty, students, staff and alumni are doing. We do make a difference - but we don't seem to want to brag about what we're doing.   We're not telling our story to Alaskans.

I ask you to help me tell our stories to the rest of the state and beyond. We have wonderful stories to tell about UAF, our faculty and student accomplishments, the roles our community campuses play in supporting their regions. Our problem, however, is that over the years our stories have often times been inconsistent, or they fail to recognize that UAF is more than the sum of its parts.

We are, altogether, from rural campuses to urban schools and colleges, and our research units, the University of Alaska Fairbanks. We are Alaska's first university and America's arctic university. That connection can be hard to see, though, as the following slide shows. People sometimes don't know when they are working with a UAF unit, especially when we don't show the flag. When we don't tell our stories as part of UAF, we lose the opportunity for people to see what a compelling story UAF is. When we don't hang together, well, you know the rest of that phrase.

Now is not the time for silos; it is the time for unity and solidarity, and coming together to tell the UAF story.

Here are some of our stories:

• This year we welcomed our largest class of UA Scholars - 182 admitted from the class of 2010 and 35 from the class of 2009 who waited a year. I had a chance to meet some of them at a dinner Tuesday night, and what impressed both them and me was the geographic diversity. Our UA Scholars come from all over Alaska, from Seward and Anchorage, from Chevak and Shismaref, and of course from Fairbanks and North Pole. These new students are among Alaska's best and brightest - and the diversity shows the strength of the original UA Scholars idea – to accept the top ten percent from every high school in the state. 
• We are impacting and benefiting the lives and health of Alaskans. Dr. Bert Boyer at the Center for Alaska Native Health Research is investigating why Yup'ik Eskimos in southwest Alaska have such a low rate of diabetes, despite having levels of obesity that are similar to the general U.S. population. Dr. Boyer's research is giving scientific claim to the belief of Yup'ik Elders that their subsistence foods and lifestyle are truly beneficial from a health standpoint. It's a national-class story of community-based participatory research. And it's an example of where our research efforts directly affect a rural campus, with the construction of a new CANHR lab on the Kuskokwim Campus. 
• You may recall last year we showed a video highlighting Jenny Day, landscape supervisor for facilities services. She was working to make our campus a more sustainable one by leading the way to grow our own produce. Well, that effort certainly hasn't slowed down. Last week we had a dinner with a major donor to the campus. With the exception of the salmon, all of the food served was grown and harvested right here on campus. The vegetables served to the UA Scholars on Tuesday night were grown on campus. And we have been providing locally grown produce to the Lola Tilly Commons, giving new meaning to the term "grow our own." 
• Last year, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni looked at the nation's top universities to see what students were learning. They thought in today's economy, students need to know something about economics. But there were only two of the 100 that require economics to graduate. One is UAF. The other is West Point.  
• Our nationally recognized Student Investment Fund makes a difference for our graduates – one alum, Sam Enoka, who is now financing renewable energy and energy conservation efforts in San Francisco, and who is returning to UAF for a stint as “Entrepreneur in Residence,” says his experience with the Fund gave him an edge over his classmates in graduate school at Berkeley.  We take practical financial literacy seriously at UAF, and the success stories behind our endeavor keep adding up. 
• And our stories go beyond the classroom and the research labs, to the support functions like the UAF heat and power plant. You may recall that last year I talked about the critical need to replace our aging plant, and that remains a priority. We would be in far worse shape if we weren't so fortunate to have an outstanding crew, led by Chilkoot Ward, to keep it running well despite the plant's age. This summer the electricity on the Fairbanks campus went out for two hours due to a GVEA malfunction. Now, having a power outage is common enough in most places that there is not much of a story there, but it was a story for us because we never have outages on campus. The heat and power plant crew does a great job of making sure our faculty and students don't freeze in the dark.

These are just a few of the stories about UAF that we can tell. They're far better stories than those about troubles with registration, parking, or credit transfer. Others can, and will, tell their stories about what we do wrong, or what they think we do wrong. But few outside our community will tell the stories about what is right about UAF. That's up to us. I ask all of you to help tell the stories about what's right here, and how what we do benefits more than our students, faculty and staff - what we do benefits the communities we serve, the state and the nation.

 

V. ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Convocation is not just about where we are now, and where we are going, but also about celebration. I want to take more time now to highlight just a few of the major accomplishments since I addressed you last year.

• The School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences started construction of the research vessel Sikuliaq, which will be one of the most advanced university research vessels in the world. 
• UAF pianist Ilia Radoslavov took gold in the professional division at the Seattle International Piano Competition. 
• BP donated one million dollars to allow the Rasmuson Library to catalog and process more than 4,500 boxes of papers and media from the congressional career of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens. 
• UAF was listed in the top 11 of more than 10,000 institutions worldwide for number of citations in climate change publications; we were fourth among U.S. universities. UAF Professor Terry Chapin was listed first in number of individual citations. 
•  School of Management Native Alaskan Business Leaders took first place in the business plan competition at the American Indian Business Leaders 2010 National Business Leadership Conference. 
• The Alaska Nanooks hockey team competed for the first time ever in a NCAA Division I championship. And the combined GPA of all the Nanook athletes increased for the fifth year in a row, to 3.3. 
• UAF student journalists, for the second year in a row, claimed the Alaska Press Club’s prestigious Public Service Award. 
• We raised 6.9 million dollars in private fundraising, easily surpassing our goal of 5.6 million dollars. 
• We graduated our highest number of Alaska Native students and highest number of PhD recipients in UAF's history at our 2010 commencement ceremony. 
•  Student services established the UAF Office of Sustainability and hired Michelle Hebert as our first sustainability coordinator.  
• In Dillingham, the Bristol Bay Campus is actively engaged with sustainability. Students actually build an electric car working with faculty, and are working on applying the concept to four-wheelers. 
•  And unfortunately, some of our leading lights went out. Pictures of a few of them are on the screen behind me. I ask you to join me for a moment of silence to honor all the members of the UAF community who we lost - faculty, staff, alumni and honorary degree recipients - whose lives made a difference to us, and whom we will miss.

