ASUAF November 12 Recap
Story by Britany Adorno-Alicea
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.
It will be a $200 prepayment that will go directly into the students account, and if for any reason students or parents cannot pay it, they can go to financial aid and ask for it to be applied to their aid.
The next guest speaker was Christina Brinkley, the assistant activities coordinator, teacher, tutor, and ASL club advisor. He came to discuss how the UAF interpreter services want better partnership with interpreter agencies and more availability on campus.
Brinkley wants there to be more opportunities to connect and get more interpreters for different events at UAF, so that campus can be a visually friendly place. The goal is to make sure that communication is accessible to all with more interpreters so that everyone has an opportunity to communicate without the use of text.
Kirsten Braugh, an administrative assistant at the college of Indigenous studies, also came to back up and support the request for more interpreters on campus. Her recommendation was a system where employees are given resources that the deaf and hard of hearing people can go to, rather than having several different places for them to ask for interpreters from.
The last guest speaker was Michael McFetridge, operations manager at the office of the bursar, wanting to talk about the schedule changes. UAF and UAA have aligned their fee deadlines for the spring semester.
Starting January 30, there will be a week's separation between the time you can add and drop classes by the time your bill is due. The deadline to drop classes will still be January 23, but after that date, regardless of if your bill is not due, you will be withdrawn from classes.
This change will be looking for non-engagement rather than non-payment. Students who participate in classes will not be dropped, for online classes this will look like active participation in things such as discussion boards.
During the reports, we heard from ASUAF president Nelson who wanted to share that UAF will be raising tuition for the in-state students to 4% and out-of-state students to 5%, beginning next year.
They are working really hard to ensure that the increased 1% being charged to in-state students can be allocated to student services. This 1% would help to fund everything from mental health to other support services on campus. They hope that this will also include an increase for student wages.
The first readings of legislation included a travel fund request for Raffaella Sophia Hertcorn-Haas to enroll in the pre-law emergent program in Juneau; requests for a budget for reusable Christmas Decorations to decorate the ASUAF offices as well as elsewhere on campus to contribute to campus cheer, student engagement, and a positive atmosphere; and a fund consideration for the Bloy Sponsorship and for the 47th annual business leader of the year event hosted by the UAF college of business and security management.
The second readings of legislation included the discussion of the resolution for sidewalk safety and lighting between Tanana Drive and Farmer’s Loop Road, the allocation of travel funds for Kendra Nichols, Brittany O'Brien, and Mercedes Auden, the discussion of the Blois Sponsorship, and the discussion of the Christmas decorations.
An interview committee will be hosted on Monday to conduct interviews for Alex Burgess as ASUAF of senate clerk and Oscar Smedley to ASUAF senate chair.
The meeting was adjourned with the last item on the agenda being the secret senator. This is a form of secret Santa for the ASUAF, including all members of the senate. It will simply act as a bonding experience for the members of ASUAF, as well as two retreats for the senate members.
ASUAF meets every Wednesday and students are welcome to join and voice concerns to the members of the senate. For students not attending in-person, zoom links are available at www.uaf.edu/asuaf/meetings.