Save the Seawolf

Imagine waking up one day and arriving at the college you once knew as the University of Alaska Anchorage, and everything has changed. As you walk into the buildings and through the sky bridges you once spent hours, days, months and years of your life in, nothing is familiar. The green and gold colors integrated into the sitting areas and classrooms have disappeared. You could no longer “howl for the home team” at UAA Seawolf sporting events that you grew up attending as a young kid, a college student and now with your own family. Everything that you embraced as UAA was gone, stripped from you and the community of Anchorage. In the coming year, this is the reality UAA could be facing.

My first memories of UAA were walking through the culinary arts building or Cuddy Hall with my dad to attend class. I still remember the smell of the food and the beautifully designed cakes and pastries. My dad was working toward finishing his degree while keeping a full-time job and raising a family. Similar to many of his fellow and future UAA students, life gets complicated. The dream of obtaining a college degree is often the first to be placed on hold, never to be completed. As I grew up in Anchorage, I would return to UAA to watch the Seawolves athletic teams and even perform at the halftime shows for UAA’s Great Alaska Shootout. My family attended community events at the Wendy Williamson like the annual folk festival and UAA student theater performances that my brother performed in. Little did I know that even as a young child, I was part of the UAA community.

UAA changed my life and gave me opportunities I never expected to have. As an undergraduate student at UAA, the professors were passionate about teaching, the students were excited to learn, and there were unique opportunities available for students that no other college could provide. I obtained my first job through my professors’ connections with employers in the community and I had an undergraduate research experience that other students dream about. It was at UAA that I was able to write my first research grant and obtain funding for my research project. It was through all the unique opportunities at UAA that I built up my confidence to apply and get into a top biomedical graduate school in Colorado. I received my Ph.D. in cancer biology and returned home to Alaska five years ago. I wanted to help students in Alaska achieve their goals while still working on my ultimate goal, to cure cancer. Without UAA, I would not be who I am today.

The majority of students at UAA are like me. First-generation college students, paying for their tuition by working a part-time or full-time job, taking out loans and looking for opportunities to improve their lives and future careers. Students like me don’t do well in online classes. We learn through interacting with our peers by spending hours in study groups at the UAA Consortium Library and holding each other accountable to do well on the next exam. We excel in our coursework by meeting face-to-face with our professors, so we can learn how to improve our English paper or talk through a complicated homework problem. We use support services available to us on the UAA campus such as the UAA Learning Commons, departmental tutors, academic advisers and student health and counseling. We look for as many opportunities to get ahead, and for me, this was through undergraduate research.

The proposed University of Alaska merger of UAA, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Alaska Southeast would consolidate academic programs and student services at all locations into one university. These changes would limit face-to-face class offerings due to faculty eliminations and increased online classes. Students would have fewer research and community-engaged experiences where they could apply what they learned in class to the real world. Athletic programs would face elimination and each unique campus identify would be lost. How has UAA impacted your life, business or your local community? If the Seawolf and UAA disappeared, would you notice? It’s time to speak up and share these things with the University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen, the Board of Regents and your Alaska State Legislators.

Holly Martinson is a third generation Alaskan, first-generation college student and Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

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