September 12, 2017

SEPTEMBER 12 - SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

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UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE

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Thomas Chung explores trickster archetypes in new painting

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GCI Great Alaska Shootout concludes after 40 years

In a time of transition, when national searches are underway to fill several top university positions, executive pay in-state for college leaders falls below national average

By Cheyenne Mathews cmathews@thenorthernlight.org

Four of the top 10 highest salaried executive positions in the State of Alaska come from the University of Alaska, according to Alaska Department of Administration compensation data for calendar year 2016. The top earner on the list was UA President Jim Johnsen, who received $341,445.

At UAA, former Chancellor Tom Case received a total compensation of $267,658 in salary and vehicle allowances.

With Case’s retirement, Interim Chancellor Sam Gingerich’s employment contract awards him a similar base salary, but no university housing or vehicle. The chancellor and his cabinet combined are paid a smaller total amount than the highest paid public university president, Michael Crow of Arizona State University, who earns $1.5 million a year, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Three of the highest paid executive positions at UAA belong to interims, people who are temporarily assigned to a position while a search process is held.

After Gingerich, the Interim Provost of Academic Affairs, Duane Hrncir, has a base salary of $200,000, which is $8,000 less than former provost Gingerich. Interim Vice Chancellor of Administrative Affairs, Pat Shier, while an interim, has the highest base salary of the vice chancellors at $173,000.

While these salaries top the list of state executives in Alaska, these positions fall below the national average for a public college leader ($521,000).

Ron Kamahele, director of Human Resource Services, said

thenorthernlight.org

that while pay increased over the last four years in the Lower 48, pay has been frozen in Alaska.

“When our economy started

going down we froze, essentially we froze executive salaries,” Kamahele said. “I myself have not received a cost of living ad-

justment since probably 2013.

So we’ve been frozen while the rest of the country, their salaries have been going up because the

economy’s on a very good upswing and it has been and we’re still locked in.”

A search process is underway for the Vice Chancellor of Administrative Affairs position, and UA President Johnsen said by this time next year, “We will have a permanent chancellor and a permanent provost and the deans will all be permanent deans.”

“We will offer market competitive salaries and you know the market for these positions is a national market, it’s not simply a state market, it’s a national market,” Johnsen said. “But there’s more to taking a position than the pay. The pay is clearly an important consideration, but people don’t go into higher education — I didn’t go into higher education — to get rich. I was making a lot more money in the private sector than I make here.”

Shier stepped into his role at Administrative Services last October and receives a base salary of almost $5,000 less than the previous Vice Chancellor Bill Spindle. Shier received an out of class 10 percent increase in salary when he went from serving as chief information officer to vice chancellor, but he said the public sector often faces scrutiny over such pay increases.

“It’s been my experience that public sector is always under a great deal of scrutiny, particularly in Alaska where we are all neighbors, close neighbors,” Shier said. “I think it is mostly difficult for wages to rise in many cases even to the national average in part due to the fact that we’re essentially a resourcebased economy, and we have those ups and downs and the

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NEWS The Edge Update: Marijuana regulation, DACA and Hurricane Irma

THENORTHERNLIGHT

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

PAY: In period of transition top three university officials receive “interim discount” Continued from cover

By Grant Kniefel KRUA

The Edge Update can be heard every weekday on KRUA 88.1 FM The Edge, UAA's college radio station.

Local On Oct. 3, residents in Fairbanks, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the Kenai Peninsula will have the opportunity to vote on whether to approve or deny marijuana dispensaries from continuing operations. Should the vote pass, all marijuana business, including stores, testing facilities and manufacturing will cease production. When Alaskan voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2014, local governments were given the ability to opt out of the marijuana industry. The current measure will not have an effect on the ability to use marijuana.

National On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, an Obama-era program that protected young immigrants from deportation. Trump called it an “amnesty-first

approach” and urged congress to pass a replacement before the protections start phasing out in six months. As early as March, some of the 800,000 children and young adults who were brought to the U.S. illegally and who qualify for the program will be eligible for deportation.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed that the reason behind this decision was that immigrants were taking jobs from millions of Americans. Former President Barack Obama called Trump’s decision “wrong,” “self defeating” and “cruel.”

Global After Hurricane Harvey’s record-setting flooding in Houston last week, Hurricane Irma is making headlines as one of the biggest hurricanes ever to hit the Atlantic. It is one of three hurricanes currently passing through the Atlantic, the first time this has occurred since 2010.

Irma‘s core slammed the islands of Antigua and Barbuda before moving to parts of the British Virgin Islands. The prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, has estimated the damage to be around $150 million. At the time of publication, 10 lives have been taken by the hurricane.

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downward periods are well remembered by everyone. I think that mitigates the upward pressure that may naturally occur outside a place like Alaska.”

Frozen salaries can make it harder to retain or to recruit qualified talent. Soren Orley is chairing the national search committee for the vice chancellor of Administrative Services, and he said pay can affect the quality of candidates who apply for a position because, “for some people they are going to find that [salary] very attractive, and for some people that won’t be enough to entice them to apply for the job.”

“I think we are going to find people that are interested even with the salaries we have,” Orley said. “I learned a long time ago especially in higher education, money isn’t necessarily the main attractor. People don’t go into higher education for money, they typically go into it for other reasons. That’s the reason that I feel at our salary we’re going to get people applying for it because that’s what they want to do and the money will be high enough that they can live comfortably.

Will they get rich? No, but they can be comfortable.”

UAA is the only University of Alaska institution with multiple interim positions in the top tier of the executive leadership organizational chart.

“Is it unusual to have the top three positions basically be vacant at the same time? And my answer to that is yes,” Orley said. “But the university is bigger than that, the university is going to continue on and this is what I would call a minor inconvenience in the history of UAA to get through this period.”

John Mouracade, dean of the University Honors College, was interim dean for three years, a time period that he calls “unusually long.”

“It did become a running joke, because in three years, I started introducing myself as the Permanent Interim Dean of the Honors College,” Mouracade said.

After three years of holding an interim title, this year Mouracade’s contract says dean. When he asked about a change in compensation for this new title, Mouracade said he was told there would be no

pay difference.

“Since John [Mouracade] was serving, and has been serving for all intents and purposes, as dean of the Honors College, his salary did not change,” Interim Chancellor Gingrich said..

Mouracade receives a base salary of $125,000.

“Typically, in normal budget times when you go from interim to regular, usually that comes with a pay increase,” Mouracade said. “I don’t know what it typically is. Usually, there is an interim discount.”

Both Gingerich and Mouracade see two reasons to have interims: One, to have someone continue fulfilling the duties of a position while a job search is conducted and two, sometimes interim positions are created to revitalize or start new organizations. “[One] kind of interim is very short term and and sort of like, ‘hold the rudder and wait for the new captain to show up,’” Mouracade said. “And there’s interims like I have, or Paul Deputy and the College of Education where, when I got the contract first it was a two year contract and Bear Baker was the provost at the time, and he tasked me with sort of revitalizing the Honors College. It wasn’t a sort of ‘hold the rudder,’ it was, ‘let’s get this going and see if this can be viable.’”

Gingerich said the large number of interim positions is due more to a set of disconnected decisions rather than one unique action, and that UAA needs to focus on developmental opportunities.

“We have what we call a shallow bench,” Gingerich said. “We do not do a good job at providing professional development opportunities for individuals and we do have to work on that.”

