FEBRUARY 14 - FEBRUARY 21, 2017
A&E
THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE
SPORTS
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UAA Fine Arts Department takes on “Working: The Musical”
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Kiki Robertson, senior, reflects on her time as a Seawolf
Shaun King speaks at UAA Journalist and political activist shares unique journalism style with Anchorage By Victoria Petersen
vgpetersen@thenorthernlight.org
Senior justice writer for the New York Daily News and civil rights activist Shaun King spoke to Anchorage at the Alaska Airlines Center Friday night. Known for his unique line-blurring journalism that poses facts along with his opinion, King has gained a following over the last few years through social media. King is known for his activism with the Black Lives Matter movement, his criticism of both the Trump Administration and the Democratic National Party. Independently organized and facilitated, King is speaking across the nation about social injustices and how the American public can better equip themselves for the future. “I just suddenly started getting a whole lot of invitations. I think it has a little bit to do with me, but I think it has a lot more to do with where our country is right now. People are looking for insight, looking for hope. A lot of people are very frustrated and concerned,” King said. “I
SEE KING
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PHOTO BY JAY GUZMAN
Civil Rights activist Shaun King delivers a speech at Alaska Airlines Center on Friday, Feb. 10. King intends to hold similar events around various universities and colleges around the country.
University of Alaska leadership up for review More than one vote of no confidence raises questions regarding university administration
By Alexis Abbott
news2@thenorthernlight.org
After a vote of no confidence by both UAA and UAF Faculty Senates, the future of University of Alaska president
Jim Johnsen is under scrutiny. The no confidence votes suggest that a person in a position of responsibility is no longer deemed fit to hold that position, and is a serious action for faculty leadership to take. The process took several weeks of dis-
cussion while the Faculty Senates were reportedly very careful and thorough in the assessment of facts before deciding it was the appropriate action. Johnsen has been questioned by faculty members for failing to take notice of concerns, as well as scarce communica-
tion regarding finances at the university and under Strategic Pathways. “The vote was an expression of the faculty, and that they are extremely unhappy with the direction that the university is going into under the leadership of president Johnsen,” Abel Bult-Ito, UAF professor and United Academics president, said. David Fitzgerald, professor in the College of Business and Public Policy, who is also the president of the UAA Faculty Senate, admitted that with faculty turnover as high as it is, in addition to low morale, serious action had to be taken to halt these issues. “The faculty believe that the president’s performance is detrimental to the university, so there are many questions about his ability to lead it. Our numerous attempts to convince him to change course or even seriously consider our recommendations have so far failed,” Fitzgerald said. “After repeated attempts to get the president and the Board of Regents to take the respective Faculty Senates seriously produced no results, a vote of no confidence was determined to
PHOTO BY YOUNG KIM
Business professor Frank Jeffries addresses the UAA Faculty Senate during their Jan. 13 meeting regarding the vote of no confidence in UA President Jim Johnsen.
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NEWS
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
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JOHNSEN: UA President has been questioned by faculty members for potential dishonesty Continued from cover be the appropriate action.” Frank Jeffries, a professor of business administration at UAA, conducted an analysis of faculty turnover rates of United Academics members. Jeffries found that in 2013, 25 percent of the faculty at UAA said they were actively looking for jobs. Today, 41 percent are reportedly actively looking for jobs. Other recent surveys show that 54 percent of the university faculty are concerned about job security and 84 percent say that morale is declining. “It is important to note that according to the latest surveys, the motivation and morale issues are not just faculty issues. Staff are also being adversely impacted and are unhappy, but many are afraid to speak up for fear of retribution,” Fitzger-
ald said. While presenting the university budget for the 2018 fiscal year to the Alaska State Legislature in Juneau, Johnsen made some public statements that made faculty members propose potential dishonesty. Johnsen reportedly answered a question about faculty leaving and was quoted saying that he “did not see a rush for the door,” and that he was unaware of the high number of faculty leaving. Speculation surrounding the integrity of university administration has been circulating at faculty meetings, where many members question the entirety of the system. “We need to stop and rethink the entire university system structure. Why do we need 200 people in central administration at UA? They are not regionally accredited, do not teach, and do not do
research, yet they try to control those of us who do,” Fitzgerald said. Bult-Ito stated that many of the faculty feel that decisions made by Johnsen and the Board of Regents are based off nothing more than anecdotal evidence or people talking about the university — not based on a cross benefit analysis. “Any decisions that have gone through Strategic Pathways and have been implemented have been done without careful analysis of how much it costs, how much it will save or the effect it will have on the morale of the staff and faculty involved,” Bult-Ito said. Brian Cook, an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance and a UAA faculty senator, shared concerns regarding university leadership and Strategic Pathways. Cook also serves on the Strategic Pathways Phase III commit-
tee on arts and humanities. “Many faculty are concerned that Strategic Pathways is doing more harm than good, that it is not collaborative nor based in true shared governance practices, and that the impact has already been significant to the morale of faculty, staff and students,” Cook said. “I feel, as do many other faculty, that there is not enough transparency in the Strategic Pathway process and that there are unstated motivations in the changes prompted, which are not being clearly articulated. Faculty, staff and students are frustrated and feel that they don’t have a say in the changed that directly impact us.” Cook acknowledged that clear solutions between administration and faculty are needed for the University of Alaska to move forward, with or without the current leadership.
Creekside Eatery cuts Friday hours The Eatery, located in the commons, cut breakfast hours the second weekend of spring semester with little warning to students By Cheyenne Mathews cmathews@thenorthernlight.org
The Creekside Eatery in the Commons is no longer offering morning breakfast hours, and dinner hours have been shortened. Scott Evers, the area manager for NANA Management Services said that spring semester will offer the weekend services instead of weekday options of breakfast, lunch, dinner and late nights. “Fridays for this semester, we are offering three different meal services: brunch, dinner, and late night. It was several things,” Evers said regarding Friday breakfast no longer being offered. “We have now revamped the whole commons. We did that in a very short amount of time. There are a lot of classes that are not offered on Fridays and we felt that we were going to try it out as a pilot program to see how it was perceived. We are still waiting for feedback with the students to see if we still want to go this way.” When asked about how students were informed about this switch from morning hours of 7 - 10 a.m. to brunch which will be 10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., Evers said Seawolf Dining explained everything on their social media. Seawolf Dining’s Facebook page did post on Jan. 27, the day the Eatery first closed breakfast, at 8:58 a.m., almost two hours after their normal hours. The day of the transition, the Seawolf Dining web page had not been updated to reflect the new hours, and in a fifteen minute period around 9 a.m., six or more students walked into the Eatery to be turned away. When asked about this, Evers was surprised. When staff at the Eatery were asked about the transition on Jan. 27, they were surprised about the transition and the web page not being updated as well. David Weaver, director of Housing, Dining and Con-
ference Services, said that the change was prompted by a lower rate of students living on campus. “This academic year, we have the fewest students on meal plans in quite a few years,” Weaver said. “I believe this is related to the State’s economic crisis, higher than normal unemployment, people leaving Alaska and tuition price increases prompting students to live at home with parents, and take fewer classes, or time off from school to work. Because of fewer students on meal plans supporting dining operations across campus, we’ve had to make some tough choices. One was to switch Friday meal service at Creekside from breakfast and lunch to just brunch.” Weaver also said that not many students utilized last semester’s Friday breakfast hours. “To be honest, very few students swiped into breakfast on Fridays before 10 a.m., so I hoped it would not impact students much at all,” Weaver said. Ian Mills, economics major, was one student in residential housing that did like to swipe in before 10 a.m., but Mills said that was before the breakfast option was cut. Mills said he was especially surprised by the cut because he never saw flyers advertising the close. “Well, lots of weekends I like to get an early start, I
don’t sleep in very long, and it was nice to be able to eat something before I went out and ran errands or studied or whatever it was that I was trying to do,” Mills said. “That’s kind of hard now that the Bear [Necessities] is closed all mornings before 10:30 [a.m.] and the Commons is closed before 10 [p.m.]. It’s really kind of late for breakfast at that point.” Mills noted that even though the commons has been renovated, that some of the renovation promises, like the TVs advertised on design plans, never came to fruition. “They told us that they were putting TVs on all these posts and we see how that turned out. The posters that are up by the door advertise TVs on the posts. Six flat screen TVs were advertised in the remodel,” Mills said. “It’s kind of frustrating, because we paid, we kind of entered into an informal contract with them under the expectations that we would receive the same services we’ve been receiving for the same price we’ve been paying for those services, and they decreased the amount of service we are receiving, and they didn’t decrease the price we are paying.” Creekside Eatery’s reduced hours on Friday followed a Seawolf Dining decision last semester to take away the Union Station’s ability to accept dining dollars.
