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The Sun Star2 February 14, 2012 In This Issue
The Sun StarVolume XXXI Number 18
February 14, 2012
The Sun Star’s mission as a campus voice for UAF is to report the news honestly and fairly, announce and
chronicle events and provide a forum for expressions of
opinion.
EDITORIAL OFFICES101G Wood Center
P.O. Box 756640Fairbanks, AK 99775Tel: (907) 474-6039
Ads Dept: (907) 474-7540Fax: (907) 474-5508
www.uafsunstar.com
Fernanda ChamorroSun Star Reporter
This report is based on the information reported by the University Police Depart-ment. Individuals arrested and/or charged with crimes in this report are presumed in-nocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Hess UncommonsA male teenager allegedlyvandalized
the Hess Commons Subway shop by de-
stroying food items and smashing them on
the desk. The next day, Feb. 2, a report was
made by an employee and police later iden-
tified the suspect.
MBS Complex Bike ThiefA student reported that his bike was
stolen from the Moore-Bartlett-Skarland
Complex bike rack. The 19-year-old male
student left his orange Hero bike there over
the course of a week and reported it missing
on Feb. 2 after he found his cable lock cut.
There are no suspects.
Hide-and-Go-SeekA community service officer found
a trespassing woman hiding from him in
the Fine Arts Building after hours. The
23-year-old had been banned from campus
for squatting over a period of at least eight
months. The officer found her during a
regular security check of the Core Area and
gave her a warning on Feb. 5.
No-car Parking PassA staff member’s multi-car parking pass
was stolen from her vehicle in the Taku Lot.
The woman, 35, reported the theft on Feb. 3.
She sometimes leaves her car unlocked, she
said. There are no suspects.
Intruder AlertAn intrusion alarm went off in the Hess
Lobby at midnight Feb. 3. Police cited an
18-year-old non-student Fairbanks man
whom they found in the area for underage
drinking. He was leaving and the exit alarm
went off.
Thumpety Thump GrumpPolice arrested a Fairbanks man after
a resident reported glass-breaking, door-
slamming and thumping noises around 1
a.m. at an apartment. The 21-year-old man
had been previously banned from UAF
property. He was trespassing on Feb. 4 to
damage the Hess Village apartment window
of the acquaintance. He attempted to flee
when UAFPD arrived. Police arrested him
and transported him to the Fairbanks Cor-
rectional Center, where he was charged with
two domestic violence counts for criminal
mischief and criminal trespass.
Sidewalk-errPolice stopped a Fairbanks woman,
18, for driving over the sidewalk of the UAF
roundabout and found her to be intoxicated
on Feb. 5. This is her third offense as a minor
consuming alcohol, which makes it a mis-
demeanor.
StaffEDITOR IN CHIEF
Heather Bryant
(907) 474-5078
COPY EDITOR
Kelsey Gobroski
LAYOUT EDITOR
Galen Lott
(907) 474-6039
PHOTO EDITOR
Erin McGroarty
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Andrew Sheeler
(907) 474-7540
MULTIMEDIA EDITOR
Jeremy Smith
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER
Brandi Swanson
REPORTERS
Ian Larsen
Fernanda Chamorro
Lakeidra Chavis
Sarah Bressler
Mandee Jackson
Rebecca Lawhorne
Logan Rahlfs
Annie Bartholomew
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Baptiste Haentjens
Kayla Hajdukovich
Michelle Stwwtrehl
ADVISOR
Lynne Lott
CorrectionsBoth the headline and first sentence in the Feb. 7 story about the sexual assault stated that Marcos Efrain
Camacho assaulted a student at the black light dance on Jan. 27. The headline and sentence should have stated
that he was accused of assault because he had not yet been convicted. Since the story ran, Camacho has been
indicted and the Sun Star will run a story following the updates in the case.
In the Feb. 7 story “UAF uses unmanned aerial vehicles for dangerous research” we referred to Greg Walker,
UAF unmanned aircraft research project lead as the manager of the Poker Flats Research Range. It should have
read Poker Flat Research Range.
The Sun Star regrets the errors.
Samantha Koenig, a barista in Anchorage, was recently kidnapped. Donation jars and ribbons were made in hopes of helping the family and people involved with helping to find her. Feb. 9, 2012. Kayla Hajdukovich/Sun Star
3 www.uafsunstar.com February 14, 2012Politics
Lakeidra Chavis
Sun Star Reporter
Senators in attendanceChelsea Holt, John Netardus, Timothy
Grediagin, Jennifer Chambers, Khrisstian
Burns-Schafer, Rusty Young, Jesse Cervin,
Fred Brown, Robert Kinnard III, Nathanael
O’Connor, Blake Burley and Will Colling-
wood.
Senators absentSophia Grzeskowiak-Amezquita, Mi-
chael Golub, Andy Chamberlain, McKinley
Zakurdaew and Jonathon Schurz.
Officers in attendanceMari Freitag and Josh Banks
Guests in attendanceKelley Ryan, Haley Hanson, Cara Hol-
lingsworth and Sarah Walker supported the
bill for Alternative Spring Break 2012. Brett
Fleming attended the meeting because he
was curious about student government.
New senator namedThe appointment of Nathanael
O’Connor to the Senate was expedited by a
vote of 7-1-0. Burley opposed the decision.
The senate confirmed his appointment by a
vote of 11-0-0.
Consideration of appointmentsSenator Burns-Schafer was appointed
to the Master Planning Committee. Sena-
tors Enright and Chambers were appointed
to the Student Awards Committee. Senators
Burns-Schafer and Young were appointed
to the Elections Boards. The appointments
were sent to the University Relations Com-
mittee.