That bench includes the six academic deans of the colleges with several deans just starting at UAA or with a short history at the university. Jeff Jessee, dean of the College of Health, is compensated with a base salary of $198,000.04 as he starts his first year with UAA. Dean of the Community and Technical College Denise Runge has been at UAA for a year and receives a base salary of $155,000.04.

Fred Barlow has been Dean of the College of Engineering for two years and he is awarded a base salary of $195,000.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

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RED ZONE: Microaggressions carry harmful affects over time Small and meaningless phrases or behaviors can hold much larger implications

By Mariah DeJesus-Remaklus mremaklus@thenorthernlight.org

Microaggressions are statements or actions that can send denigrating messages to a person or specific marginalized group, according to E. J. R. David, an associate professor in UAA’s Department of Psychology.

“Microaggressions are these subtle — and many times, unintentional, sometimes even wellmeaning, words or actions or even subtle kinds of behaviors that communicate to another person or group that they are inferior somehow,” David said.

They have been considered to be a lasting result of moments in history that are examples of oppression and discrimination.

David says that microaggressions are more subtle forms of

“Just man up!” these historical occurrences, often presented as gestures and exchanges that are demeaning to others, such as people using offensive terms to refer to others or even expressing disgust towards a culture’s food.

In an article that David had written for the Huffington Post in August, “White Supremacy Is Winning in My University,” he addressed the existence of racist slights occurring within UAA. He said that the failure of the University to directly condemn acts such as the Charlottesville attack could mean the failure of UAA leadership in combating even the smaller forms of racism and white supremacy.

“If my university leaders cannot identify and condemn even the most blatant forms of racism and white supremacy, how can they be aware of the subtle forms of racism and white supremacy that take place everyday?” David wrote. “And if they can’t even name the problem — if they can’t even talk about racism and white supremacy — how are we supposed to believe that they see it, that they are aware of it, that they are going to address it, and that they are capable of tackling it?”

Movements such as the civil rights movement have made obvious expressions of bias and prejudice less acceptable over time. Still, the effects are reflected in the forms of microaggressions.

“When we think of bias, prejudice and discrimination,

typically we think of the history of this country. Many people might think of slavery, which is a great example of oppression, of discrimination — racism, more specifically,” David said. “Historically, we can easily identify instances of prejudice and discrimination.

Society has changed, so now prejudices and acts of discrimination are not as blatant and not as obvious anymore.”

These small behaviors or comments contain messages that are racist, homophobic or sexist, along with other types of prejudice. David has faced his own experiences as a person of color and immigrant in the United States.

“I’m an immigrant to this country. I was not born in this country; I was born in the Philippines, but I’ve been here for a very long time,” David said.

“People will make comments about me, like the way I speak English right now. For example, they might say ‘Oh, you speak English very well,’ which is not something they would say to another person.”

David also says that his own friends experience similar microaggressions regarding their ethnicity or the color of their skin.

“I’m surprised you speak such good English.”

“Many of my AsianAmerican friends have gotten this, too. People will say ‘Hey, where are you from?’ and you’ll be like, ‘Oh, yeah, Anchorage, Alaska.’ And then they’ll be like, ‘No, where are you really from?’” David said.

Statements like these can imply that the non-white person is not a true American or assumes that they are an outsider, David says. They deny the person of color’s reality.

Claudia Lampman is the director of the Department of Psychology and says that microaggressions can have harmful effects, particularly if they are experienced repeatedly over time. Some people may experience them more often than others based on what marginalized groups they belong to, like ethnicity and gender.

“It’s the cumulative effect of microaggressions that’s harmful for an individual and for any group,” Lampman said. “It is what happens when you live

with this day in and day out… If you have multiple group memberships at the same time, you might get more microaggressions than the average person.”

Lampman also says that sexual-based microaggressions are still prominent in the workplace and in schools. As a woman in the workplace with an administrative position, Lampman has witnessed various forms of this discrimination.

One instance involved a male colleague assuming that Lampman’s back pain was related to her wearing high heels. On a number of occasions, Lampman has noticed the differences in the ways people address male and female professors.

“One of the microaggressions on college campuses with gender that is so common is male professors being called doctor or professor and female professors being called by their first name,” Lampman said. “My husband is a professor of psychology, we’re about the same age, and we both teach here. Early on in our academic years, we were out hiking and we came across a student that we both knew. Her husband was hiking with her, and she introduced her husband and she said, ‘Oh, I want to introduce you to my professors. This is Dr. Petraitis and Claudia.’ I cannot tell you how many times that’s happened.”

These ongoing experiences of microaggressions can end up creating a lasting impact on the individual and contribute to psychological distress, according to Lampman.

“It’s the kind of thing that can have a ‘drip, drip, drip’ effect on you. It wears you down to the point where you make choices that will allow you to avoid having to deal with that sort of stuff on a regular basis,” Lampman said.

As chair of the Title IX Campus Climate Committee, Lampman, along with other students and faculty, works to discuss issues regarding sexual assault, misconduct and harassment. She

says that even small actions escalate behavior, and if no one intervenes, it can be considered subtle approval.

“If you’re sitting there in a situation where a comment is made about someone that was over the line...

If you don’t intervene — if someone doesn’t intervene — you just sort of give it tacit approval for that behavior,” Lampman said. “If nobody calls that person on that comment, then it’s like saying that comment’s okay. When you get that sort of tacit approval, it emboldens somebody to do something more.”

Moira Pyhala, president of UAA’s Generation Action club and a sexual assault survivor, also says that bystander intervention is essential to combating sexual assault and rape culture, no matter how small the gesture.

Generation Action works to promote awareness for reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues and other social justice matters, and part of their initiative is to start the conversation and education.

“If nobody has ever taught that these things are inappropriate, how to stop them if they already know it’s inappropriate, or even how to protect yourself against it, then there’s no way to really help the issue other than education,” Pyhala said.

A lack of comprehensive training and education to help identify inappropriate or unsafe situations can escalate situations, but Pyhala said that people can make small gestures for a variety of situations. This can include speaking up about someone doing something inappropriate or hurtful.

“I always call it out, just straight up. Even if it does spark a controversial conversation, it’s so much more worth it to

have a conversation about it and maybe open their eyes to something than to not to,” Pyhala said.

Lampman said that it’s important to note that microaggressions usually happen below a conscious level and that everyone is guilty of committing them.

“Someone who is looking at the man in the room — a man who is speaking to a man even though the question that was asked came from a woman in the room, they’re not consciously doing that,” Lampman said.

“They’re often made by members of the dominant culture, but not always. I would say we all do this. Everybody does this. At one level or another, everybody commits microaggressions.”

There is still a responsibility to correct each other when it happens. This addresses the issue at the lowest level possible and can have a positive impact.

“If all of us deal with things at the lowest level possible, it sends a strong message that on our campus, we don’t tolerate this kind of stuff,” Lampman said.

Some may see microaggressions as a joke or a pre-emptive censorship on free speech, but David suggests that people should be non-defensive and not automatically disregard the feelings of others.

“I think the most important response that we need to have is to hear that and to understand that instead of invalidating their experience, saying that ‘Oh, you’re just being overly sensitive’ or ‘I was just joking,’” David said. “If you want to speak as freely, hatefully and recklessly as you want, then be prepared to experience pushback.”

