Company Profile
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Company Overview
Founded in 1917, the University of Alaska Fairbanks is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska System, and is the nation's northernmost Land, Sea, and Space Grant institution. It is an ethnically diverse RU/H university in a beautiful rural northern setting. Fairbanks, located in interior Alaska, is the state's second largest city with over 90,000 residents in the greater Fairbanks area. The city enjoys spectacular views of the Alaska Range and is located near the confluence of the Tanana and Chena Rivers, approximately 120 miles north of Denali National Park and 40 miles south of the White Mountains National Recreation Area. The city enjoys long sunny days during the summer months, with temperatures frequently passing the 70 degree mark. The shorter winter days make for excellent Northern Lights viewing, cross-country skiing and other winter sports. Surrounded by millions of acres of wilderness, the setting offers wildlife sightings and unparalleled outdoor recreational activities. For more information about the Social Work Department, go to: http://www.uaf.edu/socwork/
Company History
The Social Work Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) was granted initial accreditation in the fall of 1985. The curriculum was developed with attention to the goals of preparing students to practice in rural Alaska a well as in urban areas, and to make the program accessible and relevant to rural and Alaska Native students. In 1987, the University of Alaska underwent restructuring and broadened the service area covered by UAF to include the rural regions of northern, western, and southwestern Alaska. The total service area of UAF coverage was expanded to approximately 350,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of Texas. As a result of this change, the Social Work Department became part of he College of Rural Alaska, which had established an integrated set of regional campuses with a common commitment “to educational processes through which its students are empowered to effect social and economic changes in their communities to protect and enrich the quality of life and culture” (Mission statement, College of Rural Alaska). In all of its programs, the college stressed the importance of cross-cultural perspectives. The Social Work Department, throughout its history, has remained consistent with this mission.
In 1991, the Social Work Department expanded into the Bering Strait Northwest Region, offering courses taught by audio-conference. The UAF Social Work Department was thus an early pioneer in distance education in the field of social work education and one of the first programs to be accredited with a distance delivery method. In response to the dire need for trained social workers in rural and remote regions of the state, in 1999 the Social Work Department was awarded a grant for expansion of the distance delivery method to students throughout the entire state rather than just in the Northwest region. This means that students who represent almost every area of the State, including Bethel, Dillingham, Kodiak, Sitka, Juneau, Ketchikan, Barrow, Kotzebue, Nome, and now, Fairbanks and Anchorage are able to call in twice a week from their homes or regional campuses and meet for class over the phone with approximately 10-17 students. This delivery method affords students an amazingly diverse and stimulating class environment.
In 1993-94, another university-wide administrative restructuring took place. The Social Work Department was transferred to the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), where it resides today. The Social Work Department is unique in the College of Liberal Arts in that it is the only department offering its entire curriculum by distance technology throughout the state, and the only department providing an intensive/cohort learning model for Alaska Native students living in rural and remote villages. The Social Work Department is also the only department in CLA with off-campus faculty (in Juneau) and with an educational pathway linked directly to the Rural Human Services Certificate program and Human Services Associate Degree program for Alaska Native students working in social service agencies in their home communities. The Social Work Department has thus stayed consistent with its original mission throughout the years of protecting and enriching the culture and quality of life in Alaska’s communities, and continues to be a leader in providing innovative models of curriculum delivery in order to meet the unique social service needs of this vast and diverse state.
Again, in 2001, a new initiative supported the development of an intensive cohort model as another mode of delivery for the Social Work curriculum. The intensive cohort model was established primarily for Alaska Native students who have graduated from the Human Services Associate Degree program and are employees of their Native Corporations or other social service agencies in their villages. This educational model is culturally based and includes two face-to-face intensive meetings on campus each semester. The courses in the cohort begin when students attend one week of intensive face-to-face classroom instruction. They then return to their home communities and continue course work through the audio conference model. At the end of the semester the cohort of students meet again for three days of intensive face-to-face instruction. This enables students to complete presentations or other wrap-up activities with the instructor. Alaska Native elders support and co-teach with university instructors during the classroom intensive sessions. Students in the cohort have time to study together while on campus, participate in talking circles to discuss issues that have developed in their villages, and receive input from a respected elder on course content and community needs. The students attend class by audio conferences each week for the remainder of the semester. This delivery model has proved highly successful in regard to student retention and graduation rates. This model has the potential to change the make-up of the social service workforce in rural Alaska. This delivery model was approved in 2005 by the CSWE accreditation specialist for inclusion in the UAF Social Work Department.