Alternative Spring Break 2012“SB 178-002: Alternative Spring Break
2012” would use a contribution grant of
$1,750 for students participating in the 2012
Alternative Break trip. This year the team
will travel to Destin, Fla. to volunteer as a
part of the shoreline restoration project.
The group will help rebuild fish habitats
and serve people who were impacted by
the 2010 BP oil spill. An amendment was
proposed to change the fiscal policy from
$1,750 to $1,200. The amendment was
passed with a 8-1-0 vote. Senator Cervin
opposed the bill. The senate passed the bill
with a vote of 8-4-0. Timothy Grediagin, Jen-
nifer Chambers, Khrisstian Burns-Shafer
and Fred Brown opposed the bill.
Governor’s Cup 2012“SB 178-003: Governor’s Cup 2012
Funding” would provide monetary support
for the Governor’s Cup 2012 trip to An-
chorage. The Senate passed the bill with a
vote of 10-0-0.
ASUAF Recap – Feb. 12, 2011
The Sun Star4 February 14, 2012 News
Juneau welcomes cohort ofstudent senators, officials
Occupy Fairbanks sees reward for their winter perseverance
Lakeidra ChavisSun Star ReporterMost students believe that they have
little influence regarding issues that sur-
round the university system, especially in
politics. We can’t decide tuition, fees or
budget cuts. However, the annual Student
Legislative Conference allows students to
advocate for the issues they feel are most
important.
From Feb. 4 to Feb. 7, members of
UAF’s student government, ASUAF, and
three students spent time in downtown
Juneau advocating during the 27th Annual
Student Legislative Conference, organized
by the Coalition of Student Leaders. The
annual conference allows students from
all accredited University of Alaska (UA)
campuses, including smaller branches, to
travel to Juneau to advocate for student
issues. This year’s meeting focused on
merit-based and need-based scholarships,
advising and deferred maintenance.
ASUAF President, Student Regent
and ASUAF Delegate to the Coalition Mari
Freitag, ASUAF Senators Chelsea Holt and
Robert Kinnard III, ASUAF Government
Relations Director Josh Banks and UAF
students Bryant Hopkins, Matthew Helt
and Yuzhun Evanoff represented UAF
during the conference. The ASUAF student
fee funded the trip. Students who are en-
rolled in more than three credits pay the
$35 fee each semester.
Governor Sean Parnell recently cut the
$1.5 million of the university’s operating
budget that went to advising.
“We were advocating to have the leg-
islature put the $1.5 million back in the
budget for the advising because it’s very
important,” said Freitag, 21, who is also
a political science student. The advising
budget covered not just academic advising
but also programs that help students with
financial advice.
Although no specific reason has been
given for the budget cut, ASUAF members
and attendees of the conference were told
it was meant to create a flat budget with a
two-percent growth.
The students were able to meet with
Governor Sean Parnell during the confer-
ence, in which the advising budget was
also discussed.
“He said that it was mostly because the
programs are so important and he wanted
a dialogue about them and he knew that
students would be coming down to ad-
vocate for it,” Freitag said. “It’s difficult to
tell, I mean, with the legislature, it’s very
political.”
ASUAF encourages students to share
their advising and transfer-credit experi-
ences with ASUAF so they can deliver the
information to the Statewide Administra-
tion Assembly and they will figure out what
the main issues are. The assembly will give
the information to the university president
and the administration will decide what
information to report to the legislators.
Students are also encouraged to apply
for the ASUAF Senate and to apply for the
Student Legislative Conference next year.
Preference is given to students who have
experience in political science, the legisla-
ture process and advocating.
This was political science student
Holt’s first time attending the conference.
“I wanted to go because I heard about
this from last year, before I even became a
senator,” Holt said. She missed last year’s
deadline by two days.
Unlike advising, money for deferred
maintenance received lots of support from
the legislators.
“Deferred maintenance, from the
sounds of it, has support because it’s a big
issue. You don’t want to continue to put
a Band-Aid on a situation if there’s a big
gaping hole, you want to fill the hole and
fix it,” Holt said.
There is a $750 million backlog of de-
ferred maintenance within the UA system.
A lot of UAF buildings are facing numerous
code violations, lack of adequate plumbing
or insufficient sprinkler coverage in case
a fire starts. The Operating and Capital
Budget Requests for the Fiscal Year of 2013
is available online. The book gives specific
details for which buildings need mainte-
nance and why.
Merit- and needs-based scholarships
were also discussed because “there’s a por-
tion of the scholarship that rolls over each
year and isn’t being used,” Holt said.
As for goals this semester, Freitag will
contact legislators to advocate for a bigger
advising budget.
Although there is still work to be done,
“overall, it was a very successful trip,” Fre-
itag said.
Fernanda ChamorroSun Star Reporter
Occupy Fairbanks survived the harsh
Alaska winter and won a national contest
hosted by Occupy Supply, which will bring
renowned military LGBT rights activist Lt.
Dan Choi to Fairbanks. On Jan. 29, CNN cir-
culated a video of a Fairbanks Occupier on
its website. Occupy Supply provided CNN
with the video, which shows 24-year-old lin-
guistics student Forrest Andresen protesting
by hold two signs that read “STOP BUYING
IT” and “IN CAPITALIST AMERICA, BANK
ROBS YOU!” outside of UAF in minus 43 de-
grees Fahrenheit.
Sleeping outside and protesting while
wearing only underwear and boots in cold
weather is finally paying off for protestors.
Occupy Fairbanks won $5,000 Command
Post tents for their “outstanding community
activism,” according to the Firedoglake blog
founder Jane Hamsher. They are among
four other tent winners in New York City,
Atlanta, Philadelphia and Flint, Mich. that
Occupy Supply announced on Feb. 6.