Although some people may disregard microaggressions and their effects, the words and behaviors preserve the ongoing stigmas within society. Rape culture, sexism and other representations of bias continue to live through microaggressions, but they can be combated through conversation. It takes speaking up and keeping an open mind to ensure that today’s society can move towards a more understanding culture.

“No homo.”

“You’re a free woman! You can get free drinks.”

GRAPHICS BY LEVI BROWN

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

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College Cookbook: My complicated relationship with cooking You’d think that someone with a cooking column would love to cook, right?

PHOTOS COURTESY OF VICTORIA PETERSEN

By Victoria Petersen copy@thenorthernlight.org

My great-great-grandmother, Martha Marcusson Custer, would deep clean her entire kitchen every single day. My grandma, Sylvia Cowdery Butcher, describes cooking with her as mostly mess prevention and clean up; placing sheets on every surface of the kitchen before they even pulled ingredients out. My great-great-grand-

My great-great-grandma pictured with her mother. Her mother, my great-greatgreat-grandmother never spoke English, only Danish. I wonder if she liked to cook?

My great-great-grandma Martha Marcusson loved to be clean, ride her motorcycle and was an immigrant from Denmark. Here she is pictured with a washing machine, a remarkable appliance at the time.

mother may have had a bout of OCD. My grandma’s kitchen is a different story. Dishes may be put away, but the kitchen is essentially a catch-all. Drawers where baking utensils should be have become the home of decades-old electricity bills, batteries and other household knick-knacks. Her countertops are decorated with bags of candy, Panda Express soy sauce packets and printed out recipes for simple dishes, usually from Food Network. She orders out regularly. On one occasion, I recall her serving my grandpa a meal she made from the crock pot and upon the first bite, he praised her cooking, saying that “she should open a restaurant.”

“I don’t even like cooking for you, though,” grandma said as she made her way to the dining room table.

Grandma Sylvia isn’t the only woman in my family like this.

Her daughter, my mother, had a handful of things she made at home. Usually, these meals were easy, used processed ingredients and typically required a casse-

role baking dish. They weren’t bad, but they were recipes the Pioneer Woman would have published had my mom been exposed to her in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. However, when I lived with my mom, my childhood dinners consisted mostly of Top Ramen, breakfast cereal and microwave quesadillas. All made by me.

I didn’t get into cooking until I was an adult, living on my own. I don’t even know if I’m really into it. I do it often, I mostly enjoy it and I surely reap the benefits of it. Perhaps the uncertainty is in my DNA. My mom, Stacy Butcher, was never adventurous with cooking. My grandma certainly doesn’t enjoy it. My great-grandma, Hazel Custer Cowdery, used recipes that weren’t too adventurous that usually consisted of a bunch of ingredients baked into a single pan. My great-great-grandma, whose favorite hobby was riding her motorcycle around her Washingtonian neighborhood, needed her kitchen to be clean at all times, which leads me to believe that cooking was

My grandma Sylvia Butcher in her home state of California.

a necessary part of life, not an enjoyable part.

I come from a long-line of women who are iffy on the topic of cooking. Perhaps it was a sign of the times. Women were expected to cook for their families. I suppose if I was expected to do anything because I was a woman I would resent that. I don’t resent cooking, I want to embrace it.

For me, making things from scratch is the most amazing way to connect with history, culture and more often than not is the way to creating something that tastes authentic. It can be difficult in times like these when everything is available on a shelf.

Why would I make mozzarella cheese if I can just buy some?

Because it’s amazing homemade! You understand the pro-

Ingredients

Directions

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

cess when you do it yourself and you can better appreciate quality products when you try them.

It’s also much cheaper to make mozzarella than buying it. So it’s a win-win-win-win. It just takes time, which is all of our downfalls.

I’m working on it, but sometimes you just need something quick, easy and delicious for friends and family. I have you covered. You know it will be simple, relatively mess-free and tasty because this is my greatgreat-grandma’s recipe, and it’s the only recipe of hers that has survived for so many generations.

This lemon poke cake recipe will leave the guests you serve it to licking their plates and asking for more.

• 1 box of lemon cake (Betty Crocker’s is my grandma’s favorite)

2. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix thouroughly.

• 2-3 eggs, per instructions on the box

3. Pour cake batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. The cake is

• 3/4 to 1 cup of oil, per instructions on the box • 3/4 to 1 cup of water, per instructions on the box • One 3 ounce box of lemon gelatin Icing

done baking when the color has reached a deep golden brown.

4. While the cake is baking, stir together the lemon juice, zest and the powered sugar until smooth.

5. When the cake is done baking, immediately use a fork and begin poking holes all

• 2 cups of powdered sugar

over the cake. Pour the icing over the entire cake and let it seep through the tiny

• Zest and juice of two lemons

holes. Let the cake sit for about ten minutes while it cools. Serve and enjoy.

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Director hired for Student Anchorage Museum expands, renovates The Anchorage Museum will be opening a new wing featuring an expandLife and Leadership ed art collection as well as a long-overdue update to its history exhibition

PHOTO BY JAY GUZMAN

Sarah Garner is stepping into the role of Student Life and Leadership director. The position was previously held by Annie Route.

By Cheyenne Mathews cmathews@thenorthernlight.org

Sarah Garner is the newly hired director of Student Life and Leadership, stepping in after the retirement of former Director Annie Route. Garner comes to Anchorage from a similar position at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her background is in advertising and public relations, which she has a degree in from University of Nebraska’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Her master’s degree is in student affairs administration from Michigan State University.

Garner started her first day as director Aug. 28, and she comes to UAA with a three-fold mission.

“There are sort of three parts of my philosophy that are important,” Garner said. “The first is really about student engagement and empowerment, so at the end of the day, regardless of what my or our vision is for the future of Student Life and Leadership or Student Affairs on this campus, it must be student centered and it must incorporate student voice because ultimately we are here to serve students.”

The second pillar of her philosophy is community engagement. Garner learned the importance of community engagement to her philosophy by growing up in rural southeast Nebraska in Jansen, a community with a population less than 120.

“I think the other piece is that it be community engaged, and community may be defined differently depending on how we

look at it, but I think as a public university we have a responsibility to be engaged with the local community to find opportunities to serve the local community and in a way that is mutually beneficial, that’s reciprocal,” Garner said.

Her third pillar is to work with community partners to collaborate in a time of limited resources.

“I think for me the third piece is that it all be really related to sort of collaboration and partnership,” Garner said. “You know working with limited resources and as stewards of those resources, I think we only benefit by coming together in partnership with one another. I hope no matter what our vision looks like we find opportunities to partner with students, with other campus departments, and with folks in the campus community as well.”

Garner and Associate Director Kim Morton are both new to UAA and Student Life and Leadership this year, but Garner sees opportunity in fresh perspectives at UAA. “I think in so many cases the folks who are newest have the best perspective because they’re not necessarily tied to anything...I think the beauty of the team is that we have this variety of staff that have been on board longer and who have a variety of experiences as students at the university and now as staff at the university,” Garner said.

When she is not working, Garner likes to enjoy the outdoors hiking or kayaking, while also trying her hand at photography.

PHOTO BY JAY GUZMAN

The Anchorage Museum’s new Ramuson Wing officially opens Friday, Sept. 15. The new wing will feature The Art of the North galleries, which is a collection of different perspectives of the North.

