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

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

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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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■— ■ -r JANE NELSON MERRITT PETERSON DONALD COOK JANE RAGLE LOTHAR FIEG 13