University of Alaska Fairbanks - Denali Yearbook (Fairbanks, AK)

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strucced bj some industrious students. 1 ransportation from Fairbanks was provided In a gas-generated railroad car, familiarly known as the Toonerville Trolley, thai made seven trips a day on the narrow gauge track. Fairbanks students had to trudge from College Station over a quarter of a mile of hill to el.iss, occasionally in 53 degree below zero weather. Sports headed the list of extra-curricular activities with tobogganing, ice hockey, basketball, and ski ing holding the leading roles. Caribou, reindeer, and buffalo imported tor experimental purposes were frequent campus mascots. The school has been predominate in the scientific held. The collecting ot fossil skeletal remains unearthed by local gold dredges was arranged by the Amencji) Museum ot Natural History in New York City. The Rockefeller Foundation appropriated funds lor auroral studies at College and the Second International I ' olar year selected tlu campus as a sue tor us research in terrestrial magnetism and atmosphere. A field office of the U.S. Geological Sur- vey was established here in 1935 and the Coast and letit Survcs and the Carnegie Institution of Washington conducted . observatory and ionospheric laboratory on the campus. Anthropological and Archaeological expedi- tions from the University to St. Lawrence Island and Point I lope have received national recognition. In recent years Carnegie Institution ot Washington has set up geophysical research and radio wave-propagation study. During the War a radio monitoring station was operated on the campus by the Federal Communications Commission. An atmospheric optics station was established by the U.S. Weather Bureau. During this academic year Congress authorized the appropriation of $975,000 tor a Geophysical Institute to be erected here. Also granted was SI 14,000 to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey to erect and equip a magnetic and seismologis.il observatory. Our school has been assured scientific posterity. An act of the Territorial legislature designated the Alaska Agricultural College and School ot Mines as the University o! Alaska on July 1, 1935. Buildings continued to spring up on the campus. The Administration Building was twice enlarged; two dormitories were constructed; a small agricultural shop building had been erected; a seperate power plant was installed; two concrete buildings had also been constructed; the gymnasium and the basement story Ol the I iclson building were erected. In later ) ears a second story was added to the gymnasium to serve as library; the 1- iclson building was extended and two stones were added; a new power planl was built; and a 3-story women ' s dormitory, Harriet Hess Hall, was constructed. Enrollment grew, too, lor in 1940-41 there were 307 regular students and 1,300 took the short and extension courses. The faculty had increased to 35. The all-time low enrollment, due to the war, occurred in the 1943-44 school year. In the first semester ol the 1946-47 year the student enrollment numbered 335. The second semester saw 30! regular students. In Ma) ol 1946 the three hun- dred and twenty-second degree was conferred. During World War II most of the campus was taken over by the engineering, hospital and weather detachments ot the U.S. Army. The Army-Navy U.S. A.F.I, program was conducted at the University for a short time. World War II produced the veterans that now comprise the majority of students at our University. The influx ot veterans as well as other students attending this Univerxin will serve as the basis for unprecedented expansion. The 1946-47 year brought a new, more mature student body. It brought such changes as the birth of an independent student publication, THE POLAR STAR, which portrayed student views ol the present educational era. Educators now realize that never again can the country be com- fortable about withholding education where there is a demonstrable need for it and a capacity to supply it. The G I. Bill imposes compulsory education on the nation. The University ot Alaska has more future than past. Sufficient appropriations for the essential building program have been requested. Within the near future ncccssars permanent buildings will be constructed. Even such possible expansion as a southern branch has been discussed. More and more students are coming to the University of Alaska, tor it is the growing citadel .if Alaskan education. V v I

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(SfPTBt UNIVERSITY ALASKA ( I ENTY-FIVE years ago six students walked into - ' I a lonel) new building and were greeted by six W (acuity members .is thej enrolled in the Alaska cultural College and School of Mines. The school has been born through the legislative act of the United States Congress passed March 4, 1915. granted the Territory land for the college . i d through the Alaska Territorial legislative act ol M.n 3, 1917, and a subsequent act accepting the land and granting S60,000 for buildings and equipment. This Territorial bill was modeled after that creating the State Agricultural College of Maryland. ht trustees were appointed August 10. 1917, by the ernor and their duties were to prescribe the general rules for the conduct of the school. On June 2S, 1918, the location for the future college was selected. The site was near Fairbanks on top of a birch knoll that overlooked the bed of an ancient sea. In the distance was the mighty Alaska Range. The highest of all North American mountains, magnificent Denali. loomed above the other peaks, 130 miles to the south; it seemed to symbolize the educational heights to be obtained in its omnipotent shadow. The first two storey framed structure was finally completed November 15, 1918, but it was not until more appropriations were made available that the President of the College was selected on August 11, 1921. The first six pioneer students were soon augmented by eight more regular students and 48 short-course enrollments. Courses in agriculture, general science, civil engineering. home economics, and mining engineering were offered. Volume 1, Number 1 of the faculty-published Farthest North Collegian was printed in magazine form February 1. 1923. The Mining Engineering Society was organized February 28 of the same vear. In the summer ot 1923 a wing squal in size to the original building was con- structed. The first annual commencement was held June 12, 1923. This was the first year that the campus reflected the eerie light of the now traditional freshman bonfire. The nest academic year saw 133 students attending the young school and a faculty numbering 21. Transfer of the Bureau of Mines Station to the college was effected July 1, 1924. In the preceding years new buildings as well as enroll ment grew. The first college play was given March 14. 1925. On September 1, 1926, a station of the United States Bureau ot Biological Survcv was established at College. The Busi- ness Administration Society was organized October 1, 1927, and later that year our basketball team toured Alaska on a 3,000 mile trip that extended over 28 days. The team played sixteen games and visited as far as Metlaktla in distant southeastern Alaska. In 1928 four years courses in chemistry, geology and mining, business administration, metallurgy, and education were added to the curriculum. On March 5, 1929, the Civil Engineering Society was organ- ized. February 20, 1931, was the year that Congress autho- ized the transfer of the Fairbanks Agricultural Experiment Station to College and in 1932 the transfer of the Matanuska Agricultural Experiment Station was effected. Early campus life might be compared to that of the typical sourdough. A log cabin fraternity house was con- 10

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BEN J. ATKINSON SHIRLEY NELSON FORREST M. COOK BETTY THOMAS P. W. HARDIE 12