Alaska
University of Alaska president highlights impact on workforce, research and economy in address • Alaska Beacon
University of Alaska President Pat Pitney focused on the university’s critical role in retaining talent and driving the state’s research, workforce and economic development in the recent annual State of the University address.
But Pitney acknowledged in the Jan. 30 speech that there are “headwinds” and challenges, like the numbers of high school graduates declining, rising costs, and the uncertainty ignited by recent federal executive orders and potential budget cuts.
“I’m confident that together we can overcome these challenges,” she said. Pitney delivered the speech at the Alaska Chamber’s Legislative Fly-In Luncheon at Centennial Hall in Juneau.
“Investing in and engaging with the University of Alaska is necessary to build a skilled workforce in our state,” she said. “With vocational and industry certificates, to baccalaureate and graduate degrees, we’re not just educating, we’re ensuring a brighter future for Alaska.”
She said the university is focused on investing in growing enrollment, improving retention, and speeding student’s time to graduation.
Beginning last year, student enrollment increased for the first time since 2011, and continued to rise 3% in the fall semester, to an estimated 19,600 students.
The university system offers a variety of academic and vocational programs, she said, From short-term work development to doctoral programs, the university provides a wide range of opportunities for Alaskans, to stay living and working in-state.
“But in our state, fewer students choose to go on to higher education, not just here, but anywhere,” she added, in an interview after the speech. “Then of the people who go to higher education, a lot feel like it’s time to go outside. But we have many programs where a student can start with us and go on a national student exchange to almost any university in the nation, on in-state tuition.”
The surge in Alaska Performance Scholarship awards is also helping Alaskans stay and study in-state, she said. Last year, 65% more scholarship-eligible students applied and enrolled in UA. Those awards were made larger this year, and can be used for any program, she added.
“They can use it for any degree level they want – a traditional degree such as biology, fisheries, computer science, engineering, finance, nursing, pre-med, or a 1- or 2-year workforce credential in health care, welding, aviation, process technology, construction management, and many others,” she said.
Pitney said these programs can help reverse the states’ population decline.
For the business audience she was addressing, she emphasized the university as essential to the state’s workforce development, as “Alaska’s largest and most comprehensive workforce provider, offering over 200 career and technical education programs.”
She highlighted the university continuing to build partnerships with industries, including construction management and mining.
She also emphasized scientific research projects. Research revenues have grown by 50% over the last five years to nearly $240 million. “For every one dollar of state funding we receive, we leverage eight in federal and other research funds,” she said. “That’s being noticed.”
The Arctic in particular, is a major center of research and economic development, she said, including for the maritime and aviation industries, national security and the new Arctic Leadership Initiative.
“In a changing and globalized Arctic, UA’s position as the only U.S. public institution in the region allows us to attract interest and knowledge from around the world to improve Alaska’s future,” she said.
But Pitney acknowledged “turbulence ahead” with the Trump administration’s threatened cuts to federal funding.
“As we navigate the federal executive orders, I want our researchers to know that I appreciate each of them, and the valuable work they do,” she said. “They and the incredible research they do positions UA to manage some of the current turbulence.”
A federal judge’s ruling temporarily blocked the presidential order last week.
When asked about the federal funding freeze in an interview, she pointed to some of that funding required by contract.
“If it does happen, we have about just over $600,000 a day in federal receivables,” she said. “It’s $16 million-plus a month, and $200 million across a year, that’s the amount of federal work we do across the system. If it’s a pause for a week, we just have a bigger receivable.”
Pitney said there’s “a very low chance” that the pause would become a full-blown cancellation of federal spending, “because these are contractual obligations.”
National Science Foundation grants are in limbo, as well as grants with the National Institutes of Health, with a freeze on grant reviews, communications, hiring and travel. But she said the NIH freeze would have a lesser impact on university research.
“We don’t have a lot of NIH research. We have some,” she said. “The existing grants will come through. The new grants will be delayed, but it’s a smaller portion of our overall research portfolio.”
Pitney expressed optimism a federal review would favor Alaska’s programs.
“So, you know, it’s really (about) the holding on to the receivables until they do pay,” she said. “But our emphasis in research is very much aligned with what the federal government wants to accomplish. So we will weather it as well as anyone.”
