UAF is a very different place from the university I encountered when I arrived as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1972. There was no Honors Program, no Rural Student Services no Natural Sciences Building, and a virtual wall between West Ridge and the main campus.

However, over the years the "university on the hill" offered to me and to thousands of students opportunities that I never imagined on the day I taught my first class.

UAF has been, and remains above all, a place of opportunity. As I prepare to leave, I would like to offer my thoughts on some opportunities that are particularly important and ripe for the students and faculty who still have their careers at this great place ahead of them.

This is a place with amazing opportunities for exploring and understanding other cultures and other parts of the world. The richness of Alaska Native culture surrounds us, but it is augmented by many opportunities to investigate and experience the essence of places that range from Japan to India to Scandinavia.

Students, faculty members, and many visitors bring these places to us. The baccalaureate core curriculum, the global studies minor, and our study abroad programs are some of the ways we provide academic opportunities to learn about the far corners of the world that have become so important to our everyday lives.

Whether it is through coursework, visiting speakers, or friendships none of us should miss these opportunities to prepare for life in the shrinking world of the 21st century.

UAF is also a place with unparalleled opportunities for students at all levels to become involved in research, scholarly work and creative activities. In the two days before I wrote this column I judged papers presented at an undergraduate research symposium and welcomed teams from throughout the Pacific Northwest to this year's Steel Bridge Competition.

Those are just two of a myriad of ways that UAF students can become involved in intellectual discovery and creative activity. I think that UAF students and faculty do not fully appreciate the nearly unique opportunity UAF provides for students, particularly undergraduates, to work individually with faculty who are at the cutting edge of scholarly endeavor.

Finally, there is an immediate opportunity that offers fantastic promise: the International Polar Year, IPY. This program, to be carried out over the next two years, will be an intensive effort to better understand the Earth's polar environments.

I believe that there will be no place on the planet where these efforts are more focused and more prominent than at UAF.

On our campus we will see a steady stream of visitors, workshops, conferences, and projects aimed at understanding global climate, its changing nature, and the effect of that change on the ecosystems and societies of the North. It will be an exciting time. Don't miss out!

While UAF is truly a place of opportunity, it is not Camelot. Reflection and constructive self-criticism are essential to improvement.

However, it is easy to drift from constructive criticism to cynicism. In my view cynicism, while it may be enjoyable in a way, is rarely productive.

So, walk the fine line – be critical but not cynical – and do your part in improving UAF so that you can look back 35 years from now and say, "It's a better place than when I came."

Paul Reichardt is the provost of UAF. He is retiring at the end of June after 35 years at the university.