Centennial timeline

1906

U.S. government establishes agricultural experiment station next to Tanana Mines Railroad track five miles from Fairbanks

1906
1906
 

1915

March: U.S. Congress approves land grant for Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines at experiment station site


July 4: James Wickersham dedicates cornerstone

1915 cornerstone dedications
1915
 

1917

May 3: Territorial Gov. John Strong signs law creating AACSM


Board of trustees appointed

1917
1917
 

1918

Construction begins on first building

Main building dedication
1918
 

1921

Charles E. Bunnell chosen first president

Bunnell seated at desk
1921
 

1922

Main Building completed


Sept. 13: AACSM dedicated


Sept. 18: First day of classes. Registration $2; no tuition


Men’s basketball team forms with seven players


Student association forms


First book accessioned in library: “Alaska — Its Meaning to the World”


President Woodrow Wilson donates autographed 10-volume “History of the American People”

1922 dedication ceremony
1922
 

1923

Farthest-North Collegian’s first volume published


Official school colors chosen: azure and gold


First annual freshmen bonfire symbolizes passing of torch of knowledge (known today as Starvation Gulch)


East wing added to Main Building, occupied by School of Mines


John Sexton Shanly is AACSM’s first graduate, earning a bachelor’s degree in agriculture


First graduate student, Thelma Bruce, enrolls to study how to increase yield of Alaska blueberries through cultivation

1923
1923
 

1924

Women’s basketball team forms with six players


Margaret (Thomas) Murie is AACSM’s second graduate, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration

1924
1924
 

1925

West wing added to the Main Building; top floor holds first gym


President Bunnell applies for post office, requesting address of College, Alaska


First hockey team established; two McCombe brothers introduce the sport to Fairbanks


Jamie Cameron is AACSM’s third graduate, earning a degree in home economics

1925
1925
 

1926

U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey establishes a cooperative research station (where Duckering is later built) to study Alaska livestock and caribou

 

1927

Otto Geist, at President Bunnell’s request, launches first archaeological expedition to St. Lawrence Island to begin the college’s museum collection


Main Dorm built for women; holds college dining room


First graduating class larger than one; two women and five men receive degrees


Professor Ernest Patty creates a course in real-life mining to give his students practical experience

1927
1927
 

1929

Rockefeller Foundation grants $10,000 to the college to study the aurora

 

1930

Congress awards the Biological Survey $40,000 to ship 34 young muskoxen from Greenland to the college


The college’s first auroral observation station, set up by physics Professor Veryl Fuller, opens for research

1930
1930
 

1931

College bus service between Fairbanks and campus begins; train service ceases


Federal government transfers control of the Agricultural Experiment Station to the college


Gymnasium is built, the first permanent concrete structure and now first floor of Signers’ Hall

1931
1931
 

1933

First yearbook is published, called Denali, indigenous name of Alaska’s tallest mountain


Stone artifacts discovered on campus; they match tools from Asia, bolstering the idea that the first Alaskans arrived via a land bridge

1933
1933
 

1934

Ground is broken for the Carl Ben Eielson Memorial Building


Northwest Association of Secondary Schools, Colleges and Universities accredits the college as a four-year institution

1934
1934
 

1935

AACSM is renamed the University of Alaska; a Board of Regents replaces the Board of Trustees


Flora Jane Harper Petri, an Athabascan, becomes the first Alaska Native graduate (See profile)


Rockefeller Foundation grants $17,000 to the university to write a history of Alaska, deemed the Alaska History Research Project

1935
1935
 

1938

Hess Hall for women, the first permanent concrete dorm, opens

1938
1938
 

1939

ROTC established (required by the Morrill Act)

1939
1939
 

1940

Enrollment reaches over 300 students


UA begins charging tuition, as funds are needed to build more dorm space

 

1943

1943-1945 U.S. Army takes over two-thirds of campus; Hess Hall becomes military hospital

1943
1943
 

1944

Enrollment declines sharply due to WWII; there is talk of closing

 

1946

President Truman authorizes a Geophysical Institute at UA to conduct Arctic and polar research


After WWII, enrollment increases to 300 students


Associated Students of the University of Alaska is created


ASUA publishes The Polar Star, the first campus newspaper completely under student control

 

1947

UA funds from Territorial Legislature are frozen; Bunnell keeps school open through help from Alaskans and his own money


First summer session is held

 

1949

Voters elect entire new Legislature, which rewrites Alaska’s tax code, instituting the territory’s first income tax to cover essential services such as the university


