Friday Focus: Sankalpa at UAF

Oct. 6, 2023

— By Nettie La Belle-Hamer, vice chancellor for research

In the yoga class I attend, our instructor encourages each of us to begin each practice with Sankalpa, a Sanskrit word that is roughly translated into English as intention, or setting an intention. According to most scholarly works, Sanskrit is the oldest language in the world and it is still alive today as one of the official languages of India. I am learning to take the concept of Sankalpa and many of yoga’s impactful concepts with me off the mat, and into my daily life.

As teachers, we are familiar with lesson plans and learning goals in the classroom. As athletes at all levels of ability, we make goals for our workouts to ensure they align with the purpose for fitness or wellness or competitive edge. While not a goal itself, sankalpa is a key concept to achieving goals. You can think of it as an affirmation, a positive declaration of what you desire to be – or even a mantra. It is a way to set your mind in the direction you want to go. It is most impactful when you state your intention in the present tense to embrace being in the present moment. Unlike a goal that requires specific action, sankalpa flows within us into every action we take.

While working to hone the tactical goals and planned action for me and my office for the next few months, I found myself wanting this feeling of setting an intention. I did not have to look far. UAF’s vision statement is an excellent sankalpa to embrace as we head into another academic year.

Excellence through transformative experiences

Imagine that each work day begins as you would a yoga practice. You take three deep breaths to ground yourself in preparation to handle what is to come and mentally embrace your intention. In our case, let’s use excellence through transformative experiences. Now with that as your foundation, you can step into the work of emails, reports, and problem solving with the strong support of your intention under you. What does that look like?

We remember that we are here to ensure that our students, faculty, and staff are energized by innovative research, community engagement, student-centered teaching, and creative expression.

We actively choose to make positive changes in our area of expertise, our team, and ourselves.

We embrace our heritage; both as the Land, Sea, and Space grant university and the research university for Alaska, and the Alaska Native lands on which we live and work.

We are grateful for the stewardship of the land over thousands of years by the Alaskans who came before us, as well as their descendants who both walk beside us and lead us forward.

We are grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the present and future of this great university nestled in the most beautiful place on Earth.

It is healthy for us to remember, choose, and embrace as part of achieving our goals. It is necessary to give gratitude every day in order for us to live our intentions. It is too easy to be immured in frustrations with details, and forget the vision. To reach the goals, we need to internalize the vision. It needs to be with us every day. I consider myself a student of these concepts, not a master. I am still learning along with all of you.

As the VCR, it is important that I not only set my intention, but also state my intention and strategies for reaching the goals. Achieving excellence through transformative experiences means putting in place strategies for researchers, their students, and the staff who support and guide them to reach the university goals, which include modernizing the student experience, achieving R1, transforming our commercialization of intellectual property, revitalizing key academic programs, strengthening our position as global leaders in Indigenous programs, and embracing a culture of respect, diversity, inclusion, and caring.

Strategies that make the vision within our reach are different for each of the core cabinet members, but we all have the same intention. The strategies I am focused on are:

• Inspire passion for research and creativity across UAF and the broader community
• Remove obstacles to research success
• Increase engagement with and funding from underutilized Federal agencies
• Leverage our existing strengths to win large-scale grants
• Increase UAF’s capability to commercialize research

I welcome you to set your own intention to be a part of achieving excellence through transformative experiences here at UAF.

Namaste

Friday Focus is a column written by a different member of UAF’s leadership team every week.