Centennial timeline

1906

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

1915

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

July 4: James Wickersham dedicates cornerstone

1917

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

Board of trustees appointed

1918

Construction begins on first building

1921

Charles E. Bunnell chosen first president

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: “��Ϻ��Ƶ — Its Meaning to the World”

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

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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ blueberries through cultivation

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

1925

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

President Bunnell applies for post office, requesting address of College, ��Ϻ��Ƶ

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

1926

U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey establishes a cooperative research station (where Duckering is later built) to study ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

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

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

1933

First yearbook is published, called Denali, indigenous name of ��Ϻ��Ƶ’s tallest mountain

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

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

1935

AACSM is renamed the University of ��Ϻ��Ƶ; a Board of Regents replaces the Board of Trustees

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

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

1938

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

1939

ROTC established (required by the Morrill Act)

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

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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶns and his own money

First summer session is held

1949

Voters elect entire new Legislature, which rewrites ��Ϻ��Ƶ’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,

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

1954

President Patty begins major construction projects across campus

First community colleges established in Anchorage and Ketchikan

1955

��Ϻ��Ƶ Constitutional Convention convenes on Fairbanks campus

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

1956

Delegates sign the constitution for the proposed state of ��Ϻ��Ƶ in the gymnasium, now Signers’ Hall

President Emeritus Charles Bunnell dies at age 78

1957

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

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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ

June 30: Congress passes the ��Ϻ��Ƶ Statehood Act

1959

Jan. 3: ��Ϻ��Ƶ becomes the 49th state

Video:

1960

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

1961

Michael Krauss teaches the first ��Ϻ��Ƶ Native language class, Yupik

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

1962

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

��Ϻ��Ƶ community colleges are brought into the university system by an act of the Legislature

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

1963

��Ϻ��Ƶ Legislature creates the Institute of Arctic Biology

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

1964

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

University Fire Department firehouse is built

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

1967

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

1969

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

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

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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ

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

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

1972

��Ϻ��Ƶ Legislature establishes the ��Ϻ��Ƶ Native Language Center

Ernest Gruening Building and William Ransom Wood Center opens

Kuskokwim Community College in Bethel opens

Prohibition ends on campus

1973

President Wood retires, and Robert W. Hiatt succeeds him

UA Foundation is established

THEATA, a magazine of nonfiction articles by ��Ϻ��Ƶ Native students, is published

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

1974

Tanana Valley Community College opens in downtown Fairbanks

First annual Festival of Native Arts celebrates ��Ϻ��Ƶ’s diverse cultural traditions

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

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

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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ

1976

Howard A. Cutler becomes first ��Ϻ��Ƶ chancellor

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

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

1979

Regents appoint Jay Barton as UA’s ninth president

Journalism Department begins publishing The Northern Sun newspaper

1980

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

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

1981

Patrick O’Rourke succeeds Howard Cutler as ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

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

1983

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

Honors Program begins

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

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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ on a rest stop during his return trip from China to the U.S.; he meets Pope John Paul at Fairbanks International Airport

1985

��Ϻ��Ƶ Legislature creates the Sydney Chapman Chair; Syun Akasofu named the first recipient

Duckering Building and Rasmuson Library expand

1987

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

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

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

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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ

Among U.S. universities, ��Ϻ��Ƶ receives the most National Science Foundation funding per researcher

1991

Joan Wadlow becomes first woman to be ��Ϻ��Ƶ chancellor

NASA gives ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ license plates become available from the ��Ϻ��Ƶ Department of Motor Vehicles

Nonresident tuition fees waived for students whose parents are ��Ϻ��Ƶ graduates

Department of Engineering celebrates its 50th continuous year of accreditation

��Ϻ��Ƶ’s computer sciences program is accredited, the first in ��Ϻ��Ƶ

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

1992

��Ϻ��Ƶ celebrates its 75th anniversary

First-ever ��Ϻ��Ƶ student-designed and -built rocket launches from Poker Flat

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

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ, 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ-designed drill bit, ��Ϻ��Ƶ scientists set a record by coring through the Greenland ice cap to a depth of 3,035.7 meters