More than 150 occupations submitted
writings and open voting in rounds. elimi-
nated most the competition. Some of the
occupations selected for tents were shut
down and will be receiving laptops instead
of tents to inspire them to continue. Other
prizes won by occupations included laptops
and $100 to spend at the Occupy Supply
store.
Choi will present the tents to the pro-
testers and will hold a tent-raising ceremony
at each winner’s location to show his sup-
port and celebrate their hard work in March.
He is a West Point graduate who handcuffed
himself to the White House fence to protest
the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy after he
got discharged from the Army for admitting
he was gay on national TV.
Occupy Fairbanks members are excited
to have Choi representing them because
they think he will draw a crowd, they said.
They see a veteran putting up a tent for their
organization in the Veteran’s Memorial Park
as meaningful and symbolic. They are also
grateful for the new, bigger tent, they said.
David Leslie, a 23-year-old journalism
student and Occupy Fairbanks activist, sees
Choi as a rallying point for the military and
LGBT. “Because he’s a gay veteran and has
been in war, he’s gonna bring out the best in
both,” he said.
Occupy Fairbanks members had one
of their bigger struggles when their Port-a-
Potty was removed by the borough on Jan.
19. However, they are not giving up hope
and this reward has given them the little
push that they needed.
“All of us knew that people were just
waiting to say ‘I knew they would leave
when it gets cold’ and we just wanted to
prove them wrong you know?” Leslie said.
“And especially after they took away our
Port-a-Potty, what else are we gonna do ex-
cept just be there better?”
Occupy Fairbanks protesters stand in front of the UAF time and temperature sign. Image courtesy of Occupy Fair-banks.
5 www.uafsunstar.com February 14, 2012News
Rebecca LawhorneSun Star Reporter
The Sun Star salary database and
budget balancing were hot topics at a staff Q
& A forum with the UAF chancellor Friday,
Feb. 10. With almost two dozen people in
the Wood Center Ballroom. Rogers stayed
poised and gracious throughout the hour
and a half, listening to the questions and
concerns of UAF staff. The event was a
chance for Rogers to show that he is open to
communication, he said.
Audience members discussed topics
such as The Sun Star’s searchable salary
database and lack of participation from staff
on staff council, as well as a number of other
issues.
Walker Wheeler, a UAF alumnus and
adjunct faculty, has been a part of UAF since
1994. Wheeler asked Rogers if he thought
the salary database should have been done
by local offices. Wheeler is indifferent to the
public database, he said, but he has known
for a while that people who have been cu-
rious in the past haven’t known who to ask.
Rogers said it’s a right of journalists to
make the information available.
“By law, it is public information, even
though some of us don’t like it,” Rogers said.
“Last week we made a job offer and the
person the offer was being made to checked
the database and told us ‘it looks like others
in this position are making more money. I
would like more.’” It was the first noticeable
effect of the new database, Rogers said.
Toward the end of the discussion,
someone asked a question via teleconfer-
ence. The woman asked one of the most
direct questions of the afternoon, setting the
topic for the next half hour. As the audience
sat quietly, the voice rang out, “people aren’t
willing to participate in the staff council.
How do we get more people involved?”
There are two reasons people will usu-
ally become involved, Rogers said. The
first is if they believe they are doing valu-
able work. This would mean setting up an
agenda that seems meaningful in areas that
they can make a difference. The second
reason would be if the university is under
stress. When the words “budget cuts” pop
up, people listen, he said.
“We may get to that if the economy
doesn’t pick up but it’s been pretty comfort-
able here for a while with 12 to 13 years of budget increases,” Rogers said. In response
to the notion of direct action on the side of
administration, Rogers said, “I don’t think
orders coming down from on high gets
people involved.”
One woman took the microphone,
looked out at the crowd and said “people are
discouraged.” She heard from several past
council members not to even serve.
Pips Veazey, the current UAF staff
council president, defended the council,
and said Rogers meets with the council
regularly by asking questions and listening
to its members. “He is involved,” she said.
Rogers takes the staff council seriously,
he said, describing it as a “key piece to the
shared government between faculty and ad-
ministration.”
Staff discussed lighter subjects such as
benefits and staff use of the Student Recre-
ation Center. Rogers is discussing possible
SRC discounts which may reduce the cost
up to 60 percent for staff with an extra 10
percent discount for families.
Rogers also brought up a possible con-
struction project at the Troth Yeddha’ park
on campus. A master plan is being made
which includes an Alaska Native building,
Rogers said. “Once we get some private
money, it will help leverage university
money,” he said.
Rogers hopes the building will be fin-
ished by UAF’s 100th anniversary in 2017.
Staff often ask Rogers about budgets,
he said. They wonder how to increase effi-
ciency and lower costs “As we look out at the
state budget process, we say we want to do
this, so we have to stop doing that. It’s hard,”
Rogers said.
After the discussion, Wheeler com-
mented that he is always appreciative of
getting direct answers from the chancellor.
Rogers thought attendees asked some good
questions, including “some that I expected,
and some that I didn’t,” he said.
As staffers dispersed out of the audi-
torium back to their offices across campus
Rogers stuck around to greet attendees on a
more personal level with his friendly smile
while holding a half-eaten sushi lunch.
“It’s important for me to know what
the staff is thinking and for the staff to know
what I’m thinking,” Rogers said.
Chancellor Rogers faces tough questions at UAF staff Q&A
University of Alaska Chancelor Brian Rogers lectures during the ‘Question and Answers with Chancellor Rogers’ in the Wood Center Ballroom at UAF on Friday, Feb 10, 2012. Michelle Strehl/ Sun Star
The Sun Star6 February 14, 2012 Science
Ian LarsenSun Star Reporter
Money is power. At the University of
Alaska Fairbanks, power is power. In Alaska
it’s easy to take the state’s vast resources for
granted, but thanks to the newest building
on campus, UAF researchers will learn how
to maximize those researchers. The Geo-
physical Institute and the Alaska Center for
Energy and Power developed the soon-to-
open Energy Technology Facility.
