n
THEN RTHERNLIGHT OCTOBER 30, 2012
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE
WWW.THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG
Green fee Campus TAPESTRY program recruiting mentors assistant needed
By Shannon Burgoon Staff Reporter
In November 2011, the student body voted for the approval of a Green Fee. The Green Fee will take effect in the spring, and $3 will be added to student fees from then on. “The purpose of the Green Board will be to promote sustainability efforts on the UAA campus though studentled initiatives that are defined as environmentally wise, economically sound and socially responsible,” said USUAA Senator Johnnie Templeton. The Green Fee funds cover the costs of sustainability projects around campus and the wages of one appointed Green Fee Assistant. Templeton said USUAA is looking for a student worker to fill the position of Green Fee Assistant. The student’s duties include coordinating and monitoring projects, and making sure the students’ projects focus on sustainability. The student needs to be enrolled in 3 credits or more, must have the ability to work 20 hours a week and is required to submit their resume one month prior to the beginning of the upcoming spring semester. Interested students can bring their resumes to the USUAA office in Room 201 of the Student Union. After the Green Fee Board becomes active, students can bring sustainability project ideas, which must be sponsored by a faculty or staff member, to the Student Life and Leadership Department.
News 2 INDEX A&E 3 Features 6 Opinion 11 Sports 13 Comics 14
TAPESTRY mentor coordinator Ric Welson (left)working with his personal care assistant Jesse Hill (right).
By Nita Mauigoa
Assistant Features Editor
When UAA student Ric Welson majored in business, an adviser said something that skyrocketed his determination. “She told me to quit UAA and go work at Walmart,” said Welson, “and I said, ‘You are out of your mind.’”
In 2010, Welson got his associate degree in small business management. Still driven, he eventually majored in business management and is the vice chair of the governor’s council on disabilities and education. He also works as a mentor coordinator for a program called TAPESTRY. When people think of the word
PHOTO BY NITA MAUIGOA
TAPESTRY, they picture the woven material. However, it is also an acronym for “Transition and Postsecondary Education/ Employment: Students, Technology, Relationships and You.” The TAPESTRY postsecondary transitional
See TAPESTRY page 6
USUAA discusses potential natural gas shortage By Keldon Irwin Staff Reporter
At the Oct. 26 Union of Students at the University of Alaska Anchorage meeting, USUAA Senator Max Bullock described a potential natural gas shortage in Anchorage this upcoming winter. “By 2015, Alaska may not have enough natural gas to heat our houses,” Bullock said. He presented an “Energy Watch” natural gas emergency protocol poster, explaining that there is a chance, although unlikely, for a local natural gas shortage. Electric utilities in the Alaskan Railbelt, local governments and ENSTAR all advise local families to use natural gas wisely this year to avoid potential shortages in gas this winter.
Bike Share After months of developments, UAA’s proposed Bike Share Program is finally being presented to the UAA Strategic Opportunities Board, or SOB. Because the SOB offers a local, simpler route for funding, supporters of the program are
See USUAA page 2
Wi-Fi on campus continues evolving By J. Almendarez
difficulties. Waters said connectivity success varies depending on where a user is located, because access points to the Wi-Fi were distributed throughout campus to reflect the highest areas of traffic. “When you connect, your phone or laptop is using a connection with one of our wireless access points,” she said. In high traffic areas, access points have been maxing out, resulting in limited connectivity.
Executive Editor
It’s 12:55 a.m. You’re still on campus working on an assignment for a class. The library is about to close for the evening, and you have just finished your assignment. It’s time to email that puppy to your professor. There’s one problem — you can’t connect to the Wi-Fi on campus, and because you’re sans flash drive, you can’t email your work with a library desktop. That is exactly what happened to political science senior Fari Mang last week. “All of a sudden I couldn’t email it to my instructor,” he said. It’s not the first time he or other students on campus have had problems connecting to the Internet. In July the campus upgraded their wireless infrastructure in response to student and employee requests for a more secure network with easier Wi-Fi accessibility. Before the upgrade, users had to sign into the network for every session and only some information sent was encrypted, meaning only
Other connectivity problems
ILLUSTRATION BY CASEY KLEEB
parts of the network were secure. Now, all information sent through the university Wi-Fi is encrypted and users only have to log onto the network once. “That worked well in the summer,” Rachel Waters, interim senior lead engineer for information technology services, said.
However, there was a 40 percent increase in the amount of people using the Wi-Fi between last fall and this fall. “We’ve been deploying new access points that support a greater number of users,” she said. But the increase of wireless users on campus may not be the only cause of Internet access
06
A&E
FEATURES
A modern take on electric ukulele
How Thetoprice of choose being the an artright lube ist
04
08
“Some people just didn’t understand the change,” Waters said. Despite an email sent to students detailing the change, news of the upgrade reported through the Green and Gold blog and other coordinated efforts through the Office of University Advancement, some people were still unaware of the upgrade. For instance, a student should
See INTERNET page 2
SPORTS
NBA award winner predictions
13