NEWS
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
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FEATURES
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KING: History, facts and social commentary were the focus of King’s lecture at UAA Continued from cover think the more I speak, the more demand there is because there aren’t a lot of people answering those questions, ‘What’s next?’ ‘What do we do?’ ‘How do we respond?’ So I think in a lot of ways, people weren’t prepared for a [Donald] Trump presidency,” King said. King is currently running an injustice boycott in New York City, San Francisco and at Standing Rock. This campaign covers social injustices such as automatic adult persecution of minors, police brutality and the infringement of Native American lands at Standing Rock. Before he was a civil rights organizer and writer, King studied history in college. King is currently working on his master’s in history, as well. “Even though I’m a writer, my training is as a historian and I’m going to try and give people some historical context of where we are and point people in the directions of what we can do next and how we can respond,” King said. King is known for a unique type of journalism where he presents unbiased facts alongside his own commentary on the facts and story he’s writing about. Traditionally deemed unethical, this type of journalism has made King wellknown. “When anybody reads anything that I write, you might disagree with my opinion on the story, but the facts are true. The burden to be accurate is pretty big, you know?” King said. King says he wants the people of Anchorage who came to see him speak
PHOTO BY JAY GUZMAN
Shaun King addresses a crowd about civil rights and activism Friday, Feb. 10 in the Alaska Airlines Center.
to teach the lessons of organization and staying informed to those who might benefit. “I hope to leave people today with some strategy that they can organize and for things they can do next. I’m teaching more than I’m giving an inspirational speech. There’s a lesson I’m trying to teach and I hope people leave and can repeat to others what I taught,” King said. This was the first time Shaun King
has visited Alaska. In a traditionally red state, King said he saw and met many progressive and unique people that can’t be defined as simply as red or blue — a phenomenon King has been noticing in other states along his speaking tour. “I’ve loved my time here in Anchorage and I love the people. I’m a really independent guy, and it’s been cool. Alaska really is a place of independent people. They kind of march to the beat of their
own drummer...” King said. “We have this thing where we say red states and blue states, but I’ve met so many people who are really progressive and don’t really the see the world in a way that matches red or blue. It’s something completely different.” King stays active on social media where promotes civil rights issues, along with his commentary-laced journalism with the New York Daily News.
How local college students created their own award-winning film company
PHOTO BY YOUNG KIM
BIZZAY members Zayn Roohi, Norberto DeJesus, Sebastian Baquero and Traejen Scortt pose with Chance cast and crew members Tom Karpow and Tristan Heil following the completion of production on Jan. 14.
By Alexis Abbott
news2@thenorthernlight.org
Several college students managed to turn their childhood hobby into a mixed media company, BIZZAY. Zayn Roohi and Arslan Malik were around ten years old when they found their passion of creating short comedy videos as a way to pass time. Roohi is the managing director and cinematographer of BIZZAY while he
studies mechanical engineering at University of Alaska Fairbanks. Roohi has produced content that has debuted in film festivals around the country, and he currently works as a photographer for the University of Alaska. Soon after Roohi and Malik began their hobby in film-making, their friend Norberto DeJesus Jr. joined in on the action. DeJesus studies business administration at UAA and is the creative director
at BIZZAY, where he is in charge of the creative process. “My job begins in pre-production, at the drawing board, where story ideas and characters are crafted and eventually written into screenplays.When the script, locations, cast and crew members are all in place, I make sure the artistic and dramatic aspects of the story are brought to life by directing the actors,” DeJesus said. While in high school, Roohi, Malik
and DeJesus displayed their short videos in front of hundreds, where they gained the inspiration to create their very first short film. After the trio graduated, Roohi left for college in Fairbanks while the other members stayed in Anchorage. Despite the distance, film-making was something that brought them all back together. BIZZAY currently consists of Roohi, Malik, DeJesus, Sebastian Baquero and Traejen Scott. The young film-makers have produced short films including “Easy Money,” “Tragedy” and their latest short film, “Rogue Money,” which premiered in the Alaska Experience Theater with over 150 people in attendance. While in college, BIZZAY has worked on projects with Bryson Andres and international violinist Preston Pollard who is also a professional skateboarder, motivational speaker and has done promotional work for the 49th Supply Company. It wasn’t until recently, on Dec. 1, 2016 that BIZZAY became an officially licensed company. With support of their executive producers, Upper One Studios, BIZZAY is currently working on a feature film for the first time, called “Chance.” “Chance” is a full 90-minute fiction film about homelessness and alcoholism in Anchorage. BIZZAY is in the post-production phase of “Chance” and is hoping to premiere the film in the summer of 2017.