“Alaska has more fossil and renewable
energy resources than any other state in
the nation,” according to the ACEP web-
site. “Alaska has the potential for long-term
sustainable energy production through
development of its natural gas, coal, oil,
hydropower, tidal, geothermal and wind
resources to meet the energy needs of the
state and beyond.”
UAF built the facility to use these vast
amounts of renewable energy and house
the projects.
The ACEP team will celebrate the grand
opening of the new Energy Technology Fa-
cility with a ribbon cutting at 5:30 p.m. Feb
15. ACEP will introduce researchers and the
current energy projects that are in develop-
ment.
This facility is located across from the
Lola Tilly Commons and will allow ACEP to
to house many of their projects on campus.
“We have research projects all over
the state,” ACEP Director Gwen Holdmann
said. “Battery research is done at Golden
Valley, we have some wind energy research
projects and hydrokinetics projects in rural
areas.”
The facility will allow ACEP and other
university researchers to easily perform
large energy projects such as waste recovery,
diesel fuel efficiency, advance-technology
batteries, rural-community-scale power
and wind-diesel technology. Through this
research ACEP will be able to find cheaper
and more sustainable ways to power Alaska.
The project broke ground last fall, and
in less then a year the building is about to
open for research.
The facility cost $4 million and consists
of three main bays: the diesel bay, wind and
battery bay and the hydrokinetics bay.
ACEP will use the facility to try to com-
bine three different types of energy — wind,
batteries and diesel — to reduce the amount
of fuel needed to power communities. By
using wind energy to charge the batteries,
the system will switch to battery power
when the wind becomes weak, allowing
communities to run diesel fuel as backup
when both renewable energy sources are
unavailable.
“We are doing a lot of research with
wind energy,” ACEP researcher David Light
said. “By using a combination of wind en-
ergy, batteries and diesel we can cut down
fuel costs substantially. A place that has a
high wind source like Kodiak could utilize
this type of technology.”
“By constructing this facility here,
just about all of the Geophysical Insti-
tute’s research teams will be able to utilize
the facility, involving a good chunk of the
campus,” Holdmann said. “Instead of having
our research projects split up throughout
the state, this facility gives us a central area
to use for testing, which will bring research
back to UAF.”
New energy technology facility helps in renewable energy research
A construction worker takes measurements on the building sign hung on the outside of the new Energy Tech Facility building on Feb 10, 2012. Baptiste Haentjens / Sun Star
7 www.uafsunstar.com February 14, 2012News
UAF Kiva team lends helping hand through microfinance loansIan LarsenSun Star Reporter
Some time ago, six students from Sherri Wall’s economics course for honors stu-dents gave hope to small business owners across the world.
In order to receive honors credit for the course, the six students came up with a project exploring the idea of microloans.
Their project consisted of a two-day bake sale. They raised $150, which they in-vested into Kiva loans.
Kiva is a nonprofit organization that microfinances small business owners. They loan as little as $25 to single people or groups who wish to start a small business in third-world countries.
“Essentially Kiva Lending includes people who are not able to lend large amounts, and helps people feel like they are a part of something,” UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers said.
Since 2005, Kiva has accumulated 689,246 lenders and $284 million in loans, with nearly a 99 percent repayment rate throughout 61 countries.
With the original $150, the students were able to disburse six loans. While re-searching Kiva Lending, UAF biology stu-
dent Heather Currey learned about Kiva teams.
“The UAF Team was a secondary thought to the experiment,” Currey said. “While investigating the process of making a Kiva loan, I discovered ‘teams’ and that other universities, including UAA, have cre-
ated teams.”In light of learning about university
teams, Currey created a team for UAF. The University of Alaska Fairbanks team is mod-erated by Currey and currently includes
eight members.The UAF team is in the top three univer-
sities that micro-finance, according to the Kiva website.
By putting the interest back into Kiva from the original six loans, the UAF honors group increased its loan amount substan-
tially.The group consists of seven members.
The team has made 1,016 loans, totaling $50,075.
The team’s top contributor of loans is
UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers.“I’ve been lending in Kiva for six years
now, before the students started their project, or they started the UAF team,” Rogers said. “I’ve funded about 5,000 loans with a 99 percent repayment rate.”
There are also many different small businesses in need of these microloans. These small business dreams span the gambit from health care, retail, food-related businesses and other services.
“I normally try to lend money to health care businesses,” Rogers said. “But I have helped out all kinds of businesses, food stalls, retail stores, even a taxi service in Mongolia.”
All the information and lending can be found at the click of a button on the Kiva website, www.kiva.org. “Anyone can join the team and make loans through the team,” Currey said. “It’s a fairly self contained and automated system. It’s quite easy to use.”
With a user-friendly website and only $25 needed to help fulfill a loan, Kiva’s mi-crolending is a simple and inexpensive way to show the Golden Heart City spirit and aid a fellow person in need.
On Friday, Feb 10, University Chansellor Brian Rogers discussed his many years of micro-investing in the Kiva Organization. Chansellor Rogers is one of the organization’s biggest investors. Erin McGroarty/ Sun Star.
The Sun Star8 February 14, 2012
Annie BartholomewSun Star Reporter
The Wood Center Ballroom was deco-
rated with red and gold, with the Chinese
character Fu hanging upside down to sym-
bolize the blessings that had arrived.
“You are here because either you like
Chinese food or you like Chinese culture,”
said Chinese Student Association President
Dan Lou at the opening of UAF’s Chinese
New Year Celebration. “To me they are the
same.”