 

VI. CLOSING THOUGHTS/NEXT STEPS

When the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines opened its doors, Territorial Governor Scott Bone had this to say:

"The opening of this institution…is a potent sign of the times. It speaks progress. It tells the world that Alaska is going ahead. It proclaims, in its name, the fact that agriculture and mining are twin resources of this rich domain. It gives denial to the popular fiction that Alaska is a forbidding, frozen upheaval of ice and snow. It emphasizes the real Alaska.

Away off here, near the top of the world, the institution dedicated today occupies a unique position. It has no counterpart. It will command universal interest. It stands out in bright token of Alaska’s high aspiration. It will grow as Alaska is surely destined to grow."

Close to 100 years later that is still the case. The University of Alaska Fairbanks does occupy a unique position.

We have no counterpart.

We command universal interest.

And we stand out in bright token of Alaska's high aspiration.

In closing, my charge to you --- faculty, staff, and students --- is as follows.

For faculty, do what you do best. Continue to strive for excellence as you teach, conduct research and scholarly activity, and serve the public. Help UAF fulfill its Land Grant mission and our role in society by constantly looking to connect to the communities and the state we serve.

For staff, do what you do best. Support the faculty in carrying out our primary missions. Support the infrastructure of our university, whether that be making sure our parking lots are clear of snow, our finances are properly managed, or that our students are well served. To those of you who are supervisors, take that responsibility seriously; apply what you learn in supervisory training into your everyday management of staff.

For students, take advantage of how close you are to our faculty and staff. Learn from them. UAF offers life-changing educational experiences. Take advantage of the opportunities that exist outside of the classroom, because that is just as important for your overall education. From participating in Study Abroad or National Student Exchange programs, to getting involved with local sustainability efforts, there are many ways you can fulfill your potential while you're at UAF.

To all of you, I ask that you join me in leading this university towards our centennial. Tell our stories outside our walls.

Question decisions that don't make sense. Offer solutions to problems that you identify. Be an active member of your campus community.

For the last several years, we opened the floor for questions. Last year there were none. Maybe it's the ice cream waiting out there in the Great Hall, and at all of our rural locations. So this year, we are taking questions by email, and will answer on the Grapevine. And I will continue my practice of at least two open forums each semester, one here on the Fairbanks campus and one by audio for rural sites. I think the question and answer format works better in the smaller, open forum environment.

I want to close with a thank you to all of you for what you do make this university a great one.

Now let's go have some ice cream!

Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to convocation 2009.

Faculty, students, staff, and alumni, thank you for coming to Davis Concert Hall today. I would like to welcome those who are participating from our rural sites and elsewhere via audio conference or streamed audio.

Community members who have come to campus today, thank you. This is your campus too, and I am always happy to have you visit us.

I would like to begin by recognizing UAF’s three governance leaders --- Faculty Senate President Jonathan Dehn, Staff Council President Martin Klein, and ASUAF President Adrian Triebel. As we all know, university governance is a shared responsibility, and I will continue to work with all three governance groups and their leadership.

Last year’s convocation focused on the transition process. We have successfully completed many of the near-term recommendations that I highlighted. It’s time now to look further ahead and with a longer term view. When I stood on this stage last year, I was serving as your interim chancellor. Thanks to the efforts of the faculty senate and others, my position is no longer "interim."

When President Hamilton offered me the permanent position, he told me he would shortly announce his retirement. I knew when I accepted the permanent position as chancellor that the presidency would be coming open. If I had any intent of applying for the university presidency, I would not have accepted this job. I want all of you to know that my focus and dedication are right here at Alaska’s first university --- the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

This year’s convocation theme is about sustainability, and not just in the ecological sense. Wikipedia talks about sustainability as the capacity to endure. In higher education, we have enduring values like freedom of inquiry, freedom of speech, independence of scientific research and creative activity, tolerance of dissent, and respect for diversity. These sustain our academic enterprise.

I want to talk for a moment about freedom of speech. There is a banner hanging in the Wood Center today that many of us find offensive. Some of you have asked that it be removed. I disagree with the banner, but I also disagree with those who would remove it. The university community must be one where we protect the freedom to speak, even when we find the speech disagreeable.

I am committed to a welcoming and inclusive university. It is important to me that it is a community where people feel safe and able to pursue their academic goals. I know there are times this campus does not feel welcoming, inclusive or safe. I want to change that. For those in this community who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, I am sorry that there are people who are intolerant of who you are. It disturbs me that public discourse on this, and other issues, is becoming so intolerant and offensive.

As an educational center, it is important that we offer opportunities to learn in, and out, of the classroom. It’s hard to teach tolerance, but I hope we can learn it. I ask all who care about these issues to work to overcome intolerance, and to be welcoming and affirming to all members of our academic community.

We've certainly sustained the vision of an Alaska higher education institution through some challenging times since the cornerstone was laid in 1915 and we were established as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines in 1917. As we near the 100-year mark, it’s time to think about what will sustain this institution for our second hundred years.

The ecological aspects of sustainability are important across UAF, and you’ll hear today from a few people who are doing their best to make this campus – and all of our UAF activities throughout the state – more sustainable.

We’ve made some progress, but there is much more we could do. The College Sustainability 2009 Report Card gave UAF an overall grade of a C-. While that is a passing grade, and an improvement over last year’s score, I don’t think it fully recognizes what we have done here. Our sister school in southcentral Alaska received a C+, and I know we can top them. With that, let me issue a challenge to the entire UAF community that we do everything we can to come out on top next year. Let’s go beyond winning the governor’s cup in hockey this year to win what I would dub the “sustainability cup” – by achieving a higher sustainability score on the Report Card.

UAF endures because we are sustained by students, faculty, staff, and alumni, who practice community engagement, academic excellence, and scholarly research and creative activity. 

I would like to talk about each of these topics. Let me start with the reason we have a university in the first place – the students.

I’d like to introduce one of our Honors Program students, Molly Dischner.

Thank you Molly. Molly is one of the first recipients of the chancellor’s sustainability tuition waiver, which she received in part from her leadership role on the Honors House retrofit. While Molly received the award, she was not alone in her endeavor, so I would like to have all of the students who are in the Honors Program at UAF to stand and be recognized. Thank you for being such a dynamic part of UAF’s student body.

I know the Honors Program wants me to include a plug for their involvement with this Saturday’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which will feature a visit to UAF and a live radio show on KSUA with the co-founder of International Talk Like a Pirate Day. If you’re interested, check it out.

