Centennial timeline
August 28, 2017
1906
U.S. government establishes agricultural experiment station next to Tanana Mines Railroad track five miles from Fairbanks
1915
March: U.S. Congress approves land grant for Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines at experiment station site
July 4: James Wickersham dedicates cornerstone
1917
May 3: Territorial Gov. John Strong signs law creating AACSM
Board of trustees appointed
1918
Construction begins on first building
1921
Charles E. Bunnell chosen first president
1922
Main Building completed
Sept. 13: AACSM dedicated
Sept. 18: First day of classes. Registration $2; no tuition
Men’s basketball team forms with seven players
Student association forms
First book accessioned in library: “Alaska — Its Meaning to the World"
President Woodrow Wilson donates autographed 10-volume “History of the American People"
1923
Farthest-North Collegian’s first volume published
Official school colors chosen: azure and gold
First annual freshmen bonfire symbolizes passing of torch of knowledge (known today as Starvation Gulch)
East wing added to Main Building, occupied by School of Mines
John Sexton Shanly is AACSM’s first graduate, earning a bachelor’s degree in agriculture
First graduate student, Thelma Bruce, enrolls to study how to increase yield of Alaska blueberries through cultivation
1924
Women’s basketball team forms with six players
Margaret (Thomas) Murie is AACSM’s second graduate, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration
1925
West wing added to the Main Building; top floor holds first gym
President Bunnell applies for post office, requesting address of College, Alaska
First hockey team established; two McCombe brothers introduce the sport to Fairbanks
Jamie Cameron is AACSM’s third graduate, earning a degree in home economics
1926
U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey establishes a cooperative research station (where Duckering is later built) to study Alaska livestock and caribou
1927
Otto Geist, at President Bunnell’s request, launches first archaeological expedition to St. Lawrence Island to begin the college’s museum collection
Main Dorm built for women; holds college dining room
First graduating class larger than one; two women and five men receive degrees
Professor Ernest Patty creates a course in real-life mining to give his students practical experience
1929
Rockefeller Foundation grants $10,000 to the college to study the aurora
1930
Congress awards the Biological Survey $40,000 to ship 34 young muskoxen from Greenland to the college
The college’s first auroral observation station, set up by physics Professor Veryl Fuller, opens for research
1931
College bus service between Fairbanks and campus begins; train service ceases
Federal government transfers control of the Agricultural Experiment Station to the college
Gymnasium is built, the first permanent concrete structure and now first floor of Signers’ Hall
1933
First yearbook is published, called Denali, indigenous name of Alaska’s tallest mountain
Stone artifacts discovered on campus; they match tools from Asia, bolstering the idea that the first Alaskans arrived via a land bridge
1934
Ground is broken for the Carl Ben Eielson Memorial Building
Northwest Association of Secondary Schools, Colleges and Universities accredits the college as a four-year institution
1935
AACSM is renamed the University of Alaska; a Board of Regents replaces the Board of Trustees
Flora Jane Harper Petri, an Athabascan, becomes the first Alaska Native graduate (See profile)
Rockefeller Foundation grants $17,000 to the university to write a history of Alaska, deemed the Alaska History Research Project
1938
Hess Hall for women, the first permanent concrete dorm, opens
1939
ROTC established (required by the Morrill Act)
1940
Enrollment reaches over 300 students
UA begins charging tuition, as funds are needed to build more dorm space
1943
1943-1945 U.S. Army takes over two-thirds of campus; Hess Hall becomes military hospital
1944
Enrollment declines sharply due to WWII; there is talk of closing
1946
President Truman authorizes a Geophysical Institute at UA to conduct Arctic and polar research
After WWII, enrollment increases to 300 students
Associated Students of the University of Alaska is created
ASUA publishes The Polar Star, the first campus newspaper completely under student control
1947
UA funds from Territorial Legislature are frozen; Bunnell keeps school open through help from Alaskans and his own money
First summer session is held
1949
Voters elect entire new Legislature, which rewrites Alaska’s tax code, instituting the territory’s first income tax to cover essential services such as the university
Terris Moore becomes UA’s second president; President Bunnell is named president emeritus
Geophysical Institute opens
Arthur Nagozruk Jr. is the first Inupiaq to graduate
Farthest-North Collegian publication ends in order to remove competition for news and advertising between it and the student newspaper, The Polar Star
1952
Salvatore De Leonardis and John Hakala earn the first graduate degrees, master’s degrees in wildlife management
1953
Ernest Patty, one of the original faculty members in 1922, becomes the third president
1954
President Patty begins major construction projects across campus
First community colleges established in Anchorage and Ketchikan
1955
Alaska Constitutional Convention convenes on Fairbanks campus
Alaska Constitutional Convention Recordings tape 1, 1955.
