Media Advisory

TO                         News Directors and Education Reporters

SUBJECT                $1.8 Million Inupiat House Opens

LOCATION              Columbia Circle, UAF Main Campus

DATE & TIME          1:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 20, 1997

One year and one month after they turned shovels of dirt at the groundbreaking for Inupiat House, University of Alaska Fairbanks Chancellor Joan Wadlow and Arctic Slope Regional Corp. President Jacob Adams will meet again at UAF Wednesday, Aug. 20 to officially open the $1.8 million residential facility, which will house up to 25 rural Alaskan students.

Construction of the $1.8 million Inupiat House is the result of a partnership between UAF and the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. to provide new student housing. ASRC, with funding from the Arctic Education Foundation, designed, financed, constructed and furnished the facility, which meets shared UAF and ASRC goals to improve the recruitment, retention and graduation of Alaska Native students.

A $1 million endowment for continued Inupiat House maintenance and support has been made through the Arctic Education Foundation. The combined investment of $2.8 million represents UAF's largest, single financial investment to date.

The UAF Master Planning Committee approved location of Inupiat House at Columbia Circle, located in the core of UAF's residential housing. UAF Chancellor Wadlow and ASRC President Adams will be joined by UA Board of Regents member Joe Thomas and Arctic Education Foundation Manager Flossie Hopson Andersen at the 1:30 p.m. ribbon cutting ceremony. Tours of Inupiat House will follow.

CONTACT: UAF Public Information Officer Debra Damron, (907) 474-7122

DPD/8-19-97/98-007med.adv.