Just for your information and not because it is a problem:

In 1962, while a student on the Fairbanks campus, I was a leader in an emerging all Alaska jurisdiction of the International Order of Rainbow for Girls. At that time I started a monthly state newsletter which I named Alaska Aurora. It is still being published as Aurora and as of last year, is also available in digital form. I obtained the signature black and white masthead of the aurora borealis from a photo from the Geophysical Institute. After all of these years, it has finally worn out and been removed from the masthead.

I was surprised that the accompanying photo/logo from you was sea-related rather than the magnificent rainbow of colors that I so fondly remember from the College/Fairbanks' sky.

Best wishes with the new publication. The name has many fond memories for me.

Mary Halm Writer (B.Ed., 1964)
Past Grand Worthy Advisor, Alaska
International Order of the Rainbow for Girls

I really like the new format in the latest Aurora publication, it has a new alive invitation and great color.
Lois VanHyning

I recently received the fall 2008 edition of UAF's Aurora magazine. I was thoroughly offended by the short story on the back cover about Ty Keltner's LEGO® model of the Gruening Building. Specifically, I was offended by the comment that "the project was more ambitious than many graduate student theses." This statement is extremely insulting, not only to the graduate program at UAF, but to the many graduate students that spend countless hours writing grant proposals, doing high-quality research, conducting labwork, performing analyses, and writing articles in peer-reviewed journals. In some departments, this LEGO® project may be comparable to what they require for a master's degree, but it is not what I experienced and witnessed in the sciences, where students put in thousands of hours and years of work in order to earn their degrees. If there are some departments where you can earn an advanced degree with as little work and thought as it takes to make a LEGO® model, I suggest you don't advertise that because it is insulting to the university as a whole.

Sincerely,
Andrew Borner (M.S., biology, 2006)