Alaska Constitutional Convention Recordings tape 2, 1955.
Masahisa Sugirura earns first UA Ph.D., in philosophy and geophysics
1956
Delegates sign the constitution for the proposed state of Alaska in the gymnasium, now Signers’ Hall
President Emeritus Charles Bunnell dies at age 78
1957
Students create Tradition Stone to commemorate the “death of drinking” after President Patty bans alcohol the previous year
1958
University Fire Department forms with student volunteers
Vice President Richard Nixon visits UA to boost the Republican Party in the soon-to-be-born state of Alaska
June 30: Congress passes the Alaska Statehood Act
1959
Jan. 3: Alaska becomes the 49th state
Video: President Eisenhower signing Alaska into statehood, Washington D.C., January 1959
1960
Alaska Legislature establishes the Institute of Marine Science
William R. Wood becomes the university’s fourth president
UA receives one of its first computers, an IBM 1620, considered a state-of-the-art computing machine
Old Main demolished after the Bunnell Building is completed next to its former location
1961
Michael Krauss teaches the first Alaska Native language class, Yupik
Women’s rifle established; the team sweeps the national championship six times within the next seven years
1962
Alaska voters approve bond to begin construction of an Arctic Research Center on the campus’ West Ridge to focus America’s research in the North
Alaska community colleges are brought into the university system by an act of the Legislature
Oct. 1: KUAC FM radio station signs on the air
1963
Alaska Legislature creates the Institute of Arctic Biology
UAF athletic coaches and student skiers, including Nat Goodhue ’65 and Gail Bakken ’65, organize the first Equinox Marathon
1964
Sports teams, formerly known as the Polar Bears, become the Nanooks
University Fire Department firehouse is built
1965
Vera Alexander earns a doctorate in marine science, becoming the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from the university.
ASUA becomes official part of university hierarchy, giving students more say in university decisions
1966
Faculty tenure becomes established policy
Moore Hall becomes first co-ed residence hall
1967
Fairbanks campus serves as evacuation site and emergency shelter for more than 7,000 residents after the Chena River floods town in August
1969
Rural Student Services is reorganized to help provide people from rural areas of Alaska access to higher education
The Geophysical Institute’s Poker Flat Research Range, 30 miles north of Fairbanks, launches its first rocket
1970
UA enrollment hits 3,645 students, an increase of nearly 400 percent since 1960
Federal government names UA a Sea Grant institution
Elmer E. Rasmuson Library and the Fine Arts Complex open
KUAC FM becomes the first member station of National Public Radio in Alaska
University researchers spend next three years on several studies related to construction of a trans-Alaska oil pipeline
1971
Center for Cross-Cultural Studies opens
KUAC TV begins broadcasting, bringing public television to the Interior
Mandatory restricted hours end for women living in residence halls
1972
Alaska Legislature establishes the Alaska Native Language Center
Ernest Gruening Building and William Ransom Wood Center opens
Kuskokwim Community College in Bethel opens
Prohibition ends on campus
1973
President Wood retires, and Robert W. Hiatt succeeds him
UA Foundation is established
THEATA, a magazine of nonfiction articles by Alaska Native students, is published
Nanooks win first intercollegiate basketball championship, the NAIA Division I title
YouTube video courtesy of Alaska Film Archives: 1971 Nanooks basketball game.
