One lucky student received two tickets to fly anywhere on Alaska Airlines for participating in the myTRACK Giveaway hosted by Student and Enrollment Services as part of the Stay on Track campaign. The giveaway, which lasted for two months, encouraged students to think about their own path to graduation by entering the contest and taking a self-portrait showing how many years it would take to graduate.

For Monica Nuernberg, winner of the plane tickets, the contest helped her think about how long it would take to graduate from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Nuernberg is in the Army ROTC program, which already encourages students to choose a graduation date and stick with it. While in the program Nuerbnerg filled out a form with each class she planned to take for every semester until graduation, so she knew what it was going to take to graduate.

Nuernberg said with the help of ROTC, she has been on the right track to graduate, but she thought the contest brought a greater understanding of graduation time to the Anchorage campus. She had heard that UAA students need to improve graduation time and was pleased to see that the giveaway was really trying to motivate people to graduate on time.

“Graduating on time is important,” Nuernberg said. “The longer a person takes to graduate, the more wasted money there is… If you stay in school wasting time, then you’re not proactively giving back to society.”

Nurernberg said there are ways to help people stay on track with graduation. “It’s really about time management and focus. Set a goal and stick to it. Get motivated about what you want to do and take the steps necessary to reach your potential."

A staff and faculty member were also winners in the giveaway, receiving $250 for a UA department of their choice. Dennis Massingham, assistant professor the heavy duty transportation equipment program at UAA, was the faculty winner and Tanya Coty, executive assistant to the vice president for academic affairs, was the staff winner.

Massingham participated in the program because it sounded like fun to him and because the stay on track initiative is an important endeavor that he supports.

Massingham feels strongly about the benefits of a timely graduation.

“It was important for me to graduate on time for many reasons. First and foremost, my parents financially helped me with the costs associated with school. I felt obligated to provide a return on their investment by earning good grades and graduating on schedule. I also felt an obligation to my future employer. I wanted to prove to myself and to my future boss that I could make a commitment and see it through to the end, on schedule and under budget.”

“My best advice for students is to get serious about career exploration and then choose the appropriate program to get there,” Massingham said.

For Coty the giveaway was important because it encouraged students to think about how long they have been in school and how close they are to finishing. Coty said as a student, sometimes it doesn’t seem to be a big deal to take extra year to graduate and that’s okay, but the key is to stay on track and have a plan.

Coty, who graduated in five years, said the extra year it she took to graduate eventually didn’t seem worth it when it came to pay for student loans. To help with timely graduation, Coty encourages students to stay focused and put forth the most effort possible. The time goes by quickly, so having a plan and sticking to it is really important, she said.

The Stay on TRACK campaign launched its second year on Oct. 29, with a new theme encouraging students to take more credits and “Get It Done,” which is a shift from last year’s “Finish in Four” theme. The campaign and giveaway are grounded in the philosophy that students and the university can take deliberate actions to graduate in a timelier manner, which brings many benefits including saving money. Estimates show that it costs a student an extra $10,000 to graduate in five years instead of four years.

The University of Alaska Office of Human Resources along with the Joint Health Care Committee (JHCC) hosted forums at UAF, SW, UAA and UAS earlier this month to provide employees with information in regard to nine motions passed by the committee now being considered by administration.

The forums gave staff and faculty an opportunity for further education on the motions, as well as an opportunity to make comments and ask questions before any motion is put into action. The comments and feedback were noted and will be reviewed by President Gamble, Interim Chief Human Resources Officer Michelle Rizk and the JHCC before any further action is taken.

The JHCC will meet Feb. 1 to review the minutes from the forums, discuss the feedback and make recommendations regarding proceeding with the motions. The presentation shown at the forums may be accessed here. �

To see the motions click here. http://www.alaska.edu/files/benefits/Motions.pdf

To view the article in The Statewide Voice that describes each of these motions in detail click here: http://www.alaska.edu/voice/2012/nov-2012/system-news/health-care/benefits-update/

For a full review of the JHCC and its function within the university health care system, read the following article in The Statewide Voicehttp://www.alaska.edu/voice/2012/august-issue-69/system-news/health-care-1/