2012 marks the Year of the Dragon and
UAF’s Chinese Student Association cel-
ebrated with a Chinese food buffet and pro-
gram of Chinese dance, music, and fashion
on Saturday, Feb. 12. The Chinese New Year
Celebration has been a tradition for more
than fifteen years at UAF. A team of fifteen
faculty members and students planned
this year’s program. The organizers ranged
from Chinese nationals to Americans who
wanted to learn Chinese traditions.
“Many businesses have their grand
opening on the Chinese New Year to bring
future and prosperity,” said foreign lan-
guage and literature faculty member Ro-
salind Kan, who served as one of the main
organizers of the event.
Professor Chelsea Han of the business
department and Liang Li, a geological engi-
neering graduate student, served as masters
of ceremonies for the event, announcing
performances in both Chinese and English.
There were many costume changes
during Saturday night’s program, with most
dancers taking part in more than one per-
formance. Though Rosalind Kan does not
have a formal dance background, she taught
all twenty dancers the seven classic Chinese
dances. Seven girls performed a minority
dance, the Xin Jiang Dance, created by the
Uygur people of Turkish descent.
The most thrilling performance was the
was the Lion Dance, which symbolized the
awakening of the lion. UAF students Irwin
Chou and Keegan Birchfield were costumed
as the lion’s head and tail, dancing to the
fierce drumming of student Jonathan Tang.
Onstage, Chou held up the heavy lion’s head
to eat cabbage that hung from the ceiling,
then quickly spit it back out onto the audi-
ence. The masculine dance has its roots in
Chinese martial arts.
The crowd favorite of the evening was
the Chinese Clothing Pageant where stu-
dents and professors showcased Chinese
garments collected from organizers’ closets.
Models posed to Rosalind Kan’s red carpet
commentary explaining the origin, purpose
and materials of the clothing. Pieces ranged
from formal evening wear to the navy jacket
of a day laborer. Many garments featured
the elegant Mandarin collar and were made
from colorful silks.
The program also featured Chinese stu-
dents Annie Ruth, 16, and Rory O’Donoghue,
15, from West Valley High School. The two
students performed a short dialogue written
by Rosalind Kan. The students adapted the
dialog for the night’s performance, adding
extra poems and an element of improvi-
sation that was entertaining for audience
members who did not speak Chinese.
“It is really exciting to be able to per-
form in front of so many native speakers,”
O’Donoghue said at the conclusion of the
night’s ceremonies.
“That is the difference between high
school and college students,” Kan said.
“They learn it and they want to use it.”
Lions, dragons and prosperity, oh my!
Jonathan Tang played the drum during the Lion Dance while Irwin Chou and Keegan Birchfield danced as the lion. This was one of the performances on Feb. 11, 2012 during the Chinese New Year Celebration in the Wood Center Ballroom. Kayla Hajdukovich/Sun Star
Young girls look at word games and puzzles, one of many New Years traditions, at the Chinese New Year Celebra-tion on Feb. 11, 2012 in the Wood Center Ballroom. Kayla Hajdukovich/Sun Star
A group of young girls wait to perform the Xin Jiang dance, a dance of Turkish origin, at the Chinese New Year Celebration on Feb. 11, 2012 in the Wood Center Ballroom. Kayla Hajdukovich/Sun Star
Arts & Entertainment
UAF celebrates Chinese New Year
9 www.uafsunstar.com February 14, 2012Advertisements
The Sun Star10 February 14, 2012
Brady GrossKSUA Music Director
I have worked at KSUA as the Music
Director since November, and can truly
say it is has been great to have the oppor-
tunity to be able to take a hobby you love,
and project that into a working environ-
ment. My love and attraction to music has
always ruled my life in ways unexplain-
able. The act of simply being able to share
a band unheard or new genre to friends
and family, has always been one of the
best gifts I feel music can offer. Working at
KSUA has allowed me to expand that au-
dience to not only friends and family, but
now the entire UAF college community
and Fairbanks area.
No stranger to the insurmountable
feelings that Valentine’s Day invokes, it
still can be a tough day to comprehend
appropriately. Unlike other holidays
where usually there simply is a celebra-
tion of some event or person, Valentine’s
Day has a true-tried tradition of having
the general public absolutely despise the
day or, be in “love” with it.
Having the hobby of being actively in-
volved with music lends to my continual
attempts to get by every year with doing
some sort of corny mix-tape. Of course,
most years, it ends up being a tape un-
used, unheard, but every now and then,
it has the possibility to reach the right ear.
I think these feelings are quite universal
in that, for most, Valentine’s Day is more a
day of hope. Hoping to make another feel
special, or get that one moment of recog-
nition from someone you adore. Whether
you are happily married, in a relationship,
single, or completely jaded toward love in
the first place, there are countless songs
to represent those feelings and are espe-
cially highlighted during those 24 hours
of focused attention to “love.”
A few songs I’d like to share and have
fallen for over the past year have those
perfect feelings and ambitions bottled
up in a short four to five minutes. Love
is never as simple as it seems and these
following songs encapsulate that theme.
Cass McCombs “County Line” invokes
restlessness and the struggle with wanting
to find internal happiness in one place,
while his wanderlust leads him to stray
away from feeling comfortable with one
place or person in general. On the other
side of that idea, Sharon Jones’ “How Do
I Let A Good Man Down?” takes a more
direct approach in questioning the realm
of one’s relationship and realizing it is
time to move on regardless of how great
someone has treated them.
Kurt Vile’s “Baby’s Arms” is a true
deepened love song that highlights the
idea that you are so enamored with
your partner, that you essentially care
for nothing else. A love so strong that he
swoons, “I get sick of just about everyone,
And I hide in my baby’s arms.” While the
title may be misleading, Molly Nilsson’s
“I Hope You Die” has similar thoughts. “I
know you think I’m morbid when I say,
I hope you die by my side, the two of us
at the exact same time,” takes love to the
ultimate extreme of wishing it will live on
past our physical beings on this earth.
