The Grapevine was designed to dispel rumors, clarify misconceptions and clear up misunderstandings about UAF topics of a general nature to improve communication between the administration and the UAF community. Submit your question or suggestion here.

Building and facilities issues that need immediate attention should be forwarded to dispatch@fs.uaf.edu or reported directly to 474-7000.

QUESTION

The new engineering building is going to be built in 2014, but construction will start soon. What is going to happen to Gold parking lot decal holders? I suggest that S. Bunnell cover the metered parking to allow the East Bunnell gold decal holders to park in that lot. Maybe reduce the UAF vehicle parking slots too. Those vehicles can park at facilites. East Bunnell parking is going away very soon due to construction. Another thing are there going to be more handicap parking added to South Bunnell lot? If those in East Bunnell have to move more spaces are needed.

RESPONSE

UAF received half of the funding for the Engineering Building from the Legislature this year and construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2013.

Thank you for your feedback on the parking needs in that area. Parking Services will be making decisions about specific parking needs closer to the groundbreaking.

QUESTION

With all of the construction on campus this summer, I know there will be greatly reduced parking. As a gold lot permit holder, will I still be guaranteed a parking spot?

RESPONSE

You shouldn't have any problem finding a space to park in your assigned gold lot. Should you experience any difficulty, contact Parking Services at 474-PARK(7275).  If you currently park in West Eielson, parking during the construction will be available in the South Bunnell gold lot. Gold lot spaces may be available in  East Bunnell, Chapman and Fine Arts lots, but due to limited availability, please contact Parking Services to get a pass to park in one of these lots.

A construction parking map and overview of projects is available online.

QUESTION

It looks like the utilidor project will cross the road. Will the road be closed? If so, is there an estimate as to when and how long?

RESPONSE

From Mike Ruckhouse, Facilities Services

Yes, the utilities steam capacity expansion project to construct a new pathway for high pressure steam from the UAF Power Plan to West Ridge, will cross the Tanana Loop between the round-about and the SRC. The contractor expects to create a detour (temporary road) 50 feet to the North for a short time to accommodate two lanes of traffic. The work is expected to begin in the next few weeks.

Please watch for heavy equipment, flagger and signs. This summer is expected to be a rather busy construction season on campus. You'll want to allow extra time to get to your destination.

A construction parking map and overview of projects is available online.

Campus visitors may want to refer to the Construction Parking map (pdf) or call 474-PARK for parking information.

QUESTION

We just received a notice that OIT is upgrading Blackboard Sunday May 13. Final grades are due by Wednesday, May 16. In the future, it would be helpful if major upgrades to potentially critical software were not scheduled during critical times of the semester, such as when faculty are trying to compute and submit final grades.

Blackboard is scheduled to be unavailable all day Sunday. It's hard to access grade data stored on Blackboard to compute final grades if Blackboard is unavailable.

Suppose there is a major disaster and the Blackboard data is lost? Woe to faculty who make the mistake of using some of the advertised features of Blackboard, such as storing grade information on it.

RESPONSE

From Karl Kowalski, Chief Information Technology Officer

OIT has been working with Blackboard to identify and remediate several issues the vendor has yet to resolve within the current version of Blackboard. Our typical window for performing such updates would have been during spring break, however, the fixes and updates were not released by Blackboard in time to perform adequate testing.

We have since received, and with the participation of several faculty and staff members, tested and verified this upgrade during the month of April. This effort resulted in participating faculty members voting to proceed with the upgrade of UAF Blackboard Learn. These fixes are critical to Blackboard improvement and although the timing is not the best, we picked the only time available between now and the regular annual maintenance window the first full business week of every January.

We had to work around a number of dates and landed on May 13, 2012, which is Sunday; Mother's Day; UAF Commencement Day; one week before the annual FAST outage; two days after final exams; three days before final grades are due by instructors; and one day before MayMester begins.

All the data is backed up and can be restored to its existing state in the event that something should happen during the outage. The team involved has already successfully performed this upgrade twice since February in Test and Pre-production instances of UAF Blackboard Learn. Everything is documented and contingency plans are in place. The activity is scheduled from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m. which includes contingency time to recover from something going wrong. This event will more likely be concluded by noon. OIT does not take such endeavors lightly.

We apologize for any inconvenience this timing may cause, but we truly hope people take the time on Sunday to attend the commencement and festivities or just relax and enjoy the morning. We also hope you will join us thanking the faculty and staff who have participated during the last two months, and who are willing to arise early next Sunday to once again go through the upgrade and verification procedures necessary to enhance UAF Blackboard Learn.

QUESTION

When will the FY13 salary schedule be available?

RESPONSE

The FY13 salary schedule is effective July 1, 2012. It will be posted online sometime in June.

QUESTION

I am so disappointed that the Grapevine is never updated.  Why even advertise it as a source of information?

RESPONSE

We do try to keep the Grapevine up to date. It's a busy time of year for many departments. There are several questions currently out to departments, but we'll follow up and post answers soon.

QUESTION

Just curious, but are there added costs and time having to route the new utility to the West Ridge around the outdoor ice climbing wall?

RESPONSE

From Scott Bell, Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Services

When it was constructed the climbing wall was sited to avoid conflicts with the new utilidor project.  The wall has not increased the cost of the utilidor project.