Terris Moore becomes UA’s second president; President Bunnell is named president emeritus


Geophysical Institute opens


Arthur Nagozruk Jr. is the first Inupiaq to graduate


 publication ends in order to remove competition for news and advertising between it and the student newspaper, 

1949
1949
 

1952

Salvatore De Leonardis and John Hakala earn the first graduate degrees, master’s degrees in wildlife management

 

1953

Ernest Patty, one of the original faculty members in 1922, becomes the third president

1953
1953
 

1954

President Patty begins major construction projects across campus


First community colleges established in Anchorage and Ketchikan

 

1955

Alaska Constitutional Convention convenes on Fairbanks campus



Masahisa Sugirura earns first UA Ph.D., in philosophy and geophysics

1955
1955
 

1956

Delegates sign the constitution for the proposed state of Alaska in the gymnasium, now Signers’ Hall


President Emeritus Charles Bunnell dies at age 78

1956
1956
 

1957

Students create Tradition Stone to commemorate the “death of drinking” after President Patty bans alcohol the previous year

1957
1957
 

1958

University Fire Department forms with student volunteers


Vice President Richard Nixon visits UA to boost the Republican Party in the soon-to-be-born state of Alaska


June 30: Congress passes the Alaska Statehood Act

1958
1958
 

1959

Jan. 3: Alaska becomes the 49th state

Video: 

 

1960

Alaska Legislature establishes the Institute of Marine Science


William R. Wood becomes the university’s fourth president


UA receives one of its first computers, an IBM 1620, considered a state-of-the-art computing machine


Old Main demolished after the Bunnell Building is completed next to its former location

1960
1960
 

1961

Michael Krauss teaches the first Alaska Native language class, Yupik


Women’s rifle established; the team sweeps the national championship six times within the next seven years

1961
1961
 

1962

Alaska voters approve bond to begin construction of an Arctic Research Center on the campus’ West Ridge to focus America’s research in the North


Alaska community colleges are brought into the university system by an act of the Legislature


Oct. 1: KUAC FM radio station signs on the air

1962
1962
 

1963

Alaska Legislature creates the Institute of Arctic Biology


UAF athletic coaches and student skiers, including Nat Goodhue ’65 and Gail Bakken ’65, organize the first Equinox Marathon

1963
1963
 

1964

Sports teams, formerly known as the Polar Bears, become the Nanooks


University Fire Department firehouse is built

1964
1964
 

1965

Vera Alexander earns a doctorate in marine science, becoming the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from the university.


ASUA becomes official part of university hierarchy, giving students more say in university decisions

 

1966

Faculty tenure becomes established policy


Moore Hall becomes first co-ed residence hall

1966
1966
 

1967

Fairbanks campus serves as evacuation site and emergency shelter for more than 7,000 residents after the Chena River floods town in August

1967
1967
 

1969

Rural Student Services is reorganized to help provide people from rural areas of Alaska access to higher education


The Geophysical Institute’s Poker Flat Research Range, 30 miles north of Fairbanks, launches its first rocket

1969
1969
 

1970

UA enrollment hits 3,645 students, an increase of nearly 400 percent since 1960


Federal government names UA a Sea Grant institution


Elmer E. Rasmuson Library and the Fine Arts Complex open


KUAC FM becomes the first member station of National Public Radio in Alaska


University researchers spend next three years on several studies related to construction of a trans-Alaska oil pipeline

1970
1970
 

1971

Center for Cross-Cultural Studies opens


KUAC TV begins broadcasting, bringing public television to the Interior


Mandatory restricted hours end for women living in residence halls

1971
1971
 

1972

Alaska Legislature establishes the Alaska Native Language Center


Ernest Gruening Building and William Ransom Wood Center opens


Kuskokwim Community College in Bethel opens


Prohibition ends on campus

1972
1972
 

1973

President Wood retires, and Robert W. Hiatt succeeds him


UA Foundation is established


THEATA, a magazine of nonfiction articles by Alaska Native students, is published


Nanooks win first intercollegiate basketball championship, the NAIA Division I title
YouTube video courtesy of Alaska Film Archives: .