Justin Vernon’s “Hazelton” tackles
the tough task of letting go and dealing
with the continual pain of handling these
emotions publicly. Watching the other
person move on to someone new and
find happiness elsewhere, while not un-
derstanding what went wrong in the first
place.
Best Coast’s “Boyfriend” does a great
job of not over complicating matters by
excitedly singing “I wish he was my boy-
friend, I’d love him till the very end.” Fi-
nally, local artist Brandon Reid’s “If I Fell”
perfects the traditional ambitions of Val-
entines Day by laying his heart and soul
on the line with one of the most beautiful
love songs to grace my ears. Listen and
enjoy.
Where there is love, there is lifeGuest Column
News
Logan RalhfsSun Star Reporter
Burning coal for heat and power ex-
acts a devastating toll on human health,
according to advocacy group Alaska Com-
munity Action on Toxics (ACAT). The group
plans to spread that message on Feb. 15
with a seminar on the effects of coal pollu-
tion. Alan Lockwood, an emeritus professor
of neurology at the University of Buffalo will
deliver a lecture, “Toxic Threat: Coal and
Your Health,” that will be the highlight of the
seminar.
Coal is an energy staple in Alaska’s Inte-
rior. UAF operates a coal-fired power plant
that has experienced problems in recent
years. Aurora Energy, LLC — a subsidiary
of Usibelli Coal Mine in Healy — burns coal
to generate power it sells to Golden Valley
Electric Association (GVEA) among other
customers. Yet “emissions from burning
coal damage the body’s respiratory, cardio-
vascular and nervous systems,” according to
ACAT.
Lockwood is a member of the American
Neurological Association and serves on
the board of Physicians for Social Respon-
sibility. He’s authored hundreds of studies
and papers, many about environmental
toxicants, according to Heidi Zimmer,
ACAT’s environmental health coordinator.
Among his publications is “Coal’s Assault
on Human Health.”
Aurora Energy President Buki Wright
said the company plans to cooperate fully
with the EPA during the process, according
to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
“We’re in compliance with everything
we need to be in compliance with,” Wright
said. “We believe we’re operating conscien-
tiously and are conscientious neighbors.”
However, Lockwood is among the in-
dustry’s greatest detractors.
“Air pollution is now linked to six of the
top seven causes of death among Ameri-
cans,” Lockwood wrote in a Buffalo News
editorial last year. “In 2009, the National
Research Council reported that the hidden
costs of burning coal to produce electricity
were $62 billion each year or about $156
million for each coal plant. These costs were
largely due to sulfur dioxide emissions…and
their adverse effects on health.”
A reception at 6:30 p.m. in the Wood
Center Ballroom will precede Lockwood’s
7 p.m. lecture. The Anchorage-based ACAT
is hosting Lockwood’s talks in Anchorage,
Fairbanks, Palmer and Homer.
Neurobiology professor will discuss hazards of coal power
11 www.uafsunstar.com February 14, 2012
By Andrew SheelerSun Star Reporter
On Wednesday evening, more than two
dozen coffee stand workers decided it was
better to light a candle than to curse the
darkness.
The Feb. 1 abduction of Anchorage
barista Samantha Koenig, 18, put a face to
the fears of baristas across Alaska. Sud-
denly, they had something more to worry
about than bitter cold or angry customers.
Koenig’s kidnapping offered a chilling re-
minder that many baristas work in vulner-
able positions, often
alone or in the dark.
In Fairbanks,
the abduction
served as a call to
arms. Dozens of
baristas and coffee
stand owners gath-
ered with lit candles
and green ribbons
at the Illinois Street
Sunrise Bagel and
Espresso to honor
Koenig and to dis-
cuss taking action
for their own safety.
First to speak was
former barista and
UAF broadcast jour-
nalism senior Jaime
Ames. Ames held a
large donated sign
showing Koenig’s
picture as she spoke
of her own close call
while working at the coffee stand just feet
away from where she stood. A man tried to
pull her out of the coffee hut window. Fortu-
nately, she was able to trigger an alarm and
police quickly responded.
“Probably one of my biggest fears is
what happened to Samantha,” Ames said,
before handing the floor over to Sgt. Brian
Wassmann of the Alaska State Troopers.
“The reality is that stranger kidnapping
is pretty rare,” Wassmann said. Most abduc-
tors know their victims, and it’s possible
Koenig’s kidnapper was no exception. Was-
smann warned that baristas should always
be vigilant, especially during opening and
closing hours when it’s still dark and traffic
is light.
Workers should trust their intuition
and that “safety is always in numbers,” he
said. “Abductors are always looking for that
window of opportunity.”
In the event a would-be kidnapper did
try to make a move, “the simplest thing to
say is fight like hell,” Wassmann said.
The gathered baristas took those words
to heart. Ames said she was in talks with
the owners of Frostbite Gym, a local mixed-
martial-arts training facility, to provide self-
defense tips to coffee hut workers. Doug
Whorton, general manager of Sunrise Bagel
and Espresso, is in talks with the owner of
Midnight Sun Martial Arts Academy to pro-
vide all his employees with a free class, he
said.
Koenig’s abduction drew new atten-
tion to the security of coffee stands. James
Koenig, Samantha’s father, has criticized
the stands for having large windows that are
easy to pull someone through. He called for
the stands to install window screens to pre-
vent anything larger than a 20-ounce coffee
from getting through.
Bonita Taylor, owner of College Coffee
Hut and College Coffee House, said a
window screen wouldn’t work.
“Somebody could still put a gun
through it,” she said.
