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Current UAS News Releases
Governor Palin Signs Marine Parks Bill at UASGovernor Sarah Palin today signed a bill from the Juneau legislative delegation to expand the Marine Park System to include 14 islands near Juneau. The backdrop included a few of those islands as Palin signed the bill at a waterside classroom at the University of Alaska Southeast. “Alaska’s 32 marine parks are unique in that they specifically prohibit the Department of Natural Resources from limiting hunting, fishing & trapping. The land was selected by the state with the intent for recreational use, which this bill will ensure,” said Palin.
SB 57 sponsor, Juneau Senator Kim Elton, said the bill expands the Marine Park System ten-fold, from 850 to 8500 acres. “We stand on the shoulders of those who have been working on this for a long, long time,” said Elton. The effort began 30 years ago, with the Juneau State Parks Advisory Board. Several long time members were present at the bill signing, including Gary Miller, who worked as a catalyst through the Juneau delegation to get the bill passed. “It was just a matter of coordination,” said Miller. “Republicans and Democrats worked together to make it happen.
Southeast Parks Supervisor Mike Eberhardt said the next step is to involve the public in a plan for campsites, public use cabins and possibly lodges on the islands.
The Anderson building where the bill signing took place currently houses the UAS Science Department and the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. It is the recipient of a new 10.7 million dollar legislative appropriation for renovation and expansion, including a pedestrian bridge from the main campus across Glacier Highway. Design and construction is slated through 2010. UAF SFOS will move to a Lena Point facility.
UAS Chancellor John Pugh took the opportunity to thank the governor and legislature for the appropriation. “This is a real move forward from both a sciences and safety standard,” he said.
Governor Palin thanked the Juneau delegation for their promotion and support of the UAS campus.
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Contact:
Katie Bausler
University of Alaska Southeast
Phone:
(907) 796-6530
Email:
katie.bausler@uas.alaska.edu
Board Approves Four New UAS Degrees, CertificatesAt its meeting in Ketchikan, the University of Alaska Board of Regents approved four new degree and certificate programs for the University of Alaska Southeast, including Masters degrees in Math Education and Educational Leadership, an Associate of Business degree and a certificate in Pre-Engineering.
The programs will allow UAS to serve a broader spectrum of students and put more Alaskans to work in high demand, well-paying jobs in Alaska.
The M.Ed. in Mathematics Education is the only program of its kind in the state. “The new M.Ed. will provide the opportunity for more teachers to become highly qualified as mathematics teachers in the public schools,” said UAS Dean of Education Larry Harris. Records from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development show nearly 30 percent of Alaska students below proficiency in mathematics. The new UAS degree will “respond to state workforce needs for highly qualified math teachers to meet federal No Child Left Behind guidelines,” said UAS Chancellor John Pugh. The program will be delivered live, asynchronously (which allows for student-teacher interaction) through the internet. “This distance delivered program will better meet the needs of teachers in the rural and remote schools of Alaska,” said Harris.
The addition of a second Masters of Education, with an emphasis in Educational Leadership (MEd) will prepare more educators to fill leadership positions in Alaska schools. “This one year program is modeled after our highly successful Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) programs. It will allow a teacher to complete all of the requirements for becoming a principal in one calendar year,” said Dean Harris.
A cohort of 20 teachers will be selected for participation annually. The cohort will spend five weeks on the Juneau campus for two consecutive summers. During the school year they will return to their schools to complete 640 hours of practicum experience in educational leadership and participate in weekly audio and web based conferences. The program is geared to ameliorate a dearth of Alaskan principals and other leaders in rural and remote schools. “We have support for this from superintendents in Southeast and from all over the state,” said Chancellor Pugh.
The Associate of Business (AB) is a transfer degree program to the UAS’ Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree program. The program will allow for on-site courses to attract more residential students to Juneau. All UAS business courses at this point are distance delivered. Three new courses will be added to the business administration curriculum for the AB. “The goal is to re-energize the program in Juneau and have lots of face to face time and more successful candidates for the BBA,” said UAS Provost Robbie Stell. According the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, management and accounting are among the state’s top 25 fields for job-openings and higher than average wages.
A certificate in Pre-Engineering (CPE) will better prepare students for transfer to Bachelor of Science in Engineering programs. “We see our role to prepare students to enter a bachelor’s program at a higher level,” said Stell. Regent Carl Marrs believes the program will help retain students who might otherwise drop out at the beginning stages of challenging engineering programs. The new pre-engineering courses will be on-site Juneau campus. “We are very pleased to begin offering this new option for students to begin a degree program in Engineering by taking their first year of classes at UAS. After the first year, students will transfer to UAA or UAF to continue their engineering degree. This program was created to meet a shortage of engineers in Alaska and we believe that this program will help Alaska educate the engineers it will need in the future," said UAS Dean of Arts and Sciences Patrick Brown.
Contact:
Katie Bausler
University of Alaska Southeast
Phone:
(907) 796-6530
Email:
katie.bausler@uas.alaska.edu
 For a listing of archived news releases by date and headline, please select an archive year.
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