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THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
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UAA’s American Medical Student Association chapter offers support to pre-med students efits, the day you sign up they send you 1000 Kaplan note cards designed for your prospective test. Kaplan also gives you a free $500 Biochemistry class and 10 percent discount on all their other products and 50 percent for officers,” Sawyer said. AMSA also offers 30 percent off all nursing textbooks and PA textbooks. They offer discounts on contact lenses, care insurance, health insurance, application fees, application coaching, interview coaching, personal hygiene products, school supplies and more. Including all the discount benefits, AMSA provides many opportunities to help get your foot in the door in the medical field. “I want to build a network for premedical students, our chapter is going to be focused on building lasting and meaningful relationships with working physicians to gain experience and learn. It’s hard to get ahead in the medical field and it’s often all about who you know,” Sawyer said. “I have been volunteering and shadowing in hospital settings for eight years and have certainly helped others get involved, I want to leave behind my resources so that others can further benefit from my hard work and connections.” When Sawyer and Royal started recruiting two weeks ago, there were only two members. Now, there are officially 25 members and they are anticipating on having 100 members by fall. The AMSA organization welcomes all students in pre-health fields to join their organization. Jessica Kester, biological science major and secretary for the AMSA chapter at UAA, recommends that students in the health field should see what AMSA has to offer. “I would encourage pre-medicine students to look at the AMSA website and at the pre-medicine benefits for AMSA members. It gives you a better understanding of all that AMSA has to offer you,” Kester said. “What the chapter here at UAA can do is assist you in your journey to being accepted into medical school, It’s a long one, there are quite a few things expected of you outside of GPA and MCAT score, and we at AMSA desire to build a community that actively helps and supports you this entire endeavor.” The American Medical Student Association is a way to connect with other students in the same field. To find out more information, check out the AMSA website and look out for UAA’s AMSA chapter around campus.
By Brenda Craig
features@thenorthernlight.org
The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) has made its way to UAA as of this year. AMSA, founded in 1950, is one of the biggest and largest prephysician organization with over 30,000 members, according to the AMSA website. These members are made up of physicians, medical students and pre-medical students, all gaining experience to enhance their performance in the medical profession by making connections with working physicians and providing a sense of community. In Alaska, there has been a lack of support for pre-health students without an organization like AMSA to help with their journey through medical education. Now, AMSA is present at UAA and is ready to start taking members. Christopher Sawyer, biological science major and president of the AMSA chapter at UAA, pushed for AMSA to be brought up to Alaska. “It was my initial idea to charter the first active AMSA chapter here in Anchorage. I transferred here from a small private school in Minnesota where pre-med students had plenty of resources. When I arrived at UAA, I was excited to be able to work closely with WWAMI and graduate in the state where I grew up. I was shocked to find the overall lack of support structure for the numerous premedical students,” Sawyer said. Sawyer was inspired to change UAA for future students after the difficulties he went through studying for the Medical College Admissions Test, a seven and a half hour test covering the knowledge over a span of four years and across seven subjects. “I tried changing the system as just a student when I was studying for the Medical College Admissions Test, or MCAT,” Sawyer said. “I was ultimately unsuccessful in securing a MCAT study room for myself, despite meeting with the dean of students and countless building managers. I did the remainder of my studies in classrooms in the basement of Providence and vowed to change things at UAA so that future students wouldn’t go through what I did.” Shannon Royal, natural science major and vice president of AMSA’s chapter at UAA, joined with Sawyer to further expand AMSA’s mission and provide opportunity. “The president and I are also working
PHOTOS BY YOUNG KIM
The American Medical Student Association coming to UAA is due in large part to biological science major and club president Christopher Sawyer, who recognized a need on campus and pushed to open a chapter.
Natural science major and AMSA club vice president Shannon Royal hopes that with the new club, premedical students at UAA will have more resources that will help steer their college career in the right direction.
to build an extensive network of students, faculty and advisers that can help steer people towards their goals. Currently, we are searching for a room dedicated to students who are pre-med and studying for their MCAT or similar higher education exams,” Royal said. One disadvantage pre-medical students face at UAA is the lack of advisers for the numerous amounts of students in the program. “I want this to be the start of the new pre-medical program here at UAA. My
goal is to create the first UAA pre-medical committee so that all of the students here have a chance to meet with advisers. This school is too big to just have one pre-medical adviser. It’s a long and confusing process,” Sawyer said. There are endless amounts of benefits pre-medical students can gain by joining the AMSA organization. AMSA was designed to help students focus on school without worrying about their bank account. “AMSA has an insane amount of ben-
UAAnonymous: How to report sexual assault Student Health and Counseling Center 786-4040
The UAA Peer Health Educators host a weekly peer to peer discussion about healthy sexuality. Questions are taken from UAA students. “What is the difference between sexual assault and sexual misconduct?” Sexual misconduct refers to unwanted, uninvited, or coerced touching of a sexual nature, or unwanted or uninvited sexual commentary. Sexual assault includes all forms of sexual misconduct and also includes any nonconsensual sexual con-
tact with penetration of any body part or object no matter how slight the penetration or contact. Consent is clear, active, voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time. Consent cannot be given while a person is incapacitated, that is, while they are unable to make sound decisions. A person can be incapacitated by sleep, age, unconsciousness, alcohol, drug use (legal or illegal) or mental and/or other disabilities. Sexual assault can happen to anyone of any gender and sexual orientation. A 2015 climate survey by the UAA Justice Department found that 14.9 percent of women, or more than 1 out of
every 7 students at UA experienced sexual misconduct, sexual assault or both between January 2015 and spring semester 2016. A third of this estimated 2,183 women experienced at least one attempted or completed sexual assault.
5.8 percent or almost 1 out of every 17 men experienced sexual misconduct, sexual assault or both during this same time period. Again, about one third of the estimated 610 men experienced at least one attempted or completed sexual assault.
If you or someone you know have experienced any form of sexual misconduct, there are many resources available on and off campus. Student Health and Counseling Center: 786-4040 Standing Together Against Rape: 276-7273 Title IX: 786-1424
06 | FEATURES
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
Radical Recreation: The Stewmans Ryan and Riley Stewman share their love for skateboarding through the busy times
GRAPHIC BY JIAN BAUTISTA
By Brenda Craig
features@thenorthernlight.org
The Stewman twins have done everything together since the day they were born. The brothers were introduced to skateboarding at the age of 9 and have been skating ever since with no intentions of quitting. They currently work at Southcentral Foundation as public relation assistants while attending school full-time. Even with a busy schedule, the Stewmans always make time for a skate break. “We started [skateboarding] at the same time. From the day we were born until this very day, we have always done everything together,” Riley Stewman, UAA business marketing major, said. After skateboarding came into their lives, it became a major part of who they are. Ryan Stewman, a UAA psychology major, born six minutes before Riley, plans to keep skating to keep excitement in his life. “It is important to me to continue because skateboarding is the only sport I see people continue to do as they get older, and will not stop until their body really gives up on them,” Ryan Stewman said. “So, I just need to keep doing it because it puts hype in my life doing something I enjoy so much, and so why would I stop that?” Skateboarding not only provides excitement in life but can also be used as a relaxation method when life gets hectic. “With how busy I am during the school
year with school and work, I would have to say it has been very important to me to take the time to get out and skate because it is very important to always give yourself a break to do what you want to do. Otherwise, you can easily get frustrated with things,” Riley Stewman said. Although the Stewmans do almost everything together, they have separate career paths for the future. “My career choice is going to be working for the Anchorage Police Department and eventually work my way up to be a detective in domestic violence or in crimes against children,” Ryan said. Riley plans to go a different route and is leaning towards business. “The career I am shooting for is working for a firm in a marketing and public relations department and working my way up the chain from there,” Riley said. “Additionally, I would like to start my own company on the side, just as a small business that would consist of selling my own brand of clothing.” One thing that draws individuals to skateboarding is the concept that there are essentially no rules. This independent sport allows skaters to progress at their own level while getting support from others. “I think what makes skateboarding important to me is that it is a sport all about your own progression and style, and there are no rules. It is a sport where a person kind of creates their own selfimage,” Ryan said. “It is also important to me because even though it is about
PHOTO COURTESY OF RILEY STEWMAN
Ryan and Riley Stewman share a love of skateboarding, regardless of their vastly different life goals.
