UAA Chancellor Fran Ulmer announced she plans to retire in 2011. Read her letter to the UAA community, comments from President Hamilton and MORE.

The Board of Regents is meeting in Anchorage for its annual retreat this week, Jan. 26 and 27, 2010. The agenda includes considerable time on the search for a new president of the UA System. MORE...

The Second Session of the 26th Alaska State Legislature began on Jan. 19, 2010, and is off to a quick start. For information on some of the Govenor's proposals, the UA budget, bills relating to the university and UA advocacy read more HERE...

The Statewide Administration Assembly is hosting the 2010 Employee Service Award Ceremony on Feb. 22, 2010, and members need your help!

Each year SW staff nominate co-workers and departments for several special recognition awards given at the annual ceremony. Those awards are:

• Outstanding Exempt Staff of the Year
• Outstanding Non-Exempt Staff of the Year
• Outstanding Student Staff of the Year
• Outstanding Department of the Year

Nominate a co-worker who or a department that makes you proud to call yourself a member of the UA System community. Send your nominations to sysaa@alaska.edu or drop off in Butro 105 or 201 and BOB 206. The deadline for nominations is Feb. 1, 2010.

The Outstanding ... of the Year awards have been awarded since 1985. Go to http://gov.alaska.edu/saa/awards/ to see past recipients. Nominations are welcome from all Statewide staff, supervisors, directors, student workers, etc. The nominations are kept confidential, and there is no limit to how many people or departments you may nominate.

Criteria: Include the name of the nominee, award category, and the reasons why you think they deserve the award. In what ways do they "go above and beyond?" What about them makes you glad you work with them? What about them exemplifies excellence? REMEMBER: The committee determines the awards solely from the nominations submitted, so please give full details why the person or department deserves this recognition.

Nominations are due by the end of the day Feb.1, 2010. If you have any questions, please contact Pat Ivey, UA System Governance Office, 450-8042, or sysaa@alaska.edu.
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The Student Services office is coordinating the 2010 I Know I Can program in Fairbanks. (http://www.alaska.edu/studentservices/outreach/i_know_i_can/)

Barnette, Denali, and North Pole elementary schools will participate. Would you like to read the story to, and share your higher education experience with, the second-graders? We especially need volunteers in North Pole.

Here are the dates and times that we need assistance:

• North Pole: Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1:30 p.m.-3 p.m. (4 classrooms)
• Barnette: Thursday, Feb. 25, 10 a.m.-11 a.m. (2 classrooms)
• Denali: Friday, Feb. 26, 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. (3 classrooms)

If you know members of the community who have college degrees or professional certifications who might want to participate, please feel free to pass this invitation on to them. They are welcome to contact Kim Eames with any questions about the event. kkeames@alaska.edu

The February FAFSA Frenzy is in full swing. The goal is to get as many students on the campuses to complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) as possible. Last year we had more than 4,000 students complete the application during February and we would like even more this year.

If you know a student, please mention the Frenzy and share a couple of new facts: the FAFSA is simpler and faster to complete - from 5 minutes to 30 minutes for most people; there is more financial aid available than ever; the FAFSA gives you more choices about paying for school next year - you don't have to take the aid that is offered.

Finally, there are prizes. Students are entered to win a $100 cash card or UA knit hats if they apply in February.

Visit FAFSA.gov for the application or www.alaska.edu/fafsafrenzy for more information.

The UA Foundation Anchorage Staff volunteered for a couple of hours at the Anchorage Food Bank. They painted food collection bins – lot’s of ‘em!!

University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton and Liane Pelletier, president and chief executive officer of Alaska Communications Systems, in December announced a gift that will greatly enhance the university’s disaster recovery for mission-critical online applications. MORE...

The University of Alaska College Savings Plan is holding a $25,000 scholarship drawing for those who check “yes” on Line 6 of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend application this year. MORE...

The University of Alaska Foundation is proud to announce Nalinaksha Bhattacharyya, Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Alaska Anchorage, as the recipient of the Harold T. Caven Professorship.

The two-year professorship includes a $20,000 award. This award is intended to enable Bhattacharyya to perform activities and projects designed to enhance the field of business and finance at UA beyond those associated with his faculty assignments. Bhattacharyya’s proposed activities include developing teaching material on Personal Finance tailored toward high school students as well as developing a primer for students of business on mathematics and statistics.

Bhattacharyya received his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and his MBA from the Indian Institute of� Management, Bangalore. He earned a PhD in Finance from the University of British Columbia; he also received a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Calcutta. He has been on staff at the University of Alaska Anchorage since 2007.

This professorship was established in 1974 with a gift from Mrs. Loretta Caven, widow of Harold T. Caven. Dr. Caven was a longtime Alaskan who first came to the state in 1943. He served as a Director and as a Vice President of the First National Bank of Anchorage.

UAF Staff Council announces the opening of nominations for the 2010 Staff Make Students Count Award.

The 2010 Staff Make Students Count nomination form and fact sheet can be accessed below:

http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/studentscount/

The deadline for this award is March 19, 2010 at 5:00 p.m.

For more information contact: Nichole Kloepfer, Staff Council Secretary,
fystaff@uaf.edu, Phone: 907-474-7056, Fax: 907-474-5213.

Please take a moment to complete the follow up survey for the Violent Intruder training and exercise event conducted in November.

We would greatly appreciate your feedback as it will go a long way in supporting improvements for our program and these types of training events. The survey, consists of seven questions-and will probably not take but five to ten minutes to complete.

The link for the survey is:� http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JJRP6KP

Jan. 6-8, the Risk Services Office of Emergency Management conducted a Campus-Community Emergency Response Team course for university administrators, faculty and staff in Anchorage.

The Campus-CERT class taught basic life saving and property damage reduction skills for citizen responders to use on campus in the minutes and hours after a disaster strikes, while professional responders are busy elsewhere.

A joint training for UAA and Charter College, the session helped participants learn about scene safety, light search and rescue, victim triage and medical treatment, team organization and emergency preparedness, fire fighting, and disaster psychology.

While UA Emergency Managers Ron Swartz and Rick Forkel were the primary instructors, experts from the Anchorage Fire Department, UAA EH&S, and Psychological Services helped teach modules. Charter’s dean of criminal justice also taught a course on Terrorism. The 14 graduates received a Homeland Security certificate of completion.� PHOTOS

The annual gift and food drives were very successful this year. Both families in the Adopt-a-Family program received much needed assistance and gifts and were treated to a wonderful holiday.

The food drive brought in 692 lbs. this year, almost a new record for Fairbanks. That tally included 230 stuffed and wrapped mugs.

Read an overview of the January Statewide Administration Assembly meeting here.