Taylor and other stand owners have
taken steps over the years to protect their
employees, she said. Taylor had a loud
push-button alarm installed at her stand
on College Road and University Avenue.
The alarm draws attention to a would-be
assailant and notifies the police. Whorton’s
Sunrise stands feature a similar alarm, he
said. While Taylor’s employees have never
had to use the alarm, she laughed and said
they’d accidentally set it off a few times.
Though Wassmann stressed the idea of
safety in numbers, often a single employee
opens and closes
coffee stands. Taylor
said this was largely
for cost reasons.
“There’s no point in
putting two people
on it if we can’t pay
their wages,” she
said. To counter that
the risks of short-
staffing, most Fair-
banks coffee stands
feature multiple
locking doors. Taylor
is also considering
providing her em-
ployees, most of
whom are UAF stu-
dents, with pepper
spray, she said.
Taylor has also
provided donation
jars to local coffee
shops that want to
take them. She also
will host a fundraising concert at College
Coffee House from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sat-
urday, Feb. 18. The concert will feature sev-
eral local bands, Taylor said, and proceeds
from the event as well as the jars will pro-
vide law-enforcement-taught self-defense
classes for local baristas with the rest going
to the Koenig family in Anchorage.
‘Fight like hell’Anchorage abduction rallies local baristas to new vigilance
Sunrise Bagel and Espresso is one of many coffee huts in Fairbanks raising funds for the search efforts to find miss-ing Anchorage barista Samantha Koenig. Donations can be dropped off at Sunrise Bagel and Espresso, College Coffee House, Mocha Dans, Alaska Coffee Roasting Co. and other coffee huts around Fairbanks. Feb. 9, 2012. Kayla Hajdukovich/Sun Star
News
The Sun Star12 February 14, 2012 Sports
This week in UAF sports - Feb. 14, 2012
Fernanda ChamorroSun Star Reporter
Hockey:The Lake Superior State Lakers won
4-2 on Feb. 10, against the Alaska Nanooks
at the Carlson Center. Junior forward Andy
Taranto scored during a power play in the
first period. Seconds later, Kyle Jean tied the
game. With assistance from Jean and Zach
Trotman, Laker Nick McParland scored a
second goal.
Within seconds of the third period, it
seemed like UAF was going to catch up as
Nik Yaremchuk made the score 3-2 during a
power play, but continuous penalties to se-
nior forward Justin Filzen and Aaron Gens
cost the Nanooks the game.. Kyle Haines
scored during a powerplay, making it 4-2.
UAF senior goalie Scott Greenham made 27
saves, but it did not help the team.
At the Feb. 11 game, the Nanooks beat
the Lakers 3-2 thanks to a late third period
score by junior rightwing Andy Taranto.
Starting the second period, both Kunyk and
senior forward Ron Meyers received penal-
ties in the same minute, giving the Lakers a
five-to-three advantage and earning them
a power play point by defenseman Zach
Trotman. In the third period, Taranto made
the score 3-2 with the game-winning goal.
The Nanooks will be in East Lansing,
Michigan next weekend playing Michigan
State.
Men’s basketball:The Nanooks lost both away games, one
on Feb. 9 versus the Simon Fraser Univer-
sity Clan and the other on Feb. 11 against
the Western Washington Vikings in Great
Northwest Athletic Conference men’s bas-
ketball.
On Feb. 9, UAF lost 79-71 despite junior
Dominique Brinson’s career-high 30 points
at the SFU West Gym.
The Clan made several free throws,
breaking the tie and winning the game. The
Nanooks made 11 out of 14 free throws com-
pared to the Clan making it to the free throw
line 28 times. Jordan Sergent, who made
the last throws for SFU, had a team-high 24
points and eight rebounds and converted
10 of 11 free throws. Justin Brown followed
with 18 points shooting 9 for 9 from the line.
Western Washington won Saturday
with a score of 77-72 at the WWU Carver
Gymnasium. UAF junior Dominique
Brinson took the lead with 17 points for the
Nanooks and sophomore Sergei Pucar fol-
lowed closely behind with 15 points. Rory
Blanche’s free-throws broke the tie while
Richard Woodworth and Paul Jones both
made three-pointers, providing the Vikings
with a lead. The Vikings missed only two
free throw attempts.
On Feb. 16, the Nanooks will return
home to play Western Oregon University in
the first of their final three regular-season
home games at the Patty Center.
Swimming:Freshman Margot Adams won the 100
meter butterfly with a varsity record time
of 55.38” at the Splash! La Mirada Regional
Aquatic Center at the Pacific Collegiate
Swim and Dive Conference Championships
(PCSC) on Feb. 10. She also won the prelim-
inary race with a time of 56.08”. Sophomore
Bente Heller was runner-up in the 200 meter
freestyle at 1:51:82. The Nanooks moved up
to fifth place among the teams, holding 465
points.
Nanooks finished in fourth place in the
team standings at the 2012 PCSC Champi-
onship finals with 679 points on Saturday.
UC San Diego took first place in the team
standings with 1663.5 points. The Nanooks
were less than a second away from winning
the 400 freestyle relay, which was the final
event. Heller and sophomore Ashley Crowe
made it in the top 10.
Nanooks now await details on who will
move on to the NCAA Division II National
Swimming Championships March 14-17 in
Mansfield, Texas.
Skiing:Nanook junior Tyler Kornfield took first
place in the men’s 20K classic starting race
on Feb.11, making it his first individual con-
ference championship title. He completed
the relay in 1:02:36 at the Central Collegiate
Ski Association Championships. Freshman
Ludwig Schott took seventh and junior Ian
Wilkinson placed eighth behind him. Na-
nooks were 84-81 with the Northern Mich-
igan Wildcats in the team standings.
The Nanook women took third place
with 70 points, behind the Wildcats and
Michigan Tech. Sophomore Raphaela
Sieber came in first for the Nanook women
and fourth in the race with a time of 59:05.