Honors Program students aren’t the only ones doing something about sustainability. In fact, the student body as a whole deserves recognition for voting in a $20 per semester student fee to support sustainability efforts on UAF’s Fairbanks campus. If there is one single act that can help us raise our grade on the College Sustainability Report Card, it’s their decision.

Our students continue to accept new and exciting challenges. A recent example took place this summer when three journalism students, with faculty member Brian O’Donoghue, spent most of August in Iraq as embedded reporters. As a former journalist, I can tell you that the students did a fantastic job. If you didn’t follow their work, I encourage you to visit their blog at shorttimers.blogspot.com.

Retrofitting the Honors House and working as reporters in a war zone demonstrate the importance of  out-of-classroom activities to expanding college students’ experiences. As chancellor, I am committed to enhancing those opportunities whenever possible – I tell our students to “go away” – to get experience with national or international exchange through our many partners, including the University of the Arctic.

Good student opportunities don’t have to be academic in nature. I asked student services staff to look for new indoor and outdoor recreation opportunities for students. We are about to install a 21-hole disc golf course that will cover the entire Fairbanks campus.

Now, playing frisbee golf isn’t something a student can add to his or her resume, but enhancements like this can help with recruitment and retention efforts. I would like all of us to keep thinking about what we can do to enhance student life at all of UAF’s campuses – we should be able to make a difference each and every year.

We have a responsibility to provide our students with an excellent academic experience. One way others measure our excellence is through the institutional accreditation process.

Institutional accreditation, a peer-based quality control process, ensures students can transfer credits among institutions and makes UAF eligible to offer students federal student financial aid.

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, our accreditation body, significantly changed the process from an every 10 year event to a seven year continuous reporting process. During this first cycle, UAF must complete the seven year process in the next two years, beginning with a self-study now and culminating in a site visit in 2011.  While this will add some new intensity, we enter with many strengths and expect positive results. You can support the reaffirmation of accreditation by responding to requests for information about your unit and UAF generally. I want to recognize thank Vice Provost Dana Thomas for his work as UAF’s lead accreditation officer.

It is exciting to see the growth in enrollment at UAF this year. Both the College of Engineering and Mines and the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences --- schools that are among the best in the country at what they offer --- are seeing record enrollments this year.

The School of Education, which has an important task of educating today’s students to be Alaska’s teachers of tomorrow, has seen a huge influx of new students. And programs that are important to our workforce development mission, such as the Tanana Valley CampusAviation Maintenance Technology program, are enrolling more students than ever before.

And at the departmental level, many of you are seeing rapid increases and record enrollments – Music, to pick just one, is seeing a big jump in both graduate and undergraduate enrollments.

It’s early in the registration process for our rural campuses, but we’re seeing more students at most of our campuses.

The Indigenous Studies program, approved by the Board of Regents in April, has started off with nine PhD students. Developed in collaboration with several Alaska Native groups, the program aims to increase the number of Alaska Natives with advanced degrees. A related goal is to advance knowledge and scholarship on subjects important to Alaska Native people and communities.

UAF’s commitment to the Native people of Alaska forms a very important part of our academic mission. The main campus occupies land that was called Troth Yeddha’ (wild potato hill) by the Tanana Athabascans. The late Chief Peter John of Minto once described Troth Yeddha’ as “a place where good thinking and working together would happen.”

We are living up to that descriptor – examples of “good thinking and working together” flourish throughout UAF, in pre-college outreach programs such as RAHI, research units like the Center for Alaska Native Health Research, and academic programs such as Alaska Native and Rural Development.

The College of Rural and Community Development is a leader in those efforts, with four community campuses in Nome, Kotzebue, Dillingham and Bethel and the learning centers through the Interior Aleutians Campus. I want to thank Vice Chancellor for Rural, Community and Native Education Bernice Joseph and all faculty and staff within CRCD in helping us make sure that Alaska’s first university is here for Alaska’s first people.

I also see growth in our reputation for academic excellence in our pre-college programs. Our nationally recognized Alaska Summer Research Academy, now in its 9^th year, saw a record 146 students in grades 8-12 come to campus this summer. The Rural Alaska Honors Institute, a program that has been the pride and joy of UAF for 27 years, enrolled a record number of students this year.

One of the reasons we are seeing significant enrollment growth is the excellent reputation our faculty members have earned. Great faculty members like Terry Chapin.

Terry is one of the nation’s leading ecologists, Alaska’s first elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, and one of UAF’s leading research faculty members. 

In the book “A University for the 21^st Century”, which is required reading at UAF’s Academic Leadership Institute, author James Duderstadt has this to say about the importance of faculty at a university:

“The principal academic resource of a university is its faculty. The quality and commitment of the faculty determine the excellence of the academic programs of a university, the quality of its student body, the excellence of its teaching and scholarship, its capacity to serve broader society through public service, and the resources it is able to attract from public and private sources.”

I couldn’t agree more. Our faculty team at UAF, roughly 650 full-time and 350 part-time members strong, covers a diversity of academic programs ranging from culinary arts to wildlife biology. Many, like Terry Chapin, are actively involved in research areas that make our communities and state a better place in which to live.

Each year we recognize recipients of the prestigious Emil Usibelli Distinguished Teaching, Service and Research Awards.

For 2009 awards, we have the following three recipients:

• For teaching, John Fox, associate professor of land resources management;
• For research, John Walsh, director of the Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research;
• And for service, Rich Seifert, Cooperative Extension Service professor.

Rich Seifert and John Walsh could not be here today for exactly the reasons they are being honored – Rich is serving the public and John Walsh is conducting research. Since there is no class to teach during this hour on campus, John Fox could be here, so I would like him to stand and be recognized.

The Faculty Senate this year will be working on UAF’s core curriculum. This effort is fundamental to our instructional efforts. We need to define what Alaska’s students need from liberal education in the 21^st century. Of course they need core understanding of English, the humanities and the sciences. But how do we ensure understanding of the necessity of civic engagement, the principles of sustainability, or how Americans function in the international community? I look forward to the dialogue on these issues, and urge the faculty who are here or online to take the time to engage in this process. We will be thinking about how to build these and other topics into the proposed freshman seminar, an opportunity for students and faculty to delve deeply into topics of common interest.

