By Colin A. Warren

Last week Alaska’s U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III visited UAF’s Geophysical Institute, or GI, for a presentation from the institute's leaders. Outside protesters gathered to get the congressman's attention as he came to town without scheduling a town hall or large public appearance. On the heels of his vote for the Recessions Act, which removed all future federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Begich made an unsubstantiated claim about fundraising for public radio in Alaska.

The meeting at the GI was not open to the public or press; Begich did not respond to multiple requests for an interview that day.

The Sun Star caught Begich in the hallway on his way to the elevator and asked him what he had to say about Alaska radio stations shuttering and struggling due to federal cuts that he voted for.

“We got more than half of the budget gap filled by private investment there, and I think that’s great,” Begich answered.

“That’s not true,” said Gretchen Gordon, KUAC’s general manager, when asked to respond to Begich’s statement.

Gordon explained, in Alaska the cuts to public broadcasting amount to about $15 million. So far there has been a statewide emergency collection, the Voices Across Alaska Fund, which has raised around $3.5 million.

U.S. Congressional Rep. Nick Begich III. Photo courtesy of House.gov.

KUAC is having a fund-raiser this weekend October 4 and 5. Last year the Fairbanks-area raised “a pretty significant amount per capita for our service area, more than most other public stations do across the country,” she said.

Therefore the notion of raising nearly double that amount, which would be required to fill KUAC’s federal funding gap, will be “darn near close to impossible,” according to Gordon.

And making up federal cuts with fundraising doesn’t even speak to the difficulty of operating a station without regular funding, explained Mollie Kabler, executive director of Coast Alaska, an independent non-profit organization that serves public media.

“The emergency fundraising that’s going on now has been definitely a morale booster and will certainly help, but stations are still going to have to figure out what they do without year-over-year federal funding,” said Kabler.

Kabler confirmed Voices Across Alaska fund has raised approximately $3.5 million.

Begich did not respond to email nor phone call requests to clarify or provide evidence for his claim that private funding has filled 50% of the federal funding gap for radio.

Although Begich’s various appearances around Fairbanks were largely unannounced— he visited a group of real estate agents, KFAR radio station, the Alaska Outdoor Council, UAF, and Alaska Miners Association —word of them spread quickly, according to demonstrators, on Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit resulting in three pop-up protests, the largest of which was at the GI.

Deputy Director of the GI Nettie La Belle-Hamer gave a presentation to Begich. She explained to The Sun Star that while it was Begich’s first visit to their facilities since he was elected last fall, that the GI often hosts policymakers and VIPs to their world-renowned research institute; Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan both stop by regularly.

Le Belle-Hamer said the GI is developing two main projects for the Department of Defense, or DOD; the detection of nuclear proliferation and detailed mapping of Alaska via satellites.

The former is done via terrestrial sensors; one sensor uses infrasound that can hear lower decibels than the human ear, which can in this instance can be the sound from far-away booms, and the other sensor is seismic.

Detailed topographic maps are the other main project the GI is working on for DOD; the collective lack of has long-plagued Alaskans. The typical way of making such maps is to use aircraft, which is expensive, Le Belle-Hamer explained, compared to the GI’s method of using satellite data.

Photo by Colin A. Warren
Deputy Director of the Geophysical Institute Nettie La Belle-Hamer in the GI’s executive conference room.

Le Belle-Hamer said they also discussed GI’s assistance with mining activities in the private sector, and other public services like earthquake detection and emergency broadcasting.

Before the meeting occurred, UAF graduate students and other Fairbanks constituents lined up outside the GI with signs that read: “Free Speech Free Press Free Will”, “Nick the PRICK Shows his FACE FINALLY!”, “FREE SPEECH RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES”, “Support Your Grad Workers”, and “Science Matters” amongst others.

As the time of Begich’s arrival drew near, the crowd started a chant: “Hey Hey, Ho Ho Begich has got to go!”

Nat Detwiler, vice president of the Alaska Graduate Workers Association, or AGWA, said that she was protesting because AGWA is hosting a town hall Monday Sept. 29 to discuss recent federal cuts and that Begich, along with Murkowski and Sullivan, did not respond to “a significant amount of attempts to actually get them involved.”

“We’re here trying to stand up for research funding. We’re here trying to stand up for, like, decisions that are positive for our community instead of detrimental for our community. And he [Begich] clearly is not thinking about our community at all in the decisions he’s making,” Detwiler said.

Shortly after a police officer stopped by to ensure the protest was peaceful and that the demonstrators were not allowed in the building, word spread that Begich was entering the building from the rear.

Of the seven protestors at the GI that The Sun Star spoke with, five mentioned a frustration with Begich about communications, be it lack of responding to emails and calls or an unwillingness to hold town halls or listening sessions.

The Trump Administration has changed The Department of Defense to The Department of War but the Associated Press still refers to them as the DOD so, for now, The Sun Star will use that name as well.

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