Sophomore Heather Edic placed ninth.
Men are in first place and women in
second in the team standings for the confer-
ence title race.Nanook fans and Alpha Phi Omega fraternity members (L-R) Jeremy Cannone, Marissa Stubblefield, DJ Jennings, Tyler Zimmerman, and Monica Owens pose before the start of the third period at the hockey game game held on Feb11, 2012 at the Carlson Center. Fernanda Chamorro/Sun Star
13 www.uafsunstar.com February 14, 2012Arts & Entertainment
Amelia CooperSun Star Reporter
Former UAF student Ben Grossmann was recently nominated for an Oscar for his work on the movie “Hugo.”
“Hugo,” a new Paramount film, takes a three-dimensional approach to the novel “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznik. Grossmann was nominated for “Best Visual Effects” for his work as a vi-sual effects supervisor with Pixomondo on the project. The Scorsese-directed film hit theaters in November of 2011. The Best Achievement in Visual Effects nomination is one of the eleven Oscar nods the film re-ceived including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay.
Grossmann left Fairbanks more than a decade ago to pursue a career in visual production. He currently lives in San Diego, Calif., where he has worked with such visual effects companies as The Syndicate, CafeFX and Pixomondo.
Charles Mason, the photojournalism professor at UAF, is proud of his long-ago student and teaching assistant, he said. “I think he left here before he graduated, but
we can still claim him as an alumn.” Gross-mann left the university when he was close to finishing a bachelor’s degree in photo-
journalism, Mason said, but, “he wanted to go get on with the world, on to bigger and better things.”
A former Channel 7 co-worker of Gross-mann’s, Andrew Cassel, is excited to see the film in its full glory, he said. “Go see it in 3D,
because they never looked at it in 2D while they were making it,” he said.
Cassel, now the multimedia coordi-
nator at UAF, describes his former colleague as an inspiring, charismatic and thoughtful man who did dynamic work and took his job seriously. “He pushed the technology he had to the limits — not because of the products he was selling, but for his love of the art,” Cassel said.
Mason has similar memories of Gross-mann’s student work. “He had talent coming out of his ears as far as his art goes.”
Grossmann has created visual effects for more than a dozen other films, including “Alice in Wonderland,” “Shutter Island” and “2012.” This is his fourth nomination for an award, but his first Oscar nomination. In 2006, he won an Emmy for visual effects work on the miniseries “Bryan Singer and Dean Devlin Present The Triangle.”
The Academy Award winners will be announced on Feb. 26.
“I hope that he wins because he’s so creative and great. He’s one of those people — you know those people — who just have so much light in them,” Cassel said. “You see them and you know that they were made to succeed.”
Former UAF student receives Oscar nomination
The movie poster for “Hugo” the movie that earned forer UAF student Ben Grossman an Oscar nomination. Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
The Sun Star14 February 14, 2012 Advertisements
Sponsored by UAF Student Health and Counseling Center For additional information, contact the Center for Health and Counseling at 474-7043
or visit our Web site at www.uaf.edu/chc Division of Student Services
Say “Ah”Donna Patrick, ANP
Letters to the Editor
Have something to say?
Say it here.
The Sun Star welcomes reader commentary.
Letters to the editor should be no more than 250 words in length. Please in-clude the author’s full name and contact information (phone number, e-mail or address). E-mail your letters (preferred) to [email protected], fax them to 474-5508, or mail them to PO Box 756640, Fairbanks, AK, 99775. Letters must be received by Friday at 5 p.m. in order to run in the next issue. All letters are subject
to editing for brevity and grammar.
Nail FungusQ: I have heard that Vicks VapoRub can be helpful
in curing toenail fungus. This sounds bizarre! Is there
any truth to this?
A: Many people with nail fungus say that applying
Vicks VapoRub seems to help. There may actually be
something to it. Vicks VapoRub contains a mixture of
menthol, eucalyptus oil, camphor, and thymol. These
ingredients are active against several fungal organisms
that cause onychomycosis (nail fungus). One observa-
tional study suggests that applying Vicks VapoRub to
the infected toenail daily until it grows out appears to
clear the infection in some people. This, however, isn’t
enough proof to say that it works. But given the high
cost and risk of side effects with systemic (oral medica-
tion) therapy, it may be worth a try in some cases.
Q: Are there any other treatments for onychomy-
cosis?
A: Tea tree oil, applied topically, is another nat-
ural treatment that’s sometimes tried; however, there
is insufficient evidence to recommend its use for nail
fungus. Penlac, a prescriptive med, is a topical nail
polish, however, it is reported to have less than a 9%
cure rate. Topical treatments must be used every day
for at least 6 months. They work by inhibiting new
fungal growth and it takes at least this long for the new
nail to grow in.
Oral prescriptive
medication therapy is
generally more effective
than topicals. However,
they generally are very ex-
pensive, not always cov-
ered by health insurance plans, and must have blood
work checked before and during treatment in many
cases. These formulations kill the fungus so are used
for only 6 to 12 weeks but you won’t see results until
the nail grows completely back, usually 6 months or so.
Recurrence is common with ALL treatments, but
there are ways to minimize chances of reinfection:
• Wash your feet regularly and dry them thor-
oughly before putting on socks or shoes.
• Wear flip flops in shared showers, spas, and
around pools.
• If your feet perspire sprinkle an antifungal
powder on your feet after showering.
• Women should avoid artificial nails and nail
polish. These prevent moisture which collects beneath
the nails from evaporating. Fungi thrive in moist en-
vironments.
• Don’t clip your nails too close...this makes it
easier for fungus to get in.
15 www.uafsunstar.com February 14, 2012LeisureDuly Noted