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Alaska
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Alaska
Alaska 1A state basketball: Kake boys earn redemption in finals rematch; Shishmaref girls and boys advance
The Kake high school boys basketball team was disappointed to learn that despite being undefeated heading into the Alaska 1A State Basketball Tournament for the third year in row, it wasn’t first or even second seed in the bracket.
However, that momentary letdown quickly turned to joy when they found out their first opponent on the opening day of this year’s tournament was reigning state champion King Cove, which prevented Kake from pulling off a successful title defense in last year’s state finals.
“It was a redemption game for us,” Kake head coach Anthony Ross said.
Not only did the Thunderbirds avenge their gut-wrenching defeat with a resounding 61-41 win Wednesday afternoon at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage, but in doing so, they extinguished any hopes the T-Jacks had of spoiling Kake’s tournament again.
“It was a long year to get back here, and to get back here and to be able to kind of redeem ourselves and play King Cove, it felt good,” Ross said.
Last year, their offseason started as soon as they returned to their small community in Southeast Alaska.
“These boys were hungry,” Ross said. “I’ve got six seniors on the team, so as soon as we got home, we hit the gym and got in a lot of shots (and) a lot of studying. (King Cove) came out again with their 1-3-1 (zone) that kind of destroyed us last year, so we were ready for it this year and kind of made them shift out of it a little bit.”
Even though his team defeated King Cove, the Thunderbirds weren’t satisfied with how they played overall.
“We were a little sloppy to be honest,” Ross said. “A lot of turnovers. We ended the game with 19 turnovers, which is way too many for us. We have to tighten that up, but to still have a 20-point win after 19 turnovers is a testament to our defense. Guys playing with hands high, a lot of communication and sliding our feet. Our defense got the job done, but we’ve got to clean it up on offense.”
Leading the charge for the team on both ends of the court was senior Keontay Jackson, who earned Player of the Game honors after recording a double-double in which he scored a game-high 22 points and snagged a game-high 11 rebounds.
“He’s our all-around go-to,” Ross said. “I got him as a sophomore and he came off the bench the first time we won (state), and he’s earned that starting role and earned that captain role. He leads us on both ends of the floor.”
Shishmaref sweats out thrilling win over Buckland
The team Kake will face Thursday night is coming off a hard-fought opening-round battle as the Northern Lights of Shishmaref narrowly edged out the Buckland Sissauni 57-55 in the most competitive game of the first session of action.
“It was a battle,” head coach Tyler Ivanoff said. “These first-round games are pretty difficult to win and Buckland has got a lot of experience at the state tournament, coming almost every year.”
Trailing by a point after the first quarter, his team used an explosive second quarter in which they outscored their foes 20-8 to take an 11-point lead at halftime. Coming out of the break, Buckland’s defensive pressure paved the way for a comeback as they outscored Shishmaref 30-19 in the third quarter.
“They kind of caught up to us but we just had to settle down because I think we were just working the ball a little too much trying to rush things,” Ivanoff said. “Once we settled down, we were able to execute some of our plays.”
The Northern Lights were propelled to victory by a big game from sophomore guard Ivan Davis-Nayokpuk, who recorded a game-high 28 points and justly received Player of the Game honors.
“Ivan is a really unselfish player and he’s really patient,” Ivanoff said. “It really allows him to get the opportunities to attack the basket and find players.”
Buckland was able to momentarily regain the lead in the final minutes but couldn’t hold on to it. With 22 seconds left on the clock, Shishmaref got a clutch go-ahead bucket from junior Colten Hadley who got an open look because of the gravitational pull from the defense Davis-Nayokpuk was commanding.
“I was trying to draw up a play for Ivan there to kind of give him some spacing but they wanted to work the ball a little bit and we got to our spots and Fred (Olanna) found Colton (Hadley) in that wing on the baseline and he hit a big shot,” Ivanoff said. “Colton is pretty ice cold when he’s open on that baseline.”
Girls
Shishmaref 43, Tri-Valley 39
In the first game of the day, the Northern Lights of Shishmaref found themselves up by three points over the Tri-Valley Warriors at halftime, and instead of heading to the locker room, they decided to stay on the court and get up some more shots. It paid immediate dividends as they opened the third quarter with an 11-0 run, which proved to be pivotal in the end as Tri-Valley tried to mounted a late comeback and got within two points with less than 30 seconds left to play. But Shishmaref’s cushion was just big enough to get keep the comeback from being completed.