UAF is sustained by engagement with our communities.

When we talk about community engagement at UAF, we are really talking about all Alaska’s communities. An important part of our mission can be found in our name, and the fact that we are the University of ALASKA Fairbanks. We are proud to call Fairbanks our home base, but it is important to realize that the presence and impact of UAF, more than any other university in the state, can be found throughout all Alaska. It’s particularly important that those of us based in Fairbanks recognize the importance of engaging the entire state – that while we engage in Fairbanks, we not focus only on this campus or this community.

The Alaska Cooperative Extension Service is one of those reasons we have such a statewide reach. As the gateway to the university system, CES serves some 60,000 Alaskans annually, providing a link between Alaska’s diverse people and communities by interpreting and extending relevant university, research-based knowledge in an understandable and usable form.

I view CES as a leader in UAF’s community engagement efforts, and am very excited with their new direction. I would like to ask one of the newest members of the UAF family, Fred Schlutt, the director of CES and vice provost for extension and outreach, to stand and be recognized. You’ll be seeing a lot of him.

UAF is also stepping up its economic development efforts. Retired faculty member Paul McCarthy has done a great job uncovering opportunities to link UAF research with business opportunities. I’ve worked with local mayors to see how we can partner to leverage UAF research into the private sector. The School of Management has appointed Professor Jim Collins as the new director of entrepreneurship, and we are working to identify other ways UAF can be an engine of local and state economic growth and prosperity.

When I think about community engagement at UAF, the University of Alaska Museum of the North certainly comes to mind. Two days ago the museum hosted a retirement party for Director Aldona Jonaitis, who, during her 15 years at the helm, led the museum through dramatic growth both in facilities and in programs. Please help me recognize and thank Aldona for her service and leadership.

I want to talk a little about KUAC. The budget challenges at our public radio and television stations are widely known on campus and in this community. As chancellor I have added significant financial support to help sustain this important part of our mission.

KUAC faces similar challenges to those at public broadcasting stations across the state and across the country. Last year the general managers of the state’s three largest public broadcasters, including KUAC, looked at possible ways to transform public media in the state. They released a consulting report from that effort in July. We are now collecting feedback on the report from the community KUAC serves.

While I have not been convinced that their consultant has all the right answers, I am certain we need to strengthen the relationship between KUAC and the university’s academic and research programs. For the university to support public broadcasting here, and not in Southeast or Southcentral Alaska, there must be a close connection to academic programs and extension of our research and scholarship. I think there is real untapped potential in KUAC partnerships with academic departments, schools and colleges. We will be working to support KUAC’s critical role at UAF in the months to come.

Many of you know I asked Terry MacTaggart, the former chancellor of the University of Maine system and a consultant for many universities and systems, to look at UAF’s executive administration and to make recommendations. 

While his focus was on administration and opportunities for efficiencies and cost savings, he said UAF’s opportunity to better connect research and instruction came loud and clear. He suggests UAF has a great opportunity to emerge as one of the nation’s best student oriented research universities.

His report (PDF) says we need to identify ways to leverage the university’s cutting edge research to strengthen the institution as a whole, and I agree.

UAF leads in research in two ways. First, we conduct world-class research.

This is particularly true for high-latitude research that takes advantage of our unique location and our superb researchers. That we would be a leader in research pertaining to the Far North is by no means a new thought for UAF. The founders of our college, Judge James Wickersham and President Charles Bunnell, shared a vision that Alaska’s university should be a center of research about Alaska.

Wickersham and Bunnell could not have predicted that UAF would work on some of the today’s biggest world challenges, including climate change, biomedicine and energy.

UAF has the opportunity to lead in student involvement in research, particularly at the undergraduate level. We need to continue to find ways to link university research and creative activity to students and student success, in all areas.

Integration of research and teaching involves more than just linking students to researchers. It’s a culture that we all need to embrace, blending Fairbanks’ West Ridge and lower campus cultures. Remember, at the end of the day, we are all in this together – a group of instructional and research faculty, students and staff, all in search of a better parking space.

We have some staff making a sustainable difference. Jenny Day will talk about a few efforts.

If you want to see some of the vegetables the greenhouse is producing, Jenny will be at a table in the Great Hall after today’s convocation.

Staff like Jenny Day keep UAF functioning to meet our mission. From the crew operating our heat and power plant, to the admissions counselors recruiting new students (and as you heard from our numbers, doing a great job!), to the rural campus staff who often do three or four jobs in one, the ability for UAF to move ahead rests on the backs of close to 3,000 dedicated staff and student employees.

You may recall that during last year’s convocation I talked about how we need to put people first at UAF. I want to make sure we continue to do that. The family friendly task force is finishing its recommendations on how UAF as an employer can do a better job of recognizing the needs of employee’s families, particularly in child care but in other ways as well.

We put in place a supervisory training program that has seen tremendous success. I’m confident this program will make a difference as we identify other areas of training and professional development for employees and supervisors. We’re also getting ready to beef up our mediation services to employees as an alternative to the formal complaint or grievance process.

Employees also give back to the university in other areas. Last year, more than 530 employees collectively gave a quarter of a million dollars to UAF. This fall we will be launching a new employee-giving campaign. Keep an eye out for an email announcing the program. I encourage each of you to use this opportunity to support the UAF program, department, or scholarship of your choice – you can make the place where you study, work and live a better place for all.

Over the course of this summer, I’ve been shifting my focus from the shorter-term transition to thinking about where we are going in the coming years.

Earlier I mentioned the MacTaggart report. This external review affirms some existing priorities and provides suggestions for how we can better align UAF’s organization with our longer-term strategic plans.

The report, which is available online, carries five themes:

• Leverage cutting-edge research to better advantage UAF;
• Link our marketing efforts more closely with student recruitment and enrollment management
• Better organize and communicate the university’s work in distance education and e-learning
• Strengthen service to rural Alaska and its people;
• And achieve greater administrative efficiency and improved resource allocation.

Dr. MacTaggart has thoughtfully considered past recommendations identified through our planning processes. He built his report what he heard in interviews with more than 40 staff, faculty, students, and community members. I’ve discussed the findings and recommendations with him at length and believe the report provides a good foundation for future action. Everything we do that simplifies our administrative processes and procedures, or that reduces costs, enhances opportunities to focus on sustaining our primary mission.

