The crew of the "Mission Imposible" defend against a water balloon attack during this past Sunday's Red Green Regatta. Photo by Jeremia Schrock/Sun Star.

By Jeremia Schrock

Sun Star Reporter

Despite being overcast, entrants into the 14^th Annual Red Green Regatta, named for the eponymous host of The Red Green Show, refused to let the weather dampen their spirits. According to KUAC, the UAF-affiliated public broadcasting station that hosted the event, the regatta allows participants to construct vessels out of “whatever floats their boat”, so long as the crafts construction includes at least one roll of duct tape – the “Handyman’s Secret Weapon.”

It might not have rained, but the event quickly became a wet one as both boaters and observers became enmeshed in a fierce water fight. Many regatta entrants floated down the Chena armed with water guns and balloons, while others equipped themselves with stationary slingshots capable of hurling a water balloon over 40 feet. As one boat drew close to the Cushman Street bridge, a 3-year-old aboard with water gun in hand, shouted, “Hi, Fairbanks!” before spraying water up at the crowd that had gathered. On the bridge itself, a man in camouflage cargo pants darted among individuals shouting, “Arr! Pirates!” before lobbing water-balloons at the boats below.

On a pedestrian bridge just outside of Pioneer Park, Michael Schwietert, 20, an applied sciences student at UAF, saw a friend float under the bridge below him. “Well, look at him!” he said, smiling, “He’s doing well for himself. He’s captain of his own boat!”

Robert Gambardella, of Gambardella’s Restaurant and captain of the Gilded Meatball, said that the regatta was something he had always wanted to do. Why the Gilded Meatball? Because his family and most of the crew are Italian. “Except Scott,” Gambardella said, looking over at a tall, shirtless gentleman.

“Yeah,” Scott began. “One Irishman and a bunch of frigging Italians!” he said, laughing.

Robby, Gambardella’s nephew, said that the regatta was great but that they had come under-prepared for the water fights. “Next year we’ll be better armored,” he said seriously.

While the regatta, according to KUAC’s website, is a “flotilla of fun,” some boaters used the event as a means of political protest. The crew of one boat, the Possum Lake, decided to draw an analogy between the gulf oil spill and Possum Lake itself, the notoriously filthy location in The Red Green Show. The craft, complete with a broken oil pipe lodged in a toilet bowl topped with an orange bucket that said “BP Cap”, was one of the more jarring boats in the flotilla. Frank Keim, the boatswain of the Possum Lake, talking about the recent oil spill, said that he felt that, “Red Green probably isn’t very proud of us.”

By Amber Sandlin

Sun Star Reporter

On July 1, students at campus computers were surprised to find out they were participating in an Alert Notification System test. The Alert Notification System is a software program operated by the Office of Information and Technology (OIT) and the UAF police department. The program was designed to alert students on campus to emergencies such as accidents, natural disasters or active shooters.

UAF recently integrated the program to include campus televisions and all campus computers. OIT support technician Josh Watts, a junior, said he had received a few frightened calls from students around campus saying their computers had frozen without warning and who didn’t realize they had to click on the screen to exit.

After the shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007, UAF began organizing a program called the Emergency Response System.  In the past three years, UAF emergency responders have added different forms of mass communication across campus in an effort to avoid chaos during a crisis. The July 1 test sent and received confirmation that over 350 students received their message in two minutes or less. However, students using Macintosh OS- or Linux-based computers connected to the University server did not receive the message. “We are currently attempting to produce a system wide communication emergency alert program,” said Randy Pommenville, UAF’s Emergency Preparedness Coordinator.

According to the Chief of UAF police, Sean McGee, the Macintosh and Linux computers are connected to the University network differently than the Windows computers. Chief McGee said that the program is still very new and that the company that developed it, Alertus, hopes to have Mac and Linux users able to receive the alert by the fall semester. The Alertus company noticed the budget changes, and cuts in schools and university’s across the country and decided to donate the software to help university’s become more safe without taking hits to their budgets. Students can download the program to their personal computers to receive these alerts while on campus. OIT is currently testing to see if this program will send out alerts regardless of the location.