you, the skateboarding community is real tight and they all seem to just love watching each other progress and always keep a good vibe. I want to stay a part of that.” Riley also believes that the fact there are no rules is what makes skateboarding great. By having no right and wrong in skateboarding, leads to not feeling competitive and encouraging when others are progressing with one another. “It is one of those sports where you can progress on your own and you are really your own coach, there’s not a team
against team thing going on,” Riley said. “You don’t have to compete to get better, you get to meet new people, chill with the homies and get each other pumped up to land a trick. It’s just good vibes with everyone, it’s that one thing that I never want to stop doing.” Ryan and Riley stress the importance of finding something you love to do and to take breaks to fulfill those cravings. Skateboarding has provided the brothers with life-long friendships, sense of community and personal growth.
concerts start 10pm | 21 & over | schedule & tix online: thesitzmark.com
feb. 17 & 18
young dubliners celtic rock | $20
best place to après | open daily at 11am, food til late
feb. 14: motor city soul motown & soul | free! plus dance lessons &
giveaway
special valentines day show
FEATURES
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
Caliente: A concept created specifically for UAA Seawolf Dining replaced Mein Bowl with the Mexican food stop, Caliente, after student feedback and trips to California
The Sourdough’s sourdough starter Make your own sourdough starter to create sourdough bread and pancakes
By Victoria Petersen
vgpetersen@thenorthernlight.org
Sourdough has become a part of the unique food culture here in Alaska. Easy to make and monitor, sourdough starters can be shared with friends and be used to make a variety of foods; from sourdough bread to sourdough pancakes. Add fresh picked blueberries to those pancakes to make it extra Alaskan. Sourdough starter is easy and simple enough to make in a dorm room. With the help of the miracle of fermentation, sourdough starters only require two ingredients. Sourdough starters are used to cultivate wild yeast found in flour. Before commercialized active dry yeast was invented for baking, wild yeast was the way of making bread.
Ingredients • 4 ounces (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) of all-purpose flour • 4 ounces (1/2 cup) of water
Directions 1. In a large bowl or container, bigger than 2 quarts and not metal, PHOTO BY JAY GUZMAN
Sous-chef Bridger Bates and Line Cook Brian Gunnells are two of several employees who operate the Student Union’s Caliente restaurant.
By Cheyenne Mathews cmathews@thenorthernlight.org
Caliente, the Mexican food option in the Student Union, has been around for little more than a semester, but administrators of Caliente are happy with how the store is doing. Brad Harris, area executive chef for NANA Management Services, designed the menu for Caliente and was one of the people who helped create the semi-original concept at UAA. “We started out simplistic, we took a lot of information in from students, staff and faculty,” Harris said on the creation process of Caliente. “We had cards out for [comments].... And we took a lot of notation on opinion, needs and wants. We changed the menu three times now, [and] we added some additional offerings.” One of the biggest challenges for Caliente as a new restaurant is competing with Subway’s established brand, customer loyalty and cheaper price point. “We know Subway has a great plan for students and I guess the rest of the United States, but the $3.50 sub, we try to compete with that,” Harris said. “We have a tostada in place, we have some cheaper offerings than what we currently started with. Students implied about obviously having carne asada, or steak, so now we have that available. We have queso sauce that everyone was talking about. We’ve done a good job of listening, and I think the students have reacted very positively with the offerings we currently have in place after they obviously recommended them and we supplied.” Scott Evers, area manager for NANA Management services said around two years ago he started working on a new concept to replace the old food stop, the Mein Bowl. Using student and faculty feedback, Evers started researching potential new food concepts.
“There were several different concepts: there was an Italian concept, there was a pizza concept, like a Pizza Hut,” Evers said. “We knew that we needed to change something — regardless of whether it was another coffee shop — or if we just needed to have another food offering on campus, and it seems like everything we had on the open forums with the faculty and staff was that they wanted some kind of Mexican concept.” Evers said authenticity and quality were two things that were very important to the creation of Caliente, and so he took some southern California trips to see what Mexican food concepts had been successful there. After the trips, Evers had the name Caliente and menu ideas to implement at the Student Union. “Mein Bowl was getting old, getting tired, and getting boring. We needed to bring something fresh and new to it,” Evers said. “We went to Pepperdine, [Loyola Marymount University], a couple other schools and it seemed like out of all their open forums that they had with their students, they wanted some type of Mexican concept. So we then recreated Caliente, and we feel that it’s done really well.” Bridger Bates is the sous-chef at Caliente and believes that the concept has done well in its first semester. “We are in the university and a lot of the students, I don’t think, can afford to eat here or don’t want to spend that kind of money...” Bates said. “But overall, I think it’s doing really well. I think some of the feedback we’ve gotten, some of the promotions that we do, things have been positive.” Evers and Harris have talked about expanding Caliente’s services to other venues, including offering a Caliente food truck. For now, Evers and Harris are working on special promotions for their food that offer a lower price point for students.
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add flour and water. Stir until sticky dough forms. 2. Once the dough is formed, cover the container with plastic wrap or a lid and store in consistent room temperature. Let it sit for 24 hours. 3. Each day for five days, feed the starter by adding 4 ounces of both fresh flour and water. Do not feed unless bubbles are present in the sourdough starter. Depending on the conditions of your kitchen, this could take less than or more than 24 hours. As the starter grows it will become more frothy and sour in smell. Bubbles in the starter are signs of yeast activity and indicate that the starter needs to be “fed” still. This process usually takes about five days. 4. You know your starter is ready to use when it has doubled in size and is very bubbly. When you stir it the starter, it should feel loose and easy to stir. The smell should be sour and pungent. Your starter is ripe. 5. To maintain your starter, you will need to remove (use) half of the starter in the bowl and then feed with more flour and water. If you don’t plan to use the starter too often, it can be stored in the fridge with a plastic wrap covering and trimmed of half and fed only once a week, instead of every day.
