50 Years Ago (or thereabout)

From the Polar Star, Feb. 9, 1956.

S.U.B. Co-named Constitution Hall

Alaska's constitutional convention will be honored for all time by the University of Alaska, Dr. Ernest N. Patty, university president, disclosed today.

He said the board of regents agreed to co-name the new $600,000 Student Union Building, in which the convention just ended, "Constitution Hall."

Dr. Patty also disclosed that the regents agreed to name the recently opened married students' dormitory "Stuart Hall."

This action honors the memory of Walter T. Stuart of Ketchikan who died, Dec. 2, 1954. At that time he was vice president of the board of regents. He served as a regent for 14 years. In addition to his many services to the university, he was particularly active in the land acquisition program for the institution for several years prior to his death.

25 Years Ago:

From the Northern Sun , Feb. 6, 1981

Open-ended...

by Fran Hove

Students come to Alaska for reasons as diverse and varied as those of the non-university community who fly, drive, sail and hitchhike their way to the "Great Land." Even the additional $800 per year in non-resident fees does not appear to deter their steady flow northward.

Like the brave pioneer women of our early history, Priscilla desNeves followed her man north. desNeves, a junior education major, transferred to UAF from the community College of the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. The idea of living in Alaska had not occurred to desNeves until her fiance was transferred here with the Army three years ago.

While desNeves attends UAF, her husband, now out of the Army, is a student at Hutchinson Career Center where he is learning carpentry. During the summer they live in Delta Junction, without the benefit of many of the amenities they were accustomed to in New York -- such as indoor plumbing and electricity.

After three years as a housewife, desNeves found herself bored and gave her husband a choice: she would have a baby, return to New York or return to school. He chose school as the least expensive in the long run.

Brian Hove, on the other hand, came to Alaska because of family. Hove, a student in the electrical engineering program had been to Alaska twice before to spend summer with relatives. Following high school graduation in Auburn, Wash., Hove decided to return to Fairbanks to attend college.

"After all, when you have relatives living up here, you may as well take advantage of it," Hove said.

Hove hasn't made any definite plans for the future, but thinks the timing of the gas pipeline might help make up his mind.