Over the next two months I will meet with governance groups and others to discuss the contents of the report and receive further input. I’ll keep you in the campus community informed of the process, and welcome your thoughts as we move forward.

I know there is intense interest about whether or how we will implement some of the recommendations. I am still listening to your views, and will make decisions in the near term. There will clearly continue to be change, as is natural at any institution, but speculation about what change will happen is premature and wastes your time and energy. I would far rather you use your efforts to help create the changes you want at UAF.

I also encourage you to read the forthcoming Vision 2017 implementation plan. Some of you will recall the work of the UAF Vision Task Force two years ago, formed to make recommendations on how UAF could position itself to become one of the world’s premier arctic research and teaching universities by 2017, when we will celebrate our 100^th anniversary. We are now integrating the task force report with our Strategic Plan 2010, to concisely set clear targets and measurable outcomes for UAF’s future. This work also feeds the accreditation process.

I want to switch gears now and talk about our operating and capital budget priorities for next fiscal year. While the Board of Regents has yet to adopt an official university budget request to the Governor and Legislature, UAF’s priorities are clear in President Hamilton’s request to the board.

As you know, we were less than fully successful in last year’s requests. Our operating budget message for this year is pretty much the “same as last year” with only a few changes.

We will follow the top system priorities with a focus on funding:

• The fixed costs of operating the university, including compensation, utilities, compliance and other increases;
• Energy programs at the Alaska Center for Energy and Power and the Cooperative Extension Service, which are currently funded for a only single year;
• Science, technology, engineering and math initiatives, including UAF’s Alaska Summer Research Academy, summer bridge programs, and physics and math support;
• Climate research and information, and sustainability initiatives, including the Marine Advisory Program;
• Meeting the educational needs for Alaska’s high demand jobs in teacher education, health, workforce programs, and engineering; and
• Student success initiatives, with an emphasis on pre-college programs, student services managers for each of UAF’s rural campuses, honors and undergraduate research, and UAF’s indigenous studies program.

We will need your support, expressed to our legislative delegation, in order to get funding for these additions to our operating budget.

The capital budget is similar to last year’s, but somewhat smaller. And rightfully so. When the university asks for $541 million, and gets $3 million, the “laundry list” approach is clearly not working. And it doesn’t communicate our top priorities.

It is crucial that we receive adequate funding to address the growing backlog of deferred maintenance at all of our campuses. Being Alaska’s first university also means UAF is Alaska’s oldest university, and despite excellent maintenance efforts, age can be seen throughout campus in our classrooms, laboratories and residence halls.

It takes $50 million per year system-wide to keep the deferred maintenance list from growing. So that’s the top priority for the system, and for us.

Our top new construction priority, and the only new building on the president’s list, is the Life Science Innovation and Learning Facility. We made some headway on this project last year, as legislators across the state began to understand the importance to Alaska of research that will be accomplished in this building. They understood, but the state’s fiscal position forced a negative decision. There must be a different outcome this year.

We need the life sciences facility now because it will help us educate a new generation of Alaskans to solve Alaska’s challenges in biomedicine, neuroscience, and wildlife biology.

We need life sciences now because it will provide the critical space for Alaska-based biological research that we are ready to do now.

We need life sciences now because it represents the best of the best in research that benefits the entire state of Alaska.

So those are our top budget priorities. On the not-so-distant planning horizon is another big issue. Our Fairbanks campus combined heat and power plant, which provides the campus with heat, cooling, and electric power, is more than 40 years old, with a design capacity of 50 years.

While it has proven to be exceptionally reliable, safe and efficient since it first began operations, we need a major plant renovation or replacement in the next five to seven years.

As the only source of heat for most of campus, and the primary source of electric power, a central plant failure could stop all campus business, and, quite literally, leave us freezing in the dark.

[LIGHTS OFF FOR 2 SECONDS]

Fortunately, that was just for show. One of the reasons we do such a good job of keeping our lights on at UAF is because of our excellent facilities services crew. Unfortunately they are going to lose a person who has been their leader for 11 years now, and that is Kathleen Schedler, Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities and Safety. Kathleen is retiring in December, and I would like to thank her for her dedication and years of service.

There are few options for heat and power on the Fairbanks campus, and we need to move fairly rapidly. The only option not on the table is to do nothing.

There are other capital needs for UAF, and we’re working on public-private partnerships and fundraising to support the Energy Technology Research Building and considering private alternatives to address our needs for student housing. Even in tight budget times, we need to move forward on our priorities.

As you can see from the UAF map, we are a complex university, unlike any other in the country. We are complex in our mission, our geography, and our support structure. Too often, this complexity negatively impacts the decisions we must make. Yet through our nearly one hundred years, we have been able to sustain our mission and to succeed.

The new issue of the UAF magazine “Aurora” just came out, and within it are two examples of people enduring – sustaining themselves through the types of challenges that most us are unlikely to experience.

The first is a story on the Center for Alaska Native Health Research’s Elluam Tungiinun [HTH-lom TOO-neeng-nung] program, a project that teaches Alaska Native teens and their families how to protect themselves against suicide and substance abuse using knowledge gleaned from healthy Alaska Natives. After eight suicides in a year and a half, the village of Alakanuk was one of the first Alaska Native communities to sign up for the research program and the only one that agreed to go public about their involvement.

The second story is a profile on Alaska Nanooks rifle coach Dan Jordan, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a climbing accident in May 1999. Dan is one of the most positive people you will find on this campus – in fact, he’s president of the Fairbanks Optimist club. Over the years he has not let his accident slow him down, as he has gone on to hunt moose, ride four-wheelers and snow machines, build a house, and – of course – coach the Nanook rifle team to three consecutive national championships.

Part of UAF’s approach to sustaining and enduring involves adapting technology and investing in social media. Finding out what is happening at UAF has never been easier, thanks to examples such as:

…our official University of Alaska Fairbanks Facebook site, with 1,309 fans (as of this morning) and growing daily…

…a soon to be released UAF iTunesU site, which will allow students to download podcasts of class lectures and community members to download podcasts of public lectures…

…and a recently released Alaska Nanooks Twitter site, so you can keep up on the scores of your favorite Nanooks sports team.