By Ammon Swenson arts@thenorthernlight.org

The Anchorage Museum has continued to evolve since its founding in 1968. The most recent evolution of Alaska’s largest museum is the addition of the new Rasmuson Wing and a reinvigorated Alaska exhibition.

Inside the 31,000-square-foot Rasmuson Wing visitors will be able to experience the Art of the North galleries which feature works of romantic depictions of Alaska’s landscape to contemporary reflections on society including paintings, sculptures and photos.

Anchorage Museum CEO Julie Decker is looking forward to having increased space to provide the public access to more artwork. That access is critical to the museum’s mission, according to Decker.

“I think it’s an opportunity to have hundreds — literally hundreds — more works of art on public view,” Decker said.

The Art of the North galleries will contain over 200 works of art pulled from storage. As most museums can only display up to around ten percent of their collections, according to Decker, having more room will be a boon to both the public and the museum.

The last major update to the museum happened around seven years ago, but the Alaska history gallery had been unchanged since the mid-80s. Prior to its update, the space was beginning to look like it belonged in a museum about museums.

With the renovated Alaska Exhibition, visitors will have a more immersive experience

with updated displays and the inclusion of multi-media dimensions.

Anchorage Museum curator of Alaska history and culture, Aaron Leggett, said the exhibition will now be able to tell a more cohesive story about Alaska’s history and look beyond stereotypes as well as showing the state’s relationship with the world at large.

“The overall theme for the exhibition really centers around humans’ impact on the environment and how the environment impacted humans,” Leggett said.

Museum visitors want the experience of walking away with thought-provoking ideas or questions, according to Leggett, and it’s the museum’s job to provide that.

“We’re not saying we have the answers, but we want to point out some of the patterns that we’ve seemed to notice over the last 10,000 years,” Leggett said.

Unlike most other museums that specialize in subjects like art or history, the Anchorage Museum has the formidable task of showcasing art, design, history, culture and science.

“That may sound like a daunting mission, but if you can say instead our mission is to tell the story of the North and how the North is relevant to the world, then you can’t do it without talking about all those things, because all of those are important parts of our society,” Decker said.

In addition to the enhanced exhibitions, renovations to the museum include an update to the atrium and the A Street Patio.

The expansion was designed

by McCool Carson Green Architects. Principal architect with the firm, John Weir, said the design was intended to interact with the existing structure. By using untreated yellow cedar panels from Southeast Alaska on the facade of the addition, over time, residents can witness the wood change color as it becomes weathered and slowly takes on a gray hue, eventually mimicking the metal exterior of the museum entrance.

“That’s going to be the interesting part of the evolution of the project, that they’re going to look similar, but they’re going to do it in their own special way,” Weir said.

Another unique aspect of the expansion is that much of the second floor is supported by a cantilever and is suspended about five feet above the existing wing. This allowed for minimal penetration into the rest of the museum’s structure.

Funding for the update came from private contributions, which included $12 million from the Rasmuson family and Rasmuson Foundation. The project was on time and within budget, according to information provided by Anchorage Museum public relations and marketing manager Jeanette Moores.

The grand opening of the expansion and renovation will be Sept. 15.

Admission prices are $15 for adults, $12 for Alaska residents, $10 for seniors, students or military with ID, $7 for children 3 to 12 and free for children 2 and younger.

For more information go to www.anchoragemuseum.org.

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Classical pianist wraps up piano in a van tour of Alaska Brooklyn-based pianist Miki Sawada hoped to show classical music’s relevance through “Gather Hear Alaska”

PHOTO COURTESY OF GATHER HEAR ALASKA

Classical pianist Miki Sawada takes her passion on the road to musical deserts through “Gather Hear Alaska.”

By Ammon Swenson arts@thenorthernlight.org

One wouldn’t normally associate places like Cooper Landing, Healy or Ninilchik as destinations for classical musicians, but for accomplished pianist Miki Sawada that’s exactly the reason she packed a piano into a U-Haul van and hit the road.

The Brooklyn-based musician and educator made over a dozen stops on her “Gather Hear

Alaska” tour, hauling a rented Yamaha AvantGrand piano into schools, cafes and community centers, finishing in Anchorage on Friday with a performance at The Church of Love in Spenard.

Sawada’s setlist covered a wide range of music including standards by Bach and Beethoven, avant-garde audience participation pieces and contemporary compositions.

“One of the greatest things about classical music is that shear magnitude… it just kind of

hits you like a wave and I think that’s really special,” Sawada said.

The goal of the tour was to examine the piano’s role as a gathering place, a pastime now relegated mostly to history books and movies.

“In my dream world, there would be a piano in every house,” Sawada said, laughing.

Sawada hoped to show classical music’s continued relevance in modern society and wanted listeners to walk away with an

unexpected experience and a greater appreciation for the music. At the very least, Sawada tried to give listeners a moment of to just sit back, unplug and listen.

Born in Japan, Sawada has spent most of her life in the U.S. She got her start playing piano as a child and eventually studied music at Northwestern University and Yale. Piano has taken Sawada all over the world including performances at Carnegie Hall and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, among various festivals and showcases.

“I guess by traveling, I’ve realized just how many places have a potential for more music,” Sawada said.

Living in New York one can get all the music they can handle, but it’s the musical deserts Sawada is taking aim at.

“I think it’s important for us, as classical musicians, to make sure we have many different outlets for reaching people,” Sawada said.

While she would love to just stay in one place, Sawada has to go where the gig is. Despite her claims to the contrary, the pull of world is still present.

“I think I’m in denial that I still have [a wanderlust], but clearly I haven’t, because I’m [in Alaska],” Sawada said.

The inspiration for “Gather Hear” came after Sawada looked into the possibility of doing a 50-state tour, but the logistics of including Alaska on that venture

would have made it much more difficult. An outdoors lover, she decided to ditch the Lower 48 for now and just focus on the largest state.

Earlier this year Sawada got to work investigating potential stops in Alaska. Thanks to Google Maps, she was able to figure out which communities would be small enough to necessitate her main goal while having a population large enough to draw a crowd. Even after beginning the “Gather Hear” tour, Sawada was still working out the kinks.

“This tour feels like it was more like, less of a display of virtuosity on piano and more of like a virtuosity of planning,” Sawada said.

Traveling with a couple of different documentary filmmakers Sawada kept tour updates on the “Gather Hear Alaska” Facebook page. Photos show intimate performances in diverse venues including stops in schools for presentations.

She said while many of the places on the tour have vibrant art communities, she hopes that they were inspired by her performances.

“I hope they’re proud of what they have going on, but maybe if they don’t have so much, maybe they’ll do more,” Sawada said.

For more information on “Gather Hear Alaska” or Miki Sawada go to www.facebook. com/GatherHearAlaska/ or to www.mikisawada.com.

‘We Are Not Alone’ feels like nothing at all

By Jacob Holley-Kline Contributor

If I taught a horror history course, I’d open it with the Peruvian bore, “We Are Not Alone.”

Not because it’s anything special, mind you. It’s just a beatfor-beat catalogue of the horror genre’s cliches: a house with a sealed basement door, possessed children’s toys, a man who inexplicably distrusts every woman in his life, etc. The list is so extensive that not a single frame of this movie feels distinctive.

They’re all imitations of far better shockers like the original “Amityville Horror,” “The Exorcist” or “House on Haunted Hill.”

