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June 20, 2024
Faculty and Staff,
Thank you for tuning in to the fourth in my series of six communications on how we
are thinking about enrollment at UAF - big picture. In last week’s series I talked
about how we think about recruiting - and more importantly how we direct the limited
funds available to reach the goals we have for the students we seek. I left last week
with the comment that once we get the students to campus, they will seek (and deserve)
the modern student experience, or as we have coined it in our vision - transformative
experiences. So what does that look like?Ěý
Modernizing the student experience is one of our six strategic goals established in
2017. When established, the strategic planning committee envisioned modernizing the
student experience by “reenergiz[ing] students' experiences while strengthening academic
rigor and depth.”Ěý
Our strategy for modernizing the student experience to contribute to sustainable enrollment
and budget can be boiled down to a common theme in these enrollment messages, differentiation.
How do we differentiate ourselves from other universities or from other options for
continuing education? And how do we communicate what makes UAF unique?Ěý
There are many options for college-bound students out there! We are fortunate that
merely by our location, we are a unique university and that in itself makes us attractive.
We are the furthest north public university in the country with locations in all corners
of the state. Our Troth Yeddha’ campus consists of 2,250 acres of beautiful land with
ski trails, a musk ox and large animal research station, and a rocket range. When
students come to UAF to do research, they don’t just read about things in books. They
hike up volcanoes, sample ice cores from glaciers, take research cruises in the Bering
Strait, canoe down wild and scenic rivers, and see the aurora from their backyard.
They also have access to transformative experiences in marine science at Kasitsna
Bay, fisheries at Lena Point, seafood and marine science in Kodiak, and the Arctic
tundra landscape at Toolik Field Station.
Our location is a strength. But, location is not a university, it is just geography.
What makes a university is the experiences students have and the education they receive.
From the moment a prospective student walks onto campus, they should be able to look
around and know that UAF is a place where they will get the tools they need to achieve
their goals. Whether that goal is to get a credential to advance their career, to
connect with top researchers in their field, or to make new friends and have unique
experiences (or all of the above), what a student sees and feels around them influences
their success.Ěý
A recent found that the look and feel of a campus is a critical factor to students in deciding
which university to enroll in. Students care about how their dorms look and that they
feel safe, what their food options are, and which extracurricular activities are available.
And they should! Attending a university is a big commitment, and when students choose
UAF, we want them to have a positive experience. For more traditional students who
visit UAF, having a modern introductory experience and high-quality residence halls
are the first step. This same infrastructure builds confidence in parents that may
have apprehension about sending their children away to college , especially if they
are coming from out of state and are not familiar with Alaska. The way our campus
looks and feels is determinative to our ability to recruit and retain students.Ěý
Looking ahead, we have an exciting vision for the future of our facilities at UAF.
The first step in a sustainable, modern campus is addressing our deferred maintenance
(DM). This means fixing what we can, removing old buildings that have passed their
useful lives, and building new when necessary. In the near future, I look forward
to breaking ground on the Troth Yeddha’ Indigenous Studies Center, a one-of-a-kind
facility that will house the newly minted College of Indigenous Studies. I also look
forward to investing in UAF’s “Main Street” (Lower Tanana Drive in front of the current
Patty Center) by securing a public-private partnership to build new residence halls.Ěý
UAF is actively investigating ways to increase vibrancy such as exploring ways to
bring to campus a new hockey arena and a hotel - both along Main Street. Facilities
like these lead to great connections with our community and enable us to generate
revenue from our assets. Of course we won’t build or operate the hotel, but we need
one on campus and we anticipate there are developers who want to build one that also
want to partner with UAF. As ideas are modeled financially and tested for viability,
we will integrate them into our planning for approval by our UA Board of Regents.
We also want to convert Lola Tilly into a Welcome Center, and build a new emergency
services and workforce training facility to replace the old fire station that is beyond
its useful life. A revitalized UAF campus will by its nature attract students, faculty,
and researchers, setting us on a strong path for the future.
As we think about Main Street, one could get the impression that we are just about
building new buildings. What about deferred maintenance? I am glad to say that building
new and renovating old buildings is all about reducing our DM! Many of our buildings
have $10-30 million of DM, or renewal, that is needed. Without a major renewal, we
can still operate the building but the operating cost increases significantly as it
requires increased repairs at higher costs. It is important to keep in mind that it
is not out of negligence or delinquency that we have DM, it is because our buildings
are old and old buildings have accelerating maintenance needs.
So think about the math. If we put $30 million into a 70-year-old building to fund
DM, we still have a 70-year-old building. There are just certain things that $30 million
can’t re-age and old parts will continue to fail. In some cases, if we build a new
building for $40 million to replace a building with $30 million in DM it essentially
costs us $10 million and it is new, with $0 in DM and is more efficient and less expensive
to operate. It is a no brainer!
So, renovation, removal and replacement are all part of improving the look and feel
of UAF’s facilities, increasing enrollment and revenue, reducing our long term building
cost AND increasing our fiscal stability. It’s a win-win-win.
Facilities are one piece of the student experience, but there is a lot more to what
a student experiences as a Nanook that contributes to retention and graduation. There’s
dorm life, intramurals, study sessions, dining options, clubs, community groups, entertainment,
and more! All of these things that we do at UAF are critical to a student's academic
success and persistence to graduation. This is because we know that whether a student
persists through college and receives a degree is tied to student well-being. These
are the things that help students feel like they belong at UAF and can propel them
forward on a path towards their goals. Currently, we are transitioning the Center
for Student Experience to be the home of our transformative experiences that will
connect students with the resources and community they need to know they belong at
UAF. We are also opening our new Student Success Center in the top floor of the Rasmuson
Library this fall where advising, tutoring, testing and other support services will
be co-located in a modern way. The student experience is directly tied to student’s
success, and we are constantly exploring new ways to ensure students have a positive
experience at UAF.Ěý
Academics are also critical to the student experience at UAF. We know that academics
are a key driver in enrollment and retention rates, and we need to adapt to meet the
programmatic needs of future Nanooks in the forms the students want - in person and
online. Next week, I will share more about our vision for a modern academic experience
at UAF.
Let's keep talking.
— Dan White, chancellor
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