1974
Tanana Valley Community College opens in downtown Fairbanks
First annual Festival of Native Arts celebrates Alaska’s diverse cultural traditions
Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra takes up permanent residence in the Charles W. Davis Concert Hall
“The Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska” map is published, showing regions where 20 Alaska Native languages are spoken
1975
University reorganizes as a statewide office overseeing three main campuses — in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau — and a community college division
Northwest Community College opens in Nome
Bristol Bay Community College opens in Dillingham
Professor Eb Rice publishes “Building in the North,” a guide to cold-weather construction in Alaska
1976
Howard A. Cutler becomes first UAF chancellor
For the first time, UAF enrollment figures show more females (53 percent) than males (47 percent)
1977
UA has a financial crisis, with an estimated $10 million shortfall; President Hiatt is forced to resign
In September, regents hire Neil Humphrey as seventh president of UA; he resigns after four months due to the university’s severe financial ills
First issue of Permafrost, an English Department journal of student fiction, poetry and photography, is printed
In February, regents appoint Foster Diebold, the board’s executive secretary, as interim president
Chukchi Campus established in Kotzebue, 26 miles north of the Arctic Circle
1979
Regents appoint Jay Barton as UA’s ninth president
Journalism Department begins publishing The Northern Sun newspaper
1980
University of Alaska Museum of the North opens to the public, moving from Signers’ Hall to the Otto Geist Building
Alaska Native Studies degree offered
Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival created
Institute of Marine Science begins operating 133-foot Research Vessel Alpha Helix out of Seward for the National Science Foundation
1981
Patrick O’Rourke succeeds Howard Cutler as UAF chancellor
First publication of The Sun Star, the student paper born in merger of The Northern Sun and The Polar Star
Enrollment tops 5,000 students for the first time
UAF signs agreements with schools in Japan, Denmark, Canada, the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union
1983
Rural Alaska Honors Institute created to improve access to successful college careers of primarily rural, Alaska Native high school students
Honors Program begins
KUAC TV has the largest per-capita audience during prime time among all public television stations nationwide
1984
Signers’ Hall, former gymnasium and museum, remodeled as main administration building
Donald O’Dowd becomes 10th UA president
A 60-unit residence, the Student Apartment Complex, opens, relieving a campus housing shortage by accommodating 240 single students
Congress passes Arctic Research Policy Act; Geophysical Institute Director Juan Roederer becomes chair of the Arctic Research Commission, created by the act
KSUA FM hits the air Sept. 6, playing the Steely Dan hit “FM”
President Ronald Reagan visits UAF on a rest stop during his return trip from China to the U.S.; he meets Pope John Paul at Fairbanks International Airport
1985
Alaska Legislature creates the Sydney Chapman Chair; Syun Akasofu named the first recipient
Duckering Building and Rasmuson Library expand
1987
UA system restructures as a result of budget cuts; community colleges become responsibility of the four-year institutions
UAF restructures with branch campuses in Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue and Dillingham, along with multiple rural education centers
John Butrovich Building opens to house statewide administration
Faculty Senate forms
1988
Interior-Aleutians Campus established, with home base in Fairbanks
Synthetic Aperture Radar antenna installed on top of the Geophysical Institute to receive, process and archive data from Earth-orbiting environmental satellites
National Polar Ice Coring office moves to Fairbanks campus
Project Jukebox created in Rasmuson Library’s Oral History Program
UA Scientific Diving Program begins; it expands in 2000 to include student courses
1989
Scientists aboard R/V Alpha Helix are among first investigators of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound
Groundbreaking held for new natural sciences facility, later named Reichardt Building
Faculty approve new core curriculum
Jerome Komisar becomes 11th UA president
Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, visit UAF
Among U.S. universities, UAF receives the most National Science Foundation funding per researcher
1991
Joan Wadlow becomes first woman to be UAF chancellor
NASA gives UAF Space Grant status, making it one of very few combined Land, Sea and Space Grant institutions in the U.S.
