| January 11, 2007 A Letter To Gov. Palin From a Concerned UAA Graduate Student by Brian Yanity, insurgent49 11 January 2007 Governor Sarah Palin P.O. Box 110001 Juneau, AK 99811-0001 Dear Governor Palin: I am student in the Arctic Engineering program at the UAA School of Engineering, and am your constituent. Here at UAA, the largest university campus in the state, many of our departments are starved of funding while we hear in the news about our state government’s budget surpluses. More than half of the jobs in the state are located in Anchorage, and the vast majority of engineering and energy industry jobs are located here as well. For the sake of Alaska’s economy, it is only logical that a world-class engineering school exist in the state’s largest city. Over the past year, some of the graduate students here at UAA have formed a Graduate Student Association (GSA). Now officially a part of the Union of Students of UAA (USUAA), the GSA wants to improve education at our university by pushing for such goals as increased funding for graduate students, benefits such as health insurance, and the creation of a formal UAA graduate school. The University of Alaska system as a whole, and UAA in particular, needs to increase the stipends and benefits for graduate students to be competitive for the 21st century. Many of my fellow students at UAA talk about how they plan to leave the state for graduate school, because they say that Alaska does not offer them enough opportunities for what they want to study. Given the choice of “Outside” or Fairbanks, they usually choose to go outside of the state. Alaska is not making the best of the human resources that it already has, and because of this we lose students to other states. A recent national survey revealed that Alaska ranks last among the fifty states in the percentage of young adults involved in post-secondary education. About half of Alaska’s high school graduates who go to college leave the state. My graduate studies are in the field of renewable energy engineering, in particular hydroelectric and tidal power, and I chose to move to Alaska because of its immense renewable resources. At first glance, I saw the Great Land as an ideal place to study and pursue jobs after graduation. We have more hydroelectric, tidal and wave energy potential than any other U.S. state, and also possess huge potential for geothermal and wind power. I am particularly interested in small-scale renewable energy applications of hydroelectric, tidal, wind and other energy sources in rural communities far removed from the power grid, such as remote Alaskan villages. The International Polar Year (IPY), which begins in March, should leave a lasting legacy for the state’s University of Alaska system. With both the new Integrated Science Building and Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program building at UAA, our campus will be more than ready to take on more research. Although UAF has historically been the research center of the statewide university system, I sincerely believe that the whole state will benefit if research activities are greatly increased at UAA, UAS, and the smaller satellite campuses. The most efficient way to conduct energy research and development within the state is to divide our efforts between the University of Alaska’s three main campuses so that the statewide system’s energy research would be complimentary and mutually reinforcing. Competition between Alaska’s three schools for funding is counterproductive and should be avoided. Using its existing research strengths, UAF could concentrate on geothermal energy, hydrogen and fuel cells, “clean coal” and gasification technology, and efficiency measures for buildings and existing fossil fuel technologies. The energy research efforts at UAA and UAS could focus on hydroelectric, tidal, wave, and biomass energy given the proximity of these resources to the two campuses. Many students in Alaska are very interested in these topics but few faculty members within the University of Alaska system are involved in these fields of study. We must diversify Alaska’s economy and energy supply by spending serious money, brainpower, and political will on renewable energy development and energy efficiency programs. Such initiatives are especially needed by the small communities in rural Alaska hit hardest by the high costs of petroleum fuels. What little renewable energy research in the state today is funded completely by federal grants, but the state government should fund state-level renewable energy programs controlled by Alaskans for Alaskans. To this end, some far-sighted citizens of Alaska have promoted the idea of an Alaska Energy Futures Trust for the past several years. The trust would collect money from a special tax on oil and gas production in order to fund renewable and energy efficiency programs across the state. The trust would also support the establishment of major renewable energy research and education programs within the University of Alaska system. Inevitably, the day will come when all of Alaska’s oil and gas resources will be exhausted, at least to the point when they will no longer be the mainstay of the state economy. In all likelihood, this won’t happen until around the year 2040, but this is well before Alaska’s present generation of high school students will reach retirement age. In addition, future generations of Alaskans also need to ensure that the North Slope will be restored to its former natural state once oil and gas production there ceases. In the end, the present generation must leave behind an honorable legacy for Alaska’s post-hydrocarbon era. For the long term, the University of Alaska can play an essential role in these efforts. Thank you for considering these ideas. Sincerely, Brian B. Yanity Graduate Student, University of Alaska Anchorage School of Engineering Brian Yanity is a graduate student at UAA, activist and freelance writer. He resides in an undisclosed location in Southcentral Alaska, and can be reached at byanity@insurgent49.com. |
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Reserved. in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership. |
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