Rosanne Bailey has been appointed the new vice chancellor for administrative services. Bailey, a retiring brigadier general with the U.S. Air Force, has 30 years experience in administration, human resources, procurement, fiscal management and community operations.

Jeff Stepp, student activities, president of the UAF Staff Council, was elected chair of the UA Staff Alliance.

The UAF Weekly Science Calendar has resumed for the 2006-2007 academic year. Submit information about science-related events on campus by noon the Wednesday before the event to cgc@iarc.uaf.edu. For more information call 5818 or visit www.cgc.uaf.edu.

Jing Zhang, CEM, has been invited by the National Science Foundation to serve on the review panel for the Small Business Innovations Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I.

Gary Laursen, CNSM, was voted the Golden Key International Honour Society advisor. Laursen was serving as interim advisor.

The TVC Center for Professional Development and Continuing Education is offering courses for fall 2006 in the certified public manager program, recreation, personal development, business and cooking. Please register one week prior to the first day of class. For more information call 2878 or 2833 or visit www.tvc.uaf.edu/programs/Prodev/.

GI purchased an Insitu A-20 unmanned aircraft for research in areas that are difficult for humans to access. The aircraft is managed by Poker Flat Research Range and opportunities will be available for faculty and students to conduct research.

TVC and the Alaska Operating Engineers Local 302 have signed an agreement that offers successful graduates of TVC Fast Track Training direct entry into the Local 302 apprenticeship and training programs.

The UA Museum of the North recently welcomed Steffi Ickert-Bond as the curator of the herbarium and Derek Sikes as curator of entomology. Both serve joint faculty-curator appointments with the museum and the Department of Biology and Wildlife.

Gerhard Kramm, GI; and Nicole Mölders, GI and CNSM, were invited to give a presentation at the Climate Prediction Center's 31st Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop being held Oct. 23-27 in Boulder, Colo.

The UA Museum of the North is looking for volunteer docents to help lead programs for schoolchildren. No experience is necessary; training will be held Sept. 8-15. For more information call Jennifer Arseneau at 6948.

Alaska Sea Grant has launched a multi-agency effort to rebuild Kodiak red king crab stocks with the help of crabs collected from Alitak Bay on Kodiak to be used as brood stock and for analysis.

Late registration for the Fairbanks campus ends and the last day to pay fees or get a 100 percent refund is Sept. 8. The last day for student-initiated drops and to receive a 50 percent refund is Sept. 15.

Jerry McBeath, CLA, accepted an invitation from the Republic of China and led a delegation of U.S. scholars and experts to Taiwan that met with government and political party leaders in August.

Terry Chapin, IAB, co-authored a paper published in the Aug. 9 issue of the journal Ambio offering policy recommendations to manage arctic conditions resulting from thawing permafrost, melting sea ice and relaxation of thermal thresholds.

Alaska Sea Grant, UA Press and University Marketing and Publications are now located in the Wells Fargo building at 794 University Ave. OEM has moved to 3330 Industrial Ave.

The Rural Alaska Honors Institute has been preparing rural and Alaska Native high school students for college success since 1983. Learn more about this dynamic and demanding program at www.uaf.edu/news/featured/06/rahi/.

KUAC has partnered with the Freedom Calls Foundation to provide local military families with 30 minutes of teleconferencing with their loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan. KUAC is providing the facility and technology for the live video conference calls. For more information about Freedom Calls visit www.freedomcalls.org.

The Academic Advising Center is hosting a series of skill workshops including Time Management Sept. 7, Note Taking Sept. 14, Succeeding in Independent Learning Courses Sept. 19 and Test-Taking and Learning Styles Sept. 21. All workshops are held in 409 Gruening at 1:05 p.m. For more information or to register visit www.uaf.edu/advising/.

UAF is hosting the Helge Ingstad Memorial Symposium on Arctic Change Sept. 8-9. The symposium commemorates Norwegian explorer, scientist and author Helge Ingstad who lived with the Nunamiut people of Anaktuvuk Pass from 1949-1950. Following the symposium, delegates from Alaska and Norway will travel to Anaktuvuk Pass for a naming ceremony for Ingstad Mountain, which elders symbolically gave to Ingstad when he left the area five decades ago.

