The dark, cold days of Alaskan winters often make everyone want to crawl back in bed and sleep until summer comes again. Unfortunately for us humans, that is not possible. However, for some critters, it’s normal. Winter hits and they get to go into their caves or underground systems and fall asleep. When spring brings longer, warmer days, these animals wake up and return to life above ground. 

The Greater Fairbanks Division of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, held their 73rd anniversary banquet in the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Wood Center ballroom on December 6.

Closing out the semester and sending us off into the holidays, ASUAF held their last meeting and went over the final guest speakers and travel fund requests of the fall semester.

The bear trap is a condensed version of the daily crime log released by the UAF police department.

ASUAF had their hands full this week covering their usual agenda, but also with discussions over lack of proper communication from UAF leader’s decisions regarding recent job cuts, and drawn out discourse and tension over the election of one of their newest senators.

The first guest speakers were Provost and Vice Chancellor Charlene Stern, who was joined by Interim Chancellor Mike Sfraga, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Owen Guthrie, and Director of Signers Hall Bradley Lobland, to discuss the rumors and concerns from staff about the reorganization of the Center for Teaching and Learning, or CTL.

For those who cannot go home for the holidays this year, the Associated Students at University of Alaska Fairbanks, or ASUAF, and the Honors College, came together to make sure that students could still celebrate with their friends.

ASUAF and the Honors College hosted a Friendsgiving event on November 20th in the Great Hall, which was open to any UAF student.

Residents in Alaska’s Kuskokwim Delta were forced to leave their homes last month as ex-Typhoon Halong brought historic flooding and damaging winds to the region, webinar presenters said. Rick Thoman, climate specialist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness, and Ed Plumb, weather and flood hazards specialist at Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness, shared details about the storm’s impact and forecasts.

Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins visited the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus to speak on his experiences with issues such as housing, coalition building, and population retention and how he handles all of those responsibilities now as the elected mayor.

With the arrival of winter, Alaska will see a significant decrease in daylight and temperatures. This increase in darkness can take a toll on the mental health of Alaskan residents. While life-long Alaskans may be accustomed to the lack of daylight, many still struggle with mental health during the long, dark days of winter. 

The Alaska Behavioral Health Clinic has locations in Fairbanks and Anchorage, but it is their Fairbanks clinic that is helping to combat the seasonal mental health crisis.

The ASUAF meeting began with Owen Guthrie, vice chancellor of student affairs and enrollment management, coming in to talk and answer questions regarding the new student enrollment deposit. 

Starting with the class of fall 2026, students will be asked to pay a deposit on their enrollment for the coming fall. Already enrolled students will not be affected by this deposit.

In “the Sick,” artist Kevin M. Carroll turns the private weight of addiction into something seen, heard and shared. His 45 luminous pastel and oil paintings fill UAF’s Art Gallery with images that shimmer between beauty and grief, each work a reflection of Alaska’s 45% rise in drug-related overdoses, and of the artist’s own reckoning with what he calls “the Sick.”

Music, laughter and the beat of Zumba filled North Pole’s local gym, The Fitness Studio, as the local community gathered to celebrate the gym and its fresh new look.

The University of Alaska Fairbank’s Wood Center had a busy weekend, overrun by friends and families attending all the fun events at Pop-Con. Pop-Con is a celebration of all things pop culture hosted here at UAF and features a wide variety of vendors, tournaments, workshops, and more.

The Associate Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks senate met for their first November weekly meeting to discuss a variety of topics on their docket, including some guest speakers and several travel fund requests.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks English department hosted a Dead Poets public reading in a collaboration with SoBear lounge at the Hess Auditorium on October 30. 

Halloween night was busy, full of plenty of spooktacular events for all to attend. One new event was a laidback live show hosted by the UAF Tabletop Roleplaying Games Club.

For ASUAF’s meeting on October 29, they discussed a variety of campus issues, swore in Jacob Fithen as a senator, read legislation concerning ASUAF’s involvement in campus events such as the United Ways Chili Cook Off, and discussed travel funding for Teegan Silva.

With birch bark, flowers, mushrooms and even a burbot head in hand, students and the public gathered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks ceramics studio to watch and learn from an acclaimed professional. Visiting artist Dawn Holder gave ceramics demonstrations for two days, teaching students how to take these fragile objects and preserve their memory in clay. Holder is currently an associate professor at the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, Illinois; her art is exhibited across the world.

More than 50 artists from 16 countries invite audiences to explore the boundaries between comfort and unease in “dis/comfort in the North,” a new exhibition curated by University of Alaska Fairbanks master’s student Katie Ione Craney.