Chukchi Campus

Chukchi Campus is a rural campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Chukchi Campus is based in Kotzebue, a remote Inupiat Eskimo settlement located on the Kotzebue Sound that lies some 26 miles above the Arctic Circle in northwest Alaska and about 175 miles northeast of the easternmost tip of Russia. Kotzebue is the trade and transportation hub for northwest arctic Alaska, a region with 11 villages dotting mountain and tundra wilderness in an area of more than 36,000 square miles. The region is about 90 percent Inupiat Eskimo.

The region's economy includes the Red Dog Mine, one of the world's largest known deposits of lead and zinc. Red Dog operates under a joint venture between NANA, the local Native regional corporation set up by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, and Cominco, a Canadian mining firm. Regional residents also operate a small commercial fishery each summer, and Tour Arctic, a NANA subsidiary, which has hosted as many as 12,000 visitors to the region during the summer tourist season.

Most students of Chukchi Campus do not live in Kotzebue and participate in class through distance delivery via satellite-assisted audioconference. Chukchi Campus offers the Associate of Arts and Associate of Applied Science degrees as well as courses leading to baccalaureate degrees in education, rural development and social work.

Source: edited from UA in Review 2002, pp. 5, CRA Spring 2002 Schedule of Courses, pp. 47, and http://www.iac.uaf.edu, June 3, 2002.

Chukchi Campus Mission Statement: To enrich the lives and spirit of our people, by inspiring our community of students to take responsibility for developing their potential and for contributing to local and global society.

Source: http://www.chukchi.alaska.edu/mission/, July 8, 2002.

Learn more about Chukchi Campus.

Download Chukchi Fall 2001 Campus Profile (69 kB) by Statewide Budget and Institutional Research.