The Patty Ice Arena open house is being held Sept. 8 from 6-10 p.m. Admission is free and there will be door prizes and refreshments. Come check out the new improvements and locker rooms, skate with the Alaska Nanooks from 7-9 p.m. and meet the players. Recreational skate takes place from 6-7 p.m. and 9-10 p.m.

The UA Museum of the North's special exhibit ANWR: Seasons of Life and Land runs through Sept. 10. The exhibit showcases 49 large-scale landscapes and wildlife portraits by Subhankar Banerjee documenting the four seasons and abundant life in ANWR. A lecture and book signing for Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with photographer Subhankar Banerjee and authors Debbie Miller, Fran Mauer and Frank Keim takes place Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at Hering Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information call 7505 or visit www.uaf.edu/museum/.

Judith Kleinfeld, CLA, organized a speakers series as part of the Boys Project. Bestselling author and social philosopher Michael Gurian will begin the series with a talk on ways to help boys succeed Tuesday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. at West Valley High School.

The UAF Student Job Fair takes place Sept. 12-13 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in Wood Center. UAF departments will have the opportunity to advertise their job openings. For more information contact Career Services at 7596 or visit www.uaf.edu/career/.

New student organizations orientation, hosted by the UAF Leadership Program, takes place Sept. 13 from 5-6 p.m. in Wood Center Conference Room E/F. For more information contact 1170 or studentorgs@uaf.edu.

The Volunteer Fair, hosted by the UAF Leadership Program, will be held Sept. 14 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in Wood Center. Come meet more than 20 local community service organizations and discover exciting volunteer opportunities. For more information contact 1170 or volunteer@uaf.edu.

The 44th Equinox Marathon begins Sept. 16 at 8 a.m. at the Patty Center athletic fields. For more information or to register contact the Running Club North at 322-8554.

The Inland Northwest Research Alliance 2006 Environmental and Subsurface Science Symposium takes place Sept. 25-27 in Moscow, Idaho. UAF is a member of INRA. The keynote speaker is Rita R. Colwell, former director of the National Science Foundation. For more information visit https://secure.meetingsystems.com/inra/.

Visit UAF's online calendar at www.uaf.edu/events/ for information on UAF events or to publicize an event.

Steffi Ickert-Bond, UA Museum of the North and CNSM, received $170,000 from the National Science Foundation Tree of Life program, part of a $3 million, multi-institutional grant. Ickert-Bond's work will focus on the phylogeny of gymnosperms.

The Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research, IARC and the Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research recently awarded 12 UAF students grants in the 2006 Global Change Student Research Grant competition. For a list of the students and their projects visit www.cgc.uaf.edu.

Aug. 18, 2006: The Alaska Sea Grant College Program is seeking public comment on its performance toward meeting its mission goals and objectives. For more information or to submit comments visit http://seagrant.uaf.edu/pat/2006/public-comment.html.

Welcome, and welcome back! Summer is a time of relative calm, but the Fairbanks campus is far from being a lonely place. Summer Sessions, sports and recreation camps, Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre, Summer Arts Festival, Alaska Summer Research Academy, Elderhostel, Rural Alaska Honors Institute, lectures by George Schaller and T. Berry Brazelton and a live recording session of Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? kept us entertained, educated and stimulated. Now the pace quickens as we enter the fall semester, a time of anticipation and new beginnings.

This new academic year offers a full palette. We host the Helge Ingstad Memorial Symposium on Arctic Change Sept. 8-9. The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities regular interim evaluation team visits in October. The fourth International Polar Year officially kicks off in March, then extends two full years through March 2009--look for lots of related activities and visitors through the coming year. Our nine IPY post docs will arrive over the course of the semester. We will cut ribbons this fall for both the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (Sept. 23) and the Biological Research and Diagnostics facility (BiRD) in early December.
It is so nice to have new faculty, staff and students further enrich our university community. I extend a special welcome to Ro Bailey, our new vice chancellor for administrative services, who came on board Aug. 28; and to Robert Mandel, newly appointed UA Press director, who began June 29. I am so grateful to have a remarkable team of faculty, staff and student leaders in Shirish Patil, Jeff Stepp and Sven Gilkey, respectively. Our university is carried on the shoulders of outstanding faculty, staff and students.

Academic Year 06-07 promises much excitement for America's arctic university. I encourage you to attend the UAF convocation and state of the university address Sept. 26, at 1 p.m. in Schaible Auditorium, to learn more about why I am excited.