If you prefer communicating face to face rather than on Facebook, that’s the nice thing about our campuses. One of the best parts of my job is getting out and about across the Fairbanks and Tanana Valley campuses, and to our rural campuses, to talk one on one with students, faculty and staff. It’s these conversations that help me the most with my job as chancellor, and I always appreciate those opportunities to meet with you.

It takes all of us to sustain UAF, to meet our commitments to students, and to the state and communities that support us, and to meet our mission. In closing, thanks to all of you for all that you do to sustain UAF. I am excited about our journey.

I will take a few questions, but I do want to remind people both here in Fairbanks and at the rural sites that there is ice cream awaiting us all. I don’t want that to impact the number of questions I take, but remember – ice cream does not have the capacity to endure. It melts.

 Thank you for joining me here and by audio and web conference today. I’ll begin with a question from here in Fairbanks – those on audio or online can email questions to convocation@alaska.edu , and if we don’t have time to answer them all here, we’ll post answers on the Grapevine.

I. Welcome and Introductions

Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to convocation 2008.

Staff, faculty, students, thank you for coming. I would like to welcome those who are participating from our rural sites via audio conference or streamed audio. 

Community members who have come to campus today, thank you.  I hope you will come visit us often.

I am excited to share with you my vision of where UAF needs to go, during the next two years while I serve as your interim chancellor.

I’d like to begin by introducing some people in the audience. First, I’d like to introduce my life partner and wife, UAF alumna Sherry Modrow. Her life also changed dramatically as we made the decision to serve as interim chancellor. I am blessed with her counsel and friendship.  We are a team that takes great pride in being able to contribute to this unique, incredible institution.  With our eldest son also a UAF graduate, for us UAF is not only a family affair, but a family passion.

Next, I would like to recognize UAF’s three governance leaders, --- Faculty Senate President Marsha Sousa, Staff Council President Juella Sparks, and ASUAF President Brandon Meston.  As we all know, university governance is a shared responsibility, and I look forward to working with all three governance groups and their leadership.

I’ll be talking in just a few minutes about this summer’s transition teams and the work they did to provide guidance for the next two years, but first I would like to recognize and thank Charles Fedullo for his work coordinating the efforts and Michael Walsh with the Foraker Group for his work chairing the transition team steering committee.

I’d also like to have anyone here who participated in the transition team process stand up and be recognized. Thank you for your efforts to help us grow and improve UAF.

This has been a great summer for me, as I came back to UAF.  Nearly four decades ago, I came to what was then the University of Alaska as a student. But this place had the effect on me then that it still has now.  UAF is about people, community and a “can do” spirit that just doesn’t exist in a lot of places today.

Over the years I’ve experienced UAF from many different perspectives  –  as a student, lemonade vendor, staff member, adjunct faculty, legislator, statewide administrator, regent, consultant, sometimes critic, and community supporter. UAF has been an important part of my life. It is exciting to have the opportunity to use what I have learned over the years to lead UAF.  I’ve learned that there’s always something new and interesting at UAF, always an opportunity to learn more about this diverse university. Sometimes, though, I feel like we’re in Lake Wobegon – a shy university, afraid to tell the world about all the great things we do.  We have a great story to tell.  And I am humbled that I get to help you all tell it.

I had the chance this summer to participate in our two signature K-12 bridging programs – the Rural Alaska Honors Institute and the Alaska Summer Research Academy.  These two are among nearly three dozen summer programs designed to connect young Alaskans to UAF.

I sat in on portions of this year’s Permafrost Conference, and saw how our quality research programs contribute to a worldwide effort to understand the effects of climate change on the northern environment.  I received numerous follow-up messages on what a great job the UAF conference team did in preparing for it.

A week ago I joined with deans and faculty working on improvements to the UAF Honors Program, looking to create a program worthy of Alaska’s first university.

I had the chance last week to meet with the accreditation team leader for the UAF social work program, and to hear from her that this is the smoothest accreditation visit she’s ever had.

And just yesterday I had watched a demonstration that Google and the faculty from the geography program at the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences are bringing to Barrow school teachers and students today, and then to Kotzebue and Nome, to extend the teaching of geography in the K-12 system.  They built a partnership based on creative work at the Alaska Volcano Observatory here at UAF, work that was recognized by Google as leading edge in use of technology.

These are just a few examples out of dozens where UAF stands out.

The theme of this year’s convocation is, quite simply, “First.”

What do I mean by that? Well, I mean a couple of things. 

“First” refers to areas of accomplishment; celebrating areas where we have been recognized as being the best at what we do, whether it’s being named “Best in the West” by the Princeton Review, our Emmy-award-winning public television and radio station, our students winning top honors in a worldwide mathematical contest in modeling, or our nationally recognized chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society.

“First” also refers to historical significance, recognizing the fact that UAF is Alaska’s first university --- the true flagship institution of the UA system --- and understanding the special responsibility that brings.

“First” also has to do with priorities, and it is our priority areas that are my focus today. Three themes came out of the transition team process.  If we follow them, we will position ourselves for unparalleled success for the people and communities we serve.

II. Put People First

The first theme is the simple notion of putting people first. It is focusing on the people we serve – for faculty and staff, serving our students.  For staff, it’s supporting our faculty and other employees. If we put people first, we provide the kind of service our communities expect.

There are many examples in this room and of those listening remotely of people putting others first. A recent example is the Rev It Up program, where I saw staff, faculty and students working together to truly welcome more than 600 new students to UAF.  Every one that day worked together, often outside their normal work assignments, to ensure a success to our new students.

My favorite example of putting people first can be found with Einar Often. Einar is a member of the UAF cross-country ski team, and during a regional championship last March in Minneapolis, he did something remarkable. He put sportsmanship and competitive spirit above finishing first.

After Einar offered his pole to Ray, Ray went on to finish eighth and qualify for the NCAA championship. Einar finished 23rd, which qualified him as a spectator. But he’s getting a medal of a different nature – Einar was selected  from 80,000 student athletes across the country as one of two recipients of the NCAA Division II Sportsmanship of the Year Award. Einar is here today, and I’d like to ask him to stand. Please join me in congratulating him for his award.

