Welcome back

January 25, 2011

Welcome back from the winter break, and welcome to the new year and a new semester. UAF is building, growing and changing--we won't be able to complain that we're bored!

Meeting the expectations of our students and increasing the rate at which they graduate has never been more important. We're off to a great start with more than 300 students taking advantage of intensive, two-week courses in the WINTERmester program this month offered through Summer Sessions. Credit hours increased more than 45 percent over last year.

I just returned from a trip to China with new agreements for undergraduate programs with Chinese universities. We're poised to recruit more international students, which enriches the overall educational experience for our Alaska students.

Our students need modern buildings in which to learn, so we're maintaining the ones we have and building new ones to accommodate more students and research. Tree clearing is underway for UAF's Life Sciences Classroom and Lab Facility. Davis Constructors and Engineers was selected as the construction manager, and with the design 50 percent complete, it won't be
long before we see this building start to take shape. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for March 30.

We're also working on a high-tech greenhouse on the Arctic Health Research Building, lab bays for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, laboratories for the Center for Alaska Native Health Research at both the Kuskokwim and Fairbanks campuses, renovations to UAF's Community and Technical College and a host of other deferred maintenance projects. The company building the r/v "Sikuliaq" began construction of the ship's hull this month.

An Executive Leadership Workshop is planned for Feb. 1. We'll discuss the programmatic and academic program reviews, which are currently underway, as well as the start of the research review. That review is timed for the arrival of Vice Chancellor for Research Mark Myers. We also welcomed Scott Bell as Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Services late last year.

I look forward to working with Mark, Scott, the rest of Chancellor's Cabinet and all of you as we take our plans from ideas to actions. We have much to be proud of, much work to do and many people to help us make UAF even better.