The Warriors had a pair of players reach double figures in scoring, led by Iris Wappel with a game-high 23 points. Shishmaref had one player reach double digits, with Loretta Sinnok leading the team with 11 points.
Hoonah 25, Scammon Bay 20
In the lowest-scoring game of the first session, the only player to reach double figures in scoring was Hoonah sophomore Jora Savland. Savland nearly had a triple by leading the winning team with 10 points, eight rebounds and seven steals.
Fort Yukon 55, Cook Inlet Academy 20
The reigning state champions began their title defense with a bang as they cruised to an opening-round victory over the Eagles. Fort Yukon dominated on both ends of the court, forcing 42 turnovers to 19 for Cook Inlet and having a pair of players reach double figures in scoring. Leading the charge for Fort Yukon both in scoring and on the boards was junior Kylee Carroll, who recorded a game-high 18 points and 13 rebounds.
Akiuk (Kasigluk) 33, Klawock 16
After being held to just three points in the first quarter, the Akiuk Grizzlies outscored the Klawock Chieftains 30-7 in the remaining three, including a fourth-quarter 8-0 shutout. While Natalia Slim was the only player on either team to reach double figures in scoring with 10 points, her Akiuk teammate, Chloe Wassillie, came up one point shy of a double-double with nine points and game-high 18 rebounds.
Bristol Bay 51, Davis Ramoth (Selawik) 38
The Bristol Bay Angels went from trailing five points after the first quarter to being up by 10 points at halftime following a 19-4 run in the second. Even though they could only muster nine points in the third quarter, they held the Davis Ramoth Wolves to just four points for the second straight period, which made them getting outscored 15-13 in the fourth not impact the final outcome. Bristol Bay’s Olivia Harvilla nearly notched a double-double by leading all players with a game-high 21 points and finished second on the team with eight rebounds.
Napaaqtugmiut (Noatak) 66, Nunamiut 16
Napaaqtugmiut School, from the Northwest community of Noatak, dominated from start to finish. Napaaqtugmiut’s Brooke Schaeffer was the only player in double figures with 19.
Shaktoolik 58, Emmonak 30
Annette Paniptchuk led nine Shaktoolik players to score with 14 points in an easy 58-30 win. Emmonak’s Khia Teganlakla led all scorers with 19.
Newhalen 72, Aniak 28
Newhalen scored at least 22 points in each of the first three quarters in an easy opening-round win. Newhalen’s Dannika Wassillie scored 20 points to lead all scorers while Sierra Lang’s 13 was high scorer for Aniak.
Boys
Cook Inlet Academy 63, Scammon Bay 39
The first boys game of the day pitted Eagles against Eagles and saw the flock from Soldotna soar past the one from Southwest Alaska. Leading the charge for Cook Inlet Academy was junior Alek McGarry, who accounted for nearly half of the team’s total points with a game-high 30, which included going 3-of-4 from behind the arc. He also recorded five rebounds, four steals and a pair of assists.
Tri-Valley 57, Chief Paul Memorial (Kipnuk) 41
The Tri-Valley Warriors used a dominant opening quarter — in which they outscored the Falcons 15-2 — to propel themselves to a dominant victory as they outpaced their foes the rest of the way. Tri-Valley had three players record double figures, led by senior Michael Renshaw with 18 points, and got a double-double from sophomore Isaiah Mayo, who finished with 11 points and led with a game-high 10 rebounds.
Minto 63, Nunamiut 51
The Minto Lakers built up a sizeable lead in the first half, scoring 20 points in each of the first two quarter. That served them well: Even though the Nunamiut Amaguq outscored them 33-23 after halftime, Minto was still able to come out on top in the end. Leading all players in scoring was Minto’s Jonathon David Jr. with 24 points, and he came up one rebound shy of a double-double with nine boards.
Shaktoolik 78, Akiachak 53
Shaktoolik jumped out to a 23-7 lead after the first quarter and never looked back in cruising to the win. Seth Paniptchuk led Shaktoolik with a game-high 34 points.