1973
1973
 

1974

Tanana Valley Community College opens in downtown Fairbanks


First annual Festival of Native Arts celebrates Alaska’s diverse cultural traditions


Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra takes up permanent residence in the Charles W. Davis Concert Hall


“The Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska” map is published, showing regions where 20 Alaska Native languages are spoken

1974
1974
 

1975

University reorganizes as a statewide office overseeing three main campuses — in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau — and a community college division


Northwest Community College opens in Nome


Bristol Bay Community College opens in Dillingham


Professor Eb Rice publishes “Building in the North,” a guide to cold-weather construction in Alaska

1975
1975
1975

1976

Howard A. Cutler becomes first UAF chancellor


For the first time, UAF enrollment figures show more females (53 percent) than males (47 percent)

1976
1976
 

1977

UA has a financial crisis, with an estimated $10 million shortfall; President Hiatt is forced to resign


In September, regents hire Neil Humphrey as seventh president of UA; he resigns after four months due to the university’s severe financial ills


First issue of Permafrost, an English Department journal of student fiction, poetry and photography, is printed


In February, regents appoint Foster Diebold, the board’s executive secretary, as interim president


Chukchi Campus established in Kotzebue, 26 miles north of the Arctic Circle

1977
1977
 

1979

Regents appoint Jay Barton as UA’s ninth president


Journalism Department begins publishing The Northern Sun newspaper

1979
1979
 

1980

University of Alaska Museum of the North opens to the public, moving from Signers’ Hall to the Otto Geist Building


Alaska Native Studies degree offered


Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival created


Institute of Marine Science begins operating 133-foot Research Vessel Alpha Helix out of Seward for the National Science Foundation

1980
1980
 

1981

Patrick O’Rourke succeeds Howard Cutler as UAF chancellor


First publication of The Sun Star, the student paper born in merger of The Northern Sun and The Polar Star


Enrollment tops 5,000 students for the first time


UAF signs agreements with schools in Japan, Denmark, Canada, the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union

1981
1981
 

1983

Rural Alaska Honors Institute created to improve access to successful college careers of primarily rural, Alaska Native high school students


Honors Program begins


KUAC TV has the largest per-capita audience during prime time among all public television stations nationwide

1983
1983
 

1984

Signers’ Hall, former gymnasium and museum, remodeled as main administration building


Donald O’Dowd becomes 10th UA president


A 60-unit residence, the Student Apartment Complex, opens, relieving a campus housing shortage by accommodating 240 single students


Congress passes Arctic Research Policy Act; Geophysical Institute Director Juan Roederer becomes chair of the Arctic Research Commission, created by the act


KSUA FM hits the air Sept. 6, playing the Steely Dan hit “FM”


President Ronald Reagan visits UAF on a rest stop during his return trip from China to the U.S.; he meets Pope John Paul at Fairbanks International Airport

1984
1984
 

1985

Alaska Legislature creates the Sydney Chapman Chair; Syun Akasofu named the first recipient


Duckering Building and Rasmuson Library expand

1985
1985
 

1987

UA system restructures as a result of budget cuts; community colleges become responsibility of the four-year institutions


UAF restructures with branch campuses in Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue and Dillingham, along with multiple rural education centers


John Butrovich Building opens to house statewide administration


Faculty Senate forms

1987
1987
 

1988

Interior-Aleutians Campus established, with home base in Fairbanks


Synthetic Aperture Radar antenna installed on top of the Geophysical Institute to receive, process and archive data from Earth-orbiting environmental satellites


National Polar Ice Coring office moves to Fairbanks campus


Project Jukebox created in Rasmuson Library’s Oral History Program


UA Scientific Diving Program begins; it expands in 2000 to include student courses

1988
1988
 

1989

Scientists aboard R/V Alpha Helix are among first investigators of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound


Groundbreaking held for new natural sciences facility, later named Reichardt Building


Faculty approve new core curriculum


Jerome Komisar becomes 11th UA president


Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, visit UAF


Among U.S. universities, UAF receives the most National Science Foundation funding per researcher

1989
1989
 

1991

Joan Wadlow becomes first woman to be UAF chancellor


NASA gives UAF Space Grant status, making it one of very few combined Land, Sea and Space Grant institutions in the U.S.


