For Immediate Release
Monday, April 4, 2011

The University of Alaska Board of Regents will meet at Mat-Su College Thursday and Friday, April 7 and 8, 2011.

The agenda includes two opportunities for public comment—10 a.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. Friday. The meeting will take place at the Mat-Su campus, off Trunk Road between Palmer and Wasilla.

At least one meeting per year is held at a community campus, providing members of the UA System’s governing body to interact directly with students, faculty, staff and community members outside the main campus hubs in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau.  The board last met at Mat-Su College in September 2003.

“The board always enjoys the April meeting because it’s a chance to see what some of our vibrant community campuses have to offer,” said Vice Chair Pat Jacobson of Kodiak. “We’re really looking forward to meeting with our students, faculty and staff of Mat-Su College, as well as community members from the Palmer and Wasilla area.”

The agenda includes approval of the continuation of the Bachelor of Arts program in International Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage; formal project approval for critical electrical distribution upgrades at UAF; and schematic design approval for steam capacity expansion at UAF’s West Ridge. Information-only items include, among other items, a report on student housing across the UA System, including potential public-private partnerships; a demonstration of online “e-learning” improvements that make it easier for students to look up and then register for e-learning courses throughout the UA System; a tour of the Mat-Su campus; and a tour of the Matanuska Experiment Farm, part of UAF’s School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences and the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

The board will consider resolutions of appreciation for student Regent Ashton Compton, whose term expires in May; and outgoing UAA Chancellor Fran Ulmer, who recently was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve a four-year term as chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. A resolution of appreciation for outgoing information technology chief Steve Smith, a longtime staff member and adjunct faculty member who is taking a similar position at the University of Hawaii, will be before the board as well.

For the full Board of Regents’ agenda, go to www.alaska.edu/bor/ and click on “agendas.”

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

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