Davis Ramoth 78, Skagway 71 (OT)
Davis Ramoth, from the Northwest Alaska village of Selawik, went to overtime to top Skagway 78-71. Gavin Hanshaw (28 points) and Brennen Stalker (26) had big games for Davis Ramoth while Skagway’s Royce Borst led all scorers with 30 points.
Manokotak 80, Emmonak 64
Jethron Nanalook scored 40 points to lead Manokotak to a runaway win over Emmonak. His teammate Nevaeh Gloko added 24 while Emmonak’s leading scorer was Connor Hootch with 35.
ASAA 1A State Championship Tournament
At Alaska Airlines Center
Girls
Wednesday’s results
Shishmaref 43, Tri-Valley 39
Hoonah 25, Scammon Bay 20
Fort Yukon 55, Cook Inlet Academy 20
Akiuk (Kasigluk) 33, Klawock 16
Bristol Bay 51, Davis Ramoth 38
Napaaqtugmiut (Noatak) 66, Nunamiut 16
Shaktoolik 58, Emmonak 30
Newhalen 72, Aniak 28
Thursday’s quarterfinals
Fort Yukon v. Bristol Bay at 8 a.m.
Akiuk v. Napaaqtugmiut (Noatak) at 9:30 a.m.
Hoonah v. Shaktoolik at 3:15 p.m.
Shishmaref v. Newhalen at 4:45 p.m.
Boys
Wednesday’s results
Cook Inlet Academy 63, Scammon Bay 39
Shishmaref 57, Buckland 55
Tri-Valley 57, Chief Paul Memorial (Kipnuk) 41
Kake 61, King Cove 41
Minto 63, Nunamiut 51
Shaktoolik 78, Akiachak 53
Davis Ramoth 78, Skagway 71 (OT)
Manokotak 80, Emmonak 64
Thursday’s quarterfinals
Shaktoolik vs. Minto, 11 a.m.
Manokotak vs. Tri-Valley, 12:30 p.m.
Kake vs. Shishmaref, 6:15 p.m.
Davis Ramoth vs. Cook Inlet Academy, 7:45 p.m.
Division 2A boys basketball tournament
At Alaska Airlines Center
First round
Thursday’s games
No. 2 Metlakatla vs. No. 7 Chevak, 8 a.m.
No. 4 Seward vs. No. 5 Wrangell, 9:30 a.m.
No. 3 Cordova vs. No. 6 Su Valley, 3:15 p.m.
No. 1 Unalakleet vs. No. 8 Effie Kokrine, 4:45 p.m.
Division 2A girls basketball tournament
At Alaska Airlines Center
First round
Thursday’s games
No. 1 Metlakatla vs. No. 8 Chevak, 11 a.m.
No. 3 Seward vs. No. 6 Cordova, 12:30 p.m.
No. 2 Unalakleet vs. No. 7 Su Valley, 6:15 p.m.
No. 4 Glennallen vs. No. 5 Haines, 7:45 p.m.
The likelihood that Mount Spurr, the closest active volcano to Anchorage, will erupt is increasing, with scientists now saying an eruption is “likely” within weeks or months.
During flights over the volcano on March 7 and 11, scientists with the Alaska Volcano Observatory “measured significantly elevated volcanic gas emissions” and saw what were described as newly reactivated gas vents at Mount Spurr, about 75 miles west of Anchorage.
“Elevated earthquake activity and ground deformation continue,” the volcano observatory said in a bulletin.
The most likely scenario is an eruption similar to those that happened in 1953 and 1992, each lasting hours and producing clouds of ash that circulated for hundreds of miles, the scientists said in the bulletin. The previous eruptions coated Anchorage and other Southcentral Alaska cities with up to 1/4 inch of ash, canceling flights, fouling engines and plunging Anchorage into an eerie darkness.
For months, scientists with the observatory have been monitoring increasing earthquakes around the volcano, as well as other signs of an impending eruption such as bulging ground and melting snow.
The volcano is monitored with instruments including seismic sensors, satellite imagery and web cameras, among other tools, and scientists say they expect Mount Spurr to show more signs of activity before an eruption.
“We expect to see further increases in seismic activity, gas emissions, and surface heating prior to an eruption, if one were to occur,” the bulletin said. “Such stronger unrest may provide days to weeks of additional warning.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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