Up until the hour mark, I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe it would subvert these cliches, reveal director Daniel Rodríguez to be a true horror fan and not a talented hack. Ultimately, it does not subvert those cliches and its director is just a talented hack. He’s seen a lot of horror movies and he knows how they work. So much so that that’s all his attempt at the genre

does: work. It’s functional more than entertaining and lacks any love or passion. In fact, summarizing the plot feels pointless. Anyone who’s watched even thirty minutes of a haunted house movie could predict the whole thing.

Freshly employed widower Mateo (Marco Zunino) moves his girlfriend Mónica (Fiorella Díaz) and daughter Sofía (Zoe Arévalo) out to a vacation home for the summer. They’re settled in but a few nights before Mónica discovers a hidden basement, looking on the inside like the prop room of a better movie. A terrible force is released and begins to wreak havoc on the family. Padre Rafael (Lucho Cáceres) catches wind of their troubles and, recovering from a traumatic past of his own, decides to help the family.

Now, there have been bad horror movies that coast on their leads’ performances. “We Are Not Alone” fails on this account as well. Zunino, Díaz, and Cáceres have the charisma of old sheetrock. If you watched their performances on mute, you wouldn’t know they were in a

horror movie. Things fantastical or mundane don’t seem to register on their faces. For all their raised voices and faux indignation, it’s hard to tell if they care.

A strange tension arises from this: they don’t care so much that it seems like nothing important’s happening at all.

The scares, even with effective build-up, fall flat on their face. The story chugs along like its beats were fed into a machine. The characters go towards those terrifying noises because, well, that’s what you do in a horror movie. I walked away from “We Are Not Alone” with the strange feeling that I hadn’t watched anything. It’s a boring, perfunctory entry in a genre bursting with them. It’s a bad movie, which is excusable if it has memorable moments, but an average movie like this is never excusable. It takes no risks because it doesn’t have to. And it ends up feeling more hollow than a bamboo shoot. In a word, “We Are Not Alone” is what no movie wants to be: unremarkable.

TITLE “We Are Not Alone”

DIRECTOR Daniel Rodriguez

RELEASE DATE Jan. 14, 2016

COUNTRY Peru

GENRE Horror

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THENORTHERNLIGHT

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

Thomas Chung’s ‘The Trickster’ on display at ARC Gallery After drawing controversy over decapitated Trump painting, UAA art professor’s current exhibit looks at the trickster archetype

By Ammon Swenson arts@thenorthernlight.org

Across cultures, the trickster archetype has a special place in mythology and folklore. While characters like Coyote, Raven and Loki have their devious sides, they play an important role in creation myths and can be creators themselves.

UAA art professor Thomas Chung’s painting “The Trickster,” now on display at UAA’s ARC Gallery, looks to explore the nature of that archetype in society as well as his personal relationship to it.

“I think that the biggest message that’s left across these cultures is that great progress — some of the greatest progress — is through rule-breaking,” Chung said.

“That if everybody just did what they were told, nothing would ever emerge, nothing would ever change.”

The painting, which is nearly 20 feet long, depicts a raging forest fire in the background and Chung in the center wearing a cowboy hat and vest with the Virgin Mary on it. He sits on the back of a pickup truck offering a light to a jumping coyote smoking a cigarette. In the foreground is a snake being milked of its venom into a glass. Slightly askew and superimposed on the pickup is another image of Chung, but shirtless and sprawled out next to paints and brushes.

Chung said he included the last image of himself after wanting to add an extra dimension to the painting. He took a photo of himself on top of the large work in progress and decided to include the resulting image in the final product. With a background in murals and performance, it was his way of breaking the fourth wall, further connecting himself with the work as well as the viewer. He likes working with life-size dimensions as it can have

PHOTO COURTESY OF THOMAS CHUNG

Thomas Chung’s “The Trickster” is on display now at UAA’s ARC Gallery in the Social Sciences Building.

a deeper impact, allowing the viewer to have a more immersive experience with the piece.

It’s fitting that Chung, who often features images of himself in his work, chose to include his likeness in a piece exploring the trickster archetype. He identifies with the trickster, not only for its wily and rebellious nature, but for its importance in pushing boundaries and furthering creation.

“It’s a dangerous thing, I guess, to march to the beat of your own drum,” Chung said. “Not everyone is going to be able to understand that. Even sometimes you don’t understand that, and it’s an unpredictable kind of life to lead.”

Chung knows firsthand about what can happen when marching to the beat of your own drum. He said he doesn’t intentionally cause trouble, but often finds himself challenging social conventions.

Whether he meant to or not, he recently stirred up a hornet’s nest of outrage online with one of his paintings.

Earlier this year he sparked controversy over a painting displayed at UAA

featuring, among other things, a nude Chris Evans, who plays Captain America in the Marvel movie franchise, holding President Donald Trump’s severed head while Hilary Clinton clutches Evans’ leg.

The painting was a take on the myth of Perseus and Medusa, but with imagery highlighting issues in America including racism and the treatment of women in society.

The painting titled “Everything” caused Chung to receive death threats and insults after going viral online and spurred a conversation about freedom of expression and whether the university should protect that type of subject matter. The University ultimately stood by its decision to allow the painting to stay up until its scheduled removal date.

“We understand that some may not support this exhibit, but universities — including UAA — are a place for free exchange of ideas, diversity of thoughts and of opinions, and ideally, a place for conversation to occur around our differences and similarities. Freedom of expression is fundamental to our mission and we sup-

port our faculty and students in exploring their ideas through creativity, research and scholarship,” wrote UAA Chancellor Tom Case in a statement regarding the painting.

While Chung’s work doesn’t shy away from dissent, he works to keep his classes an open forum to express ideas, even if he has a different viewpoint.

“One of the things that I admire most about [Chung] is that he makes his classroom the most open, safe space for students who are interested in communicating whatever they wish to communicate,” Steve Godfrey, head of UAA’s art department, said.

“Some teachers are good at teaching students how to make art, he teaches people how to be an artist,” Godfrey added.

Perhaps it’s Chung’s background in anthropology that fuels his willingness to explore different philosophies and beliefs. In fact, Chung actively tries to borrow from other cultures with his work.

Without doing so, he thinks society subjects itself to a sort of cultural segregation.

“I worry that when people or our society’s too politically correct, this sort of stoppage of exchange happens where everyone’s too afraid of borrowing from non-mainstream culture, from non-Western culture for fear of it being inappropriate or fear of it being appropriation,” Chung said. “And so the result of that, I feel, is a total sort silencing of those cultures and just a disassociation and a spreading of more mainstream ideas.”

“The Trickster” will be on display at UAA’s ARC Gallery located next to the Consortium Library until Oct. 27.

The piece will be part of Chung’s upcoming exhibit featuring cross-cultural archetypes at the Anchorage Museum.

A&E

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SPORTS

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

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Athletes and supporters honored in 2017 Seawolf Hall of Fame

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SEAWOLF ATHLETICS

Bobbi Ramos Olson, along with her husband Jim, have been supporters of UAA Athletics for almost 40 years.

Curtis Glencross, number 82, skating at home game for the Seawolves.

Mary Pearce competing at the 2007 GNAC Championships during her senior year.

By Karolin Anders

sports@thenorthernlight.org

Since 2010, the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Athletic Department has recognized former exemplary athletes and long-time contributors by inducting them to the Seawolf Hall of Fame.

