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The University of Alaska Fairbanks is the flagship institution of the University of Alaska System, and is abbreviated as UAF. UAF is a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant institution, as well as the site where the Alaska Constitution was signed in 1956. UAF was established in 1917 as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, first opening for classes in 1922.
UAF is home to seven major research units: the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station; the Geophysical Institute, which operates the Poker Flat Research Range; the Georgeson Botanical Garden; the International Arctic Research Center; the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center; the Institute of Arctic Biology; the Institute of Marine Science and the Institute of Northern Engineering. Located just 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle, the Fairbanks campus's unique location is situated favorably for arctic and northern research. The campus's several lines of research are renowned worldwide, most notably in arctic biology, arctic engineering, geophysics, supercomputing, and aboriginal studies. The University of Alaska Museum of the North is also on the Fairbanks campus.
In addition to the Fairbanks campus, UAF encompasses seven rural and urban campuses: Bristol Bay Campus in Dillingham; Chukchi Campus in Kotzebue; Interior-Aleutians Campus, which covers both the Aleutian Islands and the Interior; Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel; Northwest Campus in Nome; and the Tanana Valley Campus in Fairbanks. Fairbanks is also the home of the UAF Center for Distance Education, an independent learning and distance delivery program.
In fall 2005, UAF enrolled 9,380 students, of which 59 percent were female and 41 percent male; 88 percent were undergraduates and 12 percent graduate students.
History
Founding
The University of Alaska was established in 1917 as a college, but its origins lie in the creation in 1906 of a federal Agricultural Experiment Station in Fairbanks, the sixth in Alaska. The station set the tone for the university that developed later, which is strongly research-oriented. In 1915, the U.S. Congress approved funds to establish a school of higher education and transferred land from the station for the purpose. The federal land grant was accepted by Territorial Governor John Strong in 1917. The new institution was established as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines in 1922, offering 16 classes to a student body of six (at a ratio of one faculty member per student). In 1923 the first commencement produced one graduate, John Sexton Shanly.In 1931, the rest of the Agricultural Experiment Station was transferred to the college, and the Alaska Territorial Legislature changed the name in 1935 to the University of Alaska. As the university began to expand throughout the state, the Fairbanks campus became known as the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1975; the two other primary UA institutions are the University of Alaska Anchorage and the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau.
Academics
Schools and colleges
UAF has eight academic schools and colleges:- the College of Engineering and Mines
- the College of Liberal Arts
- the College of Natural Science and Mathematics
- the College of Community and Rural Development
- the School of Education
- the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
- the School of Management
- the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences
Libraries
- --The Alaska Film Archives, housed in the Alaska and Polar Regions section of the Rasmuson Library, hold the largest collection of film-related material about Alaska.
- --BioSciences Library (housed in the Institute of Arctic Biology)
- Keith B. Mather Library (housed in the Geophysical Institute)
Athletics
UAF's sports teams are called the Nanooks, derived from the Inupiaq "nanuq," meaning polar bear. The school colors are blue and gold. UAF competes at the NCAA Division I level for hockey and is a member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. UAF also has a Division I rifle team which has won eight national championships (1994, 1999-2004, 2006). The men's and women's basketball, cross country running and skiing, and women's volleyball teams are Division II members of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, while the women's swim team is a member of the Pacific Coast Conference.
Publishing
There are several book publishers at UAF, including the University of Alaska Press, the Alaska Native Language Center, Alaska Sea Grant, the University of Alaska Museum of the North, Cooperative Extension Service, and the Alaska Native Knowledge Network. The University of Alaska Foundation also publishes books.
Magazines include Agroborealis, a twice-annual produced by the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences; Ice Box, the UAF student literary magazine; and Permafrost, the UAF English department's literary magazine.
The student newspaper is the Sun Star, a merger of the Polar Star, an independent student paper, and the Northern Sun, the journalism department's student newspaper.
External links
Land-grant universities | Sea-grant universities | Space-grant universities | University of Alaska System | Central Collegiate Hockey Association
"University of Alaska Fairbanks"