First synthetic aperture radar data-gathering satellite launches from Poker Flat
Blue and gold UAF license plates become available from the Alaska Department of Motor Vehicles
Nonresident tuition fees waived for students whose parents are UAF graduates
Department of Engineering celebrates its 50th continuous year of accreditation
UAF’s computer sciences program is accredited, the first in Alaska
UA Foundation donates $100,000 to business students for investing in stock market
1992
UAF celebrates its 75th anniversary
First-ever UAF student-designed and -built rocket launches from Poker Flat
School of Career and Continuing Education changes its name to Tanana Valley Campus
UAF ranks third among 70 four-year colleges in the Pacific Northwest in attracting National Merit Scholars
Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, the first Greek social fraternity in the state of Alaska, establishes its Alpha chapter on campus
1993
A record 6,200 students represent the Fairbanks campus’ largest spring enrollment ever; community is asked to open homes to students in fall
Rural Student Services offers two-year program in mental health and substance abuse counseling within the context of Native culture and tradition
Denali, one of the world’s largest-memory supercomputers, goes online at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
Using a UAF-designed drill bit, UAF scientists set a record by coring through the Greenland ice cap to a depth of 3,035.7 meters
UAF’s Ted DeLaca is named senior scientist on the first nonmilitary scientific mission on a Navy nuclear submarine under the Arctic ice pack
Northern Momentum, UAF’s first private fundraising campaign, raises $15 million, surpassing its $10 million goal
Jack Keating becomes provost in Chancellor Wadlow’s restructuring, which eliminates three of four vice chancellor jobs in place when she began in 1991
1994
UA Board of Regents mandates a statewide assessment to streamline the university and adjust to declining state revenues
Student Recreation Center opens next to the Patty Center, funded by student-approved activity fees
UAF names a building on Geist Road in honor of Flora Jane Harper Petri, who in 1935 became UAF’s first Alaska Native graduate
1995
Natural Sciences Facility opens in September, the first new classroom building on the Fairbanks campus in almost 25 years
Howard Cutler, UAF’s first chancellor, dies Nov. 17 at his home in Fairbanks
Wickersham Hall is designated co-ed
1996
UA 25-person rural student residence hall funded by the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. opens; it’s later named for the late Rep. Eileen Panigeo MacLean, an alumna
1997
UA Museum of the North repatriates first human remains to Alaska Natives on St. Lawrence Island
Japan, the United States and the State of Alaska sign agreement to build the International Arctic Research Center at UAF
UAF scientists use Alaska Satellite Facility’s blue antenna atop Elvey Building to create first detailed radar map of Antarctica
1998
Mark Hamilton becomes 12th UA president
IBM donates a new AS/400 computer to UAF’s computer science program
Synchronous internet tutoring, developed through UAF’s writing center, makes tutoring easier and more accessible to rural students
High-speed internet lines installed in all campus dorms
On Dec. 11, a boiler tube in the heat and power plant breaks. Employees restarted the plant after 10 hours at minus 22. Officials had been an hour from evacuating campus
1999
MAPCO Alaska and IBM donate $335,000 in computer hardware and software, the largest-ever computer donation in UAF history
Chancellor Wadlow retires; Marshall Lind, former University of Alaska Southeast chancellor, becomes fourth UAF chancellor
Project Jukebox 2006 recording: History at Risk: Linking Alaskans to their past - program #1 - Marshall Lind
UAF Summer Sessions Centennial Celebration Speaker series video: Marshall Lind
Student Apartment Complex renamed the Howard Cutler Student Apartment Complex after the first UAF chancellor
International Arctic Research Center building opens in August; is named the Syun-Ichi Akasofu Building in 2007
2000
Alaska Native Language Center publishes the Koyukon Athabascan Dictionary by Jules Jetté, Eliza Jones and Jim Kari
2001
UAF becomes part of UArctic, an international network of Northern universities, researchers and indigenous peoples
William Wood, the university’s fourth president, dies at the age of 94; memorial services held on campus
Professor Pat Holloway plants peonies at Georgeson Botanical Garden, jumpstarting efforts to sell the Alaska flowers in midsummer (See story)
Professor Brian O’Donoghue’s journalism students begin reviewing the case of four men convicted of killing a Fairbanks teen; the men go free in 2015
2002
The School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences establish a marine science laboratory in Vladivostok, Russia
"UAF’s College Bowl team wins regional championship game of academic knowledge and recall, sponsored by Associations of College Unions International
Ann Tremarello retires after 47 years, becoming the longest-serving employee ever at UAF (See profile)
The men’s basketball team wins the Top of the World Classic, becoming the first NCAA Division II team to win a tournament with Division I teams (See story)
2003