This year, the committee selected sprinter Mary Pearce Ahonen, hockey forward Curtis Glencross and long-time supporter Bobbi Ramos Olson to be inducted on Oct. 8 at the Alaska Airlines Center.

Mary Ahonen received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 2008 and a master’s degree in education in 2013 and ran the 400-meter at national caliber for UAA’s track and field team. Af-

ter graduating from Diamond high school, Ahonen attended Baylor University for two years before returning to Alaska. At that time, UAA’s cross country team had already established itself nationally, but the track team was still modifying their training without The Dome, which opened on Oct. 1, 2007.

Ahonen helped to lay the foundation for the University’s track and field program “Most of my workouts were on treadmills. I actually prefer treadmills now for sprint training because it doesn’t allow you to slow down. If you set the treadmill to 15 miles per hour you have no choice but to run 15 miles per hour. We practiced starts on roll out rubber mats on the backside of the ice rink. We were able to get on the track occasionally,” Ahonen said.

Curtis Glencross playing for the Washington Capitals in 2014.

During her first year at UAA in 2006, Ahonen won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference title in the 200 and 400-meter sprint. That season, Ahonen became the track and field program’s first All-American by placing fifth in the 400-meter at the NCAA Championship.

The sprinter continued making history the following year by earning her second All-American honor in the 400-meter dash with a fourth place finish at the national meet. During her final race, Ahonen set the remaining conference and school record at 53.56 seconds.

While earning her undergraduate degree, Ahonen enjoyed representing her home state on the national level.

“I was able to represent the community I love, while doing what I love. I’m so appreciative

to UAA, specifically to Coach [Michael] Friess for giving me the opportunity to run. It’s something I value tremendously and something I’ll never stop being thankful for,” Ahonen said.

Curtis Glenncross is another of UAA’s exceptional athletes.

The Alberta, Canada native left his mark on the hockey team and later achieved a hockey players greatest dream by playing in the NHL. During his freshman campaign in 2002-03. Glencross scored a team-leading 11 goals and became known for his incredible speed on the ice. During his sophomore year, he excelled by scoring a team-high 21 goals, which ranked him 14th in the nation for goals per game, before signing a minor-league contract with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

After playing three seasons in the American Hockey League, Glenncross made his NHL debut in 2007. He played for the Calgary Flames from 2008 to 2014 and was later traded to the Washington Capitals for his final season in 2015.

Glenncross finished his NHL career with 134 goals and 141 assists in 507 games — all highs for a Seawolf alum.

“I love the Seawolf program and owe a lot of my success to my coaches and teammates,” Glenncross said.

UAA Athletics would not exist without the generous support of volunteers, contributors and donors. Bobbi Olson embodies all of this in one. Since 1978, Olson and her husband have been greatly involved with UAA Athletics and were strong supporters of the men’s and women’s basketball teams.

Bobbi Olson and her husband can be seen at almost every home game and even at various away games to support their Seawolves on their national road to success.

“College basketball — men and women — is my favorite game to watch on TV and in person, but please don’t tell Coach [Chris] Green. I love the Volleyball team,” Olson said.

Over the years, Olson has not just been an incredible financial supporter of the athletic department, but also served on various boards, search committees and booster clubs. She organized Seawolf auctions and golf tournament to fund UAA athletics and has helped five times with UAA search committees for athletic directors and basketball coaches.

As Seawolf Captain, she has also welcomed visiting teams to her home for Thanksgiving during the GCI Great Alaska Shootout several times. She has hosted Duke University’s men’s basketball team three times and provided the women’s Northern Illinois University team with an Alaskan Thanksgiving filled with sledding, fooseball and dinner.

Olson enjoys her engagement with UAA’s Athletic Department and the values the department holds.

“Being a Seawolf Captain is a very unique experience,” Olson said. “UAA student-athletes appear to be a collegial group who understands hard work, team play, high academic standards, and giving back to the community through many social service organizations. The competitive sporting events provide entertainment for our community and the state. Many middle school and high school students look at UAA student-athletes as role models, particularly when the athlete is from the young person’s home town in Alaska.”

The public is welcome to attend the official ceremony at the Alaska Airlines Center on Sunday, Oct. 8 at 1 p.m. During the ceremony, each individual inductee will give a speech about their involvement with UAA Athletics, followed by the reveal of their picture in the Hall of Fame.

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40th and final GCI Great Alaska Shootout

By Karolin Anders

sports@thenorthernlight.org

Interim Chancellor Samuel Gingerich announced on Aug. 24 that the annual GCI Great Alaska Shootout will take place for the last time in 2017 and end the tournament’s streak of longest-running regular-season college basketball tournament in U.S. history.

The tournament first introduced Alaskans to Div. I basketball in 1978 as the Sea Wolf Classic on Fort Richardson army base. It was later named the Great Alaska Shootout in 1979 and moved to the Sullivan Arena in 1983. In the center of Anchorage, it established popularity as a staple event during the Thanksgiving festivities. The University started hosting the tournament at its own venue, the Alaska Airlines Center, in 2014.

Throughout its history, the Great Alaska Shootout introduced college basketball fans to an electric atmosphere.

The Seawolves Div. II men’s basketball team took on elite Div. I teams such as Duke University, University of Kentucky, North Carolina State University, UCLA, University of Louisville and other national contenders over the years.

The Seawolves women’s basketball team joined the tournament in 1999, and faced of with the University of Texas at Austin, Pennsylvania State University, Ohio State University and the University of Southern California.

Both teams received support by their home crowds, which were rooting for an upset of visiting teams. The high attendance rates replicated the states immense support of the tournament and college basketball. Between 1995-2007, more than 46,000 people attended the fourday tournament each year with a record crowd of 60,150 in 2007.

Over the years, the Shootout has hosted 30 men’s teams that moved on to win a national title. It also featured 296 future NBA players, 39 NBA champions, 25 NBA All-Stars and six Olympic gold medalists.

Over the last several years, attendance rates have declined as recruiting high class Div. I teams has become more challenging. A loosened NCAA rule allowed all institutions to host preseason tournaments and not just teams in geographically disadvantaged areas. Beginning with the 2006-07 campaign, the Shootout was forced to compete with 43 other tournaments around the country.

This resulted in the tournament incurring loss of $477,000 in 2016. Declining state and University budgets sealed the end of the tournament.

PHOTOS COURTESY SEAWOLVES ATHLETICS

Suki Wiggs looks to pass to a teammate during the UAA vs. Buffalo game at the GCI Great Alaska Shootout in 2015.

“We need to make additional budget reductions as we focus on budget investments on efforts that promote and support students’ success. Therefore, it is with regret that I announce that we will eliminate the GCI Great Alaska Shootout beginning in 2018,” Gingerich said.

The UAA Athletic Department has endured various cuts over the years and has had to further examine ways to reduce their costs while maintaining national competitiveness. UAA’s men’s basketball Head Coach Rusty Osborne described the loss of the annual tournament as saddening, but hopes it will benefit the department.

“It hurts, but I’m also a realist,” Osborne said. “This isn’t about men’s basketball, this is about the university and the state. If this is the sacrifice we need to make, if eliminating the Shootout can help the hockey program reach its goals or the ski program to reach its goals, I’m

for it.’’

Despite its termination, the GCI Great Alaska Shootout’s success over its 40year span was immense and memories of the tournament will stay with its numerous fans, supporters, coaches and players.