Recently, UAF emergency responders began working with a company called Nixle, which assists in sending secure text messages across networks from the local police departments, communities and schools. Executive Director of OIT User Services, Karl Kowalski encourages students to subscribe to at least one emergency alert notification.  The university police department has a link on their main website connecting to Nixle where students can opt in to be alerted to emergency events happening on campus.

Another form of communication the UAF police department uses to get out an alert is university cable television.  A message can be sent out that will appear on all campus televisions hooked up to the university cable network.  Additionally, blue emergency telephones have been installed throughout campus that automatically connect to UAF emergency dispatch. Loudspeakers have also been placed on the top of the Gruening building that can broadcast emergency alerts.

Richard Dawkins, addressing a packed house Thursday, July 15. Photo by Jeremia Schrock/Sun Star.

By Heather Bryant

Sun Star Reporter

Richard Dawkins, famous biologist, atheist and author made his visit to Alaska to speak at UAF, an event causing controversy long before it happened. The UAF Socratic Society invited Dawkins, who waived his speaking fee.  Dawkins’ airfare and accommodations were entirely paid for by the Richard Dawkins Foundation.

Dawkins has published many books and traveled extensively speaking about religion and science. He established the Richard Dawkins Foundation in order to encourage critical thinking, a concept he feels religion tries to repress.

The speech, scheduled at 7 p.m., had already drawn huge lines by 6 p.m. The evening started with an introduction by Eduardo Wilner, who spoke of Dawkins’ published books.

“The Selfish Gene was published in 1976, and sold over a million copies. Harry Potter and the Bible sold more, but both of those are works of fiction,” said Wilner.

Despite the controversy it was a friendly crowd, with many of Dawkins’ opinions and comments met by an audience nodding and laughing. The only sign of dissent was a table outside where Karl Sapp, of the Campus Bible Ministries, handed out a pamphlet titled “Destroying the Delusions.” Mike Sapp, also handing out the pamphlets, said that, “[they] believe the Bible cover to cover.”

The presentation “Is Religion Good for Nothing?” covered Dawkins’ theories of why religion is a natural phenomenon and how it occurs. His theories include how children are hard-wired to believe what they are told by those older than themselves, most usually their parents.

“Teaching children they are going to hell is one of the most disgusting types of child abuse I can imagine,” said Dawkins to the crowd, prompting a round of applause from the audience.

Even after the presentation ended, much of the crowd remained to watch the question-and-answer portion. At least twenty people lined up with questions; however, time ran out before all could be asked. Taking Dawkins’ lecture to heart, one questioner joked he was “unsure who to thank” that Dawkins decided to come to UAF.

For a presentation that seemed to generate much audience approval, not all were satisfied with the style of presentation.

“I appreciated his discussion, but I wish he was a little more angry about it, like he is in his writing. When he speaks in public, he’s a lot mellower and he doesn’t try to start fights. When he’s writing, he’ll piss off whoever he wants to, which is nice,” said attendee Grant Wright.

Marmian Grimes, public relations officer with UAF, estimated that 1,100 people attended the event either in the Davis Concert Hall or in overflow rooms in the Gruening building. Even with the extra rooms, people were still being turned away for lack of space. The event was also webcast, with around 200 hits to the site.

“We got here 25 minutes early and there was no room. So we headed over to Gruening. After they got the audio and visual up, I only caught about ten minutes of it,” said attendee David Spencer. “I am looking forward to getting a couple of books signed. I have the God Delusion and the Selfish Gene.”

CORRECTION: The article originally stated that Richard Dawkins’ air and hotel fare were paid for by the College of Liberal Arts.  This was inaccurate.  The article has been corrected and as editor I apologize for the mistake that I made.

By Molly Dischner

Sun Star Reporter

Monday night, former KUAC-er Libby Casey talked about her experiences in Washington D.C. as Alaska Public Radio Network’s Washington Correspondent in Schaible Auditorium.

Casey interspersed soundbites from people in the capital city with her own anecdotes about life there. Her talk was presented by Summer Sessions as part of their summer lecture series.