Fall enrollment numbers are up for the fourth year in a row, 18 percent from the fall of 1998
2004
Steve Jones becomes fifth UAF chancellor
Matt Emmons ’03 wins gold medal in the prone shooting event at the Summer Olympics
Fifty-five delegates gather at UAF as the Conference of Alaskans to make recommendations about the state budget and the Alaska Permanent Fund
Nanook rifle team wins sixth straight NCAA championship
2005
Expanded UA Museum of the North opens; the addition doubles museum’s size to 83,000 square feet
Legislature approves transfer of 250,000 acres of state land to UA; the Alaska Supreme Court nullifies the action four years later
Constitution Hall is added to National Register of Historic Places, 50 years after delegates drafted the Alaska Constitution there
2006
Nanook rifle team recaptures NCAA championship after losing it for the first time in seven years in 2005
The university connects to Internet2, giving it a high-speed link to hundreds of other schools and institutions across the state and nation
Alan Tonne, Fairbanks Experiment Farm manager, plants barley in a big “100” shape to mark the farm’s centennial
Geophysical Institute buys Insitu A-20, a 40-pound unmanned aircraft with a 10-foot wingspan; it can fly more than 20 hours at a time
Arctic Region Supercomputing Center wins a nearly $100 million, five-year contract with the Department of Defense, its second
UAF administration raises admission standards and says it will divert less-prepared applicants into a pre-major program starting in 2008
Biological Research and Diagnostic Facility opens, providing more space for animal care, necropsies, surgeries and diagnoses
New walking and snowshoeing trails are approved for North Campus forests; previously, only cross-country skiing was allowed in winter
2007
International Polar Year kicks off in March, sparking more than 200 Arctic and Antarctic science projects, a quarter of them involving UAF researchers
UAF is ranked fifth among small institutions in a national study of productivity among faculty researchers
Nanook rifle team wins eighth NCAA championship in nine years before a crowd of 1,000 people at the Patty Center
John Walsh, of the International Arctic Research Center, is a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report
UAF sells R/V Alpha Helix; the National Science Foundation gives UAF $2.5 million to start work on a new ship
Student Recreation Center installs indoor climbing wall
2008
Nanook rifle team claims 10th NCAA rifle championship, beating Army by six points
Brian Rogers named interim chancellor after Steve Jones resigns; Rogers is a former UA regent, system vice president and state representative
Dallas Ferguson ’00, assistant coach and former Nanook defenseman, named eighth head coach in the hockey program’s 28-year history at the NCAA level
Matt Emmons ’03, wins silver medal in the 50-meter prone shooting event at the Summer Olympics in Beijing
UAF scientists find evidence that carbon pool beneath Arctic Ocean is leaking, with huge implications for climate change
2009
New Year’s fireworks to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood are delayed until mid-January by ice fog and cold
Arctic Region Supercomputing Center fires up its newest supercomputer, a Cray XT5 dubbed Pingo; the new machine almost quadruples the center’s capacity
Brian Rogers becomes UAF’s sixth chancellor after spending a year as interim
School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences releases a hull-less, early-maturing barley for northern environments
Journalism students and a professor embed with Fort Wainwright’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team 25th Infantry Division in Iraq (See story in spring 2010 Aurora magazine.)
Enrollment in the College of Engineering and Mines hits 700 in the fall, a 17 percent increase from fall 2008 and more than double the 2006 enrollment
2010
UA President Hamilton retires; Patrick J. Gamble, a retired Air Force general and former president of the Alaska Railroad, becomes 13th UA president
Tanana Valley Campus becomes UAF Community and Technical College
UAF wins a Defense Department contract worth up to $47 million to test unmanned aircraft systems
2011
Regents extend university’s nondiscrimination protections to gay and transgender students, staff and faculty
Hundreds of socks are flushed down toilets at Fine Arts Complex by unknown vandal, clogging sewer system and causing at least $15,000 in damage
A new rock and ice climbing tower goes up just west of Student Recreation Center
Space scientist Bob McCoy becomes fifth director of Geophysical Institute since its founding in 1946, replacing retiring Robert Smith
More than half of UAF students take at least one online course for first time in fall semester; only three percent of classes were offered online a decade earlier
2012
The Sun Star student newspaper creates online, searchable database of UA employee salaries
UAF student team takes first place in zero-emissions category of 2012 Society of Automobile Engineers Clean Snowmobile Challenge
Regents dub the campus ridge “Troth Yeddha’,” the Athabascan name meaning “wild potato hill”; the U.S. geographic names board follows suit in February 2013
Legislators appropriate $46 million for a new engineering building at UAF, half the funding needed to build the design approved by UA regents