The GCI Great Alaska Shootout also offered the opportunity for Alaskan locals, who joined Div. I institutions out of

state, to return and play in front of their home crowd. Former NBA player Trajan Langdon attended East High School before signing with Duke University. Langdon received immense support from the Alaska crowd while playing in the Shootout’s championship game against Cincinnati in 1998.

In Alaska, The GCI Great Alaska Shootout is associated with Thanksgiving like Mount Marathon to the Fourth of July and the Iditarod to Fur Rendezvous.

But this year’s tournament will mark the end of its history. Interim athletic director Tim McDiffett encouraged the Anchorage community and all college basketball fans to enjoy the tournaments atmosphere one final time.

“We will be hosting the 2017 GCI Shootout and our goal will be to make this year’s 40th-anniversary event a celebration of its rich history and we hope fans and supporters will join us in that endeavor this Thanksgiving,” McDiffet said.

The women’s basketball team, NCAA Div. II runner-up in 2017, will start off the 2017 GCI Great Alaska Shootout on Nov. 21. The four-team women’s tournament features Binghamton University, the University of Tulsa, University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

The men’s tournament begins, Nov. 22 with UAA hosting California Polytechnic State University, Central Michigan University, College of Charleston, California State University Bakersfield, University of Idaho, Sam Houston State University and Santa Clara University.

The full schedule can be found at www.goseawolves.com Discounted GCI Great Alaska Shootout packages are available for UAA students for $20. They can be purchased at the Alaska Airlines Center Terry Ann Homan Box Office Monday- Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. pm, or at the Student Union Information Desk with valid Wolfcard.

Tickets for the public are available for purchase by calling 907-891-7410 or going to the Alaska Airlines Center Terry Ann Homan Box Office.

12 | SPORTS

THENORTHERNLIGHT

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

A new year of Seawolf skiers

After the temporary cut of the UAA ski team in October 2016, the team has come back stronger than ever with the addition of many new athletes

PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIC ENGMAN

Jenna DiFolco of West Valley high school in Fairbanks, Alaska leads the Region VI High School Nordic Ski Championships in April 2017 to take the win.

By Lauren Cuddihy

sports2@thenorthernlight.org

On Oct. 27, 2016, it was announced that skiing and indoor track would be eliminated from UAA due to budget constraints.

The cut of the entire skiing program took the community by surprise, and prompted them to rally with protests, signs and letters to the administration.

The cut left many of the athletes questioning their futures, contemplating plans to leave Alaska to finish their education.

It altered the plans of many prospective skiers who had their eyes set on Alaska to compete in collegiate athletics.

On the morning of Nov. 10, 2016, UA President Jim Johnsen and the Board of Regents declared that no sports would be cut from the UA system.

Nearly a year later, the UAA skiing team feels closer and stronger than ever. For the upcoming season, head coach Sparky Anderson, Nordic coach Andrew Kastning and graduate assistant coach Anna Berecz brought on 10 new athletes to debut their post-cut year.

For the Nordic team, Kastning and Anderson added six total athletes. Two new recruits are incoming freshmen, Jonatan Engdahl (Borlangem, Sweden) and Tracen Knopp (Palmer, Alaska).

As an Alaskan local, Knopp was well aware of the turbulence that UAA skiing faced in the previous year, but he focused more on the positives rather than negatives coming into his first season.

“I was aware of the cut, but I’m confident that the team will be here for at least the next four

years. As far as [personal] goals, I’d like to qualify for NCAA Nationals and World Juniors,” Knopp said.

Brandon Herhusky (Camelian Bay, California), a sophomore transfer from University of Vermont, was more hesitant of moving to Alaska. It wasn’t until late spring of 2017 that he considered becoming a Seawolf.

“Due to team size and just depth on that team, it made a lot of sense for me to come here to simply get more support as well as race more. I also really like the fact that we compete in RMISA which races much closer to my home in California,” Herhusky said.

With the increased support he hopes to receive at UAA, Herhusky has many goals for the near and distant future.

“I’m really using this year as a building year to get used to western college racing, but hoping to qualify for NCAAs the following year which are back in Vermont,” Herhusky said.

There was an equal amount of incoming talent for women’s Nordic skiers; Jenna DiFolco and Lupua Oba (both from Fairbanks, Alaska), as well as Marta Haakeenstad-Braaten (Lillehammer, Norway).

While Kastning helps in the transition of those six freshmen to the Nordic team, Anderson and Berecz will handle the addition of four new alpine skiers, only one residing from the United States.

With two additions to each the men’s and women’s team, the athletes include: Erik Cruz (Tarnabe, Sweden), Mike Soetaert (Alberta, Canada), Georgia Burgess (Alberta, Canada) and Li Djurestaal (Sundbyberg, Sweden).

Burgess is coming in as an international student, but she isn’t coming into a completely unfamiliar situation.

“I have a few former teammates [at UAA] as returning athletes so I actually took a very active role in supporting them [during the cut last year],” Burgess said. “At that point I hadn’t considered UAA for myself but I wanted to help out my fellow skiers. After the team was reinstated I started keeping tabs on the team.”

It wasn’t just the Alaska skiing community that rallied together, but people from all over the United States and other NCAA ski teams came together to bring the team back.

“Throughout the season I considered a lot of NCAA teams but at the end of the day the smaller and really close community of the UAA,” Burgess said.

With return of the team, many of the incoming athletes are showing up with big goals and expectations for being a Seawolf.

“I have a lot of goals, my biggest one is just to have a consistent season and get myself qualified for NCAA finals to help represent the school the best I can.

I will also be working towards my criteria for the Canadian National team during my four years here at UAA so I can graduate and go straight into a professional career,” Burgess said.

The UAA ski teams are only just beginning their training season. The first ski meet of the year won’t take place until Nov. 17 with a duel against rival UAF. For more information on the skiers and for a complete 2017/18 schedule visit www.goseawolves.com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BILL ROTH

The UAA Ski team held rallies in 2016 to save their team, resulting in the preservation of both skiing and indoor track.

SPORTS

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

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Alaska Fighting Championship events switch locations after 13 years Brand new cage and perks for fans and fighters prompted change of location

By Lauren Cuddihy

sports2@thenorthernlight.org

Originally founded 13 years ago, in July of 2014, Alaska Fighting Championship is Alaska’s most popular fighting entertainment featuring mixed martial arts events.

AFC has been around long enough that there are many seasoned competitors known to the organization, some who have even fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. UFC veterans such as Jeremy Horn and Rich Franklin have even competed in AFC fights.

AFC is known globally for tough Alaskan men and women and their reputation of residing in the Last Frontier and battling out the tough elements to train.

However, as of July 2017, it was announced that the already suffering Sullivan Arena lost the headlines of the AFC events when the organization ended the 13-year agreement in order to transfer all their 2017/18 events to the increasingly popular Alaska Airlines Center.

The announcement of the change also came with the release of the schedule of events, as told by AFC owner Sarah Lorimer.

“With our recently signed deal, with the Ultimate Fighting Championship Fight Pass deal, we want to up our game,” Lorimer said.

Fans and fighting enthusiasts will get many new perks with the new location.

Free parking and better seats in the lower section of the arena, which gets fans closer to the action, are only part of the deal, but fans aren’t the only ones benefiting.

Anchorage resident and long time AFC fan, Zachary Langlais, couldn’t be more excited about the move.

