MEDIA ADVISORY
TO: News Directors, Education Reporters and PSA Directors
FROM: University Relations
SUBJECT: UAF Campus Celebrates Wood Center's 30th Birthday
LOCATION: Wood Center Mall on the UAF campus
DATE & TIME: Thursday, Jan. 24 from 4 – 6 p.m.
Students, staff, faculty and alumni at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
will celebrate the 30th birthday of one of the university’s most
widely used buildings, the William Ransom Wood Campus Center, Thursday,
Jan. 24 from 4 – 6 p.m.
The building was named for the university’s fourth president. William
R. Wood’s 13-year tenure began in 1960 and was marked by an enormous
growth in the infrastructure of the campus. Wood remained active in university
issues until his death last year at the age of 94.
In the mid-1960s, UAF students felt they had outgrown Constitution Hall,
the building that then served as their student union. Rather than lobby
the state for funding, they voted to increase their student activity fees
to be put toward a new building. Through a low-interest loan secured by
the legislature, the building was soon under construction and the Wood
Center was dedicated on Sept. 29, 1972.
Eight years later, then state Rep. Brian Rogers succeeded in passing
a legislative appropriation to take over the remainder of the debt. Today
the center features adjoining conference rooms, an eight-lane bowling
alley, five pool tables, two darkrooms, a multilevel lounge, a small pub,
a spacious indoor mall, a sidewalk café with espresso drinks, an
inspirational staircase and a ballroom and a complete food service cafeteria.
The center’s ballroom will be dedicated Thursday and named for Carol
Brown, a former assistant director for the Wood Center, in recognition
to her 25 years of service to UAF students. Brown died in 1991.
-30-
CONTACT: Contact Lydia Anderson, Director, Wood Center Student
Activities at (907) 474-7307 or UAF Public Information Officer Carla Browning
at (907) 474-7778 for more information.
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