Life in the city, Casey said, was a whirlwind – especially at first. “It sometimes feels like a never ending episode of friends,” she said. The news business was also hectic. Days after Casey arrived in Washington, Ted Stevens was indicted. And when she made her first trip back to Alaska, Sarah Palin was tapped as John McCain’s running mate. (Casey was somewhere over the Midwest when the announcement was made.)

Because she was knowledgeable about Alaskan politics, Casey said she appeared on various TV shows to talk about Stevens, Palin and other Alaskan issues. Her first appearances were learning experiences, she said.

“When I look back at the footage, I look like a deer in headlights.”

Two years later, her opinion is no longer as coveted. “The networks don’t call so much anymore,” she said, adding that sometimes they’ll ask her about Palin family gossip. She usually turns those requests down. “I have nothing of substance to share,” she said.

Casey’s soundbites featured man-on-the-street style interviews as well as questions posed to Alaska’s delegation, other senators, and reporters based in Washington. She used them to articulate “Alaska: The View from Washington” as her lecture was titled.

In one clip, she asked someone what they thought of when she said Alaska. Her interviewee mentioned wildlife. “Do you think of Sarah Palin?” she asked. “No…she’s from there, right?” That clip was met with laughter and applause. Most of the other interviewees had heard of Palin. None knew who Sean Parnell is.

During the question-and-answer period, a UAF researcher asked how the university is perceived in Washington D.C. Casey said that people who were interested in research were aware of the university, but that overall, the arctic isn’t getting as much play in America as it is in other countries.

Jeffrey Cantor speaks to an audience at a community forum held at the CTC on June 25th. Photo by Jeremia Schrock/Sun Star

By Jeremia Schrock

Sun Star Reporter

The UAF Community & Technical College (CTC, formerly the Tanana Valley Campus) recently hosted a community forum with dean finalist Jeffrey Cantor. Cantor had the poise of an economist, the dress sense of a businessman and spoke with the knowledge and articulation of a scholar and a good-natured Brooklyn accent.

It also didn’t hurt that Cantor was a man with a message. “Who am I?” He asked the forum. “A community college educator.”

What is the difference between a community college educator and a university educator for Cantor? Everything.

Cantor sees the community college as a very different organization compared to a university campus. While universities act as “conservators of knowledge”, community colleges are “community driven organizations.” Cantor feels that the CTC is at a crucial point in it’s history, and that a movement is needed to lift the organization into its rightful place as Fairbanks’ first choice in preparing members of the community for both higher academia (UAF) and in the technical arts. “Every town needs a workforce,” Cantor said. “[I want CTC to be] that first choice to get a technical education.”

If selected as dean, Cantor intends to focus on several areas of the CTC, including recruitment and retention of students, especially Alaska Natives. Cantor also feels that several new programs, as part of the institution’s current five-year plan, should be introduced. Among these are adequate “technical preparation to bridge high school and college”, a tourism program, and “more specialized apprenticeships.”

Cantor is also aware of Alaska’s more rural nature and hopes to help “embellish online and hybrid (online/in-person) courses to help offset student transportation issues.”  He also hopes to save some programs that are struggling to fill classrooms by “co-mingling low enrollment sections so we don’t have to eliminate them.” Cantor intends to ensure that more students receive funding through federal community-based work grants.

When Cantor finished his introductory lecture, those in attendance began to ask questions. One community member asked what Cantor thought was the most important issue facing UAF? His response: “Money. The need for a better budget.”

While the majority of those in attendance were either older community members or university employees, there was a small contingent of concerned students. Chief among them was Ashley Moore, the current Miss Teen Alaska-American Co-ed 2010. Her major concern was money. “I’m a student and I want a good representative who will use my tuition money well.”

One issue that was asked several times, but in various forms, was “Why are you here?” Some members, including Jake Poole, the Vice Chancellor of University Advancement, asked Cantor if felt he could handle Alaska’s remoteness and temperature extremes. “Well, it’s a place very different from where [he and his wife have] been and are currently. The programs (at the CTC) looked solid and my visit over the past two days has confirmed a strong faculty.” He went on to add that while Fairbanks lacks the beaches of Pensacola, FL, where he resided most recently, city-wise it felt very similar.

