Goal 4
Serve as the premiere higher educational center for Alaska Natives
To address the interests of Alaska Natives, °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ has developed Fairbanks-based academic and outreach programs in indigenous studies as well as rural campuses that provide educational access to a significant portion of the Alaska Native population. By 2005 °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ will strengthen and coordinate functions such as these in order to focus on the following objectives and strategies:
- Increase the number of Alaska Native students receiving degrees and certificates.
- Strengthen programs to recruit and welcome Alaska Natives to °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ so that admissions meet or exceed Alaska’s demographic distribution.
- Introduce Alaska Native students to university opportunities, including a wide range of disciplines and career options, through high school outreach programs.
- Enhance retention and encourage Alaska Natives to seek advanced degrees with mentoring programs and attention to the transition from a rural to an urban campus.
- Enhance, coordinate and provide information about UAF’s research, outreach, curricular
and extracurricular programs and services that address issues of importance to Alaska
Natives and enrich the quality of the °®ÎÛ´«Ã½ educational experience.
- Provide centralized means for facilitating access to programs and services that incorporate indigenous culture into higher education as well as research efforts and findings by, about and with indigenous peoples.
- Increase course offerings and course content that address issues of importance to Alaska Natives.
- Incorporate Native elders, educators and communities into the curriculum, extra-curricular activities, and outreach programs and services in order to employ Alaska Native cultures as a model and base for learning.
- Review and re-evaluate policies and procedures in order to establish, with counsel from the Native community, ethical standards for such research.
- Document and celebrate Alaska Native cultural activities at UAF to encourage and promote cross-cultural understanding and learning opportunities