Facilities, academics top Board of Regents’ meeting
February 15, 2011
The University of Alaska Board of Regents will consider two new construction projects
in Anchorage and Soldotna, two new academic degree offerings and an overall academic
master plan when it gathers Feb. 17-18, next Thursday and Friday, in Anchorage.
The meeting will start at 9 a.m. Feb. 17 in Room 107 of the Lee Gorsuch Commons at
the University of Alaska Anchorage campus. Public testimony is scheduled for 10 a.m.
Thursday and 9 a.m. Friday.
Up for the board’s consideration is amended formal project approval for the UAA Seawolf
Sports Arena, which would allow the UA administration to proceed with developing
the facility recently approved by voters in the November General Obligation bond.
The only current athletic facility at UAA is the Wells Fargo Sports Complex, which
opened in 1978 to serve what was then a community college. At that time, there was
no student housing at UAA. Today, the UA System’s largest campus has 15,000 commuter
students, 1,000 residential students, 300 students in health, physical education
and recreation academic programs, 11 Division I and Division II athletic teams,
almost 170 student-athletes, seven head coaches and various other athletics personnel.
Building the new arena would free up space in Wells Fargo, which would become the
primary recreational, wellness and physical education facility for students, staff
and community members. Additionally, UAA would upgrade and renovate the current hockey
team practice site in Wells Fargo.
Also on the agenda is formal project approval for a Career and Technical Education
Center at Kenai Peninsula College in Soldotna, not to exceed $14.5 million. This
workforce training center, approved by voters as part of the November GO bond, would
build a 15,000-square-foot building that would house laboratories, a multi-function
lab/shop with a high-bay door, classrooms, offices and a student commons.
The new facility will house KPC's growing workforce development programs in process
technology, industrial process instrumentation, computer electronics and occupational
safety and health. The new space will enable these high-demand programs to better
utilize existing and new equipment that meet industry standards in less crowded conditions.
It will also free approximately 5,086 square feet in the main campus building that
will be used for other growing KPC programs including nursing, para-medicine and
art.
The agenda is packed with other items as well.
UAA’s Institute of Social and Economic Research will celebrate ISER’s 50th anniversary
and highlight some of the current and recent research projects important to Alaskans
and the state during a lunchtime presentation Thursday, Feb. 17.
Several new degree programs will be up for consideration, including an Associate
in Applied Science in outdoor leadership at Prince William Sound Community College
and a Bachelor of Arts degree in film at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Regents
also will consider approval of the UA System’s Academic Master Plan---a collaborative
effort led by UA faculty across the system.
A report on the university’s engineering initiative to double the number of engineers
graduated and improve facilities at both UAF and UAA is expected to draw interest
from the private sector. UA is on
target to double engineering graduates, but facilities are crowded and need improvement.
The engineering plan provides guidance in how UA should address these issues.
Also on the agenda is a revision to UA’s non-discrimination policy to include “sexual
orientation.” Students, staff and faculty have requested the change for years. About
400 public colleges and universities across the nation have adopted similar language.
This will be the first regular meeting for new regents Jo Heckman and Mike Powers.
For the complete agenda, go to www.alaska.edu/bor/ and click on “agendas.”