Matt Emmons ’03 wins bronze in the three-position rifle competition at the Summer Olympics in London
UAF purchases a hangar on the Fairbanks airport’s east ramp to house the Community and Technical College’s aviation maintenance program
Students move into new Sustainable Village, which offers living space in units designed to save energy and provide performance data
Research Vessel Sikuliaq, designed for Arctic science work, launches; the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences operates it for the National Science Foundation
2013
Federal Express donates used 727-200 for UAF’s aviation maintenance program
School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences merges with Cooperative Extension Service to become the School of Natural Resources and Extension
Margaret Murie Building for biological sciences opens; it’s named for the university’s second graduate (1924), who became a famous wilderness advocate
UAF and Colorado State University sign agreement to form veterinary degree program at Fairbanks campus
Federal Aviation Administration chooses UAF’s Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration to run one of six national test sites for unmanned aircraft
Professor Donald “Skip” Walker observes pronounced greening trend in Alaska’s Arctic after studying years of satellite data
Sea Ice Prediction Network established, bringing researchers together to improve sea ice forecasts
Assistant Professor Tom Marsik at Bristol Bay Campus creates the world’s most airtight residential building, according to World Record Academy
2014
Alaska Airlines paints two Q400 turboprop aircraft with colors and logos of University of Alaska campuses in Fairbanks and Anchorage
Arctic Region Supercomputing Center absorbed by Geophysical Institute; staff continue to operate two supercomputers in Butrovich Building
Legislators approve financing for UAF’s new heat and power plant; the $245 million cost to be covered by loans, bonds and a $74.5 million state appropriation
The world’s best young pianists compete in the Alaska International Piano e-Competition at UAF; a Yamaha Disklavier piano shares the performances globally
Dine 49, a new dining facility, opens in an addition to Wood Center; UAF will pay off the $28 million, privately financed project in ensuing years
A concrete “strong floor” is placed in the new engineering building; the floor will allow researchers to strength-test large construction components
University of Alaska Press publishes Edna MacLean’s Iñupiaq to English Dictionary, a comprehensive guide to the Iñupiaq language
2015
Interior-Aleutians Campus renamed Interior Alaska Campus; Bristol Bay Campus takes over in Aleutians area
R/V Sikuliaq arrives in home port of Seward in March
UAF adopts gender-inclusive housing rule for Bartlett Hall beginning in 2016; any two students of any gender who want to share a room are allowed to do so
Lee Salisbury, who created theater program in the 1950s and helped launch KUAC FM, dies in March at 87; he directed nearly 100 plays during his career
Work on engineering building stops in August, due to lack of funding from Legislature; only exterior complete
UAF eliminates several degree offerings, including philosophy, as budgets decline; UAF will “teach out” existing students in those majors
President Gamble orders 167 administrators to take 10 days of unpaid leave for fiscal year 2016, saying he expects the move to save $600,000
Community and Technical College establishes its first wildland firefighting crew as part of its wildland fire science program
July 6: UAF rededicates the cornerstone created 100 years earlier; it also celebrates plans for Troth Yeddha’ Park and a future indigenous studies center
UAF in July announces plans to cut $20 million from its budget as a result of reduced state funding; the cuts will eliminate more than 150 positions
UAF takes over the U.S. Air Force’s High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program antenna array in Gakona; the array is used to study the ionosphere
Chancellor Brian Rogers retires at the end of August; Mike Powers, former CEO of Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and a UA regent, becomes interim chancellor
UAF students design and build a tiny satellite that rides into space aboard a rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in October
2016
All tobacco products and nicotine vaporizers are banned on UAF campuses as of Jan. 1
Chancellor Powers’ one-year term as interim expires in May; Dana Thomas, a retired UAF faculty member and UA administrator, takes over as interim chancellor
The School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, established in 1987, restructures itself and becomes the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
Dec. 31: UAF kicks off its 100th anniversary with a New Year’s Eve fireworks show set to music on KUAC FM
2017
UAF celebrates its centennial with a variety of events and activities, including this commemorative edition of Aurora magazine
President Johnsen names Daniel M. White as UAF’s seventh full chancellor, with a July 1 start date
For many more stories about UAF's people and ideas throughout its history, including videos and an interactive timeline, visit our centennial website.