For Immediate Release
Friday, April 3, 2009

The University of Alaska Board of Regents will meet at Prince William Sound Community College next Wednesday and Thursday, April 8 & 9.

Topping the agenda are several new academic programs that require board approval before they can go forward, including:

• Graduate certificates in three programs at the University of Alaska Anchorage---counselor education; environmental regulation and permitting; and earthquake engineering;
• A certificate in allied health--pre-nursing qualifications at the University of Alaska Fairbanks;
• And a Ph.D. in indigenous studies at UAF. Several Alaska Native organizations and many individuals provided input as this program was developed. One of its goals is to help reverse the shortage of Alaska Natives with advanced degrees; another is to advance knowledge and scholarship on subjects important to Alaska Native people and communities.

Board members also will review several projects in different stages of planning or construction. Up for consideration will be:

• Schematic design approval for pilings replacement and upgrades at the Northwest Campus in Nome;
• Formal project approval of the proposed energy technology building on the UAF campus;
• Formal project approval of renovations of science classrooms at the UAA campus;
• And several informational items, including possible federal stimulus funding for the Toolik Field Station north of Fairbanks, operated by UAF's Institute of Arctic Biology under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. Several hundred national and international researchers, as well as UA researchers and students, use the station each year. The NSF has allocated approximately $5 million in stimulus funding toward facility improvements.

Board members will attend a reception, take a campus tour and have lunch with the college's community advisory board. Each April, the board meets at a rural or community college within the 16-campus UA system. Public testimony will be taken both days; at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Thursday.

This meeting will be the last for Student Regent William Andrews, whose two-year term expires at the end of May. A resolution of appreciation for Andrews is expected to pass unanimously.

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NR8-09

For more information, call Kate Ripley at 907/450-8102.