In the late 80s while a student at UAA, I had an academic research paper accepted to present at a conference in California. Having no money for travel, I approached Dr. Lee Piccard, the Athletic administrator at that time, and explained my situation. As the school year was almost over, I asked him if he had any left over athletic travel funds I could use. He said yes and I went to my academic conference with travel financial aid obtained from UAA athletics.
What I could never understand was, with the entire athletic infrastructure, participation in classes in the gym aren't part of the requirement to obtain an academic degree for a significant majority of UAA students. The gym is for the students if they wish to take gym classes or use the facilities, but it is really there for the athletics program. Sports programs specifically. A significant percentage of student athletes get scholarships. The sports they play have individual budgets that include money to cover travel expenses for the team to go outside Alaska to events, to subsidize teams to travel from outside to Alaska, and to fly future students up here for recruiting purposes.
Tanaina Center sits next to the entrance on the south side of the gym complex below the athletics administration offices and its south patio. And I've heard the $39,000 figure UAA "donates" to their facility as a function of space. What UAA gets for that money is priceless. Someone should explain what we get for the easily more than $39,000 per year in scholarship funds and travel money given to athletic teams and their opponents. While some teams get less, I'll bet some easily get more than that amount counting all scholarships, coaching, and travel costs. What does UAA get for that? What do the students of UAA get for that? I'll bet less than 2 percent of all athletes at UAA get jobs as professional athletes. For what UAA pays, what are they training athletes for, and what do other students give up to have such sport programs?
I agree with many who say Tanaina is one of the best child care facilities in Anchorage. It is a child development center. Our son learned sign language and went to kindergarten there. Demand consistently exceeds supply for student space there. When I served on its board of directors, we spent significant time investigating Tanaina's expansion on campus. When they built the new sports arena, they should have considered moving the admin offices space into that structure and growing Tanaina upstairs. If UAA is indeed growing, then it is placing more demand on Tanaina (not less), and the university should respond as a resource provider adjusting its sponsorship to meet the demand in accordance with its own original goals for Tanaina.
Tanaina is not an artifact in the curriculum, and the perception that it is too costly or too similar to other offerings is misguided. They have neither low enrollment nor low demand and serve students in their degree programs directly as a learning resource for class-related homework. How is that any different from what we are doing for student athletes with their sports programs? Well, for the academic students using Tanaina and its children as a learning resource, the interaction contributes directly to their degree program. For the student-athlete, participation in UAA funded sports programs means they get paid to participate in their hobby while going to school. Employees or students having campus day care know they can provide their best while at school, either in services or scholarship, while their children are being cared for in an optimal and safe environment.
Tanaina should be expanded on campus with a goal of setting the standard to which all child care/child development centers should aspire. Isn't that the goal we have for UAA students, to be all that they can be, to develop and achieve all that they are capable of?
It is sad we do not have 1 percent of the budget set aside for child care the way we have 1 percent allocated for art and whatever percentage we allocate for the athletic programs.
Stephen Hendricks is the former president of the Anchorage Community College Alumni Association and of the UAA Alumni Association. He was a volunteer on numerous other committees and boards while a student at UAA. He is currently the Director of the Alaska Orthopedic Labs, a nonprofit research organization in Anchorage.
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