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 Kristeena Brinkley, UAF ASL program assistant, event coordinator, instructor, and tutor. She 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 McGraw, 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to drop classes will still be January 23, but after that date, regardless of if your bill is not due, you will be withdrawn from classes.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.

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 with Alex Burgess and Oscar Smedley.

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.

Corrections: Kristeena Brinkley and Kirsten McGraw name’s were corrected to reflect the accurate spelling, both title’s has also been added. A previous version stated that tuition would be raised to 5%, however it will be raised to 4%.