When I talk about “Putting People First” I don’t expect you all to take to the ski trails. But I do expect you to hold me to a promise of putting you first. And I expect you to hold one another to a promise of putting each other first. It is all of us that make UAF the unique, inspirational place it is. But it is up to all of us to make the coming years even better than the nine decades before.

There are plenty of opportunities to follow Einar’s philosophy.  We all have our own area of strength to help those struggling. I want each of us – UAF students, staff and faculty – to be ready to lend a ski pole when it’s needed.

Here are some initiatives we have underway that I see following the “Put People First” theme.

• We’re starting a “Family Friendly” task force to look for ways that UAF as an employer can recognize the needs of our employee’s families.  The special focus of this task force will be on child care needs in Fairbanks, but there is much more we can do to recognize that healthy employees need to be able to balance work and family commitments.
• For students, we will adopt a “no wrong door” policy – When a student needs assistance, rather than sending him or her from office to office like a ping pong ball we must all pitch in to find the right place to help that student.
• It starts with creating a “one stop shop” in Signers and Eielson to make those two buildings and the services they provide, more user friendly to students.
• The UA Office of Instructional Technology (OIT) has partnered with the office of Faculty Development to establish a Center for Faculty Excellence to develop and enhance teaching and learning with technology.
• For staff we are kicking off a new supervisor training program – with the goal that the 400 plus supervisors who work for UAF have the skills necessary to help our people and UAF grow and get better;
• The Wellness Initiative Network, a wellness program that provides screening, individualized health planning and wellness support for all employees will start this fall.
• Thanks to our development office, and to the generous support of donors, we have seen dramatic increases in giving the last couple of years. I meet tomorrow with the Rasmuson Fisheries Excellence Committee, donors and supporters who are helping UAF step up its fisheries undergraduate education and research opportunities.  And a good deal of new money is going toward scholarships that have helped more students go to school here, stay in school here, or graduate with less student debt.
• I would like to thank all of the people who are working on these projects, and on other initiatives, that Put People First. If we put people first the second theme will come easy.

III. Engage Our Communities

“Engage Our Communities.”

This is not just a priority, but also a responsibility. It’s part of what we do as a land grant university. Since 1862, public universities have had an important role in supporting the communities in which they live. 

The social compact today is that land grant universities provide service to their communities, and in exchange, their states help pay some of the cost of higher education.

There are numerous ways UAF faculty and staff are actively engaged with the community, and one of the leaders in that endeavor is the Alaska Cooperative Extension Service.  Here’s Pete Pinney, interim dean of CES:

I want to emphasize that I am talking about engaging our communities. For those of us on the main campus, it’s easy to think about only Fairbanks, where we have the main campus, Tanana Valley Campus and the Interior-Aleutians Campus but our reach is much broader than that, spreading out to all areas of Alaska:

• Our four rural campuses…
• Our CRCD learning centers…
• Our off-campus research stations…
• Cooperative Extension Service…
• the Marine Advisory Program…
• …other off-campus academic programs…
• and the communities throughout the entire state we serve through the Center for Distance Education.

That’s why I keep reminding people that we are U-A-F, and not just UF – we serve all of Alaska, and beyond.

For my part, engaging the community means bringing more people onto campus – and ensuring they can find parking, feel a part of UAF and want to come back.  It means being a part of community issues and decisions, even if they don’t directly bear on UAF. 

I ask that you consider how you can engage your community – by offering to speak at local schools, participating in the civic life of the community, supporting local economic development.

Community engagement also means reaching out to lend a helping hand. Giving to the United Way is a great way to reach community members in need. United Way of the Tanana Valley has just started its fundraising drive, so consider giving of your time and money to help a good cause.

To me, community engagement goes beyond the traditional definition of “public service,” where universities transmit the knowledge we have.  Engagement means listening and responding to community needs, and building the knowledge the communities need.

In the short term, I will be establishing a primary point of contact for UAF to work with me to better integrate UAF’s economic development activities with the Fairbanks, Interior and Western Alaska communities.  We need to define what economic development means for UAF and partner with our communities to see how to best move forward.

I am re-energizing the UAF Board of Visitors and establishing a Fairbanks Campus Advisory Council to better connect to our communities.  We will host a Fairbanks campus open house this spring, and begin a “campus in the community” service day for university staff and faculty who wish to participate.

Finally, I have asked the Faculty Senate to begin a conversation on how to better recognize faculty for the community engagement portion of their public service role.  I believe that with the exception of the CES unit standards, we do not adequately recognize community service in our promotion and tenure process. Our record for community service is strong. But we must do better.  Part of engaging our communities is showing Fairbanks and all of Alaska the great things we do. 

We can’t just talk of what we do and what we need.  We must listen and allow our priorities to merge with those of the communities in Alaska we serve.  More dialogue with community leaders on how the university fits in is a must. UAF can lend creativity and an open mind to work with partners in Alaska.

We will be about solving problems and getting to yes, not creating obstacles and roadblocks. I’m convinced– if all of us engage our communities and provide valuable services the return will be better support and more success for our community and our university. Success in this area starts with my third theme.

IV. Make Responsible Decisions

It’s about action, about not being bound by “the way we’ve always done it.”  It is being willing to take risks to accomplish our missions.

I’m asking you to make responsible decisions by taking risks and doing new things. When you look around campus for a risk taker who does new things on a regular basis, I think you’ll agree that you couldn’t ask for a finer example than Michelle Bartlett.

Michelle was bold enough to commit UAF to staging a live broadcast of “Whad’ya Know” on KUAC-FM, which, by the way, was so successful she’s doing it again in 2009.  She pushed the envelope to get in-state tuition for all summer students, which was so successful that out-of-state enrollments went up by 400 percent. Michelle Bartlett is the consummate responsible rebel at UAF, and I’d like her to stand and be recognized.

Making responsible decisions means “question authority” when the authority doesn’t make sense, and we should always be willing to change, to adapt to 21st century ways of doing things when the 20th century methods no longer work.

Now I’m not asking you to take unnecessary risks, or to jeopardize people’s safety, or to fail to comply with federal or state laws.  What I am asking is that our campus administrative culture be less risk-averse, that rather than saying “no, you can’t do that,” the answer should be “well, you can’t do it that way, but here’s a solution that meets your needs.”