08 | FEATURES
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
FEATURES
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
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Anchorage millennials bring handmade lingerie to the Anchorage shopping scene By Victoria Petersen
vgpetersen@thenorthernlight.org
Growing up in the Philippines, Bea Barth learned to hand sew from her aunt who would ask Barth to help mend their clothes. Now, Barth is launching her own intimates company along with her best friend, Kristina Carlson. “It’s funny and very ironic because the way I learned to sew as a little girl was when my aunt would make me sew patches on her underwear because we were poor, and now I’m starting this,” Barth said. Barth and Carlson, who has since relocated from Alaska to North Carolina, contracted a seamstress to help with the task of actually creating the lingerie. All of the garments are made in Alaska, with the idea of keeping the items as ethically produced as possible. “The biggest thing is the importance of ethically produced lingerie and clothing... We try to source everything from the U.S. or from local places here. We want to support smaller local businesses that are essentially doing the same thing we are,” Barth said. Love 49 began as an idea for one of Barth’s UAA marketing class finals. “I had to do a marketing plan, so I did it on this and after I finished my paper I was like, ‘We should do this,’” Barth said. Barth strives to make use of local talent in all aspects of her new business — even down to the price tags that will adorn the lingerie, made by Assets Incorporated, a small local non-profit printing company that employs residents with disabilities. Model and UAA justice student Jasmine Alleva found comfort in Love 49’s undergarments. “I love that this is all local. From the designs to the production. I love supporting local businesses. It makes my heart swell that I can buy lingerie sets and I know that my purchase isn’t hurting anyone in a different country and that the money is going back into the local economy,” Alleva said. Barth and Carlson, who have been friends since grade school, have always
shown a strong interest in fashion. “One of our favorite things to do in high school was to go to Barnes and Noble and read fashion magazines. We were always really into fashion. We are really into consignment shopping. We aren’t uppity, we’re from Alaska and we want the deals,” Barth said. Anchorage has very few options for buying lingerie, beyond department stores. “I’m super excited for another local brand to pop up. I believe everyone who wears lingerie should have the option to shop local and support their economy. I also think it’s super important that people feel comfortable and sexy in what they wear, so it’s great that Alaskans now have another option,” Melinda MotoWeinstein, UAA psychology student and lingerie saleswoman, said. Love 49 hopes to fill a niche that hasn’t existed before in Anchorage that will cater to the city and state’s unique fashion sense. “Our first priority is our audience here in Alaska. We’re just known to go to the nicest restaurants in Sorrels or Bogs and Xtra-tuffs, and no one cares, and that’s just the kind of fashion we have. Maybe the rest of the country looks down on it, but I’m not going to wear my heels outside because it doesn’t make sense,” Barth said. “We’re wearing sweaters half the year anyways, we don’t need pushup bras. I have a down jacket on half the year, I don’t need to show off. Comfort is number one for me. It can still be pretty and super comfortable.” Currently, Love 49 offers general sizes that range from small to large, and custom sizing where intimates will be tailored to your exact measurements. “Everything is made to order. You might be a 32, but a 32 DD, and we can make it. We’re not a store that’s already pre-made all of our stuff,” Barth said. “We are here to cater to a wide array of people, not just skinny people, not just models. Everyone is different and everyone needs underwear and deserves to have pretty stuff in their underwear store.” Love 49 opened their online shop last week and are now taking orders at love49ak.com.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF LOVE 49
Love 49 intimates are designed and made with ethically sourced materials in Alaska.
Created in Alaska by locals, all of Love 49’s intimates are designed with comfort and the Alaskan woman in mind.
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10 | FEATURES
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
Prof-iles: Professor reaches for the stars and learns to fly on the way
GRAPHIC BY JIAN BAUTISTA
By Cheyenne Mathews cmathews@thenorthernlight.org
As a child, Katherine Rawlins had one huge dream and that was to become an astronaut. Rawlins, who is the department chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy and a physics professor at UAA, said she was always ambitious as a kid and part of that ambition was directed towards becoming an astronaut. “I learned all about what it takes to become an astronaut. I did lots of independent research on this topic and there are two routes,” Rawlins said. “You can be a scientist or you can be a pilot. Most of the pilots at NASA are from the military and I didn’t want to join the military, and I like science... so that’s the route I’ll take.” To pursue science, Rawlins, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, moved to the opposite side of the country for college at Yale University where she got a B.S. in physics. Looking back, she says one of the classes that propelled her into the field of physics was an introductory physics class she took her freshman year. Her physics professor taught a class of his own design without a book, and by the end of the second week in that class, it went from a lecture hall of around 150 students to only about 35. By the end of the third week the class had dropped down to around 30 students. Rawlins was one of those 30, and even though she had to learn a lot of new math at the beginning of the class to survive, she stuck with it. “Well looking back on it now with the benefit or retrospect, I would say, if I hadn’t stayed in that class, I might not have become a physics major,” Rawlins said.
“At the time, I was very ambitious and this was clearly going to be a challenge, so I went for it. And it was challenging. It helped to teach me the limits of my own ability, and how to take notes and work hard... Challenge is healthy, and I am very glad I stayed for that reason.” Rawlins hadn’t forgotten her dream of becoming an astronaut, and it was still present as she attended school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to get her PhD in physics. The project Rawlins did her thesis on was called AMANDA, a project that has since been decommissioned. A larger project like AMANDA exists, called IceCube, and Rawlins is still involved with that project today. Her work with both AMANDA and IceCube took her to the South Pole, to the Amundsen-Scott Research station, where she’s worked three times: first from 1999 to 2000 for a four-week stint, the second time she visited in the summer during 2000 to 2001 and her third trip lasted an entire year from November 2001 to November 2002. “It’s more like a really small village in the middle of nowhere that you can’t leave,” Rawlins said. “In the summer, which is from late October to mid-February, there’s about between 200 and 250 people. Then in the winter, which is from mid-February to late October, winter is the season when they can’t fly planes in and out because it’s too cold and dark. So the number of people drops to between 25 and 50. The station is maybe a mile across at it’s largest. It’s a bunch of little buildings... but beyond that is just ice for hundreds of miles in any direction.” While she was in the South Pole, Rawlins researched cosmic ray and neutrino astrophysics. The IceCube
Observatory is a particle detector a cubic-kilometer in size, with thousands of basketball-sized light sensors buried under the Antarctic ice that acts like a huge net for catching particles that cross it. “Our instrument is basically doing astronomy but instead of a telescope that collects light from a distant galaxy, we are collecting particles,” Rawlins said. “The questions are sometimes the same: What’s inside these distant galaxies? How did they work? How do they burn? We think that a lot of distant galaxies have some sort of really high energy engine at the center of them, they’re called active galaxies. They would be expected to spit out a lot of high energy particles, so we are hoping to learn about the kinds of processes at really high energy that drives some of the crazy explosives far away stuff in the universe like active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts.” Rawlins’ research was still very focused on the stars and space, and after her time at the South Pole, she finally applied to NASA at the age of 28. Rawlins wears glasses, and while she can see just fine with the corrective lenses, NASA medical requirements specify perfect vision. “I flunked out because of my eyes, they’re not good enough,” Rawlins said. “I knew that before I applied, but I thought I would apply anyway, and the rejection letter they sent me is still one of the nicest rejection letters I’ve ever gotten. It basically said, ‘You don’t meet our medical standards because of your eyesight, but our medical standards do change from year to year, so we encourage you to potentially re-apply if they change in your favor,’ which I thought was a very nice way of saying sorry.” After her rejection, Rawlins decided that even if she couldn’t get to space, she could get in the sky, and she started working on her private pilot’s certification. “I got my private pilot’s certificate the day before my thirtieth birthday, and I know this because my father was flying into town for my birthday, and I really really really wanted to take him flying as my first passenger on my birthday. But before I could do that, I had to take this test and pass it,” Rawlins said. She views her getting her pilot’s certificate as one of her biggest achievements because unlike math and science, flying was something she wasn’t naturally good at. “It’s not something that I have a natural talent for. It took me nine months and about 80 hours of flight time, which is longer than average,” Rawlins said. But learn she did. Rawlins earned her certificate while she was at MIT through a fellowship on an experiment called LIGO. LIGO was a machine with the purpose of searching for ripples in spacetime caused by really large masses in the distant universe being shaken violently, Rawlins said. “Back then it wasn’t clear if this instrument would see anything,” Rawlins said. “These ripples are predicted to be really tiny, like it is an effect that is so subtle that for decades there were many physicists who doubted we would ever be able to see them, if they existed, but now we have, as of last year. This is, of course, many years after I left the project, I left in 2005. But LIGO, that same experiment, made big news last February. The newspapers were going crazy because they had announced that they had discovered gravitational waves.” Rawlins left the project in 2005 to become an assistant professor at UAA, and now she is a full professor and department chair at 42, showing that ambitious little girls can grow up to be many incredible things.
