Chancellor's Musings
3/17/2008
A UAF limerick | Student workers | Post-secondary education pays
A UAF limerick
During the pre-holiday period, UAF's Icebox, our student literary magazine, staffed a promotion and fundraising booth in Wood Center, "selling" creative verse by the line. I "purchased" a limerick, requesting something appropriate to UAF, scholarship, and the Arctic winter. Our capable Icebox enthusiasts hand-delivered this five-liner to my office within a couple of hours:
A scholar went up on a hill
Found UAF there where the thrill
Of learning was strong
The Arctic nights long
But, with studying, easy to fill.
The near-Arctic nights were quite a bit longer back in mid-December when they penned the verse. Here in mid-March we're nearly to the Equinox, shortening our nights by seven minutes daily. The days are bright as the sun climbs from its 1.7-degrees-above-the-horizon solstice ebb here in Fairbanks. Our spring semester students also brighten our day -- from Bristol Bay, to Kotzebue, to Fort Yukon, to Tok, to TVCC. They and the lengthening days symbolize great promise for all that lies ahead.
Student workers
Like many of you, I found employment on-campus as a student. I needed the money and landed a part-time job. I had no clue going into it how enriching and rewarding the experience would be -- the "job" added value far beyond its hourly rate. Likewise, the graduate students and professors who directed me seemed pleased to have me around and expressed genuine appreciation for my work. We all benefited. To this day I hold great admiration and appreciation for student workers -- I know how important their experience is to them and how valued their efforts are to us. Here on the Fairbanks campus Judy and I host a luncheon each semester for our Exceptional Student Employee Award winners. At November's luncheon I inquired about the number of student employees -- the answer surprised and pleased me. In fall 2007 we employed 682 undergraduates and 448 graduate students on the Fairbanks campus. That's more than one in five students who enjoy this wonderful reciprocal relationship with our University. What a great selling point for UAF!
Post-secondary education pays
My January Musings sounded a call for all Alaskans to get serious about the need for an educated citizenry to ensure individual well-being and elevate the economic vitality of our state. Just this week I saw a poster published by Postsecondary Education OPPORTUNITY, whose mission, in part, is "to inform those who formulate, fund, and administer public policy and programs about the condition of and influences that affect postsecondary education opportunity for all Americans." The poster presents a compelling case for education:
|
Unemployment Rate in 2006
|
Completed Degree/Schooling
|
Median Earnings in 2005
|
|---|---|---|
|
1.1
|
Professional Degree
|
$100,000
|
|
1.4
|
Doctorate
|
$79,401
|
|
1.7
|
Master's Degree
|
$61,273
|
|
2.3
|
Bachelor's Degree
|
$50,944
|
|
3.0
|
Associate Degree
|
$40,588
|
|
3.9
|
Some College, No Degree
|
$37,135
|
|
4.3
|
High School Graduate
|
$31,539
|
|
6.8
|
Less Than High School
|
$25,039
|
Note: Earnings for year-round full-time workers 25 and over; unemployment rate for those 25 and over
We must do all we can, in partnership with many interests across the state, to keep the Alaska education pipeline flowing, plug its leaks, and deliver the product in form of a prepared workforce and an educated citizenry.