First synthetic aperture radar data-gathering satellite launches from Poker Flat


Blue and gold UAF license plates become available from the Alaska Department of Motor Vehicles


Nonresident tuition fees waived for students whose parents are UAF graduates


Department of Engineering celebrates its 50th continuous year of accreditation


UAF’s computer sciences program is accredited, the first in Alaska


UA Foundation donates $100,000 to business students for investing in stock market

1991
1991
 

1992

UAF celebrates its 75th anniversary


First-ever UAF student-designed and -built rocket launches from Poker Flat


School of Career and Continuing Education changes its name to Tanana Valley Campus


UAF ranks third among 70 four-year colleges in the Pacific Northwest in attracting National Merit Scholars


Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, the first Greek social fraternity in the state of Alaska, establishes its Alpha chapter on campus

 

1993

A record 6,200 students represent the Fairbanks campus’ largest spring enrollment ever; community is asked to open homes to students in fall


Rural Student Services offers two-year program in mental health and substance abuse counseling within the context of Native culture and tradition


Denali, one of the world’s largest-memory supercomputers, goes online at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center


Using a ĚŔÄ·ĘÓƵ-designed drill bit, UAF scientists set a record by coring through the Greenland ice cap to a depth of 3,035.7 meters


UAF’s Ted DeLaca is named senior scientist on the first nonmilitary scientific mission on a Navy nuclear submarine under the Arctic ice pack


Northern Momentum, UAF’s first private fundraising campaign, raises $15 million, surpassing its $10 million goal


Jack Keating becomes provost in Chancellor Wadlow’s restructuring, which eliminates three of four vice chancellor jobs in place when she began in 1991

 

1994

UA Board of Regents mandates a statewide assessment to streamline the university and adjust to declining state revenues


Student Recreation Center opens next to the Patty Center, funded by student-approved activity fees


UAF names a building on Geist Road in honor of Flora Jane Harper Petri, who in 1935 became UAF’s first Alaska Native graduate

 

1995

Natural Sciences Facility opens in September, the first new classroom building on the Fairbanks campus in almost 25 years


Howard Cutler, UAF’s first chancellor, dies Nov. 17 at his home in Fairbanks


Wickersham Hall is designated co-ed

 

1996

UA 25-person rural student residence hall funded by the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. opens; it’s later named for the late Rep. Eileen Panigeo MacLean, an alumna

 

1997

UA Museum of the North repatriates first human remains to Alaska Natives on St. Lawrence Island


Japan, the United States and the State of Alaska sign agreement to build the International Arctic Research Center at UAF


UAF scientists use Alaska Satellite Facility’s blue antenna atop Elvey Building to create first detailed radar map of Antarctica

1997
1997
 

1998

Mark Hamilton becomes 12th UA president


IBM donates a new AS/400 computer to UAF’s computer science program


Synchronous internet tutoring, developed through UAF’s writing center, makes tutoring easier and more accessible to rural students


High-speed internet lines installed in all campus dorms


On Dec. 11, a boiler tube in the heat and power plant breaks. Employees restarted the plant after 10 hours at minus 22. Officials had been an hour from evacuating campus

 

1999

MAPCO Alaska and IBM donate $335,000 in computer hardware and software, the largest-ever computer donation in UAF history


Chancellor Wadlow retires; Marshall Lind, former University of Alaska Southeast chancellor, becomes fourth UAF chancellor

Project Jukebox 2006 recording: 
UAF Summer Sessions Centennial Celebration Speaker series video: 


Student Apartment Complex renamed the Howard Cutler Student Apartment Complex after the first UAF chancellor


International Arctic Research Center building opens in August; is named the Syun-Ichi Akasofu Building in 2007

1999
1999
 

2000

Alaska Native Language Center publishes the Koyukon Athabascan Dictionary by Jules JettĂ©, Eliza Jones and Jim Kari

2000
2000
 

2001

UAF becomes part of UArctic, an international network of Northern universities, researchers and indigenous peoples


William Wood, the university’s fourth president, dies at the age of 94; memorial services held on campus


Professor Pat Holloway plants peonies at Georgeson Botanical Garden, jumpstarting efforts to sell the Alaska flowers in midsummer (See story, From the Ground up)


Professor Brian O’Donoghue’s journalism students begin reviewing the case of four men convicted of killing a Fairbanks teen; the men go free in 2015

2001
2001
 

2002

The School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences establish a marine science laboratory in Vladivostok, Russia


“UAF’s College Bowl team wins regional championship game of academic knowledge and recall, sponsored by Associations of College Unions International


Ann Tremarello retires after 47 years, becoming the longest-serving employee ever at UAF (See profile)


The men’s basketball team wins the Top of the World Classic, becoming the first NCAA Division II team to win a tournament with Division I teams (See story)

2002
2002
 

2003

Fall enrollment numbers are up for the fourth year in a row, 18 percent from the fall of 1998

 

2004

Steve Jones becomes fifth UAF chancellor


Matt Emmons ’03 wins gold medal in the prone shooting event at the Summer Olympics


