UAS Communities
The University of Alaska Southeast is a regional unit of the University of Alaska statewide system of higher education. Established on July 1, 1987 with the restructuring of the former University of Alaska Juneau, Ketchikan Community College, and Islands Community College (Sitka), the University of Alaska Southeast serves the residents of southeastern Alaska with campuses in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan.
UAS Juneau
The University of Alaska Southeast-Juneau campus is nestled between Alaska’s Inside Passage and the Mendenhall Glacier. It is surrounded by glacier-fed lakes and streams, which fill with wild salmon in the summer and early fall. The campus is located along the shores of Auke Lake, on the ancestral lands of the Auke people. The thread of Alaska Native culture runs through contemporary life in Southeast; Native owned and run corporations are a driving force in the regional economy.
Juneau’s 32,000 people makes it the largest city in the region and the third largest in the State, behind Anchorage and Fairbanks. The Tongass National Forest occupies 77 percent of the land in Southeast. At 16.8 million acres the Tongass is the largest national forest in the country and the world's largest temperate rainforest. The forest contains the largest tracts of virgin old-growth trees left in America.
For a small town, by lower-48 standards, Juneau offers a lot of the perks of larger cities, such as a professional theater company and symphony, music festivals, a ski mountain, mainstream and alternative movie houses, great restaurants, a short-film festival, shopping, a comedy-improv troupe, hotels and coffee shops. Juneauites love the outdoors, but are also a creative, socially active group of people – it’s a great community!
UAS Sitka
The University of Alaska Southeast-Sitka campus (founded as Sitka Community College in 1962) shares in Sitka’s heritage of being the former capital of Russian America. Sitka is rich in history and a popular tourist destination. Mt. Edgecumbe, known as Alaska’s Mount Fuji, dominates the horizon across the water from the city. The Sitka campus awards both certificates and associate degrees.
Sitka is located on the west coast of Baranof Island fronting the Pacific Ocean on Sitka Sound. It is 95 air miles southwest of Juneau, and 185 miles northwest of Ketchikan. An extinct volcano, Mount Edgecumbe rises 3,200 feet above the community.
Sitka, with a population of 8,835, is diversified with fishing, fish processing, tourism, government, transportation, retail, and health care services. Sitka is a port of call for many cruise ships each summer. Regional health care services provide approximately 675 jobs. The U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Coast Guard are significant federal employers.
UAS Ketchikan
The University of Alaska Southeast-Ketchikan's approximately 12,000 residents live on Revillagigedo Island which is located on the southern end of Alaska's Inside passage. Ketchikan is 680 air miles north of Seattle and is located in the Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest national forest totaling 17 million acres. When traveling to Alaska from the "Lower 48" Ketchikan is Alaska's first major city and is therefore Alaska's "First City."
The Ketchikan campus, the oldest campus in the region, was originally established as Ketchikan Community College in 1954. It is located in Alaska’s First City, which regards itself as the salmon capital of the world. The campus awards both certificates and associate degrees. Business and industry programs are delivered on this campus, as well as a core of technical, maritime studies and other vocational courses.
In 1987 the Ketchikan Community College (KCC) was brought into a statewide restructuring of the University of Alaska. KCC became University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan campus, and campuses were rechristened in Sitka and Juneau. When Ketchikan campus reached its 40th-anniversary mark in 1994, the small college was enrolling around more than 70 full-time academic students and more than 600 part-time and non-credit students each term.