Sometimes it seems like change at UAF is an uphill battle.  And maybe it is.  But after watching the Nanook cross-country runners at the Ester Dome 5k earlier this month, I know that it is possible to finish a race even when it’s uphill all the way.

To initiate responsible change, and following up on the transition team process, we’ve taken a few steps.  Many of you are probably aware of the summer free parking experiment.  I will be following up with the creation of a Parking Advisory Committee to look at other ways we can work to improve the issue we all love to hate.

You probably know about the Polar Express Card as a borough bus pass. I am appointing a Sustainability Task Force to recommend and implement other ways we can reduce energy use and improve sustainability – here in Fairbanks and throughout the UAF campuses.

Through the transition, I heard repeatedly about concerns with the UAF human resource process.  I’ve appointed an acting HR director, and we will be recruiting shortly for a permanent director, adding new talent to this critical support function.  We must do more to support our departments in this area and we will provide HR with the tools to get the job done right.

We’re working on establishment of a research business office, on the West Ridge, to provide administrative services support to the special needs of the research community.

CRCD is working on implementation of online registration for its campuses, to allow those students with good connectivity to use these tools, without cutting off those students whose connectivity is still poor.

These are a few of the changes we have underway.  Through the transition website and other means of communication, I will keep you posted on our progress, so you can hold me and my administration accountable to our pledge of responsible action.

I’d also like to foster an environment on campus where people aren’t afraid to ask the questions that need to be asked. To that end I’m pleased to announce today that we are launching a new website at UAF called “The Grapevine.”

The purpose of “The Grapevine” is part communication, and part rumor control.  You can email questions; our marketing and communications office will find the answers and post them on “The Grapevine.” I hope it’s a fun way to improve internal communications at UAF.

V. FY10 Budget

This year’s budget process for the university system follows a new model, designed to foster cooperation among the three universities.  I am including more detail on the budget process than in past convocation presentations because throughout the transition process, most committees asked that more detail be made available.

There were six planning groups, covering health, engineering, teacher education, workforce development, student success, and research.  The planning groups developed packages in each of the areas, submitting prioritized lists.  At the same time, each of the universities submitted our prioritized lists for programs in and outside the planning groups.

The president and chancellors then discussed the issues and developed a combined budget request, which will be presented in draft form to the Board of Regents on Thursday.

This is only the first step in the process; the Board will take final action at the end of October, and then the governor will submit a proposal to the legislature in December.

The top system priorities in the operating budget request are:

1. K-12 outreach and bridging programs, like the Alaska Summer Research Academy and the Interior-Aleutians campus early college high school initiative, and special education teacher preparation;
2. Energy, engineering and climate programs, including the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, Cooperative Extension Service and energy outreach, and faculty to support instruction and research in engineering and climate change;
3. Health and biomedical research and instruction, including support for UAF’s IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence and veterinary services programs, the UAF psychology clinic, allied health at TVC and rural human services faculty;
4. Workforce development, including faculty support at the Tanana Valley, Northwest and Interior-Aleutians campuses; and
5. Campus-specific programs, in our case emphasizing the new Ph.D in Indigenous Studies and strengthening the honors program and undergraduate research.

And as is always the case, we didn’t get everything we wanted in the operating budget request, but if we’re successful in Juneau with this request it will allow us to move forward on these priority programs. 

As I mentioned earlier, it’s our engagement with the communities we serve that will make the difference in how successful we are in getting state support for what we do.  I think our focus on these key areas  – energy, climate change, health and biomedical research, workforce development and indigenous studies – demonstrates our attention to the issues and needs of our communities.

Capital

Our capital budget request is significantly changed from last year, with some new approaches.  As has been the case for years, our top priority is fixing what we already have – code corrections and major renewal and replacement projects. 

Our top priority for new construction is for life sciences research and instructional facilities – the project formerly known as BIOS.  While the BIOS plan remains the best solution to provide critical space for biological and life sciences, it’s clear that we’ve failed to get support from the legislature for this project, so we’re trying plan B.  Or maybe it’s plan C or D by now. 

The current plan, is to construct two buildings, one funded by the state for instruction and one by revenue bonds for research.  We lose some of the benefits of the co-location of research and instructional space, but gain time in meeting the need for critical research facilities.  There will be ample time for further discussion about just how to proceed on this top priority, but I will be taking the message to the Alaska community on how our life sciences research and instructional programs provide benefits to Alaskans, to help make the case for this top priority.

Second on our priority list is a similar project for energy and engineering research and instruction space, with a revenue-bond funded research facility and state-funded addition to the Duckering Building.

Third on our list, but held for a year with other campuses projects, is new student housing.  This is a significant move up the priority list, to recognize that the current UAF dormitories, built 40 years ago, no longer meet the needs of our students.  Over the next year, we will work on planning and design of new housing facilities for students.

The final new construction project is planning and design for a new fire hall and firefighter training center, to replace the current fire hall, which – can you believe it? – doesn’t meet fire code.

A new approach in the capital budget that we’re trying for the first time is a request for specific research projects.  Following our theme of focusing on state needs for energy and climate change research and development, we’ve requested 40 million dollars in specific multi-year research projects, tied to priorities of the state energy office and the governor’s sub-cabinet on climate change. 

The governor and Alaska legislature are facing the largest surplus in the state’s history during the coming session.  Last year, they saved large portions of the surplus.  This year, we hope they will choose to invest significantly in their best opportunity for economic and social development in Alaska – the University of Alaska.  I need your help in getting this message to our elected officials and candidates this fall.  We will be in touch about how to assist in the coming months.

VI. Closing and Questions

UAF is woven into the fabric of the great state of Alaska.  I am honored and humbled at the opportunity to lead this institution and serve you all. I am excited to help shape the next phase of UAF’s future. The state of our University is good, and with your help and guidance it is going to get better.

The next two years will be about showing what an institution can do when we put our people first. About showing what we can achieve engaging with our communities to overcome roadblocks and find solutions to problems. About showing how we can unite through debate and discussion, and we can act, by making responsible decisions. While I am chancellor, UAF will be about action rather than inaction; we will take bold steps and create new ideas. We are going to make a few mistakes along the way… but I’ll take responsible action over fearful inaction any day.

Thank you.