Fifty-five delegates gather at UAF as the Conference of Alaskans to make recommendations about the state budget and the Alaska Permanent Fund


Nanook rifle team wins sixth straight NCAA championship

2004
2004
 

2005

Expanded UA Museum of the North opens; the addition doubles museum’s size to 83,000 square feet


Legislature approves transfer of 250,000 acres of state land to UA; the Alaska Supreme Court nullifies the action four years later


Constitution Hall is added to National Register of Historic Places, 50 years after delegates drafted the Alaska Constitution there

 

2006

Nanook rifle team recaptures NCAA championship after losing it for the first time in seven years in 2005


The university connects to Internet2, giving it a high-speed link to hundreds of other schools and institutions across the state and nation


Alan Tonne, Fairbanks Experiment Farm manager, plants barley in a big “100” shape to mark the farm’s centennial


Geophysical Institute buys Insitu A-20, a 40-pound unmanned aircraft with a 10-foot wingspan; it can fly more than 20 hours at a time


Arctic Region Supercomputing Center wins a nearly $100 million, five-year contract with the Department of Defense, its second


UAF administration raises admission standards and says it will divert less-prepared applicants into a pre-major program starting in 2008


Biological Research and Diagnostic Facility opens, providing more space for animal care, necropsies, surgeries and diagnoses


New walking and snowshoeing trails are approved for North Campus forests; previously, only cross-country skiing was allowed in winter

2006
2006
 

2007

International Polar Year kicks off in March, sparking more than 200 Arctic and Antarctic science projects, a quarter of them involving UAF researchers


UAF is ranked fifth among small institutions in a national study of productivity among faculty researchers


Nanook rifle team wins eighth NCAA championship in nine years before a crowd of 1,000 people at the Patty Center


John Walsh, of the International Arctic Research Center, is a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report


UAF sells R/V Alpha Helix; the National Science Foundation gives UAF $2.5 million to start work on a new ship


Student Recreation Center installs indoor climbing wall

2007
2007
 

2008

Nanook rifle team claims 10th NCAA rifle championship, beating Army by six points


Brian Rogers named interim chancellor after Steve Jones resigns; Rogers is a former UA regent, system vice president and state representative


Dallas Ferguson ’00, assistant coach and former Nanook defenseman, named eighth head coach in the hockey program’s 28-year history at the NCAA level


Matt Emmons ’03, wins silver medal in the 50-meter prone shooting event at the Summer Olympics in Beijing


UAF scientists find evidence that carbon pool beneath Arctic Ocean is leaking, with huge implications for climate change

 

2009

New Year’s fireworks to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood are delayed until mid-January by ice fog and cold


Arctic Region Supercomputing Center fires up its newest supercomputer, a Cray XT5 dubbed Pingo; the new machine almost quadruples the center’s capacity


Brian Rogers becomes UAF’s sixth chancellor after spending a year as interim


School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences releases a hull-less, early-maturing barley for northern environments


Journalism students and a professor embed with Fort Wainwright’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team 25th Infantry Division in Iraq (See story in spring 2010 Aurora magazine.)


Enrollment in the College of Engineering and Mines hits 700 in the fall, a 17 percent increase from fall 2008 and more than double the 2006 enrollment

2009
2009
 

2010

UA President Hamilton retires; Patrick J. Gamble, a retired Air Force general and former president of the Alaska Railroad, becomes 13th UA president


Tanana Valley Campus becomes ĚŔÄ·ĘÓƵ Community and Technical College


UAF wins a Defense Department contract worth up to $47 million to test unmanned aircraft systems

 

2011

Regents extend university’s nondiscrimination protections to gay and transgender students, staff and faculty


Hundreds of socks are flushed down toilets at Fine Arts Complex by unknown vandal, clogging sewer system and causing at least $15,000 in damage


A new rock and ice climbing tower goes up just west of Student Recreation Center


Space scientist Bob McCoy becomes fifth director of Geophysical Institute since its founding in 1946, replacing retiring Robert Smith


More than half of UAF students take at least one online course for first time in fall semester; only three percent of classes were offered online a decade earlier

2011
2011
 

2012

The Sun Star student newspaper creates online, searchable database of UA employee salaries


UAF student team takes first place in zero-emissions category of 2012 Society of Automobile Engineers Clean Snowmobile Challenge


Regents dub the campus ridge “Troth Yeddha’,” the Athabascan name meaning “wild potato hill”; the U.S. geographic names board follows suit in February 2013