A&E
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
| 11
‘Working: The Musical’ provides a relatable narrative for UAA audience
What to expect when attending the UAA Theatre Department’s latest production
PHOTOS COURTESY OF O’HARA SHIPE
Jill Tieskoetter performs the song “Millworker” in a full dress rehearsal of “Working: The Musical.”
By Madison McEnaney arts2@thenorthernlight.org
Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until Feb. 26, “Working: The Musical” will be running in the UAA Fine Arts Department theater. The play is directed by Nova Cunningham, and consists of over 50 cast and crew members that help aide in the show’s production. Based on a book by Studs Terkel called “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do,” originally written in
Leilani Cook dances to “Its an Art” in UAA Theatre’s production “Working.”
1974, Stephen Schwartz, who is wellknown for his production of “Wicked,” took Terkel’s novel and made a musical out of it. This musical is unique, not only because of the uncanny portrayal of the daily lives of many Americans, but also because of Schwartz’s aide in writing the play from people who actually have real life experience in daily middle-class life. “The fascinating thing about this musical is the lines that people speak, and the lyrics in the songs are actually the words spoken from the interviews that Studs Terkel did,” Cunningham said.
Jordan Crenshaw sings “Lovin Al” in UAA Theatre’s production of “Working: The Musical.”
“The great thing for my actors was that I could give them Terkel’s book and pull out their parts. They were able to read that person’s story.” The musical opens with a number titled “All The Livelong Day,” where the viewer is immediately immersed in the working-class American culture. Everyone is wearing different shades of denim, there is a giant two-floor prop behind that serves as the main scene on stage, and atop the whole set is a giant light up rustic sign, reading the musicals name, “Working.” In this opening scene, the viewer gains a small amount of insight into each of the actors daily life as an American. From this opening scene, the musical dissolves into individual monologues, where the viewer truly hears what this characters’ life is like. Each character brings a smile to a viewer’s face because they know them. Whether it be the diner waitress, the over-worked receptionist just trying to pay rent each month or the old man suffering from dementia, audience members have seen each of these characters in our daily lives. The fact that the majority of the play is given to the viewer by monologue, with only one character on the stage at a time helps audience glimpse into their life even more. Another aspect that this show addressed was its take on certain social issues. Characters of all race, gender and
occupation were taken on by the actors, which sent the musical’s core message to the audience loud and clear: Regardless of one’s appearance and affiliation, at the end of the day everyone has something to give to the world, something to work for. Everyone has a different and unique story to tell, and that is what America values as a nation. “Working” is a musical that tells this story, while making the viewer laugh, smile and think of their accomplishments and hard work. “The show was really entertaining, a lot of fun to watch. It really makes you think about your standing in this country. It put a lot of people’s hard work into perspective for me. I think UAA did a great job taking on this play,” viewer Colette Lausier said. Production began at the beginning of this semester, which gave them only three weeks to memorize lines, create a lighting sequence, choreograph group routines and more. With the smooth execution and flow of the play, it was hard to believe it was opening night, and even harder to believe the short amount of time this crew worked together to make “Working” happen. “Working: The Musical” is showing every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until Feb. 26. Tickets are $10 for students, $20 for the general public and $15 for senior and military rates.
12 | A&E
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
Localize It: This False Ghost releases their debut EP
Titled ‘Love Dies//Rewind,’ This False Ghost brings new music to the table
By Madison McEnaney arts2@thenorthernlight.org
To recreate one’s image, sound and overall look is a difficult task to take on, but it is one that the band This False Ghost has managed to pull off. Formerly known as Tamerlane to the Anchorage music crowd, these members have given their band a makeover, and are now releasing their first record as This False Ghost. The EP, titled “Love Dies//Rewind,” is seven tracks that work together to show the new sound that This False Ghost now
wants people to hear, and will be officially released on Feb. 14. This False Ghost consists of four members: Kevin Skinner on bass, Caleb Diloreto on vocals, Noah Montenegro on guitar and Christain Childers on drums. Diloreto and Childers were both a part of Tamerlane, but with the addition of Skinner and Montenegro, felt another reason to change up the dynamic. “I joined the band in the middle of last summer, when it was technically still Tamerlane. I got the opportunity to join the guys on tour this summer and play bass for them, but now that we have become This False Ghost, it really feels like our band, the four of us,” Skinner said. This False Ghost describes themselves as a post hardcore emo band, with huge influences from bands such as Touche Amore, Thursday, Glass Jaw and Fugazi. “We have our own definition of what our music sounds like, but its really up to the person who hears our music to decide what they like or who they think we sound like. We have some stuff that’s more melodic, and then also some stuff that is a lot more in your face and aggressive, so I think people can come up with a lot of different things to say in terms of who we sound like,” Montenegro said. “Love Dies//Rewind” was recorded with Bloom To Fade Studios, a recording
studio run by Demetrik Grissom. Members of This False Ghost wrote songs for the EP while they were on tour this past summer on the East Coast, before the official name change had happened. Recording for the EP began in December, and was finished in just a few weeks. “Before we began recording with Demetrik, we only had a two song demo which we had recorded previously. We knew we needed a better representation of us as a band, and we thought of Demetrik immediately because of his
recording with the band Conscripts plus a few other local musicians. He has the production style that we really wanted, and this EP would be no where as professional sounding if it weren’t for him,” Diloreto said. Once the EP is released, This False Ghost hopes to book as many shows as possible. The most important thing once the music is out there will be to show people who this band is, and their differences and improvements since the recording of that music.