��Ϻ��Ƶ’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, ��Ϻ��Ƶ’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

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

1995

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

Howard Cutler, ��Ϻ��Ƶ’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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ Natives on St. Lawrence Island

Japan, the United States and the State of ��Ϻ��Ƶ sign agreement to build the International Arctic Research Center at ��Ϻ��Ƶ

��Ϻ��Ƶ scientists use ��Ϻ��Ƶ Satellite Facility’s blue antenna atop Elvey Building to create first detailed radar map of Antarctica

1998

Mark Hamilton becomes 12th UA president

IBM donates a new AS/400 computer to ��Ϻ��Ƶ’s computer science program

Synchronous internet tutoring, developed through ��Ϻ��Ƶ’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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ and IBM donate $335,000 in computer hardware and software, the largest-ever computer donation in ��Ϻ��Ƶ history

Chancellor Wadlow retires; Marshall Lind, former University of ��Ϻ��Ƶ Southeast chancellor, becomes fourth ��Ϻ��Ƶ chancellor

Project Jukebox 2006 recording:
��Ϻ��Ƶ Summer Sessions Centennial Celebration Speaker series video:

Student Apartment Complex renamed the Howard Cutler Student Apartment Complex after the first ��Ϻ��Ƶ chancellor

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

2000

��Ϻ��Ƶ Native Language Center publishes the Koyukon Athabascan Dictionary by Jules Jetté, Eliza Jones and Jim Kari

2001

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

2002

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

“��Ϻ��Ƶ’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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ (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)

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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ chancellor

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

Fifty-five delegates gather at ��Ϻ��Ƶ as the Conference of ��Ϻ��Ƶns to make recommendations about the state budget and the ��Ϻ��Ƶ Permanent Fund

Nanook rifle team wins sixth straight NCAA championship

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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ Supreme Court nullifies the action four years later

Constitution Hall is added to National Register of Historic Places, 50 years after delegates drafted the ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

2007

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

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

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

Student Recreation Center installs indoor climbing wall

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

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ’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

2010

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

Tanana Valley Campus becomes ��Ϻ��Ƶ Community and Technical College

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ students take at least one online course for first time in fall semester; only three percent of classes were offered online a decade earlier

2012

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

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ, 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

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

2013

Federal Express donates used 727-200 for ��Ϻ��Ƶ’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

��Ϻ��Ƶ and Colorado State University sign agreement to form veterinary degree program at Fairbanks campus

Federal Aviation Administration chooses ��Ϻ��Ƶ’s ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ’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

��Ϻ��Ƶ Airlines paints two Q400 turboprop aircraft with colors and logos of University of ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ’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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ International Piano e-Competition at ��Ϻ��Ƶ; a Yamaha Disklavier piano shares the performances globally

Dine 49, a new dining facility, opens in an addition to Wood Center; ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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 ��Ϻ��Ƶ Press publishes Edna MacLean’s Iñupiaq to English Dictionary, a comprehensive guide to the Iñupiaq language

2015

Interior-Aleutians Campus renamed Interior ��Ϻ��Ƶ Campus; Bristol Bay Campus takes over in Aleutians area

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

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

��Ϻ��Ƶ eliminates several degree offerings, including philosophy, as budgets decline; ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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: ��Ϻ��Ƶ rededicates the cornerstone created 100 years earlier; it also celebrates plans for Troth Yeddha’ Park and a future indigenous studies center

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

��Ϻ��Ƶ 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

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

2016

All tobacco products and nicotine vaporizers are banned on ��Ϻ��Ƶ campuses as of Jan. 1

Chancellor Powers’ one-year term as interim expires in May; Dana Thomas, a retired ��Ϻ��Ƶ 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: ��Ϻ��Ƶ kicks off its 100th anniversary with a New Year’s Eve fireworks show set to music on KUAC FM

2017

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

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

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

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