First of all, I want to extend a huge hand of appreciation to Jeff Stepp, the Student Activities office, and the UAF Concert Board.  Congratulations on a simply incredible evening with Morgan Spurlock.  The Davis Concert Hall was filled to capacity and everyone--students, faculty, and community members--had a great time.  The lecture was informative and entertaining and just down right wonderful.

Keep up the good work you guys!

Secondly (and yes, these are related), I do not hate Fairbanks.

I received a lot of flack (unfair flack in my opinion) for my editorial last week about snowmachines.  If my many critics had, just for a moment, put aside their self-righteous love for all things Alaska and had read my editorial a little more closely they would have seen that I never said I hated Fairbanks.

Yes, I said I hated winter in Fairbanks--I hate the climate; I did not say I hated the city.

Why do I stay in the winter if I find it practically unbearable?

One reason: UAF.

This is an incredible school, and I would not leave here for anything.

I will admit, candidly, that when I was applying for colleges I never once, even for a second, considered Alaska.  But serendipity brought me to Fairbanks, the story is much too long to expound upon here (stop by the office, I'll tell you sometime).  Suffice it to say, it was one of the best moves I've ever made.

Why do I love this school so much? 

Opportunity.

UAF is a small school.  Small schools usually lack diversity.  But small schools usually aren't nestled in the interior or Alaska.  Mix together UAF's unique geography, isolation, and climate (yes, even climate); throw in a hefty dose of government funding, and a dash of Alaskans' indeterminable spirits and you have a potent potion for a magical education.

Look at me, I'm the perfect example.  It is very unlikely that anywhere but here would I have been offered the opportunity to be the Managing Editor for a newspaper.  At larger universities there are just far too many people similarly qualified.  In an environment like that it is very difficult to stand out above the crowd.  I would have never been given this unique chance to further my education and practice what I have learned.

But I'm not the only one benefiting from the small school/large resources dichotomy.

A quick perusal of the playbill for the recent play, "Taming of the Shrew," shows that many of the actors in leading roles are virgins to the UAF stage.  Very few places but here could that happen; the statistics are against you.  Most bigger schools have far too much competition, and most smaller schools lack the resources and drive to produce such high-caliber theater.

UAF also has a special relationship with the government that few other institutions can boast.  Our sciences are buoyed up by this support.  Our students are able to work on real science, use state-of-the-art equipment, and even launch honest-to-goodness rockets from Poker Flats.

Several journalism students this past semester were "embedded" with the Stryker Brigade at Fort Wainwright.  They got to participate in war games and practice exercises, interacting with the soldiers like real journalists would in the field.  I've never heard of anything like it, and it's here at UAF.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I love this school.  Nothing's going to drive me out; not the cold, not the snowmachines, not a few diehard Alaskan's telling me alternative places I should go.

Sorry, but you're stuck with me.  And I love it!

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