‘The Last King’ makes quiet moments feel like a race
By Jacob Holley-Kline Contributor
There’s a moment in “The Last King,” a Norwegian historical action flick, where farmers turned royal bodyguards Skjervald (Jakob Oftebro, “Masteren”) and Torstein (Kristofer Hivju, “The Fate of the Furious”) improvise a story for the baby they’re tasked with protecting, and heir to Norway’s throne, Hakon Hakonson (Jonathan Oskar Dahlgren). They’re taking shelter in an abandoned barn while a snow storm rages outside. It’s a sweet sequence, if a bit on the nose, with a rare kind of heart not usually found in action movies. Oftebro as Skjervald and Hivju as Torstein both have a fierce physical presence, but they’re skilled enough actors to soften those edges. When they do, “The Last King” slows down and lets the tension break. There’s no threat and no conflict: just two men trying to calm an upset kid. Even then, the movie has remarkable momentum. The numerous ski chase sequences have a hypnotic speed that carries through even in the quiet moments. They’re made even cooler knowing they likely happened in medieval Norway. “The Last King” is based on the exploits of the Birkebeinar, a rebel party formed in 1174 around a pretender to Norway’s kingship. When the movie starts, it’s 1206 and Norway is rav-
aged by civil war. Gisle (Pal Sverre Hagen, “What Happened to Monday”), the king’s opportunistic stepbrother, poisons the king. As he dies, the king declares his illegitimate son, Hakon, heir to his throne. Little does Gisle know, the boy is guarded by Skjervald and Torstein, two stalwart warriors and farmers. Now on the run, the two bodyguards have to get Hakon back to Norway’s capital before he’s killed by Gisle’s men. The unique setting makes for some exhilarating action, but it’s not all excitement. Gisle’s storyline is mostly a drag save for Kristin, the daughter of the queen, and her exploits (Thea Sofie Loch Naess, “Mogadishu, Minnesota”). But her hamfisted relationship with her brother, Inge (Thorbjorn Harr, “Karsten og Petra ut pa tur”) bores quickly. Gisle himself is a typical Machiavellian figure. He’s shallow, power-hungry and helped little by Hagen’s comparatively boring performance. Archetypal villains aside, “The Last King” isn’t your typical action movie. It’s willing to sideline the action for some serious character-building, and never loses focus of its emotional core. The setting is unique and makes for the kinds of sweeping vistas reserved for serious epics. Jakob Oftebro and Kristofer Hivju have an easy chemistry that makes those central warm moments all the warmer, and the propulsive set pieces even more dynamic. When a movie as relatively quiet as this goes by so quickly, why not stick around for the ride? It’s more than worth the time.
TITLE “The Last King”
DIRECTOR Nils Gaup
RELEASE DATE June 17, 2016
COUNTRY Norway
GENRE Action
SPORTS
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
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Kiki Robertson: Women’s basketball all-star
From polar opposites, Hawaii to Alaska, senior Kiki Robertson has made a substantial impression on the UAA women’s basketball team
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SAM WASSON
Robertson speeds past New Hope Christian’s Mariah Mendez-Oliver and Madison Grant during an exhibition on Nov. 5, 2016.
By Lauren Cuddihy
sports2@thenorthernlight.org
Although Kiki Robertson has played basketball in the two outlier states of America, Hawaii and Alaska, she is far from being an outlier in the sport. Basketball is something she was born and raised to compete in and excelled in from a very young age. In Hawaii, Robertson began playing at the age of four. “I first got involved with basketball from my dad. He played at the college level too back in the day,” Robertson said. “I also had an older brother and neighbors that were all boys, and that’s what we were all into, so I would play with them.” She started her basketball career young and continued it all the way through high school, with three of the years reigning as team captain. In addition, Robertson was twice named to Honolulu “Star-Advertiser’s” Fab 15 and won the title of Hawaii Defensive Player of the Year by coaches and media during her senior season. It wasn’t until Robertson came to UAA that she saw her biggest improvements, that also happened to be her biggest chal-
lenges. “My coaches always pushed out the best in me and made sure that every day I was getting better in all aspects of my game. I also think that it was my biggest challenge,” Robertson said. During her freshman year, Robertson was a starter for all 28 games of the season that helped lead them the the NCAA tournament. By the end of the season, she earned a spot on the Second-Team All Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the GCI Great Alaska Shootout All-Tournament Team, as well as breaking numerous freshman records. Despite coming in with arguably one of the strongest freshmen debuts in UAA women’s basketball, Robertson admits it wasn’t without struggle and hard work. “My biggest challenge was pushing through my mental and physical walls and to keep going, regardless of if I told myself I couldn’t,” Robertson said. The constant desire to get better and break records lead Robertson to push boundaries throughout her college career. Over the course of her sophomore and junior seasons, she put many more titles to her name, including two more Second-
Team All GNAC, GNAC tournament MVP, GCI Great Alaska Shootout All-Tournament Team and two GNAC Tournament MVP’s. Robertson’s junior year gave her the opportunity to lead her team to runner-up at the Division II National Championships. The challenges that she has overcome are the reasons she has made it this far. “However, [these obstacles] allowed me to better than I could ever think I could because not a
Kiki Robertson receives the title of MVP at the 2015-2016 GNAC Championships in Lacey, WA.
lot of people have teammates and coaches there for you to keep pushing you and supporting you when you don’t think that you can,” Robertson said. In her senior season, Robertson and her team are currently ranked number two in the nation, but she and her team plan to take it just one game at a time. She realizes that they need to play every game like their last and work together as a team. With her final season coming to an end within the month,
Robertson will eventually close in on the end of her undergraduate degree in nursing. “For my plans for the future, I hope to continue playing basketball somewhere overseas and eventually become a pediatric nurse,” Robertson said. As for right now, Robertson plans to focus on her current season and classes. She and the rest of the women’s basketball team will be back in action on Thursday, Feb. 16 at the Alaska Airlines Center.
Robertson leaps into action against Simon Frasier’s defense at the GNAC Championships semi-finals in Lacey, WA. The Seawolves defeated the Clan 82-47, Robertson providing 6 points, 5 assists and 3 steals.
UAA XC: Seven individuals and running programs recognized academically By Chris Lawrence Department of Athletics
NEW ORLEANS, La. – A total of seven Seawolves received All-Academic status, while both the men’s and women’s programs earned a spot amongst the Division II All-Academic Teams, both revealed by the U.S. Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Thursday. Wasilla’s Mariah Burroughs, junior Caroline Kurgat, Anchorage’s Kaitlyn Maker, Soldotna’s Danielle
McCormick, and junior Tamara Perez were honored with All-Academic recognition for the women. This year, 404 total women received the honor from 137 different institutions, while 53 tallied a perfect 4.00 grade point average. The program combined for a 3.42 GPA to earn All-Academic Team status. On the men’s side, junior Edwin Kangogo and senior Michael Mendenhall joined 267 other athletes representing 118 distinct institutions, with 20 men earning a perfect 4.00 GPA. The men’s team used a GPA of 3.07 for All-Academic Team honors.
The individual All-Academic honor is earned by athletes who reached a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.25 and finished among the top 30 percent of eligible runners during his or her regional championships and/or the top half of the field at the NCAA Championships. To qualify as an USTFCCCA All-Academic Cross Country Team, institutions must have compiled a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.00 and compiled a team score at its respective NCAA Division II regional championship.
