• Steve Jones became the university's fifth chancellor when he succeeded Marshall Lind in August 2004.
• The West Ridge Research Building opened in fall 2004, providing space for high-technology programs like biomedicine, bioinformatics, contaminants engineering, microsensor electronics, remote sensing and the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center.
• The Hutchison Institute of Technology reopened as part of a partnership between UAF's Tanana Valley Campus and the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.

• In August, the directors of the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation were in Fairbanks to award, respectively, $17.5 million for INBRE (IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence) and $13.5 million for EPSCoR (Experimental Programs to Stimulate Competitive Research).
• Institute of Arctic Biology Professor F. Stuart (Terry) Chapin III, one of the nation's leading ecologists and a pioneer in the field of terrestrial ecosystem ecology, was elected to the National Academy of Science, one of the highest honors bestowed on American scientists.
• The UAF chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society received the 2004 distinguished chapter award at the 26th annual AISES national conference. The award marks the fourth time the UAF AISES chapter has received this nationally competitive award, having also won it in 1994, 1996 and 2000.
• A Fulbright Award went to psychology Professor James Allen to lecture at the Psychosocial Centre for Refugees at the University of Oslo in Norway through March 2004.

• The rifle team won its sixth consecutive national championship. Freshman Matt Rawlings won the NCAA individual smallbore title.
• 2003 alumnus Matt Emmons won the gold medal in men's prone rifle at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games.
• 2001 alumnus Dan Jordan won the silver medal in men's three-position rifle at the 2004 Summer Paralympics.
• Senior Sigrid Aas won two individual gold medals at the NCAA Skiing Championships.
• Junior Brad Oleson was named Player of the Year in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference after leading the men's basketball team to its most successful season in school history.
• Almost 60 percent of the 100 student athletes earned a GPA of 3.0 or higher for the fall 2004 semester. Students from each sport regularly volunteer for a wide range of community activities.

Nate Raymond wants to break big stories for a major newspaper but right now he's just working on his degree. Focusing on your studies is easier when you're not focusing on your bank balance, which is where each of his four scholarships come in handy: the Jimmy B. Bedford, Fred Beeler, and Marian and W.F. Thompson memorial scholarships, and the Usibelli tuition scholarship. The Bedford and Thompson journalism scholarships fit nicely with his journalism major (he has a second major in political science) but they all add up to helping Raymond, a sophomore, stay in school.

"Last year I had a tuition waiver that allowed me to try different classes, something I wouldn't have done if I was worried about my budget," Raymond says. "The scholarships made school more affordable."

Raymond likes what he's found at UAF. "I came here because UAA was too close to Homer, where I'm from. I'd only been to Fairbanks once and I wanted to try something different. I really like my professors here--they're one of the reasons I wanted to come back."

Another reason was the chance to work at the student newspaper, the Sun Star, where he covers student government and university affairs. University finances are complex enough but at least one thing just got easier: the scholarship application process.

"Now it's just one form for all scholarships," Raymond says. "It will save me a lot of time instead of having to fill out a separate form for each one." Time he'll no doubt spend on sniffing out the next news scoop.

Virginia Bedford is proud to know that students benefit from the legacy of her late uncle, Alaska newshound legend Jimmy Bedford. Originally from the East Coast, Virginia immediately understood Jimmy's passion for Alaska when she visited him 15 years ago and fell in love with the state. That same passion inspired her and another uncle, Emmett Bedford, to establish a scholarship in Jimmy's name after his death in 1990.

The scholarship is for journalism students like Nate Raymond. "It's a wonderful way to honor Jimmy and reflect his commitment to students and journalism," she says. "My uncle was very committed to students. He had high standards because he wanted them to become great professionals."

That commitment, and Jimmy's forceful presence both in and out of the classroom, had a lasting effect on many Alaska writers, among them JoAnn Wold, Edna Wilder and Emily Ivanoff Brown.

Virginia is the technical services director for UAF's Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, and she expects to earn her M.B.A. from UAF this spring. Though not a professional writer herself, she fully appreciates the scholarship's tangible and intangible benefits.

"The whole point is to continue the thread of named scholarships. They affect people positively financially but also through the spirit of the person," she says. "Jimmy was a Fulbright professor in Afghanistan in the 1960s and 1970s. He traveled and took pictures constantly. It's important to remember him not just for who he was but for the amazing career he had, the amazing life he led."