Goal 4

Serve as the premiere higher educational center for Alaska Natives

To address the interests of Alaska Natives, UAF has developed Fairbanks-based academic and outreach programs in indigenous studies as well as rural campuses that provide educational access to a significant portion of the Alaska Native population. By 2005 UAF will strengthen and coordinate functions such as these in order to focus on the following objectives and strategies:

1. Increase the number of Alaska Native students receiving degrees and certificates.
   1. Strengthen programs to recruit and welcome Alaska Natives to UAF so that admissions meet or exceed Alaska’s demographic distribution.
   2. Introduce Alaska Native students to university opportunities, including a wide range of disciplines and career options, through high school outreach programs.
   3. Enhance retention and encourage Alaska Natives to seek advanced degrees with mentoring programs and attention to the transition from a rural to an urban campus.
2. Enhance, coordinate and provide information about UAF’s research, outreach, curricular and extracurricular programs and services that address issues of importance to Alaska Natives and enrich the quality of the UAF educational experience.
   1. Provide centralized means for facilitating access to programs and services that incorporate indigenous culture into higher education as well as research efforts and findings by, about and with indigenous peoples.
   2. Increase course offerings and course content that address issues of importance to Alaska Natives.
   3. Incorporate Native elders, educators and communities into the curriculum, extra-curricular activities, and outreach programs and services in order to employ Alaska Native cultures as a model and base for learning.
   4. Review and re-evaluate policies and procedures in order to establish, with counsel from the Native community, ethical standards for such research.
   5. Document and celebrate Alaska Native cultural activities at UAF to encourage and promote cross-cultural understanding and learning opportunities