“The Sullivan was always sufficient, I enjoyed the fights there but something about the Alaska Airlines Center makes the events more appealing,” Langlais said.

In addition, it could possibly even draw in new fans.

“I definitely think that the new location will attract more people. The location is much more convenient and being

PHOTO BY ADAM EBERHARDT

The Alaska Airlines Center will become the new home to the Alaska Fighting Championships, formerly hosted by the Sullivan Arena, beginning in Sept. 2017.

on campus I think that it will bring in a lot more college students to the event,” Langlais said.

Fighters also get the luxury of a recently brand new and updated facility, featuring a upgraded fighting cage and also the ability to watch other fights from the locker rooms and interpret how much time they have until their own fights.

In addition, the new cage boasts itself as $30,000, 24-foot cage — featuring a catwalk that entraps the entire exterior, allowing cameras to follow the fight from every angle.

Lormier also admitted that the Alaska Airlines Center’s digital signs and scoreboards are a definite plus.

Although the modernized facilities are definitely a plus for the MMA organization, they’re leaving behind a thirteen year commitment which isn’t always easy.

“It’s a proud moment. It’s a sad moment. It’s bittersweet. It’s like when you sell your childhood home, and that’s what it feels like, but the Alaska Airlines Center just made more sense,” said Lorimer.

As for the Sullivan Arena, the depar-

ture of the AFC is the latest financial blow to the facility, in addition to the loss of the Alaska Aces, Great Alaska Shootout and ASAA High School State Basketball tournament. All of those contributed to the recently announced operating losses of nearly $600,000 for 2016 for the Sullivan Arena.

Although Lorimer had a difficult time leaving the Sullivan Arena, especially in their time of need, she admitted that the benefits that the Alaska Airlines Center offered were too good to turn down.

Not all is lost as the Sullivan Arena will continue to earn revenue by hosting concerts, trade shows and community events like graduation ceremonies.

In addition, city development director Chris Schutte said that the proposition to upgrade the Sullivan Arena could bring it more attention.

“I think SMG [is] going to do what they can to the fill the facility with new events,” Schutte said.

SMG and Anchorage Parks and Recreation department announced indoor turf, a 5,000 square foot storage building and 1,000 new chairs at the arena within the

next year.

However, as some have feared, a potential for the Sullivan Arena being torn down and using the land for other potential is far from likely.

“It’s park land, so there’s not much that can be done with it.” Schutte said.

As for AFC events, the dates for the 2017/18 season are following: AFC 133 Sept. 20, 2017 AFC 134 Oct. 18, 2017 AFC 135 Nov. 15, 2017 AFC 136 Jan. 17, 2018 AFC 137 Feb. 14, 2018 AFC 138 March 28, 2018 AFC 139 April 18, 2018 AFC 140 May 16, 2018

Tickets for the fights went on sale on Aug. 1. To purchase tickets or for more information visit www.alaskafighting. com

OPINION August 2017 Message from Student Body President Alec Burris

Dear Seawolves, There is no better indication that the fall semester has begun at UAA than the thousand-fold increase in students in the Student Union during the last weeks of August. Returning from vacation, work or online classes, our campus truly becomes alive as we begin the year.

As Student Body President at UAA, I have worked over the summer to ensure that the student government and I can adequately represent students as we begin this next year. Our student government, The Union of Students at the University of Alaska Anchorage (USUAA), is driven by three strategic priorities: service, advocacy and self governance. When my Vice President, Geser Bat-Erdene, and I ran in the spring semester, we sought to create a culture in which USUAA members value these priorities and students view the student government as an effective institution on our campus. In this pursuit, I will share with you some of the work that we accomplished over the summer.

Adopt-A-Road Cleanups Through the Adopt-A-Road program, USUAA sponsors 36th Avenue in Anchorage from Lake Otis to the Seward Highway. During the summer, USUAA members completed three different road cleanups in an effort to provide a positive service to our community.

Dunk Your Administration Charity At the 2017 UAA Campus Kickoff, USUAA hosted a “Dunk Your Administration” tank in an effort to raise money for Covenant House of Alaska. Dunking Dean of Students Ben Morton, Vice Chancellor Pat Shier, Vice Chancellor Bruce Schultz and Chancellor Sam Gingrich raised over $700 to support efforts to reduce youth homelessness in our community.

Sight Lines on Residential Campus Concerns raised by students who felt unsafe while walking on residential campus due to the inability to see through the trees prompted conversations between myself, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Affairs Pat Shier, University Police Chief Brad Munn and Director of Housing, Dining, and Conference Services David Weaver. At the Aug. 2 assembly meeting of USUAA, we passed a resolution in support of trimming trees and clearing brush in this area to improve these sight lines. We recently received confirmation that this project will be completed in late September or early October.

As we enter this next academic year, I am confident that the student government and I will represent students to the best of our abilities. It is my philosophy that to truly be involved in your community you must be willing to speak up and create change, and there is no better time to do that than now.

Alec Burris, Student Body President Email: usuaa.president@alaska.edu Phone: (907) 715-2177

THENORTHERNLIGHT

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

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Letter to the Editor: DREAMers deserve the same opportunities as me” My brother and I didn’t choose to become Alaskans. He legally emigrated with my parents from the Philippines before he turned five years old, unaware of the concept of immigration, and mostly concerned with learning English and becoming “an American boy.” Four years later, I was born here at Providence Hospital, becoming the only person in my family lucky enough to instantly be American and avoid the citizenship process. We are a family of immigrants who are just as Alaskan as anyone else: we vote in every local election, pay taxes and enjoy taking pictures of the surprise moose appearance. Even though we never chose to become Americans, our citizenship granted us the opportunity to drive, work and attend UAA without worry.

Similarly, young undocumented people (known as “DREAMers”) who share my brother’s experience did not choose to come to America. They live under a greater threat of deportation because of circumstances they could not control as children. A lot of these individuals were even unaware that they were undocumented until they tried to get a driver’s license or apply to college. In 2012, the passage of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) finally protected these DREAMers from deportation and allowed them to work legally in the United States.

Alaska has a small DACA population.

According to Alaska Dispatch News, 138 people in Alaska have DACA status, a majority of recipients are from Mexico, and are between 16 and 25 years old.

These DREAMers consider Alaskans home — because it the only home they have ever known. DACA has changed the

lives of these Alaskans, allowing them to legally drive, work and attend college just like me. Yet, a future for them in America has now reached great uncertainty.

It is cruel that the Trump administration has begun to unravel the threads that have allowed DREAMers to finally become part of the American cloth. Recently, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced that six months from now, the Trump administration will stop accepting new applications for DACA, kicking the responsibility to Congress to reauthorize the law. I value the rule of law too, but it is simply abhorrent to punish DREAMers for a crime they could not avoid as a child.

Congress is our greatest hope to protect DACA. I appreciate Senator Lisa Murkowski for her support in upholding DACA, and I am disappointed in the values of Senator Dan Sullivan and Representative Don Young, as they are prioritizing an irrationally strict adherence to the rule of law, rather than accommodating for DREAMers who contribute as much to Alaska as I do.

Every day, I am so thankful to be an American citizen, even though I did not choose to become one. Young immigrants do not threaten our country.

They are our friends. They are my family. DREAMers deserve the same rights as me and my brother.

Genevieve Mina, President of the UAA College Democrats and double-major in biological sciences and political science

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THENORTHERNLIGHT

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

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