February 27, 2018

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FEBRUARY 27 - MARCH 5, 2018

FEATURES

UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE

FEATURES

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On average, students budget $1,200 for textbooks per year

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Sustainable Seawolf: A guide to local food

One shoe wonder: Felix Kemboi wins 5K race in a surprising turn of events of the pack. Only five or six laps into the race, he had his heel stepped on and his shoe flew off to the side of the track.‌ The incident didn’t throw him off. One foot still in a shoe, the other with a bright orange sock visible.‌ Teammates, such as senior sprinter Liam Lindsay, were impressed by the situation once they realized what had happened.‌ “A few minutes in, I realized that Felix [Kemboi] was somehow down to only one shoe. He sat on the leader and when it got close to the end he started to kick,” Lindsay said, “It didn’t seem to affect him as he pulled away from the pack pretty easily.”‌ Running with only one shoe didn’t stop Kemboi from achieving what he came to do, and won the event.‌ PHOTO COURTESY OF WWU ATHLETICS “I am really happy to have won it with only one shoe, but it Felix Kemboi runs in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference cross-country championships in Bellingham, Washington on Oct. 21, was definitely not easy because 2017. Kemboi is a freshman at UAA who averages a 4:53-mile. it caused some issues with my Championships on Feb. 16-17, into lane one and run heel to toe.‌ balance. I had to keep running By Lauren Cuddihy only to have one of their own For the 5K race, runners are to win for both my school and sports2@thenorthernlight.org teammates win the 5-kilome- not broken down into heats. All for myself,” Kemboi said.‌ ter individual title after losing a 19 competitors run together for Despite the win, Kemboi was Lauren Cuddihy is a member shoe a couple laps into the race.‌ 25 laps on the indoor track.‌ not completely satisfied. He finThe Seawolves competed on Felix Kemboi, a UAA fresh- ished with a time of 15-minutes of the UAA track and field team.‌ The UAA track and field a 200-meter indoor banked track man originally from Eldoret, team competed in the Great with only six lanes. The entire Kenya, immediately picked up SEE KEMBOI Northwest Athletic Conference heat of runners had to merge the pace and took off to the front PAGE 8

UAA housing struggles with occupancy rates

GRAPHIC BY JIAN BAUTISTA

In the 2010-2011 academic year, over 90 percent of residence halls were used by students. Seven years later, budget cuts and enrollment declines have caused that occupancy to drop by 10 and 16.4 percent in the fall and spring semesters respectively.

By Marie Ries

news2@thenorthernlight.org

UAA On-Campus Living is experiencing major occupancy thenorthernlight.org

struggles this academic year. From the 866 beds available in the residence halls, 741 were occupied in the fall. This spring, the numbers dropped to 638, resulting in an occupancy of 74

percent. A negative trend has been continuing for the past few years.‌ The capacity of the UAA residential campus is already small relative to the total number of UAA students, David Weaver, director of UAA housing, dining and conference services, said. “[The capacity] definitely reflects that we’re an urban commuter university,” Weaver said.‌ In the academic year of 20102011, the occupancy rate was around 95 percent in the fall and 90 percent in the spring. Compared to this year’s data, this means a decrease of about 10 percentage points in both fall and spring. This is the lowest fall occupancy UAA housing has ever experienced, according to Weaver.‌ He believes that the trend is driven by financial reasons rather than by the conditions of the housing community. “In fact, we’ve done major renovations in the last years,” Weaver said. “The residential campus is probably better than it’s ever been.”‌

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The Department of Residence Life conducted a survey about the satisfaction of students living on-campus in the fall semester. Most of the 177 participating students seemed to be satisfied with their residential community; nine in 10 residents reported feeling welcome in the on-campus community and enjoying university housing.‌ Weaver is convinced that the economic situation of the state is the primary reason for the decline in occupancy. “The state in general is struggling with an economic recession, so students and their families are making choices that they may not have made four or five years ago,” Weaver said. “Students choose to go part time instead of full time and potentially take more online classes so they can work more.”‌ Demographic factors might also play into the occupancy decline, Weaver said, pointing to a decrease of births in Alaska

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House renames part of Alaska Safe Children’s Act ‘Bree’s Law’ By Mariah DeJesus-Remaklus mremaklus@thenorthernlight.org

On Feb. 14, the Alaska House of Representatives unanimously passed House Bill 214, which will rename part of the Alaska Safe Children’s Act dating violence education efforts to “Bree’s Law.” The name is in honor of Breanna “Bree” Moore, who was killed by her boyfriend in 2014.‌ HB 44, otherwise known as the Alaska Safe Children’s Act, was implemented in 2015 to require education regarding sexual abuse and assault, dating violence and child abuse in public schools. The act is comprised of two statutes, Erin’s Law and Bree’s Law. Erin’s Law is named after Erin Merryn, a childhood sexual abuse survivor and activist.‌ Rep. Harriet Drummond, who introduced HB 214, says the bill does not require any money or change to policy.‌ “It renames a portion of the Alaska Safe Children’s Act... [It] combines both child sexual assault awareness training for younger children and teen dating violence awareness training for older students,” Drummond said.‌ In Drummond’s sponsor statement, she wrote, “Bree’s story provides a lasting and powerful lesson about the need to educate our young people to recognize and safely respond to dating violence.”‌ Bree was 20 years old when she was shot by her boyfriend. Cindy Moore, Bree’s mother, says that the training and education is intended to empower people to reach out to those who may need help.‌ “I think a big part of what Bree’s Law does is empowers friends and the peers and the people around the person who’s being abused to reach out to them,” Moore said. “Not only to console them but to say, ‘Hey look, you don’t have to stay in a relationship like this.’”‌ According to a 2015 survey by Alaska’s Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, nearly 41 percent of women experienced intimate partner violence and about 33 percent experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.‌ The education provided to teachers and students is given by Alaska’s Department of Education and Early Development. Various training courses

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