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

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S3 o ' N «tive loader crttica , 18 Looking Back

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1917 CONTENTS History Dedication 111 f 1 Activities Entertainment Athletics Student Life Graduates Advertisers m Contents 17

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Looking Back If a survey were taken to name the most memorable events of the 1981-82 school year, what would some of the answers be? Many people might say that the X -Rated Film Festival, Starvation Gulch activities, intramural sports, or evenings spent at The Pub were the highlights of their college year. These things, being annual events, may seem too routine for others. What really made last year different from any other? For the students who spent the first week, or longer, sleeping on mattresses in various dorm lounges , t Ik- fourteen percent enrollment increase was memorable. With this increase came overcrowded dorms, crowded parking lots, and the need for four extra freshmen English sections to be opened during fall registration. To ease the impact of another expected enrollment jump for 1982-83 faculty, staff and students around the university discussed the possibility of pre-registering for classes. In the spring of 1982 eleven hundred students participated in UAF ' s effort to streamline the registration process. Among all the new faces on the UAF campus appeared Chancellor Patrick O ' Rourke. His contribution to making 1981-82 different from many other years seemed to be a general reaching out to students to increase their interest and involvement in campus activities. Two of the events he sponsored to honor students were the Rootbeer Float Social and the first Chancellor ' s Banquet for students earning a 4.0 grade point average. Some might say it was a unique year because of all the controversies that popped up or were carried over from past years. These controversies involved athletic groups, faculty members and students alike. For athletes the conflict began when fifteen team players were dismissed due to low grades. Early in February five male basketball players, seven members of the hockey team, two rifle team members and one ski team member were declared ineligible to play. It was the first year the university had taken such a hard-line stand on the school ' s eligibility requirements and many athletes were upset that they had not been given more advanced warning of the administation ' s position. In addition to the problem with poor grades, the athletic department ' s staff records were the subject of a state Ombudsman ' s investigation. This controversy, which began as early as September 1980, dealt with differences in the amounts of meal allowance money reported by the men ' s hockey and basketball coaches on travel expense reports and the amounts players testified that they had actually received on road trips. The focus of controversy shifted to faculty members at various times throughout the year as they tried to decide whether to unionize or not. In March, with ninety four percent of the eligible faculty participating, a vote ended their arguments. There was an overwhelming decision not to enter the National Education Association. Perhaps the groups that faced the most controversies last year were the average students and their representative body, the senators in the Associated Students of the University of Alaska. The topics they addressed that made sparks fly ranged from the merger of the two student newspapers, The Northern Sun and Polar Star into The Sun-Star, to a proposed tuition increase for 1982-83; from initiating an all campus game of Elimination alias Killer , to how to better help Native students adjust to campus life. While Sara Hannan was being appointed Student Regent, the engineering department was building their ice arch up and watching it fall down, and Nerland Hall teams were smearing everyone else in College Bowl, other students were studying and worrying whether their student loan money would ever come. Sounds pretty much like any other year at UAF doesn ' t it? So what really made last year unique? Most people would say it was the friends they met in classes and at impromptu parties that impressed them. It was not the politics, the problems, the debates over whether DiBene, Jackson, or Sterling would make the best ASUA president for 1982-83— but the individual personalities that melded together to make UAF a friendly place that were memorable. Karole McKee Looking Back 19