David Guttenberg, the state House of Representatives Minority Whip, was also in attendance and asked Cantor very bluntly, “We all have the same question. ‘Are you gonna stay?’” Cantor responded that while he intended to make his tenure at the CTC his last job before retirement, Cantor would stay well past the accomplishment of his five-year goals. He considered his post at CTC to be his “final opportunity.”

His final opportunity to do what? “To grow and maintain a two-year institution.”

When asked if he felt that the questions asked him during the forum were at all hostile, Cantor shook his head. “Not hostility,” he said. “Simply concern.”

By Jeremia Schrock

Sun Star Reporter

As UAF’s MAYmester came to a close, a group of self-proclaimed concerned citizens met at the College Coffee House to discuss energy issues facing residents of Alaska’s interior. Those in attendance were primarily UAF students already involved in the environmental movement in one way or another. The coalition that grew out of that meeting has since come to be known as Interior Energy Issues (IEI).

Karlan Bachmann, a non-degree seeking student who also works for REDOIL, a Cordova-based grassroots initiative whose primary aim is halting environmental destruction on native lands, is also an organizer for the IEI. Bachmann, who worked with Google Rio Tinto founder Nanae Ito during this past spring semester, is also a member of the local activist band Good Daze, and stressed during the organization’s first meeting that the group is not just one of protest, but also of education. “Not just, ‘Oh, we hate BP.’ Even though most of you probably do,” Bachmann added jokingly.

Since the organization’s first meeting last month, they have held a street-corner information rally, a showing of the documentary “The True Cost of Oil,” and they have operated educational booths at both the Fairbanks Folk Festival and the Midnight Sun Festival.  The group is also currently holding a “Styrofoam drive” to encourage local restaurants to switch to a biodegradable product instead.

The organization also held a “Letter to the Editor Writing Party” on June 28th, which was directed at GVEA in order to show demand for cheaper, cleaner power for their homes.  Co-hosting the event with the IEI was UAF Beyond Coal president Christiana Wright and two community organizers of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Amy Snider and Siri Simons.

Snider is also the IEI’s unofficial public relations officer and a UAF senior majoring in environmental policy and natural resource management. When asked about the number of environmental groups involved with the IEI, Snider wrote that, “there are many groups and volunteers involved. Working together. That is how we get things done.”

By Kelsey Gobroski

Sun Star Reporter

Friends, family, and colleagues stood on the lawn of West Ridge Plaza on June 25 to watch a tree dedication honoring the lives of two men involved in Alaskan forestry. About thirty people watched as a Siberian fir and white spruce were dedicated to Les Viereck, who died in 2008, and a birch to Bob Wheeler, who died in 2009. The Campus Landscape and Outdoor Art Committee already planned the plaza to be a “learning habitat” of different types of birch, said university planner Deb Horner.

Although Viereck and Wheeler both worked closely with trees, each worked in a different area of Alaskan forestry.

David Klein, a former UAF wildlife ecology professor, spoke about his connection to Viereck, from his graduate studies in biology and wildlife onward. Klein said that while he focused on wildlife, Viereck was more interested in habitat, vegetation, and glaciers and had authored the field guide “Alaska Trees and Shrubs.” Klein motioned to a tall silver birch in front of the O’Neill building, which was grown by Viereck from seed in 1963. A larch in front of Irving was also originally one of Viereck’s seedlings.

After the dedication, Klein spoke further about Viereck’s life. Viereck originally came to Alaska while in the Army.  Viereck was climbing Mt. McKinley when his friend fatally fell into a crevasse, pulling everyone with him. Fellow climber George Argus broke his hip, and Viereck, with another party member, descended the mountain to get help, which led to a rescue.
Viereck had a rocky relationship with the University of Alaska after writing a report with Professor Bill Pruitt, Klein said. The university, through the U.S. government’s “Project Chariot”, wanted to conduct nuclear bomb tests and excavation in culturally and environmentally important Cape Thomson. When Pruitt and Viereck gave a negative report on the project, the university fired and blacklisted them in academia, according to Klein. After the university changed presidents the two men received awards and honorary degrees, Klein said.  Their story is written in detail in Dan O’Neill’s novel “The Firecracker Boys.”