14 | SPORTS
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
UAA Nordic finishes what alpine started
After the commencement of the alpine portions of the UAA and Seawolf Invitationals, Nordic picked up last week in Kincaid
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BILL ROTH
Casey Wright leads the pack before her fourth place finish in the freestyle sprint.
many individual personal records and overall top finishes throughout the course of this meet. The team, as well as the coaching staff, are so far pleased. “We’re real happy, we got a bunch of top ten results and some surprises [as well],” head coach Sparky Anderson said. UAA Nordic finished off the Seawolf Invite, but they weren’t done quite yet. The following weekend gave them the opportunity to finish off the second meet both days at Kincaid.
By Lauren Cuddihy
sports2@thenorthernlight.org
The UAA alpine skiers already had the luxury of a home meet this season, but now it was the Nordic team’s chance. The Seawolves only get to experience a home meet every two years, and this just so happens to be the fortunate year. UAA already hosted the first portion of the meet between Jan. 25 and 28 in Girdwood, where alpine skiers from various Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association schools gathered and raced at Alyeska, but now, Nordic gets to enjoy the meets in either Kincaid Park or again at Girdwood. The Nordic RMISA team’s now continued in the UAA and Seawolf Invitationals. The Alpine team finished those meets overall at sixth place in both. The UAA Nordic team has a huge difference compared to the alpine team being that the Nordic team increased in numbers by the addition of new freshman, but after getting the hang of things, the freshmen are a huge advantage. Teammate junior Martins Onskulis on alpine didn’t have the addition of many freshmen to his side but knows how beneficial it is. “Nordic side has a lot of new faces this year... in [the] long run they have potential with such a young skiers. They are inexperienced and they still have to get stronger to compete with other top schools, but I believe if not this season, then next year for sure they will be in top shape to bring some good results back home,” Onskulls said. As the season is progressing, the Nordic freshmen are getting the experience they need to excel. Seawolf Invitational, Feb. 7 and 8 The third day of the Seawolf Invite picked back up on Tuesday, Feb. 7 with the freestyle sprints at Kincaid. Starting off with 190 points in sixth place, the Seawolves were considerably behind Utah in first with 311. The women’s team did impressively well, with a standout performance from junior Casey Wright who was the only one to place in the top-5 for the day and a season-high score of 73 points total in the freestyle sprint. Wright secured a fourth place fin-
UAA Invitational, Feb. 11 and 12
Sadie Fox shows off her team spirit at the Seawolf Invite.
Toomas Kollo races at the front of the pack at the Seawolf Invitational in Kincaid Park.
ish after making it past the quarterfinal and semifinal heats and into the finals. In addition, freshman Hannah Rudd and sophomore Sadia Fox placed in the top15, at eighth and 13th, respectively. On the men’s side, there was only one top-15 finish in contrast to the women’s three. Freshman Zackarias Toresson just got by at 15th, while sophomore Toomas Kollo followed at 17th and freshman Pietro Mosconi trailed in at 30th. After the first day for the Nordic teams, the Seawolves position still didn’t budge, keeping them at 6th in the Seawolf Invite, with now 308 trailing after first place’s 510. Day two, on Wednesday, Feb. 9, didn’t lead the Seawolves any closer to first place Utah but extended their score to miss fifth place by just 29 points.
Moving the races from Kincaid to Girdwood, the teams competed in mixedgender relays to conclude the Seawolf Invite. The relays consisted of two men and two women, each completing five kilometers. Overall the Seawolves finished fourth with 127 points. However, the Seawolves did have a relay team in the top-5. Consisting of Kollo, Toresson, Hailey Swirbul and Wright, who finished in 1 hour and 12 seconds. In addition, UAA also competed with a second team containing sophomore Marcus Deuling, Mosconi, Rudd and freshman Natalie Hynes. Only two and a half minutes behind the first team, they finished in 1 hour, 2 minutes and 46 seconds, placing 9th. The Seawolf Nordic team yielded
After several days rest, the Seawolves picked back up and got back into action for two back-to-back days of the UAA Invitational. Both the UAA men’s and women’s team excelled significantly in the first of the two days. With a tie for their previous high team score, the women finished the day off with 73 points that secured them in at second place overall in the 5K classical. With three women in the top-15, the Seawolves even had a top-5 finish. Wright, similar to her freestyle sprint in the Seawolf Invite, placed fourth overall, being UAA’s top women scorer. Behind her came Hynes at seventh (16:27.2) and Swirbul at 12th (16:49.6). On the men’s side, in the 10K, they finished fifth with 54 points. Similar to the women, they had two scorers in the top-15 with an additional in the top-20. Toresson came in at the top for UAA at 11th (28:51.2), followed by Kollo at 14th and Deuling at 17th. After day one, the Seawolves sat at sixth overall with 333 points, only 15 points behind No. 5 Montana State. UAA competed in the second day of the Seawolf Invite on Sunday, with the 15K and 20K classic. With the end to the luxury of competing in Alaska, both the alpine and Nordic teams had several challenges to get passed but overall had numerous impressive personal performances, all after the above-average snowfall seen in January. “We’ve got a little bit more time on the snow than the last years, winter had returned to Alaska,” Anderson said. The skiers will be back in action at the RMISA/NCAA West Regional Championships in Colorado on Feb. 24 and 25.
CONTACT
THENORTHERNLIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
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LETTERS AND CORRECTIONS POLICY
Letters to the editor can be submitted to editor@thenorthernlight.org. The maximum length is 250 words. Opinion pieces can be submitted to editor@thenorthernlight.org. The maximum word length is 450 words. Letters and opinion pieces are subject to editing for grammar, accuracy, length and clarity. Requests for corrections can be sent to editor@thenorthernlight.org. Print publication is subject to accuracy and available space. All corrections are posted online with the original story at www.thenorthernlight.org. The Northern Light newsroom is located on the first floor of the Student Union, directly next to Subway.
THE NORTHERN LIGHT CONTACTS
3211 Providence Drive Student Union 113 Anchorage, AK 99508
ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR Cheyenne Mathews cmathews@thenorthernlight.org
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jian Bautista jbautista@thenorthernlight.org
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Sam Davenport 786-1313 editor@thenorthernlight.org
A&E EDITOR Madison McEnaney arts@thenorthernlight.org
CONTRIBUTORS Jacob Holley-Kline Chris Lawrence
MANAGING EDITOR Kathryn DuFresne content@thenorthernlight.org COPY EDITOR Michael Thomas copy@thenorthernlight.org NEWS EDITOR Victoria Petersen vgpetersen@thenorthernlight.org ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Alexis Abbott news2@thenorthernlight.org FEATURES EDITOR Brenda Craig features@thenorthernlight.org
Student Health and Counseling Center
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR Lauren Cuddihy sports2@thenorthernlight.org MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Young Kim ykim@thenorthernlight.org MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE Billy Stapleton ads@thenorthernlight.org STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Jay Guzman jguzman@thenorthernlight.org LAYOUT EDITOR Levi Brown layout@thenorthernlight.org
MEDIA ADVISER Paola Banchero ADMINISTRATIVE ADVISER Zac Clark ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Stacey Parker HIRING FOR Ad Manager Sports Editor Staff Reporters