Legislators appropriate $46 million for a new engineering building at UAF, half the funding needed to build the design approved by UA regents


Matt Emmons ’03 wins bronze in the three-position rifle competition at the Summer Olympics in London


ĚŔÄ·ĘÓƵ purchases a hangar on the Fairbanks airport’s east ramp to house the Community and Technical College’s aviation maintenance program


Students move into new Sustainable Village, which offers living space in units designed to save energy and provide performance data


Research Vessel Sikuliaq, designed for Arctic science work, launches; the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences operates it for the National Science Foundation

2012
2012
 

2013

Federal Express donates used 727-200 for UAF’s aviation maintenance program


School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences merges with Cooperative Extension Service to become the School of Natural Resources and Extension


Margaret Murie Building for biological sciences opens; it’s named for the university’s second graduate (1924), who became a famous wilderness advocate


UAF and Colorado State University sign agreement to form veterinary degree program at Fairbanks campus


Federal Aviation Administration chooses UAF’s Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration to run one of six national test sites for unmanned aircraft


Professor Donald “Skip” Walker observes pronounced greening trend in Alaska’s Arctic after studying years of satellite data


Sea Ice Prediction Network established, bringing researchers together to improve sea ice forecasts


Assistant Professor Tom Marsik at Bristol Bay Campus creates the world’s most airtight residential building, according to World Record Academy

 

2014

Alaska Airlines paints two Q400 turboprop aircraft with colors and logos of University of Alaska campuses in Fairbanks and Anchorage


Arctic Region Supercomputing Center absorbed by Geophysical Institute; staff continue to operate two supercomputers in Butrovich Building


Legislators approve financing for UAF’s new heat and power plant; the $245 million cost to be covered by loans, bonds and a $74.5 million state appropriation


The world’s best young pianists compete in the Alaska International Piano e-Competition at UAF; a Yamaha Disklavier piano shares the performances globally


Dine 49, a new dining facility, opens in an addition to Wood Center; UAF will pay off the $28 million, privately financed project in ensuing years


A concrete “strong floor” is placed in the new engineering building; the floor will allow researchers to strength-test large construction components


University of Alaska Press publishes Edna MacLean’s Iñupiaq to English Dictionary, a comprehensive guide to the Iñupiaq language

2014
2014
 

2015

Interior-Aleutians Campus renamed Interior Alaska Campus; Bristol Bay Campus takes over in Aleutians area


R/V Sikuliaq arrives in home port of Seward in March


UAF adopts gender-inclusive housing rule for Bartlett Hall beginning in 2016; any two students of any gender who want to share a room are allowed to do so


Lee Salisbury, who created theater program in the 1950s and helped launch KUAC FM, dies in March at 87; he directed nearly 100 plays during his career


Work on engineering building stops in August, due to lack of funding from Legislature; only exterior complete


UAF eliminates several degree offerings, including philosophy, as budgets decline; UAF will “teach out” existing students in those majors


President Gamble orders 167 administrators to take 10 days of unpaid leave for fiscal year 2016, saying he expects the move to save $600,000


Community and Technical College establishes its first wildland firefighting crew as part of its wildland fire science program


July 6: UAF rededicates the cornerstone created 100 years earlier; it also celebrates plans for Troth Yeddha’ Park and a future indigenous studies center


UAF in July announces plans to cut $20 million from its budget as a result of reduced state funding; the cuts will eliminate more than 150 positions


UAF takes over the U.S. Air Force’s High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program antenna array in Gakona; the array is used to study the ionosphere


Chancellor Brian Rogers retires at the end of August; Mike Powers, former CEO of Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and a UA regent, becomes interim chancellor


UAF students design and build a tiny satellite that rides into space aboard a rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in October

2015
2015
 

2016

All tobacco products and nicotine vaporizers are banned on UAF campuses as of Jan. 1


Chancellor Powers’ one-year term as interim expires in May; Dana Thomas, a retired UAF faculty member and UA administrator, takes over as interim chancellor


The School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, established in 1987, restructures itself and becomes the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences


Dec. 31: UAF kicks off its 100th anniversary with a New Year’s Eve fireworks show set to music on KUAC FM

2016
2016
 

2017

UAF celebrates its centennial with a variety of events and activities, including this commemorative edition of Aurora magazine


President Johnsen names Daniel M. White as UAF’s seventh full chancellor, with a July 1 start date

2017
2017
 

For many more stories about UAF’s people and ideas throughout its history, including videos and an interactive timeline, visit our centennial website.