Wheeler was a forestry specialist who worked closely with UAF after traveling internationally in affiliation with the University of Hawaii. He wrote the newsletters for Cooperative Extension, said Chris Maisch, a state forester in the Division of Forestry. He helped with university outreach by providing technical assistance. Once, just after a kidney transplant, Wheeler hiked for ten miles for his job. Wheeler was also involved with the “Fire Wise” program that teaches homeowners about wildfire safety, and worked with Kendra Calhoun in research at UAF’s experimental farm. Wheeler and Calhoun experimented with growing fruit trees in high tunnels.

Rich Seifert, an energy and housing specialist, also spoke at Wheeler’s memorial. The two men had offices across the hall from one another at the Cooperative Extension. Seifert and Wheeler often exchanged ideas, Seifert said, adding that, “it was a very stimulating relationship.”

At the memorial, the Yukon River Chapter of the Society of American Foresters presented the 2009 Forester of the Year award to Bob Wheeler’s widow, Beverly Wheeler.

By Kelsey Gobroski
Sun Star Reporter

Authors, librarians, and bookstore representatives congregated at Pioneer Park for the first sale of the Alaska Book Festival, which holds events throughout the summer. Over the past three years, the festival took up a few days of concentrated activities. This year, Summer Sessions split up the activities into the book sale and several guest speakers.

“We feel like it’s been fairly successful, and people are walking out with books in hand — so I guess they’re happy,” Book Festival Committee member Mary Calmes said. She said about 200 or so people visited throughout the day on June 25, a mixture of tourists and locals.

“It’s not a huge crowd, but it’s a nice crowd,” said vendor Debbie Miller, author of Survival at 40 Below. The sunny skies may have contributed to a smaller crowd, she said.

Miller is a Fairbanks author from Arctic Village and has written 11 children’s books, essays, and has co-authored a number of other books. Miller, who had been invited to the festival, tries to participate in events around town, but bookstores usually sell her work for her, she said.

Ron Inouye and Judy Triplehorn did much of the planning for this event, but a committee of about 10 people plans the festival, Mary Calmes said. Representatives from UA Press, Noel Wien Public Library, the school district, and other literary venues serve on the committee. The university bookstore also partners with the committee.

“The basic idea is to celebrate Alaskan authors, literature, and illustrators,” Calmes said, adding that not all the books were Alaskana. Inouye also added that they are trying to promote an appreciation of books.

“We’re concerned with people who live only on the Internet,” Inouye said.

It took about three or four months to plan the festival, according to Inouye. People in town might ignore events occurring on campus, but there were few facilities in town that could accommodate space and parking for this kind of event. The book sale filled the ground floor of the Alaska Centennial Center for the Arts, at Pioneer Park.

Pat Holloway, representing the Georgeson Botanical Gardens, presented gardening books and books by local horticulturalists on one table, and an array of used books on another table. She was trying to promote local authors and Alaska gardening, she said, but over the last two days had been accepting old book donations from members. One stranger had shown up at her booth and left a box of used books. Although the used books sold well, she said they also drew in some revenue for local titles.

Robin and Steve Brooks stepped out of the Centennial Center for the Arts into the hot sun, with a large bag of books and arms full to overflowing. Robin Brooks said she thought the festival had a good selection of used books. She said she prefers used books so she could buy more. The couple conversed, saying they had met their budget for the day. She found a lot of Alaska-based books, Robin Brooks said. Debbie Miller agreed.

“I’m always amazed at how artistic our community is … we’ve got a lot of talent in this town.”

By Andrew Sheeler

Sun Star Reporter

It was the first week of May.  The spring semester was drawing to an end and graduating students were counting down the days before they would be receiving their degrees.  Summer had almost arrived and the trees weren’t the only things covered in green. The UAF campus had been covered with bright green flyers detailing a list of grievances against Tom Albanese, UAF alum, CEO of Rio Tinto, and the man chosen to give the commencement address to the 2010 UAF graduates.  Rio Tinto is the second largest mining company in the world and not without its controversy.  Albanese, perhaps the most financially successful graduate in UAF history, has himself attracted the ire of union supporters and environmentalists alike. So when Albanese came to the Carlson Center to offer his words UAF’s most recent graduating class, he was greeted by roughly two dozen protesters, including UAF students, faculty, and members of the general public.

