Who doesn’t love an old school Grey’s Anatomy reference? In our efforts to help prospective students pick, choose, and love UAS, we’re hosting our first annual EXPLORE SOUTHEAST event on April 1st and 2nd, 2016. This event will bring high school seniors from across the country to UAS to experience life in our little corner of the world. The students will stay overnight in the … Continue reading Explore Southeast: Pick Me, Choose Me, Love Me
BY KAYLYN HASLUND
For the UAS Whalesong
With the all new All Gender bathrooms having been brought up in last issue, I was able to get in touch with Title IX coordinator Lori Klein, who was happy to talk about the situation and give some information. Continue reading “All-Gender Bathrooms on Campus: Update”
BY KAYLYN HASLUND
For the UAS Whalesong
UAS is a growing place of inclusion for people of all backgrounds, including those on and off the gender binary. The gender binary is the classification of sex and gender, typically broken down into male and female. The university has done a lot to be open on the topic and continues to work and have a conversation with its students, to see what more needs to be done. Inclusion and steps have been taken to include so many people and to create safe and caring campus. Continue reading “On the Agenda: Unisex Bathrooms”
BY CALLIE CONERTON
For the UAS Whalesong
Welcome back students.
Student Government has a busy semester ahead of us this spring and we are excited to take it on and give you all we got! We have a full senate this semester with Senators Hannah Wolfe-MacPike, Tim Wilson, Naomi Edenshaw, Karey Allen and Griffin Plush with Austin Tagaban as your Vice President and myself, Callie Conerton, as your President.
We want to welcome you to our office every Wednesday for a morning coffee and treats! Stop by for a cup o’ Joe, tea, hot chocolate and a yummy treat. This is a great time to talk to a senate member about anything that you think that the school would benefit from, something you would like changed, or something you would like our support on. We would love to work with you on issues that you are passionate about! Continue reading “Student Government Update”
BY ALEXA CHERRY
For the UAS Whalesong
By this point in your young adult life, you’ve probably made up your mind which way to feel about the common adage that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Some people live and die by this saying, and will not leave the house in the morning until they’ve consumed food. In fact, these people are often known to get up well before they actually need to leave the house in order to make themselves, and maybe their friend/significant other/roommate, a wholesome breakfast. My old roommate was one of these people; in fact, one year for Christmas, she got an electric griddle to more easily facilitate the breakfast-making process.
Other people, however, tend to find themselves falling squarely into the opposite camp of thinking when it comes to breakfast – which is that yeah, it’s nice, but it’s not a necessity. Breakfast is hard; if you’re not already a morning person, even the extra 15-20 minutes earlier that you have to rise in order to make and consume a bowl of cereal can seem like a Mighty Sacrifice when you could hit snooze for that amount of time instead. I will confess to being one of these people; I will take any opportunity to maximize on my amount of sleep time, and at this point I’m used to rarely (if ever) eating in the morning.
But lately, I have gleaned information about breakfast that I didn’t know before – and considering that I might not be the only person to whom this knowledge was new, I thought I would share it with the masses. For years, the importance of breakfast has been pressed upon me, and for years, I’ve assumed it was a mostly groundless rumor spread by health magazines and misinformed scientists. One day, however, I heard something that justified this claim of importance and struck a chord with me. It made me realize that I had never actually understood, asked, or been told why breakfast was supposed to be the most important meal of the day. Continue reading “The Most Important Meal”
Lori Klein has been hired to serve in the role of Title IX Coordinator for UAS. Ms. Klein has worked for UAS on and off since 1996, most recently as the Director of the Student Resource Center. She has over a dozen years of experience in higher education and eight years of non-profit experience serving youth and families. Ms. Klein takes over Title IX responsibilities … Continue reading New Title IX Coordinator at UAS
BY CALLIE CONERTON
For the UAS Whalesong
Hello comrades! The semester is almost over and Student Government did a lot around Campus this fall. We recently hosted a De-Stress Fest complete with puppies, yummy snacks in the learning center, meditation, a relaxation room, a student/faculty art show and a pizza party with a viewing of The Princess Bride. We helped serve, decorate and wash dishes at the Community Thanksgiving. It was great to see the UAS Community having a meal together and the lanterns brought it all together. A huge shout out to the Housing Staff and Campus Life teams for putting on the event!
We recently passed a resolution in support of adding choices for Alaska Native courses to be included in the GER requirements. We have really appreciated all of the students who have been coming to the Monday Morning Coffee with Student Government. It has been a really great way to be able to reach out to the students and also an amazing way to hear about the student’s experiences at UAS and ways that we can make it an even better place to receive an education! Continue reading “Student Government Update”
BY KAYLYN HASLUND
For the UAS Whalesong
With Thanksgiving a week past, it might be good to have a little bit of reality check, though it may be unwelcome, in terms of cultural appropriation during the holidays. It’s a tough truth to face, but it’s important to understand what exactly that all means. It’s especially important when we think about where we live and go to school, in a place that is filled with people who are so culturally rich. It is a sociological concept that views the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture as negative. Now, it can be confusing, because what necessarily is appropriation and what isn’t?
BY ALEXA CHERRY
For the UAS Whalesong
On the eve of Wednesday, November 25th, I was getting myself all packed up and ready to go home to visit my family for Thanksgiving. A little redundant, some might say, since the end of the semester was coming around in about two weeks – but hey, far be it from me to not go out of my way for the Macy’s Parade and a good turkey dinner (and then three days of turkey sandwiches and soup afterward). Nighttime flights are never particularly enjoyable, and I hadn’t had a chance to really eat dinner in between packing, homework, and class. So when my ride to the airport, fellow Whalesong employee Holly Fisher, suggested we stop by the UAS Community Thanksgiving event, I was completely down for it. Continue reading “Community Thanksgiving 2015”
BY ANNELIESE MOLL
For the UAS Whalesong
On November 5th, a group of students taking a ‘Discussions in Marine Mammalogy’ class went to Sitka, Alaska, to attend the 19th annual Sitka Whalefest. Unlike other years, the symposium was held on the Sheldon Jackson campus rather than the Harrigan Centennial Hall.
Many UAS students left early for the conference because they had volunteered to mentor a student from Kenai Peninsula College. When they arrived on the 5th, the UAS student mentors were introduced to their mentees and promptly set out on a whale watching tour. On this tour students and other passengers with cameras were urged to take as many fluke pictures as possible so that students could have an opportunity to practice identifying them.
At the symposium the students and their mentees attended talks that ranged from harmful algal blooms, sea ice ecology, whalefalls, bioluminescent jellyfish, to glaciers. Each day of the symposium covered a different section of the ocean. Day one was shallow apex, the second was deep edge, and the final was frozen border. Continue reading “Whalefest 2015”