The protest itself has been about two weeks in the planning.  Shortly after learning about Albanese’ selection, a Facebook group called “Google Rio Tinto” was formed and flyers detailing alleged abuses perpetrated by Albanese in his time as Rio Tinto chief were put up across campus. As some protesters wore sandwich boards covered in anti-Rio Tinto flyers outside the Wood Center, others operated a table inside where they talked about union grievances and alleged human rights abuses involving Rio Tinto.  Throughout this time, UAF higher-ups such as Mike Sfraga, Vice Chancellor for Students, and Jake Poole, Vice Chancellor for University Advancement, offered their encouragement to the students leading the effort.

After two weeks of build-up leading to the graduation protest, there was a surprising turn of events at the graduation rehearsal the night before.  Nanae Ito, a graduating sociology student, was approached by two UAF officials and told that Albanese would like to meet her before the graduation ceremony.  Ito agreed to the meeting.  The next day, just an hour and a half before the graduation ceremony was to begin, Ito and Gloria Oseguera, a graduating political science student, met with Tom Albanese in the Pioneer Room of the Carlson Center.

Albanese sat alone on one side of the table, Ito and Oseguera sat on the other.  Both students were wearing their graduation robes decorated with green ribbons representing protesting Rio Tinto.  After thanking Albanese for meeting with them, Ito began firing away with a list of prepared questions.  The subjects raised from the questions varied from Rio Tinto’s months-long dispute with a southern California borax miners union to the company’s treatment of indigenous peoples.  When Ito finished her questions, Albanese jumped in saying, “You’ve gotta ask about Pebble!”  Albanese then expressed a general disagreement with the way the mine has been handled so far.  Albanese, whose company owns a 19 percent share in Anglo American, a company with a 50 percent share in the Pebble mine, said that he would like to see the mine be entirely underground, that more time should be taken to both determine the technological feasibility and environmental impact of the mine, and that more effort needed to be put into forming partnerships with the people most immediately effected by the mine, especially those whose ancestral homelands would be impacted.  Albanese said that he had spoken with the CEO of Anglo American last week and had expressed his disagreement with their approach.

When the meeting was over, Ito asked Albanese if he would be willing to step outside and speak to the protesters outside.  “Are they going to be civil?” Albanese asked.  After Ito said they would, the entire group got up and went outside, followed by security and UAF officials.  Outside of the Carlson Center it was Tom Albanese on one side and two dozen sign-wielding protesters on the other.  Albanese largely repeated what he’d said inside for the benefit of the larger group, but answered some new questions about Rio Tinto’s engagements in Papua New Guinea and China.  Albanese said that Rio Tinto had not been involved in Papua New Guinea since 1989, having left during political turmoil there and that the Rio Tinto execs who had been charged with bribery in China had all been fired.  Finally Vice Chancellor Mike Sfraga stepped in to retrieve Albanese in preparation for the commencement speech.  Before he left, the protesters expressed their gratitude for Albanese’s willingness to speak with them.

“It’s corporate spin,” said Sine Anahita, a sociology professor at UAF who was a part of the protest.  Anahita said that Albanese’s decision to speak with the protesters was a sign of a successful protest but was dissatisfied with the answers Albanese had given.  Vice Chancellor Jake Poole had a different take.

“I think it’s been great!” Poole said.  Poole said that no other commencement speaker in his memory had ever drawn such a protest, but that it was “wonderful” for the students to express their opinions.

After Albanese went inside, the graduating students hurried inside to get in line, wearing the green ribbons prominently, and the protest numbers gradually dwindled.  The protest was kept strictly outside, and Albanese’s commencement address went peacefully and with full applause from the assembled audience.  If students objected to anything Albanese said, they opted to keep it to themselves in deference to the moment.

By Andrew Sheeler
Sun Star Reporter

Outgoing University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton may be going out with a bang after proposing a much larger tuition increase to the Board of Regents than initially expected. The ASUAF student government has roundly condemned the proposed increase, but university officials say the increases are necessary and not unreasonable.